Bulletin for Sunday, March 29 Online Service

We hope you'll join us on our Facebook Page this Sunday at 10:00 am for our live worship service. Below is the bulletin to provide a preview and guide your involvement!

Coraopolis United Methodist Church
Sunday, March 29, 2020
5th Sunday of Lent

WE GATHER

Gathering Music
Welcome and Announcements
(If you have a prayer request or wish to communicate with us, please email us at [email protected])
Choral Praise Solo by Megan Ogden
*Call to Worship (Isaiah 53:1-6)

One: Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
All: He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or
majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
One: He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from
whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
All: Surely, he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
One: But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that
brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
All: We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid
on him the iniquity of us all.

Choral Psalter Psalm 130

Sing the refrain printed above

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! Lord, hear my voice!

Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications!

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?

But there is forgiveness with you, that you may be worshiped.

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, in the Lord's word I hope;

my soul waits for the Lord; more than those who watch for the morning, more than those those who watch for the morning.

O Isreal, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, with the Lord is plenteous redemption.

And the Lord will redeem Israel from all iniquities.

Sing the refrain printed above

*Opening Hymn Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross

Jesus keep me near the cross; there a precious fountain,
Free to all, a healing stream, flows from Calvary’s mountain.
In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever,
Till my raptured soul shall find, rest beyond the river.
Near the Cross I’ll watch and wait, hoping, trusting ever,
Till I reach the golden strand just beyond the river.
In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever,
Till my raptured soul shall find, rest beyond the river.

Opening Prayer
Almighty God, your own dear son went not to joy but to suffering, and this on our behalf. He did not choose glory but crucifixion. He accepted death that we might know life. In your mercy, grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Anthem Solo by Megan Ogden

Prayer of Confession

WE HEAR AND RESPOND TO THE WORD

Old Testament Lesson Ezekiel 37:1-14

The hand of the LORD was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign LORD, you alone know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’ ” So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army. Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.’ ”

This is the word of God for the people of God.
Thanks be to God.

Children’s Time Lenten Visitor: Pontius Pilate

Hymn Lift High the Cross

Gospel Lesson John 12:20-33

Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. They came to Philip, who
was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” Philip went to tell
Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus. Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be
glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single
seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates
their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my
servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I
say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your
name!” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” The crowd that was
there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him. Jesus said, “This voice was
for your benefit, not mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be
driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show the
kind of death he was going to die.

This is the word of God for the people of God.
Thanks be to God

Lenten Homily: Death, and What Lies Beyond
Morning Prayer
Offering

Offertory Softly and Tenderly — Arr. Tom Fettke
*Doxology Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow (see below)
*Prayer of Dedication

*Closing Hymn Beneath the Cross of Jesus

*Benediction

One: The Lord has given a promise to us.
All: If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and
turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal
their land.

Postlude

LEADERS IN TODAY’S WORSHIP SERVICE
Rev. Dennis Lawton, Pastor
Bryan Sable, Music Director
Lay Reader: Russell Brown
Music Performed by: Megan Ogden