Good Morning & Welcome to Worship. This Sunday’s Order of Worship is below. You can join us for our 10:10 AM worship on Facebook. Have a blessed day.

March 26, 2023
The 5th Sunday in Lent
Do You Believe This?
Preaching: Audrey Grassman

Ezekiel 37:1-14, Psalm 130, & John 11:1-45
Hymns #454 “Blessed Jesus, at Your Word“
#316 “Breathe On Me, Breath of God“
#538 “Lord, Dismiss Us with Thy Blessing“

Welcome            The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.    And also with you.

Lighting of the Christ Candle
We invite you to a time of silent meditation and companionship with God.

Call to Worship                                        Thom Shuman, on Lectionary Liturgies
Lent calls us to worship together, to tell future generations the good news.
Lent calls us to practice justice, to bring God’s hope to all people.
Lent calls us to faithful living, to trust the One who gives us life.
Lent calls each of us to take up our cross,
to trust the One who bears it with us.
Lent calls us to journey with God.
Let us worship God, who walks with us, this and every day.

Prelude

Invitation to a time of Confession                                     from Joel 2:12
Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning.

Prayer of Confession                                     Ken Sehested, inspired by Psalm 51
Create in me a clean heart, O God.
      In the measure of your abundant mercy, clear the debris from my life.
My failures are before me; they mock and taunt me.
      Even my bones feel the weight of disappointment.
May the splintered places and severed joints rejoice with your healing promise.
      Create in me a sturdy heart, inscribed with your covenant pledge!
Restored to your Presence, I shall again speak of your purpose.
      Make me fearless in the face of threat.

The Kyrie 
Kyrie Eleison, Christe Eleison. Kyrie Eleison, Christe Eleison.
Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.

Assurance of Forgiveness (responsive)                from Jeremiah 24:7
Sisters and brothers, this is the goodness of the News we hear and proclaim: What is needed is not perfection but penitence. Our shortcomings do not finally confine us. Our mistakes are not permanent. Grace is greater than our shame, and mercy will triumph over vengeance.
Friends, believe the good news of the Gospel! In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.

Hymn of Praise (please rise)

Prayer for Illumination (unison)
In this purple-hued season, we need the light of your Word to break forth like the dawn. As we hear your Word of grace and truth, our crumbling foundations may be rebuilt
for generations. By the power of your Holy Spirit, speak to us and do not hold back.
In Christ’s name we ask it. Amen.

Scripture Lessons                  Selah… This is the Word of the Lord.   Thanks be to God.
“Selah” is a word indicating a holy pause from reading. The idea is to leave a space into which the Holy Spirit can enter
in order to inspire our reading (and hearing) of the Word.

Sermon

Affirmation of Faith (unison)                                  Confession of Belhar
We believe that Christ’s work of reconciliation is made manifest in the church as the community of believers who have been reconciled with God and with one another;
We believe that unity is, therefore, both a gift and an obligation for the church of
Jesus Christ; that through the working of God’s Spirit it is a binding force,
yet simultaneously a reality which must be earnestly pursued and sought:
one which the people of God must continually be built up to attain.
We believe that this unity must become visible so that the world may believe
that separation, enmity and hatred between people and groups is sin which Christ
has already conquered, and accordingly that anything which threatens this unity
may have no place in the church and must be resisted.

Hymn of Response

Sharing Joys & Concerns

Lenten Prayers of Intercession                                       prepared and offered by MCPC worshippers
Our Lenten prayers are prompted by the news of the week. Emboldened by the Spirit, you are encouraged to offer prayers of intercession to the Lord inspired by the daily news you encounter throughout the week ahead.

…We pray for the world because God so loves it.
{congregational response} Lord Jesus, have mercy on us.

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.

Our Offerings to God (unison prayer)
On my own, what I have to give doesn’t seem like much in light of all you have given me and in the face of so much need. Put together, what we offer you here in love becomes more, not simply added together, but somehow multiplied in its usefulness. We ask you to bless our offerings; use them and use us as you will, for your Son’s sake. Amen.

Hymn of Sending

God Is Good—All the Time.           God Is Good—All the Time.

Closing & Benediction and the Postlude

Hanging in the Sanctuary in Lent, the Jerusalem Cross reminds us of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem.