Order of Worship
Let us be as open vessels that God’s spirit may enter.
The Community Gathers: Experience God’s presence in the
assembly. Please greet one another with joy and welcome new friends into our community of love.
You are welcome here…come and worship!
Focus: “Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn’t you – all of the expectations, all of the beliefs – and becoming who you are.”
– Rachel Naomi Remen
Gathering Music: Heal Me O Lord (by Don Moen) -Michelle Currie
Welcome:
Responsive Call to Worship: Luke 1:78-79
Leader: By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on
high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.’
All: Merciful God: We come together to worship longing for tenderness because this world can be hard.
Leader: We come longing for healing and hope, because there is too much brokenness and pain in the world.
All: We come needing direction. Fill us this morning with your peace: your spirit is our peace and our path.
Opening Hymn: Healer of our Every Ill #795
Invocation:
We are strangers to one another, O God, but never to you. You know the longing of our souls, the sighs too deep for words. In sleeping and in waking, in quiet and in confusion, in despair and in hope, in silence and in sound, you hear the cries of our hearts.
Come this day, O God, and dwell among us. Come, and turn our
Sorrows into singing, our cares into commitment, our lives into bright promise. Come, and make all things new.
Lord’s Prayer:
Awakening: Just a Closer walk With Thee (Anonymous) -Michelle Currie
Readings: Isaiah 35:4-7a, James 2:1-10, (11-13), 14-17,
Mark 7:24-37 -Beth Baskin
After the reading, you may respond, “Thanks be to God.”
Sermon: Be Opened Rev. Paula Norbert
Sermon Response: Meditative Instrumental -Michelle Currie
Musical call to Prayer: (two times) Hush now in quiet peace, be still your mind at ease. The Spirit brings release, so wait upon the Lord.
Prayers of the People
Silent Prayers Pastoral Prayer
Offertory:
Doxology: Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise
God all creatures here below. Praise God above ye heavenly
hosts, Creator, Christ and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Prayer of Dedication:
Closing Hymn: My Life Flows On #821 vs. 1-3
Benediction:
For all who now leave here comforted and emboldened to live by your Word of truth, We ask your benediction. May we go on our way to bless bread for the hungry in body and spirit; May we go on our way to bring healing into the lives of the hopeless and hurting; May we go on our way to be Your heart and hands in this world. AMEN.
Recessional: Go in Peace
Go in peace and the peace of God be with you this day.
Go in peace and the peace of God be with you always.
celebrate and share the joy. Celebrate new life.
Go in peace and the peace of God be with you always
Thank you, always, to our wonderful Music Director, Michelle Currie and to our Deacons and Reader today.
One Loving Family -In Memory of 9/11
Loving God of Peace: On this anniversary of unbelievable sorrow, comfort those who mourn, and guide our hearts toward healing and hope. Remind us of the love of Christ, love which leapt over cultural and ethnic boundaries to feed the hungry, seek the lost and care for the least. Make of Your children, no matter how we name You, one human family, bound together in the work of justice and peacemaking. Make us one with the Light that shines in the darkness and illumines a path toward understanding and
reconciliation. Let love be our genuine call. Amen.
– Rev. Dr. Jacqueline Lewis