Order of Worship

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Mother's Day

BOLD indicates congregational SPEAKING participation

GATHERING AS THE BODY OF CHRIST

Prelude

"Who is my mother"

TFWS #2225

  Welcome and Sharing of Announcements

A Time to Make Connections

Introit

 “Piu Lento” (From Op.127) 

by Mauro Giuliani 

Bruce Goody, flutist, and Jonathan Moretz, guitarist 

Call to Worship

Liturgist: Children of God: welcome!

People:  Welcome to this place of love and grace,

Liturgist: Welcome to this place of hope and perseverance.

People: God invites all of us to be a part of the beloved

community,

Liturgist: God invites all of us to share in the good news:

People: We are welcome, just as we are. We are loved, just as

we are.

Liturgist: In gratitude for all of this, let us worship God.

Opening Prayer

Holy God, Risen Christ, we meet you on your way this day, as we hear your story, as we open our hearts and our minds and our souls to receive the word you give to us. Pause with us here a little while, that we will know your presence and your love, and reflect that presence and love to the world. Amen

(Hold Fast to What is Good, Beth Merrill Neel)

Opening Hymn

  “For the Beauty of the Earth”

   UMH #92 (verses 1, 4, 5, & 6)  

Children's Time

Courtney Till

Pastoral Prayer and Apostles' Creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty,

 creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord,

 who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

 born of the virgin Mary,

 suffered under Pontius Pilate,

 was crucified, died, and was buried;

 he descended to the dead.*

 On the third day he rose again;

 he ascended into heaven,

 he is seated at the right hand of the Father,

 and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

 the holy catholic church,

 the communion of saints,

 the forgiveness of sins,

 the resurrection of the body,

 and the life everlasting. Amen. 

Prayer Response

 “Father, I Adore You”    

  TFWS #2038        

ATTENTION TO THE WORD OF GOD

Scripture Readings: Deuteronomy 26:5-10; 1 Corinthians 15: 1-11; Luke 1:1-4 

4 When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the Lord your God, 5 you shall make this response before the Lord your God: ‘A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. 6 When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, 7 we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8 The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; 9 and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.’ You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God.

Now I want you to understand, brothers and sisters, the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, 2 through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain. 3 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures 4 and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I but the grace of God that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you believed.

1 Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative about the events that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, 3 I, too, decided, as one having a grasp of everything from the start,[a] to write a well-ordered account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may have a firm grasp of the words in which you have been instructed.

Liturgist: The word of God for the people of God.

People: Thanks be to God.  

Message

“Apostle’s Creed (I): Beloving Rather Than Believing”   

  Pastor Seok-Hwan 

Special Music

 “Song Without Words” 

  by Felix Mendelssohn    

Bruce Goody, flutist, and Jonathan Moretz, guitarist 

We Respond

Offering

   “O God Beyond All Praising”  

   TFWS #2009

Doxology

 UMH #94

*Offertory Prayer

Endless source of life, pour your blessing upon the gifts we bring before you. Bless our giving in your abundance for the restoration of all people. Through our offering, may those who are weary be energized; may those who feel forgotten find a home. With the joy of your grace filling our hearts, we pray. Amen.

(The Abingdon Worship Annual 2023 (pp. 97-98). 

Closing Hymn

  “Now Thank We All Our God”  

UMH #102

The Blessing and Sending Forth 

Postlude

   “Duchas Frias”  

  by Ignacio Cervantes 

Bruce Goody, flutist, and Jonathan Moretz, guitarist