Watchword for the Week
“How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!” (Psalm 139:17)
(Moravian Daily Texts 2015)
ORGAN PRELUDE
WELCOME and CALL to WORSHIP
(Verses from Psalm 139)
Lord, you have examined me and you know me.
You know my sitting down and my rising up;
from far away you discern all my thoughts.
You search out my path and my resting place;
and you are acquainted with all my ways:
Even before a word is on my tongue,
O Lord, you know it completely.
You are all round me on every side;
you protect me with your power.
Your knowledge of me is so deep;
it is beyond my understanding.
For you yourself created my inmost parts; you
knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will
thank you because I am marvelously made;
your works are wonderful, and I know it well.
How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
I try to count them – they are more than the
sand. I come to an end – I am still with you.
Hymn 97 O God, you search me
OPENING PRAYER
God, you know us better than we know
ourselves. Help us to remember that we
are awesomely and wonderfully made.
There are times when all I can see are my
failings and my shortcomings – the ways in
which I fall short of the person I want to be.
You welcome the stranger, the outcast –
those who are so often overlooked.
Remind us of your love for all people.
It is so easy to dismiss those who we have
been taught have little to offer, finding it hard
to believe they have anything of value to
contribute.
You call us into a unity of care and compassion,
of love and justice. Help us to let go of those
limited and selfish desires that keep us
separated from one another.
We are drawn to those things that give us
immediate pleasure, but all too easily
overlook the harm we do to ourselves, to our
community, and your creation when our
focus is on satisfying our own needs and
desires.
You walk this earth with a vision of heaven in
your heart. Give us courage to live as a new
people with hearts open to your reign.
We look at the challenges we face, the
overwhelming problem in the daily news,
and we feel powerless to make a difference,
concluding all too often there is nothing we
can do.
Chorus O Lord hear my prayer (SGP 85)
O Lord, hear my prayer;
O Lord, hear my prayer:
when I call, answer me!
O Lord, hear my prayer;
O Lord, hear my prayer:
come and listen to me.
ASSURANCE of FORGIVENESS
God sees you as you are and God loves you
without reserve. God sees the beauty that was
in you from your birth, and knows the potential
you have to be channels of his love and justice.
God continues calling your name.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
CHILDREN’S TIME
SHARING GOD’S PEACE
(Children may leave for Kids’ Church in the halls next door)
SCRIPTURE READINGS
1 Samuel 3:1-10 OT p. 267
St. John 1:43-51 NT p. 118
People may stand for the Gospel reading.
The word of God: Thanks be to God!
Hymn 251 * I, the Lord of sea and sky
People’s Choice Hymns are marked with an asterisk (*)
SERMON Rev. James Brown
Hymn 578 (2) Christ whose glory fills the skies
(Offerings are gathered and brought forward)
(Hymn of the Month, January 2015)
DEDICATION PRAYER
All of life is in your hands, O God. We are
blessed when a small portion is entrusted to
our care. Fill us with gratitude and enhance
our generosity that, as a community, we may
live out the values, hope, and promise that
we proclaim. Amen.
NOTICES and PRAYERS for OTHERS
Sung response (Taizé):
Draw us closer to you, O God:
Ubi caritas et amor,
ubi caritas, Deus ibi est. (Hymn 801)
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 and ever. Amen.
Hymn 528 * Make me a channel of your peace
BLESSING and Threefold Amen (No. 819)
ORGAN POSTLUDE
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