We held virtual worship on Sunday, May 31, 2020 at 10am! You can watch the recording below or on Facebook by clicking here.
CALL TO WORSHIP
OPENING TO GOD Steve Garnaas-Holmes
O God, how we long to be people worthy of your name.
To embrace the stranger,
to love lepers into wholeness,
to comfort the motherless and the fatherless.
O God, how we long to shed our shame
Over those we ignore
Over those we silence
Over those we slandered and those we slaughtered.
O God, how we long to be one
One with you in love for all peoples
One with each other in fellowship and witness
One with creation in praising your name.
Loving God, satisfy our longings
to fulfill your longings in Jesus’ prayer.
NEW TESTAMENT Acts 2:1-21 (NEAC Video)
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.
Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
‘In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit,
and they shall prophesy.
And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below:
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved
REFLECTION Shared Breath
MUSIC Spirit Break Out William McDowell MosaicBethany First UMC Choir
PRAYER FOR THE WEEK Assata Shakur, modified
i believe in living.
i believe in sunshine.
In windmills and waterfalls,
tricycles and rocking chairs;
And i believe that seeds grow into sprouts.
And sprouts grow into trees.
i believe in the magic of the hands.
And in the wisdom of the eyes.
i believe in rain and tears.
And in the blood of infinity.
i believe in life.
And i have seen the death parade
march through the torso of the earth,
sculpting mud bodies in its path
i have seen the destruction of the daylight
and seen bloodthirsty maggots
prayed to and saluted
i have seen the kind become the blind
and the blind become the bind
in one easy lesson.
i have walked on cut grass.
i have eaten crow and blunder bread
and breathed the stench of indifference
i have been locked by the lawless.
Handcuffed by the haters.
Gagged by the greedy.
And, if i know anything at all,
it’s that a wall is just a wall
and nothing more at all.
It can be broken down.
i believe in living
i believe in birth.
i believe in the sweat of love
and in the fire of truth.
SHARING PRAYERS
LORD’S PRAYER
ANNOUNCEMENTS
BENEDICTION Maren C. Tirabassi
May your tongue tingle with the good news.
May your heart open
to all the people of the street.
And, when you are bent over by sorrow,
walking masked in a lonely
or dangerous
or over-busy day
may you find the Spirit’s feather on the ground
waiting there to give you hope.
Amen
POSTLUDE We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest
Sweet Honey In the Rock
