PRELUDE: Improvisation on “Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart” by Frederick Swann
WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
CALL TO WORSHIP
PRAYER
INTROIT: Prayer of St. Francis by Allen Pote; Desiree Flores, alto solo
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, thy pardon, Lord. Where there is doubt, let there be faith. Oh, Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there’s despair let me bring hope. Where there is darkness, let there be light, where there is sadness, let there be joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console. To be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. Oh, Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. For it is in giving that we receive, and it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Amen. [St. Francis of Assisi]
PRAYER
SCRIPTURE LESSON: Matthew 18:12-35
HYMN: Forgive Our Sins as We Forgive [Detroit]
SERMON: “Free for Me Only If Free for All”
ANTHEM: Help Us Accept Each Other by John Ness Beck
Help us accept each other as Christ accepted us; teach us as sister, brother, each person to embrace. Be present, Lord, among us and bring us to believe we are ourselves accepted, and meant to love and live. Teach us, O Lord, your lessons, as in our daily life we struggle to be human and search for hope and faith. Teach us to care for people, for all, not just for some, to love them as we find them, or as they may become. Lord, for today’s encounters with all who are in need, who hunger for acceptance, for righteousness and bread, we need new eyes for seeing, new hands for holding on: renew us with your Spirit; Lord, free us; make us one! [Fred Kaan]
PRAYER
HYMN: Help Us Accept Each Other [Baronita]
BENEDICTION
RESPONSE: Lord, for Thy tender Mercies’ Sake by Richard Farrant
Lord, for Thy tender mercies’ sake, lay not our sins to our charge, but forgive that is past, and give us grace to amend our sinful lives, to decline from sin and incline to virtue, that we may walk with a perfect heart before Thee now and evermore.
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