Trinity Presbyterian Church
Online Worship Service
for May 24, 2020 – Seventh Sunday of Easter
Welcome and Announcements
Welcome to Trinity
Presbyterian Church’s worship service online!
This is the ninth online worship service for Trinity and our eleventh worship service not held in the Trinity Presbyterian Sanctuary due to the COVID-19 crisis.
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 the sanctuary doors will not be open, 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 bulletin is not needed to follow the order of the service (the order of service on this page matches the bulletin’s order of service), but there are additional items that may be of interest to you that are not included on this worship page.
We hope you healthy and well. For several weeks following Easter, we will be using the worship series “Unraveled” by A Sanctified Art on both Sunday Worship and Thursday Bible Study. This is meant to stand alone, as well as complement our weekly online worship, teachings and musical selections.
The service this day contains:
- Preparation for Worship
- Prelude “He’s Always Been Faithful”
- A Call to Worship
- Hymn #394 “Christ is Made the Sure Foundation”
- Prayer of the Day
- A Prayer of Confession
- Declaration of Forgiveness
- The Children’s Sermon
- Scripture readings for the Seventh Sunday of Easter
- Hymn #353 “My Hope is Built on Nothing Less”
- Meditation: “Drifting Up River”
- Affirmation of Faith
- Prayers of the People
- The Lord’s Prayer
- Offering to God
- Doxology
- Closing Hymn #765 “May the God of Hope Go with Us”
- Benediction
- Postlude “God Bless America”
PNC Update
Before we begin today’s service, we have a brief update on the work of the Pastoral Nominating Committee (the PNC).
Shelley Wheeler, PNC Co-Chair
Preparation for Worship
Let us join together now and prepare for worship.
Dear Family of God – these are trying days in God’s beloved world.
As Christ’s Church, sustained by the Holy Spirit, we have gifts and a call by which to care for one another and our neighbors. Worship in which we encounter our living God and know ourselves connected to the body continues. So this day we expand our worship into our homes, knowing that as we read the same Scriptures, and share in the same prayers, we are held together on this Sunday morning.
Let us prepare our hearts and minds to worship the living Lord.
Prelude “He’s Always Been Faithful”
Julie Pearson, Soprano
Call to Worship
Please join in our Call to Worship.
We dream of children who know love and churches with open doors.
We dream of rest and sunny days.
When you dream, what do you dream of?
We dream of peace without walls, and equality for all people.
When you dream, what do you dream of?
We dream of milk and honey, food on tables, and an end to suffering.
We dream of the Church of Jesus Christ serving all God’s people.
Family of God,
This morning, we dream together. This morning, we worship together.
For there is nothing on heaven or on earth strong enough to unravel God’s dreams for us.
Let us worship Holy God.
Amen.
Opening Hymn #394 “Christ is Made the Sure Foundation”
Heasuk Che, Organist
Christ the head and cornerstone,
chosen of the Lord and precious,
binding all the church in one;
holy Zion’s help forever,
and our confidence alone.
come, O Lord of hosts, and stay;
come, with all your loving-kindness;
hear your people as we pray,
and your fullest benediction
shed within these walls today.
what they seek from you to gain;
what they gain from you, forever
with the blessed to retain;
and hereafter in your glory
evermore with you to reign.
laud and honor to the Son,
laud and honor to the Spirit,
ever three and ever one:
one in might and one in glory
while unending ages run!
Westminster Abbey
Prayer of the Day
Our prayer for this day.
Living God, through Jesus Christ you emptied the power of death and gave us the gift of life in fullness. Now fill us with the breath of your Spirit to tell the good news of the gospel: Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.
Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Let us confess our sins before God.
Gracious God,
We do not know the plans you have for us.
We do not know, so we place our children into “good schools.”
We set aside money for days to come.
We keep our fingers crossed and try to control the world around us.
Having faith in the midst of uncertainty has never been easy for us.
Forgive us the moments when we refuse to trust you.
Strengthen us so that when life unravels, we are strong enough to turn to you.
That is our prayer of faith.
(Silence for Reflection)
Amen.
Declaration of Forgiveness
Hear the good news! Who is in a position to condemn?
Only Christ, and Christ died for us, Christ rose for us, Christ reigns in power for us, Christ prays for us. (Romans 8:34) Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. The old life is gone and a new life is begun.
In Jesus Christ we are forgiven!
Children’s Sermon
Brooke Tucker, Director of Faith Formation
Scripture Reading
Moses’ Mother Gives Moses Up So He Can Live. Listen for God speaking to you today.
Sally Smeaton, Lay Reader
Hymn #353 “My Hope is Built on Nothing Less”
Heasuk Che, Organist
than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
all other ground is sinking sand;
all other ground is sinking sand.
I rest on his unchanging grace;
in every high and stormy gale,
my anchor holds within the veil.
[Refrain]
support me in the whelming flood;
when all around my soul gives way,
he then is all my hope and stay.
[Refrain]
O may I then in him be found,
dressed in his righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before the throne.
[Refrain]
Solid Rock
Meditation “Drifting Up River”
Rev Dr Jeffrey Beebe
An Imperfect Ally (Pharaoh’s Daughter Adopts Moses) by Lisle Gwynn Garrity
Inspired by Exodus 1:22, 2:1-10 | acrylic on canvas
Moses’ mother and Miriam plot a clever plan, but it’s far from foolproof. The risks far outweigh their chances for success. What if the basket they place him in leaks, drowning him instead of keeping baby Moses afloat? What if the current gets too strong, or the winds pick up, or he gets stuck in a tangle of reeds? What if the wrong person finds him and fulfills Pharaoh’s command? What if Pharaoh’s daughter is moved with disgust when she sees what floats into her private bathing quarters? Even if Pharaoh’s daughter decides to keep the child as her own, what will keep Pharaoh from killing Moses when she’s not looking?
Their plan is too perilous, too fraught with danger for any infant to endure. And yet, we know of mothers who risk desert heat, fatigue, illness, dehydration, criminalized border crossings, and facilities with cages to pursue the slight chance—the mere hope—of survival for their child. Why would they do this? Because to stay home and succumb to the sure threats of genocide—or gang violence, or civil war—is far more dangerous.
In this image, I gave the viewer the vantage point Pharaoh’s daughter might have had. What melts her heart with mercy when she sees this Hebrew child float downstream? Was a well of rebellion rising up within her, making her eager to subvert her father’s orders? Was she poisoned like most Egyptians with bias against the Israelites, but did the innocence and vulnerability of an infant shift her heart toward love? Had she desperately wanted a child of her own? Regardless of her motives, Pharaoh’s daughter uses her power and privilege to act as an ally to Moses and his family in their worst unraveling. It’s not a perfect solution, but God doesn’t need perfection to achieve liberation.
Affirmation of Faith
Let us affirm our faith.
I believe in God, the Great Sewer—
Who weaves us together in community,
Collecting our loose ends and turning them into belonging.
I believe in the Holy Spirit—
Who hems us in before and behind,
Catching us when we fall and writing us into God’s holy narrative.
And I believe in Jesus Christ—
Who loved and claimed the people society had thrown out, refusing to disregard
Anyone as scrap.
I believe God has woven part of God’s self into the fiber of our being,
Making us inherently worthy of love and belonging.
I believe the fabric of my life is weak,
That I am prone to error and need God’s handiwork to remind me of love.
I believe in the Church, and that like a quilt of different fabrics,
She is designed to be as diverse and beautiful as God’s creation.
And I believe that when life unravels,
God is there to stitch my wounds together,
To hold me in the palm of God’s hand, to tell me of love,
And to invite me into a new journey.
Amen.
— Liturgy by Sara Are, A Sanctified Art
Prayers of the People
The Lord’s Prayer
Let us pray together.
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.
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 utilize online banking options).
You can click the image to the right or this link to give online now. At the online Giving site, select “2020 Pledge” as the Fund to fulfill your 2020 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.
Doxology #606
Heasuk Che, Organist
praise him, all creatures here below;
praise him above, ye heavenly host;
praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Closing Hymn #765 “May the God of Hope Go with Us”
Heasuk Che, Organist
filling all our lives with love and joy and peace.
May the God of justice speed us on our way,
bringing light and hope to every land and race.
singing, share our joy with all;
working for a world that’s new,
faithful when we hear Christ’s call.
Argentina
Benediction
Rev Dr Jeffrey Beebe
Postlude “God Bless America”
Jason Wheeler, Tenor
Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with the light from above
To the oceans white with foam
God bless America, my home sweet home.
God bless America, my home sweet home.
Argentina
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.
ALL COPYRIGHTS ACKNOWLEDGED