PRELUDE: America (A March with Echoing and Fanfare) by Carol Doran
WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
CALL TO WORSHIP
HYMN: My Country, ‘Tis of Thee [America]
PRAYER
INTROIT: Come Unto Me by L. Stanley Glarum
Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Amen. [Matthew 11:28-30]
PRAYER
HYMN: We Gather Together [Kremser]
PRAYER
SCRIPTURE LESSON: Matthew 11:28-30 & 16:24
SERMON: “Carrying the Right Load”
ANTHEM: Take Up Your Cross by Thomas Keesecker, Daphne Riddle, soprano solo
“Take up your cross,” the Savior said, “if you would my disciple be; take up your cross with willing heart, and humbly follow after me.” Take up your cross; let not its weight fill your weak spirit with alarm; Christ’s strength shall bear your spirit up, and brace your heart and nerve your arm. Take up your cross; heed not the shame, and let your foolish pride be still; the Lord for you accepted death upon a cross on Calvary’s hill. Take up your cross and follow Christ, nor think till death to lay it down; for only those who bear the cross may hope to wear the glorious crown. Take up your cross and follow Christ. [Charles William Everest]
CELEBRATION OF HOLY COMMUNION
INVITATION AND WORDS OF INSTITUTION
PRAYER
RECEPTION OF THE ELEMENTS
HYMN: Will You Come and Follow Me [Kelvingrove]
PRAYER
BENEDICTION
RESPONSE: Lift Every Voice and Sing by J. Rosamund Johnson, arr. Allen Pote
Lift every voice and sing, till earth and heaven ring, ring with the harmonies of liberty; let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies, let it resound loud as the rolling sea. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us; sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us; facing the rising sun of our new day begun, let us march on till victory is won. Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod, felt in the days when hope unborn has died; yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet come to the place for which our fathers sighed? We have come over a way that with tears has been watered; we have come treading our path thru the blood of the slaughtered, out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last where the white gleam of our bright star is cast. God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, thou who has brought us thus far on the way; thou who hast by thy might led us into the light, keep us forever in the path we pray. Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee; lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee. Shadowed beneath they hand, may we forever stand, true to our God, true to our native land. [James Weldon Johnson]
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