CELEBRATION OF WORSHIP
PRELUDE
Bread of Life (Sherwin)
Phyllis Swift
WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Ben Wickberg
PRAYER OF PREPARATION
Rev. Kathy Brown
**Gathering Hymn
Come, Share the Lord TFWS #2269
**PASSING OF THE PEACE OF CHRIST
Saint Paul’s United Methodist Church welcomes and extends our love to all persons regardless of age, race, income, nationality, life experiences, sexual orientation, or gender identity. All are welcome into our family. You are invited to greet one another with signs of God’s peace.
Peace be with you.
ALL: And also with you.
**CALL TO WORSHIP
When our spirits are restless and unsettled, when peace is nowhere to be found, the grace of God wraps around us.
We do not rush through periods of darkness,
but welcome their gifts that transform.
In seasons of despair, truth comes to wrestle with us.
In silence, honesty voices its concerns.
From the unknowns that surround, possibilities emerge.
Courage calls us to linger patiently in discomfort.
In the light of day and the dark of night, God is with us.
Thanks be to God who upholds us in love.
**HYMN OF PRAISE
How Can We Name a Love (vs. 1) UMH #111
**OPENING PRAYER
Holy and Merciful Agitator, come and wrestle with our hearts. Push and pull on our self-understandings. Challenge our perceptions that confine and confront our thinking that leads us to harm. Meet us in the places deep within and let your Spirit lead us in truth and healing. Amen.
*NICAEA
UMH #64
Holy, holy, holy!
Merciful and mighty,
God in three persons,
blessed Trinity.
PROCLAMATION AND RESPONSE
CHILDREN’S TIME
Marti Law-Lowery and Steven Law
This, this is where children belong.
Welcomed as part of the worshipping throng.
Water, God’s word, bread and cup, prayer and song.
This is where children belong.
**READING FROM THE Gospel
Matthew 14:13-21
A TIME OF PRAYER
Cares Chorus TFWS #2215
I cast all my cares upon you.
I lay all of my burdens down at your feet.
And any time that I don’t know what to do,
I will cast all my cares upon you.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE AND PASTORAL PRAYER
One: Lord in Your Mercy Many: Hear our prayers.
SPECIAL MUSIC
In Remembrance of Me Adam Marlin
READING FROM THE HEBREW BIBLE
Genesis 32:22-31
SERMON
A Visible Transformation Rev. Kathy Brown
HOLY COMMUNION
THE GREAT THANKSGIVING
God is here with us.
And with all creation.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to the Holy One.
Let us give thanks to the Creator our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
Blessed are you, our Alpha and our Omega, whose strong and loving arms encompass the universe, for with your eternal Word and Holy Spirit you are forever one God. Through your Word you created all things and called them good, and in you we live and move and have our being. When we fell into sin, you did not desert us. You made covenant with your people Israel and spoke through prophets and teachers. In Jesus Christ your Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.
And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven we praise your name and join their unending hymn:
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed are they who come in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
Holy are you, and blessed is Jesus Christ, who called you Abba, Father. As a mother tenderly gathers her children, you embraced a people as your own and filled them with a longing for a peace that would last and for a justice that would never fail. In Jesus’ suffering and death you took upon yourself our sin and death and destroyed their power for ever.
You raised from the dead this same Jesus, who now reigns with you in glory, and poured upon us your Holy Spirit, making us the people of your new covenant.
On the night before meeting with death, Jesus took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to the disciples, and said:
“Take, eat; This is my body which is given to you.
Do this in remembrance of me.”
When the supper was over Jesus took the cup, gave thanks to you, gave it to the disciples, and said:
“Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ’s offering for us, as we proclaim the mystery of faith.
Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.
Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts, that in the breaking of this bread and the drinking of this wine we may know the presence of the living Christ and be renewed as the body of Christ for the world, redeemed by Christ’s love.
As the grain and grapes, once dispersed in the fields, are now united on this table in bread and wine, so may we and all your people be gathered from every time and place into the unity of your eternal household and feast at your table for ever.
Through Christ, with Christ, in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honor and glory is yours, almighty and loving God, now and for ever.
Amen.
HYMM OF INVITATION TO COMMUNION
Come to the Table of Grace
Come to the table of grace.
Come to the table of grace.
This is God’s table it’s not yours or mine.
Come to the table of grace
(Vs. 2 Come to the table of peace; vs. 3 love; )
GIVING OF OUR TITHES AND OFFERING
OFFERTORY PRAYER
Let Us Be Bread TFWS # 2260
Let us be bread, blessed by the Lord,
broken and shared, life for the world.
Let us be wine, love freely poured.
Let us be one in the Lord.
.
OFFERTORY MUSIC
When Morning Gilds the Skies (Barnby)
Phyllis Swift
**DOXOLOGY
UMH #94
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow
Praise God, all creatures here below. Alleluia! Alleluia!
Praise God, the source of all our gifts.
Praise Jesus Christ, whose power uplifts
Praise the Spirit, Holy Spirit,
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia!
**HYMN OF INVITATION AND DISCIPLESHIP
Find Us Faithful
We’re pilgrims on the journey of the narrow road,
And those who’ve gone before us line the way —
Cheering on the faithful,
Encouraging the weary,
Their lives a stirring testament to God’s sustaining grace.
CHORUS
O may all who come behind us find us faithful,
May the fire of our devotion light their way.
May the footprints that we leave
Lead them to believe,
And the lives we live inspire them to obey.
O may all who come behind us find us faithful.
Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
Let us run the race not only for the prize,
But as those who’ve gone before us,
Let us leave to those behind us
The heritage of faithfulness passed on thru Godly lives.
CHORUS
O may all who come behind us find us faithful,
May the fire of our devotion light their way.
May the footprints that we leave
Lead them to believe,
And the lives we live inspire them to obey.
O may all who come behind us find us faithful.
After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone,
And our children sift thru all we’ve left behind,
May the clues that they discover,
And the memories they uncover,
Become the light that leads them to the road we each must find.
CHORUS
O may all who come behind us find us faithful,
May the fire of our devotion light their way.
May the footprints that we leave
Lead them to believe,
And the lives we live inspire them to obey.
O may all who come behind us find us faithful.
**BENEDICTION
Taking Out the Light of Christ
DEPARTING CHORUS
On Eagle’s Wings UMH # 143
And God will raise us up on eagle’s wings,
bear us on the breath of dawn,
make us to shine like the sun,
and hold us in the palm of God’s hand.
POSTLUDE
Ye Servants of God (Croft)
Phyllis Swift
Remember wherever you are,
you are shining the light of Christ into the world.
Make it shine
