ORDER OF WORSHIP | Holy Trinity Community Church

11/22/20 - ORDER OF WORSHIP

Welcome to

Holy Trinity Community

United Church of Christ!

Thank you for joining us in worship today.

We invite you to reach out to Pastor Rob, (He/Him), who is available for pastoral care, emotional support, & spiritual direction. Please contact them at revrobvaness@gmail.com with any comments or concerns you may have.

This is the 3rd in 3-week series entitled Holy Trinity Rising, where we share in a conversation about how we believe God is calling us to resurrect the church in the middle of pandemic.

Color code to help you navigate our worship:

Worship Notes in BLUE. Music Notes in RED.

1. Feel free to comment in the live thread to introduce yourself & to connect with one another.

2. There will be 3 occasions where we invite you to comment during our live premiere.

- The 1st is during our time in prayer. Enter your prayer requests & praises in the comment section & Pastor Rob will hold your prayers with theirs for the rest of the week.

- The 2nd second time is during our celebration of communion. You are invited to join us in celebrating Communion.

- Right now, go & gather something to eat & something to drink. If can be bread or something else, & wine or juice or something else, & set it aside.

- When the time comes for us to share in the bread of life & the cup of blessing, do not worry, I will walk you through it.

- Finally, we offer a special blessing at the end of service. If you have a birthday or an anniversary or another significant life event you would like to receive a blessing for, know that you are blessed. If you want to share the reason for your blessing you are invited to comment.

- Together we will share in the eternal & steadfast love of God revealed for all through the life, death, & resurrection of a man named Jesus.

✠ GREETING

✠ SONG OF PRAISE

Worth with Charlie Hawks, Melinda Iroabuchi, & Voices of Vision

✠ WELCOME

✠ SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 6: 27-36

You are invited to stand as you are able while worshipping with us in your own home.

One: Sitting or standing, hear now a reading from the gospel according to Luke:

27 “But I say to you that listen, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.[a] Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.

One: Hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.

All: Thanks be to God!

____________________________________

Sermon Inspiration: Nov 15, 2020

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t punch you in the fact right now.” – Bart the bully

“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” – James Sherman (Self help author)

The NIV study bible comments on this passage in the gospel according to Luke:

"Many think that the Golden Rule is merely reciprocal, as if we act based on how we want to be treated. But other parts of this section downplay this focus on reciprocity, and, in fact, reverse it (vv. 27-30, 32-35). At the end of the section, Jesus gives a different basis for our actions: we should imitate God the Father (v. 36)."

✠ Sermon: Thanksgiving & Gratitude – Part 3 in a 3-part conversation about how God is calling us to resurrect our faith community in the middle of a pandemic.

✠ SONG OF PRAISE

O Come, O Come Emmanuel with Charlie Hawks

✠ PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

As we enter this time of prayer, we invite you to post your prayers in the comments below, while also being mindful that this is a public forum and any confidentiality you are bound to honor. Doing so, we will add them to our prayer list & pray over them in the week to come.

✠ SONG OF PRAISE

Lord, Listen to Your Children Praying with Charlie Hawks, Melinda Iroabuchi,

& Voices of Vision

✠OUR OFFERING

You may help the church financially in this pandemic by contributing in 3 different ways. Holy Trinity Memphis has a cash app account, you can go to our website, holytrinitymemphis.org, or you can send a gift to our PO Box. All the information is pinned to the top of the comment thread for this lives stream.

Holy Trinity Community Church now has a CashApp account. Our CashApp code is $HolyTrinityMemphis. Users must create a Cash App account to make contributions to our ministry. There is no fee for either party on this app & can be found at the Google Play Store for Android users or the App Store for iPhone users.
Go to HolyTrinityMemphis.org & click on the word GIVE in the upper left-hand corner. This link will direct you to our longstanding PayPal account.
Finally, you can always send in your tithe, gift, or offering by mail. Please send to: Holy Trinity Community Church PO Box 2991 Cordova, TN 38088.

Your faithful contributions regardless of if you can join us in worship are essential for our ability to proclaim the gospel. Thank you for your generous support of our mission and ministries.

✠ OFFERTORY HYMN

How Great Thou Art with Charlie Hawks

✠ HOLY COMMUNION [i]

Invitation

One: For Holy Communion this morning I invite you to lend Christ your table.

On the first day of the last week of Jesus’s life, people throughout Judea arrived at the dusty gates of Jerusalem, primed with “Hosanna” in their hearts and Jesus asked to borrow a donkey.

On the Thursday that followed, Jesus rented or was given John Mark’s mother’s Upper Room to celebrate the Passover with the disciples.

On the afternoon of the resurrection, Jesus was invited into a house in Emmaus and used the bread of that hospitality to break and bless.

Lend Christ your table, your bread, your cup and your heart, for, as the disciples told the person who loaned the donkey, “The Lord has need of it.”

Prayer of Consecration

One: We are one bread, one body, one cup of blessing. Though we are many throughout the earth and this church community is scattered, we are one in Christ. In your many kitchens, and living rooms, rest your hands lightly upon these elements which we set aside today to be a sacrament. Let us ask God’s blessing upon them.

All: Gentle Redeemer, there is no lockdown on your blessing and no quarantine

on grace. Send your Spirit of life and love, power and blessing upon every table where your child shelters in place, that this Bread may be broken and gathered in love and this Cup poured out to give hope to all.

Risen Christ, live in us, that we may. live in you.

Breathe in us, that we may breathe in you.

Words of Remembering

One: We remember that Paul the apostle wrote letters to congregations throughout

places we now call Greece, Turkey and Macedonia, and they were the first “remote” worship resources. Our online service has a long heritage. The Communion words sent to the church at Corinth were these:

For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you,

the Lord Jesus on the night when they were betrayed

took a loaf of bread, and when they had given thanks,

they broke it and said:

“This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

In the same way they took the cup also, after supper, saying,

“This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until the Lord comes.

Sharing of the Elements

One: Let us in our many places receive the gift of God, the Bread of Heaven.

All: We are one in Christ in the bread we share.

One: Let us eat.

One: Let us in our many places receive the gift of God, the Cup of Blessing.

All: We are one in Christ in the cup we share.

One: Let us drink.

One: Let us pray as our Risen Savior taught us in the gospel of Matthew:

All: Our Father, who are 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 trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever

And ever. Amen.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

One: Let us pray in thanksgiving for this meal of grace, rejoicing that, by the very

method of our worship, we have embodied the truth that Christ’s love is not limited by buildings made with human hands, nor in human ceremonies, but blows as free as the Spirit in all places.

All: Spirit of Christ, you have blessed our tables and our lives. May the eating of

this Bread give us courage to speak faith and act love, not only in church sanctuaries, but in your precious world, and may the drinking of this Cup renew our hope even in the midst of pandemic. Wrap your hopeful presence around all whose bodies, spirits and hearts need healing, and let us become your compassion and safe refuge. Amen

✠ CELEBRATIONS & A SPECIAL BLESSING

Now is the time for you to enter your reason for being blessed into the comment section so that we may share in your life’s journey.

One: Today we praise God for our birthdays and anniversaries and all the good things

that come into our lives not by our power but by God’s power and providence.

Let your faith vanquish your fears for fear is only a state of the mind, keep reaching for the best in all you do.

Each day is like a gift, a blessing to your life. Live each day of your life like the blessing it is.

I hope you believe in miracles because a whole lot of them will come to you sooner than you expect. Keep holding on to God.

May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you now, and forever more.

All: Thanks be to God!

✠ BENEDICTION

One: Know that God loves you.

God has always loved you.

God will never stop loving you.

Love is the answer.

Let us love one another as we walk together through these difficult days & know that amid neighbor helping neighbor, we will find the holy & healing presence of our Lord Jesus Christ.

All: Thanks be to God!

✠ Sending Song:

And All the People Said Amen with Charlie Hawks, Melinda Iroabuchi, & Voices of Vision,

Thank you for joining us in worship today.

Go to holytrinitymemphis.org to learn more about our faith community.

Advent Series: An Attitude of Gratitude[1]

November 29: (11 AM Online) 1st Sun of Advent - God is not done with us yet. World AIDS Day Service/ Daniel 6: 6-27

December 6: (Parking lot worship at 10 AM in -person & online) 2nd Sun of Advent - We are not waiting for things to return back to normal. Bon Jovi Sunday/ Joel 2:12-13, 28-29

December 13: (11 AM Online) 3rd Sun of Advent - We will be more outwardly focused than normal. Isaiah 61:1-11

December 20: (11 AM Online) 4th Sun of Advent - Major change is inevitable and we will embrace it. Luke 1:26-45[46-56]

December 24: (6 PM Parking lot acoustic worship) Christmas Eve – Gratitude is an attitude. Luke 2:1-14[15-20]

[1] Our Advent series is ironically inspired by an online article written by Thom Rainer, American writer, researcher, speaker, and former president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. https://churchanswers.com/blog/four-key-attitudes-of-leaders-whose-churches-will-thrive-in-the-future/

[i] Online Communion for Palm Sunday was written by the Rev. Maren C. Tirabassi.