MARCH 29, 2015
What we’re singing at First Baptist Church of Berkeley this SundayPalm and Passion Sunday – “Lifting Up Our Souls”
The service begins with Psalm 118 as a Prayer of Invocation, including the sung response: “Hail and Hosanna! Blest is he who comes in God’s own name to make our world God’s home!” (words: James Hart Brumm; music: Alfred Fedak)
Scripture Reading: John 12:12–15 (“Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord – the King of Israel!”)
Contemporary Reading, by Howard Thurman:
For more than two years, Jesus had been engaged in a public ministry. So sensitive had grown his spirit and the living quality of his being that he seemed more and more to stand inside of life, looking out upon it as a man who gazes from a window in a room out into the yard and beyond to the distant hills. He could feel the sparrowness of the sparrow, the leprosy of the leper, the blindness of the blind, the crippleness of the cripple, and the frenzy of the mad. He had become joy, sorrow, hope, anguish, to the joyful, the sorrowful, the hopeful, the anguished. Could he feel his way into the mind and the mood of those who cast the palms and the flowers in his path? I wonder what was at work in the mind of Jesus of Nazareth as he jogged along on the back of a faithful donkey.
Hymn: “Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates”
(words: Georg Weissel, 1642; tune: truro, Thomas Williams, 1789)
Stanza 1:
Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates, behold the King of glory waits,
The King of Kings is drawing near; the Savior of the world is here!
Following the Prayer of Confession, we sing these Words of Assurance:
Come and fill our hearts with your peace.
You alone, O Lord, are holy.
Come and fill our hearts with your peace, alleluia!
(Taíze chant)
Scripture Reading: Mark 14:10–15 (“His disciples said to him, “Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?”)
Chant: “Eat This Bread”
Eat this bread, drink this cup, come to me and never be hungry.
Eat this bread, drink this cup, trust in me and you will not thirst.
(Taíze chant)
[We move to a table at the back of the worship space, to sit down and share communion.]
Scripture Reading: Mark 14:16–25 (“While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.”)
Sharing the Bread and Cup
Scripture Reading: Mark 14:32–42 (“They went to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I pray.’”)
Sharing our Prayers, our praise and laments
Call to Prayer: “Love Lifted Me” (James Rowe, 1912)
Love lifted me, love lifted me, when nothing else would help, love lifted me!
Time of Offering and Hymn of Dedication: “What Wondrous Love Is This” (Words: American folk hymn; tune: wondrous love, Walker’s Southern Harmony, 1835)
Gospel Reading, Mark 15:53–64 (“Now the chief priests and the whole council were looking for testimony against Jesus to put him to death; but they found none.”)
Solo: “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded”
(words: attributed to Bernard of Clairveaux, 1091–1153; tune: salley gardens, Irish folk melody, arr. Benjamin Britten)
O sacred head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down,
now scornfully surrounded with thorns, your only crown:
how pale you are with anguish, with sore abuse and scorn!
How does that image languish which once was bright as morn!
What language shall I borrow to thank you, dearest Friend,
for this your dying sorrow, your pity without end?
O make me yours forever; and though my days be few,
Lord, let me never, never outlive my love for you.
Time of Silence
Blessing for the Holy Week Journey: Philippians 2:5–11 (“And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the 8point of death – even death on a cross.”)
Hymn of Praise: “Lift High the Cross”
(words: George William Kitchen (1827–1912); tune crucifer, Sidney Hugo Nicholson, 1916)
Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim
till all the world adore his sacred name.
FBC Berkeley worships at 10:00 am every Sunday in Crouch Classroom, Hobart Hall, on the ABSW campus. Rev. Dr. Nancy E. Hall (ABSW faculty) is the pastor. Our preacher this Sunday is Pastor Hall. Come sing with us! We are a Welcoming and Affirming congregation for the LGBTQ community.
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