# St. John’s United Church of Christ Bulletin ## 📅 **January 26, 2025** **Third Sunday After the Epiphany** --- ### **🎵 Gathering Song** "This is the Day" --- ### **📜 Unison Welcome** *"No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here."* --- ### **📢 Announcements** - Passing of the Peace - Chiming of the Trinity - Prelude --- ### **🙏 Call to Worship** *"The peace of Christ be with you"* *"And also with you"* **Adapted from *Gathered by Love***: - God works among us day and night. - We are one body, the church. - Let us honor the good in all people. --- ### **🎶 🎵 Gather Us In Hymn #C-30** ## Verse 1 Here in this place, the new light is streaming, Shadows of doubt are vanished away. See in this space our fears and our dreamings, Brought here to you in the light of this day. --- ## Verse 2 We are the young—our lives are a mystery; We are the old, who yearn for your face. We have been sung throughout all of history, Called to be light to the whole human race. --- ## Verse 3 Here we receive new life in the waters; Here you shall call your sons and your daughters. Give us to drink the wine of compassion, Give us to eat the bread that is you. --- ## Verse 4 Not just in buildings, small and confining, Not in some heaven, light years away. Here in this place the new light is shining; Now is God present, and now is the day. --- ### Refrain Gather us in, the lost and forsaken; Gather us in, the proud and the strong. Give us a heart so meek and so lowly, Give us the courage to enter the song. Gather us in, and hold us forever; Gather us in, and make us your own. Gather us in, all peoples together, Fire of love in our flesh and our bone. --- **Text and Music**: Marty Haugen, © 1982 GIA Publications, Inc. Reprinted under OneLicense.net A-719890. --- ### **📖 Call to Confession** *Adapted from Gathered by Love*: - Let us examine ourselves and be open to the Spirit. ### **🙏 Prayer of Confession** *From Gathered by Love*: - Acknowledge confusion in discerning the right course. - Confess struggles with faith and relationships. - Seek God’s guidance and grace. --- ### **🎵 Kyrie** Hymnal Companion C-4 --- ### **✨ Assurance of Forgiveness** *From Feasting on the Word Worship Companion*: - God’s Word revives and frees us. - Jesus Christ fulfills God’s promise of jubilee. --- ### **🎶 Glory Be to the Father** #704 --- ### **📖 Scripture Readings** #### 📖 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a (NRSVUE) 12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot were to say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear were to say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect, 24 whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25 that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31a But strive for the greater gifts. #### 📖 Luke 4:14-21 (NRSVUE) 14 Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding region. 15 He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. 16 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” --- ### 📜 Responsive Reading **"Ordinary and Astounding" (a remix of Psalm 19)** *by Layton E. Williams* There is something in the sun and stars that makes me believe in you: Their vastness, yes, but also their steadfastness, their constant presence, whether I can see the shape of them or not; Something in the rising and the setting that shows me the beautiful goodness of dark and light, of new and old, of welcoming and letting go. In these most ordinary, everyday realities of your creation, made also astounding, I am reminded that you are at work in all things— and in me. Even in me. Let me be a witness like the sun and stars, an ordinary and astounding testament to Grace. --- ### 🎵 O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing ## Verse 1 O for a thousand tongues to sing My great Redeemer's praise, The glories of my God and King, The triumphs of His grace! --- ## Verse 2 My gracious Master and my God, Assist me to proclaim, To spread through all the earth abroad The honors of Thy name. --- ## Verse 3 Jesus! The name that charms our fears, That bids our sorrows cease; 'Tis music in the sinner's ears, 'Tis life, and health, and peace. --- ## Verse 4 He breaks the power of canceled sin, He sets the prisoner free; His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me. --- ## Verse 5 He speaks, and listening to His voice, New life the dead receive; The mournful, broken hearts rejoice, The humble poor believe. --- ## Verse 6 Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb, Your loosened tongues employ; Ye blind, behold your Savior come; And leap, ye lame, for joy! --- ## Verse 7 Glory to God, and praise and love Be ever, ever given, By saints below and saints above, The Church in earth and heaven. --- ### **🧒 Children’s Message** Led by Roxanne Davenport. *Children’s Corner follows the message.* --- ### **📜 Sharing Joys and Concerns** - Prayers of the People - The Lord’s Prayer (Debts) --- ### **🎁 Invitation to Giving** - **Offertory** - **Offertory Response #706**: "Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow" - **Prayer of Dedication**: *From Feasting on the Word Worship Companion*: - Bless these gifts to further God’s reign. --- ### **🎶 Hymn #273**"In Christ There Is No East or West" ## Verse 1 In Christ there is no East or West, In Him no South or North; But one great fellowship of love Throughout the whole wide earth. --- ## Verse 2 In Christ shall true hearts everywhere Their high communion find; His service is the golden cord Close-binding humankind. --- ## Verse 3 Join hands, disciples of the faith, What e'er your race may be. Who serves my Father as His child Is surely kin to me. --- ## Verse 4 In Christ now meet both East and West; In Him meet South and North. All Christly souls are one in Him Throughout the whole wide earth. --- ### **📜 Commission & Benediction** --- ### **🎵 Postlude** *(Seated)* --- ## Additional Information ### 🌼 **Flowers** Dedicated in memory of David Slothower by Bill and Joanne Slothower. ### 🎂 **Birthdays This Week** - 1/25: Hannah Jean Myers - 1/27: Paulette Wohl - 1/28: Barb Wissinger, Brooke Reichelderfer - 1/29: Douglas Stepler - 1/30: Robert Schollaert --- ### **🔖 Worship Resources** - Gathered by Love: Worship Resources for Year C - Feasting on the Word Worship Companion - The Words of Her Mouth: Psalms for the Struggled - Hymn C-30: St. John’s Favorite Hymns --- ### **🙏 St. John’s Vision** *"We are called to love, to learn, to worship, and to witness in Christ as a congregation that welcomes everyone."* --- ### **🌍 St. John’s Mission** *"To grow in love of God and neighbor."*