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Welcome

We are glad you are here!

Prelude

Gratitude

by Edvard Grieg

Call to Worship

One: Every table is filled with the Divine. Whoever the guests, whatever the meal, wherever it may be, so too, is the Divine.

All: Come into the God-light: the Shekinah – God’s glittering presence. Come to the table with your God- light to share and to illumine where the shadows think they hold sway.

Opening Hymn

NCH 198

Lift High the Cross

Refrain:

Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim; Let all adore and praise that sacred name.

Come, Christians, follow where our Savior trod, the Lamb victorious, Christ the Child of God. Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim; Let all adore and praise that sacred name.

Each newborn servant of the Crucified bears on the brow the seal

• f Christ who died.

Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim; Let all adore and praise that sacred name.

O Christ, once lifted

• n the glorious tree,

your death has brought us life eternally. Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim; Let all adore and praise that sacred name

Set up your throne, that earth's despair may cease, beneath the shadow

• f its healing peace.

Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim; Let all adore and praise that sacred name.

So shall our song of triumph ever be: praise to the Crucified for victory. Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim; Let all adore and praise that sacred name.

Please Be Seated

Unison Prayer

We see you, God, in the Light. We see your Glittering Presence, even when light appears to be absent. There is no darkness into which your light does not shine; sometimes all it takes is for us to bring it to where it needs to go. Once we do so – the darkness disperses. Others do not always see the light at first. Let that never make us think that the light is gone.

When our light finds the light in others, which it always does, in that moment, transfigurations

• ccur and your love changes

the world, that is, we, who are your love, change the world with you – one person in light to the

• ther, sharing the Divine Path

together.

Help us to see the light in

• urselves and others;

to share it with others—as you have long called us to do. We trust in you to do the rest.

Assurance of God’s Love

Passing of the Peace

Please Be Seated

First Reading

Alice Walker In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose

Musical Praise

Every Time I Think About Jesus

• arr. L.L.Fleming

Gospel Reading

John 3:14-21 (Inclusive Bible) Adapted

Message for All Gathered

Hymn

NCH 188 Give Me a Clean Heart

Give me a clean heart so I may serve you. God, fix my heart so that I may be used by you. For I'm not worthy of all these blessings. Give me a clean heart and I'll follow you.

Please Be Seated

Prayers for Others and Ourselves

The Lord’s Prayer/ The Prayer of Jesus

Musical Praise

A Blessing

by David N. Childs On a poem by Sara Teasdale (Peace 1917)

Invitation To Give

Offertory

We praise thee, O God,

• ur Redeemer, Creator;

in grateful devotion

• ur tribute we bring.

We lay it before thee, we come and adore thee, We bless thy holy name, glad praises we sing. Amen.

Please Be Seated

Invitation to the Table

Jesus said: I am the bread of life. You who come to me shall not hunger; You who believe in me shall never thirst. In company with all who hunger for spiritual food, we come to this table to know the risen Christ in the sharing of this life-giving bread.

Communion Prayer

God be with you. And also with you. Lift up your hearts. We lift them up to God. Let us give thanks to God Most High. It is right to give God thanks and praise.

Church Covenant

In response to God’s love, we covenant with each other to be faithful to the demands and inspiration of the eternal spirit, revealed in the event

• f Jesus Christ;

to accept and respect each other with love and concern in our worship and witness; to reach out with the courage

• f our convictions in the cause
• f justice, liberation and

equality for all;

In this, we covenant to keep the ultimate promise; “I care, I am with you.”

Sharing of the Elements

Communion Responses

The Bread of Life ~The Cup of Blessing

Please take a piece of bread and move to the cups. Dip your bread and consume it immediately. The cups with ribbons contain wine. The cups without ribbons contain grape juice.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Thank you God, for inviting us to this table remembering your active presence in our lives. We are grateful and continuously thirst for the new and right spirit of this communion with you today, tomorrow and every day. Guide us always as we embrace You and all those who have gone before us. Amen.

Closing Hymn

NCH 190 Beneath the Cross of Jesus

Beneath the cross of Jesus I gladly take my stand, the shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land; A home within the wilderness, a rest upon the way, from the burning of the noontide heat, and the burden of the day.

Upon that cross of Jesus within my mind I see the very dying form of One who suffered there for me; And from my grieving heart with tears two wonders I confess – the wonders of Christ's glorious love and my unworthiness.

I take, O cross, your shadow for my abiding place; I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of Christ's face; Content to let the world go by, to know no gain or loss, my sinful self my only shame, my glory all the cross.

Please Be Seated

Benediction and Sending Forth

Choral Blessing

May the Road

Irish Blessing, arr. James Ahrend

Postlude

Solace

by Scott Joplin

Brief Announcements For the Good of the Congregation

Have a blessed week !