March 22 - Gainesville Mennonites

Emmanuel Mennonite Church
You lead us with your light and truth. We pray for
ourselves and those dear to us. (open prayers)
In your mercy,
Lord, hear our prayer.
“Proclaiming peace through Christ”
Meeting House
You provide for the poor and the stranger. We pray for
our community and for our neighbors. (open prayers)
In your mercy,
Lord, hear our prayer
You are the help and hope of your people. We pray for
the church in all places, that we may be one.
(open prayers)
In your mercy,
Lord, hear our prayer.
1236 NW 18th Avenue
Gainesville, FL 32609
Phone: 352-377-6577
e-mail: gnvmenno@bellsouth.net
Pastor: Eve MacMaster
web site: gainesvillemennonites.org
______________________________________________________
March 22, 2015
All the nations belong to you. We pray for the world,
that your reign may come and your will be done on earth.
(open prayers)
In your mercy,
Lord, hear our prayer.
We offer you other concerns we carry in our hearts.
(open prayers)
In your mercy,
Lord, hear our prayer.
God our only hope,
you seat us at the table with our enemies,
breathing in our fears.
Feed us with your word,
that our bread may be to do your will,
in the strength of your Anointed,
who taught us to pray: Our Father . . .
INVITATION TO THE OFFERING
*SUNG RESPONSE
Praise God from whom
PRAYER OF DEDICATION
*SENDING SONG
*BENEDICTION
Will you come and follow me
GATHERING/PRAISING
Be joyful
At the name of Jesus
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader From Bethlehem to Nazareth,
from Jordan to Jericho,
from Bethany to Jerusalem,
from then to now,
People: Come, Lord Jesus.
To heal the sick,
to mend the broken-hearted,
to comfort the disturbed,
to disturb the comfortable,
to liberate faith from convention,
Come Lord Jesus.
Hymnal 119
Sing the Story 39
To carry the cross,
to lead the way,
to shoulder the sin of the world
and take it away,
Come, Lord Jesus.
Fifth Sunday in Lent
*Please stand as you are able
Sing the Story 18
Hymnal 342
Today,
to this place, to us,
Come, Lord Jesus.
In the way of your decrees I delight
as much as in all riches.
I will meditate on your precepts
and fix my eyes on your ways.
I will delight in your statutes;
I will not forget your word.
LIGHTING THE PEACE LAMP
OPENING PRAYER
ALL:
CONFESSING/RECONCILING
Remember your mercy, O Lord,
and the love you have shown from of old.
Do not remember my sins;
in your love remember me.
(silence)
You relieve the troubles of my heart,
and bring me out of my distress.
You consider my affliction and my trouble,
and forgive all my sins. Amen.
EPISTLE LESSON
A reading from Hebrews 5:5-10 (The Scripture is read)
The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
THE PEACE OF CHRIST
Since God has forgiven us in Christ, let us forgive one another:
The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
And also with you.
(The congregation exchange signs of peace)
OLD TESTAMENT LESSON
A reading from Jeremiah 31:31-34 (The Scripture is read)
The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
RESPONSIVE PRAYER
Psalm 119:9-16
Leader: How can young people keep their way pure?
People: By guarding it according to your word.
With my whole heart I seek you;
let me not stray from your commandments.
I treasure your word in my heart,
so that I may not sin against you.
Blessed are you, O Lord;
teach me your statutes.
With my lips I declare
all the ordinances of your mouth.
*HYMN
O love that will not let me go
Hymnal 577
GOSPEL LESSON
A reading from John 12:20-33 (The Scripture is read)
The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
SERMON
*HYMN
GLORY, GLORY, HALLELUIAH!
When we are tempted
SILENT REFLECTION
SHARING REFLECTIONS
INTRODUCTIONS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
SHARING JOYS AND CONCERNS
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
Leader: Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage.
People: Hear, O Lord, when we cry aloud;
be gracious to us and answer us!
Attentive God,
we bring our prayers to you
because we trust you to protect and provide.
In your mercy,
Lord, hear our prayer.
Sing the Story 81
WELCOME VISITORS! We’re glad you’re here! Please sign the
guest book and join us for join us for coffee after the worship service.
TODAY AT THE MEETING HOUSE: Sunday school, 10:00 a.m.
We’re reading John’s gospel. Worship, 11a.m.
SERVING TODAY: Music direction, Kay Martin; Flute, Ginny
Campbell; Worship leading, Dick MacMaster; Scripture reading,
Shelley Carr; Sermon, Eve MacMaster; Sharing, Paul Campbell
TUESDAY, March 24: Men’s group, 12:30 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, March 25: The Prophets in Contemporary Culture,
7:00-8:30 p.m.
FRIDAY, March 27: Elders, 11:00 a.m.
IAIJ fundraiser, 5:00-7:00 p.m. Painting with a
Twist See Dick MacMaster for more information.
FARM WORKER JUSTICE AND IMMIGRANT RIGHTS
The Gainesville Interfaith Alliance for Immigrant Justice (IAIJ) and the
UF Center for Latin American Studies and the Program on Immigration,
Religion and Social Change are sponsoring a spring conference After the
Impasse on Immigration Reform: Working Together for Farm Worker
Justice and Immigrants’ Rights April 18 at UF, beginning at 9:00 a.m. in
Ustler Hall auditorium. Anton Flores, leader of the Mennonite-affiliated
Alterna faith community and activist for immigrants’ rights will be one of the
featured speakers.
Conference registration is FREE Register with Paula Roetscher at
proetscher.ufl.edu. For more information see
https://www.facebook.com/events/402839973219409/
IAIJ is holding a FUNDRAISER at a local art studio called PAINTING
WITH A TWIST to support travel to the conference for immigrants and
low-wage workers. We are holding an art class taught by a local artist on
Friday, March 27 from 5-7 p.m. Professional artists will help participants
create paintings to keep or give as a gift. Registration per person is $35, with
$15 going to IAIJ support attendance at the conference by. Register at:
http://www.paintingwithatwist.com/events/viewEvent.aspx?eventIDmicroso
=385947
SATURDAY, March 28: Interfaith dialogue, 10:00 --11:30 a.m.
NEXT SUNDAY, March 29: Palm/Passion Sunday; Collection for
Church World Service and peanut butter for Grace Market Place.
Lectionary scriptures: Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 31:9-16; Philippians
2:5-11; Mark 14:1--15:47
THE PROPHETS IN CONTEMPORARY CULTURE
Walter Brueggemann on Confronting Today’s “Pharaohs”
Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. March 18 through April 22
a six-session DVD-based discussion series
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Kimberly Hunter, March 26.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, Jacob and Elyse Moser, married March
25, 2013; and Mark and Paula Moser, married March 26, 1983.
PLANNING AHEAD
April 2: Maundy Thursday service of communion and footwashing
April 5: Celebration of the Resurrection: Easter Sunday brunch at
Campbell’s, followed by worship at the Meeting House
April 11: Yard sale to benefit Rural Women’s Health Project
April 12: Church Council
April 14: Serving supper at St. Francis House
April 19: Anton Flores from Alterna Community, LaGrange, Georgia
April 26: Sarah Werner on Creation Care
Session 1: Moses, Pharaoh, the Prophets, and Us
Session 2: The Prophets as Uncredentialed Purveyors of Covenant
Session 3: Moral Coherence in a World of Power, Money, and Violence
Session 4: The Shrill Rhetoric that Breaks Denial
Session 5: The Grief of Loss as Divine Judgment
Session 6: The Promissory Language that Breaks Despair
Walter Brueggemann, Old Testament scholar and theologian, sets out
prophetic thinking in clear and appealing terms as challenges to ancient
cultures and worlds. Then he turns to our contemporary Western world and
finds an urgent prophetic call to resist consumerism and power structures that
oppress and dehumanize us all. This study is an opportunity to learn about
the way the ancient prophets can be heard to speak to our time.
JEREMIAH 31:31-34
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be
like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by
the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they
broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord.
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and
I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they
teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall
all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I
will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.”
HEBREWS 5:1-10
Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of
things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for
sins. He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he
himself is subject to weakness; and because of this he must offer
sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people. And one
does not presume to take this honor, but takes it only when called by
God, just as Aaron was.
So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest,
but was appointed by the one who said to him, “You are my Son, today
I have begotten you”; as he says also in another place, “You are a priest
forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.”
In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications,
with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from
death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.
Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he
suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal
salvation for all who obey him, having been designated by God a high
priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
JOHN 12:20-33
Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some
Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said
to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”
Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told
Jesus.
Jesus answered them,
“The hour has come
for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Very truly, I tell you,
unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,
it remains just a single grain;
but if it dies,
it bears much fruit.
Those who love their life
lose it,
and those who hate their life in this world
will keep it for eternal life.
Whoever serves me
must follow me,
and where I am,
there will my servant be also.
Whoever serves me,
the Father will honor.
“Now my soul is troubled.
And what should I say—
‘Father, save me from this hour’?
No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.
Father, glorify your name.”
Then a voice came from heaven,
“I have glorified it,
and I will glorify it again.”
The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder.
Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”
Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine.
Now is the judgment of this world;
now the ruler of this world will be driven out.
And I, when I am lifted up from the earth,
will draw all people to myself.”
He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.