Order of Service: - Prelude - Hymn 2 - Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord - The Versicles (pp. 120-121) - O God, You Search Me and You Know Me Psalm 139: O God, you search me, and you know me All my thoughts lie open to your gaze When I walk or lie down, you are before me Ever the maker and keeper of my days. You know my resting and my rising You discern my purpose from afar And with love everlasting, you besiege me In ev'ry moment of life or death, you are. Before a word is on my tongue, Lord You have known its meaning through and through. You are with me beyond my understanding God of my present, my past and future, too. Although your Spirit is upon me Still I search for shelter from your light. There is nowhere on earth I can escape you Even the darkness is radiant in your sight. For you created me and shaped me Gave me life within my mother's womb For the wonder of who I am, I praise you Safe in your hands, all creation is made new. - B. Farrell, b. 1957 - Isaiah 55: 1-11: Hey,all of you who are thirsty, come to the water, even if you have no money! Come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. 2 Why do you spend money on something that is not bread? Why do you waste your labor on something that does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good. Satisfy your appetite with rich food. 3 Turn your ear toward me, and come to me. Listen, so that you may continue to live.Yes, I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the faithful mercies promised to David. 4 Look, I appointed him as a witness for peoples, a leader and commander of peoples. 5 Look, you will call out to a nation you do not know, and a nation that does not know you will run to you, on account of the Lord your God, because of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. 6 Seek the Lord while he may be found! Call on him while he is near! 7 Let the wicked man abandon his way. Let an evil man abandon his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will show him mercy. Let him turn to our God, because he will abundantly pardon. 8 Certainly my plans are not your plans, and your ways are not my ways, declares the Lord. 9 Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my plans are higher than your plans. 10 Just as the rain and the snow come down from the sky and do not return there unless they first water the earth, make it give birth, and cause it to sprout, so that it gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 in the same way my word that goes out from my mouth will not return to me empty. Rather, it will accomplish whatever I please, and it will succeed in the purpose for which I sent it. - Hymn 396 - If God Had Not Been On Our Side - Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above: C. Fuller 2009 Sing praise to God who reigns above, the God of all creation. The God of power, the God of love, The God of our salvation; With healing balm my soul he fills, And every faithless murmur stills: To God all praise and glory. What God’s almighty power hath made, His gracious mercy keepeth; By morning glow or evening shade his watchful eye ne’er sleepeth. Within the kingdom of his might, Lo! All is just and all is right: To God all praise and glory. Let all who name Christ’s holy name give God all praise and glory; Let all who know his pow’r proclaim aloud the wondrous story! Cast each false idol from its throne, the Lord is God, and he alone: To God all praise and glory. J.J. Schütz, 1640-1690, tr. F.E. Cox, 1812-1897 - Revelation 3: 17-20: 17 You say, “I am rich. I have become very wealthy and need nothing.” But you do not know that you are miserable, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments, so that you may be clothed and the shame of your nakedness may not become public, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. 19 I rebuke and discipline those whom I love. So take this seriously and