Easter 5: God Is Love

Sunday, April 28, 2024
10:30 AM 11:30 AM 10:30 11:30

Union Presbyterian Church 200 E Main St Endicott, NY, 13760 United States (map)

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The deacon Philip is one of the lesser known people in the New Testament. But in the Acts of the Apostles, Philip feels called to break down a barrier and extend a wide welcome to a most unexpected person.

Join us throughout this Easter Season as we wonder together what it might mean to life be an Easter people. Join us in our beautiful sanctuary, or right here online. Worship is live-streamed; videos are available here or on Youtube following the service.

5th Sunday of the Easter Season

God Is Love

1 John 4:7b, 16-21; Acts 8:26-40

Union Presbyterian Church

April 28, 2024

Sharing the Light of Christ, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Liturgist: Barbara Ann Dailey Preacher: Rev. Pat Raube

Welcome

Announcements Barbara Ann Dailey

Prelude Chris Bartlette

“They’ll Know We Are Christians,” Lyndell Leatherman

Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.  

* Call to Worship

As we gather this morning, I invite you to become aware:

God’s gaze of love is upon you.

Thanks be to God!

As we prepare to hear a story of God’s wide welcome,

I invite you to wonder with me:

How can we widen our welcome?

As we prepare to worship our God,

I invite us all to remember:

God is love!

Let us worship our God together.

* Hymn # 72 W & R

“Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” Lance Bryant

Used with permission.

Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with thee;
Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not;
As thou has been thou forever wilt be.

Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed thy hand hath provided–
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed thy hand hath provided–
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed thy hand hath provided–
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

* Call to New Life

Here, we believe that everyone is welcome. Everyone is precious. Everyone matters. But we have a long way to go to make these beliefs a reality. Let us ask God to help and heal us, as we seek to widen our welcome.

* Prayer for Wholeness and Peace

Gracious God, to abide in you is to abide in your love. But so often we keep track of our differences more fervently than we give thanks for our diversity. We fail to love you with all our heart and soul, mind and strength. We neglect to love one another, in all our amazing, God-given differences, as we love ourselves. We deny one another the dignity that belongs to all God’s children, without exception. Heal our hearts, loving God. Take away our fear, if it is fear that drives us. Remind us that perfect love casts out fear, and help us as we seek to live in your perfect love. We pray in the name of our brother Jesus. Amen.

* Words of Assurance

God’s love was revealed among us in this way:

God came to live among us in Jesus Christ,

so that we might live through him.

God is kind, and merciful,

slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Hear the Good News! We are healed and forgiven; we are made whole.

Thanks be to God for a love like this!

* Sharing of the Peace

We love because God first loved us.

Abiding the gracious love of God, we can be at peace.

May the peace of God be with you.

And also with you.

Let us offer one another a sign of God’s peace.

Scripture 1 John 4:7b; 16-21

A reading from the first letter of John, beginning at chapter 4, selected verses.

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because God first loved us. Those who say, “I love God,” and hate a brother or sister are liars, for those who do not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

Time for Young Disciples Rev. Pat Raube

Music: “In Water We Grow,” Carl F. Schalk

Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.  

Anthem Choir

“Family of Faith,” Valerie MacKenzie

Used by Permission. CCLI License #CSPL068847

In Christ’s name, we gather.

In God’s presence we rejoice.

In the Spirit, strangers and friends

Sing united as one voice.

Abounding in hope, rooted in love,

Assured by the gifts of God’s marvelous grace,

Believing in one that was sent from above,

We stand as a family of faith.

We’re travelling on life’s journey,

Finding our way by heaven’s wondrous light,

There is no burden carried alone

When we walk the way of Christ.

Abounding in hope, rooted in love,

Assured by the gifts of God’s marvelous grace,

Believing in one that was sent from above,

We stand as a family of faith.

Like instruments of a symphony,

Each one unique, yet all belong.

Through God we blend into harmony,

Together we are strong. Hear our song!

Abounding in hope, rooted in love,

Assured by the gifts of God’s marvelous grace,

Believing in one that was sent from above,

We stand as a family, we’re blessed as a family,

We stand as a family of faith.

Abounding in hope, rooted in love, praise God!

Scripture Acts 8:26-40

A reading from the Acts of the Apostles, beginning at chapter 8, verse 26.

Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
    and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
        so he does not open his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
    Who can describe his generation?
        For his life is taken away from the earth.”

The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. As they were going along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

Response  Holy Wisdom, Holy Word: 

Thanks be to God! 

Sermon “God Is Love”

* Statement of Faith From the Confession of Belhar

We believe in the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who gathers, protects and cares for the church through Word and Spirit. This, God has done since the beginning of the world and will do to the end.

We believe that Christ’s work of reconciliation is made manifest in the church as the community of believers who have been reconciled with God

and with one another.

We believe that unity is, therefore, both a gift and an obligation for the church of Jesus Christ; that through the working of God’s Spirit it is a binding force, yet simultaneously a reality which must be earnestly pursued and sought: one which the people of God must continually be built up to attain.

* Hymn # 595 W & R

“They’ll Know We Are Christians,” Peter Scholtes

Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.  

We are one in the Spirit; we are one in the Lord.

And we pray that all unity may one day be restored.

And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.

Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

We will walk with each other; we will walk hand in hand.

And together we’ll spread the news that God is in our land.

And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.

Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

We will work with each other; we will work side by side.

And we’ll guard each one’s dignity and save each one’s pride.

And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.

Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

All praise to the Father, from whom all things come.

And all praise to Christ Jesus, his only Son.

And all praise to the Spirit, who makes us one.

And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.

Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

Prayers of the People   

The Lord’s Prayer   

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. 

Prayer Response 

“Glory Be to God, Creator,” Richard K. Carlson  

Glory be to God, Creator,  

Glory be to God the Son,  

Glory be to God the Spirit,  

Known as Three, yet God the One. 

Call for Offering

The Offering

* Doxology

“Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow” 

(Public Domain) 

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; 
Praise him, all creatures here below; 
Praise him above, ye heavenly host: 
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. 

Prayer of Dedication

* Hymn  #502 W & R

“Be Thou My Vision,” Jack Schrader

Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.      

Be thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that thou art–
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

Be thou my Wisdom, and thou my true Word,
I ever with thee and thou with me, Lord;
Thou and thou only, first in my heart,
High King of heaven, my Treasure thou art.

High King of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heaven's Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

* Benediction

... May God bless us. May God keep us in the Spirit’s care,

and lead our lives with love.

May Christ’s warm welcome shine from our hearts,

and Christ’s own peace prevail through this and every day,

till greater life shall call. Amen.

Postlude  Chris Bartlette

“Hymn to Joy,” Jeanne Cotter

Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.  

Where an * is indicated, please rise in body and/or in spirit.

“W & R” ~ the red Worship and Rejoice hymnal.

“PH” ~ the blue Presbyterian Hymnal

Benediction from A Wee Worship Book, from the Iona Community, Scotland.

Image: Philip Catechizes the Ethiopian Eunuch, Exeter College Chapel, Oxford, University, U. K. from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58595 [retrieved April 4, 2024]. Original source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/paullew/5712497198/.