All are welcome at Asbury First. Please join us in celebrating our 200th Anniversary!
December 21, 2020 • 7 PM
FIRST TIME HERE We are so glad you are joining us! If you’re out there watching, check in through the website or take a picture and post it on social media using #asburyfirstathome. Our hope is to get to know you better and help you find your place within our community. Additionally, drop us an email at info@asburyfirst.org and we will answer any questions you may have. Need prayer? We invite you to share with us how we can be praying for you by emailing prayers@asburyfirst.org. All prayer requests are prayed over by our Ministers and Intercessory Prayer Group. Children We believe children are a sacred gift. You can join us at 10 am for the Sunday morning Zoom with Paula and Holly (us02web.zoom.us/j/86857108916?pwd=aHF4TEppZERJSXZoZm FxUHgrQ1hjdz09). We will have a segment during our live stream for Children’s Time. If there is a way our children’s ministry can be more welcoming to you and your child, please contact Paula Dugan at pdugan@asburyfirst.org. RECONCILING STATEMENT We are a reconciling congregation and seek to be a fully inclusive church, believing that all people are God’s children. We encourage full participation in our community for all, regardless of age, race, origin, gender, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, marital status, family structure, education/economic background, and physical/mental ability. We recognize that we hold a variety of opinions. We do not seek to erase our differences, but to journey together in faith toward greater understanding and mutual respect. We believe that reconciliation to God and to one another is central to our mission and ministry. GIVE TO ASBURY FIRST There are three ways to make a gift to Asbury First. Each gift supports the everyday ministries and operations of this church, allowing us to live into our vision to Do More Good. Cash/Check—We welcome you to send a gift of cash/check in the mail. Text to Give—You may give a gift with a debit/credit card by texting the dollar amount to 206-222-1050. Online—Online giving is available on our website at www.asburyfirst.org/give. Watch and listen Tune into the live video stream of the 11 am service at www.asburyfirst.org/worship/live. To listen to the service tune into WRFZ 106.3 FM Rochester Free Radio, or call our toll-free number at 833-829-1050. A video archive of past services is also available at www.asburyfirst.org/worship/video-archive. You can also view all sermons on our YouTube channel.
Prelude
Settings of "Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen" — J. Brahms/R. Johnson/G. Near
Welcome
Call to Worship
All are invited to read the bold-faced type; the lay reader will read the unbolded type. Holy Spirit, Love Divine, we gather together this evening as the time of sunlight begins to lengthen in our world again. Yet even with more light, our hearts are heavy with sadness and we wonder how long we can bear it. We long to feel again the hand of our beloved, to know that nothing has changed, and to go back to the ways life was before COVID restrictions. Hear our stories, accept our grief. Keep us in this hour, mindful of your presence. Guide us as we mourn and change, grateful for your love as our reminder that we do not face this alone.
"Longest Night" Service
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7 pm • December 21, 2020
The community gathers As the community gathers, may the music of the prelude draw your hearts and minds to God.
Opening Hymn
##626 "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence" Words: 4th cent., trans. Gerard Moultrie, 1864; Tune: Picardy, French carol melody Words: Charles Wesley, 1746; Tune: Darwall’s 148th, John Darwall, 1770
Scripture Isaiah 40:28-31
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
To hear the word
Invocation
Solo
"O Christ, the Healer", We Have Come" — Richard Gieseke; words by Fred Pratt Green O Christ, the healer, we have come to pray for health, to plead for friends. How can we fail to be restored, when reached by love that never ends? From every ailment flesh endures our bodies clamor to be freed; yet in our hearts we would confess that wholeness is our deepest need. In conflicts that destroy our health, we recognize the world's disease; our common life declares our ills: is there no cure, O Christ, for these? Grant that we all, made one in faith, in your community may find the wholeness that, enriching us, shall reach the whole of humankind.
Meditation
Silent Presence
Music
Unison Reading Psalm 23 (KJV)
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
"O Love, That Will Not Let Me Go" — John Ness Beck; words by George Matheson O Love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee. I give thee back the life I owe, that in thine ocean depths its flow may richer, fuller be. O Joy that seekest me through pain, I cannot close my heart to thee. I trace the rainbow through the rain, and feel the promise is not vain, that morn shall tearless be.
Pastoral Prayer
Hymn
#632 "Draw Us in the Spirit's Tether" (vv. 1, 3) Words: Percy Dearmer, 1931; Tune: Union Seminary, Harold Friedell, 1957 Words: Charles Wesley, 1746; Tune: Darwall’s 148th, John Darwall, 1770
Litany
At the rising of the sun and at its going down, We remember them. At the blowing of the wind and in the chill of Winter, We remember them. At the opening of buds and in the rebirth of Spring, We remember them. At the blueness of the skies and in the warmth of Summer, We remember them. At the rustling of leaves and the beauty of Autumn, We remember them. At the beginning of the year and when it ends, We remember them. When we are weary and in need of strength, We remember them. When we are lost and sick at heart, We remember them. When we have joys we yearn to share, We remember them. When we have decisions that are difficult to make, We remember them. When we have achievements that are based on theirs, We remember them. As long as we live, they too shall live, for they are a part of us, as we remember them.
Closing Hymn
#670 “Go Forth For God”
Words: John Peacy, 1975; Tune: Geneva 124, Genevan Psalter, 1551
Permissions: "O Christ, the Healer, We Have Come" words © 1969 Hope Publishing Company; music © 1988 Concordia Publishing House; "O Love, That Will Not Let Me Go" © 1978, 1990 Beckenhorst Press, Inc. Hymns © 1989 The United Methodist Publishing House; OneLicense.net #A-721053. Some of the liturgical elements have been adapted from the 2020 Abingdon Worship Annual. Illustration Credits: Designed by Sarah Brubaker and Freepik, and Sarah Brubaker and Vecteezy.
Benediction
Postlude
"Chorale in E" — Gordon Young
Participants In the Service
Preacher: Rev. Kathy Thiel Liturgist: Rev. Dr. Stephen Cady Organist: David Strong Soloist: Carl Johengen Audio Operator: Rick Church Video Operator: Kenny Bailey Technology Support Team: Deb Bullock-Smith, Carolyn Curran, Ted Skomsky Technical Consultant: Justin Ocello
These past nine months have been challenging for us all. The COVID-19 pandemic has required us to make significant adjustments, which have impacted our personal lives and our church community. Our outreach ministries have certainly felt this. We are grateful to all volunteers of the Dining & Caring Center, Storehouse, Grocery Bag Ministry and UR Well clinic for their flexibility and commitment to our on-campus programs. One of the many ways we have been able to respond to our community is through our COVID relief fund. From June to November, we served 55 individuals, and provided over $64,000 in COVID-relief support. We would not have been able to do that without the support of this congregation, grant funding dedicated to COVID-relief; and our dedicated volunteer social worker, Martha Neubert, who spends countless hours working with members of the community, referring individuals to other agencies for further support, and helping us respond to this growing need as a church. As we head into the Christmas season, it is no surprise then that the needs steadily increase. With the holidays and deadlines for eviction notices approaching, we are averaging at least ten calls a week from our neighbors looking for assistance. In response, the Outreach Committee leaders have decided that this year, our Joy of Christmas Giving efforts should be focused on COVID-relief. To ensure that more of Rochester’s most vulnerable receive the support they need, we are inviting the congregation to consider donating to this fund, in lieu of donating to our individual Asbury First-afiliated outreach ministries. We’d like to be a part of mediating the current crisis around evictions, and believe we can do it with your help! Thank you in advance for helping to make someone else’s holiday a little better. To donate please www.asburyfirst.org/give; and for further questions or concerns, please contact the Rev. Jacqueline Nelson at jnelson@asburyfirst.org.
While we may not be together in person this Christmas Eve we invite you to join us in spirit via the live stream at 7 pm, Thursday, December 24 for our traditional candlelight Christmas Eve service. We look forward to "being" with you for this most beloved service celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ with peace, prayer, candlelight, and "Silent Night."
IF YOU MISS A SERVICE, VISIT OUR VIDEO ARCHIVE HERE.
Give Online at www.asburyfirst.org/GIVE, text to give at 206-222-1050, OR MAIL IN YOUR CHECKS TO 1050 EAST AVENUE, ROCHESTER, NY 14607