(Clicking on the text underlined in blue will take you to Youtube videos. Most are songs, except for the Sermon, “Authority, Justice, and Love”)
All Prayers are from the Book of Common Worship (Westminster John Knox Press, 2018) and The Worship Sourcebook, Second Edition (Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Faith Alive Christian Resources and Baker Books, 2013)
Pray: Father, we praise you; through your Word and Holy Spirit you created all things. You reveal your salvation in all the world by sending to us Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. Through your Holy Spirit you give us a share in your life and love. Fill us with the vision of your glory, that we may always serve and praise you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
Sing or Listen: Traditional: Holy, Holy, Holy
Contemporary: Open The Eyes of My Heart
Confess: Triune God, we praise you as the God of love and life. Though Jesus prayed that we would be one, we confess that we fail to live in unity with each other and with you. We break our communion through hostile words and unkind actions. We long for your Spirit to heal us and to correct us. We long for you to help us experience communion with you and with each other as we gather around your Word. Even now, dependent on your grace, we commit ourselves to live more fully in the unity you desire. Through Christ, our Lord, Amen.
Be: Sit (or stand) in silence for one minute.
Be Assured: Hear these words of comfort from Paul’s Letter to the Romans: You did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When you cry, “Abba! Father! It is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. In Christ, by the power of the Spirit, we are forgiven. Thanks be to the triune God. Amen.
Read God’s Word: Psalm 8 (New Revised Standard Version)
O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?
Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Read God’s Word: Matthew 28: 16-20 (New Revised Standard Edition)
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Watch the Sermon: Authority, Justice, and Love
Think or Discuss: Who has authority in your life or in your household? Does the way they exercise it encourage peace?
Do: Make peace with someone who you are in conflict with.
Pray: Use this time to pray, silently, at first, and then for others who need your prayers.
Finally, pray the Lord’s Prayer. (Our Father…)
Sing or Listen: Traditional: Will You Come and Follow Me
Contemporary: Reckless Love
Bless and Be Blessed: May the God of Peace and the Peace of God be with you always.
After Worship, Our Service begins…
Serve: (Safely) Normally in the first week of June we make sandwiches for Greater Waterbury Interfaith Ministries. Instead, the board of missions is donating $1000 and other in kind donations. Can we as church members match that total?