Welcome! We are so glad you are here!

1. Welcome! We are so glad you are here!

2. Before the worship service begins, please turn off your cell phone. God may be calling YOU, but probably not on your cell phone. Please turn off your cell phone, or put it on vibrate.

3. CALL TO REFLECTION • PRELUDE: • The Light of the World Is Jesus • arr. Mark Hayes

4. What life have you without community? T.S. Eliot, Poet

5. For where there is a community that begins to reflect on your words with religious sincerity, there are you, Christ, the blessed One, humanity’s Liberator. Oscar Romero, Martyred Archbishop of El Salvador

6. Unshared joy is an unlighted candle. Spanish Proverb

7. But words are things, and a small drop of ink, falling like dew upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think. Lord Byron, Poet

8. It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me; it’s the parts that I do understand. Mark Twain

9. We revere the Bible, but we don’t read it. George Gallup, Pollster

10. If you are religious, it is easier to read some pious book than the Bible. The Bible treats you like human life – roughly. Oswald Chambers

11. Unless we form the habit of going to the Bible in bright moments as well as in trouble, we cannot fully respond to its consolations because we lack equilibrium between light and darkness. Helen Keller, acclaimed writer who was blind and deaf

12. The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children. G.K. Chesterton

13. …the most essential engine of child development is not gadgetry or testing, but deep human connection. Erika Christakis, The Importance of Being Little What Preschoolers Really Need from Grown-Ups

14. All our stories are, in the end, one story, one vast story, about being human, being together, being here. Does the story point beyond itself? Does it mean something?

15. What is the truth of this interminable, sprawling story we all of us share?....Either life is holy with meaning or life doesn’t mean a damn thing. You pay your money and you take your choice. Frederick Beuchner

16. PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION

17. HYMN • O Word of God Incarnate • # 327in the Blue Hymnals

18. O Word of God incarnate, O Wisdom from on high,O Truth unchanged, unchanging, O Light of our dark sky:We praise You for the radiance That from the hallowed page,A lantern to our footsteps, Shines on from age to age.

19. The church from You, • dear Savior, Received this gift divine,And still that light is lifted On all the earth to shine.It is the chart and compass That, all life's voyage through,Amid the rocks and quicksands, Still guides, O Christ, to You.

20. O make Your church, dear Savior, A lamp of purest goldTo bear before the nations Your true light, as of old;O teach Your wandering pilgrims By this our path to trace,Till, clouds and darkness ended, We see You face to face.

21. PRAYER OF FORGIVENESS – • (in unison) • Adapted from • St. Thomas á Kempis • (1380-1471)

22. O Lord Jesus, let not your word become a judgment upon us, lest we hear it and do not do it, or believe it and do not obey it.

23. Forgive us when those words become true for us. Lead us to hear and then, to believe and then obey. In your name we pray. Amen.

24. A TIME • OF SILENCE

25. Assurance of Forgiveness

26. Glory be to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost; • As it was in the beginning, • is now, and ever shall be, • world without end. Amen. • As it was in the beginning, • is now, and ever shall be, • world without end. Amen. • Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. • Amen. Amen. Amen.

27. A TIME WITH THE Children

28. Who are you?

29. Who are we? We are the body of Christ.

30. Why are we here? To know God’s love for us.

31. The News • of the • Community

32. Visitors, to First Church! Following worship, please join us on the patio for Juice and coffee.

33. MARCH IS FAITH AND FAMILY MONTH! — Movie Night with The Star — SEE SIGN-UP SHEET INSERT! — The Annual Easter Egg Hunt and Picnic — TICKETS ON SALE TODAY ON THE PATIO. — Easter Mini Cantata! —

34. Daylight Saving Time BEGINS NEXT SUNDAY, March 11th

35. ANTHEM — • Guide My Feet • African-American spiritual • The Anthem is a prayer. • Please, no applause.

38. Thanksgiving for the Word

39. O Word of God incarnate, O Wisdom from on high, O Truth unchanged, unchanging, O Light of our dark sky: We praise You for the radiance That from the hallowed page, A lantern to our footsteps, Shines on from age to age.

40. Scripture Reading— Psalm 119:97-105 (Old Testament, Page 568 in NRSV pew Bible)

41. Oh, how I love your law!    It is my meditation all day long. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is always with me.

42. I have more understanding than all my teachers,    for your decrees are my meditation. I understand more than the aged,    for I keep your precepts.

43. I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word.I do not turn away from your ordinances, for you have taught me.

44. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.

45. Your word is a lamp to my feet    and a light to my path.

47. * This We Believe • (in unison) • John 1:1-4 • NRVS This We Believe (in unison) The Apostles’ Creed I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the -dead; he ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of God the Father; from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sin, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. *Hymn of Commitment - Christ, When for Us You Were Baptized # 70 The News of the Community (Sing 2 times) Holy Spirit, come to us, Kindle in us the fire of your love. Holy Spirit, come to us. Holy Spirit, come to us. Prayers of the People & The Lord's Prayer - (Debtors version) (front of Hymnal, pg. 16) Response - Spirit of the living God, Fall afresh on me; Spirit of the living God, Fall afresh on me; Melt me, mold me, Fill me, use me. Spirit of the living God, Fall afresh on me.

48. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. This We Believe (in unison) The Apostles’ Creed I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the -dead; he ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of God the Father; from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sin, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. *Hymn of Commitment - Christ, When for Us You Were Baptized # 70 The News of the Community (Sing 2 times) Holy Spirit, come to us, Kindle in us the fire of your love. Holy Spirit, come to us. Holy Spirit, come to us. Prayers of the People & The Lord's Prayer - (Debtors version) (front of Hymnal, pg. 16) Response - Spirit of the living God, Fall afresh on me; Spirit of the living God, Fall afresh on me; Melt me, mold me, Fill me, use me. Spirit of the living God, Fall afresh on me.

49. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. • The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. This We Believe (in unison) The Apostles’ Creed I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the -dead; he ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of God the Father; from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sin, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. *Hymn of Commitment - Christ, When for Us You Were Baptized # 70 The News of the Community (Sing 2 times) Holy Spirit, come to us, Kindle in us the fire of your love. Holy Spirit, come to us. Holy Spirit, come to us. Prayers of the People & The Lord's Prayer - (Debtors version) (front of Hymnal, pg. 16) Response - Spirit of the living God, Fall afresh on me; Spirit of the living God, Fall afresh on me; Melt me, mold me, Fill me, use me. Spirit of the living God, Fall afresh on me.

50. HYMN • Break Thou the Bread of Life • #329, in the Blue Hymnal