Saturday, November 29, 2014

Worship Bulletin, November 30, 2014: Grace Lutheran, San Francisco, CA 94116: ELCA





Advent 1B
 November 30, 2014
10 am Holy Communion Service
Grace Evangelical Lutheran

Today’s Worship Participants: 
Pastor: Rev. Megan Rohrer
Music Director: Dorothy Clazie
Assisting Minister: Laurel
Reader: Mary Ann


Welcome to worship at Grace!
Welcome to long-time Lutherans, Christians from every tradition, and people new to faith. Welcome to all who have no church home, want to follow Christ, have doubts, or do not believe. Welcome to new visitors and old friends. Welcome to people of every age and size, color and culture, every sexual orientation and gender identity, socio-economic status, marital status, ability and challenge. Welcome to believers and questioners, and to questioning believers. This is a place where you are welcome to celebrate and sorrow, rejoice and recover.  This is a place where lives are made new.

Special Welcome to Newcomers
Welcome to our small community of faith.  While we are small in numbers, we have big hearts and a desire to grow.  In order to help you follow along, we have included all the materials you need for worship in this bulletin.

Please join us for worship any Sunday at 10am that you are able.  If you cannot join us in person, you can also join us online via live stream or by watching the archives of our worship and Bible Study that Doesn’t Suck anytime during the week at our website (www.gracesf.com), or on our mobile phone app, Bible Study that Doesn’t Suck, is available on Google Play and ITunes. 

If you have any questions about the service or about Grace, you can fill out the form in pew to let our pastor know you’d like to chat.  Or you can contact Pastor Megan Rohrer at pastor@gracesf.com.



Prelude:    Handel: Allegro for Clarinet (Erin Dunning)

Greeting:   Candles a lit and water is poured into the baptismal font. 
The Grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.                                      C   And also with you.


Opening Hymn: Verses 1-3

Welcome
Prayer of the Day:
God of new beginnings, help us to find strength in you.  Show us the way to become in sync with your creation.  Amen.


First Reading: Isaiah:64:1-9

64 O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence— 2as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence! 3When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. 4From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. 5You meet those who gladly do right, those who remember you in your ways. But you were angry, and we sinned; because you hid yourself we transgressed.

6We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. 7There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity. 8Yet, God Most HIgh, you are our Parent; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. 9Do not be exceedingly angry, God Most High, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people.

 L   Word of hope, word of life.                       Thanks be to God


Psalm  80 (read responsively)
1Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock! You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth 2before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh. Stir up your might, and come to save us!
3Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved.         
4O Lord God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers? 5You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in full measure. 6You make us the scorn of our neighbors; our enemies laugh among themselves.
7Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.    
8You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.  9You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land.  10The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches; 11it sent out its branches to the sea, and its shoots to the River. 12Why then have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?  13The boar from the forest ravages it, and all that move in the field feed on it. 14Turn again, O God of hosts; look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine, 15the stock that your right hand planted.  16They have burned it with fire, they have cut it down; may they perish at the rebuke of your countenance.
17But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand, the one whom you made strong for yourself.  18Then we will never turn back from you; give us life, and we will call on your name.
19Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.



Second Reading:  1 Corinthians 1:1-9
1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, 2To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: 3Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, 5for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind— 6just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you— 7so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. 8He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Artist of the Month: Laurel Kapros Rohrer
In the pictures my cousin showed me, her mother was a young blond girl, pretty with full lips and large eyes. She told me a story I had never heard before about her, about Eva, and how she had been saved.
Eva liked to take me to the Met.  She had  been my only family when I lived in New York and wanted me to be able to see Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro.  Eva was my grandmother's first cousin and they were like sisters.  They certainly fought like sisters, one always mad at the other for some slight none of us could figure out.  Everyone always said Eva was a little crazy, because she had survived a camp when she was young during the war.
I hear folks talk about salvation sometimes.  Being saved by a higher power, saved by something bigger than themselves.  This isn't something I wholly understand, but lately I've been thinking about Eva.  Eva was taken to Auchwitz with her mother and brother.  I don't really know why she was taken and my grandmother and her family were spared.  I heard one story that it was because my grandmother's father was a war hero.  But Eva's family wasn't so lucky.  The story my cousin told me was that in the camp Eva had been in line with her mother and brother and a guard noticed her.  Perhaps it was her pretty blonde hair?  He told her to move to another line, away from her family.  She protested, she didn't want to leave her mother.  The guard told her that it would be okay, she would see her mother soon.  the guard was wrong, she never saw her family again.
Her life, and the life of her mother and brother, didn't mean a lot in Auchwitz.  Yet that life was preserved by the enemy, by the very people that took her family away from her.  Eva survived, she lived, and she made it out, grew up, married, had a daughter, and she took me to the opera and made me feel at home.  Was she that vine that grew when the ground was cleared through hatred and violence?  Did she take root because she had to, because she was alive when others weren't?  Eva never seemed too crazy to me, though she had the marks of the camp on her body and soul.  She was loving and funny, and reminded me a lot of my grandmother who she fought with so much.  This is the kind of salvation I can try to understand.      
L   Word of hope, word of life.                        Thanks be to God

Special Music: Let All the People Praise Thee,  Grace Choir

ospel Acclamation:  Verse 1



Gospel Reading:  Mark 13:24-37
24“But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory. 27Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
28“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 30Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. 31Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

32“But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. 34It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. 35Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, 36or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. 37And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”

The gospel of the God most high.                         Praise to you, O Christ.







Sermon: Silence for reflection follows the sermon.  The assembly stands to proclaim the word of God in song.




Hymn of the Day: Verses 1-3





Prayers of Intercession
A    During this season of Advent, we pray that the Holy Spirit will bring us patience, compassion and eyes to see God alive and at work in the world around us.  A brief silence.

Creating God, help us repair broken relationships, to clean up our messes and debts and to ask for help when we need it. Particularly, help us work to forgive others and get along with our family, neighbors and friends during the holiday season.  God in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Parent God, bless all who are parents, the family and staff of the Grace Infant Care Center and all who have created families.  Particularly during this season, be with those who are working on their fertility, caring for developing embryos and who are getting ready to become parents.  Help us become better at loving and receiving love from others.  God in your mercy, hear our prayer.

God, guide our civic leaders and enable them to be good stewards of public trust, resources and properties.  Be with our bishops Elizabeth and Mark, our pastor Megan and all the staff and leaders of our congregation.  God in your mercy, hear our prayer.

We give thanks for all who work in healing and caring professions.  Support doctors, nurses, partners, parents and friends who love and support others.  Provide healing and hope for those whose minds, bodies or spirits are in need of care.  Help us to live as fully as we can as we await the day all pain and suffering will end.   God in your mercy, hear our prayer.

For whom and what else do the people of Grace pray?
(Please offer - silently or aloud- petitions to God.  End spoken petitions with “God in your mercy.”)

P Our prayers rise like incense and are held by a loving God who yearns for us to be our best.  May we sleep well, worry less, and live convinced that God is on our side.    Amen.


Peace
The presiding minister and the assembly greet each other in the peace of the risen Christ.

P   The peace of Christ be with you always.                C   And also with you.

The people may greet one another with the sign of Christ’s peace, and may say, “Peace be with you” or similar words.    Then, the assembly is seated.





Offering
An offering is gathered for the mission of the church, including the care of those in need. 

Offertory: 

Offering Prayer:
After the offering is gathered, the assembly stands.
A    Let us pray.   God, bless all that we have to offer.  May our financial support match the generosity of our lives.  Help us to be good stewards of our financial and emotional investments.  Amen.

Communion:


P  It is indeed right, our duty and our joy, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks and praise . . . we praise your name and join their unending hymn:




P   On the night in which he was betrayed, our God most high Jesus took bread, and gave thanks; broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying: Take and eat; this is my body, given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me.

Again, after supper, he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it for all to drink, saying: This cup is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sin. Do this for the remembrance of me.

The Lord’s Prayer
C  Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen


Blessing


Announcements


Closing Hymn (next page)


Dismissal
A:  Go in peace and serve our God.        C: Thanks be to God.

Postlude      


Sending Hymn : Verses 1-3


Please join us for coffee and refreshments downstairs in the Fellowship Hall.
To get to the Fellowship Hall, exit to the right of the communion railing at the front of the church.
Announcements
You can find more information and find archived sermons and worship live streams at our website: www.gracesf.com  or on our blog: www.sfgrace.blogspot.com


There will be no bible study this week, so the pastor can get a root canal L


·         December 4 – 18  - Holden Evening Prayer, 6:30pm: Each Thursday night in Advent.
·        December 6 – Beatles Mass, 7pm
·        December 11-13 – West Coast LGBTQ Conference for Christian College Students

·        December 13 – Grace Under Fire Awards Dinner, 6-10pm: A fundraiser for Grace.

·        December 24 – Christmas Eve Service of Carols, 9:30pm




Scripture in this service is adapted from The Inclusive Bible: The First Egalitarian Translation, by Priests for Equality.  2009, Sheed & Ward. Kindle Edition. The traditional Lutheran liturgy is from Sundays and Seasons.com. Copyright 2014 Augsburg Fortress. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission under Augsburg Fortress Liturgies Annual License #28429. Hymns used with permission for worship and podcast under OneLicense.net  #A-723548.

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