Bread and More Soup Kitchen continues to serve a free to-go meal every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 5:30-6:15.
March 2026
Midweek Lenten Services:
March 11: First Congregational Church
March 18: Salvation Army
March 25: Location TBD
Sunday School: Please call our church office at 631-727-2621 if you would like your child to join. Sunday School is held during church services at 10:00.
Bible Study: Bible Study will begin in February. Call the church office for the date. 631-727-2621 Please join us from 10:00-11:00 am in the Fellowship Hall. All are welcome.
Thrift Shop: The thrift shop hours are Tuesday and Thursday 10-2 and Saturday 9-1. Clothing, knickknacks, and other small household items are accepted. No furniture or children's clothing. Please bring your donations only when we are open. Thank you for your support.
If you would like to join us on Zoom, please follow the link
Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86897065711?
pwd=a0FZcDg5MnRqKz-JMQXRLVzIBTGZFQT09 to start or join a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Meeting ID: 850 1493 9172
Passcode: 727262
Second Sunday of Lent
Service of Word and Sacrament
March 1, 2026✦ 10am
We open our hearts to the presence of God and worship together.
PRELUDE: Largo from BWV J.S. Bach
*CHORAL INTROIT:
We are here this day to share God's love.
We have come with burdens and cares,
For within this place, we are bound as one
In this fellowship we share.
*CALL TO WORSHIP:
One: People of God, where do we put our trust?
Where do we find wholeness and meaning?
Many: We lift up our eyes to the hills.
Our help comes from the Creator of heaven and earth.
One: We are sons and daughters of Abraham and Sarah.
We trust in God, who neither slumbers nor sleeps.
Many: We are followers of Jesus, who proclaimed God’s realm.
We are born of the Spirit, born from above.
One: Our lives are a gift from God, who loves us.
By the grace of God, we are born anew each day.
ALL: God loved the world in the gift of Jesus Christ.
Through faith in Christ, we receive eternal life.
*HYMN: Praise the Source of Faith and Learning No.411
https://youtu.be/MwhA53Mlnk0
WELCOME
PRAYER OF INVOCATION
Let the winds of the Spirit blow in our midst today, loving God. Let us hear the sound and feel the power. Open our hearts in new ways to the promise of your healing grace so we may be a blessing to one another and to your world. We need courage to face the challenges and struggles of life. We seek reassurance that you will be with us in our going out and our coming in. Strengthen our faith to withstand the trials and temptations that lead us away from a faithful journey with Christ. Amen.
PASSING OF THE PEACE
ANNOUNCEMENTS, CELEBRATIONS & CONCERNS
Midweek Lenten Services:
March 11: First Congregational Church
March 18: Salvation Army
March 25: Old Steeple
A TIME OF PRAYER:
❖ Pastoral Prayer
…Renewing Spirit, present in the waters of baptism, in the gentle breeze, and in the roaring winds, speak to us where we are and expand our vision beyond the immediate scene, that we may be equipped to follow where Christ leads, bearing witness to our faith and serving with joy wherever you send us….
❖ Silent Prayer
❖ Lord's Prayer:
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive
us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, the glory, now and forever. Amen.
CHILDREN’S TIME
OFFERING & OFFERTORY ANTHEM: The Twenty-third Psalm arr. Jay Althouse
*DOXOLOGY AND BLESSING OF GIFTS:
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise God, all creatures here below;
Praise God above, you heavenly host:
Creator, Christ, and Holy Ghost.
SCRIPTURE LESSONS:
❖ Genesis 12:1-4a OT Page 9
❖ Psalm 121 Hymnal Page 704
❖ Romans 4:1-5, 13-17 NT Pag 135
❖ John 3:1-17 NT Page 80
*GLORIA:
Glory to the Creator, the Christ, the Holy Spirit,
Three -in-one; as it was in the beginning
Is now, and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen. Amen.
SERMON: “The Trust Exercise”
It was in Junior High School gym class, just a few years ago, (okay, more than a “few”) when we first were taught the trust exercise. Many of us, either in school or at parties, learned the game. It’s a matter of standing with your back directly in front of another, arms at your side, and then fall straight back into the arms of the one behind you. Because you can’t see that where you’re falling, it’s a bit nervous-making and your body will likely first refuse to do it. But overcoming the fear, you fall and, lo, and behold, the other catches you and sets you upright again. Trust.
As I continue to make my way through life, it occurs it me that pretty much all of it is one big trust exercise. The challenges of that future-yet-unknown come at it and pretty much all we can do is fall back into the arms of God, trusting that God will catch us.
Abraham, aka Abram, is lauded by Paul because of his faith. But the faith of Abraham was beyond merely believing in a preexistent life source; it was more than an acknowledgement that God is, that God exists. That basic kind of faith, believing in a source of life that long has been, even a “higher power” is rather common. Abraham’s faith was more than that. Abraham fully trusted God. He trusted God as a benevolent One who’s instructions should be heeded. He trusted the Holy One who would lead him to where he needed to be and he allowed himself to fall blindly into the arms of God. It was that deep faith anchored in trust that saved him and led him to become the father of nations.
There’s an interesting history about the word Faith: According to The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, the word wasn’t adopted into Middle English until about 1250. It was originally spelled “feth” or “feith” and was borrowed, as many words were in those days, from Old French (feit or feid), which ultimately got it from the Latin fides: trust. So faith itself, at the very root is all about trust.
Oddly enough, the word “trust” in English comes from a different source, that of the Old Norse traust which is particularly cited to mean: “Help, confidence, protection, support." Help. Confidence. Protection. Support. That’s deep. That’s trust.
Curiously enough, although Nicodemus (who in addition to Abram also makes an appearance in our readings) is a Pharisee and leader of the Jews, he apparently didn’t really trust his own group much, but he trusted Jesus. He comes to Jesus at night, so as not to be seen. He seeks out Jesus for help, help with insight and understanding. He seeks out Jesus with confidence, that Jesus “comes from God,” and can only do the signs (the wondrous miracles) apart from God’s presence. And Jesus honors Nicodemus’ trust by entrusting him with one of the biggest and most profound statements of faith we have of John 3 16 (and 17): "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. The often ignored 3:17 reads, "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
Nicodemos largely disappears from our Biblical text, but we have some hints on how that encounter changed him. The second mention of Nicodemus occurs when some of the chief priests and Pharisees of the Sanhedrin ask why the temple guards failed to bring Jesus to them. Nicodemus speaks in subtle defense of Jesus, saying that Jewish law requires that a person cannot be condemned without first being heard (John 7:50–51). Then after Jesus’ crucifixion, Nicodemus assists Joseph of Arimathea in laying Jesus’ body in a nearby tomb (John 19:39–42). He brings along a mixture of myrrh and aloes to anoint him for the entombment. Yet he's mentioned only in the John’s Gospel.
Apparently, the encounter changed Nicodemos some but perhaps not enough to get him to totally trust God. But then do we?
Although we don’t have to fear being seen going to church or even identifying ourselves as Christians, often our faith still falls short of being totally anchored in trust, (think again on the root of Help, Confidence, Protection, Support). Of the many things that people fear -- sharks, spiders, snakes or whatever -- the most common fear we have is that of the unknown. It’s that often-subtle fear of what’s to come. That fear becomes more pronounced when we’re facing something very much beyond our control such as surgery, or big life changes. In spite of our faith, there’s often and increasing anxiety in the face of the unknown, of what’s to come. And that anxiety doesn’t have to be limited to situation that we ourselves face, but it’s often every bit as pronounced when one we love faces a similar fate: When the child is in the hospital, or the partner is dealing with a major diagnosis.
If unchecked, the anxiety can become debilitating. It can disrupt our sleep, and our doing. It can take hold of our hearts so that we seem to be always proceeding in the midst of fear. The challenge of our faith is to return to the bedrock of trust in God.
Return again to Trust: Help, Confidence, Protection, Support. Ultimately, when we take faith in God, we are called to completely trust God and allow ourselves to blindly fall into God’s arms. We are to trust God to lead, to comfort, to heal and mend, to provide confidence of a new resolve even to suffering souls. We trust God to thwart the evil, to give strength of recovery, to make God’s spirit of power and love shine anew. For ultimately, no matter what comes our way, with the support of God, we can heal and again be made whole. Believe in God. Trust in God. And be blessed by the power of the Holy Spirit who saves us.
OUR ORDER OF COMMUNION
The Invitation and Time of Confession:
❖ Call to Confession
❖ Silent Confession
❖ Unison Prayer of Confession:
O God, we confess that we have been far more ready
to say “we believe” than to trust you to lead us to new
ventures of faithfulness. We are afraid of the evil that
surrounds us. We fear rejection, failure, and ridicule.
We admire Jesus, but it is difficult to follow in footsteps
that lead to a cross. In the midst of life as we know it here,
how can we catch glimpses of eternity? Save us, we pray,
from out timidity, and us our doubts as an entry to
deeper faith. Amen.
❖ Words of Assurance
Thanksgiving:
Pastor: The Lord be with you.
People: And also with you.
Pastor: Lift up your hearts.
People: We lift them up to the Lord.
Pastor: Let us give thanks to God Most High.
People: It is right to give God thanks and praise.
Pastor: We give you thanks, God of majesty and mercy,
for calling forth the creation and raising us from dust
by the breath of your being.
We bless you for the beauty and bounty of the earth and for the vision of the day when sharing by all will mean scarcity for none.
We remember the covenant you made with your people Israel, and we give you thanks for all our ancestors in faith.
We rejoice that you call us to reconciliation with you and all people everywhere and that you remain faithful to your covenant even when we are faithless.
We rejoice that you call the entire human family to this table of sacrifice and victory.
We come in remembrance and celebration of the gift of Jesus Christ, whom you sent, in the fullness of time, to be the good news.
Born of Mary, our sister in faith, Christ lived among us to reveal the mystery of your Word, to suffer and die on the cross for us, to be raised from death on the third day, and then to live in glory.
We bless you, gracious God, for the presence of your Holy Spirit in the church you have gathered. With your sons and daughters of faith in all places and times, we praise you with joy as we say together:
All: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts,
Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory,
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.
Words of Institution and Communal Proclamation:
Pastor: We remember that on the night of betrayal and desertion,
and on the eve of death, Jesus gathered the disciples for a shared meal of preparation.
Jesus took bread, and after giving thanks to God, broke it, and gave it to the disciples, saying:
“This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way, he took the cup after supper.
Again he gave God thanks and praise and said:
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as
often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
Therefore, we proclaim the mystery of our faith:
All: Christ’s death, O God we proclaim.
Christ’s resurrection we declare.
Christ’s coming, we await.
Glory be to you, O God.
Prayers of Consecration:
Pastor: Eternal God, we unite in this covenant of faith, recalling Christ’s suffering and death, rejoicing in Christ’s resurrection, and awaiting Christ’s return in victory. We spread your table with these gifts of the earth and of our labor. We present to you our very lives, committed to your service on behalf of all people. We ask you to send your Holy Spirit upon this bread and wine, upon our gifts, and upon us. Strengthen your universal church that it may be the champion of peace and justice in all the world. Restore the earth with your grace that is able to make all things new.
All: Be present with us as we share this meal,
and throughout all our lives, that we may know you as
the Holy One, who with Christ and the Holy Spirit,
lives forever. Amen.
Sharing the Bread and Cup:
Pastor: Praise the Lord! Christ our Passover is offered for us.
People:Therefore, let us keep the feast.
Pastor: The gifts of God for the people of God.
We celebrate the grace of God in our midst.
(Please wait until all have been served and we’ll ingest together)
Unison Prayer of Thanksgiving:
We give you thanks, Almighty God, that you have refreshed us at your table through the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Continue to heal us, we pray, and strengthen our faith. Increase our love for one another, and send us forth into the world in courage and peace, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit; we ask these things in the Name of Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
*HYMN: If You But Trust in God to Guide You No. 410
https://youtu.be/xInffLZHZIk
*PASTORAL BENEDICTION
CHORAL BENEDICTION:
May the light of God shine on us today.
May the light of God shine on us today.
May it show us where to travel,
Lead us back if we should stray,
May the light of God shine on us today.
POSTLUDE: Goldberg Variation 17 J.S. Bach
First Sunday in Lent
A Service of the Word
February 22, 2026 ✦ 10am
OPENING WORDS:
We open our hearts to the presence of God and worship together.
PRELUDE: Prelude in a minor J.P. Rameau
(Once the music begins we ask that you would please maintain respectful silence)
*CHORAL INTROIT:
We are here this day to share God's love;
We have come with burdens and cares,
For within this place, we are bound as one
In this fellowship, we share.
*CALL TO WORSHIP:
One: We have entered into the season of Lent.
Each Sunday is a Sabbath in the season.
Many: We have entered a wilderness time.
Yet this day of worship is an oasis in the desert.
One: We are here to worship the God of all creation.
We gather to remember God’s revelation in Jesus.
Many: Today we revisit the garden of Eden.
We remember God’s overflowing generosity.
One: We worship God, who gives us choices and limits.
Let us open ourselves to God’s counsel and instruction.
ALL: Today we remember the temptations Jesus faced.
We aim to learn to make good choices and grow with God.
*HYMN: Lord Jesus, Who through Forty Days No. 211
WELCOME
PRAYER OF INVOCATION:
We listen for your voice, holy God, amid the clamor of a world that scarcely notices this season of self-examination and instruction. Too long we have heeded the serpents among us whose craftiness beckons us away from faith and faithfulness. We delight in forbidden fruits and complain when they run sour. Lead us, faithful Spirit, through the wilderness of our own creation, that we may once more find our way to you. Instruct us in the way we should go, and counsel us day by day. Help us rediscover your steadfast love. Amen.
PASSING OF THE PEACE
ANNOUNCEMENTS, CELEBRATIONS & CONCERNS
Midweek Lenten Services:
February 25: Old Steeple
March 4 : Riverhead United Methodist Church
March 11: First Congregational Church
March 18: Salvation Army
March 25: Location TBD
A TIME OF PRAYER:
❖ Pastoral Prayer
…Life-sustaining God, with us through all our trials and temptations, bear us up through this season of self-examination, that we might feed on the bread of your word, open ourselves to your presence without demanding proof and signs, and let go of all the idols that surround us to worship an serve you with joy and delight, in uprightness of heart, through the grace of Jesus Christ….
❖ Silent Prayer
❖ Lord's Prayer:
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive
us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not
into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is
the kingdom, the power, the glory, now and forever.
Amen.
CHILDREN’S TIME: Lenten Banks
OFFERING: The Eyes of All Wait Upon Thee Jean Berger
* DOXOLOGY AND BLESSING OF GIFTS:
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise God, all creatures here below;
Praise God above, you heavenly host:
Creator, Christ, and Holy Ghost.
SCRIPTURE LESSONS
❖ Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7 OT Page 2
❖ Psalm 32 HYMNAL Page 642
❖ Romans 5:12-19 NT Page 136
❖ Matthew 4:1-11 NT Page 3
SERMON: “How Tempting”
Ah, Lent. It’s a safe bet that of all the liturgical seasons, this is, for most of us, the least favorite one. It’s that season of introspection, reflection and repentance when notes of sin tend to far outnumber those of blessing. Few, I know, are big fans of it.
Of course, the first choice is just to ignore it. Protestants have long ignored the injunction of not eating meat on Friday. In March 1522, on the first Sunday of Lent, a printer named Christoph Froschauer in Zurich, Switzerland, served smoked sausages to his workers and friends. This was a deliberate and public violation of Catholic canon law, which at the time strictly prohibited meat during the entire 40 days of Lent, and, as it turns out, the act was well defended by various Reformers. Among them was Martin Luther who rejected mandatory Lenten laws, although he valued the season as a time for concentrated spiritual instruction and reflection on Christ’s sacrifice. John Calvin dismissed Lent all together, calling it a superstitious observance and a man-made tradition. Historically, many Protestant denominations (like Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists) followed the lead of the Radical and Reformed wings by avoiding Lent for centuries.
Ah yes. Ignore Lent. How Tempting. Yet although the Reformers stripped away church-mandated requirements of Lent, many still observed it as a time to reflect on one’s spiritual well-being and as a time to consider ways to draw nearer to God. But as those are disciplines that should be regularly practiced – and not just in any one season -- the argument can still be made to ignore the season. How tempting.
Temptation. Perhaps like the word sin, temptation has lost its bite. The word has become a little trite. Some dieting ones consider chocolate to be the great temptation. Or when it comes to buying something that we can’t quite afford, we think “hmm, now that’s tempting.” Yet there's no concept of the devil involved. It's just the notion of taking in something that would be nice, albeit momentarily so, in spite of the fact of “oh, I really shouldn’t.” For the alcoholic it’s the drink. The compulsive gambler it’s one more bet. For those quite taken with creature comforts and the slow-moving easy mornings, the temptation is skipping church. But neither the devil nor the concept of sin tends to be in the picture.
It’s been commented that “sin” has been largely defined out of existence. Some years ago Karl Menninger, the patriarchal psychiatrist of the Menninger Foundation, saw it happening and he raised the question in a book of the same name: Whatever Became of Sin? In the political realm, he noted that not since Eisenhower had a president spoken the word, or alluded to the concept of sin. Instead it's “Mistakes have been made.”
Genesis: Adam and Eve. There are two creation accounts wonderfully woven side by side. In the first, all is good. In the second, we have God name something as “not good”: that man should be alone. Enter Eve.
The temptation: the fruit. The tempter entices the woman. “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.” Just a mistake – an oops – or sin? Original sin.
Bonhoeffer has a wonderful quote about sin: “At [the] moment [of temptation] God is quite unreal to us, he loses all reality, and only desire for the [created thing] is real. Satan does not here fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God. ... The powers of clear discrimination and of decision are taken from us.”
What is this sin? It is not only the forgetfulness of God, but justification for doing evil in light of God. How could Eve has prevented the fall? Good for food. Delight to the eyes. Desirable for wisdom. How? By putting God in the picture. By understanding that the action being contemplated is would not just be a mistake – an oops – but sin.
The tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." Use your power to get what you know you really want. How tempting. But what was Jesus doing fasting in the wilderness to begin with? Notice, too, that in each temptation Jesus encounters, with each opportunity to go for the tempting, Jesus puts God in the picture. Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
All the riches of the world before him...Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'
SIN. When it comes to sin, Paul makes this clear. Jesus conquers sin and death for all. Paul in the letter to the Romans depicts Jesus as the second Adam. As all inherit sin and death through Adam, all can receive forgiveness and eternal life through Jesus the new creation the new Adam. The tempter has been defeated. Jesus defeats sin and death, through the cross and beyond the tomb. God gives us all the power to reverse the curse of sin and death. How?
Call a sin a sin. Put God in the picture. Understand that temptation comes our way – and it isn’t just a mistake waiting to be made, but sin with all its ugly consequences that presents itself. But understand this too: Christ gives us the victory. In Philippians, Paul writes “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
A man by the name of Richard Lederer collects funny signs. Some of these are simply the result of people in foreign countries having difficulty translating into English. He says that at the entrance to a hotel swimming pool on the French Riviera there is a sign that reads: "Swimming is forbidden in the absence of a savior." We swim with sharks, but God does and will protect us.
Observe Lent and be mindful of that which leads you away from God, that which wages war against the soul. Consider that which leads you closer. Know, too that, although we live in a world of sin and death, amid it all victory awaits. God with us. God winning for us, through us, in us.
*HYMN: I’m Pressing on the Upward Way No. 442
https://youtu.be/F2emsPPCH4c
*BENEDICTION
CHORAL BENEDICTION:
May the light of God shine on us today.
May the light of God shine on us today.
May it show us where to travel.
Lead us back if we should stray.
May the light of God shine on us today.
POSTLUDE: Goldberg Variation 15 J.S. Bach
We're biblical, traditional, yet progressive.
We honor and take pride in our
Congregational roots.
We covenant with one another and with God,
as revealed
in Jesus Christ through the illumination of
the Holy Spirit.
We endeavor to walk humbly with God and
strive for justice and peace.
My house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.
Isaiah 56.7
We are an open and affirming congregation in which all persons regardless of race, ethnic background, economic status, gender, age, or personal ability, are equally affirmed into membership, leadership and employment
and joyfully welcomed.
Our church office is open for phone calls at 631-727-2621. Pastor Sean will return your calls. Our secretary is in the office Wednesday and Thursday mornings.
Our church office is open for phone calls at 631-727-2621. Pastor Sean will return your calls. Our secretary is in the office Wednesday and Thursday mornings.
Worship on Sundays at 10:00am.
No matter who you are or where you are in life's journey, you are welcome here.
103 1st Street, Riverhead, New York 11901, United States
Today | Closed |
Our church office is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9:00am-12:00. Church services are held on Sunday at 10:00am, and coffee hour in the fellowship hall following the worship service. Sunday School will be held at 10:00 am. (To run concurrent with our worship service)
.jpg/:/rs=w:370,cg:true,m)
