Grace Presbyterian Church
Serving people, through Christ, to meet the spiritual, physical, and emotional needs of the community and the world around us.
Welcome and Announcements
Prelude “Sarabande” Arcangelo Corelli
Responsive Call to Worship
One: The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
All: We worship the God of Grace.
One: The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
All: We worship the God of Mercy.
One: The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
All: Let us worship God who knows us through-and-through and bids us come!
Opening Prayer
Hymn 220* “All People That on Earth Do Dwell”
Prayer for Illumination
Scripture Lesson (In Unison) Jonah 3:10-4:11
Then God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it. But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. He prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the LORD said, “Is it right for you to be angry?” Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city. The LORD God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?” And he said, “Yes, angry enough to die.” Then the LORD said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”
Time with Children
Hymn 304 v. 1* “Jesus Loves Me!”
Stories of Grace Church Windows © 2003 by Barbara R. Williams-Hubbard
Unison Prayer of Confession followed by Silent Personal Confession
Merciful Savior, we have our own standards for fairness and justice, and we mete out mercy with reservation and bias. Forgive us our prejudice and lack of humility.
Assurance of Pardon
Gloria Patri
Passing of the Peace
Scripture Reading Matthew 20:1-16
Message: Offended by Grace The Rev. Robin Miller Currás
Hymn 335* “Though I May Speak”
Affirmation of Faith (in unison) Psalm 145:1-8
I will extol you, [my Sovereign God], and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you, and praise your name forever and ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall laud your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate. The might of your awesome deeds shall be proclaimed, and I will declare your greatness. They shall celebrate the fame of your abundant goodness, and shall sing aloud of your righteousness. The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.