February 21, 2021.
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/.
Zoom (live starting at 10 a.m, Sunday school check-in and 10:45 a.m. Worship)
Youtube (Calvary Moravian Church Allentown channel) – either live at 10:45 a.m. or access later recorded on the Youtube channel.
Every Sunday morning, continue to use this Zoom address:
https://zoom.us/j/673028163, Meeting ID: 673 028 163
You can call this number and listen to the service on any telephone as well:
(929) 205-6099 (enter 673028163#).
Bulletins, Lenten Devotionals and Upper Room devotionals are available in the blue Tupperware box on the steps of the Livingston St. entrance.
Sugarcake Sale!
Even if we can’t have our traditional in-person Lovefeast, we will still celebrate Calvary’s Anniversary (82 years!) in worship on March 7th. Order your sugarcake now ($6) to celebrate with us. They will be available for pick-up on March 5th in the afternoon. Please call or email the office to reserve your sugarcake(s).
Calvary Moravian Church Mid-Week Lenten Program 2021:
“Hope with Flesh – Embodied Hope for our Lenten Journey”
We will use the same ZOOM address each Wednesday Feb. 24 – March 24th.
Or watch it live or recorded on our Calvary Youtube channel.
Meeting ID: 964 4949 7731
Feb. 24: Henry Moore, director of Lazarus Houses. Learn about how Hope is embodied in local mission as the Lehigh Conference of Churches’ Lazarus Houses provide a safe and affordable place for returning citizens to live after being released from prison.
March 3: Through the beautiful art of Sanctified Art, we will walk through a guided meditation called visio divina to explore the themes of the Lenten season. In particular we will discuss the art form of a mandala (included in this packet).
March 10: Grace Hochella, Harp and Vocals. Listening and making music can bring incredible hope and healing to our lives. Come hear a reflection from musician Grace Hochella and then enjoy her music.
March 17: Rt. Rev. Chris Giesler, Board of World Mission, Moravian Church. Learn about Hope in international mission as Rev. Giesler discusses a new program called “Seeds of Hope” in Nicaragua and Honduras following recent hurricanes there.
March 24: Hope can come through concrete actions like baking bread. Or the making of pretzels. Learn about the history of pretzel making and how its’ symbolic shape speaks of God’s hope for us. (A pretzel and pretzel recipe is included in this package).
Welcome and Announcements
Lent: the forty day journey begins . . . Mark 1:11-13.
Introit. “Forty Days” by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan
Rising water forty days, then Noah opened up the window
Rain and flooding chaos with no sky.
On the mountain forty days, our Moses swallowed in a cloud of
dreadful holy presence all that time.
Refrain:
Forty days of hoping, waiting, trusting, til the season ripens true.
Taunting giant forty days Goliath every morn and evening
in the valley terror and dismay.
Ninevah had forty days The people listened well to Jonah
All were spared because they changed their ways. Refrain
Fearful journey forty days, Elijah to the holy mountain
Two small meals sustaining flesh and soul.
Tested, tempted forty days, our Jesus in the aching desert,
evil pressing in and all alone. Refrain
Trust is ripening within, the seed beginning to break open
We together journey Lenten time
Somehow nourished as we go and somehow guided in the mystery
with the holy presence every night. Refrain
© (ASCAP). All rights reserved. Purchased and used with permission.
Call To Worship: Psalm 25 (select verses)
To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long.
Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.
Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for your goodness’ sake, O LORD!
All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.
Liturgy for Lent 1 pg. Reprinted or adapted from the 1995 Moravian Book of Worship with the permission of the Interprovincial Board of Communication, Moravian Church in America. © 1995 IBOC, All rights reserved.
Lord God, our Father in heaven, you have shown your great love toward us by sending your Son into the world to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. We give you thanks because you have made us worthy to share in the inheritance of the saints in light, having rescued us from the power of darkness, and brought us into the kingdom of your beloved Son,
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.
TUNE: BRESLAU
Bless, O my soul, the God of grace; His favors claim your highest praise;
Why should the wonders he has wrought, Be lost in silence, and forgot?
For he, my soul, has sent his Son, To die for wrongs which you have done;
He paid the ransom, and forgives, The hourly follies of our lives.
Lord God, Son, the Savior of the world, though you were in the form of God, you did not consider equality with God something to cling to, but emptied yourself, taking the form of a servant, being born in human likeness. You humbled yourself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Your love compels us to live not for ourselves, but for you.
We give you thanks because you, our merciful and faithful High Priest, have made reconciliation for the sins of the people. You were despised and rejected, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. You were wounded for our transgressions; you were bruised for our iniquities;
Upon you fell the punishment that made us whole; and by your wounds we are healed.
TUNE: PRAGUE (22 D)
Maker of all things, Lord our God, Now veiled in feeble flesh and blood,
To reconcile and set us free, From endless woe and misery;
What heights, what depths, of love divine, In your blest incarnation shine!
Let heaven and earth unite their praise, To magnify your boundless grace.
Lord God, Holy Spirit, one with the Father and the Son: we give you thanks because you descended upon the Christ, anointing him to bring good news to the poor; to heal the brokenhearted; to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind; to set free those who are oppressed; and to proclaim the time of the Lord’s favor.
You fill our hearts with the love of God and make our bodies your holy temple.
TUNE: LA TROBE (581 A)
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, One in Three, and Three in One,
As by the celestial host, Let your will on earth be done;
Praise by all to you be given, Glorious Lord of earth and heav’n.
Now with angels round the throne, Cherubim and seraphim,
And the church which still is one, Let us swell the solemn hymn:
Glory to the great I Am! Glory to the Paschal Lamb!
From the sin of unbelief,
From all defilement of the body and spirit,
From all self-righteousness,
From every neglect of our duty,
From ingratitude and selfishness,
From lukewarmness,
From all indifference to your meritorious life and death,
Deliver us, gracious Lord and God.
TUNE: PASSION CHORALE (151 A)
What language shall I borrow, To thank you, dearest Friend,
For all your dying sorrow, Your mercy without end?
Grant me to lean unshaken, Upon your faithfulness
Till I from earth am taken, To see you face to face.
By your holy incarnation and birth,
By your early exile,
By your pure and blameless childhood,
By your willing obedience,
By your humility, meekness, and patience,
By your faithfulness in your earthly calling,
By your fasting and temptation,
By your perfect life before God and humanity,
Bless and comfort us, gracious Lord and God.
By your tears and agony, your crown of thorns and cross,
Lead us to repentance for our sins.
By your willing sacrifice of yourself even unto death,
Make known to us the mystery of your love.
Into your open arms stretched out upon the cross,
Receive us all.
TUNE: RATHBUN
In the cross of Christ I glory, Towering o’er the wrecks of time;
All the light of sacred story, Gathers round its head sublime.
Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure, By the cross are sanctified;
Peace is there that knows no measure, Joys that through all time abide.
By all your sacred wounds and precious blood,
By your innocent suffering and dying,
By your rest in the grave,
By your glorious resurrection and ascension,
Bless us and save us, Christ Jesus, our Redeemer.
Fulfill in us your prayer that all who love you may be one, as you are in the Father, and the Father in you.
Hear us and help us, gracious Savior.
You have made God known to us as Father, so that the love with which he has loved you may be in us,
And you in us.
Christ, and him crucified,
Remain our confession of faith.
TUNE: COVENANT (185 A)
Lamb of God, you shall remain forever, Of our songs the only theme;
For your boundless love, your grace and favor, We will praise your saving name;
That for our transgressions you were wounded, Shall by us in nobler strains be sounded,
When we, perfected in love, Once shall join the church above.
Scripture Genesis 9:8-17. Alma McMahan, lay reader.
Message “God’s Plan or God’s Covenant?”
Holy Communion for the First Sunday in Lent. (Adapted from Liturgy for Communion in celebration of the Atonement, pg. 196).
Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, be with you all.
Amen.
Hymn. Most Holy Lord and God. (By Count Nicholas von Zinendorf, pg. 203)
Most Holy Lord and God, Holy, Almighty God,
Holy and most merciful Savior, Thou eternal God!
Grant that we may never, Lose the comforts from Thy death
Have mercy, O Lord.
Most Holy Lord and God, Holy, Almighty God,
Holy and most merciful Savior, Thou eternal God!
Bless Thy Congregation, Through Thy sufferings, death, and blood.
Have mercy, O Lord.
Most Holy Lord and God, Holy, Almighty God,
Holy and most merciful Savior, Thou eternal God!
Lamb of God unspotted, To our prayers, O lend an ear.
Have mercy, O Lord
Prayer of Thanksgiving
(Lord’s Prayer)
Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, gave it to his disciples, and said: Take, eat, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.
(All partake together.)
Silent prayer
By your divine presence,
By the holy sacraments,
By all the merits of your life, sufferings, death, and resurrection,
Bless and comfort us, gracious Lord and God. Amen.
In the same way, after supper our Lord Jesus Christ took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to his disciples, saying: Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sin. Do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.
(All partake together.)
Silent prayer
Christ, the Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world;
Grant to us your peace. Amen.
Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death,
Until he comes.
Hymn “We who here together are assembled”. (By Christian Renatus Zinzendorf, pg. 207)
We who here together are assembled, Joining hearts and hands in one,
Bind ourselves with love that’s undissembled Christ to love and serve alone;
O may our imperfect songs and praises, Be well-pleasing unto Thee, Lord Jesus;
Say, “My peace I leave with you.” Amen, Amen, be it so.
The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you;
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace;
In the name of Jesus. Amen. (Sung Response)
Calvary Moravian Church 