The Celebration of the Gospel
February 17, 2019 — Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Realm of God..
—Luke 6.20
_______We Gather as the Body of Christ_______
GREETING
PRELUDE Blessed Jesus, At Thy Word J. S. Bach
[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.
You may light a votive candle in prayer any time during the prelude, hymns, offering, Peace or postlude.]
* CALL TO WORSHIP (based on Psalm 1.2-3)
[Today’s texts speak of a life-giving trust in God. Psalm 1 says those who trust in God are like trees planted by water, who are continually nourished and sustained.]
Leader: Happy are those whose delight is in God’s Word.
All: They are like trees planted by streams of water.
They yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither.
We come to root ourselves in your love, O God.
May we bear the fruit of your Spirit,
the fruit of your love. Amen.
* SONG El Shaddai Blue hymnal # 123
____________ We Attend to the Word__________
(10:30) CHILDREN’S TIME
PRAYER
God of love, we come with fears and desires, habits and attachments, and all our compulsive agendas. Give us peace to release them all, to seek only your love, and to give only your love. Bless us with your grace, that our lives may be shaped by the love that bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things, in the name of Christ. Amen.
HEBREW BIBLE — Jeremiah 7.5-10
[God warns us that the heart is devious and hard to understand. To trust in human judgment or strength is fatal. But the faithful are sustained by God’s grace, like trees planted by streams of water.]
Thus says the Holy One:
Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals
and make mere flesh their strength,
whose hearts turn away from God.
They shall be like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see when relief comes.
They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.
Blessed are those who depend on God,
whose trust is the Holy One.
They shall be like a tree planted by water,
sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes,
and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
and it does not cease to bear fruit.
The heart is devious above all else;
it is perverse— who can understand it?
I the Holy One test the mind and search the heart,
to give to all according to their ways,
according to the fruit of their doings.
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GOSPEL Luke 6.17-26
[The first part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain (parallel to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew). God blesses those who are poor and hungry, and those who weep, because grace does not depend on our situation. The grace of God overcomes all suffering, and transcends, overwhelms and subverts human fate, will and intention.]
Jesus came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
Jesus looked up at his disciples and said:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
“Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
“Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
“Blessed are you when people hate you,
and when they exclude you, revile you,
and defame you on account of the Son of Man.
Rejoice in that day and leap for joy,
for surely your reward is great in heaven;
for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
“But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
“Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
“Woe to you who are laughing now,
or you will mourn and weep.
“Woe to you when all speak well of you,
for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
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SERMON Rooted in love
SONG Seek Ye First Blue hymnal # 405
THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
[Anyone who wishes may share a prayer at the microphone.]
THE PRAYER OF JESUS
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 trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
SHARING THE PEACE OF CHRIST
______We Are Sent in Ministry to the World_____
OFFERING OUR GIFTS 8:15: When I Consider How The Father Loves – Penny Rodriguez
10:30: Deo Dicamus Gratias— Victor C. Johnson
* OFFERING SONG Ubi Caritas –Black hymnal # 2179
Ubi caritas et amor, ubi caritas Deus ibi est.
[“Where there is love and compassion, there is God.”]
* PRAYER
Gracious God, we give you our lives, symbolized in these gifts. Receive them with love, bless them with grace and use them according to your will. You give us your love unearned, as pure gift. May it overflow in all we do. Amen.
THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD
* SONG Christ Beside Me – Black hymnal #2166
* THE BLESSING AND SENDING FORTH
Leader: I pray that God will strengthen you in your inner being
with power through the Spirit,
and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith,
as you are being rooted and grounded in love.
All: Alleluia. Amen.
* SONG 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.
SURVEYING OUR CHURCH’S VITALITY
POSTLUDE We’re Marching To Zion Robert Lowry, arr: Mark Hayes