I Learn To Give

Westport Presbyterian Church 3^rd Sunday of Lent
March 20, 2022, 11:00 am 

PRELUDE: The Spiritual Sailor (from The Sacred Harp): setting by James Boeringer
CALL TO RETURN TO OUR SOULS

Leader:       Jesus did not limit his ministry to the four walls of the church.
People:      Jesus was out there fighting injustice and speaking truth to power every single day.
Leader:       He was out there spreading a message of grace and redemption to the least, the last, and the lost.
People:      And our charge is to find Jesus everywhere, every day by how we live our lives.
Leader:       So we can’t fool ourselves into thinking that we’re going to be good servants of God if we’re not whole inside ourselves.
                                                          —Michelle Obama

CONGREGATIONAL HYMN: Comfort, Comfort You My People  GTG#87
Unison Confession of Our Graceless Hearts 

O God, help me. I am slow to learn, prone to forget, and weak to climb; I am in the foothills when I should be on the heights; I am pained by my graceless heart, my prayerless days, my poverty of love, my lack of endurance in the heavenly race, my doubtful conscience, my wasted hours, my unspent opportunities. I am blind while the light shines around me. grind to dust my heart of unbelief. Make it my highest joy to study You, meditate on You, gaze on You, sit like Mary at Your feet, lean like John on Your breast, appeal like Peter to Your love. I believe, Lord, help my unbelief. Amen.

HYMN: Rain Down
BIBLE READINGS: Isaiah 55:1-9    Luke 13:31-35
SUNG RESPONSE: All Who Love and Serve Your City   GTG#351
MESSAGE: “I learn to give, not because I have a lot, but because I know what it feels like to have nothing.”
CONGREGATIONAL HYMN: Take Me to the Water  GTG#480
WELCOMING
ANTHEM: Maya’s Prayer for Peace: text, Maya Angelou; music, Tom Trenney
Matthew 25 Prayer, Lord’s Prayer,
Sung Response: Jesus, Remember Me (sing twice)  GTG#227
OFFERTORY: Prayer (from Night Songs): text, Langston Hughes; music, H. Leslie Adams; Neal Long, tenor
RESPONSIVE PRAYER FOR WISDOM AND ENDURANCE IN DEDICATING OUR OFFERINGS TO GOD’S GREAT WORK AMONG US AND BEYOND US   

Pastor:        It is certain that ignorance, allied with power,  is the most ferocious enemy that justice can have. (James Baldwin)
People:       Hate is a wasteful emotion. Most of the people you hate don’t know you hate them.And the rest don’t care.  (Medgar Evers, voting rights leader, 20^th century martyr)
Pastor:        No one can build the bridge upon which    you and only you must walk across the river of life. (Friedrich Nietszche)
People:       I never ran my train off the track,    and I never lost a passenger, because I knew—  Slavery is the next thing to hell.  (Harriet Tubman)
Pastor:        Never forget where you come from,    And always praise the bridges that have carried you over. (Fannie Lou Hamer)
People:       “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.  (Jesus of Nazareth)

CONGREGATIONAL HYMN: I, the Lord of Sea and Sky(Here I Am, Lord)  GTG#69
BLESSING
SUNG RESPONSE:   I, the Lord of Sea and Sky  (refrain only)  GTG#69
POSTLUDE: Figured Chorale, op. 68, no. 42-Robert Schumann

During Lent and through Easter Sunday, we are collecting funds to support Ukrainian refugees. Relief funds will be administered by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, which has a great track record in this work (including saving our congregation in many ways following the 2011 fire). The church is contributing $250 from Mission funds. We received an added $600 in donations from church members last Sunday. Siyahamba! (“We are marching in the Light of God!”) Give by check or cash to Westport Presbyterian Church and designate the check or pew envelope “Ukrainian Refugees”)