Sermon: God is Love, So What?

Morning Prayer: God of many names: Elusive Presence Ever Near, Healing Touch of the Spirit, Wind that Carries Us Forward, Soft Whisper in our Heart, Jesus – we come to you with open minds and hearts and hands.  We are weary and need your energy.  We are discouraged and need your hope.  We hurt and need you healing.  We have done wrong and need your forgiveness.  We are strong and need your direction.  We rejoice and need you laughter joined with ours.  We are grateful and offer you our thanks.  Amen.

Songs: Gather Us In; Healer of Our Every Ill, Together We Serve

Musicians: Carol Donahue, organ; Tapestry band; Sanctuary Choir; Cast in Bronze bell choir

Potluck Meal following worship.  We would love to have you join us.

Sermon: Beautiful People in a Pickle

Morning Prayer: God whose light has shined since the very creation of the world and whose light shines in each person, we wonder, sometimes, how that light gets lost.  Capable of extraordinary beauty and incredible creativity and caring, we can also be petty, cruel, malicious, even murderous.  Able to soar to wondrous heights, we often trap ourselves in harmful patterns.  We turn to you, O God, and find you’ve already reached toward us in Jesus to forgive, heal and free.  Thank you.  Amen.

Songs: Taste and See; Blessed Be the God of Israel; You Are Mine; Lord, You Have Come to the Lakeshore

Musicians: Carol Donahue, organ; Sanctuary Choir; Tapestry band; Joshua Peterson and Raymond Comstock duet

Faith Forum: Intimacy With God – video and discussion

Confirmation, 11 am

Sunday Evening Faith and Film: Win/Win.  Film rolls at 6 :30

Januray 22: Beautiful People in a Pickle

January 29: God is love

February 5: Jesus is lord

February 12: Church is mission

February 19: Faith is a way

Sermon: Samuel, Martin, You

Morning Prayer: Gracious God, we live in a noisy world, a world awash in sounds and voices.  In such a world, we may, like Samuel, be confused when you speak to us.  Yet speak to us you do.  You call each of us by name.  You claim us as your own, speaking gentle words of love. You comfort us when we are afflicted.  You challenge us when we are complacent.  Your whispered word says, “grow, love, create.”  We are listening; may we follow the way you lead.  In Christ.  Amen.

Songs: Guide My Feet; Would I Have Answered When You Called; Here I Am, Lord

Musicians: Tapestry (band), Sanctuary Choir, Carol Donahue – organ

Education For All Ages, 11 am

Martin Luther King, Jr. birthday events in the community:

Ecumenical Worship Service, 6 pm Sunday, Christ Temple Victory Center, 330 N. 59th Ave. W.

MLK Birthday Breakfast begins at 7 am, Holy Family Catholic Church, 2430 W. Third St.

MLK Birthday March begins at 11 am from the Washington Center on Lake Ave.

Coffee and Conversation with the Pastor, 9 am. Bring your most perplexing questions for lively conversation.

Worship, 10 am

Education for All Ages, 11 am.  Adult Faith Forum will watch an episode of Extreme Makeover; Confirmation will meet

Worship

Scripture Readings: Genesis 1:1-5; Mark 1:4-11

Sermon: Who Are You?

Morning Prayer: Creating and Redeeming God,when Jesus was baptized he heard a voice, your voice.  “You are my beloved child, with you I am well-pleased.”  The words were meant for him, yet we trust your Spirit still speaks such words and speaks them to us.  We are your beloved children, your beloved people.  Your Spirit still speaks to us and your Spirit moves us into the world to share love and bread, justice and compassion, hope and healing.  We are yours, transform us.  We are yours, transform the world through us.  In Christ.  Amen.

Songs: The Spirit Song; Morning Has Broken; Wash, O God, Our Sons and Daughters; Loving Spirit

Musicians: Carol Donahue, organ; Sanctuary Choir directed by Mike Goodlet

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 60:1-6; Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon: Begin the Begin

Morning Prayer (from Worship and Song, Abingdon Press, 2011): Radiant Morning Star, you are both guidance and mystery.  Visit our rest with disturbing dreams, and our journeys with strange companions.  Grace us with the hospitality to open our hearts and homes to visitors filled with unfamiliar wisdom bearing profound and unusual gifts.  Amen.

Songs: There’s A Song in the Air; What Child is This, Lord of All Hopefulness

We will be sharing communion together and all are welcome at the table of Jesus

December 24, Christmas Eve, 4 pm.  Worship led by our band and a family choir.

December 24, Christmas Eve, 10 pm.  Traditional Candlelight worship service with Extollers bell choir, the Sanctuary Choir, strings, and organist Carol Donahue

This year our Christmas Eve offering will be shared by the ministries of First UMC (50%), Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank (25%), and Imagine No Malaria – The United Methodist Church’s initiative to eliminate malaria as a cause of death in Africa (25%)

December 25, Christmas Day, 10 am.  Lots of songs with an opportunity for you to suggest songs for singing together.

From all of us at First United Methodist Church – Merry Christmas

Scripture Reading: Luke 1:26-38

Sermon: Midnight Clear As Mud

Morning Prayer: It all seemed so clear back then, O God – angels making announcements, stars showing the way, choirs of heavenly beings.  Surely everyone knew how to respond.  They all understood their role in the divine drama, or maybe not.  Looking back it all seems so clear, but in the midst Mary was perplexed and Joseph befuddled.  O God, we want to follow you, to be your loving people.  Even when we are perplexed and the way ahead is murky, by your grace and Spirit give us the courage to dance on with you, letting your light be born again and again into our lives and into the world you love.  In the name and Spirit of the coming Christ.  Amen.

Songs: Joseph Dearest, Joseph Mine; In the Bleak Midwinter; It Came Upon the Midnight Clear

Musicians: Sanctuary Choir, Carol Donahue, organ; Ringtones bell choir; All About Music; various other musicians from First UMC in worship and during the Sharing of Nativity scenes fellowship time

Following Worship: Please join us for a special fellowship time where Nativity sets are shared, along with refreshments and conversation

Sermon: Do You Wanna Dance

Morning Prayer: New every morning, every day, every hour, is your love great God of ligth, and all day long – from the rising of the sun to the burning of the midnight oil – you are working for good in the world.  Stir up in us desire to serve you, to dance to the unforced rhythms of grace, to live peacefully with our neighbors, and to devote each day to the way of Jesus whom we call “the Christ.”  Amen.

Songs: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel; We Are Called; The Trees of the Field

Musicians: Cast in Bronze bell choir; Sanctuary Choir; Tapestry; Carol Donahue, organ

Adult Faith Forum: Sister Mary Josephine Torborg on Advent

We will also be sharing communion together, and our table is open to all.

Special music provided by the choir and the Boundary Water Minstrels

Coffee and Conversation with the Pastor, 9 am: Sharing resources that have been of help along our spiritual journeys.