Bulletin – Sunday, February 23, 2025 – Seventh Sunday after Epiphany
Sunday, February 23, 2025
Seventh Sunday after Epiphany
We Gather as People of Faith
Welcome
Announcements
Lighting the Christ Candle
Call to Worship
One: Jesus calls us
All: to praise and prayer, to song and silence; Jesus calls us to worship.
One: Jesus calls us
All: to hearing and healing, to service and solidarity; Jesus calls us to love.
One: Jesus calls us
All: to advocacy and action, to protest and provision; Jesus calls us to justice.
One: Let us heed the call of Christ.
All: Let us worship together with joy.
(Joanna Harader: posted on togetherinworship.net)
Hymn – “Love Knocks and Waits”
Love knocks and waits for us to heart, to open and invite;
Love longs to quiet every fear, and seeks to set things right.
Love offers life, in spite of foes who threaten and condemn;
Embracing enemies, Loved goes the second mile with them.
Love comes to heal the broken heart, to ease the troubled mind;
Without a word Love bids us start to ask and seek and find.
Love knocks and enters at the sound of welcome from within;
Love sings and dances all around, and feels new life begin.
Prayer of Approach and Confession
One: It is in our confession where we realize our desire for God and our hope for God’s mercy. It is in admitting the truth of our lives that we take the first step toward wholeness and healing. So together let us make our confession to God.
All: God of all the saints, God of all the wrongdoers, hear our prayer. We would be saintlike – holy, good, patient, loving. But we end up feeling more like wrongdoers – full of failures of morality, selfish, mean. Perhaps You see us simply as human – as beloved, and flawed, and trying, and failing, and succeeding. In all of this, forgive the wrong that we have done, and bless the good we have accomplished. Keep on loving us, and helping us, and molding us more and more into the image of Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.
(adapted from post on holdfasttowhatisgod.com)
Words of Assurance
Sung Response – “Behold, Behold, I Make All Things New” (MV #115)
Behold, behold,
I make all things new, beginning with you
And starting from today.
Behold, behold,
I make all things new, my promise is true,
For I am Christ the way.
We Hear God’s Word
Scripture Reading: Psalm 37 (VU page 763)
Sung Refrain: Commit your way to God and trust the One who takes your part.
One: Do not fret because of the wicked, or envy of those who do evil.
All: For they soon wither like grass and fade away like the green leaf.
One: Trust in God and do good;
All: Dwell in the land and there find safe pasture.
One: Find your delight in God,
All: who will grant the desires of your heart.
Sung Refrain: Commit your way to God and trust the One who takes your part.
One: God will make your vindication shine like the light,
All: the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
One: Be still before God and wait patiently;
All: do not fret because some prosper in evil schemes.
One: Let go of anger and abandon wrath.
All: Do not fret – it can only do harm.
Sung Refrain: Commit your way to God and trust the One who takes your part.
One: Those who do evil shall be cut off,
All: but those who look to God shall inherit the earth.
One: In a little while the wicked will be no more;
All: you will look where they and their place will be empty.
One: But the meek shall inherit the earth;
All: they shall enjoy fullness peace.
One: Salvation for the righteous comes from God, their refuge in time of trouble.
All: God helps and delivers, and rescues from the wicked those who seek shelter.
Sung Refrain: Commit your way to God and trust the One who takes your part.
Scripture Reading: Luke 6:27-38
27 But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; 28 bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If anyone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your clock, do not stop him from taking your tunic. 30 Give to everyone who asks of you, and if anyone takes away what belongs to you, do not demand it back 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.
32 If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even “sinners” love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even “sinners” do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even “sinners” lend to “sinners”, expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
37 Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be the measured to you.
May God speak to us through these readings of scripture.
Thanks be to God!
Hymn – “In Loving Partnership” (VU #603)
In loving partnership we come, seeking, O God, your will to do.
Our prayers and actions now receive, we freely offer them to you.
We are the hands and feet of Christ, serving by grace each other’s need.
We dare to risk and sacrifice with truthful word and faithful deed.
Loving community we seek, Your hope and strength within us move.
The poor and rich, the strong and weak are brought together in your love.
In loving partnership, O God, help us your future to proclaim.
Justice and peace be our desire, we humbly pray in Jesus’ name.
Meditation
Anthem – “The Greatest of These”
Tho’ I may speak with the tongues of angels,
Tho’ I speak with a voice peace.
And tho’ I seek all the gifts of heaven,
Or behold all its mysteries,
If I’m not with Love’s compassion,
If I speak without Love’s voice,
My lofty words and noble actions, are as Noise.
For now we see only a glimpse of the things to be.
As thru a mirror dimly, ‘til Time and Earth are free.
Faith, Hope, and Love abide below, abide above,
But ever new, and ever true, the greatest of these is Love!
Tho’ I have faith to remove a mountain,
Tho’ I’ve faith to command the hills,
And if I dare in the face of danger, my own body to offer still,
But if I’ve not Love’s understanding,
If I’m lost to Love’s own songs,
My lovely words and thrilling actions are as Gongs.
For now we see only a glimpse of the things to be.
As thru a mirror dimly, ’til Time and Earth are free.
Faith, Hope and Love abide below, abide above,
But ever new, and ever true, the greatest of these is Love!
The breath of Time rushes ever onward, prophecy shall pass away.
Our grandest words and our greatest knowledge shall be gone at the break of Day.
For the wisest of our wisdom, and the boldest prophet’s call
Are merely shadows of the Holy, One in All!
For now we see only a glimpse of the things to be.
As thru a mirror dimly, ’til Time and Earth are free.
Faith, Hope and Love abide below, abide above,
But ever new, and ever true, the greatest of these is Love!
We Respond to God’s Word
An Invitation to Share
Offering Sung Response – “Grant Us, God, the Grace” (VU #540)
Grant us, God, the grace of giving;
With a spirit large and free,
That ourselves and all our living
We may offer faithfully.
Offering Prayer
Prayers of the People
One: God of Love
All: Hear our Prayer.
Prayer Jesus Taught Us
All: 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.
We Go Into God’s World
Hymn – “God, as We Rise to Leave” (VU #417)
God, as we rise to leave this shell of worship,
Called to the risk of unprotected living,
Willing to be at one with all your people,
We ask for courage.
For all the strain with living interwoven,
For the demands each day will make upon us,
And for the love we owe the modern city,
God, make us cheerful.
Give us an eye for openings to serve you;
Make us alert when calm is interrupted,
Ready and wise to use the unexpected;
Sharpen our insight.
Lift from our life the blanket of convention;
Give us the nerve to lose our life to others;
Be with your church in death and resurrection,
God of all ages.
Benediction
Sung Response – “Lead Me Lord, I Will Follow”
Lead me Lord, I will follow.
Lead me Lord, I will go.
You have called me, I will answer.
Lead me Lord, I will go.
