Sunday, August 2, 2020
CENTENARY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
CELEBRATION OF HOLY COMMUNION
August 2, 2020
Centering Scripture: Genesis 32: 22-31
Scripture is available by clicking here
MINISTRY OF LIGHT
* CALL TO WORSHIP 1 John 4:7,9
Leader: Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God;
People: Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
Leader: God’s love was revealed among us in this way:
People: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through Him.
* HYMN OF PRAISE “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind” No. 358
Hymn is available by clicking here
* EPISTLE LESSON Romans 9: 1-5
Scripture is available by clicking here
MORNING PRAYER
Coming to God for honest assessment and correction, is one of the great privileges of being a Christian.
Let us pray.
Most lovely and most loving God, we place the transcript of our daily lives before you, written on the fabric of our being, and we pray that you will edit our story with the radical love of Christ Jesus.
We are all not as friends think we are, we are not even what we imagine ourselves to be. Our insight is defective and we are not able to read ourselves accurately. You alone see the full text, the lines of glory, the pages of shame, the many grey paragraphs, and the unfinished sentences.
Look upon us with your saving mercy, loving God.
Please forgive and delete every single thing that is unlovely and unloving.
Correct and restructure all that is misshapen. Highlight the things worth repeating or enlarging. Rephrase the unfinished sentences so that they may continue on to declare your glory.
You alone are capable, you alone can be trusted to deal with all the secret pages of mind and heart.
Make us more yours than we have ever been before, for in being more yours, we become more truly ourselves. Through Christ Jesus our Savior.
Amen!
WORDS OF ASSURANCE
Listen to the Good News: “Here is love. Not our love of God but God’s love for us in giving us the true Son to be the remedy for the pollution of our sins.”
In the name of the Son of God, light of the world, friend of sinners, rescuer of the lost, healer of the broken, joy of the redeemed I declare to you: Yours sins are forgiven and the pages of your life made new!
Thanks be to God!
PASTORAL PRAYER
CHILDREN’S MOMENTS
This morning you’ll hear about Jesus feeding many people with a little bit of food. Ever since, Christians have tried to feed the hungry, but we also know that God’s love fills many needs of people that we cannot. Pray this prayer together, and add your own words when you need to.
Kids get hungry, loving God, hungry for the good food which you provide for us.
Kids get hungry, loving God, hungry for good friends who understand and like us.
Kids get hungry, loving God, hungry for the perfect love only you can give.
Please feed us, God; not just our bodies and our minds, but feed our precious soulswith the bread of your generous love.
In Jesus’ name, Amen!
WORSHIP WITH TITHES AND OFFERINGS may be mailed to the church with thanks to you and our Lord. As you do so, pray, “Bless Thou the gifts our hands have brought. Bless thou the work our hearts have planned. Ours is the faith, the will, the thought, the rest, O God, is in thy hand.”
* GOSPEL LESSON Matthew 14: 13-21
Lesson is available by clicking here
SERMON Rev. David Harper
HYMN “I Come with Joy” No. 617
GREAT THANKSGIVING
Pastor: The Lord be with you.
People: And also with you.
Pastor: Lift up your hearts.
People: We lift them up to the Lord.
Pastor: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
People: It is right to give our thanks and praise.
Pastor: It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. You formed us in your image and breathed into us the breath of life. When we turned away, and our love failed, your love remained steadfast. You delivered us from captivity, made covenant to be our sovereign God, brought us to a land flowing with milk and honey, and set before us the way of life. And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven, we praise your name and join their unending hymn:
All: Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
Pastor: Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ. At his baptism in the Jordan your Spirit descended upon him and declared him your beloved Son. With your Spirit upon him he turned away the temptations of sin. Your Spirit anointed him to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to announce that the time had come when you would save your people. He healed the sick, fed the hungry, and ate with sinners. By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection you gave birth to your Church, delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and made with us a new covenant by water and Spirit. When the Lord Jesus ascended, he promised to be with us always, baptizing us with the Holy Spirit and with fire, as on the Day of Pentecost.
WORDS OF INSTITUTION
Click here for the Words of Institution
ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
Jesus said: “I came not to judge the world, but to save the world “(John 12:47b) and “having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” ( John 13: 1b)
The good news therefore is this: In Jesus Christ, we are loved and we are forgiven. Thanks be to God!
INVITATION
Jesus says: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty…and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away.”
PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
Living and loving God, we lift our hearts to you in gratitude and joy for all your gifts to us.
You made us in your own image and set us in this world of contrasting beauty.
In your great love you delivered your people of old from slavery and you have delivered us from the power of evil and death through the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ.
We praise and honor you, holy God. Heaven and earth are surely full of your glory.
Blessed is He whose supper we share this night, and blessed are we, renewed by his life.
Blessed is He whose supper we share this night, and blessed are we, renewed by his life.
Before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come… and … having loved his own who were in the world he loved them to the end; at supper with them, he washed the disciples’ feet and gave them the new commandment: “… love one another as I have loved you.” He took a loaf of bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take eat, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” After supper, he took the cup, and again giving thanks, he gave it to his disciples, saying, “Drink from this all of you. This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for you and for all for the forgiveness of sins. Do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” Be present, Lord Jesus, by your Holy Spirit as you were in that upper room with your disciples when you shared this last supper with them; make yourself known to us as we share among us this bread and this wine – your life in us. Amen
BREAKING OF THE BREAD
As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
We eat and drink with thanksgiving, remembering all that Jesus has done for us.
PARTAKING OF THE SACRAMENT
This is the body of Christ given in love for us all. Amen.
This is the blood of Christ poured out in love for us all. Amen.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ, we give you thanks for refreshing and renewing us with this meal and for nourishing our lives with the gracious gift of your life. Amen.
THE PEACE
After Jesus had shared the meal with his disciples and washed their feet, he said to them, “I have set you an example that you also should do as I have done to you…Love one another, as I have loved you”…He also said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.” The peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
And also with you.
HYMN “What Wondrous Love Is This” No. 292
Hymn is available by clicking here
* DISMISSAL WITH BLESSING
Go forth in peace. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Amen!