Sunday, March 21
Fifth Sunday in Lent
PRELUDE AND CENTERING TIME
“Air” from “Orchestral Suite, No. 3”
[J. S. Bach]
Rebecca Nelson, Organ
WELCOME FROM THE PULPIT
Jan Everhart Hartliff, Pastor
CALL TO WORSHIP
Laura Dinges, Liturgist
Leader: God of love and mercy, open our hearts to your presence as we worship you today.
People: Whether our prayers are filled with celebration or with loud cries and tears, remind us that you are the source of our salvation.
Leader: Give us strength to respond faithfully to your transforming love, that the joy of your salvation might shine in and through us all.
People: Wipe away our wrongdoing, clean our hearts, and make us whole. For in your perfect love we are drawn more fully into your image. We pray in the name of Jesus…Amen.
HYMN
“Come! Come! Everybody Worship” The Faith We Sing #2271
[Natalie Sleeth]
Come! Come! Everybody worship with a prayer or song of praise!
Come! Come! Everybody worship! Worship God always!
Worship and remember to keep the Sabbath day.
Take a rest and think of God; put your work away.
Worship and remember the Lord’s unending care,
reaching out to love and help people everywhere!
CHILDREN’S TIME
Alan Cook
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE….PASTORAL PRAYER…THE LORD’S PRAYER
Our God in heaven, your name is holy. Your kindom come and your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today the food we need, and forgive us where we have caused harm, as we forgive those who have harmed us. Lead us away from destructive paths, and deliver us from evil. For Yours is the Kindom, the Power, and the Glory forever. Amen.
PRAYER RESPONSE
“O Lord, Hear our Prayer” The Faith We Sing #2200
[Jacques Berthier – Psalm 102:1-2]
O Lord, hear our prayer. O Lord, hear our prayer.
When we call, answer us.
O Lord, hear our prayer. O Lord, hear our prayer.
Come and listen to us.
SCRIPTURE READINGS
Laura Dinges, Liturgist
Jeremiah 31:31-34 ~ The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt – a covenant that they broke, though I was still their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the LORD,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.
John 12:20-33 ~ Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Humanity to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life will lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say – ‘Father, save me from this hour?’ No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, Glorify thy name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.
Reader: The word of life.
People: Thanks be to God.
SERMON
“When Life is a Struggle”
Jan Everhart Hartliff
WORSHIP WITH TITHES AND OFFERINGS
OFFERTORY
“Breathe on Me, Breath of God”
[arr. Jason Krug, Tune: Lancashire]
Central Bells
Rebecca Nelson, Director
PRAYER OF DEDICATION
HYMN
“Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross” UMH #301
[Fanny Crosby; William Doane]
Jesus, keep me near the cross; there a precious fountain,
free to all, a healing stream, flows from Calvary’s mountain.
In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever,
till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river.
Near the cross! O Lamb of God, bring its scenes before me
help me walk from day to day with its shadow o’er me.
In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever,
till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river.
BENEDICTION
POSTLUDE
“Adagio in G Minor”
[T. Albinoni]
Rebecca Nelson, Organ