WELCOME
PRELUDE Chanson – Alexandre Guilmant
arr. by Lani Smith
*CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: Let us worship the God who shares His grace before we deserve or earn it.
People: Let us worship the One who refuses to be confined to places of privilege,
civility, or holiness.
Leader: Let us worship the Lord who is neither deterred by the variety of need nor
by the diversity of the needy.
People: Let us praise the One who watches over all creation.
Leader: Let us serve the God of all nations, who gathers people of all cultures and
languages into one family.
People: Let all that dwell below the skies sing praises to God and worship the
Lord.
*HYMN OF PRAISE From All That Dwell Below the Skies #229
From all that dwell below the skies Let the Creator’s praise arise:
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Let the Redeemer’s name be sung Through every land, in every tongue.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
In every land begin the song, To every land the strains belong:
Alleluia! Alleluia!
In cheerful sound all voices raise And fill the world with joyful praise.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Eternal are Thy mercies, Lord; Eternal truth attends Thy Word:
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thy praise shall sound from shore to shore, Till suns shall rise and set no more.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
PRAYERS OF CONFESSION (Unison)
Merciful God, often it is only when we find ourselves in the depths of despair
that we call out to You. We have dug the trenches of violence and revenge,
but we have not discovered true peace. We have foraged through the mines
of wealth, but we have not found fulfillment. We have explored the canyons of
our culture, but we have not experienced true joy. Forgive us, Lord, and lift us
from the depths of our sin. Heal our brokenness, and lead us by Your light and
love, so that we may rejoice in Your steadfast love revealed in Jesus Christ our
Lord, in whose name we pray. (Silent)
ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS (adapted from 1 John 4:9-10)
Leader: God’s love was revealed among us as God sent the Son into the world so that
we might live through Him.
People: In this is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us and sent the Son
to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Leader: Sisters and brothers in Christ, believe the good news of the gospel:
People: Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven!
SCRIPTURE Micah 7:18-20
Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression
of the remnant of your possession? He does not retain his anger forever,
because he delights in showing clemency. He will again have compassion
upon us; he will tread our iniquities under foot. You will cast all our sins into
the depths of the sea. You will show faithfulness to Jacob and unswerving
loyalty to Abraham, as you have sworn to our ancestors from the days of old.
ANTHEM Come Find Forgiveness and Love – Don Besig and Nancy Price
Composer, Soloist, Director and Clinician, Nancy Price holds a Bachelor of Music
and Master of Music degrees in Music Education from Ithaca College and was a choir
director for a decade. She is involved with the music at Perinton Presbyterian Church
in New York as a guest conductor and soloist as she writes music with her former
teacher, Don Besig. Since 1980, they have collaborated on more than 300 selections
for church and school choirs. Nancy is a member of ASCAP, MENC,
and Sigma Alpha Iota – the same fraternity as Olivia!
SCRIPTURE Psalm 130
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.
2 Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications!
3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?
4 But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.
5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;
6 my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning,
more than those who watch for the morning.
7 O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is great power to redeem.
8 It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.
MEDITATION “Who Could Stand?”
*HYMN OF RESPONSE How Blest Are Those #184
How blest are those whose great sin Has freely been forgiv’n,
Whose guilt is wholly covered Before the sight of heav’n
Blest those to whom our Lord God Will not impute their sin,
Whose guilt has been forgiven, Whose heart is true again.
While I kept guilty silence, My strength was spent with grief.
Your hand was heavy on me; My life found no relief.
But when I made confession And hid no sin from You,
When I revealed my own guilt, You gave me life anew.
So let the godly seek You, When troubling times are near;
No storm or flood shall reach them, Nor cause their hearts to fear.
In You, O Lord, I hide me; You save me from all ill.
And songs of Your salvation My heart with rapture fill.
“I graciously will teach you The way that you should go,
And, with my eye upon you, My counsel you shall know.
But be not then unruly Or slow to understand;
Be not perverse, but willing To heed my wise command.”
The sorrows of the wicked In number shall abound,
But those who trust our own God Great mercy shall surround.
Then in the Lord be joyful, In song lift up your voice;
Be glad in God, you righteous: Rejoice, O saints, rejoice!
*AFFIRMATION OF FAITH adapted from The Confession of Belhar 1
We believe that God has entrusted the church with the message of reconciliation
in and through Jesus Christ; that the church is called to be the salt of the earth
and the light of the world; that the church is called blessed because it is a
peacemaker; that the church is witness both by word and by deed to the new
heaven and the new earth in which righteousness dwells.
We believe that God’s life-giving Word and Spirit has conquered the powers of sin
and death, and therefore also of irreconciliation and hatred, bitterness and enmity;
that God’s lifegiving Word and Spirit will enable the church to live in a new
obedience which can open new possibilities of life for society and the world.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE AND THE LORD’S PRAYER
INVITATION TO GIVE
PRAYER OF DEDICATION
*HYMN Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing #356
Come, thou Fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise,
Teach me some melodious sonnet, Sung by flaming tongues above;
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it, Mount of God’s unchanging love.
Here I raise my Ebenezer, Hither by Thy help I’m come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure, Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger, Wand’ring from the fold of God:
He, to rescue me from danger, Interposed His precious blood.
O to grace how great a debtor Daily I’m constrained to be;
Let that grace now, like a fetter, Bind my wand’ring heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above.
*BENEDICTION
POSTLUDE With a Spirit of Joy – Edward Broughton
You are invited to be seated as we listen to the Postlude which send us forth into the world.
Worship Leaders:
Tom Ulrich, Pastor
Olivia Roberts, Interim Music Director
CCLI #4220373
Footnotes-
1 The Confession of Belhar was written in 1982 as a protest against a heretical theological stance by the white Dutch Reformed Church that used the Bible and the Confessions to justify the harsh and unjust system of Apartheid. In 2016, it was approved by the 222nd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and became the most recent addition to The Book of Confessions.