Worship at Home for April 12, 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 sermon by Pastor Karen and her husband the Rev. Dr. Michael Granzen, 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. You can also check out the services from 3/15, 3/22, 3/29, and 4/5.
This Sunday the Presbyterian Church (USA) invites us to view and share this 37-minute, standalone Easter worship service, so that we might come together in virtual community on this holiest of days. After watching the service, they invite us to share our joyous expressions of Easter on the Presbyterian Church (USA) Facebook page. Link: http://www.pcusa.org/easter-worship-service/
This Sunday, once again we are connecting as a church body using Zoom video chat. Here’s the schedule and instructions for joining in!
9:30-10:30 - Connect and informal checking in
10:30-11:00 - Prayers of the People & The Lord’s Prayer: Joys and Concerns
[**If you’re newer to Zoom or know that technology can be challenging, try signing on closer to 9:30am so that we can have plenty of time to help you figure it out before Prayers of the People starts. Paula, who helped organize this, will help you!]
To join in the Zoom event on your computer,
THE EASIEST WAY
1. Go to www.zoom.com
2. Click on "Join a Meeting"
3. Enter meeting ID#: 947 130 688 and Click "Join"
4. Follow prompts, including entering your name.
5. Here is a video tutorial that will take you through the steps, if you want to view this first: https://youtu.be/L5zzE-HGQko
NOT AS EASY, UNLESS YOU HAVE EXPERIENCE
1. Click on http://princeton.zoom.us/j/947130688
2. Follow prompts, these can be a bit tricky if you've never used Zoom before.
To join in the Zoom event using your Smartphone/Iphone:
1. Download the Zoom Cloud Meeting app
2. Open the app.
2. Enter meeting ID#: 947 130 688 and Click "Join"
3. Follow prompts, including entering your name
4. Here is a video tutorial that will take you through the steps, if you want to view this first: https://youtu.be/lO206_NezaY
To dial in by phone:
+1 (646) 558 8656 (New York--please note this may be a long-distance call if you are using a landline)
Then at the prompt, enter meeting ID#: 947 130 688
NOTE: You do not need to create a Zoom account to sign into a meeting.
Remembering Easter 2019
Before beginning our service today, let’s take a moment to remember the amazing Easter service from 2019 and celebrate all that God has done and continues to do in and through Westminster!
Opening Songs
Opening Prayer
Loving God,
Even the midst of great pain and death,
We dare to celebrate.
We celebrate that in coming to Earth you gave dignity to our humanity.
In all its frailty
In all its brokenness
In all its mortality
We celebrate that you came not for the healthy but for the sick,
Not for the strong but for the weak.
Not for the ones who have it figured out but for those drowning in questions
Not for the self-sufficient but for the dependent.
We celebrate that in dying you entered into the depths
Of our isolation
Of our loneliness
Of our pain
Of our helplessness
God With Us.
And we celebrate that in rising from the dead you defeated death itself
No more tears
No more disease
No more poverty
No more separation
Here in the midst of tears, disease, poverty, and separation
We celebrate.
We celebrate the Easter that was and the Easter still to come
Maranatha (Lord, come!)
Centering Song
Call to Worship
Praise God with clapping hands;
praise God with hands comforting a child.
Praise God with silent hearts;
praise God with hearts broken for the world.
Praise God with lively guitars;
praise God with soft piano chords.
Praise God with be-bop and hip-hop;
praise God with rhythms that don't stop.
Praise God with a hallelujah chorus;
praise God with a cry of lament.
Praise God with dancing steps;
praise God with feet walking for justice.
Hymns of Adoration
Seeking the Shalom of the City
First, we want to share pictures of some members of our congregation who are serving this city by making sure kids have food each day.
Also 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 all our healthcare workers who face a daunting task ahead and who place themselves in harm’s way in love and service to their community.
Prays for Westminster nurses Rachel and Chiquera both of them are caring for patients with COVID 19.
May God continue to bless the efforts of the Westminster/Capital Area YMCA partnership as we distribute breakfast and lunch Monday-Friday to over 100 youth 18 years and younger, Please pray for more food to be distributed in Trenton on the weekends.
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.
Call to Confession and Reconciliation
When we keep our faults and failures locked safely away, we have no need to confess. But God comes into our hearts when we least expect, so we can be filled with forgiveness, with hope, with peace. Please join me as we pray together, saying,
God of empty tombs and emptier people: when we hesitate to speak of your hope, forgive us, and give us a voice. When we find it difficult to love one another, forgive us, and give us fresh compassion. When we want to stand with the high and mighty, forgive us, and seat us next to the poor and oppressed. When we stay locked behind our fears and doubts, forgive us, and send us out to share you grace. When we cannot believe your Word of new life, forgive us, and fill us with your joy.
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
Christ comes into every shadowed corner of our lives with the light of Easter. Christ comes into the locked rooms of our faults and gifts us with grace and hope.
Christ comes to fill us with peace, so we may proclaim the good news of mercy and forgiveness for all. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Prayer for Illumination
Scripture and Sermon
by
Pastor Karen
Hymn of Response
Prayers of the People
Prayers of the People
This prayer is from the website of the Pacific School of Religion. It is adapted from “A Prayer for Persons Suffering from Ebola”, chausa.org.
A Prayer in the Days of the Coronavirus
As you pray this prayer aloud, imagine that many people are reading it along with you or hearing these words as you read.
Merciful God, hear our fervent prayer for all who suffer the effects of the coronavirus—its infection of sickness, fear, and anxiety.
God, in your mercy:
Hear our prayer.
May those who are infected receive the proper treatment and the comfort of your healing presence. God, in your mercy:
Hear our prayer.
May their caregivers, families and neighbors be shielded from the onslaught of the virus and give solace to those who grieve the loss of loved ones. God, in your mercy:
Hear our prayer.
Calm the anxiety and fear of those who fear its advent and protect those who are most vulnerable to its spread—the marginalized,
the un- and under-insured, the immune-compromised, the elderly. God, in your mercy:
Hear our prayer.
Guide those who strive to develop tests, vaccines, and cure—that their work may limit and conquer the virus and restore communities to wholeness and health. God, in your mercy:
Hear our prayer.
Holy One known by many names, help us rise above fear:
Assure us of your presence when we are fearful.
Calm anxieties with your holy Spirit.
Bring healing to all in need of it.
We ask all this through the intercession of your child, Jesus,
through the Holy Spirit, and in the name of all that is holy, just, and compassionate.
Amen
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven
Hallowed be your 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 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
Jesus, may these gifts we give
Of our money
Of our time
Of our affection
Of our service
Be small ways that we participate in your resurrection life
Which is breaking into the world.
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