Bulletin, April 19, 2015: Easter 2b: Grace Lutheran San Francisco

3rd Sunday of Easter

10:30 am Holy Communion Service

Grace Evangelical Lutheran, San Francisco

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 10:30am 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 

Greeting

Pastor: Alleluia! Christ is risen!

Congregation: Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!

The joy of the resurrection fills us with hope, promises us new life, and draws

us together as one. We cannot keep this good news to ourselves. Let us begin

our worship by turning to fellow worshipers and greeting them with the words,

“Christ is risen!”

Worshipers greet one another by saying, “Christ is risen!” or “Alleluia!” along with introducing themselves to others they may not have yet met.

 

Gathering Hymn  

Prayer of the Day

Loving God, help us become a compassionate community that gives thanks more often than we complain, assumes the best in others and shares when we can.  Amen.

Welcome                

First Reading                      Acts 3:12-18

¹²When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, “You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? ¹³The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. ¹⁴But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, ¹⁵and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. ¹⁶And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you. ¹⁷“And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. ¹⁸In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer.

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

Psalm 4 (read responsively)

¹Answer me when I call, O God of my right!

You gave me room when I was in distress. Be gracious to me, and hear my prayer.

²How long, you people, shall my honor suffer shame? How long will you love vain words, and seek after lies? But know that the Lord has set apart the faithful for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him.  ⁴When you are disturbed, do not sin; ponder it on your beds, and be silent. ⁵Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord.

⁶There are many who say, “O that we might see some good! Let the light of your face shine on us, O Lord!”

⁷You have put gladness in my heart more than when their grain and wine abound.

⁸I will both lie down and sleep in peace; for you alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety.

Second Reading            1 John 3:1-7

3See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ²Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. ³And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

⁴Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. ⁵You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. ⁶No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. ⁷Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.

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

Special Music         Every Time I Feel the Spirit     Grace Choir

Gospel Reading                 John 20:19-31

³⁶While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” ³⁷They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. ³⁸He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? ³⁹Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” ⁴⁰And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. ⁴¹While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” ⁴²They gave him a piece of broiled fish, ⁴³and he took it and ate in their presence. ⁴⁴Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” ⁴⁵Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, ⁴⁶and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ⁴⁸You are witnesses of these things.

The gospel of the Lord.                                Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon                    

Silence for reflection follows the sermon.  Following the sermon, the assembly stands to proclaim the word of God in song.

Hymn of the Day               Verses 1, 2 and 4 in English  

(Hilda may teach the congregation the refrain in Spanish if she is with us and willing)

Prayers of Intercession

A    During this season of Easter, we pray for all who long for a new start, experience health and love beyond their expectations and for the church, the world and all people in their need.  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. 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.  Help us to become better at loving and receiving love from others.  God in your mercy, hear our prayer.

God, you are the highest authority.  Help our civic leaders to bring peace to a war torn world and to care for those who are vulnerable.  Be with our bishops Elizabeth and Mark, our pastor Megan and all the staff and leaders of our congregation.  Help us to support the work and hobbies of all who worship with us, so that we may draw closer to God in all that we do at work and at home.  God in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Loving God, help us to have patience, compassion and listening ears for those who differ from us.  Provide healing and hope for those whose minds, bodies or spirits are in need of care.  We pray especially for those who care for the sick and support those who are aging.  Help us to live and experience as much as we can while we await the day we will be reunited with those we have lost.   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’s is on our side.    Amen.

Offering                   

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

Offering Prayer

A    Let us pray.   God, bless the 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

The Lord be with you.       And also with you.

Lift up your hearts.                        We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give and thanks to the Lord our God.              It is right to give God thanks and praise.

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:

On the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord 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                                                                           

Sending Hymn       

Dismissal

A:  Go in peace and serve our God.

C: Thanks be to God.

Postlude

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.

Grace Film Festival:

Friday, April 24, 2015 - 5:30-10pm

Bayberries Have Ripened (16:25) a short film from Nepal ; Dervish: a spiritual sojourn (39:01) a short film from India

- Intermission - Films resume at 6:30

Love Free or Die (1:22:00) Documentary from US - The life and work of Bishop Gene Robinson, an openly gay man who set a precedent in New Hampshire in the battle for LGBT people to receive full acceptance in the faith.

- Intermission - Films resume at 8pm

The Illusion (2:04) a short animated film from Iran; The Complicated Race to the Wheel of Life (11:35) a short film from the Philippines; The Glorious Refuse (14:57) a short film film from Nigeria; Alyosha's Love (22:42) a short film from Russia; 1-0 (1) a short from Iran

- Intermission - Films resume at 9pm

Of Boys and Planes (2:40) an animated short from Mexico; Two Men and a Cradle (55:19) a documentary from France

Saturday, April 25, 2015  - 5:15-8:30pm

to be or not to be? (1:01:00) a film from Kazakhstan  (All roles of this film are performed by young people with disabilities. Every second of their lives is given to them by incredible struggle, which enforces them to put a question for themselves: “To be or not to be”?)

 - Intermission - Films resume at 6:30 pm

Brother Outsider (1:23:00) Documentary from US - Documentary on Bayard Rustin, best-remembered as the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington.

 - Intermission - Films resume at 8pm

Because of Mum (12:17) an animated short from Bulgaria; Shades of Gray (6:18) an animated short from the Russian Federation; Ticonderoga (7) a short film from Canada; Coffee Talk 6 - Gay Marriage (5:06) a short from the US

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.  

Pastor Megan is away for continuing education at a retreat with other LGBTQ Pastors in upstate New York and will be back next week.  Today, our service will be led by Pastor Susan Strouse of First United Lutheran Church.  Pastor Susan Strouse is a native of Pottstown, PA (near Philadelphia) and is a graduate of Antioch University/Philadelphia (B.A. in Human Services) and the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg (Master of Divinity) She has previously served congregations in Buffalo, NY and Novato, CA. She has been at First United since December 2004.

In 2005 she received a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley. Her area of study and interest is interfaith theology, particularly working with congregations and clergy to explore the meaning of being a Christian in our religiously diverse world. She served as the Interim Executive Director of the Interfaith Center at the Presidio in 2011-2012.