Welcome to Mantua Center Christian Church -- a community seeking to have open minds, open hearts, and open arms.
Whether online or in the house this morning, we want to welcome you to the sacred Season of Lent as we walk with Jesus to Holy Week.
Introit - Sarah Park
INVITATION FOR MISSION UPDATES:
Ministry Leaders and congregants are welcome to come forward to the mic, to give a mission update or share ways for people to get involved in missions and ministries.
Mission ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Youth Mission Trip Supper & Auction - April 23rd!
Scripture - Psalm 16:7-8, 11
7 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.
8 I keep the Lord always before me;
because the Lord is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
11 You show me the path of life.
In your presence there is fullness of joy;
in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.
*Response - Weave #495
Weave, weave, weave us together, Weave us together, in unity and love.
Weave, weave, weave us together, weave us together, together in love.
*Call to Worship
One: Alleluia! Christ is risen!
All: Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
One: We have not seen the risen Christ,
All: But we see him in the lives of those transformed by grace.
One: We have not seen Jesus face-to-face,
All: But we have seen him in the faces of everyone whose love encourages us.
One: We have not touched the wounds from the cross,
All: But we have been called to bring healing to the scarred of the world.
*Opening Hymn - Christ is Risen! Shout Hosanna #222, v.1-2
1 Christ is risen! Shout hosanna! Celebrate this day of days!
Christ is risen! Hush in wonder: all creation is amazed.
In the desert all-surrounding, see, a spreading tree has grown.
Healing leaves of grace abounding bring a taste of love unknown.
2 Christ is risen! Raise your spirits from the caverns of despair.
Walk with gladness in the morning. See what love can do and dare.
Drink the wine of resurrection, not a servant, but a friend.
Jesus is our strong companion. Joy and peace shall never end.
Invitation to Generosity
Invitation - Carol Buzbee
Offertory
Offertory Music “This Train is Bound for Glory” The Center Ringers
Response - “Give Thanks” #528
Give thanks with a grateful heart, give thanks to the Holy One,
Give thanks because he’s given Jesus Christ, his Son. Give Thanks!
Offering Prayer - Carol Buzbee
Children’s Moment - Rev. Chad Delaney
Song of Preparation - “Sweet Hour of Prayer” - The Center Ringers
Pastoral Prayer & Lord’s Prayer - Rev. Chad Delaney
God of Resurrection and New Life,
Like the disciples, we are gathered together the week after Easter:
wondering whether it is true, marveling at the possibility, and daring to hope.
Like the disciples, we are sometimes afraid, sometimes full of doubt.
Yet, in your extravagant generosity, your boundless love, you appear to us in our fear and love us in our doubts and grant us the oceans of your peace. Thank you for loving us as we are and where we are.
Teach us not to hide from our doubt, but to recognize it as a door to mystery and to deeper faith. An opportunity to grow and go deeper in our understanding. We pray for those who struggle with faith and belief. Help us to know we are not alone, but in the best of company: even Christ’s own disciples struggled to believe all that they had seen and heard. Help us to feel and know your presence, remove all fear and give us a spirit of curiosity and awe:
Give us, through the power of the living and loving Resurrected Christ renewed faith, great courage, and your boundless peace.
God we have SO MANY joys to be thankful for this morning….we share them with you in silent prayer
Loving God, we have those in this room, in our lives, in this world that we are praying for today…we lift their names to you aloud and in silence ….
Together we are blessed by one another and your presence here with us. Unite us together in one voice as we pray together the prayer Jesus taught us…
Holy Communion
Meditation - Pete Pruszynski
Hymn - Be Known to Us in Breaking Bread #398
1 Be known to us in breaking bread, but do not then depart;
Savior, abide with us, and spread thy table in our heart.
2 There sup with us in love divine; thy body and thy blood,
that living bread, that heavenly wine, be our immortal food.
Prayer - Pete Pruszynski
Words of Institution - Rev. Chad Delaney
Scripture - John 20:19-31
Prayer of Illumination:
Resurrecting God,
though we have hidden ourselves in a locked room
and huddled together as ones who are afraid,
send your Living Word into our guarded hearts
that we might be witnesses of your grace and messengers of your love.
By the power of your Holy Spirit, help our unbelief, help us to believe the Gospel
not because we see it but because we have been seen by it and transformed through it. Amen.
John 20:19-31 - Listen, Listen…
19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ 22When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’
24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’
26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ 27Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ 28Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ 29Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Gracious God, may the words of my mouth…
Sermon - Who’s Seeking Who? - Rev. Chad Delaney
Over the season of Lent, we have dedicated that time to seeking, asking questions, and going deeper. Last week we heard the story of the Resurrected Christ who appeared to Mary when she lingered just a little bit longer at the empty tomb.
We have placed looking and seeking and searching and exploring at the top of our list of spiritual disciplines. And we want to believe that when we do so, that it at least heightens our chances of encountering the Risen Christ.
Interestingly our scripture story today--however-- offers the counterpoint to our whole season of Lent. Just when you think you have it all figured out. Just when you think you have your finger on what God wants and is looking for…something happens that shows God will not be as boxed in and predictable as we want her to be.
Because…..what about those who aren’t seeking? What about those who are indifferent or bored with religion? What about those who are filled with fear? What about those who are skeptical, questioning, or even hostile toward God? What chance do they have to encounter the risen Christ?
I want to read to you today the conversion story of a beloved author of mine. Her name is Anne Lamott and years ago she wrote a Spiritual autobiography of sorts called Traveling Mercies. In it was her conversion story that always stops me in my tracks. By this point in her book we understand that she doesn’t have a strong belief in God per se but started back to the church here and there for community. She’s also had many traumatic things happen to her in her family and personal life. She had issues with drugs and alcohol and recently had an emotional surgery that she was recovering from. At a low point in her life we pick up her story. From Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott.
After a while, as I lay there, I became aware of someone with me, hunkered down in the corner, and I just assumed it was my father, whose presence I had felt over the years when I was frightened and alone. The feeling was so strong that I actually turned on the light for a moment to make sure no one was there—of course, there wasn't. But after a while, in the dark again, I knew beyond any doubt that it was Jesus. I felt him as surely as I feel my dog lying nearby as I write this.
And I was appalled. I thought about my life and my brilliant hilarious progressive friends, I thought about what everyone would think of me if I became a Christian, and it seemed an utterly impossible thing that simply could not be allowed to happen. I turned to the wall and said out loud, "I would rather die."
I felt him just sitting there on his haunches in the corner of my sleeping loft, watching me with patience and love, and I squinched my eyes shut, but that didn't help because that's not what I was seeing him with.
Finally I fell asleep, and in the morning, he was gone.
This experience spooked me badly, but I thought it was just an apparition, born of fear and self-loathing and booze and loss of blood. But then everywhere I went, I had the feeling that a little cat was following me, wanting me to reach down and pick it up, wanting me to open the door and let it in. But I knew what would happen: you let a cat in one time, give it a little milk, and then it stays forever. So I tried to keep one step ahead of it, slamming my houseboat door when I entered or left.
And one week later, when I went back to church, I was so hungover that I couldn't stand up for the songs, and this time I stayed for the sermon, which I just thought was so ridiculous, like someone trying to convince me of the existence of extraterrestrials, but the last song was so deep and raw and pure that I could not escape. It was as if the people were singing in between the notes, weeping and joyful at the same time, and I felt like their voices or something was rocking me in its bosom, holding me like a scared kid, and I opened up to that feeling—and it washed over me.
I began to cry and left before the benediction, and I raced home and felt the little cat running along at my heels, and I walked down the dock past dozens of potted flowers, under a sky as blue as one of God's own dreams, and I opened the door to my houseboat, and I stood there a minute, and then I hung my head and said, "I quit." I took a long deep breath and said out loud, "All right. You can come in." So this was my beautiful moment of conversion.
Her story reminded me of scripture from Revelation 3:20 - “20Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.
A powerful reminder that God seeks us more than we could ever seek God.
In our scripture today, we have a group of scared Disciples hiding and afraid. Whatever seeking impulse had dissipated leaving them huddling in the upper room. Yet…the Risen Christ still comes to them. “Peace be with you.”
Thomas, the doubting one, expresses his deep skepticism, his realistic and common sense, and even issues an ultimatum. “‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’” Yet…the Risen Christ still comes to him. There is no scolding, no reprimand, only a compassionate offer to alleviate his angst and be present with him.
In this time of Easter we remember that we are not the only ones who are seeking. More than we know, God is seeking after us. Pursuing us to meet us where we are. With a greeting of peace. Knocking on the door with patience and love. No matter if you have been running or hiding. Indifferent or hostile. Distant or absent…Skeptical and doubting…..
You will never be removed from Christ’s compassionate gaze.
From a love that doesn’t give up. From a love that runs out to meet us.
Psalm 139 says….
Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.
No matter where you are on life’s journey…hear the Good News of the Risen Christ--The God of Life who knows you and loves you…will always seek you even to the ends of the earth…. Amen.
*Closing Hymn - Thine is the Glory #218
1 Thine is the glory, risen, conquering Son; endless is the victory thou o’er death hast won.
Angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away, kept the folded grave clothes where thy body lay.
[Refrain:]
Thine is the glory, risen, conquering Son, endless is the victory thou o’er death hast won.
2 Lo! Jesus meets us, risen from the tomb; lovingly he greets us, scatters fear and gloom;
let the church with gladness hymns of triumph sing.
for the Lord now liveth; death hath lost its sting. (Refrain)
3 No more we doubt thee, glorious Prince of life! Life is nought without thee; aid us in our strife;
make us more than conquerors through thy deathless love.
Bring us safe through Jordan to thy home above. (Refrain)
Installation of the MCCC Elders
Benediction - Rev. Chad Delaney
Postlude - Sarah Park