3 days ago by Staff
CALL TO WORSHIP | Psalm 103:8-12
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
The Lord will not always accuse,
nor stay angry forever.
The Lord does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so great is the Lord’s steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far the Lord removes our transgressions from us.
OPENING HYMN | “Lord, Make Us Servants of Your Peace”
Lord, make us servants of your peace:
where there is hate, may we sow love;
where there is hurt, may we forgive;
where there is strife, may we make one.
Where all is doubt, may we sow faith;
where all is gloom, may we sow hope;
where all is night, may we sow light;
where all is tears, may we sow joy.
Jesus, our Lord, may we not seek
to be consoled, but to console,
nor look to understanding hearts,
but look for hearts to understand.
May we not look for love’s return,
but seek to love unselfishly,
for in our giving we receive,
and in forgiving are forgiven.
Dying, we live, and are reborn
through death’s dark night to endless day:
Lord, make us servants of your peace,
to wake at last in heaven’s light.
MINUTE FOR MISSION
There are so many exciting ways that God is working through each of us and in this community.
As we consider our receiving and our giving to the works of ministry in this place and in the world, may we remember the reconciliation that God offers us every day.
HEBREW SCRIPTURE | Deuteronomy 10:16-19 and Leviticus 19:33-34
Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURE | 2 Corinthians 5:16-20
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 know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to God’s self through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to God’s self, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. 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.
SPECIAL MUSIC FOR REFLECTION | “Selma Swamp” by Zach and Rodney featuring Canton Jones
REFLECTION
“Peeling Back the Layers of Reconciliation”
By Mark Mullins
CORPORATE PRAYER | By Amy Messler
God of Love, we confess that our hearts are more often filled with judgments than love. It is so difficult to love those who are different from ourselves. Help us, we pray, to embrace every opportunity to be in relationship with one of your beloved children. May our love grow within this body of believers and beyond its walls, to those who feel unloved or unlovable. Amen.
