Marshall Presbyterian Church
January 17, 2021, 2nd Sunday after the Epiphany
WELCOME
* CALL TO WORSHIP
One: We are called to seek good and not evil, that we may live;
and so that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with us.
All: We are called to hate evil and love good, and establish justice.
One: Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness
like an ever-flowing stream.
All: We seek to be a people that embodies God’s justice.
By the power of God at work within us, may it be so.
* OPENING PRAYER
* HYMN Red Hymnal #562 Be Thou My Vision
CALL TO CONFESSION
UNISON PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Holy God, we confess our failures to discern the ways that racism and other demons of hostility have warped our common humanity. Claiming to be “colorblind” or “not racist,” we have failed to see racism as a disease that infects us all…silent prayers of confession…Yet we know that your Spirit heals the wounds in our lives and empowers us to extend that healing into the life of our communities. Empower us by your Spirit, O God, to be people who live more fully into the promise of our baptisms that in Jesus Christ there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, or male and female. Amen.
* ASSURANCE OF PARDON
One: In Christ, all the dividing walls of hostility have come down so that we might live in justice, friendship and peace.
Friends, hear the good news of the gospel: In Jesus Christ
we are forgiven and restored, and set on right paths!
All: Thanks be to God. Amen!
* GLORIA PATRI
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.
* PASSING THE PEACE
HEARING AND RESPONDING TO GOD’S WORD
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
THE SCRIPTURES
Gospel: 1 Samuel 3:1-10
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20
Old Testament: John 1:43-51
TIME WITH YOUNG DISCIPLES
MESSAGE: Rev. Melissa Upchurch
* AFFIRMATION OF FAITH (adapted fr. Confession of 1967, 9.15)
God’s sovereign love is a mystery beyond the reach of the human mind. Human thought ascribes to God superlatives of power, wisdom, and goodness. But God reveals divine love in Jesus Christ by showing power in the form of a servant, wisdom in the folly of the cross, and goodness in receiving sinful men and women. The power of God’s love in Christ to transform the world discloses that the Redeemer is the Lord and Creator who made all things to serve the purpose of God’s love.
* HYMN Purple Hymnal #720 Jesus Calls Us
SHARING JOYS AND CONCERNS
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
SHARING THE GIFTS OF GOD
OFFERTORY
*DOXOLOGY (ca. 1500s)
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.
*PRAYER OF DEDICATION
O God, receive the gifts we offer as a sign of our commitment to live into our calling as a community of hope, love and justice for this world. May these gifts be part of your own work in the world to establish the flourishing of all your children and the whole creation. Amen.
GOING FORTH IN GOD’S NAME
* HYMN Purple Hymnal #728 Somebody’s Knocking at Your Door
