ORDER of WORSHIP
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 27, 2020
Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
Matthew 16:24
Greeting and Welcome
Prelude Music
Call to Worship
Leader: From the side of the roads we travel daily, Jesus calls:
All: “Follow me.”
Leader: In the midst of our duties and distractions, Jesus says again:
All: “Follow me.”
Leader: Even when the task seems urgent, or the person important, Jesus persists:
All: “Follow me.”
Leader: With focused faithfulness, let us join in worship, striving to follow him.
Opening Prayer
All: Lord, we want to follow you whoever you lead. Reach out to us this day, stirring our souls and spirits with the winds of your power that we may faithfully be your disciples. For we ask this in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Hymn of Praise “The Summons” TFWS #2130, Words: John Bell, 1987 Music: Traditional Scottish. Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE #A-733303. All rights reserved.
- Will you come and follow me
If I but call your name?
Will you go where you don’t know
And never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown,
Will you let my name be known,
Will you let my life be grown
In you and you in me? - Will you leave yourself behind
If I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind
And never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare
Should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer
In you and you in me? - Will you let the blinded see
If I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free
And never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean,
And do such as this unseen,
And admit to what I mean
In you and you in me? - Will you love the ‘you’ you hide
If I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside
And never be the same?
Will you use the faith you’ve found
To reshape the world around,
Through my sight and touch and sound
In you and you in me? - Lord, your summons echoes true
When you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you
And never be the same.
In your company I’ll go
Where your love and footsteps show.
Thus I’ll move and live and grow
In you and you in me.
Affirmation of Faith A Modern Affirmation
Leader: Let us affirm our faith together.
All: We belong to God, eternal and infinite, Creator of all things and all that is to come.
We follow Christ, who comes to us from God and reveals God to us. He heals people and transforms lives, and calls us to join in his ministry. He was crucified, died, and was raised again by God, and reigns over all creation, and he bids us to die and rise with him in the service of the healing of the world.
We are moved by the Holy Spirit, together with the communion of saints, as members of the body of Christ, God’s holy universal church.
We are confident in the forgiveness of sin, the power of the resurrection and the reality of eternal life. In all things, it is our desire to follow Christ, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, for God’s glory. Amen.
Gloria Patri “Glory Be to the Father” UMH #71 Words: Lesser Doxology, 3rd-4th Cent. Music: Henry W. Greatorex, 1851. Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE #A-733303. All rights reserved.
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.
Children’s Message with Pastor Matt
Gospel Reading Luke 9:57-62 (NRSV)
As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus[a] said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
The Word of God for the people of God.
Thanks be to God.
Sermon “Getting in the Game” Rev. Matthew B. Sergent
Prayers of the People
Hymn “Go, Make of All Disciples” UMH #571 Text: Leon M. Adkins, 1896. Music: Henry T. Smart, 1813-1879. Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE #A-733303. All rights reserved.
- Go make of all disciples
We hear the call O Lord
That comes from Thee our Father
In Thy eternal Word
Inspire our ways of learning
Through earnest fervent prayer
And let our daily living
Reveal Thee everywhere - Go make of all disciples
Baptizing in the name
Of Father Son and Spirit
From age to age the same
We call each new disciple
To follow Thee O Lord
Redeeming soul and body
By water and the Word - Go make of all disciples
We at Thy feet would stay
Until each life’s vocation
Accents Thy holy way
We cultivate the nature
God plants in every heart
Revealing in our witness
The Master Teacher’s art - Go make of all disciples
We welcome Thy command
Lo I am with you always
We take Thy guiding hand
The task looms large before us
We follow without fear
In heaven and earth Thy power
Shall bring God’s kingdom here
Benediction
May the transforming love of God work in your lives, today and always. Go forth into the world with peace, love, and joy. Follow Christ wherever he leads you. Fulfill the promise found in the fruit of the Spirit. Amen.
Postlude
