My beloved, sheltering-at-home Mt. Tam Church,
Although we are all at home, we are at home together. We are not alone! The God who is always with us resides in our homes and hearts. Through the internet, telephone and social media, we are connected, as families and as a church family. For the Sundays of the Shelter-In-Place time, we will have Godly Play and Sunday worship online. All in person church classes, gatherings and meetings are cancelled; some will be available online or through Zoom. Thank God for grace, for this is new to us and we are on a quick learning curve to adapt this new way of being. Each week may bring improvements and additions; this week, we begin simply with the following two links for Godly Play and worship. The Godly Play lesson will last for about 20 minutes; the worship service follows ten minutes later. Below the worship link is a “bulletin” for the 30 minute online service. Please note: we are using Facebook to livestream and record the worship in real time. Afterwards, the recording will be placed on our website within a day or two. By grace we are saved and by grace, we travel “at home…and together!”
Peace,
Pastor Kim
Submit a Prayer Request:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScFXRasFpZnttWECsQqb6gOUwp-F0EWW2EJ8HaaIHHG0HNXPA/viewform?usp=sf_lin
For this Sunday, March 22:
10 a.m.: CHURCH FOR CHILDREN OF ALL AGES! Tricia Wiig will lead Godly Play Sunday School for children and their families through Zoom. Register in advance:
https://us04web.zoom.us/meeting/register/vpwsdeypqzwtpqFgiQjmwPvZMSGWlWpsUQ. Please arrive 5-10 minutes early so we can start promptly at 10.
10:30 a.m.: CHURCH FOR ALL AGES! Pastor Kim will offer an abbreviated celebration of worship with prayers, live music, scripture and the message. Click on the link below to be taken to the church’s Facebook page. This works whether or not you are on Facebook yourself (if a box pops up asking you to login or create an account, click on “Not Now”): https://www.facebook.com/Mt-Tamalpais-United-Methodist-Church-250943698280064/
THE FAMILY OF GOD GATHERS FOR WORSHIP
MARCH 22, 2020
MOUNT TAMALPAIS UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
Welcome to Worship: Pastor Kim
The Opening Prayer: Gracious and loving God, we gather to worship you today in new ways yet with the same spirit of trust that we hold in your care. As we worship online, help us to feel the presence of the Spirit in our own home and hearts. Unite us by that spirit that as we pray, read your word, hear the message and offer our gifts, we may know our oneness with you and each other. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
The Reading from Scripture: Psalm 27: 1, 3-5
The Lord is my light and my salvation. Should I fear anyone?
The Lord is a fortress protecting my life. Should I be frightened of anything?
If an army camps against me, my heart won’t be afraid.
If war comes up against me, I will continue to trust in this:
I have asked one thing from the Lord—it’s all I seek: to live in the Lord’s house all the days of my life, seeing the Lord’s beauty and constantly adoring God’s temple.
Because God is sheltering me in his own dwelling during troubling times;
Therefore I sing praise to our God!
The Message: “‘Oh, The Times, They Are A’Changin’!” Pastor Kim
A Time of Community Prayer: Pastor Kim will lead this prayer, offering a guided prayer with times of silence for your own personal prayers.
Sharing the Lord’s Prayer: 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 trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, now and ever. Amen.
The Offering of our Gifts to God: If you wish to make your financial offering this morning, please visit https://mtumc.org/donate/.
Thanks be to God for the generosity of God’s people!
Blessing and Benediction
Our social distancing is an illusion.
We are one. There is no distance. No gap.
Isolated in your apartment, you belong.
You breathe and it fills my lungs.
You weep and my heart is broken.
We are one body in many places.
In this time of separation we open our hearts,
we allow ourselves to flow out from our bodies
in Spirit to one another, to the strangers
who are part of us. Like the Italians
singing from their balconies with neighbors,
we are all notes of the same song.
Love flows where germs cannot. Meditate
on our amazing unity. Extend your spirit
to include all it includes: the whole world.
Breathe in this breath (so threatened!), a gift.
Breathe out this breath (so released!), a gift.
Let compassion for all beings flow with it,
in and out, refreshing your whole body,
the Body of Christ, the whole human family,
the whole Creation. Let love be our body.
Let your love take flesh. Make calls.
Write letters. And when you come back out
don’t stop being one another’s body. It’s your life.
(Steve Garnaas-Holmes)
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