Guest Pastor: Rev. Jane Ellen Nickell
Organist: Jim Ross
ORDER OF WORSHIP
PRELUDE Variations on "All Is Well" - Franklin Ashdown
WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
INVOKING THE HOLY SPIRIT
INVOCATION
O God, our inspiration, sweep through our lives this day. Open the windows of our souls, that your spirit may blow upon us. Fill us with your holy Breath that we may praise your name with our prayers, our stories, and our songs. Stir our hearts that we may be full of compassion for all your creatures. Descend upon your people gathered here and make us your own. Amen.
OPENING HYMN UMH #539: "O Spirit of the Living God " vv. 1-2
CHILDREN'S SERMON
THE BREATH OF LIFE
SCRIPTURE READING Genesis 2:7
Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.
REFLECTION The Breath of Life
HYMN OF RESPONSE UMH #420: "Breathe on Me, Breath of God" vv. 1, 4
SCRIPTURE READING Romans 8:26-27
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
JOYS AND CONCERNS
CALL TO PRAYER Memorial Day - Jen Ashbaugh
PASTORAL PRAYER
LORD'S PRAYER
THE SPIRIT OF GOD
SCRIPTURE READING Genesis 1:1-2
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
SCRIPTURE READING Psalm 139:7-10
Where can I go from your spirit? O where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.
REFLECTION God’s Holy Spirit
HYMN OF RESPONSE TFWS #2120: "Spirit of Gentleness" vv.1-3 [sing Refrain, Verse 1, Verse 2, Verse 3, Refrain]
THE WINDS OF CHANGE
SCRIPTURE READING Ezekiel 37:1, 7-10
The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. . . . I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then [God] said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.
REFLECTION The Winds of Change
CLOSING HYMN TFWS #2117: "Spirit of God" v. 1
BENEDICTION
POSTLUDE "Battle Hymn of The Republic" - Carlos Staszeski
