Mark 7:24-30
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Sunday Worship at Home
Bethel UMC Columbia | Rev. Julie Songer Belman
January 17, 2021
Preparation: Find a spot in your home for yourself/your family to engage in worship. Include your Bible, a candle and a lighter or matches (or battery operated candle or low wattage table lamp), if possible. You might consider a small cross as well.
Welcome: Thank you for joining us! We pray you will be blessed by your time of worship with us today.
Prelude: “Fill the Earth with Music“
While Bill plays the prelude, we invite you to light or turn on the candle/lamp to acknowledge the presence of the Holy Spirit in your worship. Take a deep breath and give thanks for God’s presence.
Offertory: “Freely, Freely!”
Your continued support of God’s ongoing work at Bethel UMC is sincerely appreciated. Contributions to the mission of Bethel {Knowing, Loving, Serving: so the world may experience Christ’s Love!} may be made by mailing a check to 4600 Daniel Drive, Columbia SC 29206 or giving online at: bethelmethodistcolumbia.com You may also contact your bank to have them draft a check on your behalf.
Pastoral Prayer: Please join with Pastor Julie as she prays today. Pray for yourself, your family, your church community, your city, your state, your country, our world. Pray for the global health situation, particularly for those who are sick, those who are lonely, those who are gripped by fear, those who are facing financial hardship, those without safe shelter, those who are hungry, our healthcare workers, our leaders in every realm. Give thanks, once again, for God’s faithfulness and seek God’s guidance for ways to offer love and grace in the world right now.
The 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 trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
Special Music: “Sing Praise to God, You Heavens! ”
We know you will enjoy this lovely piece played by our Bethel Handbell Choir.
Scripture: This morning we continue our year long journey through the Gospel of Mark. Today is Week 18, and Pastor Julie is preaching on Mark 7:24-30. We invite you to open your Bibles (or the Bible app on your phone!) at home and read along.
Sermon: “A Human Transformation.” Rev. Julie Songer Belman
Hymn Meditation: “Lift Every Voice and Sing!”
(Thank you, Marian Scullion, for providing this lovely Hymn meditation!)
Words by James Weldon Johnson Music by J. Rosamund Johnson
Lift every voice and sing, till earth and heaven ring, ring with the harmonies of liberty;
let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies, let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us;
sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
facing the rising sun of our new day begun, let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod, felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered;
we have come, treading our path thru the blood of the slaughtered,
out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;
thou who hast by thy might led us into the light, keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee;
lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee;
shadowed beneath thy hand, may we forever stand, true to our God, true to our native land.
Few hymns have the capacity to define the identity of an entire group. “Lift Every Voice” began as a hastily-written composition for an unassuming school assembly in 1900, but has become the African-American national anthem.
James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) received degrees in literature from Atlanta University in 1894, with a master of arts in 1904. He had a versatile career as a writer, teacher, diplomat and lawyer, becoming the first African-American to pass the bar in the state of Florida. His diplomatic posts took him in 1906 to Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, and in 1909, to Corinto, Nicaragua, where he served as the American consul.
His most prominent leadership role was as the executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a position that he assumed in 1920.
His most important published works include The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1920), The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922), God’s Trombones (1927), and Along This Way (1933).
Johnson had been asked to speak by the principal of a school in Jacksonville, Fla., his hometown, for an observance celebrating the birth of Abraham Lincoln. Rather than make a speech, he decided to write a poem. As the time drew near, his plans changed from a poem to a song. James turned to his brother J. Rosamund Johnson (1873-1954) to compose music for his text.
Hymn mediation from the UMC Discipleship Ministries History of Hymns website (https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-lift-every-voice-and-sing)
Benediction: Say these words aloud: Let us go forth to love one another, rich in faith, dedicating ourselves to serving one another in all joy and humility. And may the power of God our Creator, Christ our Salvation, and the communion of the Holy Spirit go with us always. AMEN.
Go in Peace: Check on someone you love today.