Seventh Sunday of Easter Worship Service
St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
7TH SUNDAY OF EASTER – Coronavirus
05-29-2022 10:00AM Zoom Worship
INTRODUCTION TO OUR WORSHIP:
Welcome. In this “in-between” time – the time between the Ascension of our Lord Jesus up into heaven and the coming of the promised Spirit upon the gathered believers on Pentecost Day ten days later – we remember Jesus’ prayer on the last night of his life. After the foot washing and the meal sharing and the words of instruction and encouragement in the upper room… before he faced his arrest, trial, and crucifixion… Jesus prayed. He prayed for himself, that his own suffering and death might bring glory to God. He prayed for his disciples. And NOT just those disciples back then. He also prayed for all future believers who would be birthed out of his death and through the witness given by his followers.
That includes all of us. And what did Jesus pray? After all these years, Jesus still prays, “THAT THEY MAY BE ONE” – united in love, sustained in faith, preserved from the evil one, continuing God’s mission.
THE VICTORY +
OPENING SONG: “Jesus Shall Reign” Tan #289
OPENING RITE FOR EASTER 7 AND THE EASTER PEACE:
L Sisters and brothers, the world’s leaders and manipulators sometimes pretend…
and the people of the world sometimes forget…
C BUT GOD IS STILL ALIVE AND ALMIGHTY,
STILL ROBED IN MAJESTY AND ARMED WITH STRENGTH,
STILL A GOD OF MERCY AND JUSTICE AND LOVE, FOREVER AND EVER!
L Let us gather in humility and praise, with thankful hearts and jubilant joy!
Don’t worry about yesterday, be happy! Jesus Christ is risen from the dead!
C Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
L Don’t worry about today, be happy! Jesus Christ, who came to save us…
C is risen and ascended! Alleluia!
L Don’t worry about tomorrow, be happy! Jesus Christ, who bled and died…
C is crowned with glory at the Father’s side! Alleluia!
L Cast all your anxieties upon the Lord!
C Trust in the Lord at all times, in every season, in every struggle, in every sorrow, in every situation!
L My brothers and sisters, with one heart let us pray together for the Spirit of God to stir us once more with life… and with
one mind let us focus on our common witness of making Christ known to others. Every Christian shares in Christ’s ministry and bears the good news of God’s love, the love that Christ lived and died for. God’s Spirit will guide us to do this, if we will allow it. So let us practice receiving and offering the love of Christ here and now by making the sign of the cross on the forehead and repeating the good news to one another or to our self:
“Receive [+] the sign of the cross. Because HE died, YOU are alive!”
SONG OF PRAISE:
“Lord, I lift your name on high, Lord, I love to sing your praises.
I’m so glad you’re in my life, I’m so glad you came to save us.
You came from heaven to earth to show the way;
from the earth to the cross, my debt to pay;
from the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky; Lord, I lift your name on high!”
THE PRAYER OF THE DAY:
Let us pray. Gracious God, we want to know you, love you, and serve you. Unite us as your people to live and to offer the good news of the love that we have through your Son Jesus Christ, Amen
+ WE PROCLAIM GOD’S SAVING WORD +
FIRST READING: ACTS 16:16-34 [Christian witness.]
16:16 One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling.
16:17 While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.”
16:18 She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.
16:19 But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities.
16:20 When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, “These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews
16:21 and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.”
16:22 The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods.
16:23 After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely.
16:24 Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
16:25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
16:26 Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened.
16:27 When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped.
16:28 But Paul shouted in a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”
16:29 The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.
16:30 Then he brought them outside and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
16:31 They answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
16:32 They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.
16:33 At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay.
16:34 He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.
SONG SELECTION
SECOND READING: REVELATION 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21 [Christian hope.]
22:12 “See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work.
22:13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
22:14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates.
22:16 “It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
22:17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let everyone who hears say, “Come.” And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.
22:20 The one who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
22:21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.
GOSPEL VERSE:
“Oh, how He loves you and me. Oh, how He loves you and me.
He gave His life, what more can He give?
OH, HOW HE LOVES YOU; OH, HOW HE LOVES ME;
OH, HOW HE LOVES YOU AND ME!
Jesus to Calv’ry did go, His love for this world to show.
What He did there brought hope from despair…”
GOSPEL READING: JOHN 17:20-26 [Christian unity.]
17:20 “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word,
17:21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
17:22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one,
17:23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
17:24 Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
17:25 “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me.
17:26 I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
THE SERMON: Pastor Neil or Pastor Gwen
SONG SELECTION: “Somebody Prayed for Me” Tan #505
AN AFFIRMATION OF OUR FAITH:
We confess our FAITH in the God who has given us love and new life…
I trust in God who has made me his own. I know that God loves me. To God I am as precious as his own Son, Jesus Christ, who lived and died in obedience to his Father’s will. Jesus suffered our pain, and through his suffering and death has brought us into fellowship with God.
I believe that God through his Spirit will give me strength when I am oppressed and weary… will give me love when I am afraid and lonely… and will guide his Church to make people free at last.
I believe that God lives in the fellowship of those who trust him, and that God wants all people to be brought into that fellowship.
I believe that nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Living in hope and trust, I will deny myself, take up my cross, and walk the Jesus walk of faithful servant love.
Amen.
OFFERING [We are the faces and the hearts, the hands and the feet that carry forth and make real the joy and the justice, the hope and the promise of Jesus Christ to a world that searches, sins, and sorrows. Let us be united in our faith, our love, and our mission!]
THE OFFERTORY SONG:
“Get all excited, go tell ev’rybody that Jesus Christ is King! [sing this line 3 times]
Jesus Christ is still the King of kings, the King of kings!”
OFFERING PRAYER:
We praise you and thank you, O God, for giving us amazing joy, grace, and hope in the resurrection of Jesus our Lord! Now give us the bold confidence and the passionate love to dry tears, to lift up broken hearts, and to testify with our gifts and our lives that there is NEW LIFE in Jesus Christ. Amen.
MUSIC SELECTION: “My Faith Looks Up to Thee” Dennis Fortune Tan #456
THE PRAYERS… We pray that THE WAY OF THE CROSS will continue to impact our lives and transform the world!
THE LORD’S PRAYER
+ WE ARE SENT TO SHOW AND TELL +
THE BENEDICTION:
L Alleluia! Christ is risen!
C He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
L Leave with a message upon your heart, on your lips, :revealed through your daily living:
C I have seen the Lord!
Go in the faith-filled power of the Risen Lord [+] to love God and to serve your neighbor in all that you do! AMEN!
CLOSING SONG: “Revive Us Again” Tan #567