March 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/
Every Sunday morning, continue to use this Zoom address at 10 a.m. for Sunday school check-in and 10:45 a.m. for worship.
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#).
The worship service is also live (and recorded) at our Calvary Moravian Church Allentown Youtube channel. Bulletins and Upper Room devotionals are available in the Little Library!
Calvary’s OUTSIDE Easter Egg Hunt Welcomes All!
Invite friends and neighbors – all children 11 and under are welcome to our Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, March 27th at 1:30 p.m. Please register all children (with their age) by today, Sunday March 21st. The Egg Hunt will be held outside, and we ask that everyone wears a mask and practices social distancing.
Children’s Outside Sunday school today
This Sunday, March 21st, at 1 p.m. all our kids are invited to an outside gathering to decorate care packages for our shut-ins, and learn more about the Holy Week journey that we are entering. A special Holy Week walk will be set up around the church!
Easter Cookies and Palms will be available for pick-up on March 28th.
Get ready for Palm Sunday with our traditional palms, and pick up a bag of delicious sugar cookies (by Sue Dickinson) for Easter. She is asking for a free-will donation for each bag to benefit the Muhlenberg Elementary School playground fund. Pick up will be between 9 – 10 a.m. and 12 – 1 p.m. on Sunday, March 28th.
Mid-Week Lenten Program 2021: Last Wednesday, March 24 at 7 p.m.
Can we see hope through the ordinary actions like baking bread or the symbols of pretzels? Come learn more about the history of pretzels and its symbolism for hope.
https://zoom.us/j/96449497731, Meeting ID: 964 4949 7731
Holy Week (March 29-April 2) – SAME ZOOM ADDRESS for all Worship!
All virtual this year. If you would like to borrow a Holy Week Readings book, please let the office know and make arrangements to pick one up on the conference room table.
Meeting ID: 946 4717 6409
If calling by phone, dial (929) 205-6099, and enter 946 4717 6409
Or access us live on our Calvary Moravian Church Allentown Youtube Channel (recorded there for later viewing as well).
Mon, Tues., Wed., and Maundy Thurs. (Holy Communion) Holy Week Readings, 7 p.m.
Good Friday, April 2, 2 p.m. Holy Week Readings. Same ZOOM Meeting ID: 946 4717 6409.
Good Friday EVENING – Tenebrae, April 2, 7 p.m. ZOOM Meeting ID: 946 4717 6409
Using the worship practice of the Seven Last Words” we will follow the movement of light in lighting and extinguishing candles to remind of the light of Christ in the challenges of the world.
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April 4: Easter Sunday
An Outside only Easter Dawn/Sunrise Worship: 6:15 a.m.
We are blessed to welcome a brass quintet from the Easton Band to share with us the Moravian chorales and hymns of the Easter season. We gather at 6:10 a.m. to begin with special music. Please wear a mask.
Easter Celebration Virtual Worship only: 10:45 a.m. (Zoom/Youtube)
April 11: Virtual Easter Pageant and Celebration of the Good News!
If you would like to help with our Easter pageant, you can play a part. Simply talk with Pastor Janel ASAP – she will set up a time to record you (and any other characters in your scenes) over Zoom.
March 21: Fifth Sunday in Lent, Psalm 51:1-12
Welcome and Announcements
Introit.
Hymn 641. I, the Lord of Sea and Sky.
I, The Lord Of Sea And Sky, I Have Heard My People Cry.
All Who Dwell In Dark And Sin, My Hand Will Save.
I Who Made The Stars Of Night, I Will Make Their Darkness Bright.
Who Will Bear My Light To Them? Whom Shall I Send?
Here I Am Lord, Is It I, Lord?
I Have Heard You Calling In The Night.
I Will Go Lord, If You Lead Me.
I Will Hold Your People In My Heart.
I, The Lord Of Snow And Rain, I Have Borne My People’s Pain.
I Have Wept For Love Of Them, They Turn Away.
I Will Break Their Hearts Of Stone,
Give Them Hearts For Love Alone.
I Will Speak My Word To Them Whom Shall I Send?
Chorus
I, The Lord Of Wind And Flame I Will Tend The Poor And Lame.
I Will Set A Feast For Them, My Hand Will Save
Finest Bread I Will Provide, Till Their Hearts Be Satisfied.
I Will Give My Life To Them, Whom Shall I Send?
Chorus
Scripture. Jeremiah 31:31-34.
Meditation: A Covenant within our Hearts. Janel Rice
Prayers of the People
Pastoral Prayer/Lord’s Prayer
Scripture Psalm 51:1-12. Lynne Strother, lay reader
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight,so that you are justified in your sentence
and blameless when you pass judgement.
Indeed, I was born guilty,
a sinner when my mother conceived me.
You desire truth in the inward being;
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your holy spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and sustain in me a willing spirit.
Meditation: When we stray from God’s Covenant . . . Janel Rice
Liturgy and Prayers for Psalm 51 (from the Rev. Rick Beck, used with permission).
Our relationship with God is ever growing. The fullness of God’s love calls us, encourages us, corrects us, heals us and guides us.
Lord, we welcome you to the deepest place in our souls that we might join you in holiness and hear you whisper words of truth.
(Words about repentance)
Repentance is not about guilt although it may lead to the desire for change.
Repentance is about claiming or reclaiming a right relationship with God.
Repentance is not about feeling bad about yourself but rather feeling blessed by what God created you to be.
Repentance is about accepting Christ’s invitation to walk through the temptation that leads to spiritual death, toward the life that God has in store for us.
Repentance is how we return to our true self after having been away.
Psalm 51:1 “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions”
Is there a part of your life that is in need of God’s mercy? What is Christ’s light inviting you to walk through?
(Silent reflection)
Spirit of God, who dwells within our hearts, renew us to love you as you intended.
MBW Hymn 490 v 1&4 Tune: MORECAMBRE
Spirit of God, who dwells within my heart,
Wean it from sin, through all its pulses move.
Stoop to my weakness, mighty as you are,
And make me love you as I ought to love.
Teach me to love you as your angels love,
One holy passion filling all my frame;
The baptism of the heav’n descended dove;
My heart an alter and your love the flame.
TEXT: George Croly (1867), alt.
TUNE: Frederick Cook Atkinson (1870)
Psalm 51:6 “You desire truth in the inward being;
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.”
You begin with a divine DNA, an absolute core that knows the truth about you, a blueprint tucked away in the cellar of your being that begs to be allowed, to be fulfilled, and to show itself. As it says in Romans (5:5), “It is the Holy Spirit poured into your heart, and it has been given to you.”
It cannot be hidden by the false messages that we hold about ourselves.
What are the false messages I impose upon myself? What truth does God wish to gift my life with?
(Silent Reflection)
Come, let us all with gladness raise a joyous song of thanks and praise to God who rules and heavenly host, God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
MBW Hymn 519 v 4&5 Tune: FREUEN WIR UNS
Father in Heav’n, fulfill your word;
grant us the spirit of our Lord
that through your truth, which cannot fail,
We may o’re ev’ry ill prevail.
And in your love may we abide
Estranged from non by wrath or pride,
Among ourselves at unity
And with all else in charity
TEXT: Matthew of Kunwald (1457) or Gabriel Komarovsky (1467).
Tr. Michael Weisse (1531); tr. Evelyn Renatus Hasse (1911), alt.
TUNE: Michael Weisse (1531), alt.
Psalm 51:10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God
and put a new and right spirit within me.”
Our minds are so often in charge of our lives that we approach life, as well as God from the perspective of self-affirmation. But there have been moments when our hearts were pure and the spirit within us led us to a time of spiritual growth. This growth was not something we planned on or tried to make happen. In fact, it probably caught us off guard. It was all God’s doing because our mind was not in charge and our heart was ready to receive it
When you consider how you have grown spiritually, what has been your greatest growth?
(Silent Reflection)
Lord, sustain us with a willing spirit.
MBW p. 79 Tune: CLEAN HEART
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence, take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and renew a right spirit within me.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Psalm 51:15 “O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
Within each of us is a pearl of great price; a treasure hidden in a field. It is the truth of God within. When we find it we are willing to give up everything in order that it might become part of everything we are; everything we do. It fills us so fully that it overflows into the world around us. We cannot keep it to ourselves.
What do you want the world to know about God: Creator, Son and Holy Spirit?
Silent Reflection.
Praise the Lord! Let the earth hear his voice in our singing and in our witness.
MBW Hymn 330 Tune: NICAEA [144C]
Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee;
holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!
Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee,
casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee,
God everlasting through eternity.
Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide thee,
though the eye made blind by sin thy glory may not see,
only thou art holy; there is none beside thee,
perfect in pow’r, in love, and purity.
Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea.
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!
TEXT: Reginald Heber (1826), alt.
TUNE: John B. Dykes (1861)
Calvary Moravian Church 