Sunday Worship Service
May 29, 2022 – 10:30am
We are RECEIVED as the Beloved of God
The actual worship service begins 15 minutes into the recordings.
WELCOME
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: Holy God, heavenly Mother, we gather this morning with broken hearts.
All: Please comfort all who are grieving the tragedy in Uvalde Texas.
Leader: Risen Christ, loving brother, we want to be just, loving, and humble in the midst of all the challenges in our lives and in our world.
All: Please give us the courage to follow your way
Leader: Holy Spirit, confident sister, you have walked with us and believed in us. We come to worship you.
All: Please help us to fully give you our hearts.
Leader: Eternal God, Holy Trinity, family of grace, we gather as a family of faith to find strength.
All: Please help us to weave our stories together so that our lives and the world will be changed by Your love. Alleluia!
OPENING SONG – Lord, Listen to Your Children Praying
OPENING PRAYER
SONG – Weave Us Together
We are many textures, we are many colors, each one different from the other.
But we are entwined with one another in one great tapestry. Refrain:
Weave, weave, weave us together, weave us together, in unity and love.
Weave, weave, weave us together, weave us together, together in love.
We are diff’rent instruments, playing our own melodies,
each one tuning to a diff’rent key. But we are all playing in harmony,
in one great symphony. (refrain)
A moment ago, we did not know our unity, only diversity,
now the Christ in me greets the Christ in thee, in one great family. (refrain)
CHILDREN’S TIME WITH A MESSAGE FOR ALL AGES
ANTHEM – Amazing Grace
1 Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.
2 ‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved;
how precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.
4 The Lord has promised good to me, his word my hope secures;
he will my shield and portion be, as long as life endures.
We are TRANSFORMED by the Word of God
SCRIPTURE READING
Colossians 3:12-17
12-14 So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it. 15-17 Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.
Ephesians 3:16-19
I pray that, according to the riches of God’s glory, He may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through her Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to her who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Ephesians 2:10
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
GOOD NEWS – Weaving a Thread of Love in Creation’s Tapestry
Today we are going to listen for how is God calling us and our community of faith to weave a thread in our world that is grounded in the Love of Christ. How are we called to help each other on the journey of life so that the community around us sees and knows the heartbeat of Love in the tapestry that is Saint Matthew’s?
SONG – Here I Am Lord – UM Hymnal (blue book) # 593
RESPONSE TO GOD’S GRACE (OFFERING)
Pastor: God wants our love more than God wants our offerings; God cares about our hearts not the amounts of our offerings. (Hosea 6:6)
All: As we count all the blessings God has already given to us, we cheerfully give our offerings to God, the Provider, with grateful hearts. Amen! (2 Corinthians 9:7).
INTERCESSORY PRAYERS
THE LORD’S PRAYER – UM Hymnal (blue book) # 895
SHARING THE PEACE OF CHRIST
We are SENT by the power of God
LIFE OF ST. MATTHEW’S COMMUNITY
BLESSING AND SENDING
May the grace and peace of Christ be with you, my friends.
Go and share the love of God, love that never ends.
CLOSING SONG – Song of Hope – The Faith We Sing (black book) # 2186