Online Worship for May 2, 2021

Welcome to Church of the Holy Cross’s live streaming worship service for May 2, 2021. Feel free to follow the service text by scrolling down, or you may download and print the service in PDF format below.

This service includes the celebration of Holy Communion, so please prepare bread and something to drink to be available to you during worship.

Online Worship May 2, 2021
Fifth Sunday of Easter

Rev. Eric S. Anderson, Pastor

WE GATHER TO WORSHIP GOD

Welcome                                                                                 Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Prelude: Take My Life, and Let it be Consecrated (Tune: Hendon-Malan) arr., Whitworth
                                                                                                Kayleen Yuda

Call to Worship: based on John 15:1-8                                      Barbara Iwami

Leader: Jesus told us that he is the vine and God is the vine grower.
People: Branches that fall from the vine wither, they bear no fruit.

Leader: Jesus said that he is the vine and that we are the branches.
People: When we live in close connection to him, great things come to be.

Leader: Jesus said, “If you abide in me, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
People: May we glorify God as Jesus’ disciples, bearing the fruit of love in the world.

Invocation: based on Psalm 22:25-31                                      Barbara Iwami

Before the great congregation and the small congregation, we raise our praise to you, O God. By your grace, the poor shall eat and be satisfied. By your grace, the ends of the earth will remember their Creator. By your grace, those who have died will rise again. Inspire us here to declare your deliverance to generations yet to come, proclaiming that the LORD is God. Amen.

Hymn Duet #163: Many Are the Lightbeams                           Eric Anderson
                                                                                                Movement led by Genie Phillips

Scripture                                                                                 Barbara Iwami

Acts 8:26-40
Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopianeunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”

Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.

“How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

 This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:

“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
    and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
    Who can speak of his descendants?
    For his life was taken from the earth.”

 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

1 John 4:7-21
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

Story/Sermon: Somebody to Love                                           Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Pastoral Prayer                                                                       Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen

Instrumental Anthem: Mendelssohn–Spring Song                  Kanako Okita

Call to Offering                                                                      Barbara Iwami

We invite you to an offering. Jesus has summoned us to love one another, and to do so in ways that those we love can feel. This is one way to love our distant neighbors, through the sharing of our gifts and work. Please send your offering through the mail in an envelope to 440 West Lanikaula Street, Hilo, Hawai’i, 96720, or give online at holycrosshilo.com/donate. Let us pray together

Offertory Prayer
You summon us to love one another, O God, and we try. We try. Bless the gifts we present to you and by your grace and power may they love in fullness, in spirit, and in truth. Amen.

Vocal Anthem #498: Jesu, Jesu, Fill Us with Your Love           Eric Anderson
                                                                                                Movement led by Genie Phillips

Service of Holy Communion

Pastor: Paths and meals. Meals and paths.

Jesus summoned his first followers as he followed his path along a beach. They invited him to a meal at Simon Peter’s house, where Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law so that she could welcome him and join him at the table.

Jesus followed a path to a lonely place, and thousands followed that path so that they could hear him teach and learn from him. Jesus taught them that a hillside can be a table and that hospitality can begin with a little bit of bread and fish.

Following the path that led to his arrest and crucifixion, Jesus took his place as guest at a table, where a woman’s path brought her to fill the house with the scent of perfume and prepare Jesus’ body for it burial.

At a table in a rented room, Jesus affirmed the direction of his path, and though his way would diverge from his friends for three endless days, he declared that they would eat together again.

On a path to Emmaus, the risen Jesus, though unrecognized, fed the hearts of his friends. At the table with him, they were fed both with bread and with wonder.

Their path and Jesus’ path led back to Jerusalem, where a meal of bread and broiled fish assured them that Jesus had risen indeed, and that their lives had forever changed.

Our paths have brought us today to many tables, spread out across a community, an island, and indeed a world. Our paths have brought us to the nourishment of the bread and the refreshment of the cup, these simple food and drink becoming a testament to the life and love of Jesus. From these tables we will take our paths once more, and as on all occasions we have shared the meal of Jesus, we will have been forever changed.

Let us pray:

Pastor: What paths led you, O God, to create the spinning globes of the universe, and by them create the multitude of paths which your creatures may wander? What paths led you to inspire the breath of life? What paths led you to further inspire your people over the millennia with law and prophets and wisdom and righteousness? What paths led you to take breath into yourself in the form of Jesus of Nazareth, moving along the paths of human life, enduring the worst of human brutality, and overcoming the power of sin and death in a resurrection to life?

Let the limitless pathways of the Holy Spirit bring your divine power to our scattered tables, O God. May we be fed in body by this bread and cup, and in spirit by the life of the risen Jesus. May we be empowered to follow our paths from these tables to the joyous work of loving your people in the world. May we be filled with the knowledge of your endless love as we do.

We recall the night of betrayal and desertion when Jesus broke bread and told us that it was his body. We recall that on that night he shared the cup as he would share his blood. We recall the morning of triumph on which he took the pathway from the tomb. We recall that he shared tables with his friends in the light of resurrection – and we ask that Jesus share these tables now.

Amen.

Pastor: In the bread which we break, we participate in the body of Christ.
All: Fill us, dear God, with the strength of your love.

[Eat the bread]

Pastor: In the cup which we bless, we participate in the new life Christ brings.
All: Fill us, dear God, with the wonder of your life.

[Drink from the cup]

Pastor: Let us pray

All: We praise you, O God, for being present at our tables, and for granting us the presence of Jesus Christ. Strengthen our faith, increase our love for one another, and bring us into each day in courage and in peace, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit and in the life of Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

Announcements                                                                      Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Benediction                                                                             Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Postlude: A Celebration of Praise — Denton                              Kayleen Yuda

Permissions:
Many are the Lightbeams
Contributors: Olle Wildestrand, David Lewis
Text: Cyprian of Carthage, 252
Anders Frostenson, b. 1906
Trans. David Lewis, 1983
© 1972, AF-Foundation Hymns and Song, Verbum
Tune: LIGHTBEAMS, Olle Widestrand
© 1974, Olle Widestrand
Streamed by permission: ONELICENSE #A-735890

Jesu, Jesu, Fill Us with Your Love
Contributor: Tom Colvin
Text: © 1969, Hope Publishing Company
Tune: CHEREPONI, Ghanian folk song
Adapted by Tom Covin, arr. Jane Marshall
Streamed by permission: ONELICENSE #A-735890

                                                                 Dates to Remember
Today, May 2 – Trustees Meeting after worship

Minister                                            Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Moderator                                        Woody Kita
Lay Reader                                       Barbara Iwami
Chapel Decorations                          Chris & Jeribe Tanouye Family
Choir Accompanist                          Kanako Okita
Choir Director                                  Doug Albertson
Organist                                            Kayleen Yuda
Hand Bell Director                           Anna Kennedy
Childcare Coordinator                     Evonne Shioshita
Movement Leader                            Genie Phillips
Projected Imagery                            Sue Smith
Web Master                                      Ruth Niino-DuPonte  
Videographer                                   Eric Tanouye

This week at the Church of the Holy Cross

• Bible Study with Pastor Eric: Tuesdays, 3:00 p.m. via Zoom
• Pickleball: Mondays, 12 noon, Thursdays, 8:30 a.m., Saturdays 1:00 p.m., Building of Faith
• Online Song – Wednesdays, 11:00 a.m. online
• Community Concert — 2^nd & 4^th Fridays, 6:00 p.m. online