We are trying something new. This is our virtual service for FPCU. You will see that this post looks similar to a bulletin but with media. Please worship along with Pastor Dan, Kris Alling, Marvin Pritts and music from Joe Pepper and the Weaver Family Singers.
Prelude
Announcements
Walk To Emmaus Dialogue Preview of today’s Gospel Lesson
Dan: I felt such a fool.
Kris: You may have felt a fool. I looked a fool. All the talking we did with him.
Dan. “Have you been hiding somewhere?“
Kris “Do you know nothing of what happened?“
Dan: How could we not have known?
Kris: I can’t believe we didn’t recognize him.
Dan: Until the bread was broken!
Kris: Yes, until he broke the bread.
Dan: Then all of the heaven’s light released in those eyes.
Kris: And his voice echoed round us as if we were sitting admits heavens mountains.
Dan: And we stared.
Kris: Silenced.
Dan: In awe.
Kris: Shocked.
Dan: Comforted.
To: Amazed.
Dan: Reassured.
Kris: Astonished.
Dan: Loved.
Kris: Yes, loved.
Dan: I still felt a fool.
Kris: And I know I looked a fool.
Dan: It won’t be the first time.
Kris: Let’s go and tell the others.
Dan: Good morning and welcome to this virtual worship on the Lords day, April 26 in the year of our Lord, 2020, provided by the First Presbyterian Church of Ulysses in Trumansburg New York.
Dan: I want to welcome and to thank this morning Ms. Kris Ailling, clerk of session of the Presbyterian Church. Good morning Kris. Thank you for the opening preview of our Gospel lesson from the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 24 done in modern dialogue.
Kris: Good morning and you are welcome, Pastor Dan, and good morning to you those are tuned in to this virtual worship service. We are glad that you joined us even if it means that we are all in this forced pause.
Kris: Here’s what’s happening at church:
| (Continued by Kris: “The Caring and Benevolence Committee is keeping contact with various people in our church family who live alone, have health issues, do not have internet access, cannot get out, etc. They are calling them to visit, writing notes, taking food, sharing sayings and ideas, take printed copies of e-news, and offer support when and where needed. Some are also making face masks for medical facilities and friends, working at Loaves and Fishes, working at the Food Pantry, teaching on line, etc.
They include Carol MacLeod, Judy Riley, Carolyn Lange, Maureen Shallish, Pam Postle, Jeannette Little, and Ginny Miller. These connections are helpful to all of us. Unknown others are doing similar caring. Give us a call if others would like contact or want to share. |
Dan: We invite anyone who is interested to join our adult Sunday Studies group on Sunday 4-26-2020 at 9:15 a.m. by simply clicking on the following link: ZOOM. ZOOM Class – Sunday, 9:15 a.m. -10 a.m. It is a phenomenal format, and so easy you’ll wonder why you didn’t join sooner. A new course subject is coming for the month of May. Stay tuned.
| Kris: Yes, we still have church expenses. Yes, we still have wonderful people who are sending in their donations/pledges the old- fashioned snail mail way. We are looking into setting up an on line process but have not made that step yet. We will keep you posted. In the mean time we would appreciate your donation being sent to Post Office Box 597, Trumansburg, NY 14886. We are checking the mail and the physical church on a routine basis.
Kris: LOAVES AND FISHES efforts have more than doubled in the last few weeks and so have expenses. Many of the guests we serve are not going home to eat where they may have the utensils available. We are feeding folks in motels in quarantine, folks in the JUNGLE, other homeless and shelter folks as well. |
Dan: Hey Kris, have you heard the church bells?
Kris: Yes, I have. They ring Sundays at 11:00 to let us know that we are here
in spirit and care. Speaking of which, for any pastoral emergencies and Prayer requests please contact Kristin Parry at 1-315-283-3137.
Dan: This ends the news and announcements for the First Presbyterian Church of Ulysses. Please continue to worship with us by clicking on the arrow button for the Call to Worship. Now let us be church.
*CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: The bell calls in the town
Where forebear(ers) cleared the shaded land
People: And brought high daylight down
To shine on field and trodden road.
Leader: We hear, and understand, and come into church.
People: We leave labor and load,
Take up a different story.
Leader: We keep an inventory
Of wonders and of uncommercial goods.
People: We go in pilgrimage
Across old fenced boundaries
To wildness without age
Leader: We leave work’s daily rule
And come here to this restful place
Where music stirs the pool
And from high stations of the air
People: We let go our hopes and plans
That no toil can perfect.
Leader: There is here a vision of a mute blessedness,
Exceeding all distress, The fresh light stained a hundred shades of many hues.
People: Uproar of wheel and fire
That has contained us like a cell
Opens and lets us hear
A stillness longer than all time
Leader: This is no human vision
Subject to our revision; it is much more.
All: Let us worship God.
*HYMN#231 “Christ has Risen While Earth Slumbers”
Prayer of Confession and Forgiveness
Leader: God of Moses and the prophets, we may stand and profess our faith with voices that are strong and sure, but we confess that your saving ways are greater than our minds can grasp. You meet us where we are, O God.
One: May our hearts burn with your truth.
Two: And our eyes be open to your presence.
Leader: O God, in this Easter season our mouths are filled with alleluia‘s, but we confess that the reality of resurrection is a mystery. The permanence of destruction and death strikes a chord as we embrace new life in Christ. Yet, you meet us where we are.
One: May our hearts burn with your truth.
Two: And our eyes be open to your presence.
Leader: O God, daily you give us the benefits of salvation, everlasting love, healing grace, and the presence of your spirit. Instead of recognizing these gifts, we sometimes move along a path of suffering and despair. Yet, you meet us where we are.
One: May or heartburn with your truth.
Two: And our eyes be open to your presence.
Assurance of Pardon
The Affirmation of Faith
“All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.”
If we invoke as Father or Mother, the one who judges all people and partially according to their days, live in reverent awe during the time of our exile. We know that we were ransomed from the funeral ways inherited from our ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. Through Him we have come to trust in God who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that our faith and our hope is set on God. Now that we have purified our souls by our obedience in the truth. We have genuine mutual love; therefore, let us love one another deeply from the heart.”
1 Peter 1:17-22
*HYMN #500 “Be Known to Us in Breaking Bread”
Old Testament Reading
Lamentations 1:1 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
1 How lonely sits the city
that once was full of people!
How like a widow she has become,
she that was great among the nations!
She that was a princess among the provinces
has become a vassal.
HYMN#829 “My Faith Looks Up to Thee”
New Testament Reading
Luke 24:5b-35a The Message (MSG)
5bThen, out of nowhere it seemed, two men, light cascading over them, stood there. The women were awestruck and bowed down in worship. The men said, “Why are you looking for the Living One in a cemetery? He is not here, but raised up. Remember how he told you when you were still back in Galilee that he had to be handed over to sinners, be killed on a cross, and in three days rise up?” Then they remembered Jesus’ words.
9-11 They left the tomb and broke the news of all this to the Eleven and the rest. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them kept telling these things to the apostles, but the apostles didn’t believe a word of it, thought they were making it all up.
12 But Peter jumped to his feet and ran to the tomb. He stooped to look in and saw a few grave clothes, that’s all. He walked away puzzled, shaking his head.
13-16 That same day two of them were walking to the village Emmaus, about seven miles out of Jerusalem. They were deep in conversation, going over all these things that had happened. In the middle of their talk and questions, Jesus came up and walked along with them. But they were not able to recognize who he was.
17-18 He asked, “What’s this you’re discussing so intently as you walk along?”
They just stood there, long-faced, like they had lost their best friend. Then one of them, his name was Cleopas, said, “Are you the only one in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard what’s happened during the last few days?”
19-24 He said, “What has happened?”
They said, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene. He was a man of God, a prophet, dynamic in work and word, blessed by both God and all the people. Then our high priests and leaders betrayed him, got him sentenced to death, and crucified him. And we had our hopes up that he was the One, the One about to deliver Israel. And it is now the third day since it happened. But now some of our women have completely confused us. Early this morning they were at the tomb and couldn’t find his body. They came back with the story that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. Some of our friends went off to the tomb to check and found it empty just as the women said, but they didn’t see Jesus.”
25-27 Then he said to them, “So thick-headed! So slow-hearted! Why can’t you simply believe all that the prophets said? Don’t you see that these things had to happen, that the Messiah had to suffer and only then enter into his glory?”
Sermon “Our Wild and Wonderful God Might Sidle Up to Us Anywhere”
Pastoral Prayer
THE LORD’S 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; Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Prayer of Dedication
*HYMN #606 “Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow”
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise God, all creatures here below;
Praise God above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Amen.
The Benediction
Postlude
“Call to Worship is adapted from The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry and is reprinted with permission of the author and Counterpoint Press.”
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