5th 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 Verses
1-3
Prayer of the Day
Loving
God, help us be fruitful in our lives and loving in our heart and actions. Amen.
Welcome
First Reading Acts 8:26-40
26Then
an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the
road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a
wilderness road.) 27So he got up and went. Now there was an
Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in
charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28and was
returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29Then
the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” 30So
Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you
understand what you are reading?” 31He replied, “How can I, unless
someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. 32Now
the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was
led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not
open his mouth. 33In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can
describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.” 34The
eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this,
about himself or about someone else?” 35Then Philip began to speak,
and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about
Jesus. 36As they were going along the road, they came to some water;
and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being
baptized?” 38He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them,
Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. 39When
they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the
eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 40But Philip
found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he
proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
Word of hope, word of life. Thanks
be to God
Psalm 22 (read responsively)
25From you
comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will pay before those who
fear him.
26The poor
shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord.
May your hearts live forever!
27All the
ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations shall worship before him. 28For dominion belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. 29To him, indeed, shall all who
sleep in the earth bow down; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
and I shall live for him.
30Posterity
will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord, 31and
proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it.
Second Reading 1 John 4:7-21
7Beloved,
let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born
of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, for
God is love. 9God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent
his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10In
this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be
the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Beloved, since God loved us so
much, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God;
if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13By
this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his
Spirit.
14And
we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of
the world. 15God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son
of God, and they abide in God. 16So we have known and believe the
love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in
God, and God abides in them.
17Love
has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of
judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. 18There is no
fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with
punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. 19We
love because he first loved us. 20Those who say, “I love God,” and
hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother
or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. 21The
commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their
brothers and sisters also.
Word of hope, word of
life. Thanks
be to God
Special Music The
River, by Garth Brooks Grace Choir
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.
Gospel Reading John
15:1-8
15”I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. 2He
removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit
he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3You have already been
cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4Abide in me as I
abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides
in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5I am the vine,
you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit,
because apart from me you can do nothing. 6Whoever does not abide in
me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown
into the fire, and burned. 7If you abide in me, and my words abide
in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8My
Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.
The
gospel of the Lord. 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
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
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:
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 Verses
1, 2 and 4
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.
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