Welcome to our worship at home service- Sunday, May 10, 2020
Happy Mother's Day!
To all the wonderful women in our lives, I know this probably isn't how you wanted to spend Mother's Day this year, under stay at home orders, but wherever you are I hope that you know you are loved - loved at home, loved by your church family, loved by God.
Prelude
Let us prepare our hearts and minds for worship.
Prelude in Classic Style
Gordon Young
(If you like any of the music I have chosen for you here and want to hear me play it in person, I encourage you to request it when we are officially back. ~Tony)
Flowers on the Lord's Table are visible in some of today's videos. They are given to the glory of God in honor and in memory of our mothers.
Welcome
Call to Worship
Call to Worship
Call to Worship
from I Peter 2:4-5
We come to Christ, the living Stone -- rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to Him -- we also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Opening Prayer
Call to Worship
Call to Worship
Dear God,
We come before you now, each in our own time in our own place. As we worship you now, we are not just individuals, we are not just West Hempfield Presbyterian Church, but we are a spiritual house made of believers all across the world. Through the power of your Holy Spirit bind us together as living stones -- each unique, but bui
Dear God,
We come before you now, each in our own time in our own place. As we worship you now, we are not just individuals, we are not just West Hempfield Presbyterian Church, but we are a spiritual house made of believers all across the world. Through the power of your Holy Spirit bind us together as living stones -- each unique, but built together as one united church. May our worship and our lives be an offering of spiritual sacrifices acceptable to you, through Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, Amen.
Opening Song
O Christ, the Great Foundation
Children's Message
prayers of the community and lord's prayer
(from the Presbytery of Milwaukee's free resource Becoming Living Stones)
God, we have gotten comfortable with our own four walls, whether they be the walls of our homes or the walls of our churches. It’s possible we’ve even become accustomed to our isolation, finding new routines which placate us. Stir us from our cocoons, from our fortresses, from our hiding places to remember that there are others outside the walls. There are others who have been impacted disproportionately because of their income or lack thereof, because of the color of their skin, because of systems that left them with no passed-on wealth, no safety net, poorer health before the virus even began. Open our eyes to see these siblings of ours, to see clearly the disadvantages that were set up and reinforced and bolstered generations ago, which must be broken down and discarded in place of systems which bring equity and health and enough for all. Stir us to strive for better than the way it was before we were safer-at-home, for the sake of all your children.
God of beauty, in these recent weeks we have relied on the beauty of the arts to give us relief, in storytelling and visual arts and television and movies and music and baking and cooking and dance. Help us go beyond appreciating them for the solace, and even happiness, they brought and move us to demand equity and health and enough for all who made these forms of beauty possible, for our world is surely richest when there are arts. And we don’t want to forget that. Help us to not forget that, we pray.
God of this world, show us the ways we can work for the good of all your people even when we are contained within our walls. Spur us to continue serving in your name even while we await the time to be freely outside walls and doing your work from there. We ask all of these things through Christ, who taught us to pray, saying:
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.
Song
I Greet Thee, Who My Sure Redeemer Art
Scripture Readings
I Peter 2:4-6
I Peter 2:4-6
I Peter 2:4-6
John 14:5-12
I Peter 2:4-6
I Peter 2:4-6
SERMON - Living Stones
CLOSING SONG
O Lord My God (How Great Thou Art)
BENEDICTION
Living Stones,
wherever you are today, whatever the days ahead may bring,
know that you are chosen ... holy ... special to God.
Go in the grace, mercy, and peace of God, the Father
the love of Jesus Christ, His one and only Son
and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit
both now and forever
Amen
Postlude
Gather Us In
Thank you for joining us for our worship at home service.
Online offering now available - You can give by clicking "online offering" at the top of the page.
Gifts can also be mailed to the church - address at the bottom of this page.
To continue the work of the church we are still dependent upon your gifts and offerings.
Even in these challenging times, please continue to be generous in all areas of life.