Prelude:                    

How Deep the Maker’s Love for Us

Words and Music by Stuart Townend

Arranged by Richard Kingsmore

Cathedral of Hope Orchestra

Words and Music by Stuart Townend
This arrangement by Richard Kingsmore 
© 1995 Thankyou Music/EMI CMG 

Call to Worship

Cathedral of Hope, we gather today to worship a God of justice and mercy.

We gather to give thanks,

To open our eyes to God’s presence in the world,

And to learn to welcome others as God welcomes us.

So rise, Church, in body and spirit! Sing praise to our merciful God!

**Processional Hymn

There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy

There’s a wideness in God’s mercy, like the wideness of the sea;

there’s a kindness in God’s justice, which is more than liberty.

There’s no place where earthly sorrows are more felt than in God’s heaven;

there’s no place where earthly failings have such kindly judgment given.

There is welcome for the sinner, and a promised grace made good;

there is mercy with the Savior; there is healing in his love.

There is grace enough for thousands of new worlds as great as this;

there is room for fresh creations in that upper room of bliss.

For the love of God is broader than the measures of our minds;

and the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind.

If our love were but more faithful, we would gladly trust God’s word;

and our lives would show thanksgiving for the goodness of our God.

Words: Frederick William Faber, 1862
Music: Thomas John Williams, 1890 

Welcome and Life of the Church

**Sharing of the Peace

Modern Lesson

Our Modern Lesson is from our Lenten Study Book Good Enough, by Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie. Hear these words:

Part of our identities leaves us locked out. We are not islands, but reliant on one another to remake us, pull us toward God, and be a soft place to land. As Christians, we believe we are part of the larger body of Christ, through which God unleashes the kin-dom. But… we are not always wanted.

Our sexual identities leave us locked out. The divorce shatters our family. A compromised immune system means we are less able to join in on Sunday mornings. Mental illness keeps us in bed or a move for work pulls us away. Someone in our family is incarcerated. Our disabilities—or those of our children—cannot or will not be accommodated.

Just because we are not always wanted doesn’t mean we don’t belong.

May God bless the hearing of these new words. Amen.

Gradual

Word of God, Speak

Choir:          Holy Spirit lead me to the wilderness,
beyond the music, beyond the noise.
All that I need is to be with you
and in the stillness to hear your voice.

All:                Word of God, speak, would you pour down like rain,
washing my eyes to see your majesty,
to be still and know that you’re in this place?
Please let me stay and rest in your holiness.
Word of God, speak.

**Word of God, speak, would you pour down like rain,
washing my eyes to see your majesty,
to be still and know that you’re in this place?
Please let me stay and rest in your holiness.
Word of God, speak. Word of God, speak.
Word of God, speak.

Words and Music: Peter Kipley and Bart Millard
©2002 Simpleville Music/Wordspring Music, LLC/Songs from the Indigo Room

**Scripture Lesson: Galatians 6:1-3, 7-10 The Message, edited

One: Our Scripture Lesson is from the Sixth Chapter of Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. Hear these words:

Live creatively friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore them, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.

Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All they have to show for their life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in God, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.

So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.

One: This is the Word of God for the People of God.

All: Thanks be to God. Amen.

**Gospel Response                 

Word of God, Speak 

    

Word of God, speak, would you pour down like rain,
washing my eyes to see your majesty,
to be still and know that you’re in this place?
Please let me stay and rest in your holiness.
Word of God, speak. Word of God, speak.
Word of God, speak.

Sermon        

For the Exiles

Offering Call                                                                                   

Offertory

You Do Not Walk Alone

Words: Irish blessing;

Music by Elaine Hagenberg

Sanctuary Choir and Orchestra

May you see God’s light on the path ahead when the road you walk is dark.

May you always hear, even in your hour of sorrow, the gentle singing of the lark.

When times are hard may hardness never turn your heart to stone.

May you always remember when the shadows fall, you do not walk alone.

Words: Traditional Irish Blessing
Music: Elaine Hagenberg © 2019 Beckenhorst Press, Inc.

The Great Thanksgiving for Lent          

Sursum Corda

One: God be with you

All:    And also with you.

One: Lift up your hearts.

All:    We lift them up to God.

One:  Let us give thanks and praise to God.

All:    It is right to give God thanks and praise.

One:  Our hearts overflow with love for you, God of the ages.

When there was no time, you crafted day and night.

When we turned away from you, you remembered the promises you made to Noah, Sarah, Josep, and Hannah, and sent the prophets to remind us of your covenant and to point the way to your heart.

When we continued to ignore the prophets’ words, you sent Jesus to be with us, to set us free from the bonds we created for ourselves.

So, we life our voices with those who waited patiently and with those who saw the fulfillment of your promises, joining the choirs of heaven and earth to forever sing your praise:

Words of Institution 

Faithful and holy are you, Creator of all, and blessed is Jesus the Christ.

When he could have stayed at your side, Jesus came to be Emmanuel, God-with-us.

When he could have feasted on power, Jesus came to prepare a Table for us where our broken lives might be made whole.

When he could have had the angels wait on him, Jesus came to offer us your grace, enduring death on the cross so we could have life eternal.

On the night in which he was betrayed…. When we eat of this bread, and drink from this cup, we remember the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as we proclaim the mystery of our faith:



Prayer of Consecration  

Let us pray.

Pour out your Spirit on this bread and this cup, gifts of your creation.

As we are filled with the Bread of Life, may we never cease to feed the hungry of our world.

As we are nurtured by compassion’s cup, may we take the lost, last and least by the hand, walking together into the realm you have prepared for all.

As we gather around the Table with your beloved children of every time and place, may we join our voices with theirs, praising you,

God of the priests and the prophets, God of the apostles and martyrs, God of our mothers and our fathers, God of our children to all generations.

Words: adapted by Marcia Pruner © The Church Pension Fund
Music: American Folk Tune, The Sacred Harp, 1844

Invitation

Music during Communion 

Just as I Am

Just as I am, without one plea but that thy love was shown to me,
and that thou bidd’st me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, thy love unknown has broken every barrier down;

now to be thine, yea, thine alone, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

I come broken to be mended, I come wounded to be healed.
I come desperate to be rescued, I come empty to be filled.
I come guilty to be pardoned through the love of Christ, the Lamb.
And I’m welcomed with open arms, praise God, just as I am.

Just as I am, I would be lost, but mercy and grace my freedom bought.
And now, to glory in the cross, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

I come broken to be mended, I come wounded to be healed.
I come desperate to be rescued, I come empty to be filled.
I come guilty to be pardoned through the love of Christ, the Lamb.
And I’m welcomed with open arms, praise God, just as I am.

Words and Music: Charlotte Elliot, David Moffitt, Sue C. Smith, 
Travis Cottrell, and William B. Bradbury
© 2009 Universal Music – Brentwood Benson Publishing/First Hand Revelation Music/
CCTB Music

Just a Closer Walk with Thee

I am weak but thou art strong; Jesus, keep me from all wrong.
I’ll be satisfied as long as I walk, let me walk close to thee.

Just a closer walk with thee, grant it, Jesus, is my plea.
Daily walking close to thee, let it be, dear Lord, let it be.

Through this world of toil and snares, if I falter, Lord, who cares?
Who with me my burden shares? None but thee, dear Lord, none but thee.

Just a closer walk with thee, grant it, Jesus, is my plea.
Daily walking close to thee, let it be, dear Lord, let it be.

Words and Music: Anonymous
Traditional North American Hymn

You Are My All in All

You are my strength when I am weak, 
You are the treasure that I seek, you are my all in all.
Seeking you as a precious jewel, Lord, to give up I’d be a fool, 
you are my all in all.

Jesus, Lamb of God, worthy is your name. 
Jesus, Lamb of God, worthy is your name.

Taking my sin, my cross, my shame, 
Rising again I bless your name. You are my all in all.
When I fall down, you pick me up; When I am dry, you fill my cup. 
You are my all in all!

**Jesus, Lamb of God, worthy is your name. 
Jesus, Lamb of God, worthy is your name.

Words and Music: Dennis L. Jernigan
© 1990 Shepherd’s Heart Music, Inc./PraiseCharts.com

**Prayer of Thanksgiving

**Recessional:          

We Would Be One

We would be one as now we join in singing

Our hymn of love, to pledge ourselves anew

To that high cause of greater understanding of who we are,

and what in us is true. We would be one in living for each other

To show to all a new community.

We would be one in building for tomorrow

A nobler world than we have known today.

We would be one in searching for that meaning

Which binds our hearts and points us on our way.

As one, we pledge ourselves to greater service,

with love and justice, strive to make us free.

Words: Samuel Anthony Wright, 1953
Music: Jean Sibelius, 1865-1957 

OneLicense.net License #A-705445 / CCLI License #12333

**Benediction 

Postlude for Dismissal

The flowers on the chancel are given by Debbie Cantrell and Sherry Downs in honor of being together 48 years, 37 illegally and 11 years legally. Also, in honor of Scott who always creates most beautiful arrangements.