November 15, 2020.
Thank you for worshipping with us at Calvary Moravian Church. To support our ministries, you can mail the office a check (948 N. 21st St. Allentown 18104). An online giving portal is at: https://mmfa.info/calvary-moravian-church-pa-donation-form/.
Please note that we are no longer holding in-person Worship services starting this Sunday, Nov. 15th.
Worship with us via ZOOM or on our Calvary Moravian Church Allentown Youtube Channel.
https://zoom.us/j/673028163, Meeting ID: 673 028 163
You can continue to call this number and listen to the service on your any telephone as well:
(929) 205-6099 (enter 673028163#).
Worship will start at 10:45 a.m.
A Sunday school check-in and community sharing will begin at 10 a.m. using the same Zoom address.
Collections for our Neighbors without Housing
Provided for homeless outreach through the Lehigh Conference of Churches – call us to arrange for a drop-off:
Gently Used or New: Sleeping bags, tarps, tents (3 person or more), flashlights, lanterns (battery operated), power chargers for phones, backpacks
Gently used or New: Socks, Sweatshirts, sweatpants, men’s jeans, winter jackets, gloves and hats, boots and sneakers
Snacks: beef jerky, crackers, chip bags, breakfast bars (easy items for on the go)
New only: Batteries AAA,AA,C,D, Laundry soap, Bug spray, Shaving Razors, Deodorant, Toilet paper
Helping our Neighbors at Esperanza Moravian Church!
Esperanza Moravian Church, a bilingual church and ministry outreach to the neighborhood of South Bethlehem, is collecting food to help hungry kids in the neighborhood. If parents are working or food is scarce, kids can go hungry over the weekend and Esperanza is asking local Moravian churches to help. We are collecting microwaveable Mac and Cheese cups (just the cups not the boxes) to donate as part of this effort. We are also collecting funds to purchase some in bulk (indicate Esperanza donation on your memo line). Please bring them to church or call us to arrange a drop-off.
Daily Texts
Moravian Daily Texts for 2020 are available at the back of the church. There is an envelope for your payment. The cost is $11.00 for regular print, $13.00 for large print.
Please remember to make your 2021 pledge commitment to Calvary Moravian as we need your financial support to continue working within the lives of members and in our community. Pledges can be dropped off to the church, mailed in, or emailed directly to churchcalvarymoravian@gmail.com
Prelude
Welcome and Announcements
Call to Worship 1 John 4:16b-18.
God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgement, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.
Liturgy for Reconciliation pg. 13 (Moravian Hymnal, used with permission).
With joyfulness and longing We look to you, O Lord;
Receive us in your mercy, And cheer us with your word.
Crown us with love enduring, And promises of grace,
And let your holy blessing, Remain within this place.
The years have all been crowded, With tokens of your love;
And many who have sought you, Now worship you above.
But we, O Lord, still need you, Our pilgrim feet to stay,
For evil often triumphs, As faith to fear gives way.
Almighty God, enthroned above all, you alone are God over the nations of the earth. Even the planets, the stars, and the galaxies are placed by your hand.
Where could we go from your Spirit? Where could we flee from your presence? If we go up to the heavens, you are there; if we go down into the caves of the earth or the depths of the sea, you are there.
God of all creation, we sing praises to your name; we stand jubilant before your glory, power, and beauty.
God of certainty, God of truth, our confidence is in you and in you alone.
Yet we live in a fallen world and we are an imperfect people.
Our world is filled with pain and alienation.
We know of illness when body or mind is failing, and the loneliness of spirit it brings.
We know of separation from parent or child, from friend or neighbor, and the emptiness of life it brings.
We know of strangeness in new communities and in changing communities, and the longing it brings.
We know of alienation caused by unemployment or poverty or discrimination, and the pain it brings.
We have become strangers to our relatives, and foreigners to our own families.
How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? Let our cry for help come to you.
I am a God nearby, says the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? I am the Lord your God. I have called you out from the peoples and you shall be holy to me.
We declare your praise, the One who called us out of darkness into your wonderful light. We are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to you.
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!
The Lord is never far away, But through all grief distressing,
An ever-present help and stay, Our peace, and joy, and blessing,
As with a mother’s tender hand, He leads his own, his chosen band.
To God all praise and glory!
Silent Confession
Gracious God, we humbly confess that we walk in the way of the indifferent, who depend on their strength alone. We sit among the scornful, who deny the need for your guidance and power. Our hearts are not satisfied with riches vulnerable to moth and rust and thief, yet we zealously store up those very treasures. Set our minds on things unseen and eternal, that our emptiness within may be filled.
We humbly confess that we fail to welcome the stranger among us. We pass by the neighbor who is hungry and thirsty, naked, sick, and in prison. We sing of your healing power and your unconditional love, but we fail to make our sanctuaries true havens for the suffering and the exiled. Give us the will to be ambassadors for our Savior and faithful stewards of the ministry of reconciliation entrusted to us.
Lord, have mercy on us. Amen.
Without Christ we were strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus we who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. He is our peace.
We are no longer strangers and aliens, but citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, with Christ himself as the cornerstone.
Therefore, let us affirm our faith in the Triune God.
We believe in the one God who has created the land and sea and heavens and all that is in them; who established a world that was good; who gives to us the task of watchful and responsible care over it; who is certainty and truth.
We believe in the one God who in Jesus Christ assumed our humanity and knew our life as child, youth, and adult; who dined with sinners and lived with the homeless; who confronted popular opinion and power; who remained obedient in temptation and suffering; whose triumph was a servant’s death and resurrection.
We believe in the one God who comes to us as comforter and advocate; who does not leave us as orphans; who brings peace and calms the troubled heart; who bestows gifts for serving, healing, showing compassion, and doing miracles; who alone is the power and the wisdom of our proclamation.
Let us in faith keep our eyes fixed on the promises of God, though we see them and greet them from a distance.
We confess that we are strangers and foreigners on the earth, a people who are seeking our true home.
We desire a better place, that is, a heavenly one. Indeed, God has prepared a city for us.
Let us lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.
O then what raptured greetings, On Canaan’s happy shore;
What knitting severed friendships up, Where partings are no more!
Then eyes with joy shall sparkle, That brimmed with tears of late,
Orphans no longer fatherless, Nor widows desolate.
Bring near your great salvation, O Lamb for sinners slain;
Fill up the roll of your elect, Then take your power, and reign!
Appear, Desire of nations, Your exiles long for home;
Show in the heaven your promised sign; Great Prince and Savior, come.
Prayers of the People
Pastoral Prayer/Lord’s Prayer.
Scripture. Matthew 25:14-30 Sam Spagnola
Sermon “Antidotes to Fear”
Psalm 90
Lord, you have been our dwelling-place in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
You turn us back to dust, and say, ‘Turn back, you mortals.’
For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night.
You sweep them away; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning;
in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.
For we are consumed by your anger; by your wrath we are overwhelmed.
You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your countenance.
For all our days pass away under your wrath; our years come to an end like a sigh.
The days of our life are seventy years, or perhaps eighty, if we are strong; even then their span is only toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.
Who considers the power of your anger? Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due to you.
So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart.
Turn, O Lord! How long? Have compassion on your servants!
Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.
Let your work be manifest to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands—
O prosper the work of our hands! Amen.
Hymn 461 O God our Help in Ages Past
Our God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast, And our eternal home.
Before the hills in order stood, Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting Thou art God, To endless years the same.
A thousand ages in Thy sight, Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night, Before the rising sun.
Our God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come,
Be Thou our guard while troubles last, And our eternal home.
Benediction
Calvary Moravian Church 