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First Congregational Church of Wakefield

United Church of Christ

Gathered 1785

Open and Affirming Congregation

No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here!

Welcome to Virtual Worship

May 3, 2020 Intentional Interim Pastor—Reverend Dr. Alberta Wallace

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First Congregational Church Wakefield, UCC Virtual service for Sunday, May 3, 2020

Fourth Sunday of Easter

“Good Shepherd Sunday”

Prelude Barbara Bonney sings

"He shall feed his flock" from Handel's 'Messiah'

https://youtu.be/l-bAXm-A3Ls

Centering Words Psalm 23 The Passion Translation (TPT)

The Good Shepherd

23 David’s poetic praise to God] 1 The Lord is my best friend and my shepherd.

I always have more than enough. 2 He offers a resting place for me in his luxurious love.

His tracks take me to an oasis of peace, the quiet brook of bliss. 3 That’s where he restores and revives my life.

He opens before me pathways to God’s pleasure

and leads me along in his footsteps of righteousness

so that I can bring honor to his name. 4 Lord, even when your path takes me through

the valley of deepest darkness,

fear will never conquer me, for you already have!

You remain close to me and lead me through it all the way.

Your authority is my strength and my peace.

The comfort of your love takes away my fear.

I’ll never be lonely, for you are near. 5 You become my delicious feast

even when my enemies dare to fight.

You anoint me with the fragrance of your Holy Spirit;

you give me all I can drink of you until my heart overflows. 6 So why would I fear the future?

For your goodness and love pursue me all the days of my life.

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Then afterward, when my life is through,

I’ll return to your glorious presence to be forever with you!

Welcome

Welcome to FCCW UCC located at 2718 Wakefield Rd. Wakefield, NH. It is the 4th Sunday of Easter, known as

Good Shepherd Sunday. The Shepherds Crook or staff is used to manage the sheep. The shepherd leads

them out into pasture and then walks behind them calling them by name to keep them safe. The sheep know

the voice of the one who has their best interest at heart and even though they will stray and loose their way,

they expect the shepherd to find them and take them back to safety.

In the UCC it is our time to support “Strengthen the Church” initiatives.

These grants are given to shepherds who see and hearing a need.

Strengthen the Church 2020 with Billie Watts

https://youtu.be/NqKUBhQuFnI

Call to Worship

Do you need a guide? ALL: The Lord is our shepherd.

Do you need a doorway to new life? ALL: The Lord is our gate.

Do you need rest? ALL: The Lord restores our souls.

Do you need care? ALL: The Lord is our shepherd.

Come, let us worship.

'Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus Alan Jackson

https://youtu.be/lFdrQcfLT9g

Opening Prayer Loving Shepherd, we feel the wolves close at hand. Gather us to yourself, that we might dwell secure in your

ways. Deliver us from evil, that we might build a community where all may dwell secure. Mark our fellowship

with study, prayer, communion, and the sharing of our possessions with those in need. Amen.

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Storytime for children and the child within

Today our story is “When God Made You” by Mathew Paul Turner with illustrations by David Catrow. Karen Hagy is our reader today. https://youtu.be/CVVjXp7PWK4

Thank you, Karen!

Prayer of Confession We come in our humanity to God to ask for forgiveness to our Creator who knows us by name:

Christ, our shepherd and gate, we would rather chart our own course, than be shepherded like sheep; we would rather find our own way, than see you as the Way; we forget we at times are vulnerable and exposed. Forgive us when we bleat our resistance, as you guide us to higher pastures. Be our gate, our way to safe havens, where we can dwell with you secure. Amen

Words of Assurance

The one who anoints our heads with oil, the one who feeds us while our enemies look on, the one who

delivers us from evil, invites us to dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Blessed Assurance Steven Samuel Devassy

https://youtu.be/ZqNKF2B_fbs

Prayers of Intercession

Lord, we ask for the courage of the Good Shepherd, who lays down his life for his sheep.

We pray for those prepared to suffer

and even to die for what they believe in.

We pray for those whose lives and rights are sacrificed in the name of power and greed.

We pray for those who risk themselves

by accompanying others along paths of deep suffering, through valleys of fear and despair.

Lord we ask for the compassion of the good shepherd

who leads his sheep to safe pasture.

We pray for those who work to feed and shelter and educate

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the poor peoples of our world.

We pray for those skilled at nursing and healing those who are suffering or ill In body, mind or spirit.

We pray for those who care, for the victims of our society, those unable to cope with life, the neglected, the abused.

Lord, we ask for the love of the Good Shepherd

who knows his sheep by name.

We pray for our church, for minister and office bearers, for its preachers and teachers and all engaged in pastoral care.

We pray for those we know,

relatives or friends who are facing difficult times.

(Silence)

We pray for ourselves that we might hear the call from our Good Shepherd

and follow his way of love.

We make all our prayers in Christ’s name. Amen.

An Affirmation of Faith

For the self-exiled during the COVID-19 Pandemic

By Glory E. Dharmaraj, Ph.D., President, World Association for Christian Communication, Director of Mission

Theology, Retired, United Methodist Women

We believe in God the Almighty who hovered in love over the primeval chaos and uttered creation into

existence out of a holy mess.

We believe in the One who breathed the breath of life into human and engendered the primal family and

community into being

We believe in the magnificent signature of God’s image in every human being, signed in infinite variety, and

sewn in multicolored splendor, even when it is humanly difficult to experience it in our damaged bodies.

We believe in the self-revelatory signature of God in Jesus Christ who came to restore healing and

wholeness into every fiber of our existence.

We believe in Jesus Christ who came to show that salvation is healing and wholeness, and who opened our

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eyes that we may see each other into God’s image– beyond the troubling stereotyping and systemic use of

race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, disability, and other identity markers to divide and fragment us.

We believe in Jesus who came to open our hearts to the God who so-loved-the- world, and who calls forth

discipleship from among us to the alleviation of human suffering. That we may see the whole world of ours,

as never before, as a God-loved, God-breathed, and God-reconciled world.

We believe in the Crucified God who embraces with his wounded arms those who die alone at this time.

We believe in the Resurrected Savior who invites us to touch his wounds, if we lack belief during these times

of paralyzing fear and numbing trauma.

We believe in the Holy Spirit who fosters connected relationships across the divides, while we sit with

ourselves.

We believe in the Holy Spirit who always pushes the church to reach out to the margins, and enter into the

exilic homes through the gifts of technology, nudging each of us to birth hope and resilience. We, also,

believe that the digital divide is human-created and greed-sponsored, and the front-line workers embody

flesh-and-blood communication.

We believe that beyond the ravages of time and this pandemic, we will be restored into wellness and

wholeness, with different understandings of what it is to be the Church in the world.

We believe that one day, we will be fully restored into God’s image and God’s healed Body. Then wholeness

will be the theme of the great orchestral music of the Church and the cosmos.

Until then, we will build bridges of healing and reconciliation with each other and God’s creation.

Therefore, we will commit ourselves every day to healing and wholeness until that day. Amen.

Scripture John 10:1-10 The Passion Translation (TPT)

The Parable of the Kind Shepherd

10 Jesus said to the Pharisees, “Listen to this eternal truth: The person who sneaks over the wall to

enter into the sheep pen, rather than coming through the gate, reveals himself as a thief coming to

steal. 2 But the true Shepherd walks right up to the gate, 3 and because the gatekeeper knows who he

is, he opens the gate to let him in.[a] And the sheep recognize the voice of the true Shepherd, for he

calls his own by name and leads them out, for they belong to him. 4 And when he has brought out all

his sheep, he walks ahead of them and they will follow him, for they are familiar with his voice. 5 But

they will run away from strangers and never follow them because they know it’s the voice of a

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stranger.” 6 Jesus told the Pharisees this parable even though they didn’t understand a word of what

he meant.[b]

7 So Jesus went over it again, “I speak to you eternal truth: I am the Gate for the flock.[c] 8 All those

who broke in before me are thieves who came to steal,[d] but the sheep never listened to them. 9 I am

the Gateway.[e] To enter through me is to experience life, freedom, and satisfaction.[f] 10 A thief has

only one thing in mind—he wants to steal, slaughter,[g] and destroy. But I have come to give you

everything in abundance, [h] more than you expect[i]—life in its fullness until you overflow!

Sermon

Remember the man born blind whose sight was restored? That is the incident that has the Pharisees in such

an uproar and Jesus, again teaching to open the eyes of not only the religious leaders, but of everyone who

is standing in earshot. Let me remind you of the story of the man born blind receiving his sight. It comes before

this passage.

Jesus is walking down the street with the disciples and notices a man born blind from birth. How did he know

the man was born blind? We do not know, but that is what the biblical story says.

The disciples walking with Jesus ask, who sinned, the man or his parents?

In the first century if a person had a disability it was believed it was due to someone being punished for not

obeying the commandments of God.

Jesus answered them saying “neither, it happened to him so you could watch him experience God’s miracle.”

What looks to us like suffering and disability is what God uses to show us God’s ability; God’s grace; God’s care

and concern about the trials of humanity.

Now, the blind man was sitting on the side of the road begging as he always did. He accepted that as his

purpose in life. Jesus, not passing up an opportunity to fulfill his purpose for being in the earth, spat on the

ground and made some clay with his saliva. He then took the dirt packed with his spit and anointed the blind

man’s eyes- rubbing the clay with his saliva pack in onto the blind man’s eyes.

The blind man has yet to say anything to Jesus or the disciples.

After the clay was placed on the blind man’s eyes, Jesus told him to go wash his eyes in the pool of Siloam,

where ritual baths were taken to purify one’s spirit. The blind man goes and does what Jesus says and he is

now able to see for the first time. The disciples and Jesus do not follow the man. They did not witness the

return of visual sight to the blind man.

The blind man caused a stir in the neighborhood. He was now able to speak directly to people; to make eye

contact. They wanted to know what happened to him. They would say, ‘aren’t you the blind beggar?” The

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blind man would repeatedly share “I met a man named Jesus who put clay on my eyes; told me to go wash in

the pool named Siloam and now I can see for the first time ever.”

This miraculous healing disturbed the people in the neighborhood; they wanted to see this man named Jesus.

But the blind man, who now sees had no idea where Jesus went or even what Jesus looked like. Remember,

he was blind when Jesus and his disciples came upon him begging beside the road.

Well, the neighborhood people just knew something was wrong with this. Who was this Jesus and how could

someone born blind at birth now be able to see? And to top it off, who or what gave this man named Jesus

the right to heal anybody on the Sabbath-nobody works on the Sabbath!

They marched the blind man right to the Pharisees, the holy men who kept the law; these men pursued purity

with a passion and wanted nothing more than to live lives that pleased God. It was their purpose on the earth

to avoid and separate themselves from any type of impurity forbidden by the Levitical law — and, more

importantly, they were the ones to strictly interpret the meaning of the 613 laws.

The Pharisees questioned the now seeing man who was born blind. They even had his parents brought before

them to verify that he was born blind. They berated the man and his parents about this man named Jesus.

The now seeing man said, “he healed my eyes and now I can see; God does not listen to sinners only godly

people who do God’s will. This man is a prophet of God!”

Oh, were the religious leaders upset and indignant that a man born blind; a filthy begging sinner was trying to

lecture them! They threw the now seeing man out in the street!

Jesus heard they had thrown him out and he went to look for him. When he found him he asked the now

seeing man if he believed in the Son of Man. The now seeing man said “Who is he, Master? Tell me so that I

can place all my faith in him.”

Jesus replied, “You’re looking right at him. He’s speaking with you. It’s me, the one in front of you now.”

The man threw himself at the feet of Jesus and began to worship him, saying “Lord, I believe in you.”

Jesus said , “I have come to judge those who think they see and make them blind. And for those who are

blind, I have come to make them see.”

40 Some of the Pharisees were standing nearby and overheard what Jesus said. They were more enraged,

interrupted Jesus and said, “Are you trying to say that we are blind?”

We all know being blind is not only visual, but one can have blindness of heart. Imagine the emotions of the

man born blind who now can see. Imagine how his parents are feeling. They raised a boy born blind to be a

man blind in the world of the 1st century, where people who were not physically perfect had no place, no

chance of living an abundant life. Imagine just waiting to shout and dance and high five your neighbors!

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Something miraculous has just happened, but everybody around you looks at you with disgust, questions the

legitimacy of your healing and your worthiness. Imagine how deflated you would be.

Jesus comes to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect-life in its fullness until you overflow!

The blind man did not ask for anything. Jesus just walked up to him. The scripture tells us the gatekeeper

knows who the true Shepherd is and opens the door to let the Shepherd in.

Who is the gatekeeper of our hearts? Our Divine Creator? The one who made us? Who else can see into our

depths and open us up to receive I Am-the one who is the bread of life; light for the darkness; the door to find

rich pastures; the way, the truth for your journey and the vine that gives you the support to grow and mature?

We are created with hearts that are to be open. The Good Shepherd knows that and opens the gate to

provide life, freedom and satisfaction. The Good Shepherd also closes the gate to provide protection from

the thieves and bandits of the world: people who cannot rejoice with you because your joy, healing, or miracle

did not follow the rules of the law or doesn’t look the way they think it should look, because it does not fit

their understanding of privilege and worthiness and the explanation is beyond their understanding. Their

hearts are not only blind, but hard. Even though they too have been created in the image of God, their

stubbornness, that can be used to demand space be made for a new reality that gives everybody access to

economic relief, healthcare, housing and education, those hearts have not been touched yet by the I Am.

Their Good Shepherd has not walked up to them yet. Their shepherd may need to use the crook of the staff

more forcefully or prod in the right place to get their attention.

The gatekeeper provides, our Divine Creator will touch all hearts and provide a Good Shepherd for all the

sheep to find their way to truth and life. The blind man did not approach Jesus. Jesus approached him. We

each are called to be good shepherds. That is our purpose on the earth. Jesus is our example.

Who are you called to witness Gods transformational powers? Who is waiting for us to open the gate to life

more abundantly or to protect them from the thieves and bandits of life?

Our Good shepherd reminds us of our purpose. Pick up your shepherd’s crook and raise your voice.

Communion-/The Lord’s Supper/ The Holy Eucharist

Prepare to gather at your table. Get you coffee, juice, tea, wine or water. Place your muffin, bread, cracker or even cake next to you. This is the table of grace-where everyone is welcome. Let’s sing, “Bread of Life.”

Bread of Life // with Jo Boyce on BBC Songs of Praise

https://youtu.be/PfRKnlRRrDA

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Communion Reading: Acts 2:42-47 (NRSV)

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

43 Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44 All

who believed were together and had all things in common; 45 they would sell their possessions and

goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Day by day, as they spent much time

together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous

hearts, 47 praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to

their number those who were being saved.

The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke

it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do

this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you

proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

This is the body of Christ broken for you. Take and eat-you are blessed to be a blessing.

This is the cup of the new covenant; the blood of Christ shed for you to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to

walk in your purpose, your calling in the world. Drink and be filled with courage and strength.

Join me in reciting the prayer that Jesus taught the disciples all those many years ago that is still our prayer

today:

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.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,

forever. Amen.

Invitation for Generosity/Offering

Church, our God has prepared a table before us and our cup overflows. So, let us give generously from our

commonwealth, as our way of praising God and giving to those in need.

Thank you for your continued support of the ministry God entrusts us with at First Congregational Church

Wakefield. Try our on-line giving at our church’s website or mail in your gift, donation or pledge to 2718

Wakefield Rd, Wakefield, NH 03872. Drive by the church and place your envelope in the black mailbox

attached to the building.

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Place a note in the memo section if you are supporting our denomination’s Strengthening the Church

campaign.

Prayer of Thanksgiving/Dedication We present our offerings to God:

Holy and generous God, you have anointed us and we are yours. Bless our time, talents and financial

offerings that they may become green pastures and still waters for any and all who need your comfort and

restoration. Amen.

Benediction

My brothers, sisters, and siblings in Christ, our

worship never ends; it must be lived. Go into the world determined to share your love, your wisdom, your

resources, and your labors so that those who are in any need may see in you the face of the Good Shepherd,

Jesus the Christ. Go in peace. Amen.

Postlude

I Have Decided to Follow Jesus https://youtu.be/S8jvfdDtoqY

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Liturgy was taken from several sources including — from Companion to the Lectionary, Volume 4, by Christine Odell. Posted on the http://pilgrimwr.unitingchurch.org.au/ website; Feasting on the Word Worship Companion: 1 (p. 150). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition; Bennett, Tanya Linn. The Abingdon Preaching Annual 2020 . Abingdon Press. Kindle Edition; Scifres, Mary. The Abingdon Worship Annual 2020 . Abingdon Press. Kindle Edition; Jarvis, Cynthia A.. Feasting on the Gospels--John, Volume 2: A Feasting on the Word Commentary . Westminster John Knox Press. Kindle Edition.