…please scroll down…, …scroll down…, …scroll down…

Community Church

of the
Monterey Peninsula

Independent & United Church of Christ

Order OF Worship

February 23, 2020

Nursery care available

Children’s activities

Welcome to Community Church!

We’re glad you have chosen to worship with us this morning.

No matter who you are, or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here!

Prelude

Welcome

(An asterisk (*) indicates when the congregation may stand)

(If you are new to Community Church please share your name and address with us in the red friendship register that you will find at the end of each pew.)

As We Gather…. .(John O’Donohue, Contemporary)

FOR THE TIME OF NECESSARY DECISION

The mind of time is hard to read.

We can never predict what it will bring,

Nor even from all that is already gone

Can we say what form it finally takes;

For time gathers its moments secretly.

Often we only know its time to change

When a force has built inside the heart

That leaves us uneasy as we are.

Perhaps the work we do has lost its soul

Or the love where we once belonged

Calls nothing alive in us anymore.

We drift through this grey, increasing nowhere

Until we stand before a threshold we know

We have to cross to come alive once more.

May we have the courage to take the step

Into the unknown that beckons us;

Trust that a richer life awaits us there,

That we will lose nothing

But what has already died;

Feel the deeper knowing in us sure

Of all that is about to be born beyond

The pale frames where we stayed confined,

Not realizing how such vacant endurance

Was bleaching our soul’s desire.

Congregational Greeting

This is an opportunity to greet those in front and back of you and on either side of you.

Choral Call to Worship “Grateful To Be”

Call to Worship (UCC Book of Worship)

Leader: O God, distant yet near,

we gather as witnesses to your promise

that if we seek you with all our hearts,

we will find you.

People: Be among us this day.

Leader: Hear the confessions of our mouths

and the yearnings of our hearts.

People: Help us change the narrowness

of our vision and the stinginess

of our living.

Leader: Make us new again with your holy grace.

People: Grant us the maturity

to accept your many gifts in humility

and to use them with faithfulness.

Leader: Grant to us your Spirit

that our worship may have integrity

and energy, ever witnessing to your

awakening presence in our lives.

All: Amen.

*Opening Hymn “Christians, We Have Met To Worship”

Christians, we have met to worship
and adore the living God;
will you pray with all your power,
while we try to preach the word?
All is vain unless the Spirit
of the Holy One comes down;
Christians, pray, and holy manna
will be showered all around.

Is there here a trembling jailer,

seeking grace and filled with fears?

Is there here a weeping Mary

pouring forth a flood of tears.

Tell them all about the Savior,

how in Christ the lost are found.

Pray, oh pray, and holy manna

Will be scattered all around.

Let us love our God supremely,
let s love each other too;
let us for all earth’s people
till our God makes all things new.
Christ will call us home to heaven,
at his table we'll sit down;
Christ will welcome us and serve us
living manna all around.

Morning Prayers

Unison Prayer (Ronald J. Allen

and Linda McKiernan-Allen)

Thank you, Loving God,

You are the light that never goes out.

You are the eye that never closes.

You are the ear that is never shut.

You are the mind that never gives up.

You are the heart that never grows cold.

You are the hand that never stops reaching.

Thank you, Loving God. Amen.

Shared Silence

Please meditate using the phrase most appropriate for you, or another phrase of your own choosing.

Abba, I belong to you.

Abba, I trust you.

Loving God, I belong to you.

Loving God, I trust you.

The Lord’s Prayer (Unison)

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 trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: for thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Anthem “Give Me Jesus” Spiritual

Scripture Text: Matthew 5:8

8 ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Sermon: CONNECTING WITH JESUS—

PURITY OF HEART

AND EXTRAVAGANT GENEROSITY

Ms. Lisa Ledin

Hymn 495 “Called As Partners In Christ’s Service”

Invitation to Giving

Freely you have received,

freely give,

remembering the words

the Lord Jesus himself said:

“It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

Offertory “Wade In The Water” Elise Rotchford

*Doxology

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow;

Praise God all creatures here below.

Praise God above all heavenly host.

Creator, Christ and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Unison Prayer (Roy Pearson, Contemporary)

Grant, Holy One,

that thinking, we may think your thoughts;

that speaking, we may speak your word;

that singing, we may sing your praise;

that hearing, we may hear your truth;

and that willing,

we may make your will our own,

so that going out at the end of our worship,

we may walk in your love and your peace,

and departing from one another,

not depart from you.

Amen.

Announcements

*Closing Hymn “He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands”