Bulletin – Sunday, March 9, 2025 – First Sunday in Lent / Communion

Sunday, March 9, 2025
First Sunday in Lent / Communion

We Gather as People of Faith

Welcome

Announcements

Call to Worship

One:   We come to church today,
All:      as faithful disciples, following Jesus.

One:   We come to church today, carrying burdens, whether visible or invisible,
All:      seeking comfort, seeking grace, seeking community.

One:   We come to church today, knowing that our hope lies in the merciful love of God, the salvation of Jesus Christ, and they mighty power of the Holy Spirit,
All:      and so, we come, we connect, and we worship.

Hymn – “Led by the Spirit”

Led by the Spirit of our God, we go to fast and pray
With Christ into the wilderness; we join his Lenten way.
“Rend not your garments, rend your hearts. Turn back your lives to me.”
Thus says our kind and gracious God, whose reign is liberty.

Led by the Spirit we confront temptation face to face,
And know full well we must rely on God’s redeeming grace.
On bread alone we cannot live, but nourished by the Word
We seek the will of God to do: this is our drink and food.

Led by the Spirit, now draw near the waters of rebirth
With hearts that long to worship God in spirit and in truth.
“Whoever drinks the drink I give shall never thirst again.”
Thus says the Lord who died for us, our Saviour, kin and friend.

Led by the Spirit, now sing praise to God the Trinity;
The Source of Life, the living Word made flesh to set us free,
The Spirit blowing where it will to make us friends of God:
This mystery far beyond our reach, yet near in healing love.

Lenten Candle Tenebrae

One:   We suffer when we do not know who we are. We are constantly tempted by the seduction of power, the glamour of wealth, and ego-gratifying attention.
All:      We are drawn into these temptations because we forget who we are and whose we are.

One:   When we forget that we are created in God’s image,
All:      we lose our connection to our soul and to our God.

One:   Like fish out of water, we lose our connection to that which gives us life.
All:      We then live with consequences, which are hard to bear, for ourselves, for our society, and our world.

The first candle is extinguished

Sung Response – “Don’t Be Afraid” (MV #90)

Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger, my love is stronger than your fear.
Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger and I have promised, promised to be always near.

One:   Let us pray:

All:      O God, we really do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from you. Feed us with your wisdom and your truth. Quench our deepest thirst to find the peace that you offer to us. In this journey of Lent, travel with us as we seek to find our true self, the self you have created us to be. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

(Won Hur, Ebenezer, United Church, Midland, ON, Gathering Lent / Easter 2023)

Prayer of Approach and Confession

One:   Today is the first Sunday in the season of Lent when we come seeking a space of embrace, reshaping and sending forth.
All:      We have settled into this space, in person and through technology, joined in God’s timelessness.

One:   When the world confuses and confounds us, still we come in hope and anticipation.
All:      We come in trust that our hearts will meet the heart of the Divine.

One:   Come then, be enfolded in God’s divine heart through the intimacy of prayer.
All:      We nestle into your loving, sustaining embrace, O God. In the cold of winter, warm us with the Spirits flame of inspiration. In the bluster of the northern winds, still our minds that we may choose the way of wholeness. On the slippery, dangerous ice of uncertainty, give us traction to be in the grip of stories of Christ’s self-giving love. We confess our fear and bewilderment and desire to turn to you, Holy One, for strength and reassurance.

Words of Assurance

One:   Gift of Grace: Family of Faith, I don’t know what this past week has looked like for you, but I do know this: there is a seat at God’s table saved for you. And that is the case: even if you overlooked your neighbour, even if you doubted God’s love for you, even if you chose scarcity over abundance, or fear over joy. God has a seat reserved for you. Trusting this good news, join me in these words of forgiveness.
All:      We are known. We are loved. We are forgiven. We begin again. Thanks be to God for a love like that.

Sung Response – “And When You Call for Me” (MV #96)

And when you call for me, I have already answered.
And when you call for me, I am already there.

We Hear God’s Word

Scripture Reading:         Deuteronomy 26:1-11

¹ “When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess and you possess it and settle in it, ² you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. ³ You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘Today I declare to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.’ ⁴ When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the Lord your God, ⁵ you shall make this response before the Lord your God: ‘A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. ⁶ When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, ⁷ we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. ⁸ The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; ⁹ and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.’ You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God. ¹¹ Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.

Scripture Reading:         Luke 4:1-13

¹ Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, ² where for forty days he was tested by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over he was famished. ³ The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” ⁴ Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’”

⁵ Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. ⁶ And the devil said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. ⁷ If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” ⁸ Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” ⁹ Then the devil led him to Jerusalem and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, ¹⁰ for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ ¹¹ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” ¹² Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” ¹³ When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.

May God speak to us through these readings of scripture.
Thanks be to God!

Hymn – “Jesus, Tempted in the Desert” (VU #115)

Jesus, tempted in the desert, lonely, hungry, filled with dread:
“Use your power,” the tempter tells him, “turn these barren rocks to bread!”
“Not alone by bread,” he answers, “can the human heart be filled.
Only by the Word the calls us is our deepest hunger stilled!”

Jesus, tempted at the temple, high above its ancient wall:
“Throw yourself from lofty turret, angels wait to break your fall!”
Jesus shuns such empty marvels, feats that fickle crowds request:
“God, whose grace protects, preserves us, we must never vainly test.”

          Jesus, tempted on the mountain by the lure of vast domain:
“Fall before me!  Be my servant!  Glory, fame, you’re sure to gain!”
Jesus sees the dazzling vision, turns his eyes another way:
“God alone deserves our homage!  God alone will I obey!”

When we face temptation’s power, lonely, struggling, filled with dread,
Christ, who knew the tempter’s hour, come and be our living bread.
By your grace, protect, preserve us lest we fall, your trust betray.
Yours, above all other voices, be the Word we hear, obey.

Meditation

Anthem – “The Power of Your Love”

Lord, I come to You, let my heart be changed, renewed,
Flowing from the grace that I’ve found in You.
And Lord, I’ve come to know the weaknesses I see in me
Will be stripped away by the power of Your love.

Hold me close, let Your love surround me;
Bring me near, draw me to Your side.
And as I wait, I’ll rise up like the eagle,
And I will soar with You – Your Spirit leads me on
In the power of Your love.

Lord, unveil my eyes, let me see You face to face,
The knowledge of Your love as You live in me.
Lord, renew my mind as Your will unfolds in my life
In living every day in the power of Your love.

Hold me close, let Your love surround me;
Bring me near, draw me to Your side.
And as I wait, I’ll rise up like the eagle,
And I will soar with You – Your Spirit leads me on
In the power of Your love.

We Respond to God’s Word

An Invitation to Share

As we begin the forty days of Lent, let us remember the blessings we have and let us remember others who need our support and aid through our money, our time, and our prayers. Our offering will now be received.

Offering Sung Response – “These Lenten Gifts We Bring”

These Lenten gifts we bring, our living faith expressed,
We offer them most lovingly, and thus our hearts are blessed.
O loving God receive these gifts we gladly give,
That show our faith and hope and trust; your way we seek to live.

Offering Prayer

We bring these gifts today, O God, in response to your love and grace at work in our lives. We wish to participate in your purpose to offer healing and love to all people. We pray that these gifts will be used faithfully and well in this community of faith and in the world through Mission and Service. Strengthen us so that we may offer our lives to your work. Amen.

Hymn – “When We Gather at the Table” (MV #198, verses 1, 4, and 5)

When we gather at the table
Wine is poured and bread is broken.
Then love claims us, offering healing,
We hear welcome, gently spoken.

Come, invited, now draw nearer,
Join this holy celebration.
Here be strengthened, called to justice,
Living now God’ new creation.

Christ, your coming and your hosting
Gives us place at widening table
Now embracing world and neighbour
Spirit strong, by love enabled.

Celebrating Communion

One:   God is here
All:      Always. Forever

One:   Let us remember!
All:      With all that we are!

One:   In the beginning before there was a beginning, before there was even a before, there you were, God-of-All. You and the chaotic nothingness.
All:      And with your Word, You brought being into being. All that was, all that is, all that there will ever be.

One:   And with your love, you gave creation life –in all its fullness. Life! In all its complexity.
All:      Life! In all its wandering confusion!

One:   DNA, RNA, one cell, many cells. Things that fly, things that swim, things that waddle or walk or crawl, things that move and have their being in you.
All:      And us, too!

One:   You give us curiosity, wonder, stubbornness, spirit, intention, action, neighbour, and stranger. You gave us hope, laughter, companionship, song. You gave life, life, in its myriad of possibility.
All:      Thank you, loving God!

One:   Sometimes, we have lived that life in ways that live into your desire for us. But, sometimes in our wandering, in our fear, in our times of loss, or greed, or apathy—we have twisted the gift, we have twisted ourselves, we have twisted others—people, places, and things.
All:      But every time, your love has sung out, urging us to wholeness, urging us to healing, urging us to right and loving relationships, with ourselves, with the other, with you.

One:   In this season of Lent, in this time of reflection, of living in the in-between, we commit ourselves again, to listening, prayerfully. We commit ourselves, again, to walking with Christ—to Jerusalem, to the cross, to the beyond.
All:      We commit ourselves, again, knowing that you walk with us, God of deep places.

One:   And we remember.
All:      We remember.

One:   That, on the night before he was taken to what would be his death, Jesus gathered with his disciples—people he said were his friends—and he ate with them, once again. Sharing in a meal of love, for each around the table, And for all around the world, he gave thanks to you, Loving God. He took bread and broke it, And he gave it to those around, saying, “Take this, all of you, and eat it. This is my body, given for you. Each time you eat bread, remember me.”
All:      We eat, and we remember.

One:   When the meal was almost over, he took a cup, and again gave thanks to you, Loving God. Then he said to them, “Take this, all of you, and drink it. This is my promise that I am always with you. Each time you drink, remember.”
All:      We drink and remember.

One:   God of all places, from the deepest space, to the tiniest place inside, we ask that you would help us to know that you journey with all of creation. Help us to see you Holy Spirit in this bread and cup, and in all who are gathered, that we might know deep within, That they, and we, are the body of Christ, alive in the world.
All:      Through Christ, with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory is yours, God most holy, now and forever. You are our Mother and our Father, who are in heaven, hallowed by thy name, thy kingdom come, they will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

One:   Bread for the journey. Wine for the way. Christ’s gifts for all creation.
All:      Thanks be to God.

Prayer after Communion

As we step into Lent, as we remember, reflect and re-live, you have fed us with your love, once again. Help us to remember that we carry that love, everywhere we go. Help us to remind the world, you are present, and we are never, ever, alone. Amen.

Prayers of the People

We Go Into God’s World

Hymn – “What a Friend We have in Jesus” (VU #664)

What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful, who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?
Christ the Saviour is our refuge; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do our friends despise, forsake us? Are we tempted to despair?
Jesus’ strength will shield our weakness, and we’ll find our new courage there.

Benediction

Sung Response – “May the Christ who Walks on Wounded Feet”

May the Christ who walks on wounded feet travel with you all your journey through.
May you see Christ’s face in all you meet and may all you meet see Christ’s face in you.