Grace Presbyterian Church
Meeting in the Chapel at Union Congregational Church
Serving people, through Christ, to meet the spiritual, physical, and emotional needs of the community and the world around us.
Welcome
Prelude “Pastorale” Francois Couperin
Call to Worship (in the spirit of the Prophet Jeremiah)
One: “You shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you.”
All: But I am only [insert excuse here].
One: “Do not be afraid! I am with you. To deliver you. Says the Lord.”
All: But I will be rejected. By people I love. They will speak ill of me. And the wickedness will continue
regardless.
One: And still we are called to speak. “I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”
All: Lord, have mercy!
One: Always!
All: Let us worship God.
Opening Prayer
Hymn 367 * “Jesu, Jesu, Fill Us with Your Love”
Prayer for Illumination
Scripture Lesson (in Unison) 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
If I speak in the tongues of humans and of angels but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions and if I hand over my body so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part, but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see only a reflection, as in a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.
And now faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love.
Time With Children
Call to Confession
Unison Prayer of Confession
God of love, we want life to be fair. We want you to be fair and to not play favorites. We do not understand how it works or how you work, but…but we believe that you are love, you are mercy, you are grace. Help us accept our disappointments, celebrate with our neighbors, and help those who need an extra measure of your grace. Ever mindful of your mercy, we pray…
Responsive Assurance of Forgiveness (based on 1 Corinthians 13:7)
One: Hear the good news: Love bears all things, believes all things, Endures all things. We know this love through Jesus Christ, and by his love, we know that we are forgiven!
All: Thanks be to God!
One: God has poured out love upon us, and we have received forgiveness for our sins. We can now live in peace! May mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.
Praise Be To God in Song “Gloria Patri”
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, Amen.
Passing of the Peace
Scripture Lesson Luke 4:21-30
Message It’s not FAIR! The Rev. Robin Miller Currás
Hymn 335 * “Though I May Speak”
Affirmation of Faith (in Unison)* (an excerpt from The Second Helvetic Confession, edited for inclusion) [We believe] faith [is] efficacious and active through love. It also quiets the conscience and opens a free access to God, so that we may draw near to [God] with confidence and may obtain from [God] what is useful and necessary. The same [faith] keeps us in the service we owe to God and our neighbor, strengthens our patience in adversity, fashions and makes a true confession, and in a word, brings forth good fruit of all kinds, and good works.
Celebration of the Lord’s Supper including The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Please note that the bread served is gluten-free, and grape juice may be substituted with water.
Call to Offering
Offertory Rigaudon Andre Campra
Doxology Lasst Uns Erfreuen
Praise God from whom all blessings flow; Praise him, all creatures here below;
Alleluia, Alleluia.
Praise him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.
Prayer of Thanksgiving
Hymn 438 * “Blest Be the Tie that Binds”
Announcements and Benediction
The liturgy today was created by Pastor Robin and Walter Canter writing for Presbyterian Outlook. Pastoral prayers are often informed by the World in Prayer, an online ministry resource.
Mark your calendars:
Sunday, Feb. 2, Session Meeting after worship; Youth Group at Toni’s Kitchen, 3:00 – 5:00 PM
Tuesday, Feb 4, Men’s Fellowship Breakfast, 8:00 AM, St John’s Episcopal, 55 Montclair Ave
Wednesday, Feb. 5, Robin’s Caregivers group, 10:30 AM, UCC Learning Center
Wednesday, Feb. 5, Robin’s Women’s Bible Study, 2:30 PM at the Manse
Thursday, February 6, Choir Rehearsal, 7:30 PM, in the Chapel of UCC
Saturday, Feb 8, combined Gospel Choir rehearsal, 1-4 PM in the sanctuary of UCC
Daily Devotionals online Monday-Friday 9:00 AM. Check out www.gracemontclair.org for more information.
The next Friends of Grace community dinner is February 16, 5 – 6:30 at St John’s Episcopal. If you can help provide salad or appetizers to serve 30 guests, please contact the church office.
Food for the Little Pantry: Please consider picking up non-perishables on your next grocery trip. Food may be dropped off at the Manse or placed in the basket as you enter or leave the chapel on Sunday.
