Order of Service/ Baptism of the Lord / January 12, 2025

*Gathering Hymn Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (#220 VU|vs.1&4)

Welcome & Land Acknowledgement

Lighting the Christ Candle

Call to Worship

One: With unfailing love, God calls us by name.

All: We long to be known and seek relationship with God.

One: Come, find refuge. Take rest and comfort in God’s shelter.

All: We eagerly come, seeking shelter and security. Let us worship God!

*Sandra Litt. Gathering ACE 2024-2025. Page 43.

Opening Prayer

*Opening Hymn When Jesus Comes to Be Baptized (#100 VU | vs. 1,2,3)

Prayer of Confessional and Renewal (Unison)

Creator God, we remember the waters of creation, where your voice brought light from chaos. We confess our faith in you, acknowledging the times we forget our sacred connection. In the waters of Jesus’ baptism, your Spirit descended, saying to him, "Beloved." Renew us, O Lord, that we may live as your beloved, ever in harmony with your will. (a time of silent confession) Amen.

Words of Assurance

One: God’s water brings us life.

All: God’s water brings us the Holy Spirit.

One: God’s water makes us beloved.

All: The voice of God is connecting to us, today and every day.

*Fern Gibbard. Gathering ACE 2024-2025. Page 43.

Announcements and Minute for Mission

<Reaffirmation of Baptism>

Profession of Our Faith (Unison)

Before conscious thought or action on our part,

we are born into the brokenness of this world.

Before conscious thought or action on our part,

we are surrounded by God’s redeeming love.

Baptism by water in the name of the Holy Trinity

is the means by which we are received, at any age,

into the covenanted community of the church.

It is the ritual that signifies our rebirth in faith

and cleansing by the power of God.

Baptism signifies the nurturing, sustaining,

and transforming power of God’s love

and our grateful response to that grace.

*from A Song of Faith (2006)

Vows to Remember

One: Long promised, long hoped for, God's chosen one comes to the Jordan River to be baptized.

All: John recognizes the supreme worth of Jesus and wishes Jesus would baptize him instead.

One: Jesus seeks solidarity with those on the riverbank and finds that solidarity in baptism by John.

All: In baptism, he experiences God's anointing and a commissioning to freely begin God's work.

One: Do you recognize the significance of this baptism?

All: We come to the riverbank with heavy hearts and our burdens are lifted. We come to the riverbank with questions and doubts, and our fears are faced. We come to the riverbank unsure of the way ahead, and we are encouraged to begin the journey, a just and compassionate journey. We come to the riverbank feeling our humanity, and we find confidence as those within the faith community.

One: You will rejoice as you renew your vows of baptism. You will rejoice as you commit to be baptized.

All: We will rejoice, thanks be to God! Amen.

Prayer of Thanksgiving and the Pouring of Water

Gracious and Holy God, we bless you for the gift of life, and, within it, the gift of water. Over its unshaped promise your Spirit hovered at creation. By water, comes the growth of the earth. Through water, you led the children of Israel to freedom. In the waters of the Jordan your Child Jesus was baptized. Now may your Spirit be upon us and what we do, that this water may be a sign for all of new life in Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen

 

< Come to the Baptismal Font for the Practice of Blessing>

 

Vows to Make

One: The moment of baptism for Jesus was the recognition that he was chosen:

All: chosen to teach, chosen to serve faithfully, chosen to be in community, chosen to create a disciple family, chosen to advance justice and equality, chosen for his time, chosen for our time.

One: Jesus is God's chosen one.

All: Reflecting on Jesus' call and commissioning to his vocation, we are called to recall our own vocation and to work out how that calling will be lived out, at home, at school, in our work situation, and in our social groups.

One: Bless us, Loving God.

All: We have a calling to respond to, and we are ready! Amen.

Prayer for Illumination

Proclaiming the Scriptures

Acts 8:14-17 Peter and John baptized the converts in Samaria.

Psalm 29 (VU p.756) Ascribe to God glory and Strength.

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 Jesus is baptized by John.

This is the Good News from the Bible.

  Thanks be to God.

Anthem

Sermon

*Hymn Christ, When for Us You Were Baptized (#99 VU | vs.1,2,4)

*Offering

*Offertory Hymn (#81 VU | v. 3, As with Gladness Men of Old)

As they offered gifts most rare at that manger crude and bare,

So may we with holy joy, pure and free from sin’s alloy,

All our costliest treasures bring, Christ, to you, our heavenly King.

*Offertory Prayer (Unison)

Generous God, we offer these gifts as symbols of our lives, washed clean and renewed by your grace. Just as your Spirit descended upon Jesus, may your presence fill us with a desire to serve and love in your name. Bless these offerings, that they may bring healing and hope to others. May our hearts be filled with your Spirit and your call to live in love and service. Amen.

Prayers of the People and Lord’s Prayer

*Closing Hymn When Jesus Comes to Be Baptized (#100 VU | vs. 4&5)

*Commissioning

One: Remember the baptism of Jesus as you leave this church.

All: Remember that we are a baptized and baptizing church, and as members of a faith community, marked by the cross, be about the work of Jesus in the coming week: a caring, compassionate work, a life-bringing, justice-seeking work.

One: The blessing of God, Loving Source, the blessing of Jesus, Leader and Patter, and the blessing of the Holy Spirit, Inspiration to Action, go with you and those you love into the coming week. 

  All: Thanks be to God. Amen.

*David Sparks, Gathering ACE 2017/2018. Page 39.

*Commissioning Song Walk with Me (#649VU|Refrain)

Walk with me, I will walk with you and build the land that God has planned where love shines through (x2)

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