Bulletin – Sunday, March 30, 2025 – Fourth Sunday in Lent

Sunday, March 30, 2025, 2025
Fourth Sunday in Lent

We Gather as People of Faith

Welcome

Announcements

Call to Worship

One:   In this season of Lent, we gather as companions of Jesus.
All:      Like Jesus’s first disciples, we respond to the invitation to follow Jesus.

One:   We follow, although we know this journey leads to palms waved in greeting,
All:      We follow, although we know this journey leads to a trial and to a cross.

One:   We follow because we trust that this journey also leads to Easter wonder.
All:      We follow, trusting that this journey leads us deeper into the love of God.

Hymn – “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy” (VU #271)

There’s a wideness in God’s mercy like the wideness of the sea;
There’s a kindness in God’s justice which is more than liberty.

There is no place where earth’s sorrows are more felt than up in heaven;
There is no place where earth’s failings have such gracious judgement given.

There is plentiful redemption in the blood that Christ has shed;
There is joy for all the members in the sorrows of the Head.

Troubled souls, why will you scatter like a crowd of frightened sheep?
Foolish hearts, why will you wander from a love so true and deep?

For the love of God is broader than the measure of the mind,
And the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind.

Lenten Candle Tenebrae

One:   Three of our Lenten candles have already been extinguished.
All:      Three lights no longer shine.

One:   As our Lenten journey brings us closer to a cross, the darkness seems to deepen, the light seems to fade.
All:      We want to keep the candles burning. We want to keep the light shining.

One:   As the candles are extinguished, as the darkness deepens, we listen for words of hope.
All:      And we receive the words Jesus spoke so often to his disciples:

One:   Be not afraid.
All:      And so, as another candle is extinguished, as darkness deepens, we continue our Lenten pilgrimage, trusting that nothing can separate us from the love of God we have experienced in Jesus the Christ.

The fourth 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:      God, be with us when light shines and illuminates the world. Be with us when darkness deepens, and we feel uncertain and lost. Be with us as we prepare to confront the cross that we cannot avoid on our way to Easter. Be with us, to grant us courage, to grant us compassion, to grant us hope to remain companions of Jesus both when the light shines and when the darkness deepens. Amen.

Prayer of Approach and Confession

God, we gather again in response to the invitation of the Resurrected Christ. We gather as people of faith. We gather as searchers of faith. We gather with trust and with struggles. We gather to worship. We gather to be met by Your Spirit through scripture, prayer, hymns, silence, reflections and the friendship of this community. Touch again our hearts, that this be a time of healing of wounds, a time of forgiveness for times of hurt; and that this be a time of being held in Your faithful and blessing love. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

Words of Assurance

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.

A Story for All

We Hear God’s Word

Scripture Reading:         2 Corinthians 5:16-21

¹⁶ From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we no longer know him in that way. ¹⁷ So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹ that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. ²⁰ So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God. ²¹ For our sake God made the one who knew no sin to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Scripture Reading:         Luke 15: 1-3, 11b-32

¹⁵ Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. ² And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

³ So he told them this parable:

¹¹ Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. ¹² The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the wealth that will belong to me.’ So he divided his assets between them. ¹³ A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant region, and there he squandered his wealth in dissolute living. ¹⁴ When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that region, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that region, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. ¹⁶ He would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, and no one gave him anything. ¹⁷ But when he came to his senses he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! ¹⁸ I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’ ²⁰ So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. ²¹ Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ ²² But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³ And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate, ²⁴ for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.

²⁵ “Now his elder son was in the field, and as he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. ²⁷ He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has got him back safe and sound.’ ²⁸ Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. ²⁹ But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command, yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. ³⁰ But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ ³¹ Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. ³² But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’ ”

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

Hymn – “O God, How We Have Wandered” (VU #112)

O God, how we have wandered and hidden from your face;
In foolishness have squandered your legacy of grace.
But how, in exile dwelling, we turn with fear and shame,
As distant but compelling, you call us each by name.

And now at length discerning the evil that we do,
By faith we are returning with hope and trust in you.
In haste you come to meet us, and home rejoicing bring,
In gladness there to greet us with calf and robe and ring.

O God of all the living, both banished and restored,
Compassionate, forgiving, our peace and hope assured.
Grant now that our transgressing, our faithlessness may cease.
Stretch out your hand in blessing, in pardon, and in peace.

Meditation

Anthem – “Only a Shadow”

The love we have for you, O Lord, is only a shadow of your love for us;
Only a shadow of your love for us, your deep abiding love.

Our own belief in your, O Lord, is only a shadow of your faith in us;
Only a shadow of your faith in us; your deep and lasting faith.

Our lives are in your hands, our lives are in your hands.
Our love for you will grow, O Lord; your light in us will shine.

The dreams we have today, O Lord, are only a shadow of your dreams for us;
Only a shadow of your dreams for us; if we but follow you.

The joy we share today, O Lord, is only a shadow of your joys for us;
Only a shadow of your joys for us; when we meet face to face.

Our lives are in your hands, our lives are in your hands.
Our love for you will grow, O Lord, your light in us will share.

We Respond to God’s Word

An Invitation to Share

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

Prayers of the People

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 – “Come, Let Us Sing of a Wonderful Love” (VU #574)

Come, let us sing of a wonderful love, tender and true, tender and true,
Out of the heart of the Father above, streaming to me and to you:
Wonderful love, wonderful love dwells in the heart of the Father above.

Jesus the Saviour this gospel to tell joyfully came, joyfully came,
Came with the helpless and hopeless to dwell, sharing their sorrow and shame,
Seeking the lost, seeking the lost, saving, redeeming at measureless cost.

Jesus is seeking the wanderers yet; why do they roam? Why do they roam?
Love only waits to forgive and forget, home, weary wanderers, home!
Wonderful love, wonderful love dwells in the heart of the Father above.

Come to my heart, O thou wonderful love! Come and abide, come and abide,
Lifting my life till it rises above envy and falsehood and pride:
Seeking to be, seeking to be lowly and humble, a learner of thee.

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.