Welcome and Announcements
Introit: “God Be in My Head,” John Rutter
God be in my head and in my understanding.
God be in mine eyes and in my looking.
God be in my mouth and in my speaking.
God be in mine heart and in my thinking.
God be at my end and in my departing.
Old English Prayer
Call to Worship: Psalm 105:3b-6a
The LORD is risen!
He is risen indeed!
Christ has died, Christ is risen!
Christ will come again!
LET US WORSHIP GOD
Hymn: “Sing Glory to the Name of God,” 10
Prayer of the Day
Prayer of Confession
Holy God, we are unhinged. Floundering, without the regular patterns of our previous, normal lives. We are so lonely for each other, and for contact with you. How can we be the assembly of God when we cannot assemble? We want to cast social distancing restrictions aside and meet together to worship you, even though we know it could be deadly. Forgive us our haste and impatience. Make yourself known to us even as the doors to your house remain closed. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
Prayer for Illumination
Holy Spirit, illumine our dark tombs. Show us the light of the Easter day through these ancient words. Amen.
Time for Children, Jenny Newman
Hebrew Reading: Isaiah 60:17c – 20; 61:1-2a
I will appoint Peace as your overseer
and Righteousness as your taskmaster.
18 Violence shall no more be heard in your land,
devastation or destruction within your borders;
you shall call your walls Salvation,
and your gates Praise.
19 The sun shall no longer be
your light by day,
nor for brightness shall the moon
give light to you by night;[b]
but the Lord will be your everlasting light,
and your God will be your glory.
20 Your sun shall no more go down,
or your moon withdraw itself;
for the Lord will be your everlasting light,
and your days of mourning shall be ended.
1 The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
Gospel Reading: John 20:1, 11-18
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.
11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look[a] into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew,[b] “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
Sermon: “The Unrecognizable Year,” Ruling Elder Kate Davoli
Hymn: “God Be the Love to Search and Keep Me,” 543
Affirmation of Faith: Apostles’ Creed
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s 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 to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will 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 sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer
God, in your Mercy,
Hear our Prayer.
Let us continue our prayers:
Lord Jesus Christ, if burial is unfamiliar to us,
it is only because privilege has made this our first time.
Others of us have been buried long.
We pray for our heartbroken elderly, of whom society says,
“their frail bones and worsening eyesight sadly keep them homebound,”
but it is their neighbors who limit their excursions, leaving them lonely and isolated.
God, in your Mercy,
Hear our Prayer.
We pray for the captive imprisoned, of whom society says,
“they deserve punishment” … and then buried alive.
Confined them to the insides of jails
to count the passage of time by tick marks on the walls.
God, in your Mercy,
Hear our Prayer.
We pray for the chronically ill in body or in mind
Whose limbs are missing or uncooperative
Whose sensory systems are disconnected or mis-connected
Whose immune systems mean social gatherings are always unsafe
Whose anxieties or depression lie to them about the comforts of the tomb
Of whom society says, “they are disabled”
But whose conditions would not be disabling,
if we enabled their participation in society.
God, in your Mercy,
Hear our Prayer.
We pray for all of these, our forbears in burial,
our neighbors—whose worth we can better affirm
now that we ourselves have spent this time underground.
And we beg you, O Lord, while it is still dark, to work on the rest of us:
Make each of us ready, to take our neighbors with us to greet the sunrise that leaves nobody behind.
Hurry that dawn, O Lord.
Usher in the morning of the first day
of the year of Jubilee
which you have already begun
in your saving work on the Cross.
We ask this in your holy Name,
as you taught us to pray, saying:
The Lord’s Prayer, 2019 Vatican Update
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;
do not let us fall into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power
and the glory forever. Amen.
Closing Anthem: “The Spirit of the Lord,” Edward Elgar
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor:
He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted
to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord;
to give unto them that mourn a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning,
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
that they might be called the trees of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified.
For as the earth bringeth forth her bud,
and as the garden that causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth;
so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel.
Isaiah 61: 1-3, 11
Benediction
Announcements
We are an open and affirming community of faith in Jesus Christ. At home in an urban neighborhood of many faiths, we acknowledge that we are not alone on the path to understanding God. In worship, study, and fellowship, we celebrate our Presbyterian roots and find joy in our diversity. We strive for the grace to love one another as we seek deeper understanding of life in the Spirit, working for justice and serving as stewards of God’s wondrous creation.
We are a More Light congregation: “Following the risen Christ, and seeking to make the Church a true community of hospitality, the mission of More Light Presbyterians is the full participation of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people of faith in the life, ministry, and witness of the Presbyterian Church (USA).”
Inclusive Language: Words matter. Jesus Christ, the living Word, reached out to all people to bring all people into God’s fold. The kingdom of God includes all types of people; therefore our language should reflect the inclusivity and equality among the people of God. To the end, when possible, we seek to eliminate the inherent bias of the English language towards the masculine gender without altering passages that reflect the historical situation of ancient patriarchal culture, out of which the Bible originated.
* The Session has closed the building until further notice to observe the governmental restrictions of social distancing.
* Many thanks to Kate Davoli and Jenny Newman for being part of the service this week!
* In lieu of Bible study on Wednesday, July 1 at 11 am, Pastor Vincent will be leading a study on Walter Breuggemann’s book Virus, A Summons to Faith. Does the Old Testament have something to say to us in the midst of the pandemic? Join us and learn from Breuggemann’s profound insights. If you are not on the weekly Bible study email list and would like to participate, please email or call Amy for the Zoom link.
* Want to join Pastor Vincent’s Bible study of the lectionary texts at 11 am on Wednesdays? Contact the office to get on the email list for connection to the Zoom meeting.
* Zoom confused? Set up a call with Amy, and we’ll work through it together.
* It’s not the same as the thrill of putting the envelope in the plate, but you can still pay on your pledges either through eGive (click here!) or by mailing your check to the church. We continue to need your support in this challenging time!
* Resources for families are on Jenny’s Children and Youth blog (click here!)
* The Sixth Church Mouse Returns! For congregants who would like to participate in an email form of prayers of the people, please contact sixthchurchmouse@gmail.com to be added to the list. You can submit prayer requests to the same email address by Thursdays at 5 pm to be included in an email sent each Friday. Please remember that confidentiality still applies; we want this to be a safe place for both participants and those we love.
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