today Flowers: The flowers on the altar are given to the Glory of God by Jean Staley in loving memory of Flo Kes. Come as You Are 01/11/2015 Worship Attendance: Keeping What 8:00 – 18; 9:00 – 78; 10:30 – 131; Total = 227 Is Necessar Church School Attendance: 49 y, Our Pastors – Woody Eddins and Peter Preiser Leaving the Organist & Adult Music – Yves Venne Children/Youth/Contemporary Music – Dorothy Cowles R t Sc A Stephen Ministry Church Early Communion Service Keeping What Is N Rest Behind Simsbury United Methodist Church “Listening for God’s Difficult Messages” “We need to find God, but God cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls.” Mother Teresa 8:00 a.m. Jan 18, 2015 01.18.15 – 3rd Sunday after Epiphany Worship Service – 8:00 a.m. Welcome HOLY COMMUNION Prelude | A Service of Word and Table | Hymnal #12 Leader: The Lord be with you, People: And also with you. Leader: Lift up your hearts, People: We lift them up to the Lord. Leader: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God, People: It is right to give God thanks and praise. ◊Call to Worship Leader: Listen to God speak in the silence of your being, be aware of God’s voice as you journey to your soul. People: How does God speak, and when should we listen? How can we recognize the voice of God with so many competing voices? Leader: Be still and know God. Wait on God to touch your life with healing and hope, with joy and peace. People: We need to experience these gifts in our lives; we need to know God as one who frees us from the anxiety of living. Leader: God is light, in God there is no darkness. God is love and nothing in all creation is beyond redemption. People: Speak, O God, for your servants are listening. (There follows prayers of praise for God's acts of creation, concluding...we join with the song of unending praise, saying:) Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your Glory. Hosanna in the highest, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.” ◊Opening Hymn | Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing #400 Prayer of Consecration ◊Opening Prayer | (unison) All knowing God, we confess that we act at times as if you did not exist. Our lives are inundated by the narrowness of our existence. We define ourselves by what we do and by what we refuse to do. We see the evil, but we blame others and forget that we participate by our silence. Restore our life and awaken our desire to give and to forgive. Teach us again to dance with the saints the dance of faith, of hope, and of justice, and of love. Amen. Sharing of the Meal First Lesson | 1 Samuel 3: 1-20 Second Lesson | John 1: 43-51 Prayer After Receiving: Eternal God, we give you thanks for this Holy Mystery in which you have given yourself to us. Grant that we may go now into the world, in the strength of your Spirit, to give ourselves for others. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. ◊Closing Hymn | We Shall Overcome #533 ◊Benediction Pastoral Prayer ◊Benediction Response | Go In Peace Go in peace and the peace of God be with you this day; Go in peace and the peace of God be with you alway. Celebrate and share the joy, celebrate new life. Go in peace and the peace of God be with you alway. The Lord’s Prayer | Blue hymnal #895 ◊Postlude | Prayer Response | I’ve Got Peace Like a River #2145 (Faith We Sing Hymnal) ◊ please stand as you are able Message | “Listening for God’s Difficult Messages” Pastor Woody Eddins