Worship at Home for March 15, 2020
Due to the spread of Covid-19, we are taking a sabbatical from our normal Sunday morning gathering, but unity and community are more important than ever before in this season of uncertainty. To help facilitate this, we are providing a liturgy, complete with embedded songs and a meditation from Rev. Patti Daley, so that, one in heart, we can worship together even as we maintain distance out of love for our neighbors. This is designed to be used on your own or together as a family or community. We hope this resource is a blessing to you. Remember to check in on friends and neighbors with calls or text, especially the elderly among us and others who are particularly vulnerable.
Opening Songs
Opening Prayer
Loving God,
In these times of uncertainty, we remember that you are God alone.
So many things are outside of our control, but you are God.
Many things worry and concern us, but you are God.
So many things that are familiar are changing so rapidly, but you are God.
We do not know where all this is heading, but you are God.
In these times of uncertainty, we want to follow you, to trust in you, to love you and to love our neighbors in Your name.
Help us to trust you, and give us the courage that comes from trust.
Amen.
Centering Song
Call to Worship
Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth.
We glorify our God with songs of thanksgiving and joy.
God has done great things for us, filling us with grace.
God fed our ancestors in the wilderness, God clothes us with hope.
We will offer our hearts to God, always saying, 'Thank you!'
to the One who loves us.
We will sing our praises, shouting of God's presence in our lives.
Hymns of Adoration
Seeking the Shalom of the City
During this time, we encourage you to pray for friends and family, neighbors, our city, our country, and the world. Particularly keep in mind those who are most vulnerable during this time: the elderly and immuno-compromised who are particularly vulnerable to infection, the poor who are particularly vulnerable economically as daycares and businesses close, and those without healthcare coverage.
Pray also for our healthcare workers who face a daunting task ahead and who place themselves in harm’s way in love and service to their community.
Finally, take a moment to listen for the voice of God. How is God inviting you to seek the shalom of the city in light of the spreading corona virus? Perhaps there is someone who God is calling you to check in on, perhaps a text or call with encouragement for someone who is suffering, perhaps a donation to an organization on the front lines. Listen for God’s invitation and make plans to respond in love and obedience.
This prayer by Cameron Bellm (shared on Facebook) helps us enter into the posture we ought to have as Jesus followers:
May we who are merely inconvenienced
Remember those whose lives are at stake.
May we who have no risk factors
Remember those most vulnerable.
May we who have the luxury of working from home
Remember those who must choose between preserving their health or making their rent.
May we who have the flexibility to care for our children when their schools close
Remember those who have no options.
May we who have to cancel our trips
Remember those that have no safe place to go.
May we who are losing our margin money in the tumult of the economic market
Remember those who have no margin at all.
May we who settle in for a quarantine at home
Remember those who have no home.
As fear grips our country,
Let us choose love.
During this time when we cannot physically wrap our arms around each other,
Let us yet find ways to be the loving embrace of God to our neighbors.
Amen.
Call to Confession and Reconciliation
We wonder what's for lunch, we worry about work tomorrow, we fret about the test that is coming up. So much worry, so much time wasted over things we cannot control. The One who showers earth with rain, who places the stars in the autumn sky, is the same One who wraps mercy tight around you, who feeds us on healing and hope. Let us confess how our worries keep us from trusting the God who hears us and restores us to new life. Please join me as we pray,
Because we live in this modern, tech-driven, twittering age, we often forget what you have done for us, God of every blessing. We pat ourselves on the back for our ability to learn new computer skills, but have forgotten that life is more than a machine. We have more than we could ever use yet, like squirrels, store up more and more. Our faith is often pushed to the back of the closet, to make room for all the fears we wear so easily.
Forgive us, Restorer of life. As you clothe us with your grace and mercy, may we share with those who have so little. As you feed us with your joy and hope, may we welcome to the Table all those who lives are filled with tears and pain. As we gather with family and friends during this season, may we continue to give thanks for the gift of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
Take a few moments to confess your sins to God and to entrust to God those things that are causing you anxiety.
Assurance of Pardon
This is the good news: as God dresses creation in wonder, so you will be clothed in grace; as God pours out abundance upon the earth, so you will be blessed with peace and joy.
We don't say it often enough, but thanks be to God for healing, for life, for wonder, for mercy. We are blessed, for we are forgiven. Amen.
Prayer for Illumination
Meditation by Rev. Patti Daley
Luke 12:22-26
22 Jesus said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! 25 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?[a] 26 If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest?
Wait a minute, Jesus! These are anxious days! It feels like the world is collapsing! A horrible virus is on the loose. Everything is being closed or cancelled or postponed, even our churches. Many of us have to stay home from work to care for children who would usually be in school. Some of us work on an hourly basis. What are we to do if we can’t work? Where will next month’s rent come from? Who will care for us if we become ill? Where can we hide? Please notice us, Jesus. These are scary times!
Surely we are trying to trust these words of Jesus, but---- !!! If we can remember the cleansing waters of our baptisms … If we can feel the breath of the Living God’s spirit upon us, perhaps we can receive and believe the amazing gift being given to us by Jesus. He is telling us that dwelling on our fears won’t make us live one day longer. Jesus wants to set us free from the power of fear to control our thoughts and our lives. He is telling us that anxiety about our bodies and our health won't make us one bit healthier or stronger. If anything, as modern science is quick to tell us, anxiety will shorten our days.
Jesus is telling us that there is so much more to life, so much more that we are missing by being anxious. Life is not passing us by. We are passing life by, passing up on the real life that is available. So Jesus turns our heads away from our worrying. He leads us by the hand in another direction, toward that which gets forgotten and submerged under the weight of anxiety. He turns us toward the amazing love of God. He points out the bounty of God's goodness. He invites us into the absolute trustworthiness of God's care.
But a good deal of the time when we should be mindful of God’s goodness and care, what are we doing. We are worrying! We are torn apart and distracted by anxiety. Anxiety tell us we should be in control of the situation but aren’t. Anxiety tells us that our lives are falling apart and that we must hold everything together even though we feel we can’t. Anxiety is the enemy of a grateful heart. It distracts us from the mindful remembrance of the gift of life.
So what are we to do with this Jesus who says we cannot add one cubit, not one inch to the length of our days by worrying. Here he comes! Here he comes to us in our worst moments and our awful days and messy weeks and says "I tell you, do not be anxious."
Dare we let go of our belief that we can save our lives by worrying about them? Dare we remember Who it is that saves our lives - though we cannot?
Jesus, as he always has, calls us to repent. The root of Repent means to turn ourselves in God’s holy direction, away from our old ways and distracting anxieties and toward a confident, active trust in God. And the new direction? It is the one that always points us toward this realm of God which is present in this Now and Not Yet.
You can be sure that what Jesus is calling us to is more than a "power of positive thinking" attitude. As we might expect, his word is far more radical than that.
The first people to hear these words of Jesus lived in a time of struggle and danger. They knew the reality of terror in a world which demanded absolute loyalty to whichever Roman emperor was in power. He was not offering happy talk in a secure setting, he was not suggesting that troubles would evaporate. Rather, Jesus was offering freedom from fear and anxiety to a people who might otherwise be paralyzed and incapable of action.
So it is with our lives, if we are not anxious about them, we are more ready to give our lives away. And that is the radical of word of this entire text. That is radical word of Jesus' life!
Jesus offers all who hear his words a choice and a challenge. Will we live lives governed by fear and worry and anxiety? Will we hide out and hold on to our concerns? Or will we live freely and trusting in love that we can then give to others? May it be so in the days ahead.
Let us pray:
O God, you take care of us in so many ways. You are our rock and our refuge, our safety and our surety. Help us to truly believe that truth. Give us the ability to step back from our frantic, fearful anxieties so that we may let go of them. Remind us that, in Jesus, you have shown us our lives are saved. Turn us away from ourselves and toward others who live in fear and anxiety and deep need.. Hear our silent prayers for others.
Hymn of Response
Prayers of the People
In the form below, you can share your joys and concerns. We’ll compile them and share the list by email so that we can all be praying with each other as a church family. If you have pastoral or practical needs that you’d like to share privately, you can email Pastor Karen at karisuhg@aol.com.
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven
Hallowed be your name
Your kingdom come, your 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 yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever
Amen
Offering
Even as we are unable to gather for our Sunday morning worship services, many of the church’s expenses remain the same, and now more than ever we want to have the resources to bless the community around us. Your gracious donation will ensure that Westminster continues to Seek the Shalom of the Capital City of Trenton and beyond.
Westminster can receive donations via a simple text:
Text to 609-438-8828 the word “Give”
Westminster’s online giving number will respond asking how much you’d like to give, and steps to follow
Westminster can receive donations online:
Westminster can receive donations by check:
Westminster Presbyterian Church
PO Box 3719
Trenton, NJ 08629
Prayer of Dedication
God of the birds and the lilies,
You always provide for us.
In these times when so many live in fear,
We cast our cares upon you.
Would you make us to be a people who live generously
So that the world could see our love and know that you love them.
Through Christ our Lord
Amen.
Closing Song
Benediction
The Lord be with you
And also with you
La paz de Dios sea con-ti-go
Y tam-bien con-ti-go
Sa-wa-bona
Si-ko-na
Pyeong-hwa
Pyeong-hwa