Worship for March 26, 2023

The video will stream live beginning a few minutes before 10:00 AM on Sunday, March 26, 2023. You may need to click Play to launch the stream. You can also watch the recorded video at this same place at any time afterward.

Welcome to Church of the Holy Cross’s live stream of its worship service for Sunday, March 26, 2023. Feel free to follow the service text by scrolling down. You are welcome to attend worship in person or to participate via live stream or recorded video.

Service of Worship, March 26, 2023
Fifth Sunday in Lent

Rev. Eric S. Anderson, Pastor

WE GATHER TO WORSHIP GOD

Please note that audio and video of this service are being live streamed on the Internet and will be recorded. The right rear section of the sanctuary will not be captured by any cameras. Please be aware that in other sections you may be visible at times.

Prelude: I Saw the Cross of Jesus                                                      Kayleen Yuda

Lighting of the Candles

Ringing of the Bell

Welcome                                                                                                    Rev. Eric S. Anderson

*All who are able, please rise

* Call to Worship: (based on Romans 8:6-11)                             Woody Kita

Leader: To set your mind on the things of this world is to set your mind on death.
People: To set our minds on the Spirit of holiness is to set our minds on life and peace.

Leader: You are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you.
People: When Christ is in us, even if sin brings the ways of death, the Spirit brings the life of righteousness.

Leader: The Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you.
People: We look forward to the raising of our bodies through the Holy Spirit alive within us.

All: Let us worship God.

* Hymn #48: Jesus the Christ Says (v. 1-4)

* Invocation: (based on Psalm 130)                                                Woody Kita

Out of the depths we cry to you, O God. Turn your ears to the sound of our voices! If you should keep a chart of sins, O God, who could stand? But because you forgive, we confess our faults in reverent hope. Our souls wait for you more than we wait for the light of morning, for with you there is steadfast love and power to redeem, and we will find our hope. Amen.

Please be seated

Anthem: Meditation                                                                               Kayleen Yuda, organ
Jenifer Tsuji, flute

Time with the Children

Scripture                                                                                                    Woody Kita

Ezekiel 37:1-14
The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all round them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, ‘Mortal, can these bones live?’ I answered, ‘O Lord God, you know.’ Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.’

 So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.’ I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.

Then he said to me, ‘Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.” Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.’

John 11:1-45
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, ‘Lord, he whom you love is ill.’ But when Jesus heard it, he said, ‘This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.’ Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazaruswas ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

 Then after this he said to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judea again.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?’ Jesus answered, ‘Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.’ After saying this, he told them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.’ Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.’ Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow-disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him.’

 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’

When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, ‘The Teacher is here and is calling for you.’ And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’  But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’

 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, ‘Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upwards and said, ‘Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.’ When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’

Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.

Sermon: Dry, Dry Bones                                                                       Rev. Eric S. Anderson

WE RESPOND IN WORD AND DEED

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

* Hymn #484: O Come to Me, You Weary (v. 1-3)

Call to Offering                                                                                        Woody Kita

We bring new life to dry bones in many ways: through kind words and helping hands, through education and encouragement, and through providing the means of physical and spiritual life when and how we can. Let us bring new life to dry bones in today’s offering. Whether you share your gift here in the church today, through a gift online, or via an envelope in the mail, let the offering now be received.

Offertory: In the Peaceful Garden                                                     Kayleen Yuda

* Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above ye heavenly host
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost – Amen

* Offertory Prayer                                                                                  Woody Kita

Give life to us, O God, through the breath of your Holy Spirit. Give life to our neighbors, O God, through the things we do that build them up. Give life to the world, O God, through the gifts we present to you. Amen.

* Hymn #546: Jesus, Lover of My Soul (v. 1-3)                                       Movement led by Genie Phillips

Please be seated

Announcements                                                                                     Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Benediction                                                                                               Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Postlude: Fanfare and Statement on “Llanfair”                            Kayleen Yuda

* Please stand if you are able.

Permissions

I Saw the Cross of Jesus
Carolyn  Gillespie Hamlin
Tune: © 2020 Lorenz Corporation (admin. by Music Services)
All Rights Reserved.
ASCAP Text: © 2020 Lorenz Corporation
(admin. by Music Services)
All Rights Reserved. ASCAP
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890

Jesus the Christ Says
Text Urdu, anon.
Public Domain
Tune YISU NE KAHA, Urdu melody
Public Domain

Meditation from Thais
by Jules Massenet, 1893
Public Domain

O Come to Me, You Weary
Text by William C. Dix, 1867
Public Domain
Tune MEIRIONYDD, Welsh hymn tune,
attrib. to William Lloyd, 1840
Public Domain

In the Peaceful Garden
Edouard Batiste
John Troutman
Tune: © 1983 Lorenz Publishing Company
a division of The Lorenz Corporation
(Admin. by Music Services)
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890

Jesus, Lover of My Soul
Text by Charles Wesley, 1740
Public Domain
Tune MARTYN by Simeon B. Marsh, 1834
Public Domain

Fanfare and Statement on “Llanfair”
Edward Broughton
Robert Williams
Tune: © Lorenz Publishing Company,
a division of The Lorenz Corporation
(Admin. by Music Services)
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890   

Dates to Remember                    
Today, March 26 – J’s Mini Mart

Pastor                                                                                  Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Moderator                                                                         Stefan Tanouye
Lay Reader                                                                        Woody Kita
Choir Accompanist                                                        Kanako Okita
Choir Director & Conductor                                     Doug Albertson
Organist                                                                             Kayleen Yuda
Guest Flutist                                                                     Jenifer Tsuji
Hand Bell Director                                                        Anna Kennedy
Chapel Decorations                                                       Cindy Debus
Childcare Coordinator                                                Evonne Shioshita
Movement Leader                                                         Genie Phillips
Projected Imagery                                                        Sue Smith
Web Master                                                                      Ruth Niino-DuPonte  
Videographers                                                                Eric Tanouye, Bob Smith,
                                                                                                Eli Yamaki, Ruth Niino-DuPonte