Bulletin

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MAY 18 ORDER OF WORSHIP

PRELUDE
“I’ve Got Peace Like a River”

WELCOME

SONG
“Welcome”
by Mark Miller
Let’s walk together for a while and ask where we begin
to build a world where love can grow and hope can enter in
to be the hands of healing and to plant the seed of peace,

Singing welcome, welcome to this place!
You’re invited to come and know God’s grace.
All are welcome, the love of God to share
‘Cause all of us are welcome here. All are welcome in this place.

Let’s talk together of a time when we will share a feast,
where pride and power kneel to serve the lonely and the least,
and joy will set the table as we join our hands to pray,

Singing welcome, welcome to this place!
You’re invited to come and know God’s grace.
All are welcome, the love of God to share

CALL TO WORSHIP *                                             
One: We declare with joy and trust that our world belongs to God.
All: For the fierce love with which God holds us and the rest of creation, we declare our world belongs to God.
One: For the manifold ways the creation reveals God’s glory and draws us closer to God, we declare our world belongs to God.
All: Amidst its present groaning, we declare our world, broken and scarred, still belongs to God.
One: As God’s people, participating now in your ongoing work of renewal and longing for the day when you will bring that work to completion, we declare our world belongs to God.
All: Our world belongs to you, O God.

OPENING SONG *
“All Creatures of Our God and King” (#15, verses 1-3, 6)
All creatures of our God and King,
lift up your voice and with us sing,
Alleluia! Alleluia!
O brother sun with golden beam,
O sister moon with silver gleam,
sing praises! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

O brother wind with clouds and rain,
you nurture gifts of fruit and grain.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
O sister water, flowing clear,
make music for your Lord to hear.
Sing praises! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

O brother fire, so warm and bright,
chase off the shadows of the night.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Dear mother earth, who day by day
unfolds such blessings on our way,
sing praises! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

O sisters, brothers, take your part,
and worship God with humble heart.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
All creatures, bless the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, Three in One!
Sing praises! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

CALL TO CONFESSION *
One: God delights in creation, its color and diversity; yet we have misused the earth and plundered its resources for our own selfish ends.
All: God brought order out of chaos, light in darkness, good out of evil, but we have preferred darkness in words and deeds which dishonor God’s holy name.
One: God has showered us with blessings, but we have been grudging towards others and lacking in generosity in word and deed. So let us come before God confessing our sins, first together and then in silence.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION *
One: God of Justice, you instructed your people to treat your world with respect and care. 
All: We confess that we have often taken your creation for granted; we have taken what we needed, without respecting the balance of nature; we have pursued a lifestyle which our fragile world cannot sustain. God of Grace, forgive us our greed and teach us restraint.
One: God of the poor, you instructed your people to share your natural resources with those in need.
All: We confess that we have taken much more than our fair share of this beautiful world. We have allowed our wealth and power to strip the earth bare, leaving nothing for the poor; we have enjoyed cheap goods and convenient lifestyles, made possible by the exploitation of those in need; God of Grace, forgive us our blindness and open our eyes.
One: God of Love, you instructed your people to treat every human being with equal value.
All: We confess that we have let greed blind us to the needs of other human beings. We have treated your good earth as a commodity, rather than as the home we share. We have let apathy and consumerism blind us to our God-given responsibilities. God of Grace, forgive us and our complacency and stir us to action. 

WORDS OF FORGIVENESS *
One: “…with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.” God of Grace, we thank you for the gift of forgiveness, won for us by your son’s death on the cross.  Through him, we gladly claim our glorious freedom and look forward to the day when all creation will share it with us. Friends, believe the good news of the gospel. 
All: We are loved, we are forgiven, we are made new.
One: Thanks be to God. Alleluia! Amen

GLORIA *
Glory to God, whose goodness shines on me,
and to the Son, whose grace has pardoned me,
and to the Spirit, whose love has set me free.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. Amen.
World without end, without end. Amen.
World without end, without end. Amen.
World without end, without end. Amen.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. Amen.

OFFERING

DOXOLOGY
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
praise him, all creatures here below;
praise him above, ye heavenly host;
praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Amen.

CHILDREN’S TIME

SONG
“Creation Will Be At Peace”

SCRIPTURE (Isaiah 55:1–3)

SERMON

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
One: God of creation, the earth is yours with all its beauty and goodness its richness and overflowing provision. We see your hand in all of creation; on the earth we see and feel your love and care for us;
All: Your earth feeds us and clothes us. Lord, forgive our greed and selfish use of your gifts.  May we learn to share the earth, to work it, and to care for every part of it.  So that all who live now and in the future may enjoy its care for us.
One: Help us to be at one with the earth,
All: So that we know it as home.
One: Help us to be reconciled to other living creatures,
All: so that we know them as neighbors.
One: Help us to be at peace with each other
All: so that we may live together in harmony.
One: Just as you hold the whole world in your hands, hold us too. Bless us with strength. Fill us with love and inspire us to care for all that is. 
All: Show us how we can turn the tide and ease the suffering, and live on earth as you have planned. 
One: We pray all these things in the name of your son Jesus Christ who taught us to pray, saying… 

LORD’S PRAYER
All: 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.

CLOSING SONG
“God of the Fertile Fields” (#714)
God of the fertile fields,
shaper of earth that yields
our daily bread:
forth from your bounteous hand
come gifts your love has planned,
that all in every land
be clothed and fed.

We would be stewards true,
holding in trust from you
all that you give;
help us in love to share,
teach us like you to care
for people everywhere,
that all may live.

As grows the hidden seed
to fruit that serves our need,
so your reign grows.
Let all our toil be used,
no gift of yours abused,
no humble task refused
your love bestows.

God of the countryside,
dear to the Christ who died
to make us one:
we pledge our lives anew
in faithful love to you.
Guide all we say and do.
Your will be done.

CLOSING MESSAGE *
One: Go and be good neighbors to those who share our world today and those who will inherit our world in generations to come. 
All: May we be wise and faithful stewards of God’s creation, living lightly on the Earth so that it continues to blossom and flourish now and in the future.
One: May the Spirit of God, who is above all and in all and through all, fill you with the knowledge of God’s presence in Earth and the pulsing of Christ within you. Go in peace! Serving Christ and loving Earth!

*Rise in body or spirit