June 23 @ St. Paul's UMC: Worship

Pastor Janeen Hill offers the sermon

Lorie Courier & Suzanne Polacek offer a duet

Lylah does her duties as our acolyte

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Today's recording Part One and Part Two

Today’s Meditation Verse: “The Lord is a safe place for the oppressed – a safe place in difficult times.” —Psalm 9:9

Welcome...Rev. Janeen Hill

Prelude...Suzanne Polacek / “Breathe on Me, Breath of God,” arranged by Jonathan Lee

*Call to Worship (Psalm 107, The Message)...Amy Abshire

Leader: Oh, thank God – he’s so good! His love never runs out.

People: All of you set free by God, tell the world! Tell how he freed you from oppression, then rounded you up from all over the place.

Leader: Some of you set sail in big ships; you put to sea to do business in faraway ports. Out at sea you saw God in action, saw his breathtaking ways with the ocean.

People: With a word he called up the wind – an ocean storm, towering waves!

Leader: Then you called out to God in your desperate condition; he got you out in the nick of time. He quieted the wind down to a whisper, put a muzzle on all the big

waves. 

People: So thank God for his marvelous love, for his miracle mercy to the children he loves. Lift high your praises when the people assemble.

*Hymn...“Stand by Me” (UMH #512) v. 1-3

A Summer Litany for Grace...Amy Abshire

L: God of gentle rains and warm sun, God who encourages growth,

P: We are creatures who sometimes grow quickly and sometimes get stuck.

L: God of freedom, of liberation, of binding ropes being cut,

P: We are bound in ways we don’t always understand or recognize.

L: God of exodus and exile and homecoming, God who calls us to leave where we are and come home,

P: Help us to have the courage to make the journey and to trust in the path.

L: God of health and healing, God who wants us to be made whole,

P: We come as people who are wounded in body and in spirit, people who seek healing.

L: God who has laid out a way for us to live, who has given us rules for living in community,

P: We come as people who sometimes go astray, people who stretch the rules.

L: God of Grace, we come as people who live through that Grace.

P: And so, we praise You for the growth, we rejoice in being set free, we dance along the path that leads us home, we give thanks for the healing we have received; we relax in the knowledge that we are forgiven, and we live as people of Grace. Amen.

—Rev. Gord, posted on Worship Offerings

Old Testament Lesson: Job 38:1-11...Amy Abshire

Special Music...Suzanne Polacek and Lorie Courier / “Come, Christians, Join to Sing,” arranged by Mark Hayes

Community prayer requests, concerns, and celebrations

Pastoral Prayer / The Lord’s Prayer...Rev. Janeen Hill

Gospel Lesson: Mark 4:35-41...Rev. Janeen Hill

Leader: This is the Word of God for the people of God. People: Thanks be to God.

Sermon...Rev. Janeen Hill / “Who Is This?”

*Hymn...“Give to the Winds Thy Fears” (UMH #129) v. 1-4

*Words for the Journey...Rev. Janeen Hill

Postlude...Suzanne Polacek and Lorie Courier / “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee,” arranged by Mark Hayes