McPherson Church of the Brethren | Worship Bulletin: 4/28/24

25 Apr Worship Bulletin: 4/28/24

Posted at 09:27h in Worship Bulletin by Joanna Davidson Smith

Welcome to Worship at the McPherson Church of the Brethren
We invite your active participation in the life of this congregation, as together we continue to grow in grace and seek justice for God’s creation.

Sunday, April 28, 2024 @ 10:15 a.m.

Video Welcome

Sharing Time | Joys & Concerns | Jean Hendricks

♫Centering Music | “Sortie in D” | Cesar Franck
Ellen Gilbert, organ

Responsive Opening Prayer
Holy God, you are our refuge and our strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble.
Thank you for your unconditional love and your unfailing hospitality.

We rededicate ourselves to embody your compassion
and we recommit to intentionally demonstrating neighborly love
to your children in need of safe harbor.

Teach us what it looks like to be the perfect host, to build bigger tables in our communities
and to welcome and include those who are different from us.

We pray for all those who have been forced to flee their homes.
Keep them safe. Give them courage, resilience, and tangible hope.
Guide their feet to people and places who will honor them and uphold their dignity.

Work in and through all those with the power to address the situations from which people have fled,
whether war, famine, persecution, or climate change.
Help us to understand what part we can play in alleviating the suffering of our neighbors.

In the face of hostility towards refugees and people seeking asylum, help us
to model kindness, listening and compassion towards all human beings,
even those with whom we disagree..

Keep us strong in our resolve to resist policies and structures that work against your Kin-dom of compassion.
God, we pray that you will continue your work of restoration and hope through us. Amen.

♫Opening Song | “Brothers and Sisters of Mine” | #142

Story for the Children | Barbara Wagoner

Video Invitation to Give
Give online or send a check made payable to “McPherson Church of the Brethren,” 200 N. Carrie, McPherson, KS 67460

♫Musical Offering | “Romanze (excerpt) | Clara Schumann
Jean Hendricks, piano

Scripture Foci | Acts 8:26-40 & I John 4:7-21

Philip and the Ethiopian – Acts 8:26-40
26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip,
“Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”
27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”).
This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. 29 The Spirit told Philip,
“Go to that chariot and stay near it.”
30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. Philip asked,
“Do you understand what you are reading?”
[The Ethiopian eunuch replied,]
31 “How can I, unless someone explains it to me?”
So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 This is the passage of Scripture [from Isaiah] the eunuch was reading:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”
34 The eunuch asked Philip,
“Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?”
35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said,
“Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” [37]
38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.
39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.
40 Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

God’s Love and Ours – 1 John 4:7-21
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9 This is how God showed love among us:
God sent the one and only Son into the world that we might live through [the son].
10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that God loved us and sent [the son] Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and God’s love is made complete in us.
13 This is how we know that we live in God and God in us:
God has given us of the Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that God has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.
16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.
18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because God first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a [sibling] is a liar.
For whoever does not love their [sibling], whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
21 And God has given us this command:
Anyone who loves God must also love their [sibling].

♫Scripture Song | “Would You Harbor Me” | Ysaye M. Barnwell
Worship Choir

[Chorus]
Would you harbor me? Would I harbor you? X2

Would you harbor a Christian, a Muslim, a Jew? A heretic, convict, or spy?
Would you harbor a runaway woman or child? A poet, a prophet, a king?
Would you harbor an exile or a refugee? A person living with AIDS?
Would you harbor a Tubman, a Garret, a Truth? A fugitive or a slave?
Would you harbor a Haitian, Korean, or Czech? A lesbian or a gay?

Message | “Harbor ME?” | Kathryn Whitacre

♫Sending Song | “Called as Partners in Christ’s Service”

Sending Words

♫Sending Music | “Processional” | Handel/Buszin
Ellen Gilbert, organ

Looking Ahead

May     05        National Sr. High Sunday
                        Graduation Celebration Potluck after worship (meat and dessert provided)
           12        Support; Global Women’s Day Project in honor of all mother’s
            19        Pentecost
            26        Camp Colorado Work Weekend – Memorial Weekend
June    02        We Remember;
(honoring the lives of those in our midst who died in the past 12 months)

WCW – This last Wednesday was the final We Connect Wednesday Meal, Mack Kids and (official) Youth Meetings for the Academic Year.
Please extend a GIANT Thank You to the volunteers who made all 30 WCW’s a HUGE Success!!!

Videography and Editing: Eric Goering
Music Coordinator: Ellen Gilbert
Choir Director: Becky Snell
Technical Crew: Eric Goering, Ryan Goering, Shane Kirchner, Steve Lolling & Chris Whitacre
Chancel Decoration Team: Jill Brax, Colleen Gustafson, Michele Johnson, Shane Kirchner & Lara Schoming