Prelude Nocturne in F Minor Frederic Chopin (1810-1840)
Congregational Welcome
Call to Worship
*Opening Hymn (insert) O God How We Have Wandered
*Prayer of Invocation and Nurture
One voice: Listen to the psalmist from Psalm 63: “O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water… Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you… My souls is satisfied as with a rich feast… answer our need by helping us to find and follow you.” Let us pray to the God who finds and fills us.
All: Creator God, all through Lent we seek ways to follow you. But then we hear that ‘surely goodness and mercy shall follow us, all the days of our life.’ We hear that you are the one who follows us, all along. This day we pray that our worship clears the way for all of us to go in the same direction. We pray that you feed us and that we feed your sheep and then all shall be well, all shall be well, all manner of thing shall be well. Amen.
The Hebrew Bible Isaiah 55: 1-9
The Children’s Time
Children proceed downstairs to our mission project (sung twice, as a round)
Go with us, Jesus, guide the way, *through this and every coming day,
That in your Spirit strong and true, our lives may be our gift to you.
The Gospel Reading Luke 13: 1-9
Choral Anthem Create in Me a Clean Heart Thomas Keesecker
The Morning Meditation the Rev. Kenneth F. Baily
Prayer and Lord’s Prayer (“Our father and mother, who art… trespasses…”)
*Hymn (insert) Come to Tend God’s Garden
*Benediction
*Choral Response Amen
Postlude Elegie Mykola Lysenko (1842-1912)
* Those who are able please stand
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Changes in the sanctuary: This month we are moving the organ back to the loft.
As with so many things, it is a supply chain issue. We see them during Lent and understand that they’ll be installed by Easter. Gone already are
some of the ropes in the pews. We will still be wise and thoughtful
about spacing ourselves, and during this time of covid caution we seek safe congregational assembly. To care for one another we wear masks
(except for worship leaders at times) and our leaders are vaccinated.
But you may notice that our worship is adding back a few more traditional
bits, and it is good to worship together and to celebrate that things are improving.
We have a touch-free offering today. You may leave a gift in the basket, deliver an envelope after worship, go online, or any touch-free method you wish.
Thanks to worship leaders Kenneth Baily, Wendy Donnell, Lynd Matt,
Yevgenia Semeina, Melissa Dietrich, Joy Huber, Isabelle Draper
NHCC is an Open and Affirming, Still Speaking congregation where all are welcome regardless of the divisions or separations that some in society would impose: whoever you are you are welcome in God’s house. “In Christ we are a new creation,” so we are blessed to be together in Christ’s name.
Newton Highlands Congregational Church, UCC
54 Lincoln Street, Newton, MA
www.nhcc.net 617 527 3898
Morning Meditations:
“A deep distress hath humanized my soul.”
— William Wordsworth
“An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
“In the face of uncertainty there is nothing wrong with hope.”
— Stephanie Matthews-Simonton