This Weeks Sermon


The gathering music for today: Gathering Video: “The Same Love” by Paul Baloche. The video is 4:45 long and the link is located on YouTube (The Same Love – Paul Baloche).

ORDER OF WORSHIP                                        January 30, 2022 ● 10:00 am
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, YOU are welcome here.

PRELUDE                  Improvisation on “New Dimensions”                Jan Bordeleau                                                        
WELCOME                                                                                  Rev. Brian Donovan

CALL TO WORSHIP                                                                       Johnny Stucklen
One:     Fear rips the edges of life!
All:       Come – let us be One in faith. 
One:     Fatigue licks my dull eyes!
All:       Come – let us be refreshed with hope.
One:     Failure stalks my every path!
All:       Come – let us all be enveloped by the Love of God
             who loved us before we were formed
             and who we come to worship – today.

One:      For, God is Love!!!

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND SHARING “GOD MOMENTS”         Rev. Brian Donovan

PASSING OF THE PEACE

*OPENING HYMN (NCH#102)       “O How Shall I Receive You”              FCC Choir

*OPENING PRAYER(Unison)                                                     Johnny Stucklen
Holy Loving God, inspire within us the enduring Love of Your Son, our Christ. A Love so bright that it shines in us and throughout our entire lives. Invoke these teachings, O God, so, we can continue on Your Way to invigorate all people with the Justice and Mercy of Your Holy Love. Amen.

*GLORIA PATRI
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is  now, and ever shall be, World without end. Amen.


GOD’S MESSAGE FOR ALL AGES AND THE LORD’S PRAYER     Merri Carlson
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.

SCRIPTURE              1 Corinthians 13:1-13                                Johnny Stucklen
                     
SERMON                       “Seeing our Way…through”                  Rev. Brian Donovan

CHOIR ANTHEM           “Treasure Each Moment”                                FCC Choir

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

*DOXOLOGY 
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 (Unison)
God of Love and teacher to all – to You, we dedicate these symbols of our time – talent – and treasure. Accept them and commit these gifts to support Your ministries and Mission revealed in this fellowship. May all that is given and received aid Your teachings and our learning of the generous Love You share with ALL of Creation. In the name of Jesus, who reveals the Way. Amen.


*CLOSING HYMN (NCH#393)     “Blessed Be the Tie That Binds”           FCC Choir

BENEDICTION     
   
                                                                                                 
POSTLUDE                        Improvisation on “Verbum Dei”              Jan Bordeleau  

SCRIPTURE                                                                                                                                                                                                  
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love

Quote of the Day
“While the mind sees only boundaries, Love knows the secret way there.” 
-Rumi 
 
ANNOUNCEMENTS                                                                                                  
HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING…..SEE WEEKLY EMAIL FOR DETAILS

2/1            TUES       Bible Study, 11:00 am
2/3            THURS    Men’s Fellowship Breakfast, 8:00 am
2/6            SUN         Morning Worship/Online Worship, 10:00 am
2/7            MON        Fun & Games, 1:30 pm                                        
                                     All numbered hymns are from The New Century Hymnal. Permission is granted for this one-time use.
• “Treasure Each Moment” Words & Music by Joseph M. Martin © 1995, Pilgrim Press, All rights reserved. ONELICENSE, License #A-739577

O How Shall I Receive You (NCH#102)
O how shall I receive you,
how meet you on your way,
blessed hope of every people,
my soul’s delight and stay?
O Jesus, Jesus, give me now
by your own pure light,
to know whate’er is pleasing
and welcome in your sight.
 
Love caused your incarnation;
love brought you unto to me;
your thirst for my salvation
procured my liberty.
O love beyond all telling,
that led you to embrace
in love, all love excelling,
our lost and fallen race.
 
You come, O Christ, with gladness,
in mercy and goodwill,
to bring an end to sadness
and bid our fears be still.
In patient expectation
we live for that great day
when a renewed creation
your glory shall display.
 
Blessed Be the Tie That Binds (NCH#393)
Blessed be the tie that binds
our hearts in Christian love;
The sharing of a common life
is like to that above.

Before our God we come
and pour our ardent prayers;
Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one,
our comforts and our cares.

We share each other’s woes,
each other’s burdens bear.
And often for each other flows
a sympathizing tear.

When we are called to part
it gives us inward pain,
But we shall still be joined in heart,
and hope to meet again.

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Pastor’s Letter, May 28, 2025

May 28, 2025

Dear Friends in Christ,

Last Sunday during our sermon time,  we asked what we could do to honor those who lost their lives in war on Monday’s Memorial Day.  I suggested we could find an answer in Paul’s letter to the church at Galatia which was very divided.  To members he wrote, “you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become enslaved to one another.  For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”   I’m glad we made this connection.  

For, on Monday I received a FaceBook post from a restaurant. It featured this beautiful image: 

May be an image of text that says 'Gone, but not Gone,but.not.forgotten. not forgotten. REMEMBERING OUR BRAVE HEROES. THIS MEMORIAL DAY'

Above this image was this two-sentence note: 

Today, we remember and honor those who served.
We’re open Memorial Day from 11:30am to 8pm.

Now, contrast this with the United Church of Christ Memorial Day post that I read next:

In Flanders Fields By John McCrae. In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie, In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw. The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die. We shall not sleep, though poppies grow. In Flanders fields.

Below this image, there was this short note with a link:

 🙏🏾🌹This Memorial Day, we hold in prayer those who have been affected by war. We honor the lives lost and grieve with the families of the fallen. May we continue to work toward peace and a #JustWorldForAll.

Freedom allows for diversity in choice-making regarding the honoring of those who have died in war.  But, on May 30th , the original Memorial Day date, I’m going to re-commit myself to choosing the option I think keeps faith with those who’ve died and permit them their resting in peace.  How about you? 

Blessings of Love’s Peace and Service to All,
Pastor Ed

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