Skip to main content

8.2.20


Welcome to First Presbyterian Sterling Online!
Visit past services at firstonsecond.blogspot.com
Click here for an automatic playlist that plays this week's videos. (Click "Play All.")

God’s People Gather
*Welcome with Christina

 *Prelude with Amy & Emma

Prelude Pondering
Hunger feels like pincers,
like the bite of crabs,
it burns and has no fire.
Hunger is a cold fire.
Let us sit down to eat
with all those who haven't eaten;
let us spread great tablecloths,
put salt in the lakes of the world,
set up planetary bakeries,
tables with strawberries in snow,
and a plate like the moon itself
from which we can all eat.
For now I ask no more
than the justice of eating.
-- Pablo Neruda, excerpt from “The Great Tablecloth”

*Call to Worship with Jodi & Joplin

Leader: To those who are hungry, Jesus offers bread, saying:
People: “Come and eat! There’s more than enough for all!”
Leader: To those who are thirsty, Jesus offers the cup, saying:
People: “Come and drink! It’s free for the taking!
Leader: Jesus calls you and bids you welcome, saying:
People: “Come to Me, and you will find everything you need!”
ALL: Let us worship God!

*Opening Song - Come, Now Is the Time to Worship

*Call to Confession, Prayer of Confession, & Assurance of Pardon

Friends, there are so many distractions in our lives that it is easy to let our energy and attention be diverted away from God. We regard our salvation as something we deserve, rather than as a gift from God. But God knows we are frail and finite. God provides a path to grace for anyone who would come. Trusting God, we confess our sins together:
Generous God, we are always so glad and willing to receive all that you offer! We reach out for your healing, listen for your teaching, and come gladly to your table. But then we are reluctant to pass along what you have given us. We refuse to forgive; we ignore the lessons that are difficult. We fail to share what we have, and we do not recognize Jesus in the faces of the hungry, the poor, and the lonely. We tell ourselves that the claims Jesus makes on us are really for other people, not for us. Forgive us! Help us to see your image in all people, to share freely, to love and forgive with a grace like yours. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Silence is kept
Leader: Hear the good news! The generous love and grace of God are for all people, in every time and place; the welcome of Christ is for anyone who would come; the Spirit is with every heart that is open to love. Rejoice and be glad. We are a forgiven people.
People: In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. Thanks be to God! Amen.

*Response - Glory to God 

*Sharing the Peace of Christ

 Leader: Because of the generous love of God in Christ, we have peace with God. Let’s share that peace with one another, saying “The peace of Christ be with you.”
People: And also with you.
God’s Word is Proclaimed
*Scripture Reading -  Matthew 14:13-21 & Sermon

Responding to God’s Word
*Offering

If you are able, please continue to send in your offering and pledge. If you are enrolled in electronic funds transfer, there is no need to do anything different. If you would like to give online using Paypal, click this link: bit.ly/FPCsterling
*Prayer of Dedication

God, you call us to come to you, saying, “You who are hungry, come and eat! You who are thirsty, come and drink! You who have no money, come and buy!” We are so grateful for your generosity to us. And so we bring our gifts to you, and we bring our energy and imagination, and we offer all that we have to you, so that others may come as well. Amen.

*Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper

God’s People are Sent
*Closing Song - Grace Alone

*Benediction

Leader: Go forth in service, remembering to fight, work, and pray for those who suffer unjustly in our world. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with each one of us, now and always. And let all God’s people say…
People: Alleluia! Amen!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Holy Humor Sunday

Worship Service First Presbyterian Church Sterling, Illinois Holy Humor Sunday April 15, 2012 This was our third annual Holy Humor worship, and I think our best ever. The week before Palm Sunday, we handed out postcards for our folks to invite their friends and neighbors for Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Easter and Holy Humor Sunday. We sent a press release (see it at the end of this post) to the local paper, and it ran on Saturday the 14 th . We also put the word out on Facebook. We used our regular order of worship, but the bulletin had rebus pictures instead of words (for example a picture of a phone, the numeral 2, and a picture of a battleship – “Call to Worship” Get it?!) The chancel was strewn with balloons, red Solo cups, party hats, streamers and confetti. There was confetti up and down the aisles, and smiley face helium balloons where the flowers normally are. There were “joke breaks” and the jokes are included here, plus a few brave members shared their

Rock, Paper, Scissors

A Trinity Sunday sermon Psalm 8; Proverbs 8: 22-31; John 16: 12-15 May 22, 2016 First Presbyterian Church, Sterling, IL Christina Berry Today is Trinity Sunday. It is the only Sunday on the church calendar that addresses a doctrine rather than an event.If you are familiar, which many of you are by now, with the church year, we start with Advent, move on to Christmas and Epiphany, then Lent and Easter, and fifty days later, Pentecost. But on this Sunday, the Sunday after Pentecost, we celebrate the Trinity – a doctrine of the universal church. Not all who fall under the appellation of Christian are believers in the Trinity, and for some people, that makes them “not Christian.” Mormons, for example, believe in Father, Son and Holy Ghost, “united in purpose and separate in person.” [1] Jehovah’s Witnesses do not accept the doctrine of the Trinity, nor do Christian Scientists. But for the last several centuries –actually since the year 451, the year of the council of Chalce

The Great Commission: Go. Make Disciples. Teach. Baptize.

Rather than the text of the sermon, this week I'm posting the entire order of worship. Sources are cited wherever we could. The opening song is sung to the tune of "Morning Has Broken," and the words were adapted from the Presbyterian Hymnal song, "Baptized in Water." The James Howell story came from an article he wrote in Christian Century magazine in 2007. Some of the liturgy was adapted from a baptismal article on the website of Reformed Worship magazine. The acolyte enters and lights the candles. Musicians sing: Baptized in water, called as disciples; we are the lights of Christ our King; flames of the Spirit light up our pathway Following Jesus, we joyfully sing. Person one comes up as the musicians sing, sets the candle on the communion table and lights it, and after the singing is finished, announces, “The light of discipleship.” They stay at the table. Musicians sing: Baptized in water, nurtured in scripture, teaching