God
Is Love is our worship theme for the fifth Sunday of Easter,
May 6, 2012. Our focus scripture is I John 4:712.
Our overall worship theme for the month of May is
Crazy Love. For compared to the expectations and values of our everyday world,
God’s love is crazy! So often the world teaches us to watch out for number one.
To take advantage of every opportunity to advance ourselves and to be wary of
any threat that might harm us. As a result, we are fearful, driven, anxious,
and ready to do violence to one another.
But in I John, the author sees things quite
differently! God is the creator of love. Love is God’s most important gift to
us, because love is God’s essential quality. In fact the author gives us this
incisive definition: God is love. God
loves us first. God loves us in such a crazy way that God sends God’s one and
only Son to die for us. And it is when we love others – all others – that God
comes fully to life in us.
Here are three Calls to Worship that are appropriate
for this Sunday’s lectionary. Please feel free to use or adapt anything that is
helpful to you.
Call
to Worship from John 15:5, 12, 16
L: Jesus said, “I am the vine and you are
the branches…
Abide in me as I abide in you.”
P: We come to reaffirm and renew our connection with
the life-giving Vine.
L: Jesus said, “I appointed you to go and bear fruit…
fruit that will last.”
P: We want to be fruitful, productive people whose
lives make a difference.
L: Jesus said, “This is my commandment: love one
another as I have loved you.”
All:
Christ, you are the Vine. We are the branches.
We will bear your fruit.
We will abide in your love and share
it!
Call
to Worship
L: Jesus said, “I tell you this so that my
joy may be in you…
P: Love one another as I have loved you…”
L: Jesus said, “You are my friends if you do what I
ask you…
P: Love one another as I have loved you…”
L: Jesus said, “I have appointed you to go and bear
fruit, fruit that will last…
P: Love one another as I have loved you…”
L: As we gather in worship, we know that Christ laid
down his life for us.
All: We are called to be a community where his
love lives and grows!
Call to Worship from
I John 4:7-12
L: Dear sisters and brothers, let us love
each other because God gives us love.
All who love become God’s children and
come to know God.
All who do not love cannot know God, for
God is love!
P:
God showed us love by sending God’s one and only Son into the world.
The
Son gives us life – even eternal life! We did nothing to deserve this.
We
did not love God, but God loved us and sent the Son to die for us.
His
death bridged the valley of our sins and opened the way back to God.
All: Since God
loved us so much, we must love each
other!
No
one has ever seen God. But when we love each other, God dwells in us.
When
we love each other, God comes fully alive in us.
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