March 8th, 2020

Second Sunday of Lent

Gathered to Share God’S Love

Wi-Fi Password Welcome! Please silence your cell phones, but please check-in with our Church App and via social media.

For Parents and Children Activity Bags for children (teal, 2-5 years, navy blue, 6-10 years) hanging in back of sanctuary; professionally staffed nursery, infancy through 6 years old, available downstairs; Hearthside Parenting room, with diaper-changing station, privacy for nursing mothers, and livecast of worship, provided in church office (use side exit and follow the signs).

FCC Live Sunday worship is live streamed. Please help support this ministry by sitting in the front two sections. The two sections behind the side aisles are reserved for our guests and for privacy. Children’s time is not live streamed.

Sunday BrunchPlease join us for brunch downstairs. Today’s brunch menu: chicken pot pie, fruit, toaster items and treats.

Interested in Membership?Contact Pastor Craig, call (309)-762-0787 or email craig@fccmoline.org.

Resources Ushers can provide large print bulletins and hearing amplifiers.

Open and Affirming: fccmoline.org/ona We are an ONA church, covenanting with all people regardless of sexual orientation, gender expression or identity. All people are welcome to participate fully in the life of the church, including the rites, sacraments, and leadership of the congregation.

There is a really deep well inside me. And in it dwells God. Sometimes I am there too. But more often stones and grit block the well, and God is buried beneath. Then God must be dug out again.

Etty Hillesum

In down-to-earth Hebrew, to meditate is to chew one’s cud. The familiar cattle of Hebrew existence proved a helpful image for the devout believer “whose delight is the law of the Lord and who ponders God’s law day and night” (Psalm 1). The browsing cow nibbles constantly at the lush pasture and when it has filled its stomach lies down, regurgitates what it has gathered and chews “meditatively” on its cud until the cud is fully assimilated.

William G. Storey

We must not imagine that the way of self-denial is always a way of tranquility and uninterrupted peace. It does not resolve all doubts and deliver us from every care as if by magic. Self-denial attunes us to the Spirit of God and the Spirit may not always sing a tune that harmonizes with our nature. There may be terrible discords instead of tranquil harmonies. Self-denial brings order into our lives sometimes in the form of an apparent disorder, and we may sometimes have to find peace as best we can in the midst of confusion.

Thomas Merton

Welcome Today from the life of the church

• 3 •

Gathering of God’s PeoplePrelude

Greeting and Welcome

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you.

And also with you.

*Call to Worship

I lift my eyes up to the mountains, from where does my help come?

My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. We look not to the mountains or valleys, even heaven or earth,

For God is found among us.

Wherever two or three are gathered in Christ’s name,

God is here among us. Come, let us worship the God of Creation, the God of People, the God of Community.

Let us follow Jesus, who is The Way. Let us worship together in faith. Amen

*Opening Prayer

Let us pray, O God, our leader and guide, in the waters of baptism you bring us to new birth to live as your children. Strengthen our faith in your promises, that by your Spirit we may lift up your life to all the world through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

*Opening Hymn God Is Here! (Music on the next page)

* Indicates when to stand in body or spirit

• 4 •

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TEXT: Fred Pratt Green, 1979, rev. 1988; © 1979 Hope Publishing Company, Carol Stream, IL 60188. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.

MUSIC (ABBOT’S LEIGH 8.7.8.7.D): Cyril Vincent Taylor, 1941; © 1942, ren. 1970 Hope Publishing Company, Carol Stream, IL 60188. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.

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TEXT: Fred Pratt Green, 1979, rev. 1988; © 1979 Hope Publishing Company, Carol Stream, IL 60188. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.

MUSIC (ABBOT’S LEIGH 8.7.8.7.D): Cyril Vincent Taylor, 1941; © 1942, ren. 1970 Hope Publishing Company, Carol Stream, IL 60188. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.

• 5 •

*Call to Confession

*Prayer of Confession

God in the wilderness, We have wandered far from your home; again and again, we lose our way. We turn inward, afraid of the world around us. We forget that you have saved your people before and promise to do so again. Do not remember the deeds of our past, but turn our faces toward the future, where your forgiveness is sure, your welcome is clear, and your love overflows. Amen.

*Declaration of Forgiveness

*Song of Praise Give Me A Clean Heart

*Passing the Peace

The peace of Christ be with you always.And also with you.

Children’s Time

• 6 •

Proclaiming the Good NewsPrayer for Illumination

Scripture Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7

Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

The word of the Lord.Thanks be to God.

Psalm 121

I lift my eyes to the hills;from where my help is to come?

My help comes from the Lord,the maker of heaven and earth.

The Lord will not let your foot be movednor will the one who watches over you fall asleep.

Behold, the keeper of Israel will neither slumber nor sleep;

the Lord watches over you;the Lord is your shade at your right hand.

The sun will not strike you by day,nor the moon by night.

The Lord will preserve you from all eviland will keep your life.

The Lord will watch over your going out and your coming in,from this time forth forevermore.

• 7 •

Scripture Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.’ Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.

For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, ‘I have made you the father of many nations’)—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

The Word of the Lord.Thanks be to God.

Anthem What Shall I Render to My God? -arr. Austin C. Lovelace

• 8 •

*Gospel John 3:1-17

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.” The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

The gospel of the Lord.Praise to you O Christ.

Sermon Rev. Craig Jan-McMahon

*Hymn What Wondrous Love (Music on the next page)

• 9 •

What Wondrous Love

Responding to the Good NewsPastoral Prayer

Lord’s Prayer

Let us pray as Christ our Savior has taught us.

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.

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TUNE (WONDROUS LOVE 12.9.12.9.): The Southern Harmony, 1835

• 10 •

Offering Our Gifts

Invitation

Offertory

*Doxology

Grant us, Lord, the grace of giving,With a spirit large and free,That ourselves and all our living,We may offer unto Thee.

*Prayer of Dedication

Sending in Mission*Hymn of Sending We Walk By Faith

(Music on the next page)

*Choral Benediction - by Alan Guss

Let Him be the good you come to, let this be the time and place. When you need Him, He will be here; take shelter, take shelter.

*Let Him be the calm and peaceful, let Him be the balm of days. Spirit in us, Spirit of us, take shelter, take shelter.

Daily we face all the world’s disarray, and forget we have peace for the asking. Hatred stirs up strife, love covers all offenses; seek shelter.

*repeat text for final refrain

*Benediction

*Postlude

• 11 •

We Walk By Faith

The altar flowers are given to the glory of God and in loving memory of

Albert and Josephine Crampton

Given by: Charles A. Crampton

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TEXT: Henry Alford, 1844, alt.

MUSIC (DUNLAP’S CREEK, CM): Samuel McFarland, c. 1814; harm. Richard Proulx, 1986; © 1986 GIA Publications, Inc.

• 12 •

Serving TodayUshers/Greeters Pre-K Class

Usher Guides Dixie Duckett Kenzie Smith Olivia Glenn

North Door Greeters Bill Keller

Bus DriverCliff Carlson

Lector Payden Meers Bobby Nelson

Liturgist Abe Peterson

FCC Live Lucas Eaton

First Congregational Church Staff

Rev. Craig Jan-McMahon Senior Pastor craig@fccmoline.org

Rev. Michael Swartz Associate Pastor michael@fccmoline.org

Maureen Holmes Chancel Choir Director maureen@fccmoline.org

Mason Moss Organist/Pianist mason@fccmoline.org

Gail Glockhoff-Long Campanella Ringers Director gail@fccmoline.org

Becca Peterson Director of Family Ministry becca@fccmoline.org

Sara Otta Financial Manager sara@fccmoline.org

Jennifer Dailing Office Manager & Bookkeeping jennifer@fccmoline.org

Amber Moore - Director of Marketing & Communications amber@fccmoline.org

Wes Llewellyn Fellowship Coordinator wes@fccmoline.org

Amanda Peterson Red Wagon Preschool Director

Custodians Mike DeToye Ron Mahar

Harleigh Jones Nursery Coordinator nursery@fccmoline.org