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CHURCH SERVICES at the UNITED CHURCH of LUDLOW are shared ELECTRONICALLY Contact [email protected] or call 802-228-4211 for more information. _________________________________________________________________________ If you are comfortable attending in person, please join us. The doors open at 9:45 am, and worship begins at 10:00 am. We follow procedures to minimize the risk of exposure. Please read and follow those procedures for the safety of all. If you are not able to attend in person, a simultaneous Zoom stream is available. Send an email to [email protected] to get Zoom access. _________________________________________________________________________ ANNOUNCEMENTS We wish to thank Rev. Christine Boardman for leading our worship service this morning and throughout the Lenten Season A Warm Welcome to All Visitors If any member of the congregation may be of service to you, please contact the church office at 802-228-4211 or [email protected]. Regarding Individuals in the Hospital or Sick at Home It would be greatly appreciated if you know of individuals or family members in the hospital or sick at home, to kindly inform the church office at 802-228-4211 or [email protected]. Upcoming Meetings/Events Executive Board - Wednesday, March 24, 7:00 pm Weekly Offerings Offerings and other cash receipts for the week ending on March 14 were $735. The costs for each week are $1,320 (derived by dividing the annual budget by 2 weeks). Please continue to mail your offerings to our Receiver of Offerings, Anne Oakes, at 145 Merrill Road, Ludlow, Vermont 05149. Altar Guild Linda Alexander and Carol Wu provide Altar Guild services. Prayer Concerns We continue to keep the following in our prayers: James Almond, Terry DeYoung, Arthur Marin, Kathy Doyle, Rick Doyle, Mindy Doyle, Judy Edwards, Jean Eggleston, Carolyn Gauthier, Sheila Kafer, Susan Kneebone, Ginny Kottkamp, Anne Oakes, Evelyn Tucker, Herb Van Guilder, and Evelyn Verro. Celebrations Dalene Behrens celebrates a birthday on March 22nd Brenda Dansingburg celebrates a birthday on March 30th Let’s Say Thank You in a Big Way Have you ever noticed when you arrive at the church in the winter, the driveway is always plowed? For as many years as we can remember Wayne Hammond has plowed the parking area at our church. He has never charged us for his services. It is his donation to the church. We think it is way past time to thank him for his generosity. Let’s put together a gift basket for him with gift certificates, gift cards, homemade goodies, jams, syrups or whatever else you think would be appropriate. You can leave it in the church in the designated box on the table in the social hall or call George or Linda and they will come to you to pick it up. ECCO Lenten Bible Study in March Diane Holme invites you to a Lenten Bible Study organized by the ECCO group, which continues today and next Sunday at 12:30 pm. To join the Bible Study Group, click the following link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82274055795?pwd=UVZJRzlhcXVoYWdvbmFJREJTSDNEZz09 or join the meeting using your Zoom App with Meeting ID: 822 7405 5795 and Passcode: 810856 or using your phone, the one tap mobile number is +13017158592,,82274055795#,,,,*810856# _________________________________________________________________________ March 21, 2021 10:00 A.M. Service of Worship Fifth Sunday In Lent PRELUDE (All are encouraged to use the prelude as a quiet time of meditation in preparation for the worship service which follows.) ANNOUNCEMENTS AND GREETING The grace of our LORD Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Corinthians 13: 13) And also with you. CALL TO WORSHIP Let us gather to worship. O God, we wish to see Jesus! We come to worship, to pray, and learn. We come looking for Jesus in Scripture lessons, in our own life experiences, in helping our world, in prayers for each other. We seek to follow in the way of Jesus. We lay bare before God and one another our own wilderness journey filled with some gladness and hope, with reluctance and sorrow, with fear and confusion. O God, speak to us, show us, touch us with your presence! Let our Lenten journey lead us to Jesus, so that we may show Jesus forth in our lives, our faith community, and our world. Amen. HYMN * 153 Thou Hidden Source of Calm Repose INVOCATION God of the journey, you invite us, the church, “to accept the cost and joy of discipleship” and “to be your servants in the service of others.” In so doing, may your presence be our guide and Jesus our model. May we respond to you in loving faithfulness. Amen. PRAYER OF CONFESSION God, you seek us and we flee. You offer us an easy yoke, and we tie ourselves with cares and burdens. You forgive us, and we hoard our complaints against our brothers and sisters. Give us conversion that turns us into the light; teach us a repentance alive in works of love; lead us into the narrow path; guide us through the valley of the shadow. Call us to follow Jesus Christ and in his way to live and suffer, die and rise again. Amen. SILENCE ASSURANCE OF PARDON READING OF SCRIPTURE HEBREW TESTAMENT Jeremiah 31:31-34 PSALM 51:1-17 pp.785-786 Response 2 GLORIA 70* Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Amen. THE GOSPEL LESSON John 12:20-33 SERMON “We wish to see Jesus” HYMN * 592 When the Church of Jesus JOYS AND CONCERNS PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE The Lord be with you. And also with you. Let us pray. LORD’S PRAYER (“trespasses”) PRAYER RESPONSE Hymnal, No. 473 Lead me, Lord, lead me in thy righteousness; Make thy way plain before my face. For it is thou, Lord, thou, Lord only, That makest me dwell in safety. CALL TO OFFERING OFFERTORY DOXOLOGY * At the Presentation, Hymn 95* Old 100th Praise God from whom all blessings flow; Praise him, all creatures here below; Praise him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen. PRAYER OF DEDICATION * God, there are many who “wish to see Jesus.” In joy and celebration of the many gifts that we share, we ask you to bless all of our offerings. May Jesus shine in all the world. Amen. CLOSING HYMN * 586 Let My People Seek Their Freedom BENEDICTION AND BLESSING* BENEDICTION RESPONSE DISMISSAL Go in peace to love and serve the Lord. Thanks be to God. POSTLUDE * All who are able may stand. Lyrics to the Hymns and Responsive Reading for the March 21 Service HYMN * 153 Thou Hidden Source of Calm Repose Thou hidden source of calm repose, thou all-sufficient love divine, my help and refuge from my foes, secure I am if thou art mine; and lo! from sin and grief and shame I hide me, Jesus, in thy name. Thy mighty name salvation is, and keeps my happy soul above; comfort it brings, and power and peace, and joy and everlasting love; to me with thy dear name are given pardon and holiness and heaven. Jesus, my all in all thou art, my rest in toil, my ease in pain, the healing of my broken heart, in war my peace, in loss my gain, my smile beneath the tyrant's frown, in shame my glory and my crown, In want my plentiful supply, in weakness my almighty power, in bonds my perfect liberty, my light in Satan's darkest hour, in grief my joy unspeakable, my life in death, my heaven in hell. HYMN * 592 When the Church of Jesus When the church of Jesus shuts its outer door, lest the roar of traffic drown the voice of prayer, may our prayers, Lord, make us ten times more aware that the world we banish is our Christian care. If our hearts are lifted where devotion soars high above this hungry, suffering world of ours, lest our hymns should drug us to forget its needs, forge our Christian worship into Christian deeds. Lest the gifts we offer, money, talents, time, serve to salve our conscience, to our secret shame, Lord, reprove, inspire us by the way you give; teach us, dying Savior, how true Christians live. CLOSING HYMN * 586 Let My People Seek Their Freedom “Let my people seek their freedom in the wilderness awhile, from the slave pens of the Delta, from the ghettos on the Nile”: So God spoke from out of Sinai, so God spoke and it was done, and a people crossed the waters toward the rising of the sun. “Let my people seek their freedom in the wilderness awhile, from the aging shrines and structures, from the cloister and the aisle”: so the Son of God has spoken, and the storm clouds are unfurled, for God’s people must be scattered to be servants in the world. When we murmur on the mountains for the old Egyptian plains, when we miss our ancient bondage, and the hope, the promise, wanes; then the rock shall yield its water and the manna fall by night, and with visions of a future shall we march toward the light. In the maelstrom of the nations, in the journeying into space, in the clash of generations, in the hungering for grace, in the agony and glory, we are called to newer ways by the Lord of our tomorrows and the God of earth’s todays. PSALM 51:1-17 pp.785-786 Response   Comments are closed.
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