Happy Mother's Day
Worship
Service for May 10, 2026
Prelude
Announcements:
Call to Worship
L: Sing to God a new song!
P: For God has done marvelous things!
L: Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth.
P: For God is still doing marvelous things!
L: Break into joyful song!
P: Sing praises with lyre and melody and
trumpets!
L: Let the seas roar and the floods clap
their hands!
P: For God is coming to judge the world with
righteousness.
L: God is coming to judge the world with
equity.
P: Sing to God a new song!
Opening
Hymn – Come, Thou Fount of Every
Blessing Hymn #356/11
Prayer of Confession
Forgiving and gracious God,
You have called us to be the church, to live out our Resurrection faith. You have asked us to place our trust in You
and to bring to all the good news of Your saving love. But we have failed to do this. We have given our faith a back seat to the
troubles of the world and to the stresses in our own life. We look for the quick and easy answers. Forgive us for the smallness of our
faith. You, who raised Christ from the
dead, have promised to raise our spirits and bring us to new life. You have done this and yet, we remain static
in our response to You. Clear our
spirits of the clutter of everyday living.
Help us to be open always to Your word and Your love. Challenge us to move in directions of peace
and hope for all people. These things we
pray in the name of Jesus, our risen Lord.
(Silent prayers are offered) AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: Forgiveness and love have been poured out
upon you, to offer hope to all nations.
You are called and blessed to be messengers of God’s good news to all
people.
P: For this we give thanks to God. We are forgiven and called to be a blessing
to others. AMEN
Gloria Patri
Affirmation of Faith/Apostles’
Creed
I believe in God the Father
Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; And in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under
Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell; the
third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on
the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge
the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost,
the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins; the
resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. AMEN
Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s
Prayer
God of all
creation, we bless you for calling the world and all its peoples to come and
share your love, blessing, forgiveness, and healing. We praise you for the gift of your Son, Jesus
Christ, for his ministry and passion, for his dying and rising to free us from
sin, and for the gift of your holy church that lives to tell the whole world
this good news.
We give
thanks, O Lord, for women everywhere, who look to you for guidance and
strength, or have fashioned their very lives after that of a compassionate
savior. We especially pray today for
women everywhere, those who have been mothers to their own children as well as
those who have played a motherly role in the lives of boys and girls who are
not their own. We pray for women who
have taught us the meaning of love, and have shared with us the lessons of
wisdom and grace.
We pray for
the gift of peace with liberty and justice for all people everywhere. On this Mother’s Day, as we celebrate our own
mothers and honor all moms around the world, we also pray for the children of
the world who have been victimized by war, trapped in many kinds of slavery,
orphaned and left motherless and homeless, who need your loving care. We pray for refugee families struggling for
food and housing, for the sick, the helpless, and the lonely. Remember them and deliver them.
We pray for
those who are ill in body, mind, or spirit.
Be with all who fight chronic disease or crippling disability. Ease suffering from pain, stress, and
isolation. Comfort the despairing. Renew caregivers so they may continue their
healing ministries to those under their care.
We especially
lift up to you in prayer….
In the
following moments of silence hear our inner groanings, listen carefully to our
heartfelt wishes and prayers O Lord and heal us, as well…
All these
things we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, your Son, our Savior, who taught us
to prayer together saying….…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. 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.
Hymn – Glorious Things of Thee
Are Spoken Hymn #446/400
3
vs. Blue Hymnal
Scripture Reading(s):
Ezekiel
34:1-6
John
14:15-21
Sermon –
If You Love Me
(based on John 14:15-21)
In our gospel reading this morning,
the disciples are gathered in a room heavy with uncertainty. What happens now? What comes next? They know something is changing, but they
don’t know what. They know that the
comfort of walking beside Jesus each day is slipping away, and fear again is
beginning to settle into their hearts.
And into that anxious moment Jesus speaks these words:
“If you love me, you will keep my
commandments. And I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.”
This remark by Jesus can sound
conditional, almost transactional: If you love me, then you will
obey me. But Jesus isn’t threatening the
disciples or setting up a spiritual test.
He’s describing what comes from love when it is lived honestly and
authentically. Love is not merely
sentiment. Love moves. Love acts.
Love reshapes how we live in the world.
And that matters because we live in
a culture that often confuses love with performance, convenience, or temporary
emotion. We might say we love people,
but sometimes we don’t listen to people’s needs. We might say we value justice, but we grow
quiet when justice becomes uncomfortable.
We might claim compassion, yet we often move too quickly past the
suffering of others because we are overwhelmed by our own schedules and
anxieties.
In making this statement to the
disciples, Jesus speaks into all of that.
The commandments Jesus refers to are not a complicated list of religious
regulations. They aren’t all the rules
and regulations laid out in the books of law from the Old Testament. Jesus has already made his commandments
clear: Love God with all your heart, mind, and soul. Love one another as I have loved you. Care for one another. Serve one another. Forgive one another. Welcome the stranger. Protect the innocent and vulnerable. Live into truth. Live humbly with mercy.
In other words, love becomes
visible. So visible that others see
it. It’s easy to speak about love in
abstract ways. It’s harder to embody it
on an ordinary Wednesday afternoon when patience is thin, tempers are short,
and the world feels exhausting. Yet this
is exactly where love and discipleship happen.
It happens when a teacher notices
the quiet child no one else sees. Sits
beside them and listens. It happens when
someone chooses not to respond to cruelty online with more cruelty, but instead
tries to understand other’s point of view.
It happens when a church decides that hospitality means more than simply
greeting familiar faces and instead asks who still feels excluded and figures
out how to include them. It happens when
we refuse to dehumanize people with whom we disagree politically or socially, even
when our culture rewards outrage and division.
Love becomes real in the small, persistent decisions of everyday
life.
Jesus then promises something
extraordinary: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another
Advocate.” The Greek word used here for
advocate is Paraclete—one who comes alongside another and can be
translated as Helper, Comforter, Counselor, or Companion. Jesus promises that the disciples will not be
abandoned.
That promise still matters deeply
today because many people are carrying invisible loneliness. We live in one of the most technologically
connected periods in human history, yet many people feel profoundly isolated. We can text instantly, scroll endlessly, and
still wonder whether anyone truly sees us, hears us, understands us.
There are people sitting in pews
every Sunday smiling politely while privately carrying grief, depression,
uncertainty, or fear about the future.
There are young people wondering if they are enough who feel invisible,
misunderstood, and alone. There are
older adults wondering if they still matter; that their lives are still worth
something. There are parents exhausted
from trying to hold everything together.
There are communities frightened by violence, division, economic
insecurity, and the constant barrage of bad news.
And into that reality Jesus says: You
are not abandoned. I will send you a
Helper, a Comforter, a Counselor, a Companion.
That Spirit of God still moves among us.
Not always dramatically. Not
always loudly. Often quietly.
The Advocate or paraclete shows up
in courage we didn’t know we had. The
Advocate or Comforter appears when we embrace compassion that softens our
anger. The Spirit of God or Helper moves
through communities that continue loving even after disappointment and
heartbreak. The Spirit of God or
Counselor whispers hope when cynicism would be easier.
Jesus says, “This is the Spirit of
truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows
him.” This Spirit of truth is the deep
reality of God’s presence breaking into human life. Truth is what exposes fear, hatred, greed,
and injustice for what they are. Truth
is what reminds us that every human being bears the image of God.
And truth can be uncomfortable. We live in a time when truth is given other
names, alternative facts, a political spin.
Truth today often feels negotiable.
Conspiracy theories spread faster than wisdom. Outrage becomes entertainment. Many people no longer ask, “Is this true?”
but instead ask, “Does this support what I already want to believe?” Yet the Spirit continually calls us back to
find a deeper truth—the truth that love is stronger than fear, that mercy
matters more than power, and that human dignity is sacred.
The Spirit also reminds us that
Christianity is not merely about personal spirituality disconnected from the
world around us. The love Jesus commands
is about the community. It has social
consequences. If we love as Jesus loved,
we cannot ignore poverty. If we love as
Jesus loved, we cannot dismiss racism or prejudice. If we love as Jesus loved, we cannot remain
indifferent to refugees, the marginalized, or those society treats as
disposable. If we love as Jesus loved,
then compassion must become more than a slogan.
It must become policy, practice, and presence.
The early church understood
this. They became known not because they
had wealth or political influence, but because of their love for one
another. They cared for widows, they fed
the hungry, they welcomed outsiders, and they crossed social boundaries that
others refused to cross. It was exactly
what Jesus did when he was walking among us.
They embodied Christ.
The Spirit of God, the Companion
transformed ordinary people into communities of radical compassion. I really do believe that this is still the
church’s calling today—not to dominate culture, but to embody a different way
of being human. For it to show in our
everyday lives. For it to pour out into
the world so much that it is radically different than what the rest of the
world offers.
In our gospel reading this morning,
Jesus then says something deeply tender to his disciples: “I will not leave you
orphaned.” Abandonment is one of
humanity’s deepest fears. We fear being
forgotten. We fear being alone. We fear that when suffering comes, no one
will remain beside us. And yet, our
resurrection faith insists that even death itself cannot separate us from the
love and presence of God.
Even while Jesus says all this to
them, he knows that they will fail repeatedly.
Peter will deny Jesus. Judas will
betray him. Others will run away in fear.
Thomas will doubt. Yet Jesus
still entrusts them with the work of love.
That should encourage us because most of us, I’m sure, feel unqualified
for God’s work in our world today.
But the Gospel has never been about
perfect people. It has always been about
imperfect people learning, slowly and imperfectly, how to love more
deeply. God gives the world The Spirit,
the Paraclete, Advocate, Helper, Comforter, Counselor and Companion because God
refuses to give up on humanity. In a
weary world, the Spirit still moves.
Love still matters. Compassion still matters. Truth still matters. Community still matters.
And even when fear tells us
otherwise, we are not alone. Jesus says,
“Because I live, you also will live.”
Not merely survive. Not merely
exist.
Friends, may we become people who
embody the kind of life that Christ envisioned for us, the kind that he
commanded us to live. Christ wanted us
to live a life of abundance with purpose, courage, mercy, and hope for all of
God’s creation.
May we become a community of
compassion where the lonely find belonging, where the wounded discover healing,
and where love becomes visible again.
And may the Spirit of God continue
to come alongside us, guiding us into truth, compassion, and hope for the sake
of the world. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Offertory –
Doxology –
Prayer of Dedication –
Giver
of life and all the gifts of our lives, receive now these tokens of our
appreciation which we set before you as signs of our love and
thanksgiving. We rejoice with thankful
hearts for all your blessings. Help us
to live our lives in service to you as our continuing gift of thanks. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. AMEN.
Closing Hymn – Blessed Assurance Hymn #341/572
3
vs. Blue Hymnal
Benediction –
Friends, may
Christ’s command to love one another find a home in your heart, a gathering
spot in your mind, and a resting place in your soul so that you can fulfill it
in your everyday lives. Go out into the
world to share Christ’s love. AMEN.
Postlude
