SERVICE FOR THE LORD’S DAY
7th Sunday of Easter
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (USA)
May 16, 2021 Ten Thirty in the morning
Minister: The Reverend Aaron Ochart
Liturgist: Lenny Nelson
Please silence all cell phones.
Face Masks must be worn at all times unless leading worship.
Bold face indicates congregational participation.
GATHERING
WORDS OF WELCOME
MINUTE for MISSION
PRELUDE Prelude in G Minor BWV 558 – attributed to J.S. Bach
ADORATION
CALL TO WORSHIP
Why do you look up toward heaven?
Christ has risen; Christ will come again.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Faithful Deliverer, You have chosen us to receive salvation by faith, not by the works of our hands. Deliver us, then, from the law, and free us from the bondage of sin, so that with our hands we might serve you in purity of joy and response to your goodness, for the sake of Jesus Christ, who is all goodness. Amen.
HYMN 141 “A Hymn of Glory Let Us Sing”
1 A hymn of glory let us sing, New hymns throughout the world shall ring;
By a new way none ever trod Christ takes His place, the throne of God!
3 O risen Christ, ascended Lord, All praise to You let earth accord.
You are, while endless ages run, With Father and with Spirit One.
CALL TO CONFESSION
SILENT CONFESSION
PRAYER OF CONFESSION (unison)
Almighty God, in raising Jesus from the grave, you shattered the power of sin and death. We confess that we remain captive to doubt and fear, bound by the ways that lead to death. We overlook the poor and the hungry, and pass by those who mourn; we are deaf to the cries of the oppressed, and indifferent to calls for peace; we despise the weak, and abuse the earth you made.
Forgive us, God of mercy. Help us to trust your power to change our lives and make us new, that we may know the joy of life abundant given in Jesus Christ, the risen Lord. Amen.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON
GLORIA PATRI 579
PROCLAMATION
FIRST LESSON Isaiah 52:7-12
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices, together they sing for joy; for in plain sight they see the return of the Lord to Zion.
Break forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem; for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.
The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of it, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the Lord.
For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight; for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
MESSAGE FOR THE CHILDREN “Promises”
ANTHEM “How can I keep from singing?”
My life flows on in endless song, above earth’s lamentation.
I hear the clear, though far-off hymn that hails a new creation.
No storm can shake my in most calm while to that Rock I’m clinging.
Since love is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?
Through all the tumult and the strife, I hear that music ringing.
It finds an echo in my soul. How can I keep from singing?
What though my joys and comforts die? I know my Savior liveth.
What though the darkness gather round? Songs in the night He giveth.
No storm can shake my in most calm while to that Rock I’m clinging.
Since love is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?
The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart, a fountain ever springing!
All things are mine since I am His! How can I keep from singing?
No storm can shake my in most calm while to that Rock I’m clinging.
Since love is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?
Second Lesson Acts 1:1-11
In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
The Word of God for the people of God;
Thanks be to God
SERMON “To Boldly Go” The Rev. Aaron Ochart
RESPONSE
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH The Confession of 1967
THE FULFILLMENT OF RECONCILIATION
God’s redeeming work in Jesus Christ embraces the whole of man’s life: social and cultural, economic and political, scientific and technological, individual and corporate. It includes man’s natural environment as exploited and despoiled by sin. It is the will of God that his purpose for human life shall be fulfilled under the rule of Christ and all evil be banished from his creation.
Biblical visions and images of the rule of Christ, such as a heavenly city, a father’s house, a new heaven and earth, a marriage feast, and an unending day culminate in the image of the kingdom. The kingdom represents the triumph of God over all that resists his will and disrupts his creation. Already God’s reign is present as a ferment in the world, stirring hope in men and preparing the world to receive its ultimate judgment and redemption.
With an urgency born of this hope, the church applies itself to present tasks and strives for a better world. It does not identify limited progress with the kingdom of God on earth, nor does it despair in the face of disappointment and defeat. In steadfast hope, the church looks beyond all partial achievement to the final triumph of God.
“Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
PRAYERS of the PEOPLE
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.
HYMN 415 “Come, Labor On”
1 Come, labor on. Who dares stand idle, on the harvest plain
While all around him waves the golden grain?
And to each servant does the Master say,“Go work today.”
2 Come, labor on. Claim the high calling angels cannot share;
To young and old the Gospel gladness bear.
Redeem the time; its hours too swiftly fly.The night draws nigh.
PARTING PRAYER St. Giles Cathedral (1637)
O Lord our God, you are always more ready to bestow your good gifts than we are to seek them. You are more willing to give than we desire or deserve. Help us so to seek that we may truly find, so to ask that we may joyfully receive, so to knock that the door of your mercy may be opened for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
POSTLUDE Flourish by Alan Bullard