The Celebration of the Gospel
April 29, 2018 —Fifth Sunday of Easter
“I am the vine and you are the branches.”
—John 15.5
________We Gather as the Body of Christ______
GREETING
PRELUDE He Leadeth Me Wm. Bradbury, arr: Alice Jordan
[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: Living God, Root of Life, we grow and blossom from your heart.
All: You are the river; we are your flowing.
Loving Christ, Flowering of Love, we give thanks for the beauty of your grace.
You are the vine; we are your branches.
Holy Spirit, Fire of God, your love burns in us, and shines into the world.
You are the candle; we are your flame.
We belong to you; we worship you; we serve you. Alleluia!
* SONG Blest Be the Tie that Binds Blue hymnal # 557
____________ We Attend to the Word__________
(10:30) CHILDREN’S TIME
(10:30) THE WORD IN SONG For the Beauty of the Earth John Rutter
LISTENING PRAYER
God of love, we give thanks for our unity in you. In one Spirit, by your one grace, we worship, we pray, and we listen for your Word. Make us one in your love, one in Christ, and one in service to the world, through your one Spirit. Amen.
FIRST READING Acts 8.26-40
[The Spirit leads Phillip to an Ethiopian official (an African eunuch— a non-gender conforming person of color!) who is struggling to understand scripture. Phillip tells him about Jesus. The man asks to be baptized, and Phillip baptizes him. Philip then magically disappears, and the both go their separate ways.]
Then an angel of God said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.”
So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.” The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus.
As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
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GOSPEL John 15.1-8
[ Jesus says, “I am the vine; you are the branches.” We are not separate from him, but a part of him, and therefore part of one another, and we bear the fruit of his love in our own lives.]
Jesus said: ”I am the true vine, and my Abba God is the vinegrower. God removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit God prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.
I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, but apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. God is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”
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SERMON We’re all branches of one vine
SONG Vine and Branches Steve G-H
You are the vine and we are your branches,
one with your life and rooted in your heart.
Flowing with grace, with life you fill us,
strengthened that nothing can break us apart.
You are the vine and we are your branches.
Deep in our hearts your life is flowing through.
Rooted in you, we grow and flourish.
You live within us, and we live in you.
You are the vine and we are your branches.
One common blood flows through all of our veins.
We all are part of one another.
We all are branches of one living vine.
You are the vine and we are your branches,
flowing with power greater than our own,
bearing your fruit to all Creation,
till all the seeds of your love have been sown.
* AFFIRMATION OF FAITH from 1 John 4.7-21
[God is love. God loves us, and when we live in God, then we love others. Love is the strongest force; it overcomes fear. So we are free to love others.]
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God.
Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
You can’t know God without being loving, because love is God.
God’s love was revealed among us in this way:
God sent God’s Only Begotten into the world
so that we might live through Christ.
In this is love, not that we loved God
but that God loved us
and sent the Only Begotten to heal our sin.
Since God loves us so much, we also love one another.
No one has ever seen God;
if we love one another, God lives in us, and God’s love is perfected in us.
By this we know that we abide in God and God in us:
because God has given us of God’s Spirit.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear;
for fear has to do with coercion,
and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.
Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars;
for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen,
cannot love God whom they have not seen.
We love because God first loved us.
The commandment we have from God is this:
we who love God must love our brothers and sisters also.
* SONG We Are One In Christ Jesus Black hymnal #2229
(10:30) THE WORD IN SONG A Simple Song Leonard Bernstein (J Woolcock)
THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
(8:15) PRAYER SONG I Surrender All Arr. Sandra Eithun (Ringtones)
[Anyone who wishes may share a prayer concern 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: Jacob’s Ladder. Kevin McChesney (Ringtones)
10:30: Allegro Spiritoso, Greg Underwood (Bells of St. Matthew’s)
* OFFERING SONG Make Us One Black hymnal #2224
* 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. We are one in your spirit, and one in service to the world. May your grace flow through us that we may bear the fruit of your love in this world, for the sake of the coming of your Realm, in the name of Christ. Amen.
THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD
* SONG You Are the Seed Blue hymnal #583
* 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 Lord Jesus Christ, Be Present Now Georg Böhm
[During the postlude there are people ready to pray with you at the candles in the corners.]
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Pruning
I am the true vine, and God is the vinegrower.
God removes every branch in me that bears no fruit.
Every branch that bears fruit
God prunes to make it bear more fruit.
—John 15.1-2
Even the greatest tree under which we find shelter can fail us. They do not live forever.
In times of death, loss or betrayal, times when what was fruitful is barren, when what was strong has withered, when what once blossomed is hard and dry, when what was generous and nourishing is thorny and hurtful, the vinegrower, lover of life and joy, tender of kindness and blessing, weeps. She does not punish, but gently tends. Even if most of the tree is dead, it is pruned to save what is living, what is kind and hopeful and giving. But how can he not weep, as he cuts off limbs of his own flesh?
The vinedresser tends each branch within you, the part in each of us that is unloving, ungiving, whatever is attached to what is dead. The death of what is unkind in us is the pruning by which the resurrection of love may come forth, small and green.
In a dying vine even the smallest tender shoot is the deepest hope of the vinegrower.