[Please be in a spirit of worship while you are on the phone call. Your phone microphone is very sensitive; what seems quiet in the sanctuary sounds more like a like a thunderstorm or police siren on the phone. Your phone or computer microphone can pick up a whisper or paper shuffling from five feet away.]
Prelude
Announcements
Call to Worship
Opening Prayer
Lord’s Prayer
Our 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
Opening Hymn Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
Call to Confession
Prayer of Confession (unison)
God of love, we forget the beginning of the story—that we were made from love, to be love, to give love. Instead of rooting our narrative in the goodness refrain of creation, we skip ahead and find our worth at the fall, with Cain and Abel, lost in the wilderness. We forget that first there was you, and you are love. We forget that out of that love you created us. We forget that from the very first day, you loved first. We forget, because a love like that doesn’t make sense to us. Forgive our low self-esteem. Forgive our resistance to love ourselves. Forgive our hesitation to trust that even we could be made good. And forgive our tendency to pass that doubt on—from generation to generation. Write a new beginning for us that roots our confidence in your unrelenting love. With hope we pray, again and again. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
Gloria Patri
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, Amen.
Passing the Peace of Christ
Prayer for Illumination
Psalm Lesson 1 Corinthians 13
Special Music Though I May Speak (The Gift of Love) Covenant Choir
Gospel Lesson John 3:14-21
Message Congregational Singing
Affirmation of Faith
We believe God is love—unconditional, constant love. We believe this love exists for all, choosing each and every one of us, day after day, again and again and again. We believe that God’s love is like a river. Rivers cannot help but flow toward the sea; God’s love cannot help but move toward us. We are swimming in it. We believe that God loved first. We believe that God breathed life into dust. We believe that God said, “This is good,” and because we believe that God loved first, we strive to build lives that reflect God’s love. May we begin again here. Amen.
Prayers of the People
Musical Response
Stewardship Moment
Prayer of Thanksgiving for our Blessings
Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow; praise Him, all creatures here below; praise Him above, ye heavenly host; praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen
Closing Hymn Jesus Loves Me
Sending
