Virtual Worship Service

2nd Sunday after the Epiphany

January 17, 2021

Order of Worship Prelude: Elegy for the Time of Change - Robert Harris

Welcome

Call to Worship

Opening Prayer

Hymn: I have decided to follow Jesus (TFWS 2129)

Prayers for the Nation

Hymn: This is my song (UMH 437)

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18

Time with Young Disciples

Gospel Acclamation: Alleluia (UMH 247 adapt.)

Scripture: John 1:43-51

Gospel Acclamation

Sermon: Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

Reading: I dream a world – Langston Hughes

Anthem: I dream a world – Rosephanye Powell

Prayers of the People & The Lord’s Prayer

The Peace

Presentation Hymn: Praise God, from whom all blessings flow (UMH 94)

Offertory Prayer

Invitation to Community

Hymn: Precious Lord (UMH 474)

Benediction

Postlude: Fanfare on Amazing Grace - Adolphus Hailstork

All music used with permission: license #A-726329 One License.net. This document includes today’s scripture, hymns, and Music Note.

www.faithatfirst.com www.facebook.com/faithatfirst/

Worship Leadership for Jan. 17

Preacher: Grace Imathiu Liturgist: Jane Cheema & Bonny Roth Time with Young Disciples: Colin McDonald Scripture Readers: Preston Price and Ron Anderson

Readers: Robert Harris, Preston Price, Sam J. Jean Clipperton, Bill Brown, Nancy Braund Boruch and JR P.

Invitation to Community: Mary Taylor-Johnson

Minister of Music & Organist: Brian Schoettler Music Assistant: Cody Michael Bradley Virtual Choir Tenor Saxophone: Sam D. Brass: Shea Kelsay, Kelsey Williams, Tim Maines, Alec Mawrence The flowers on the altar are given by Tom Scott in memory of his grandparents,

Horace Greeley Smith and Edith Gorsuch Smith.

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18 (NRSV) O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it. For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed. How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with you.

John 1:43-51 (NRSV) The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Music Note Worship begins with a world premiere performance of Elegy for the Time of Change by Dr. Robert A. Harris. Dr. Harris is Professor Emeritus at Northwestern where he served as Director of Choral Organizations and Professor of Conducting 1977-2012 and is also a member of our congregation. He composed Elegy in June 2020 in response to a sermon preached on May 31, 2020 by Rev. Michael Curry following the horrific death of George Floyd. That sermon referenced the spiritual There is a balm in Gilead which can be heard in brief quotations through this elegy, a song of mourning. Quoting the hymn’s text, Harris hopes that “we as a people will soon come together, revive our collective spirits, and heal the wounded, sin-sick soul of our nation.” The work is dedicated to the victims of the pandemic of systemic racism. Today we sing I have decided to follow Jesus – a hymn based on a melody from Assam, a region in northeast India. The text is not linked to any one individual but is based on several instances of conversion to Christianity. The hymn became popular in the United States around the same time as the American civil rights movement. Our choral anthem sets a text by Langston Hughes written in 1943 for an opera that was never produced. Dr. Rosephanye Powell, Professor of Voice at Auburn University, set the poem to music in 2002 for the University of Arkansas Concert Choir. The struggle for freedom, peace, and equality is most clearly depicted toward the middle of the composition by syncopated, chromatic, and disjunct lines in each voice part. This is juxtaposed by the work’s gravitational pull toward unisons and vertically aligned statements of the poetry. Poetry scholar Dr. W. Jason Miller notes how Hughes, a personal friend of Dr. King, inspired many of MLK’s sermons and speeches including the famous 1963 I have a dream speech during the March on Washington. As our worship concludes we sing Thomas Dorsey’s Precious Lord – the favorite hymn of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Following the benediction, we hear Fanfare on Amazing Grace (2003) for brass quintet and organ by Dr. Adolphus Hailstork. Hailstork is a prolific composer and is Professor of Music at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

Brian Schoettler, DMA Minister of Music & Organist