Order of Service / Epiphany 5 / February 9, 2025

 *Gathering Hymn See the Morning Sun Ascending (#406 VU|vs. 1&2)

Welcome & Land Acknowledgement

Lighting the Christ Candle

Call to Worship

One: Come and listen! Christ is speaking today.

All: We are here to listen and follow.

One: Christ invites us to trust, even when the way is uncertain.

All: With faith, we take the next step.

One: There is nothing to fear—Christ goes before us.

All: We move forward with hope.

One: Let us worship the One who calls us into new life.

All: With open hearts, we worship with joy!

Opening Prayer

*Opening Hymn Great Is Thy Faithfulness (#288 VU|1&2)

Prayer of Confessional and Renewal (Unison)

God of love and peace, be with us today. We come with the burdens of the stress and difficulties we know in our lives and with the cares of the world on our shoulders. We bring to you our fears and our worries, and we pray for your healing for ourselves and our world. God of hope, we confess that we let the events and demands of our day-to-day lives crowd you out of our thoughts and our actions. Help us consider again the many ways in which you bless and care for us. Help us be people who will reach out to others in loving compassion. (a time of silent confession) Amen.

Words of Assurance

One: From birth to rebirth, God writes new beginnings.

All: God offers grace upon grace.

One: In Jesus Christ, God demonstrates an endless love that inspires green shoots of new life.

All: We are forgiven. Thanks be to God.

*Philip Aldis. Gathering ACE 2024-2025. Page 48.

Announcements and Minute for Mission

Time for God’s Children (VU #577)

I‘ve got love like an ocean, I‘ve got love like an ocean,

I‘ve got love like an ocean, in-a my soul. (Hallelujah) x2

Prayer for Illumination

Proclaiming the Scriptures

Isaiah 6:1-8 I saw God seated upon the throne.

Psalm 138 (VU p.860) Do not forsake the work of your hands, O God.

Luke 5:1-11 Jesus calls Simon and James and John.

This is the Good News from the Bible.

  Thanks be to God.

Anthem

Sermon

*Hymn Jesus, You Have Come to the Lakeshore (#563 VU)

*Offering

*Offertory Hymn (#540 VU | Grant Us, God, the Grace)

Grant us, God, the grace of giving, with a spirit large and free,

That ourselves and all our living we may offer faithfully.

 

*Offertory Prayer (Unison)

Gracious God, we have offered these gifts in faith so they will be a witness to the world, a witness to your love that is revealed through your son and in your creation. May these gifts serve all who are in need. And may they prepare the way to fulfill your vision of how this world will be, a world where no one will be in need, a world where all of your people will share in the joys of the gifts of creation. Amen.

*Sandy Ferguson. Gathering ACE 2024-2025. Page 50.

Prayers of the People and Lord’s Prayer

*Closing Hymn I, the Lord of Sea and Sky (#509)

*Commissioning

One: Go now, having heard Christ’s call.

All: We go to listen and follow.

One: Step forward in faith, even when the way is uncertain.

All: With trust, we take the next step.

One: Do not be afraid—Christ walks with us.

All: We move forward with hope.

One: Go and share the good news of new life.

All: With open hearts, we go in joy!

*Commissioning Song Walk with Me (#649 VU|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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