Sixth Sunday of Easter Worship, May 17, 2020

Sixth Sunday of Easter 
May 17, 2020

Prelude / Thayer

We continue with our Easter Season because Easter isn’t just one day. This week we are invited to keep Jesus’ commandments–to love one another is to keep each other in our hearts. Every week we remind ourselves why we gather. We are forming a habit of spending time together, breaking bread together, praising God together and having goodwill for all the people. In the account of the early church, they did just that:

“Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people.”  (Acts 2: 46-47a)

We create a “temple” of worship in our hearts that connects us across boundaries, distance and time. But as we share this worship, we will stay connected. At the “heart of the matter,” we are connected through the Spirit that makes us one in love.

Opening Act of Centering Our Hearts as One

We are going to center our hearts as one to begin.
Let’s take a deep breath together [everyone breathes together].

I invite you to place your hand on your heart and
let’s lightly tap together in a slow heartbeat rhythm

Holy Living God,
Heartbeat of Creation,
help us to take this time to center on you,
for you made us,
you gave us life,
and you continue to be with us
every moment…
[wait a couple of beats]
every breath…
[wait a couple of beats]
every step.

Let us pick up our heart stone, sometimes called a “worry stone,”
and let our touch on its surface remind us that God’s touch is
within us, between us, and around us.
As close and real as this object is in our hands right now,
is how close Love is to us always.
Let us imagine letting go of our worries for now into God’s heart of love.


Opening Hymn                      UMH #369     Blessed Assurance    ​

Scripture Reading

John 14:15-21 (NRSV)
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them." ~


  Let us Pray: 
Merciful God,
We stand in the midst of 
   sickness, death, and grief;
we see people 
   without jobs, standing in mile-long food lines;
we witness the unjust distribution
   of resources and racial discrimination, 
we watch health care providers 
   exhausted and overwhelmed
   farmers with no market for their crops
we wonder ... 
   have they, have we, been abandoned?
   
   Jesus promised ...
that we would not be orphaned*
that you would send your Spirit
that, because he lives, we shall live
that you are not gone from us
that we have not been deserted
that you abide with us, 
and in us.

   O God our Help,
hear our prayer --
to love you
to keep your great commandment to love others
to know you revealed through our loving acts
to see you --
here and now
with us and in us,
forever. 

   Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. 
Amen.

Bishop Sudarshana Devadhar.

Although we all miss being together at Hillside, we all know we are safer in our own homes. 
This Anthem is upbeat and quick and a sweet reminder that God is Here wherever we are.

Anthem:  “God is Here” by Patty Drennan and Jean Anne Shafferman-Lorenz Music

Doing the “right thing” is something we try hard to do. Sometimes doing the right thing is difficult and means that we make sacrifices to make sure we do not harm others. We do it because love is the commandment we live by. In this excerpt from an early church letter, we hear the apostle encourage the people to always be ready to share from their hearts about the source of hope that is in them–Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 3:13-16a
Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. - 

How do we “sanctify Christ as Lord” in our hearts? To “sanctify” something is to set it apart as holy. Holiness resides within each one of us. It calls us to see holiness in others. It calls us to do the right thing in the name of Love, even when the right thing isn’t easy. Sometimes the right thing, and the hardest thing, is to follow the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves. We often focus about loving our neighbor, but we also must hear the second part… love ourselves. The Spirit is in us, Jesus says, and to love ourselves is to love God, to love the Jesus in each of us, and to love the Spirit that is our Companion and Helper.

Message    Kept in our Hearts by Pastor Gil
- How God Stays With Us - 

Closing Hymn                            UMH #384 Love Divine

Benediction

​Renewed by God’s abiding presence,
We are sent to make God’s presence known.
Resurrected by the grace Christ offers us,
We are sent to make grace visible.
Refreshed by the Spirit who breathes deeply within us,
We are sent to companion others on the journey.

Thank you for your continuing thoughts, prayers, and pledges. 
Blessings to you all.