Online Worship for June 28, 2020

Welcome to Church of the Holy Cross’s live streaming worship service for June 28th, 2020. Feel free to follow the service text by scrolling down, or you may download and print the service in PDF format below.

Online Worship, June 28, 2020
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Rev. Eric S. Anderson, Pastor

WE GATHER TO WORSHIP GOD

Welcome                                                                                 Rev. Eric Anderson

Prelude: Piano Sonata in C Major (WoO. 51), Allegro, by Ludwig van Beethoven  
                                                                                                Mace Peng

Call to Worship based on Psalm 13                                         Eric Tanouye
As the days grow long, it can seem very much as we have been forgotten. If the phone does not ring, if the email does not ding, if the doorbell does not sing, we may feel very much alone. Our heart may ache with sorrow at the absence of friends and neighbors, at the distance of family and relations, at the silence of God. Yet God does not sleep. God does not hand us over to the evils of life. God does not leave us orphaned or alone. Let us trust in God’s steadfast love; let us rejoice in God’s salvation. Let us sing to the LORD, who has dealt bountifully with us all.

Opening Prayer based on Romans 6:12-23
Leader: Let us pray:

All: Your grace surpasses all we know and all we can imagine, O God. Your grace surpasses our errors and our sins; your grace surpasses our ignorance and our limited understanding. As human beings we come to you imperfect and inclined to temptation. As human beings we rise before you, still imperfect, but comforted by love’s redemption. Shall we sin again? Most likely, God, we will, but we will strive to live as righteously as you have called us to live. Yes, we will live in an imperfect echo of our Savior Jesus Christ, and though we stumble, we rely on you to lift us up and set us once more on our way. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Hymn #421 We Gather Together

We gather together
to ask for God’s blessing,
   to live in community,
   seeking God’s will.
We come now, as sisters
and brothers, confessing
   the sins that divide
   and the wrong in us still.

Beside us, forgiving,
enabling, sustaining,
   you call us, O Savior,
   to life that is new.
you draw us away
from self-centered complaining.
   You lead us and guide us
   in ways that are true.

All praise to the Spirit,
provider, defender.
   You offer us freedom,
   to follow or stray,
Empowering all by
the hope you engender.
   Grant wisdom and courage
   to follow your way.

Netherlands folk hymn, 16th century
Transl. Theodore Baker, 1894
Adapt. Lavon Bayler, 1992

Scripture: Jeremiah 28:5-9
Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord; and the prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord fulfill the words that you have prophesied, and bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of the Lord, and all the exiles. But listen now to this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people. The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms. As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes true, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet.”

Matthew 10:40-42: “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

Story and Meditation: Welcome, Welcome                    Rev. Eric Anderson

Prayer:                                                                                    Rev. Eric Anderson

Offering Call and Dedication                                                  Eric Tanouye
We are not sending ushers through the neighborhoods of Hilo to collect your gifts this morning, or any morning. We invite you to send your offering to support the spiritual, emotional, and physical ministries of this church in this time. Please mail your gifts to us at Church of the Holy Cross, 440 West Lanikaula Street, Hilo, Hawai’i 96720. We can receive gifts online as well. Visit holycrosshilo.com and click “Donate” in the upper right hand corner.

Please pray with me:
You have welcomed us, O God, into your heart and care. Accept these gifts we offer as we welcome our neighbors, both strangers and friends, into our hearts. In these gifts may we all be held in care, gathered together in love and in grace. Amen.

Music: Won’t You Let Me Be Your Servant – Richard Gillard      
Eric Anderson & Doug Albertson

© Words: 1977 Universal Music – Brentwood Benson Publishing (Admin. by Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing, Inc.)
Music: 1977 Universal Music – Brentwood Benson Publishing (Admin. by Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing, Inc.)
All rights reserved. www.ccli.com
Streaming performance licensed: CCLI License # 1595965

Benediction:                                                                            Rev. Eric Anderson

Postlude: Lustig und Traurig (WoO. 54) — Ludwig van Beethoven
                                                                                                Mace Peng