February 11, 2024
Prelude: Adagio
César Franck
John Bodinger
Welcome & Call to Worship
[Psalm 50]
The mighty one, the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.
Our God comes and does not keep silence.
Before him is a devouring fire, and a mighty tempest all around him.
Let us worship the LORD!
Great God, Your Love has Called us Here (Hymn 353)
Vulpius/Wren
Great God, your love has called us here as we, by love, for love were made.
Your living likeness still we bear, though marred, dishonored, disobeyed.
We come, with all our heart and mind your call to hear, your love to find.
We come with self-inflicted pains of broken trust and chosen wrong,
Half free, half bound by inner chains, by social forces swept along,
By powers and systems close confined yet seeking hope for humankind.
Great God, in Christ you call our name and then receive us as your own
Not through some merit, right, or claim but by your gracious love alone.
We strain to glimpse your mercy seat and find you kneeling at our feet.
Great God, in Christ you set us free your life to live, your joy to share.
Give us your Spirit’s liberty to turn from guilt and dull despair
And offer all that faith can do while love is making all things new.
Confession
Holy God, you are beyond our understanding. In Christ you reveal the light of your glory, but we do not always see clearly. Forgive us when our minds are dark and we misunderstand the gospel. Forgive us when we restrict your wisdom and mercy to what we can explain. God who speaks light into being, transform us so that our lives may shine with your glory, beauty, and grace, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Silence
Let All Who Pray
Troeger/ST. ANNE
Let all who pray the prayer Christ taught first clear the cluttered heart.
Make room to breathe the living thought those well-worn words impart.
Examine how temptation breeds inside the mind’s dark maze,
Acknowledging that your life needs deliverance from its ways.
Forgiveness in Jesus Christ
Peace
The peace of Christ be with you.
And also with you.
Gloria Patri (Hymn 579)
Greatorex
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be,
Word without end. Amen, Amen.
Children’s Message
O Wondrous Sight, O Vision Fair (Hymn 75)
Neale/ “The Agincourt Song”
O wondrous sight, O vision fair of glory that the church shall share,
Which Christ upon the mountain shows, where brighter than the sun he glows!
The law and prophets there have place, two chosen witnesses of grace;
The Father’s voice from out the cloud proclaims his only Son aloud.
And faithful hearts are raised on high by this great vision’s mystery,
For which in joyful strains we raise the voice of prayer, the hymn of praise.
Prayer for Illumination
Scripture Readings
Karen Bart
Old Testament: Psalm 50:1-6
New Testament: 2 Corinthians 4:3-6
Sermon: Do you See What I See?
Focus: “There was nothing exalted about Christ’s life and death…unless you had faith to see through them. To stand up in front of people twirling your tongue about them was to parade a fundamental misunderstanding of the gospel.” Barbara Brown Taylor
Response: You are Before Me, Lord (Hymn 248)
Pit-Watson/Smith
You are before me, Lord, you are behind, and over me you have spread out your hand;
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too high to grasp, too great to understand.
Then from your Spirit where, Lord, shall I go; and from your presence where, Lord, shall I fly?
If I ascend to heaven you are there, and still are with me if in hell I lie.
If I should take flight into the dawn, if I should dwell on ocean’s farthest shore,
Your mighty hand will rest upon me still, and your right hand will guard me evermore.
If I should say, “Let darkness cover me, and I shall hide within the veil of night,”
Surely the darkness is not dark to you: the night is as the day, the darkness light.
Search me, O God, search me and know my heart; try me, O God, my mind and spirit try;
Keep me from any path that gives you pain, and lead me in the everlasting way.
Pastoral Prayer & The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
Call to Stewardship
Judy Stafstrom
Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. -Luke 12:15
Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise God, all creatures here below;
Praise God above, ye heavenly host
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Charge & Benediction
Postlude: Allegro Maestoso
Flor Peeters
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CCLI# 283345
