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Wherever and whenever we gather, we are the body of Christ… WE’RE GLAD YOU ARE HERE! Settle in and engage the spirit. Here is some helpful information-
Help us support our ministry - Give here Fifth Sunday of Easter May 18th, 2025 Building Community… WELCOME OPENING MEDITATION “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.” ― Elie Wiesel PRELUDE & PASSING OF THE PEACE Veni Creator Spiritus Arr. Phil Lehenbauer CALL TO WORSHIP ONE: More than kind or charitable, or even humane this Love that calls us takes on flesh and bone and vulnerability MANY: We gather here to practice Love’s solidarity, rising up in the valleys and shadows of death. ONE: More than nice, or agreeable, or even polite this Love that forms us risks siding with the last and the least MANY: We come together to become Love’s liberation building collective power to resist that which is not love. ONE: More than tolerant or accepting, or even affirming this Love that guides us opens to new stories of harm and new visions of flourishing MANY: We join together to embody Love’s accountability laying down our defenses to grow beyond the edges of our knowing. ONE: More than peaceful or unifying, or even friendly this Love that compels us dares to imagine beyond empire MANY: We worship to remember Love’s future praying, praising, and claiming until Love’s kindom comes. HYMN “Enter in the Realm of God” #615 PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION ONE: Love beyond all knowing, we recognize how deeply limited our understanding of love is, how often we fail to recognize Love’s true practice and meaning, how much the powers of this world co-opt the idea of “love” for death-dealing purposes. MANY: O God, may our hearts open to see your abundant forgiveness. ONE: In the silence of our hearts, let us call to awareness the misunderstandings of love that have shaped us as individuals. For the ways we have wounded your Love, MANY: O God, may our hearts open to see your abundant forgiveness. ONE: In the presence of God and each other, let us name the misunderstandings of love that shape us as a community. For the ways we have wounded your Love, MANY: O God, may our hearts open to see your abundant forgiveness. WORDS OF ASSURANCE ONE: Let your spirit receive this assurance: in all these things we are more than forgiven through the One who loved us. MANY: Therefore, we are convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Redeemer. Thanks be to God. HYMN “Deep Peace” v. 1 & 2 SPP #201 MESSAGE FOR YOUNGER DISCIPLES (Kids, families, those young at heart, are encouraged to come forward to the steps to spend a few minutes together.) HYMN “Deep Peace” v. 3 SPP #201 Opening to the Spirit’s Call… PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE We seek health and healing with…Gary Wert-treatment for recurring cancer; Nancy Bingaman-chemo starting 5/14 after port placement, Dottie Harpel We continue to pray with… Gary Cole; Peggy Anderson; Jenny Twyman– recovery from surgery; Jeanne; Evan-medical; Brad and friend-recovering from surgery; Dan Brouse-meds working for atrial fibrillation, ongoing bladder cancer; Yvonne-medical; Shirley Welch-recovery from shingles; Denice-medical-especially heart; Kelly; Bruce and Cindy; David Lever; Christine; Mary Lohr; Bob Brandis; Carol Ann Simpson; Jan Mindish; Becki; Pam; Deb; Debbie Husser; Hunter Leisey; John, Brad & Amy Epps; Tom Ordille; Sue Mannello; Bryce and family; and Daulton Snowden We pray for… Katy Wilson, the Hesch Family, all those who serve in the armed forces, compassion and advocates for love, veterans and families We celebrate with joy...Katie Hoover-back to school, less pain, still a long recovery; John Hoover-eye surgery went well, LORD’S PRAYER Many: Our Creator/Mother/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. ANNOUNCING MISSIONS & MINISTRY CENTERING ON OUR GENEROSITY When Jesus said, just as I have loved you, you should also love one another, I think he meant, Love like let the one who is without sin, cast the first stone. Love like let the children come to me. Love like 5000 people fed by bits and pieces and collective care. Love like tables turned and injustice resisted. Love like feet washed and meals shared. This is the love we are called to continue embodying in our world. Through our offerings, let us love as Jesus loves us. MUSICAL REFLECTION ON OUR GIFTS Prelude on “POTSDAM” Tis Good Lord To Be Here Arr. Phil Lehenbauer SUNG RESPONSE (Tune #780) Praise God from whom all blessings flow Praise God all creatures here below Praise God for all that love has done Creator Christ and Spirit, One. PRAYER OF DEDICATION MANY: Let Love be our offering. Let Love be our giving. Let Love be our dedication. Let Love be our calling. Let Love be our thanksgiving. Let Love be our prayer. Amen. HYMN “Spirit of the Living God” #283 Discerning through Story… FIRST READING Acts 11:1-18 Now the apostles and the brothers and sisters who were in Judea heard that the gentiles had also accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners, and it came close to me. As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’ But I replied, ‘By no means, Lord, for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ But a second time the voice answered from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’ This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.’ And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?” When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, “Then God has given even to the gentiles the repentance that leads to life.” SECOND READING Revelation 21:1-6 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. God will dwell with them; they will be God’s peoples, and God will be with them and be their God; will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Then said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. GOSPEL John 13:31-35 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” SERMON Visions Beyond Pastor Beth Rogers Going Forth with God’s Love! CLOSING HYMN “Unite and Join Your Cheerful Songs” #617 V. 1,2,4 BENEDICTION People of Love, as you go from this place, let love be what blesses you, love that is not nice or polite, but knows how to sing in the midst of despair, how to rise up in the midst of death, how to hold fast in the midst of chaos. Let love be the blessing you share, love that is not tolerant or charitable but knows how to care, when all seems hopeless. How to listen when others are silenced. How to come alongside when no one else will. People of Love, let love be your blessing, this day and every day until glory comes. POSTLUDE Festive Fanfare on “Italian Hymn" Arr. Phil Lehenbauer Today In Worship: Liturgist: Paul Whitman Tech: Elspeth Williams Greeters/Ushers: Carole Hoover, Jim Landvater Acolyte: Tylah Peterson The bulletin is in honor of the 57th wedding anniversary of Carl & Mary Seibert. EMBODIED PRACTICE try this out today, or this week! As Jesus-followers, we lean heavily on what some would call a “love ethic” as the root of all of our work for justice. We are quick to claim our efforts to follow Jesus’ commandment to love one another as the root of why we do what we do in the struggle for justice. But rarely do we speak or think about the real, complex, multifaceted ways that love manifests itself in our real lives and communities. We don’t often challenge ourselves to wonder about and be accountable to what love means concretely in practice. In honor of Mental Health Sunday, this week we offer one way that loving one another manifests in congregational organizing is in our mutual practices of and commitments to disability justice. As a practice of Love, today we are invited simply to notice how our worship space and activities embody love for particular bodies and ways of being in the world. In stillness, take some time to consider these questions: -Whose bodies, minds, and spirits do your pews or chairs love? -Whose bodies, minds, and spirits do your pulpit or platform love? -Whose bodies, minds, and spirits do your hymnals or song lyrics love? -Whose bodies, minds, and spirits do your communion practices or prayers love? -Whose bodies, minds, and spirits does your sanctuary love? With each noticing, offer a tender touch or a kind thought to a part of your body that is unloved in the world, in your community, in your sanctuary, in your own spirit. Take a moment to imagine what a more expansively loving pew, pulpit, hymnal, prayer, sanctuary, etc. might be. ANNOUNCEMENTS Chad Meal Night has been moved to Friday May 30th! Our guest chefs were double booked! Change your calendar, clear your calendar and come join us for this night of fun fellowship and food! Banned Book Group has been moved, email Pastor Beth if you want to know when.  
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