Sunday Worship, Feb 27, 8&10AM. In-Person/Online

Better than a happy new year, we wish you a blessed year!
So we turn our direction to the Beatitudes meaning blessedness.
Come and listen to what he has to say for a blessed year 2022 in your life.

Both of our 8 & 10AM services continue to be livestreamed https://www.facebook.com/LodiUMC

Order of Worship
February 27, 2022, 8AM

CALL TO WORSHIP 
One: Come before God in prayer
All: our prayers will be full of thanksgiving for God’s graciousness to us.
One: Find comfort and assurance in God’s Word
All: save us, Lord, from merely listening, show us how we can put the Word to work.
One: Take your lead from the saints;
All: we have such a fine example in God’s “down to earth” holy ones.

* HYMN OF ADORATION Gather Us In (The Faith We Sing #2236)
1 Here in this place new light is streaming, now is the darkness vanished away.
See in this space our fears and our dreamings, brought here to you in the light of this day.
Gather us in, the lost and forsaken. Gather us in, the blind and the lame;
Call to us now, and we shall awaken, we shall arise at the sound of our name.

2 We are the young, our lives are a mystery, we are the old who yearn for your face,
We have been sung throughout all of history, called to be light to the whole human race.
Gather us in, the rich and the haughty, gather us in, the proud and the strong;
Give us a heart so meek and so lowly, give us the courage to enter the song.

3 Here we will take the wine and the water, here we will take the bread of new birth,
Here you shall call your sons and your daughters, call us anew to be salt for the earth.
Give us to drink the wine of compassion, give us to eat the bread that is you;
Nourish us well and teach us to fashion lives that are holy and hearts that are true.

4 Not in the dark of buildings confining, not in some heaven light years away.
But here in this place the new light is shining, now is the kingdom, now is the day.
Gather us in and hold us forever, gather us in and make us your own;
Gather us in, all peoples together, fire of love in our flesh and our bones

PASSING THE PEACE OF CHRIST
With gratitude for knowing that we are one in Christ, let us offer one another signs of Christ’s peace:
The peace of Christ be with you, always. And also with you.

* PRAYER OF LAMENT AND CONFESSION (in unison)
God who grieved the death of your Christ, we grieve at the news of another war.
Our spirits are sore, our hearts are aching,
for those created in your image
have lacked the moral courage and the creative vision to prevent war.
As a result, your children, our sisters and brothers, will be wounded, maimed, and killed.
Your children from Russia, your children from Ukraine,
your children from allied forces, your children in the military, your children who are civilians.
On both sides, on all sides, all are those created in your image. Forgive us, God.

May all your children know your presence and love.
May we work to end this war, to care for those it harms, to seek ways to work for justice.
In the name of the crucified and risen Christ we pray. Amen.
Adapted from the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program, “For the Human Cost of War,”

SHARING JOYS AND CONCERNS

PASTORAL PRAYER

TIME FOR DEDICATION
Thank you for living your faith by sharing your gifts with God’s world through your church. Online Giving: www.LodiUMC.org/Give
Doxology United Methodist Hymnal #95
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; praise him, all creatures here below;
praise him above, ye heavenly host; praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Prayer for Our Offering
Give us a hunger and thirst for righteousness, fill our hearts with love, overflowing with mercy; make our hearts pure, and give us a vision of your glory. O Gracious God, you have richly blessed us with life, with love and joy, and hope in the midst of despair. In these offerings, we share with others that which we have received, boldly proclaim the good news of your love, and let your way grow in our lives and throughout the world. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING Matthew 5:1-12
Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. He said:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

MESSAGE Beatitudes 7

HYMN OF FAITH This Is My Song (United Methodist Hymn #437)
1 This is my song, O God of all the nations, A song of peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my home, the country where my heart is; Here are my hopes, my dreams, my sacred shrine.
But other hearts in other lands are beating, With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

2 My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean, And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine.
But other lands have sunlight too and clover, And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
O hear my song, O God of all the nations, A song of peace for their land and for mine.

3 This is my prayer, O Lord of all earth’s kingdoms: Thy kingdom come; on earth thy will be done.
Let Christ be lifted up till all shall serve him, And hearts united learn to live as one.
O hear my prayer, thou God of all the nations; Myself I give thee, let thy will be done.

DISMISSAL WITH BLESSING

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