FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
WELCOME
PRELUDE Jesus Paid It All – Grape/Vandall
Grace Erichsen & Elissa Hock-Wimmer
*CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: Blessed is our God who embraces us with boundless love.
People: Blessed are we in the sanctuary of our Lord,
where we are embraced us with open arms.
Leader: In this place, let us praise the Lord who reveals to us who we
are and who we can be.
People: May we share God’s grace and compassion with all people.
Leader: As we worship, we are awakened to God’s wonder and inspired for service.
People: How lovely is God’s abiding place, where we learn God’s truth,
experience God’s mercy, and rejoice in the gift of God’s love.
*HYMN OF PRAISE How Lovely, Lord #207
How lovely, Lord, how lovely Is Your abiding place;
My soul is longing, fainting, To feast upon Your grace.
The sparrow finds a shelter, A place to build her nest;
And so Your temple calls us Within its walls to rest.
In Your blest courts to worship, O God, a single day
Is better than a thousand If I from You should stray.
I’d rather keep the entrance And claim You as my Lord
Than revel in the riches The ways of sin afford.
A sun and shield forever Are You, O Lord Most High;
You shower us with blessings; No good will You deny.
The saints, Your grace receiving, From strength to strength shall go,
And from their life shall rivers Of blessing overflow.
PRAYERS OF CONFESSION (Unison)
Gracious and merciful God, as we acknowledge all that is wrong in our lives,
we cast ourselves upon Your unbounded mercy.
Forgive us for those occasions when we learned nothing because we did
not want to listen.
Have mercy upon us for those instances when we did not help,
because we did not want to see.
Have compassion upon us for a weak Christian witness which is at times so
fragile that few can experience Your light shining through us.
Cleanse us from our sin, O Lord,
and renew us by Your grace,
so that in our words and deeds we may testify to the life and love of Jesus Christ, our
Savior and our Lord, in whose name we pray. (Silent)
ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS (adapted from Colossians 2:13-14)
Leader: Even when we were dead in our trespasses, God made us alive by forgiving all our sins.
People: God has erased the record that stood against us by nailing it to the cross.
Leader: Friends, believe the good news of the gospel:
People: Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven!
SCRIPTURE Psalm 14:1-7
1 Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is no one who does good.
2 The LORD looks down from heaven on humankind to see if there are any who are wise, who
seek after God.
3 They have all gone astray, they are all alike perverse; there is no one who does good, no, not
one.
4 Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do
not call upon the LORD?
5 There they shall be in great terror, for God is with the company of the righteous.
6 You would confound the plans of the poor, but the LORD is their refuge.
7 O that deliverance for Israel would come from Zion!
When the LORD restores the fortunes of his people, Jacob will rejoice; Israel will be glad.
SCRIPTURE Amos 8:4-12
4 Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, 5 saying, “When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances, 6 buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat.” 7 The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. 8 Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who lives in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile Egypt? 9 On that day, says the LORD God, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight. 10 I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on all loins, and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day.
11 The time is surely coming, says the LORD God, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. 12 They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of
the LORD, but they shall not find it.
MEDITATION A Voice of Justice
ANTHEM Old Irish Blessing – Traditional / Agay
Grace Erichsen, solo
Grace is a recent graduate of Massillon High School
in May and is headed to Kent State’s Honors program
*AFFIRMATION OF FAITH from A Declaration of Faith, 6.5
In his history with his people in the world, God has often made material things
channels through which his grace is understood and powerfully experienced.
Out of the life and ministry of Jesus,
the Church received baptism and the Lord’s Supper
as special sacraments of God’s saving action.
We believe that, at the Lord’s Supper, the community of believers is renewed
by the memory of Christ’s life and death,
by his real presence in the power of the Holy Spirit,
and by the promise of his coming again.
Christ makes himself known to us in the breaking of bread.
He offers us his body broken for our sake
and his blood shed for the forgiveness of our sins.
We accept his promises and gifts and depend on his life to sustain ours.
In turn we offer ourselves in thanksgiving
to the risen Lord who has conquered death.
So we celebrate his victory here and now
and anticipate the joyous feast in his coming kingdom.
Reunited around one loaf and cup,
we receive strength and courage
to continue our pilgrimage with God in the world.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE AND 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.
INVITATION TO GIVE
PRAYER OF DEDICATION
SACRAMENT OF THE LORD’S SUPPER
We have “open” communion, and therefore all who desire a closer relationship with God and
want to share in the love of Jesus Christ are invited to participate fully in the sacrament.
Invitation to the Table
Prayer of Thanksgiving
Leader: The Lord be with you.
People: And also with you.
Leader: Lift up your hearts.
People: We lift them up to the Lord.
Leader: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
People: It is right to give our thanks and praise.
Words of Institution and Communion of the People
Prayer after Communion
*HYMN Lord, When I Came Into This Life #522
Lord, when I came into this life You called me by my name;
Today I come, commit myself, Responding to Your claim.
Within the circle of the faith As member of Your cast,
I take my place with all the saints Of future, present, past.
In all the tensions of my life, Between my faith and doubt,
Let Your great Spirit give me hope, Sustain me, lead me out.
So, help me in my unbelief And let my life be true:
Feet firmly planted on the earth, My sights set high on You.
*BENEDICTION
POSTLUDE Hymns of Adoration – Keveren
Grace Erichsen & Elissa Hock-Wimmer
CCLI #4220373