May 2, 2021 Service

 

 

PETALUMA UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

 

A CELEBRATION OF NEW LIFE!

May 2, 2021

The Order of Service

The Fifth Sunday in Easter 

https://petalumaumc.org

 

PRELUDE: “Bread for the World” Marilyn Lee, Organist

 

GREETING:  Pastor Schuyler Rhodes

                                                           

CALL TO WORSHIP: Charlotte Peterson

Every once in a while it is a good thing to go to the core of what it’s all about. For us, the core is love.   It is deep, biding love lived out in the power of the Holy Spirit as we build Christian community and give our lives to love.  In this hour we come to grips with this core.  In this moment we receive and share this love.   Come, let us love God and one another as we enter into a spirit of worship.

 

HYMN: “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” UMH 5 played by Marilyn Lee

1 Love divine, all loves excelling, 
joy of heav’n, to earth come down,
fix in us thy humble dwelling, 
all thy faithful mercies crown.
Jesus, thou art all compassion, 
pure, unbounded love thou art.
Visit us with thy salvation;
enter ev'ry trembling heart.

2 Breathe, O breathe thy loving Spirit
into ev’ry troubled breast.
Let us all in thee inherit, 
let us find the promised rest.
Take away the love of sinning; 
Alpha and Omega be.
End of faith, as its beginning, 
set our hearts at liberty.

 

CALL TO CONFESSION: Nora Tallent

 

PRAYER OF CONFESSION: Charlotte Peterson          

Gracious and marvelous God, we come to prayer in this moment, mindful of our tendancy to wander from you.  We gather in the Spirit deeply aware of the many distractions that make it difficult to focus on the love you offer; the love that you are.  Forgive us, we pray, for the distance we create.  Have mercy on us when we succumb to anger and cynicism.   Accompany us, we pray, on the path back to you and help us to connect fully with you and with one another as we strive to follow the way of love, the way of Jesus.  It’s in his name we pray, AMEN.                                                                                                                    

 

ASSURANCE OF PARDON: Rob Bickmore

 

SCRIPTURE READINGS:

Psalm 22:25-31   read by Nora Tallent

 

1st John 4:7-21    read by Charlotte Peterson;

                                           

SERMON: “The Bottom Line”  Pastor Schuyler Rhodes

 

PRAYERS OF COMMUNITY:   Pastor Schuyler Rhodes

 

THE LORD’S PRAYER:                                                 

Led in English by Rob Bickmore

Led in Fijian by Vacatawa Sekuri Yadraka

 

HOLY COMMUNION:  Pastor Schuyler Rhodes

 

THE OFFERING OF OUR GIFTS AND TITHES: Pastor Schuyler Rhodes

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OFFERTORY:  “My Lord, What a Morning” played by Marilyn Lee                     

                                

PRAYER OF DEDICATION AND COMMITMENT: Pastor Schuyler Rhodes

 

THE BENEDICTION:  Pastor Schuyler Rhodes

 

THE POSTLUDE: “The Heavens are Telling” played by  Marilyn Lee