Trinity Presbyterian Church Online Worship Service
for February 21, 2021 – First Sunday of Lent
Welcome and Announcements
Welcome to Trinity Presbyterian Church’s online worship service!
If you prefer, you can view this service on our Worship Service Player. In the player, the service plays from start to finish without interruption. To try that version of the worship service, click HERE.
Rev Dr Jeffrey Beebe
2024/04/23-06:46:51-UTC 47th ols; 34woc; 14waro
Rhythms of Grace
Brooke Tucker, Director of Faith Formation.
Invitation to “Rhythms of Grace”
Trinity has returned to Indoor Worship at 10AM on Sundays. Seating is limited and reservations are suggested but not required. To help set your expectations, please read our Guide to Indoor Worship.
Trinity will soon provide a LIVE STREAMING worship service instead of this online worship page. One significant difference will be our email announcement will be sent at 9:30 a.m. instead of 9:00 a.m. The email will contain a link for you to “click” that will take you to the broadcast of the live service. Both the Live Service and the Live Stream will begin at 10:00 a.m. If you visit the link before 10 a.m., a countdown timer will assure you that you are in the right place! If you are not available during the 10 o’clock hour, you can visit the same link anytime after the service ends to watch a recording of the service.
Please note the next Congregational Meeting is on Sunday, February 28, 2021 at 11:00am (two weeks from this service’s date). The purpose of the meeting is to hold Trinity’s Annual Meeting and it will include the election of Deacons and Elders.
Trinity’s Bible Study is available online. Visit our website or Facebook page to view a video from Rev. Beebe whenever it is convenient for you. You can also ‘catch-up’ anytime at the Bible Study archive. To be included in our weekly email, simply subscribe to the website or join our Facebook group. Links to subscribe and join are at the bottom of our webpage.
Portions of the liturgy we use in the service are provided by Sanctified Art. Where used, they are identified with a superscript 2 and the copyright acknowledgment is at the bottom of this worship page.
Briefly, a word concerning the technical presentation of this service. If you are having difficulty reading the words, look for your web browser’s “Zoom” settings. The keystrokes are typically ‘Ctrl-Shift-+’ to increase the zoom or ‘Ctrl-Shift-(minus)’ to decrease the zoom. Other devices may have a different mechanism (‘finger pinch’), but most support zoom.
Although you could not be with us in-person today, we hope you will have a meaningful Sunday worship experience!
This week’s bulletin is available at any time by clicking this link. The bulletin will open in a separate tab or window.
The order of service on this page closely follows the bulletin, but there are additional items in the bulletin that may be of interest to you and that are not included on this page.
Today’s service contains:
Prelude “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded”
Call to Worship
Hymn #167 “Forty Days and Forty Nights”
Prayer of Confession
Declaration of Forgiveness
Anthem “This is My Father’s World”
Moments with Children
Affirmation of Faith
Prayers of the People
The Lord’s Prayer
Old Testament Reading
Prayer of Illumination
Responsive Reading
Hymn #218 “Ah, Holy Jesus”
Gospel Lesson
Meditation “God Meets Us”
Charge and Benediction
Congregational Response (Hymn #306)
Offering
Postlude “There Is Now a New Creation”
Prelude “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded”
Jillian Koenig, flute, accompanied by Heasuk Che, piano.
Call to Worship
Joan Zicht, lay reader.
Provided by A Sanctified Art2
One: God meets us in the night— All: Before the sun rises, before the wound heals, before there are answers, before there is closure.
One: God meets us in the light— All: Where joy is effervescent, where laughter is contagious,
Where flowers bloom from cracks in the sidewalk, and where people gather around the table.
One: God meets us at the threshold— All: At the edge of the water, at the beginning of the wilderness,
At the start of something new, on the edge of faith.
One: And if God meets us in all those places, then surely God meets us in between— All: Staying with us through the wilderness.
One: We are not alone. God is all around. All: Let us worship the God of the here and now.
Hymn #167 “Forty Days and Forty Nights”
Barbara Davis, Kathy Link, Julie Pearson, Judith Spurrell, Lillian Warner, and Bob Wright. Accompanied by Jillian Koenig (flutist) and Heasuk Che (pianist).
1 Forty days and forty nights you were fasting in the wild;
forty days and forty nights tempted, and yet undefiled.
2 Shall not we your sorrow share and from worldly joys abstain,
fasting with unceasing prayer, strong with you to suffer pain?
3 Then if Satan on us press, flesh or spirit to assail,
victor in the wilderness, grant that we not faint nor fail!
4 So shall we have peace divine: holier gladness ours shall be;
round us, too, shall angels shine, such as served you faithfully.
5 Keep, O keep us, Savior dear, ever constant by your side,
that with you we may appear at the eternal Eastertide.
Prayer of Confession
Rev Dr Jeffrey Beebe
Provided by A Sanctified Art2
One: God who meets us where we are—there is nowhere we can go that you are not. All: You were with Jesus at his baptism. you were with him in the wilderness,
And even in between, you were there, saying aloud, “This is my beloved.”
One: We know that you are with us too—
In the good, the bad, and everything in between—but so often we act like we are alone. All: Instead of coming to you with our hurt, we hold it in or cast it onto others.
Instead of coming to you with our joy, we credit ourselves and offer you nothing.
One: How can we long for a deeper relationship with you while living like you are nowhere to be found? All: Forgive our self-centered ways. Remind us that in every breath, in every step, you are there.
One: You are the God who meets us where we are. All: Before and behind, above and below, within and around. Amen.
Provided by A Sanctified Art2
Declaration of Forgiveness
The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. I declare to you, in the name of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. May the God of mercy, who forgives us all our sins, strengthen us in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep us in eternal life. Amen.
Anthem “This is my Father’s World”
Laurie Harrison, Judy Hennenlotter, Kathy Link, Joyce Lewis, Rosie Brown, and Barbara Davis. Directed by Lillian Warner.
arr. Ingram
Moments with Children
Brooke Tucker, Director of Faith Formation.
Affirmation of Faith
Please join us in an affirmation of faith2 …
We believe in a God who is everywhere and right here,
Bigger than the sky and in the smallest details, all at once and in every moment.
We believe that God meets us where we are—
In heartbreak and high hopes, around crowded tables and in quiet homes,
In joy and in suffering, in loneliness and in connection,
In sanctuaries and in living rooms, in marches and in waiting rooms.
We believe that nothing we do or leave undone can distance us from God’s love.
God is forever drawing us close and pulling us in.
Again and again, God meets us where we are and invites us into wholeness.
Thanks be to God for a love like that.
Prayers of the People
Rev Dr Jeffrey Beebe
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art 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 debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
Old Testament Reading
Joan Zicht, lay reader.
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
Genesis 9:8-17 – The Covenant with Noah. Listen for God speaking to you today.
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. 11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13 I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17 God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
Prayer of Illumination
Joan Zicht, lay reader.
Provided by A Sanctified Art2
Holy God,
If I am honest, faith often feels like water in my hands.
No matter how hard I try to hold onto it, some of it always slips through—
Like droplets of truth running down my wrists, back toward my heart.
This human inability to hold onto you leaves me thirsty for more.
So as we prepare to read scripture, I pray that once again, you would meet us here.
Meet us in our hope and our heartache. Meet us in our fear and our joy,
Meet us in our cupped hands and clenched fists. And even if the water keeps running,
And we do not have a sky-parting moment of clarity, or a tangible sense that you are near;
Even if we do not hear the words, “This is my beloved,”
Ringing in our ears, we will trust that you are near, Always and forever meeting us here,
Running toward our hearts. Gratefully we pray, Amen.
Responsive Reading
Joan Zicht, lay reader.
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
Psalm 25:1-10
1 To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul. 2 O my God, in you I trust; do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me. 3 Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame; let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. 4 Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. 5 Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long. 6 Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. 7 Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
according to your steadfast love remember me, for your goodness’ sake, O LORD! 8 Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. 9 He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. 10 All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness,
for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.
Hymn #218 “Ah, Holy Jesus”
Barbara Davis, Kathy Link, Julie Pearson, Judith Spurrell, Lillian Warner, and Bob Wright. Accompanied by Jillian Koenig (flutist) and Heasuk Che (pianist).
1 Ah, holy Jesus, how hast thou offended,
that we to judge thee have in hate pretended?
By foes derided, by thine own rejected,
O most afflicted!
2 Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon thee?
Alas, my treason, Jesus, hath undone thee.
’Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee;
I crucified thee.
3 Lo, the Good Shepherd for the sheep is offered;
the slave hath sinned, and the Son hath suffered;
for our atonement, while we nothing heeded,
God interceded.
4 For me, kind Jesus, was thine incarnation,
thy mortal sorrow, and thy life’s oblation,
thy death of anguish and thy bitter passion,
for my salvation.
5 Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay thee,
I do adore thee, and will ever pray thee,
think on thy pity and thy love unswerving,
not my deserving.
Gospel Lesson
Rev Dr Jeffrey Beebe
New Revised Standard Version
Mark 1:9-15 – The Baptism of Jesus, The Temptation of Jesus, and The Beginning of the Galilean Ministry. Listen for God speaking to you today.
9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
12 And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.
14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
Meditation “God Meets Us”
Rev Dr Jeffrey Beebe
Charge and Benediction
Rev Dr Jeffrey Beebe
Again & Again, A Lenten Refrain2
As you leave this space, may your mouth speak of God’s goodness.
May your arms hold those in need. May your feet walk toward justice.
May your heart trust its worth. May your soul dance in God’s grace.
And may this be your rhythm—again and again and again,
Until God’s promised day. In the name of the Lover, the Beloved, and Love itself,
Go with courage, go with heart, go in peace. Amen.
Congregational Response
Heasuk Che, organist.
Hymn #306
Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love.
The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above.
Offering
Please continue to give your offering.
God calls us to give all of who we are, and all of what we have to be used in and thru the Church. So let us present our lives. Let us present our gifts unto God. Offerings can be received in the church by mail or you may use online banking options.
You can click the image to the right or this link to give online now. At the online Giving site, select “2021 Pledge” as the Fund to fulfill your 2021 pledge or use another fund if you’re directing your gift elsewhere. Note, the church must pay a small processing fee to receive your contribution via online giving. Increasing your gift would help cover the cost of processing and would be greatly appreciated.
If you’d like to see alternatives to online giving, please take a look at our Contribute page.
Postlude “There is Now a New Creation”
Heasuk Che, organist.
The Service has Ended
May the Peace of Christ be with you!
Thank you for joining us online! We hope you will join us again as long as we need to be apart. We pray for the day when we can all meet again and worship God in the sanctuary and Trinity Presbyterian Church.
1 ALL COPYRIGHTS ACKNOWLEDGED
2 Prayer by Sarah Are | A Sanctified Art LLC | sanctifiedart.org Cover Art: Graphic Design by Rev. Lauren Wright Pittman | Original photography by Rev. Lisle Gwynn Garrity
Trinity’s Bible Study is available online. Visit our website or Facebook page to view a video from Rev. Beebe whenever it is convenient for you. You can also ‘catch-up’ anytime at the Bible Study archive. To be included in our weekly email, simply subscribe to the website or join our Facebook group. Links to subscribe and join are at the bottom of our webpage.
separate tab or window.
You can click the image to the right or this link to give online now. At the online Giving site, select “2021 Pledge” as the Fund to fulfill your 2021 pledge or use another fund if you’re directing your gift elsewhere. Note, the church must pay a small processing fee to receive your contribution via online giving. Increasing your gift would help cover the cost of processing and would be greatly appreciated.