God Gathers Us
Call to Worship - Psalm 96:1-3, 11-13
To be read aloud by someone in your home:
1 Oh, sing to the Lord a new song!
Sing to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Sing to the Lord, bless His name;
Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.
3 Declare His glory among the nations,
His wonders among all peoples.
10 Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns;
The world also is firmly established,
It shall not be moved;
He shall judge the peoples righteously.”
11 Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad;
Let the sea roar, and all its fullness;
12 Let the field be joyful, and all that is in it.
Then all the trees of the woods will rejoice
13 before the Lord.
For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth.
He shall judge the world with righteousness,
And the peoples with His truth.
Opening Prayer
Psalm 96 (and Psalm 98) are surprising. They are psalms celebrating the judgment of God. In fact, they proclaim that all of creation will rejoice at the coming of God to JUDGE. How can that be? Have you ever rejoiced in the JUDGEMENT of God? The psalmist does.
The reason he does, is because the Lord will judge the earth with righteousness and truth. Finally, all the evil and injustice in the world will be addressed and put right, as God comes to judge. As Longfellow put it in his famous Christmas poem, “God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; the wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth, goodwill toward men”. THAT is why the trees have a party.
As much as we love justice, though, we must admit that perfect justice is also not something we can survive. Which is why it is good to know that Jesus gives us mercy, satisfying the demands of justice in our place, that we might hear him say, “there is therefore now no condemnation for you”. None!
Take a moment to think about where in this world, this week, you have seen the need for God to bring justice and to make right, what is now broken. This could be in your life, or in your family, or your workplace, or the nation, or the world.
Then pray, thanking God that He is not dead, nor asleep, but living and active and coming to set the world right. Pray that God will bring justice and healing where it is needed, and that He will show you how you might be a part of this.
God Saves Us
Congregational Singing
We encourage you to sing - make a joyful noise! If you play an instrument, play! If you have some favorite hymns or choruses, pick one or two and sing! Or make use of other technology to play some music, and listen and sing along.
Below are some hymns you can make use of if these would be a help to you.
Offering
For everyone watching services online, we can still receive your offerings a couple of ways:
You can drop your offering in the locked mailbox outside the church office entrance
Or, you can mail them to the church at 393 Water Street, Augusta ME 04330.
Thank you for your continued support of Penney and its ministries!