The Gift of Love: Marius and Cosette

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Service of Worship

Cantabile in G
Filippo Capocci

Opening Prayer
God of Gods:
We come to worship today to hear your good news,
to hear of faith, hope and love
ringing out from your kingdom.
We know that doubt, fear and hatred
can shake even the strongest.
Shape us into faithful hopeful people,
fill us with your love that passes all understanding.
We pray this together in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Opening Hymn — #189 Fairest Lord Jesus

1. Fairest Lord Jesus Ruler of all nature
O Thou of God and man the Son
Thee will I cherish Thee will I honor
Thou my soul’s glory joy and crown

2. Fair are the meadows fairer still the woodlands
Robed in the blooming garb of spring
Jesus is fairer Jesus is purer
Who makes the woeful heart to sing

3. Fair is the sunshine fairer still the moonlight
And all the twinkling starry host
Jesus shines brighter Jesus shines purer
Than all the angels heav’n can boast

4. Beautiful Saviour Lord of all the nations
Son of God and Son of Man
Glory and honor praise adoration
Now and forevermore be Thine

Fairest Lord Jesus
Joseph August Seiss | Richard Storrs Willis
Public Domain

Scripture Reading — 1 Corinthians 13 (NRSV)

1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast,a but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly,a but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Children’s Time with Ms Becky

Announcements, Joys and Concerns, and Pastoral Prayer

Pastoral Prayer

Bless, O God, all creation.
The sun that rises every morning
and clouds that bring us rain
and the moon in the dark night sky.
Bless us that we may be a blessing
to all we meet.

Heal us, O God, from all
that ails us—illness, dis-ease,
despair, hunger, thirst, all.
Heal us and all creation.

Bless the leaders of nations
fill them with wisdom.
Bless the leaders of cities
and towns that all
can work in unity
for the wellbeing
of everyone, all
creation.

Help us, O God to be
your disciples. To listen
with open ears and heal
with open hearts.
Help us, O God to be
your disciples.
Amen.

Invitation to the Offering
Giving is not a casual act—
it relates God’s work to our work.
Peter writes:
“as each has received a gift,
employ it for one another,
as good stewards of God’s varied grace,
that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.”

Let us give as people
whose work is inextricably linked to God’s great works
of creation, redemption and empowerment.

Offering Our Gifts to the Lord
For those who are called and able, gifts and tithes can still be made through online giving, by mailing them in, and by dropping them off to the office through the secure mail slot to the left of the double door entry to the church hallway.

Offertory — Marshall & Richard

Because He Lives
Gloria Gaither | William J. Gaither
© 1971 Hanna Street Music
Used by Permission. CCLI License # 656051

Doxology

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.

Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow (Old 100th)
Louis Bourgeois | Thomas Ken
Public Domain

Offertory Prayer

Almighty God,
giver of every good and perfect gift,
teach us to give to you all that we have and all that we are,
that we may praise you not with our words only,
but with our whole lives.

Sermon – Pastor Stacy Dickson
The Hungry Fantine

Closing Hymn — #408 Jesu, Jesu

1. Though I may speak with bravest fire
And have the gift to all inspire
And have not love my words are vain
As sounding brass and hopeless gain

2. Though I may give all I possess
And striving so my love profess
But not be given by love within
The profit soon turns strangely thin

3. Come Spirit come our hearts control
Our spirits long to be made whole
Let inward love guide every deed
By this we worship and are freed

Benediction

Go now into the world,
inspired by the extravagant love of God.
Live generously, with open hands,
loving one another as if your lives depended on it.
Be good stewards of the gifts you have received,
so that God may be glorified in all that you say and do.

And may the abundant love of God surround you,
may the extravagant grace of Jesus Christ sustain you,
and may the constant presence of the Holy Spirit
inspire and encourage you in every good deed and word. Amen.

Postlude – Hani

Fantasia on “Duke Street”
Arr. David Paxton

CCLI Streaming Licence: CSPL052773