The Celebration of the Gospel
Third Sunday in Lent
March 8, 2015
8:15 – 9:00 am
10:30 – 11:45 am
“”Take these things out of here!
Stop making God’s house a marketplace!”
—John 2.16
________ We Gather as The Body of Christ______
GREETING
PRELUDE Prelude on “HAMBURG” Gordon Young
[As we listen to the music we quiet our minds and bodies,
listen for our hearts’ deepest desires,
and become present to the Holy One who is lovingly present for us.]
* CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: Galaxies, spinning, cry: Glory!
All: God’s Word enters us and cries, Life!
Loving God, receive us, and our prayers and our praise.
Gracious God, guide us now, that we may embrace you and your love.
* SONG Have Thine Own Way, Lord Blue hymnal #382
(10:30) CHILDREN’S TIME
___________ We Attend to the Word___________
(10:30) THE WORD IN SONG When I Survey the Wondrous Cross Gilbert M. Martin
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Pastor: The grace of God be with you.
Congregation: And also with you.
Trusting in God’s tender mercy, we bring our whole lives into the light of God’s grace.
For those times we have been most in harmony with you, O God, we give thanks.
…Silent reflection…
God of grace, we thank you,
for your mercy is great.
For those times we have been most out of harmony with you, O God,
we ask your forgiveness and healing.
…Silent reflection…
God of grace, we thank you,
for your mercy is great.
Sisters and brothers, in the love of God and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
your sins are entirely forgiven, and you are set free
to live by the power of God’s Spirit alone, now, to eternal life.
Thanks be to God.
PASSING THE PEACE
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Cleanse the temple of our hearts, O God, of all that would distance us from you. Bring us close and hold us near in your loving grace. Speak your Word to us, that we may be made whole. Amen.
NEW TESTAMENT 1 Corinthians 1.18-25
[Paul says the cross—the story of Jesus’ self-sacrificing love—doesn’t make “sense” (as the Greek philosophers prefer) or seem like a sign of God’s power (as Jews desire). God’s grace doesn’t fit our categories or expectations of wisdom and power, but it gives us life. ]
The message about the cross is foolishness to those who don’t mind throwing their lives away, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning
I will thwart.”
Show me one who is wise. Show me a scholar. Show me a debater of this age. When it comes to understanding God, all their worldly wisdom is completely foolish. Wisdom doesn’t work to come to know God. So God uses this news about the cross, and even thought it sounds foolish, it saves the people who trust it.
Jews demand to see signs from God, and Greeks want to figure everything out. But we are proclaiming Christ crucified, which sounds awful to the Jews and makes no sense to the Greeks. But to those whom God calls, both Jews and gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
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GOSPEL John 2.13-22
[In the temple Jesus drives out the people who supply the animals and money for sacrifices, preventing the sacrifices. We can’t pay for God’s love; we can only receive it as a gift.]
The Passover was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making God’s house a marketplace!”
His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The people then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The people then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
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SERMON
SONG Forgive Our Sins Blue hymnal #390
THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
[Anyone who wishes may share a prayer concern at the microphone.]
RESPONSE: This is my prayer. All: This is our prayer.
___________We Share at Christ’s Table ___________
OFFERING OUR GIFTS
In Memory Of His Mercy – Tunes: ST PETER, STOCKTON arr: Ruth Elaine Schram
* COMMUNION SONG Eat This Bread Blue hymnal #628
THE GREAT THANKSGIVING
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is good to give God thanks and praise.
We thank you, God: for you created us in your image
and made Covenant to be our God—grace for which we cannot repay!
Choir side: You have brought us out of slavery and gave us a place of belonging—
blessing without price!
Street side: You have walked with us in Christ, who shares our suffering
and gives himself to us in love—a gift we cannot match!
All: Therefore we come to his table singing your praise with all Creation:
Sanctus, Blue hymnal p. 23
Blessed are all who come in your name and Blessed is Jesus, your Christ.
Choir side: He loved and taught; he gathered the outcast; he confronted injustice;
Street side: He occupied our violence, to awaken us and lead us to a new Way.
[The Blessing and Covenant….]
Remembering these, your mighty acts in Jesus Christ,
All: We offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving
as a holy and living sacrifice
in union with Christ’s offering for us
as we proclaim the mystery of our faith:
Memorial Acclamation, blue hymnal p. 24
Pour out your Holy Spirit on these gifts of bread and cup,
that they may be for us the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Pour out your Holy Spirit on us, that transformed by your grace and forgiveness,
we may bring your love to all Creation in the name of Christ.
Amen, blue hymnal P. 24
THE PRAYER OF JESUS
SHARING THE HOLY MEAL [Everyone is welcome at the table of Christ’s self-giving love.
The bread is wheat-, soy- and dairy free. We dip the bread in the juice.]
PRAYER OF BLESSING
Gracious God, we thank you for this mystery in which you have given yourself to us. Send us into the world, filled with your love, to bring forgiveness, healing reconciliation to all the world in the name and the Spirit of Christ. Amen.
_____ We Are Sent in Ministry to the World_____
THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD
* SONG Freely, Freely Blue hymnal #389
* THE BLESSING AND SENDING FORTH
RESPONSE We stand and sing to our neighbors:
May the grace and peace of Christ be with you my friends.
Go and share the love of God, love that never ends.
POSTLUDE Andante Con Moto Franz Schubert, arr: Mark Williams
[During the postlude there are people ready to pray with you at the candles in the corners.]