Worship Service – January 31, 2021

The Building is Closed and the Church is Open

While we have restricted access to the building, Peace Church is very much open to ministry—working to respond to our own congregation, as well as the needs of our neighbors and community.  Please consider giving either to Peace Church general fund or the Gabriel Fund – which is used to meet the needs in the community.

We recognize that in this time, people’s financial situations may have changed. We ask you to prayerfully consider what you can give.  If you use electronic giving, we thank you for your constancy of support.  If you would like to give through our online form, we would be grateful. For all the contributions from our members and friends—whether financial, time, or prayer—we ask God’s blessings on those gifts that Peace Church may be healing balm in this time when we are living in our own Gilead.

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January 31, 2021 ⁂ 10:30am

Liturgists
The People of Peace Church
John Pokrzywinski, Lay Reader
Maggie Fink, ASL Interpreter
Jim Pospisil, Music Director
Nathan Holst, Faith Formation Minister
Rev. Greg Briggs, Interim Minister

Prelude

Announcements and Ringing of the Peace Bells

God is Revealed as We Gather

Responsive Call to Worship 

God is awe-inspiring, more wondrous than the depths of space,
God is the Creator of the Universe, beyond our understanding.
God is Almighty, powerful and amazing,
and God is also in the stillness, the Spirit moving in the breeze.
God is far beyond our comprehension,
yet God knows each of us, and God is made known to us.
We worship God, though we do not fully understand now,
we know that God is still being revealed to us, through us, and in us.
God is here, among us now, wherever we are gathered.
Listen to the movement of the Spirit, and follow Christ our Lord.

Opening Hymn    “De colores”    #402

Unison Prayer of Confession
Almighty One, we confess that we have placed limits on You. We’ve tried to fit you into a box of theology, a box of polity and rules, a box of limited human understanding. You’ve broken the world, even the universe, open to us again and again, but still we try to be gatekeepers. O forgive us, our human, faulty selves, for not listening to You, for not comprehending, for not simply sitting in Wisdom’s understanding and contemplating Your teaching. Forgive our selfish impulses to try to rein You in and put harmful limitations on others. Call us into Your deeper ways of understanding, and may we truly love one another and love You, for this is what You have commanded. In the name of Wisdom, in the name of Jesus, in the name of the Spirit among us, we pray all things. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon

Story for All Ages by Sharon Dawson, Children’s Ministry

God is Revealed in the Word

God’s Word in the Letters:   1 Corinthians 8:1-13

God’s Word in the Gospel:   Mark 1:21-28

Special Music   “ Ubi Caritas” by Ola Gjeilo

Sermon     “Freedom, Responsibility, Authority” by Pastor Greg

Hymn     “We Are Your People”    #309

We Respond to God’s Presence

Sharing Our Prayer Concerns, Silent Prayer, Pastoral Prayer by Nathan Holst, the Lord’s Prayer and Choral Amen

Sharing our Offerings

Offertory    

The Thanksgiving   “Doxology”

Prayer of Dedication

May these gifts we offer demonstrate that we recognize your claim upon us, Divine Creator. Use them so your grace, your love, and your hope may be shared with everyone who needs them.    Amen.

Closing Song    “God of Grace and God of Glory”    #436

Benediction

Postlude

Choir Quartet: Cathy Ameel, Gudrun Witrak, Susan Larson Kidd, and Kirby Wood