18TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST Order of Service
PENTECOST 18 Coronavirus
World Communion Sunday
10-04-2020 10:00AM Worship
Welcome / Greeting by the Pastors
OPENING SONG: “Come, All You People [UYAI MOSE]” Carol Lee
THE OPENING RITE: Roland + Bobbie Thompson
L Sisters and brothers from near and from far,
come to the altar, come to the font, come to the table, and let us be one!
C Let hearts be uplifted and burdens removed!
Let sins be confessed and mercy received!
Let peace be shared and hope renewed!
Let all the people of God be reconciled and revived!
L Let us remember and celebrate that we are one kingdom of servants,
a global church with a global mission, in unity with our brothers and sisters –
C Let us hold on to Jesus and hold on to his power,
hold on to his love and hold on to his way,
hold on to each other, and reach out to others with justice, mercy, and peace. ALLELUIA!
PRAYER OF THE DAY: Roland or Bobbie
Let us pray. God of grace and mercy: When we are empty, fill us. When we are weak in faith, strengthen us.
When we are cold in love, warm us. And when we are willing to obey, guide us by your word to love our neighbors and to serve them for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
FIRST READING: ISAIAH 5:1-7 [The prophet’s sad song about Israel, God’s vineyard, gone sour and wild. – Janice Henderson
5:1 Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
5:2 He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
5:3 And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.
5:4 What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?
5:5 And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.
5:6 I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
5:7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!
WOMEN’S DAY “TEMPLE TALK”… This year’s theme is “I Am a Survivor”. – Katrina Whittaker
SECOND READING: PHILIPPIANS 3:4b-14 [The rubbish of Paul’s merits and achievements next to the worth of Christ.] – Doris Fortune
3:4b If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more:
3:5 circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;
3:6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
3:7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.
3:8 More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
3:9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.
3:10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death,
3:11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
3:12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
3:13 Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
GOSPEL VERSE: Timyk Hillsman
“There is strength in the name of the Lord…
There is power in the name of the Lord…
There is hope in the name of the Lord…
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
HOLY GOSPEL: MATTHEW 21:33-46 [Jesus’ sad song about those who would reject God’s cornerstone and murder God’s Son.] – Daren Waite
21:33 “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country.
21:34 When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce.
21:35 But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.
21:36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way.
21:37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
21:38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’
21:39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
21:40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
21:41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”
21:42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’?
21:43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.
21:44 The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”
21:45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them.
21:46 They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.
THE SERMON: Pastor Gwen or Pastor Neil
SONG SELECTION: “Sweet, Sweet Spirit”
OFFERING PRAYER (See Philippians 3:10-11) – Monroe Daniel
Dear God, I want to know Christ inside and out. I want to experience the power of his resurrection and join him in his suffering. I want to be like him in his death and be raised like him from death. As I grow in the grace of Christ, make me strong in my faith, bold in my witness, and fervent in my servant-love. There is no better life than life in Christ! Amen.
MUSIC SELECTION Dennis Fortune
THE PRAYERS… We pray for NEW LIFE in the Spirit and the MISSION of the Church to the world! – Donna Waite
THE PREFACE AND EUCHARISTIC WORDS AT THE TABLE:
L Brothers and sisters, the Lord be with you! C And also with you!
L Lift up your hearts! C We lift them up in love for God!
L Let us give thanks to the Lord our God! C It is right to give God our thanks and praise!
L We are the Body of Christ! C His Spirit is in us!
L God cared enough about the world to send his Son, C but the people cared more about themselves, and in their selfishness they murdered the Son.
L On the night that he was betrayed… C the night before he died…
L our Lord Jesus gathered with loved ones… C including the betrayer, the denier, the deserters…
L took the bread and blessed it… C thanked God and offered his life…
L and broke the bread and shared it – C “TAKE AND EAT.
THIS IS MY BODY, GIVEN FOR YOU.
DO THIS AS YOU REMEMBER ME.”
L After supper Jesus took the cup… C and lifted it up to pass it to his friends…
L thanked his Father and humbled himself… C looked at them only with love…
L and offered the cup and shared it – C “DRINK FROM IT, ALL OF YOU.
THIS CUP IS THE NEW COVENANT
IN MY BLOOD,
SHED FOR YOU AND FOR MANY
FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN.
DO THIS AS YOU REMEMBER ME.”
L Remembering his love for us on the way… C at the table, and to the end, and even here…
L we proclaim the mystery of faith… C CHRIST HAS DIED… CHRIST IS RISEN…
L and the promise that sustains us – C CHRIST WILL COME AGAIN!
THE LORD’S PRAYER
HOLY COMMUNION… On this WORLD COMMUNION SUNDAY we are welcomed to the table to be united with Christ Jesus, united with one another, and united with Christians all over the world. Come, sinners each and all of us!
As you take or share the bread: “THIS IS THE BODY OF CHRIST.”
As you take or share the wine: “THIS IS THE BLOOD OF CHRIST.”
THE COMMUNION BLESSING
SONG SELECTION: “We Are Marching in the Light of God” – Rianna and Kennedy
THE BENEDICTION by one of the Pastors.
Don’t just TALK about being faithful… WALK it each day!