A Gathering in Worship Offered by the People of the Church of Christ, Union
10:30 am Fourth Sunday of Lent
Meditation
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. . . . You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil…”~Psalm 23
From There to Here: We Gather
Prelude
Welcome
Song Show Us How to Love v.1 please join in singing! Union Church Choir
Hearts open, minds awake, change us now for heaven’s sake. Leave us not alone in hatred’s wake. Show us how to love. Show us how to love. Show us how, show us how to love.
Call to Worship
Song Show Us How to Love v. 2 please join in singing! Union Church Choir
Eyes open, shocked awake, much to learn from our mistakes. Draw us closer in our heartache. Show us how to love. Show us how to love. Show us how, show us how to love.
¨ Prayer of Approach & Confession
One: Holy and Merciful One, in this season of discernment we come bringing our deepest longings, and our failed attempts at satisfying them. We have often looked for love, for acceptance and security, in halls of the perceived power of public opinion or unexamined presumptions about others not like us rather than the real power of love and care for one another.
All: We yearn for lives that matter, we desire relationships that thrive, we want less regret.
One: At times we fail to see that you have already given us what really matters: your love and acceptance. You provide opportunities all around us to make a difference in the lives of others. You give us a fresh start each day, inviting us to do better. In this silence, we bring to you our pleas for openness to a different way of living.
Song Love Us Into Fullness v. 1 please join in singing
¨ Words of Assurance
One: My friends, be assured by the Psalmist who says that “the Lord is our shepherd… whose goodness and mercy follows us all the days of our lives.”
All: We open our hearts, our minds, our souls, our vision to the ways of love created by God, embodied in Jesus, and already moving in us by the Spirit. We are forgiven, loved, and freed! Amen!
¨ Passing the Peace of Christ
All who come to this sanctuary are welcome companions on the journey of faith. Please turn to those nearest you and greet them with words of peace.
Hymn #252 Black Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us Bradbury
1. Savior, like a shepherd lead us;
much we need your tender care.
In your pleasant pastures feed us,
for our use your fold prepare.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
you have bought us: yours we are.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
you have bought us: yours we are.
2. We are yours; in love befriend us,
be the guardian of our way;
keep your flock, from sin defend us,
seek us when we go astray.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
hear your children when we pray.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
hear your children when we pray.
3. Let us always seek your favor,
let us always do your will;
Jesus Christ our only Savior,
with your love our spirits fill.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
you have loved us; love us still.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
you have loved us; love us still.
Word and Worship
Video Reflection “More Love”
Song Love Us into Fullness v. 2
Love us into fullness, hold us in your care, cheer us with your presence here and everywhere.
Sung Psalm 23, p. 633
The psalms were originally musical compositions. During Lent we will pray the psalms in musical form. Rev. Kent will lead. You are invited to sing the response when invited, at the “R” if using the hymnal.
Children’s Moment as the children return to their seats we sing
May God’s presence guard, protect and guide you. God bless you, God bless you. Our savior’s loving arms be ever ’round you. God bless you, God bless you.
Special Music Arise, My Soul, Arise Dan Forrest Union Church Choir & Orchestra
Arise, my soul, arise, shake off thy guilty fears: The bleeding Sacrifice in my behalf appears: Before the Throne, my Surety stands. My name is written on His hands. Five bleeding wounds He bears, received on Calvary, they pour effectual prayers, they strongly plead for me: “Forgive him, O, forgive,” they cry, “nor let that ransomed sinner die.” My God is reconciled, His voice I hear, He owns His child, I can no longer fear, with confidence I now draw nigh, and “Abba, Father,” cry. Arise, my soul, arise.
Scripture Lesson John 9:1-41
As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see.
The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?”
He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight.”
They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.” They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.”
Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And they were divided.
So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.”
The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” His parents answered, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.”
He answered, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”
They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?”
Then they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.”
The man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?” And they drove him out.
Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.”
Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.”
He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him.
Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.”
Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?”
Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”
~ New Revised Standard Version: U.E.
Sermon Look for the Shepherd Rev. Kent Gilbert
Song Love Us Into Fullness v. 3
Love us into fullness and we shall be strong; Jesus, walk beside us, fill our hearts with song.
Living Prayer
Call to Prayer
Ringing of the Peace Bell
The Union Church Peace Bell was created by Jeff Enge in honor of Union Church member Carl Eschbach (1904-1998). A twin bell hangs in Berea’s sister province in Japan and is also rung in the hope of peace for all nations.
Prayers of the Community and Kyrie Music: Dinah Riendorf, 1987
In this season of Lent, we come together in prayer with the beautiful chant of “Kyrie Eleison,” meaning “God, have mercy on us,” and “Christe Eleison,” meaning “Christ have mercy.” We sing this as a response to each intercession, prayerfully remembering that God’s mercy is a gift of love, freely given to us.
Prayer
Loving Creator, we ask for the power of love found in deep care and attention to matters of the world. Show us how to love like a shepherd, offering respite as we are able, without judgement of those who need love the most. We pray this day for the peoples of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania as we pray for each country over the year. We lift those who are rebuilding from the rubble of natural disaster and those caught in the grip of war and violence. Shepherd and shield them, we pray…… God have mercy. We lift up this world to you with our love:
All: Kyrie Eleison (please sing)
Prayer
Loving Sovereign, we ask for the power of love found in deep care and attention to matters in our communities. Open our hearts to our common humanity so that we might build up, not break down. We pray this day for those who have been told they are “less than,” who are being cut from the flock of your love, and who are being offered like lambs to the slaughter for the sake of greed, or power, or hate. Protect them, find them, gather us all in to the fold of a better way. There is better out there than what they are getting. Help us all get better: God have mercy.
All: Christe Eleison (please sing)
Prayer
Lover of Our Souls, we ask for the power of love found in deep care and attention to matters in our own hearts. Open our eyes and help us see your invitation to more abundant life and more abundant love in this world and in our communities. In our work may we preach a gospel of love with only our loving actions. In our families, we pray for the healing of torn bodies, torn souls, ragged hearts. Be with those who suffering in body and those who suffer mental and spiritual illness of all kinds. God have mercy. We open ourselves to your love:
All: Kyrie Eleison (please sing)
Our Lord’s Prayer
We see how Jesus set the pattern of love as shepherding and gathering and healing, and so, as he taught us to pray, we reach to you as:
All: Our Maker, Our Mother, and 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 sins as we forgive those who sin 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.
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Offering Music
From Here to There: We Depart
Community Connections
Announcements
We share opportunities for Beloved Community and ways to serve.
Lighting the Justice Candle to Lead us Forth
Dora Rodriguez is an advocate and activist for migrants’ rights. Dora is a survivor of the 1980 tragedy that took place in the Organ Pipe National Monument, Arizona.
A group of Salvadorans were fleeing the death squads and civil war in their home country of El Salvador. They were attempting to reach safety in the US by crossing the desert; 13 of them died (including 3 minors). Dora barely survived and became one of the first people assisted by the sanctuary movement in Tucson, AZ.
Dora’s mission is to bring awareness to all about the truth of the brutal desert and what migrants face. Through the telling of her own journey, as well as her day-to-day experiences while volunteering at the Southwest border towns, Dora sheds light on current immigration issues. Today she is the Director of the non-profit organization Salvavision, an organization that provides aid and support to migrants and those who have been deported. She is also an active member of the Tucson Samaritans.
¨ Hymn The Christ, Who Gave the Blind Man Sight Faustini
Reprinted with permission using OneLicense #A-723786
Partnership and Purpose
Today presents an opportunity to covenant together! All who would like to are welcome to join the church family – you will be received in joy.
Questions of the Congregation and New Members
¨ Covenant of Welcome
And we, the members and faithful friends of this church, renewing our own covenant to God and to each other, do now heartily welcome you to our fellowship, promising to watch over you in love, and praying that you, and we, may be true witnesses for Christ, a light in the world, and continue to increase in usefulness and joy in his service.
¨ Benediction
Music for Departure
During Lent we depart to serve without a postlude as a kind of “fasting” from our regular routine. Please join for fellowship in the aisles or downstairs where coffee, tea, and light refreshments await.
Especially in Our Prayers
¨ Each week we join millions of Christians who pray for one another through the ecumenical prayer cycle and, locally, the Berea Ministerial Association’s prayer cycle (Link to World Council of Churches Ecumenical Prayer cycle. (union-church.org/ministries/prayer/). Let us hold the people of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; and our brothers & sisters at the First Church of the Nazarene in our hearts, and pray for them. Please hold these concerns in your prayers, today and throughout the week.
¨ Prayers for all the people of Ukraine for their safety and sovereignty. Prayers also that the government of Russia will turn to reason & respect for their own peoples’ lives as well as for Ukrainian families.
¨ All those seeking a new and just society and those fearful that they will be supplanted, may God open their hearts and include them in grace.
¨ For the survivors of the earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria that help will arrive and that lives may be spared. Hold them in their grief and empower all those who can help to lift their hearts to the aid needed.
¨ Ally Nurre’s sister hospitalized in Scotland.
¨ Sharona Nelson, recovering from shoulder and arm surgery.
¨ Rita Barlow
¨ JoAnn Russell, Reda Hutton’s aunt, facing several medical challenges.
¨ Our church family members in nursing homes or who are homebound: Jan Hamilton, Doug Hindman, Betsy Hoefer, Dorie Hubbard, Loyal Jones, Lois Morgan, Cheryl Payne, Alva Peloquin, Laura Robie, Betty Wray, Sally Zimmerman
¨ Patsy Boyce, sister-in-law of Bob and Jean Boyce, undergoing chemotherapy.
¨ Jan Hamilton, recovering at the Terrace Nursing home.
“Jane Stephenson, recovering at Cardinal Hill
¨ Rick & BJ Godby, who have relocated to Vidalia, GA to care for BJ’s aging father.
¨ Patty Boyce, at the death of her sister, Caroline Anne Sewell.
Celebrations with Prayers of Joy! Birthdays: March 22 – Carla Gilbert, Jennifer Melton; 24 – Anne Vaughn, Claire Garrett; 26 – Cron Carpenter, Don Cardwell, Cansas Dowell
Anniversaries: March 24 – Steve & Teresa Gowler (50th!)
If we haven’t got your important dates, let us know. We’ll help you get connected in FellowshipOne Go!
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