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We are an Open and Affirming, Creation Justice CongregationOrder of Service Sixth Sunday in Lent, April 5, 2020We Gather in God’s PresenceLight a candle and center yourself in the presence of God, connecting the light of the candle with the divine light within you.Remember the words of our welcome – “No matter who you are and no matter where you find yourself on life’s journey, you are welcome here.” Opening Prayer – Prayer for Patience & Gentleness God, creator of billions of years of evolution and change, you who witness planets form and mountains rise and fall, grant us even a small fraction of your infinite patience. Help us to trust in the slow and steady work of your Creation.Grant us patience that we might be patient with ourselves and patient with others.Grant us gentleness that we might be gentle with ourselves and gentle with others.Grant us compassion and courage, that we might allow our hearts to remain open to the pain and suffering of ourselves, others, and this planet.Grant us gratitude to see the small joys and the slow gifts that come into being every day, moment by moment.And replenish us—slowly, slowly—just as you make the grass in the fields turn a bit greener each day. Be with us, as we seek you and as we seek to be your people, now and always. Amen.CREATION CARE MOMENT — This week’s Creation Care Moment comes from Steve Smith: “Good morning-Girls’ education activist and Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai famously said “One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can change the world.”? There is enormous evidence to support that premise.? Girls’ education and its parallel family planning were used in a 2011 demographic analysis in the journal “Science”.? The analysis predicted the result of the rest of the world following South Korea’s actual climb from one of the world’s least educated to most educated countries.? With 100% enrollment of girls in primary and secondary school that result would be 843 million fewer people than with current enrollment.What are the other consequences besides the enormous difference in the use of the world’s resources and its effect on global warming?? Empowerment at home, work, and in society lays the groundwork for more vibrant lives, increased wages, more productive and better nourished families and better stewardship of land, air and water.Education also equips women to better face the most dramatic effects of climate change.What might be the cost of such enormous social change?? The United Nations estimates that for as little as 40 billion additional dollars per year universal educationcould be achieved.? Given the two trillion-dollar stimulus just enacted in the United States this seems a pittance not just for the sake of the environment but also to accordSome measure of social justice to women and girls of impoverished nations.”We Listen for God’s Word366564416912200SCRIPTURE John 11: 1-44 218440027791800Listen to Deacon John Myhre read the scripture here (two file format options: m4a, and mp3): Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of?Mary and her sister Martha.?It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill.?So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord,?he whom you love is ill.”?But when Jesus heard it he said,?“This illness does not lead to death. It is for?the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”Now?Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.?So, when he heard that Lazarus?was ill,?he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.?Then after this he said to the disciples,?“Let us go to Judea again.”?The disciples said to him,?“Rabbi,?the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?”?Jesus answered,?“Are there not twelve hours in the day??If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.?But?if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not?in him.”?After saying these things, he said to them,?“Our friend Lazarus?has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.”?The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.”?Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep.?Then Jesus told them plainly,?“Lazarus has died,?and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” So Thomas, called the Twin,?said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go,?that we may die with him.”Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb?four days.?Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles?off,?and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary?to console them concerning their brother.?So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house.?Martha said to?Jesus, “Lord,?if you had been here, my brother would not have died.?But even now I know that whatever you ask from God,?God will give you.”?Jesus said to her,?“Your brother will rise again.”?Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in?the resurrection on the last day.”?Jesus said to her,?“I am the resurrection and?the life.?Whoever believes in me,?though he die,?yet shall he live,?and everyone who lives and believes in me?shall never die. Do you believe this?”?She said to him, “Yes, Lord;?I believe that?you are the Christ, the Son of God,?who is coming into the world.”When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private,?“The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”?And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him.?Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him.?When the Jews?who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.?Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him,?“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”?When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he?was deeply moved?in his spirit and?greatly troubled.?And he said,?“Where have you laid him?”?They said to him, “Lord, come and see.”?Jesus wept.?So the Jews said, “See?how he loved him!”?But some of them said, “Could not he?who opened the eyes of the blind man?also have kept this man from dying?”Then Jesus,?deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was?a cave, and?a stone lay against it.?Jesus said,?“Take away the stone.”?Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for?he has been dead four days.”?Jesus said to her,?“Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see?the glory of God?”?So they took away the stone. And Jesus?lifted up his eyes and said,?“Father, I thank you that you have heard me.?I knew that you always hear me, but I said this?on account of the people standing around,?that they may believe that you sent me.”?When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice,?“Lazarus, come out.”?The man who had died came out,?his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and?his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them,?“Unbind him, and let him go.”SERMON – Watch Pastor Daniel’s sermon on YouTube here (10 minutes) We Respond to God’s WordHYMN “When Jesus Wept” click here for the tune. Note: in the lower right of the video screen, after 5 seconds you can click “skip adds.” OFFERING OF GIFTS We will be checking the church mailbox each week, so please continue to donate to our life and mission together through the mail.In addition to our regular offering, this week we will be collecting our Deacons Fund offering. The Deacons Fund is a discretionary account used to help local Addison County individuals and families in times of acute need. Checks can be made out to the Weybridge Church, with “Deacons Fund” in the memo line. DOXOLOGY We sing together: “Praise God from whom all blessings flow; Praise God all creatures here below; Praise God above ye heavenly host; Creator, Christ, and Holy Ghost.” Closing Poem – Pink Moon (full moon, April 7th) BlessingPink Moon - The Pond - Mary OliverYou think it will never happen again.Then, one night in April,the tribes wake trilling.You walk down to the shore.Your coming stills them,but little by little the silence liftsuntil song is everywhereand your soul rises from your bonesand strides out over the water.It is a crazy thing to do -for no one can live like that,floating around in the darknessover the gauzy water.Left on the shore your boneskeep shouting?come back!But your soul won't listen;in the distance it is sparklinglike hot wires. So,like a good friend,you decide to follow.You step off the shoreand plummet to your knees -you slog forward to your thighsand sink to your cheekbones -and now you are caughtby the cold chains of the water -you are vanishing while around youthe frogs continue to sing, drivingtheir music upward through your own throat,not even noticingyou are someone else.And that's when it happens -you see everythingthrough their eyes,their joy, their necessity;you wear their webbed fingers;your throat swells.And thats when you knowyou will live whether you will or not,one way or another,because everything is everything else,one long muscle.Its no more mysterious than that.So you relax, you dont fight it anymore,the darkness coming downcalled water,called spring,called the green leaf, calleda woman's bodyas it turns into mud and leaves,as it betas in its cage of water,as it turns like a lonely spindlein the moonlight, as it saysyes.You are welcome to join us at our Zoom Fellowship Hour, starting at 10:30am.Password: 961531 ................
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