Oceanview UMC | May 31 2020 Pentecost

Pentecost 2020 Experience the Power

Pentecost! Another day for stretching yourself...celebrations like Pentecost are opportunities for stepping out and going even further, trying to recapture the experience of being empowered by the Spirit for the task of building the church, making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Pentecost is one day when such a thing doesn’t feel quite so outlandish, but it might just be within the realm of possibility —at least in the Spirit-breathed possibility. www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/pentecost

This Pentecost, we are still caring for others by practicing social distancing, wearing masks and using sanitizer. Throughout this time we have learned new ways of doing and being the church. We can go further. This Pentecost, let us experience the power to see people the way God sees people. Pentecost 2020.

Singing with Hands (Interpretive Worship Sign) Fullness (Spirit Come) by Elevation Worship

CCLI Song # 7067557. Chris Brown | Matthew Ntlele | Steven Furtick © Music by Elevation Worship Publishing (Admin. by Essential Music Publishing LLC). For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com. CCLI License # 625707

Opening Prayer for Illumination

God of All Power,

Open our ears, our eyes, and our hearts with a spirit of wisdom and revelation.

Help us to hear your voice, to see your ways, and to receive with joy your truth.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Valerie Bridge Davis, The Africana Worship Book: Year A. (Discipleship Resources, 2006), 235-236.

Instrumental Prayer for Peace: Be Thou My Vision

While this song is playing, we invite you to give your praise and thanksgiving to God.

Share your worries and concerns. Pray for other people: people who are sick, lonely, and afraid.

Pray for this nation and all the people in it. Pray for the people of Minnesota and all other places of unrest in the world.

Pray for those who feel anger, frustration, hatred and fear.

Pray for the victims and families.

Pray for police, all persons in authority and community leaders.

Pray for churches and faith communities.

Pray that we might come together - as people of God, to dispute any darkness.

Pray that justice, harmony and peace will prevail.

"But Jesus (who in this vision informed me of all that I needed) answered by this word and said: "Sin is inevitable, but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well." - Julian of Norwich, 1393.

Excerpt from Revelations of Divine Love. Ch. 27. Translation by Fr. John-Julian OJN. Julian was an English anchorite of the Middle Ages. She wrote the earliest surviving book in the English language written by a woman, Revelations of Divine Love.

Pastoral Prayer - Rev. Betty Kniss

God of faith and science, we turn to you in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, because we trust you. We trust you because you listen to our prayers. We trust you because you act in our lives and our history for our welfare. We trust you because we know you as a God of revelation in faith and science.

God of knowledge and wisdom, we ask that you would dwell with all the scientists who are working daily to develop an effective and safe vaccine to combat this virus. Help them to collate current knowledge and be conduits of new knowledge regarding the secrets of the COVID-19 virus. Grant them the wisdom to unlock the keys that will provide helpful COVID-19 therapies and vaccines.

God of curiosity and wonder, grant the scientists the inquisitiveness of George Washington Carver who combined his love of God and his love of science in his quest to unlock hidden agricultural secrets. As the God of the sweet potato, the peanut and the soybean, you enabled Carver to discover their secrets as he united faith and science, wisdom and knowledge, curiosity and wonder.

God of all creation, in this Eastertide we pray for all coronavirus patients, their doctors and their nurses. We ask that you be a fence around all healthcare workers, first responders, and their families. Expand our faith and buoy our hope as we shelter in place. Lord, teach us how to wait, for you are an on-time God! Amen

He Knows My Name - Joseph Farrar

CCLI Song # 2151368. Tommy Walker © 1996 Universal Music - Brentwood Benson Songs (Admin. by Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing, Inc.) For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com. CCLI License # 625707

Scripture: John 11:28-37 NRSV

Jesus Weeps

28 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.”

29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him.

30 Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 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.

32 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.”

33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.

34 He said, “Where have you laid him?”

They said to him, “Lord, come and see.”

35 Jesus began to weep.

36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

Message: "Lazarus was Here"

Pastor Emily Denmark McGee

Part 5 of the Jesus H. Christ Sermon Series

Jesus LOVED Lazarus giving us an example of loving someone right where they are.
Not for who they used to be, or even for who they could be, but just the way they are!

Who You Say I Am

Artist: Anthem Lights

CCLI Song # 7102401. Ben Fielding | Reuben Morgan. © 2017 Hillsong Music Publishing Australia (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing) For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com. CCLI License # 625707

Offering (Oceanview Give) with Offertory Prayer

Oceanview Online Giving: Giving is a part of our worship to God. Your generosity helps us minister God’s hope and healing to our community and beyond. Contribute on Oceanview's 'Give' page by clicking here: Oceanview Give. Together we show Christ real and relevant to the world.

Offertory Prayer: Holy God, thank you for sending your Spirit, the Spirit of the risen Christ, from heaven. Help us to be like the early disciples, praying patiently as we wait for your guidance and power. Fill our hearts and minds with your gifts of faith, hope, and love. May our conversations with people of every language and culture around us witness to your grace and mercy. We dedicate ourselves and our offerings to your good purposes in the world through our church’s mission by the power of your Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. (Acts 2:1-21)

Sermon for Pentecost

What Is Church?

Acts 2 and Ecclesiastes 3

by Rev. Dionne Hammond, Atlantic Central District Superintendent

Pentecost Benediction

Go out into God’s world filled with the spark of the Holy Spirit.

Let love guide your actions.

Listen for the Spirit of Truth.

Spread the peace of Christ and remind everyone you meet that each one is a beloved child of God. Amen.

Courtesy of SusannahDB at www.teaandtheology.com

Revised Common Lectionary

Further Readings for The Day of Pentecost: Sunday, May 17, 2020

from The Revised Common Lectionary, Year A

1st Reading: Acts 2:1-21 or Numbers 11:24-30

Psalm: Psalm 104:24-34, 35b

2nd Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13 or Acts 2:1-21

Gospel: John 20:19-23 or John 7:37-39

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/