Oceanview UMC | April 5 2020

Home Worship for Sunday
April 3, 2020

Staying home is a form of loving your neighbor. Think about it, you may be staying home for your own health but in reality you then become less of a carrier to others that you might come in contact with. These days might get very lonely for some and we don’t know for how long we will be sequestered to our homes. Please be in prayer for those who live alone. Remember in your prayers those who do not have a home to stay in. Take this time to grow in your trust of God and not be anxious.

This is not live worship, it is a way to worship at your home in place of our worship gatherings. Everything you will see in Home Worship will be your Oceanview staff sharing our gifts with you. As we do this we hope you will feel close to God who is near even though we are far apart.

May God Bless you and Keep you. Now, let’s worship together…

April 3rd - Wesley's Love Feast

The Love Feast is a Christian fellowship meal recalling the meals Jesus shared with disciples during his ministry and expressing the koinonia (community, sharing, fellowship) enjoyed by the family of Christ. John Wesley first experienced it among the Moravians in Savannah, Georgia. It quickly became a regular part of Methodist society meetings in Great Britain and throughout the English–speaking world. As Methodists immigrated to North America they made Love Feasts an important part of early American Methodism.

The Love Feast has often been held on occasions when the celebration of the Lord's Supper would be inappropriate—where there is no one present authorized to administer the Sacrament, when persons of different denominations are present who do not feel free to take Holy Communion together, when there is a desire for a service more informal and spontaneous than the communion ritual, or at a full meal or some other setting to which it would be difficult to adapt the Lord's Supper. The Love Feast is most naturally held around a table or with persons seated in a circle. You are invited to gather around a table with your loved ones and those with whom you are sequestered. Feel free to bring whatever foods you might want to enjoy. To participate you will need a form of bread, crackers, bagel, muffin, etc. and drink, water, coffee, tea, juice, etc.

Love Feast Welcome and Song: The Gift of Love

The Gift of Love - Lyrics

1. Though I may speak with bravest fire, and have the gift to all inspire, and have not love,
my words are vain, as sounding brass, and hopeless gain.

2. Though I may give all I possess, and striving so my love profess, but not be given by love within,
the profit soon turns strangely thin.

3. Come, Spirit, come, our hearts control, our spirits long to be made whole.
Let inward love guide every deed; by this we worship, and are freed.

Prayers of all the People

One or more persons may pray aloud, the others responding with Amen.

Be present at our table, Lord;

Be here and everywhere adored;

Thy creatures bless, and grant that we

May feast in paradise with Thee. Amen.

(JOHN CENICK)

Scripture: Matthew 27: 62-66 CEB

62 The next day, which was the day after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate. 63 They said, “Sir, we remember that while that deceiver was still alive he said, ‘After three days I will arise.’ 64 Therefore, order the grave to be sealed until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people, ‘He’s been raised from the dead.’ This last deception will be worse than the first.” 65 Pilate replied, “You have soldiers for guard duty. Go and make it as secure as you know how.” 66 Then they went and secured the tomb by sealing the stone and posting the guard.

Message: Seven Words to the Cross "The Futile Word"

Pastor Emily Denmark-McGee