Bread and More Soup Kitchen continues to serve a free to-go meal every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 5:30-6:15.
We are an open and affirming member of the United Church of Christ and no matter who you are or where you are in life's journey, you are welcome here. Contact the Pastor, the Rev. Dr. Murray at 631-727-2621 for more information.
Announcements:
Church services are held at 10:00 am usually followed by a coffee hour. Please join us.
The Alley Cat Thrift Shop is closed for the month of January. We will reopen on Saturday, February 1 at 9:00 am. Please, no donations until February.
Sunday School: Please call our church office if you would like your child to join. Sunday School is held during church services.
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: 7272621
Baptism of the Lord
A Service of the Word
January 12, 2025 ✦ 10am
OPENING WORDS:
We open our hearts to the presence of God and worship together.
PRELUDE: Andante Ramsey
(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: Gather from East and West, from North and South.
God is calling us; listen, for God is naming you.
Many: The voice of God thunders through our midst.
The voice of God is powerful and full of majesty.
One: Bow in awe of the one who created you.
God knows you completely, yet accepts you.
Many: The voice of God commands our attention.
The voice of God is like fire and tornado.
One: God reaches out to strengthen, not condemn us.
God brings us through terror to a place of peace.
ALL: Ascribe to God glory and strength.
Worship God in awe, wonder, and joy!
*HYMN: When Morning Gilds the Skies No. 86
WELCOME
PRAYER OF INVOCATION
God of cleansing waters and mystifying ways, touch our lives today to recall us to the power of our baptism and reconfirm our commitment to Jesus Christ. Name us again as your own people; precious, gifted, created to glorify you in fullness of life, in peace with ourselves and one another. Send your Holy Spirit once more to energize our worship and enliven our witness in the world. Hear us as we pray for one another and for your people in every place.
CHILDREN’S TIME
PASSING OF THE PEACE
ANNOUNCEMENTS, CELEBRATIONS & CONCERNS
Call to Annual Meeting: Our Annual Meeting is scheduled for January 26, to be held in the Fellowship Hall immediately following worship. The business of the meeting will include approval of our Annual budget and the election of officers. We hope to elect one person to serve as a trustee for the 2025-2028 term. Our thanks go out to David Gruner who has completed his service on the Board of Trustees. We will also seek to elect at least three members to the Board of Deacons for the 2025-2028 term. Our thanks go out to Jane Joerchel and Allan Repp who have completed their service on the Board. If you are willing and able to serve, please speak with Pastor or to any of the people who have completed their terms.
A TIME OF PRAYER:
❖ Pastoral Prayer
…God of gifts and blessings, who opened the heavens to the prayers of Jesus, send your Spirit among us that we, too, may learn to please you and live as your beloved children. Baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire so our lips may sing to your glory and our hands reach out to heal and bless your people, in Jesus’ name….
❖ 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.
OFFERING: Be Still and Know McDonald
*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.
LITANY OF HEALING:
Let us offer our prayers for God’s healing:
Holy God, source of health and salvation, and wellspring of
abundant life, visit us afresh this day.
Holy Immortal one, protector of the faithful and source of all
wholeness, visit us afresh this day.
Loving Lord, grant your grace to heal those who are sick; give courage
and faith to all who are disabled through injury or illness, we pray.
Comfort, relieve, and heal all sick children;
give courage to all who await surgery, we pray.
Support and encourage those who live with chronic illness;
strengthen those who endure continual pain, and give them hope.
Grant the refreshment of peaceful sleep to all who suffer;
befriend all who are anxious, lonely, despondent, or afraid.
Restore those with mental illness to clarity of mind and hopefulness
of heart, we pray.
Give rest to the weary, and hold the dying in your loving arms;
help us to prepare for death with confident expectation and
hope of Easter joy, we pray.
O God, give your wisdom and compassion to health care workers,
that they may minister to the sick and dying with knowledge, skill,
and kindness.
Uphold those who keep watch with the sick, and guide those
who search for the causes and cures of sickness and disease.
Jesus, redeemer of the world, through acts of healing, you were
revealed as the true source of health and salvation.
Have mercy on us, make us whole, and bring us at last into the
fullness of your eternal life.
May the God who goes before you through desert places by
night and by day be your companion and guide; may your
journey be with the saints; may the Holy Spirit be your
strength, and Christ your clothing of light, in whose name we
pray. Amen.
SCRIPTURE LESSONS:
❖ Isaiah 43:1-7 OT Page 631
❖ Psalm 29 HYMNAL Page 638
❖ Acts 8:14-17 NT Page 110
❖ Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 NT Page 52
SERMON: “Out From Under It.”
Perhaps if one were living a well sheltered life, if one didn’t read the paper or look at the news, but only took in the situations close at hand, all would seem pretty okay. Yes, we had days of heavy wind and cold, but they were just to be endured and not anything that would necessitate recovery or the challenge of hope. Yet such is not us. The concern of our hearts is broader than that.
The news has been tough to watch or even read. The horrors of Los Angeles are heart-wrenching. The lives of tens of thousands of people have been upended, if not through the fires themselves, then through the threat of fire, dense smoke in the air, and loss of electricity, water, and general services. The images have been those of hell and destruction.
As we put ourselves in their shoes, we can only barely imagine the loss and struggle. Lives have been completely upended with the loss of beloved homes and neighborhoods, churches and schools, and even loved ones. I feel for the children as they’re forced to give up their friends and classmates, forced to surrender a life they came to know and love, and their place of fertile soil for growth.
And I wonder about recovery, about God and faith. Does such loss include the loss of faith? Will those in the struggle draw closer to God or be consumed by the darkness of deep lament and faithless grief?
In the moments of their days, in the midst of their struggle, I doubt recovery stories of others do much to comfort. I doubt they’re mindful or even care that others have lost much through the terrors of war, violence and natural disasters and managed to rebuild and recover. Those accounts, like even these for us, were accounts far away and of others.
And yet there’s the hope: The hope that lessons of life, learned through books, movies, news and even scripture, the hope that accounts of fierce recovery which have been known and shown in the lives of others, will take root in their hearts and fuel their resolve, strength and compassion to help them come to visualize goodness that can arise even out the ashes.
Out from under it. This Sunday in church is one of the oddly named and lesser-known Sundays of the lectionary. Rather than the first Sunday after Epiphany, it’s called the Baptism of Jesus, as based on the gospel account. Curiously, Jesus, whom we’re taught knew no sin, presents himself for baptism by John, a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus does so not only to show solidary with John, but also to legitimize what John was doing.
Jesus clearly knew the importance of repentance and of taking to heart the forgiveness of God. And baptism, of course, has become a sacrament of our faith.
Yet if we were only to read literally, we may miss the deeply theological underpinning of the account. John would dunk the people in the river Jordan. Jesus is tossed under the water and when he comes out from under it, he is profoundly blessed by the Holy Spirit and announced, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." Jesus comes out from under it empowered by God for a new life, a life marked by miracles and wonder, and even loving sacrifice. But first he was under it. Like so many, then and now.
This account is coupled with the lesson from Isaiah, a word of comfort to a conquered people who had lost everything and scattered by the occupying power of their day. The image is of ingathering and a safe return, and the big take away is God’s declaration, “Do not fear, for I am with you.” And they will return and rebuild, restart, even out from under the repression of their days.
In the short middle lesson, we’re taught that even the Samaritans who long lived under deep prejudice of the Jews, were embraced as believers, baptized and blessed by the Holy Spirit, so that they too, could come out from under it.
In these accounts and in all of the accounts of renewal and recovery in scripture, the community of believers working in tandem with God is what makes it all possible. God is, of course, readily apparent in scripture; the hope is that God-at-work through others, to rescue, renew and re-empower us and the people of our days, is likely apparent.
We hope and pray that the people of L.A., that the people of our days, that even we who may find ourselves under it in the living of our lives, can likewise see the saving hand of God at work. Through the deep compassion and cooperation of many in community, of many working in tandem with our God, those who live in fear and ashes, in the dark shadows of loss and grief, are likewise sure to see days of recovery and renewal. May hope long abide and fuel their strength as they strive to get out from under it and arise with new blessings. May such be true for us all.
Be blessed by God.
*HYMN: Arise, Your Light Is Come
https://youtu.be/KoHkmJDazDk
*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: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring Bach
Second Sunday after Christmas
SERVICE OF WORD AND SACRAMENT
January 5, 2025 10am
We open our hearts to the presence of God and worship together.
PRELUDE: Aria Peters
*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: True light is entering our world through Jesus Christ.
Sing for joy and praise God, all people.
Many: God’s Word makes the winds blow and water flow.
Jesus Christ is God’s Word to us and for us.
One: Receive the Word, and believe the good news.
Know you are children of God, born of the Spirit.
Many: The Word became flesh to dwell with humanity.
Grace and forgiveness are lavished upon us.
One: Be radiant in appreciation of God’s goodness.
Hear the Word of God and declare it to others.
ALL: In Christ we have obtained an inheritance.
Spiritual blessings are abundantly available to us.
*HYMN: Go Tell It on the Mountain No. 154
WELCOME
PRAYER OF INVOCATION: …From near and far, we come to worship. Amid our joys and sorrows, we come to praise. In our strength and in our weakness, we gather for refreshment and renewal. You have called us together like a shepherd keeps a flock. As a gardener waters growing plants, you care for us and provide for our growth. Praise be to you, O God, for your protecting love and freeing grace. Shine upon us here that we may know your truth and receive it
into our lives….
CHILDREN’S TIME
PASSING OF THE PEACE
ANNOUNCEMENTS, CELEBRATIONS & CONCERNS
A TIME OF PRAYER:
❖ Pastoral Prayer: Light of the world, whose coming reordered human priorities, dwell with us
here, that your Word may refresh us and your truth remold us. Reveal your will to us in ways we cannot escape or ignore. Deepen our respect for your law and our faithfulness to the truth we encounter in Jesus Christ. May your Word run swiftly through this assembly with life-changing power….
❖ 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.
OFFERING & OFFERTORY ANTHEM:
Bread of the World Pope
*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:
❖ Jeremiah 31.7-14 OT Page 692
❖ Psalm 147.12-20 Hymnal Page 720
❖ Ephesians 1.3-8(a) NT Page 169
❖ John 1.1-5, 10-16 NT Page 79
*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: “New Beginnings”
The hope is that you had a good Christmas and enjoyed the New Year, although I know that New Year has lost much of its pizzazz for most of us. Rather than weigh any desire to join the throngs in Times Square and watch the ball drop, the big decision tends to be whether or not to actually stay up until midnight.
There’s little notion of big celebration because of the good things and adventures that lie ahead, but rather there tends to be a bit of trepidation the storms of life that we may face. As we age, New Year’s resolutions tend to take a hike, and we turn the calendar page with little notion of a new beginning but rather with the sense of it’s just another day, and we wonder, “now what?”
Ogden Nash wrote a New Year’s poem that captures some of that.
It’s entitled, “Good Riddance, But Now What?”
Come, children, gather round my knee;
Something is about to be.
Tonight’s December thirty-first,
Something is about to burst.
The clock is crouching, dark and small,
Like a time bomb in the hall.
Hark! It’s midnight, children dear.
Duck! Here comes another year.
It made me chuckle as even it rang out some truth.
What new beginnings can we embrace as we start to this new year? What can we hope for, rather than fear? Given all we know about the benefits of a good attitude, of positive thinking, and healthy visualization, you’d think we’d be better at embracing the new year to be with optimism. Yet, wise as we are, we often need a little help to look to the good things to come and keep on the bright side of life. Tony Robbins puts it this way, “Stop being afraid of what could go wrong, and start being excited about what could go right.” In our world, so fraught with pain and tragedy, challenge, and lament, we do well to build into our days some faithful practices of encouragement. Biblical passages can provide us with a lift as we again see our
God of miracle and wonder, our God of salvation and rescue, who comes to us in splendor. God wipes every tear from our eyes, puts an end to death, mourning, crying and pain and provides the water of life.
And we do well to remember the God of our own histories: Our God who saw us through the hard times; God who healed us, led us, guided us, God who has long provided for us and fed us.
Jeremiah does that for a hurting people, a people who were conquered and scattered. He writes of the day of joy to come to plant the seed of good visioning and the embrace of a new and good beginnings to come. Although they begin the journey with weeping, God provides consolation, flowing water and straight paths.
And he adds:
“They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; their life shall become like a watered garden, and they shall never languish again. Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them and give them gladness for sorrow.”
Paul, too, in our second lesson lifts up the good for the struggling in Ephesus and for us. He proclaims our God “who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,” and celebrates our God of forgiveness and grace: “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us.”
John’s gospel reading echoes the thought. Not only do we have God as the light of the world, the light of our lives, but John also asserts that “From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” Comfort, forgiveness and grace, these are the gifts of God to embrace as we look up this new beginning of our new year. And receiving these gifts, we let our gratefulness flourish. A wonderful quote worth taking in as we start the new year is one from James E. Faust, a longtime church leader as well as a lawyer and politician. He writes, “A grateful heart is a beginning of greatness. It is an expression of humility. It is a foundation for the development of such virtues as prayer, faith, courage, contentment, happiness, love, and well-being.”
Today, as we look afresh upon packing up the old and looking to the new, as we receive the nourishment of
our God in communion, as we remember and reflect, may we long remain mindful of the goodness of our
God, of comfort, forgiveness and grace, and may we always be grateful and growing in the richness of our
faith.
New beginnings.
Ring Out, Wild Bells (from In Memoriam)
By Lord Alfred Tennyson
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
And be blessed by God.
OUR ORDER OF COMMUNION
THE INVITATION AND TIME OF CONFESSION:
❖ Call to Confession
❖ Silent Confession
❖ Unison Prayer of Confession:
Infinite God, look upon your creation, broken and bereaved,
with compassion and consolation. We listen to the cries of ,
your hurting people with ears that do not hear and hearts
that do not feel their plight. The wind blows among us , but
do not discern your Spirit. You offer wisdom and insight, but
we reject your counsel. O God, help us change the direction
of our lives so we may act like your children and reflect your
love into the world. 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: Allelujah! 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: This Is a Day of New Beginnings
*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: Fugue in C Handel
(please remain seated for the postlude)
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: Go Tell it on the Mountain Lau
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
Open today | 09:00 am – 12:00 pm |
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)
Copyright © 2025 First Congregational Church of Riverhead - All Rights Reserved.
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