ROWAYTON UNITED METHODIST CHURCH ONLINE SERVICE OF WORSHIP AND PRAISE 6th Sunday of Easter Mother’s Day May 9, 2021 10 A.M. PRELUDE • You are invited to join us for a time of gathering music and centering before worship during the Prelude, which starts at 9:50am. • Our morning worship begins with the welcome at 10:01am. WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS • You are invited to submit announcements and prayer requests via zoom’s chat function. • You have pastoral permission to bring your morning coffee to worship with you. • Sheet music for the hymns is at the end of the bulletin. CALL TO WORSHIP The Spirit is coming to bless us all with a new song: Let our joy be complete! Gifts for the good of all, poured out on all to teach us a new song: Love one another! Strangers and neighbors, foreigners and family will join in the new song: No longer servants but friends! See what love has been given to us, that we should be called children of God. By this we know love, that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, and lived and died, that God’s love might be made plain among us. Therefore, beloved, let us not love in word or in speech but indeed and in truth. Because we love one another, we know that we have passed from death into life. 1 This is the victory that overcomes the world, through Jesus our risen Christ. Come, let our worship make a joyful noise, Rejoicing in the friendship of God. HYMN OF PRAISE BLESSED ASSURANCE. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine Heir of salvation, purchase of God Born of His spirit, washed in His blood. Refrain This is my story this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long; this is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, perfect delight visions of rapture now burst on my sight; angels descending bring from above echos of mercy, whispers of love. Refrain This is my story this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long; this is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, all is at rest; I in my Savior, am happy and blest. Watching and waiting, looking above Filled with His goodness, lost in His love. Refrain This is my story this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long; this is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. OPENING PRAYER Lord, we are gathered here today as one body, because you chose to call us your friends. We come from all walks of life. Eternal God, in these moments of quiet we thank you for your presence in our lives. We thank you for all of the testimonies of your profound love for your children. We especially thank you this day for the holy one Jesus. We thank you for his humility. We thank you that rather than elevating himself above us he instead would lift us up and as with his disciples call us “friends.” We thank you for his many reminders that we are to love one another. But we confess that we have great difficulty following his command to love. We have had our share of good days and bad days. In the world’s eye, we aren't good enough or worthy enough to have this bond; but in your sight, we are exactly who you need. Despite all the drama, we made it here to worship and praise your name. May the love we experience today in worship restore us, revive us, refresh us. God, use our broken selves as tools of hope and love on this day. Lord, we love you. Thank you for loving us and calling us your friends. It's in your name, we pray. Let us now come together in the prayer the Lord taught us, saying: 2 THE LORDS 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 trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. PASSING THE PEACE We have altered or removed many familiar parts of our worship together, but let us not lose sight of what we have retained: the saints of the Rowayton United Methodist Church. You are invited to look around the room, to make eye contact with someone, and to offer them a sign of peace, a friendly wave, or some other form of greeting. CHILDREN’S MESSAGE PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION Jesus our Guide, you explained the scriptures and revealed yourself to the disciples at Emmaus. Now, by your Spirit, enlighten our minds to understand their witness and ignite our hearts to receive you at the table. Amen. SCRIPTURE READING: EPISTLE 1 John 5:1-6 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth. SCRIPTURE READING: GOSPEL John 15: 9-17 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. 3 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. MESSAGE Rev. J. Michael Cobb INVITATION TO THE OFFERING In following the example of Jesus, we are to love one another deeply from the heart, With assurance that we have been born anew through the living and enduring word of God. In our giving today, let us give, not out of obligation, but from the heart. Let our gifts be seeds of the living and enduring word of God, that will sprout in abundance of justice and hope all that is necessary for life, for friends here at hand, and around the world. OFFERING • Your offering and tithes keep RUMC strong, our ministries and outreach vibrant, and fund everything we do in our community for the Kingdom of God. o You are able to make your offering on the RUMC web site. There is a big button at the top right of every page of the website that brings you to https://www.rowaytonumc.org/give for credit card giving. o You can also mail in your cash or check or drop them off at the church. o Either way, your offering is an important part of keeping RUMC strong as we work to grow in Christ and minister to our community. AN OFFERING OF MUSIC FROM BILL AND BRANDI HAYDEN GLORIA PATRIA 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. OFFERTORY PRAYER AND PASTORAL PRAYER God of unimaginable love, we have known of your caring since we were babies in our mother’s arms. We have been told the stories of your love, and we have sung songs about your love. These things bring us comfort. What challenges us is the command of Jesus, “As I have loved you, so you should love one another” – not just those who think as we do, pray as we do, and look the way that we do. Help us, through our giving, our living and our loving, to live up to the challenge of loving as you would have us love. In the name of our risen Savior, we pray. Amen. 4 CLOSING HYMN Victory in Jesus I heard an old, old story, how a saviour came from glory How He gave His life on Calvary to save a wretch like me; I heard about His groaning, of his precious blood's atoning, Then I repented of my sins and won the victory.