Home Worship for the week of April 12 – 2nd Sunday after Easter
Morning Prayer: Loving God, who surrounds us with grace, help us know Your presence and receive Your guidance today, that through our gathered worship, we might continue to build up the Body of Christ as we grow in maturity as disciples of Jesus Christ. Amen. (Discipleship Ministries)
Opening Hymn: #600 Wonderful Words of Life
- Sing them over again to me, wonderful words of life; Let me more of their beauty see, wonderful words of life. Words of life and beauty teach me faith and duty.
Refrain: Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life.
Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life.
- Christ, the blessed one, gives to all, wonderful words of life; Sinner, list to the loving call, wonderful words of life. All so freely giving, wooing us to heaven. Refrain:
- Sweetly echo the gospel call, wonderful words of life; Offer pardon and peace to all, wonderful words of life; Jesus, only Savior sanctify forever. Refrain:
Psalm 119:1-8
119 Those whose way is blameless—
who walk in the Lord’s Instruction—are truly happy!
2 Those who guard God’s laws are truly happy!
They seek God with all their hearts.
3 They don’t even do anything wrong!
They walk in God’s ways.
4 God, You have ordered that Your decrees
should be kept most carefully.
5 How I wish my ways were strong
when it comes to keeping Your statutes!
6 Then I wouldn’t be ashamed
when I examine all Your commandments.
7 I will give thanks to You with a heart that does right
as I learn Your righteous rules.
8 I will keep Your statutes.
Please don’t leave me all alone!
Prayers of Intercession: (CORE prayers, adapted) Lord, We ask for hearts that remain loyal even when the path becomes demanding. Help us not follow You out of convenience, but from conviction. Strengthen us to choose discipline over ease, purpose over comfort, and obedience over excuses. Let our daily decisions reflect deep commitment. Teach us to deny ourselves when necessary so that Christ may be fully formed in us. Surround us with the wisdom and courage needed to keep walking faithfully. May our devotion grow stronger each day, regardless of circumstances. Let our lives be testaments to steadfast discipleship—rooted in love, strengthened by grace, and guided by the Holy Spirit.
Merciful God, we lift up those in our church who are suffering in body, mind, or spirit. Surround them with Your healing presence and bring comfort to their hearts. May they find peace in Your promises and strength in Your love as they navigate these difficult times. Grant them Your mercy and grace. You promised to be near the broken hearted, the grieving, and the oppressed. Use us to be instruments of Your healing and presence.
Gracious God, we lift up the leaders of nations before You today. Grant them wisdom that comes from Your Spirit so they may lead their people in righteousness and peace. Remove pride, greed, and selfish ambition from their hearts. Help them make decisions that protect life and promote unity among nations. Surround them with counselors who seek truth and justice. May every leader remember that true authority comes from You. Guide them to choose peace over conflict and cooperation over division.
In this Easter season, You have called us to be people of the resurrection. Enable us to share this new life with those around us. Keep us focused on the great love You have shown us, so others may know the love of Jesus Christ, and it is in Jesus, we all learned to pray by 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, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us, not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Offering spotlight: The United Methodist Church honors and supports Indigenous peoples and communities. Today is a day to recognize the rich gifts, cultures, and contributions of Native Americans to both society and the Church. There are offering envelopes at the rear providing the opportunity to financially support programs and ministry initiatives and scholarships right here in the Susquehanna Conference.
Offering prayer: Calling Christ, You invite us away from the shallows into deep water, where trust replaces certainty, and obedience becomes joy. As we offer these gifts, we remember that discipleship is more than surface faith; it is a willingness to follow you into risk, truth, and love. Take what we bring and shape it for Your purposes: to mend nets, to speak truth with compassion, and to build a community that grows into Your likeness. Be with us in the boat and on the journey, as we learn, stumble, and grow. Use these offerings to draw others into the deep, life giving grace of Your kingdom. Amen. (Discipleship Ministries)
Hymn of Preparation: #399 Take My Life and Let It Be Consecrated
- Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days; Let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.
- Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect, and use every power as Thou shalt choose.
- Take my will, and make it Thine; it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure-store.
Take myself and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.
Message Scripture: Ephesians 4:11-16
11 He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. 12 His purpose was to equip God’s people for the work of serving and building up the body of Christ 13 until we all reach the unity of faith and knowledge of God’s Son. God’s goal is for us to become mature adults—to be fully grown, measured by the standard of the fullness of Christ. 14 As a result, we aren’t supposed to be infants any longer who can be tossed and blown around by every wind that comes from teaching with deceitful scheming and the tricks people play to deliberately mislead others. 15 Instead, by speaking the truth with love, let’s grow in every way into Christ, 16 who is the head. The whole body grows from Him, as it is joined and held together by all the supporting ligaments. The body makes itself grow in that it builds itself up with love as each one does its part.
Message Scripture: Luke 5:1-11
5 One day Jesus was standing beside Lake Gennesaret when the crowd pressed in around Him to hear God’s word. 2 Jesus saw two boats sitting by the lake. The fishermen had gone ashore and were washing their nets. 3 Jesus boarded one of the boats, the one that belonged to Simon, then asked him to row out a little distance from the shore. Jesus sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4 When He finished speaking to the crowds, He said to Simon, “Row out farther, into the deep water, and drop your nets for a catch.”
5 Simon replied, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and caught nothing. But because You say so, I’ll drop the nets.”
6 So they dropped the nets and their catch was so huge that their nets were splitting. 7 They signaled for their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They filled both boats so full that they were about to sink. 8 When Simon Peter saw the catch, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Leave me, Lord, for I’m a sinner!” 9 Peter and those with him were overcome with amazement because of the number of fish they caught. 10 James and John, Zebedee’s sons, were Simon’s partners and they were amazed too.
Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid. From now on, you will be fishing for people.” 11 As soon as they brought the boats to the shore, they left everything and followed Jesus.
Message: Pastor Becky
In May 2025, the bishops of the United Methodist Church released a vision statement designed to help the church live into the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. They built this statement around the themes of loving, serving, and leading. The invitation comes, however, not simply through the words, but in the way they are described. We are not just called to love, but to love boldly. We don’t just hear a call to serve, but to serve joyfully. And we aren’t seeking those who will just lead, but those who will lead courageously. The adverbs add a spark to the statement:
The United Methodist Church forms disciples of Jesus Christ who, empowered by the Holy Spirit, love boldly, serve joyfully, and lead courageously in local communities and worldwide connections.
Over the coming weeks together, we will be diving into this vision statement as a congregation and as a denomination. Churches locally and around the world will be working with the same scriptures, preaching notes* and adding context from our places. This is a journey toward Miracle Sunday – May 17th – when we will take up a special collection for the theological education of our brothers and sisters who are studying outside the United States. We will get to hear some of their testimonies as well. Our goal, here and everywhere is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world and the vision is how those same disciples will carry out this transformation: with love, service and courage.
“Put out into the deep water…” (Luke 5:4 NRSV) That’s the introduction into discipleship that Jesus issues to Simon. Let’s go deep. To be a disciple of Jesus Christ is to not be satisfied with the surface, with the shallows. It is to acknowledge that a faith that isn’t willing or able to dive into the deep issues, the deep problems, the deep situations of living in a complicated world, isn’t the faith that Jesus calls us to embrace.
Paul strikes a similar note in our text from Ephesians: “We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine…” (Ephesians 4:14 NRSV) From there he goes into even deeper waters as he encourages Jesus’ followers to speak the truth in love. Which is both risky and involved. Speaking the truth in a truth-adverse world is dangerous in so many ways. But speaking truth in love means that we have to be invested in the hearer as much as in the truth we speak. Or that we speak truth to bring reconciliation and not condemnation. We speak truth to bring healing and not to further wound. And the truth we speak is not our truth, but from the one who is the truth and the life.
That’s the joy of being a disciple. From the beginning we are not alone. We are not left to make our way into the deep water of our lives or the lives of those around us on our own. The Christ who calls us goes with us. He is there in the boat. He is there when the nets are cast, and when the truth is told. And we live into that truth, into the presence.
Christ is the head, says Paul in Ephesians, and we are growing into that head, into His likeness. We are obedient to that truth, to that law of living, not because it is a law, but because it is Him. This is tricky, we must admit.
The law the psalmist celebrates, the source of our ultimate joy, is not some codified text of laws and statutes, but is the Christ we follow in ways we can understand and follow day by day.
We incarnate, bring to being, the Christ when we follow the law, when we align our lives with His life, when we are obedient to the vision of who He was and who He is. We incarnate the kingdom that He described. We incarnate the kingdom when we live together in relationship with Christ and with one another as we grow into the head that is Jesus the Christ.
We grow. That’s an important truth that is revealed in the text. We grow, we are in process, even as we speak the truth in love. Even as we walk in His ways—and stumble now and then—because we are growing into the head, into what Christ calls us to be and to do. We don’t wait for completion before we speak. We don’t wait until we’ve got it perfectly, until we understand it all. We go and we do. We love and we serve and we lead, even as we are growing.
There are, of course, many ways of being a disciple. The Ephesians text lists some of them, the roles of the follower. It is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but examples of leadership. And a reminder that these roles are for building up. We need leaders to create community, to invite and include and inspire all the saints—all the disciples on the path, growing into the head that is Jesus the Christ.
And to do it all with joy. The joy the psalmist speaks of is more than simple obedience to the vision of the life of a disciple. It is in the living it out. It is in the doing and being. It is in the community with whom we do and be. We may learn by going through the motions. By imitating, by following a pattern or a practice.
But there is more to being a disciple than going through the motions. There is something deeper, something riskier, something more satisfying, to the discipleship path. And that is passion. Or as we’re calling it, it is an adverbial faith. But more on that next week. For now, with the psalmist, we celebrate the gift of following the one who calls us into discipleship. We acknowledge that we are still growing, yet we are called to speak the truth in love and invite others to join us on the discipleship journey.
*preaching notes compiled by Rev. Dr. Derek Weber, Director of Preaching Ministries, served churches in Indiana, Arkansas, and the British Methodist Church. His PhD in preaching and media is from the University of Edinburgh. He has taught preaching in seminary and conference settings for more than twenty years.
Closing Hymn: #593 Here I Am, Lord
- I, the Lord of sea and sky, I have heard My people cry.
All who dwell in dark and sin My hand will save.
I, who made the stars of night, I will make their darkness bright.
Who will bear my light to them? Whom shall I send?
Refrain: Here I am, Lord. Is it I Lord? I have heard You calling in the night.
I will go, Lord, if You lead me. I will hold Your people in my heart.
- I, the Lord of snow and rain, I have borne my people’s pain.
I have wept for love of them. They turn away.
I will break their hearts of stone, give them hearts for love alone.
I will speak My word to them. Whom shall I send? Refrain:
- I, the Lord of wind and flame, I will tend the poor and lame,
I will set a feast for them. My hand will save.
Finest bread I will provide till their hearts be satisfied.
I will give My life to them. Whom shall I send? Refrain:
The blessing: May the Lord bless you as you repent of sins and make Lenten sacrifices.
Go Now in Peace: Go now in peace. Never be afraid. God will go with you each hour of ev’ry day. Go now in faith, steadfast strong and true. Know He will guide you in all you do. Go now in love and show you believe. Reach out to others, so all the world can see. God will be there, watching from above. Go now in peace, in faith, and in love.
