Sixth Sunday of Easter Worship Bulletin

St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church 

6TH SUNDAY OF EASTER / MOTHER’S DAY

05-14-2023     10:00AM “Hybrid” Worship

+   WE ANNOUNCE THE EASTER VICTORY   +

OPENING RITE FOR EASTER 6:

L   All around this world, some folk would rather have houses and land.

C Some folk choose silver and gold.

L   These things they treasure and forget about their souls.

C But I have decided to make Jesus my choice.

L   It seems like anything and everything is worshipped by somebody.

C And some people even worship an “unknown god”, which is like worshipping “WHATEVER”.

L   Many seek and search all over, and they find no real peace, power, or promise.

C But I have decided to make Jesus my choice. 

L   My path is set – I will love and trust God like Jesus did.

C I will love and serve the world like Jesus commands.

L   I will seek the advice and strength of the Holy Spirit.

C For I have decided to make Jesus my choice.

L   Even if I struggle, even if I suffer, I will try to give witness to God’s love.

C Jesus is risen, Jesus is alive, and Jesus is Lord! Alleluia!

OPENING SONG: “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling”                         Tan #440 (different tune)

CELEBRATION OF NEW LIFE IN CHRIST:     

L   Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Obedience is the key to right relationship with God, and the most obedient we can ever be is to love the whole world as Jesus commands. Jesus assures his believers that we are not left to ourselves like “orphans” to do this alone, because we can’t. The presence and the power of the Holy Spirit provides us the will and the way to love. Let the full life of the Risen Christ be in you by loving Him faithfully and by loving one another freely. In this way you will never be alone. I invite you to celebrate here and now the presence, peace, power, and promises of Jesus Christ by making the sign of the cross on your forehead, saying, and believing —

“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:   

Dear God, you are my Mother and my Father, my strength for today and my bright hope for tomorrow. Help me to remember that my call is to bear the name, spirit, and mission of Jesus Christ by sharing his love. Spark me with the Holy Spirit to start right where I am, giving witness to someone somewhere sometime.  Amen.

+   WE PROCLAIM GOD’S SAVING WORD   +

FIRST READING:  ACTS 17:22-31  [Many are searching. But handmade and unknown gods have their limits.]

17:22 Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way.

17:23 For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

17:24 The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands,

17:25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.

17:26 From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live,

17:27 so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him–though indeed he is not far from each one of us.

17:28 For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’

17:29 Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.

17:30 While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

17:31 because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

SECOND READING:  1 PETER 3:13-22  [Those nail holes in our wrists help ventilate our souls.]

3:13 Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good?

3:14 But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated,

3:15 but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you;

3:16 yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame.

3:17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil.

3:18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit,

3:19 in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison,

3:20 who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.

3:21 And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you–not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

3:22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

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…”

THE HOLY GOSPEL:  JOHN 14:15-21  [Do you hear your “Paraclete” chirping? The Holy Spirit is with you and in you.]

14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.

14:17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

14:18 “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.

14:19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.

14:20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

14:21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

THE SERMON:         Pastor Neil or Pastor Gwen

SONG SELECTION: All Saints Choir

A CONFESSION OF FAITH (words written by South African Bishop Desmond Tutu):    

Goodness is stronger than evil;

Love is stronger than hate;

light is stronger than darkness;

life is stronger than death;

and victory is ours through God who loves us.  Amen.

THE PRAYERS…  We pray that all people might be transformed by the GOOD NEWS of Easter!

+   WE SHARE GOD’S NOURISHING MEAL   +

OFFERING   [We want to celebrate and share that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life for a searching world!]

SONG SELECTION: All Saints Choir

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 led by the Communion Assistant:    

O God, it is only by your amazing grace that we are Easter-alive today! We dedicate our gifts and our lives to drying tears and sharing good news of peace. Make us bold and eager witnesses to others of NEW LIFE  IN CHRIST.  Amen.

THE PREFACE…  We prepare to celebrate the LORD’S SUPPER with humble joy!

L   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   The Lord delivers us from sin and death…   C   … and grants us salvation and eternal life!

L   [continues the Preface]… we praise your name and join their unending hymn:

C   [singing…]   “Holy, holy, holy, holy,

    holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!

    and we lift our hearts before you as a token of our love,

    holy, holy, holy, holy.

    Precious Jesus, precious Jesus,

    We’re so glad that you redeemed us, precious Jesus…

    Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit,

    come and fill our hearts anew, O Holy Spirit…”

THE EUCHARISTIC WORDS by the Celebrant, who recalls and re-enacts Jesus’ Holy Meal.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

COMMUNION AND BLESSINGS… All believers in Jesus Christ are welcome at the Lord’s Table! 

      We will have “continuous distribution” with wafers and either wine or grape juice.

COMMUNION SONGS:               Tan #313               Tan #410              

THE COMMUNION BLESSING by the Celebrant after all have communed.

POST-COMMUNION PRAYER by the Communion Assistant.     

+   WE ARE SENT TO SHOW AND TELL   +

THE BENEDICTION…  Leave with a message upon your heart, on your lips, and revealed through your daily living!

Go in the faith-filled power of the Risen Lord (+) to love God and to serve your neighbor in all that you do.

CLOSING SONG: “He Lives”                                                   Tan #275