Welcome and Call to Worship
This day, like every day, God is here.
Our God is awesome and mysterious, all-powerful and all-loving.
This day, we get another chance to reorient our lives to God, worshipping in spirit and in truth.
Our God is wise and winsome, playing the long game with all of creation.
This day, we lift up our voices in song, ready our hearts for prayer and examine our minds for peace.
Our God is with us, ready to do something new, something unexpected, something lasting.
Let us worship God, tender and just.
Gathering Song
I Saw the Light Hank Williams
Call to Confession
God is gracious and merciful and knows our needs even before they reach our lips. Still, we engage in confession, admitting to God all that rests uneasily in our hearts. Confident of God's love, let us make our confession, first in silent prayers.
Prayer of Confession
Holy God, we will be honest: this season of our collective life is really hard. It is really hard to wear masks, to avoid public gatherings, to spend so much time watching screens. Six months in, we're losing patience and we're losing hope and we're losing the grip on our faith. We're caught between the selfishness of wanting to do whatever we want without regard for others, and wanting to be helpful and generous. Please help us. Help us to lean on you and each other when things get hard and when we get depressed. Remind us every day that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Encourage our hearts, and help us to be your people, to the best of our ability in these strange days. Help us to stay in communion with God, with ourselves, with our neighbors and with all creation. This we pray in the name of Jesus, who is with us always. Amen.
Assurance of God's Pardon
Friends, nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. The only thing that can separate you is the thought that you are separate. You are forgiven. You are loved. You are a glorious work in progress.
Thanks be to God! Amen.
Sharing the Peace of Christ
Our Common Life
Scripture
Matthew 22:34-40
Sermon Rev. Jeff Lehn
"Together While Apart: Communion with Ourselves and Our Neighbors"
Song of Response
Will the Circle Be Unbroken Habershon & Gabriel
Affirmation of Faith
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord: who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen.
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.
Call to Offering
On this day, we are invited to participate in the kingdom emerging all around us. May we offer ourselves to God with glad and generous hearts, freely giving our tithes and offerings to the ministry of this congregation. In lieu of passing the plate, we invite you to give through our church website, our smartphone app, by texting the word "Wilmette" to the number 77977, or by sending a check to the church office. As we gather our gifts together and offer them to God, may we do so in gratitude and praise.
Doxology No. 606 -
Prayer of Dedication
Sending Song
I'll Fly Away Albert E. Brumley
Charge and Benediction
Postlude -
Standing in the Need of Prayer Spiritual
