Sunday, March 8th, The Second Sunday in Lent
Gathering
The Bible is full of stories of immigrants; men, women, children, and families who move from one land to another. Often they move under duress; to flee from dictators, from violence, from famine. They move toward hope, new life, and freedom. They cross borders and must often rely on the kindness of strangers to welcome and sustain them.
While these biblical stories come from long ago, they hold much in common with stories still happening today. There are now 70 million refugees in the world; twice as many as twenty years ago. The United Nations reports that there were 272 million migrants in 2019, an increase of 50 million since 2010. Numbers that large can sound overwhelming, but each number represents a story; a life, a family, a struggle, a dream, a complex set of circumstances. And, as Karen González reminds us, each story matters. Author Karen González immigrated to the United States as a young child with her family. Her father had left for the US partly because his politics put his life at risk, and because of instability in the Guatemalan economy. In The God Who Sees Karen González tells her family’s story of moving from one land to another, and weaves that story with the biblical stories of Naomi and Ruth, Abraham, Hagar, Joseph, the Syrophoenician woman (Mark 7:24-30), and Jesus’ own family.
We often speak of Lent as a journey—usually, an internal journey of prayer and introspection, considering God’s call to repentance and renewal of life. This year, we also journey alongside stories of immigration and migration. We’ll encounter God as one who journeys with us, and whose presence among us is revealed in the lives and stories of immigrants, migrants, and refugees. On both Sunday mornings and evening worship on Wednesdays, and in small groups for conversation this season, may God journey with us, and with all who are making their way home this Lent.
Blessed be God: Creator +, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen
Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you, no secrets are hidden. Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts, that we may worship you in spirit and in truth. Amen.
Gathering Song
We do not have copyright permission to show a video of our congregation singing our Gathering Song. We are committed to honoring the intellectual property of artists, and have offered a link below of the song uploaded by the artists, Mark Friedman and Janet Vogt.
Litany of Confession
God of heaven and earth, come in close and make us ours.
Equip us by your Spirit to confess our sin, and seek the way of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Dear Jesus, our journey through life is long and hard.
We cannot make this trip alone; we must walk together on the journey.
Help us to see your Spirit in those you send to journey with us.
Lord, have Mercy…
In the refugee family, seeking safety from violence, let us see your Spirit.
In the migrant worker, bringing food to our tables, let us see your Spirit.
In the asylum-seeker, seeking justice for himself and his family, let us see your Spirit.
In the unaccompanied child, traveling in a dangerous world, let us see your Spirit.
In the unaccompanied child, traveling in a dangerous world, let us see your Spirit.
Teach us to recognize the as we walk with each other, you are present.
Lord, have Mercy…
This is the help you have sent: we are not alone.
Forgive us when we fail to recognize and honor that all people are together on the journey.
Assurance of Forgiveness
God calls us to lives of justice and mercy, transforming us along the way.
As beloved children of God, you are forgiven+; as sojourners together on this earth,
let us walk the journey toward justice for all people. Amen.
Prayer of the Day
Musical Offering
We are not able to share a recording of today’s musical offering as it was performed for copyright reasons. For online worship we have included a recording of Achat Sha’alti by Paul Schoenfield, performed by John Sparkman and Lisa Hedley and featured on their 2013 CD Spirit Songs.. They performed this piece at the 2019 Lenten Concert entitled The Journey Inward.
Word
A Reading from the Book of Genesis. Genesis 12
Hymn of the Day
Abraham Journeyed to a New Country
We do not have copyright permission to show you a video of our congregation singing the Hymn of the day. We are committed to honoring the intellectual property of artists. For online worship we’ve included a recording of Francis Poulenc’s Cantilena, performed by John Sparkman and Lisa Hedley and featured on their 2013 CD, Spirit Songs.
The Creed
We have faith in God who lives among us: we are not alone, we live in God’s world.
We believe in God; who has created and is creating, who has come in Jesus,
the Word made flesh, to reconcile and make new,
who works in us and others by the Spirit. We trust in God.
We are called to be the Church:
to celebrate God’s presence, to live with respect in creation,
to love and serve others, to seek peace and resist evil,
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, our judge and our hope.
In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us.
We are not alone. Thanks be to God!
Meal
Sharing the Peace
The peace of the Lord be with you always.
We encourage you to share a sign of God’s peace and reconciliation with those who are around you—either in person or online!
The Offering
As we pause for the Offering, we invite you to listen to the song It is Well With My Soul, performed by Arief Abraham and featured on the 2013 CD, Spirit Songs.
We have a number of ways to participate and contribute when you are unable to attend worship in person. You can make a one-time donation, or manage ongoing giving. You may also chose to use the GivePlus App. Simply download the GivePlus app, and then search for “Holy Spirit Lutheran Church” using our zip code: 98034 (there are two other Holy Spirit Lutheran Churches in the country). Through that app you can also set up one-time or ongoing giving from your phone.
O God, you promise a world where those who now weep shall laugh;
Those who are hungry shall feast;
Those who are poor now and excluded,
Shall rejoice in your kingdom.
We want this world too.
We renounce despair.
We will act for change.
We will give thanks for your feast of life. Amen.
Our Offertory Litany is taken with permission from Janet Morley’s book All Desires Known (3rd Edition).
The Great Thanksgiving
The Lord be with you. And also with you.
Lift up your hearts! We lift them to the Lord!
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right to give God thanks and praise.
We are unable to share the video of the hymn we sang following the Offertory Litany for copyright reasons. We are committed to honoring the intellectual property of artists and supporting artists by not showing videos of copy-written materials.
Communion
Gathered into one by the Holy Spirit, let us pray as Jesus has taught us:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, they will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; 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.
Communion For Those at Home
Jesus shared a supper with his friends – a meal of joy and liberation, celebrating the freedom God gave the people of Israel when they fled slavery in Egypt. Meals are at the heart of much of Jesus’ ministry: he ate with ‘sinners and tax collectors,’ he told parables about God’s wide invitation to a feast, and he reminds us that ordinary things like bread and wine can also be the very presence of God.
Meals are still holy moments for us. While sharing Holy Communion with a church community is not something we can facilitate online, remember that God’s gifts of nourishment and friendship at the table are still as real, even at home. Whatever meal you enjoy this day, think of it as a form of communion: an ordinary, everyday event in which we see the love and mercy of God. It might be bread and wine; or it might be whatever is on your dinner table tonight. With grateful hearts, we give thanks for the many ways God sustains us; we pray for all whose tables are empty or whose next meal is uncertain; and we look forward to the day when we can gather at God’s table again.
For our communion hymn online we have provided a recording of Trillium by Catherine McMichael. It is performed by John Sparkman and Lisa Hedley and was featured on the 2013 CD, Spirit Songs.
Sending
Post Communion Prayer
God revealed in the stranger’s approach and the bread of hospitality,
in the message of new life and the laughter of response:
we thank you for this meal this sharing in yourself,
and we pray that our communion might be broken apart for the sake of the world.
Amen.
This prayer was used with permission from Steve Shakespeare’s Prayer’s for an Inclusive Church.
Closing Litany & Benedition
Marked by a cross, cherished and forgiven, we are traveling home.
Fed and nourished, renewed in grace, we are traveling home.
Across deserts, over mountains, we are traveling home.
God in our hearts, God in our lives, we are traveling home.
This litany was used with permission: written by Ruth Burgess. Included in Traveling to Easter with Jesus as our Guide, posted on the website of Patmos Abbey—The Order of Saint Columba.
In the footsteps of centuries of pilgrims, go now to continue your Lenten journey.
Consider how you may simplify your days, so that you may travel lightly.
do not try to cover more than one good day’s journey at a time.
Know when to stop, so that the journey will not be too great for you.
We choose to walk humbly, knowing that the goal
is simply to have come to more deeply know Christ, ourselves, and one another.
Go now: reaching out to Jesus Christ,
allowing the words of the story to guide you, and praying for the purity of heart and mind,
and knowing the blessing of the Triune God: Creator +, Son, and Holy Spirit,
is on the road just ahead of you, showing the way.
Amen
Sending Song
For our sending song we’ve provided a recording of In the Garden. It was performed by Arief Abraham and featured on the 2013 CD Spirit Songs.