What Do Our Lives Want to Become?

3rd Sunday of Easter!—Season of Eastertide
May 1, 2022, 11:00 am

PRELUDE: Simple Gifts—Rudy Davenport
CALL TO RETURN TO OUR SOULS—Bishop Desmond Tutu and the Dali Llama

Pastor:       It is through weakness and vulnerability    that we learn empathy and compassion
People:     And discover our souls.
Pastor:       Under the greatest adversity  there exists the greatest potential for doing good,
People:     Both for oneself and others.
Pastor:       The quality of human life on our planet  is nothing morethan the sum total of our daily interactions with one another.
People:     Each time we help, or harm,   we have a dramatic impact on our world.
Pastor:       There comes a time  when we need to stop    just pulling people out of the river.
People: We need to dedicate ourselves to going upstream
Pastor:       And find out why they are falling in.
People:     Compassion is the radicalism of our time.          

HYMN: In the Bulb There is a Flower   GTG#250
CALL TO CONFESSION AND COMMITMENT 

Pastor:       With Gandhi, we confess the 7 deadly, modern sins, what he later said are “the seven blunders that human society commits, and that cause all the violence.”
ALL:         Wealth without work. Pleasure without conscience. Science without humanity. Knowledge without character. Politics without principle. Commerce without morality. Worship without sacrifice.
                                     —Mahatma Gandhi, India

SUNG PRAISE TO GOD FOR POWER AND HEALING GRACE:   Halle, Halle, Halle, Hallelujah!  GTG#591
Bible reading: John 21:1-19
Message:  What Do Our Lives Want to Become?
HYMN:  My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less  GTG#353
WELCOMING
ANTHEM: Sing Praises unto the Lord- Henry Ruthven
Matthew 25 Prayer, Lord’s Prayer…
Congregational Sung Response: Come, Bring Your Burdens to God(sing twice)  GTG#851
OFFERTORY: He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands—African American spiritual
UNISON PRAYER OF DEDICATION   

May we know the honor of being a human being.   (Jake Swamp, Haudenosaunee/Iroquois)  May we share the honor of being a human being. Let us unite a frightened world by acts of kindness. (early pandemic, viral social media post) Hate has no home here.  (a 9 year old Muslim child wrote these words on a sign for a protest at Chicago’s airport when the January 27, 2017 travel ban from Muslim countries was announced) Let hate have no home where you are.Love your enemies.   (Jesus)  Replace apathy with curiosity! Violence with community. (Fred Culver) May our capacity for God be reborn.   Never forget— What you give, you have. (Roman soldier)  Amen.

HYMN: We Are Marching in the Light of God (marching, dancing, praying, singing, Siyahamba)  GTG#853
BENEDICTION
SUNG BENEDICTION RESPONSE:  Lead Me, Guide Me (sing twice)  GTG#740
POSTLUDE: O Worship the King— Roger Helwege