Date: August 8, 2021, Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost.
Theme: Hunger and Thirst for Divine Connections.

Order of Worship:
Welcoming from Rev. Susan Bresser.
Prelude: This Is a Day of New Beginnings.
Music: Carlton R. Young: arr. Carpenter
Tower Bells and John Sheaffer, organ
Opening Prayer: offered by Rev. Greta Hietpas.
Opening Hymn: Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.
Words: Robert Robinson
Music: Wyeth’s Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second
Arranged: Carpenter

Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
mount of thy redeeming love.

Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I'm come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here's my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.
Time of Prayer (with Lord’s Prayer): offered by Rev. Greta Hietpas.
Organ interlude - “Thy Word.”
Scripture reading; John 6:35, 41-51 (from The Message)
The Gospel of Jesus Christ, according to John, offered by Andrew Mills.

John 6:35, 41-51 (from The Message)
Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life. The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever.”
At this, because he said, “I am the Bread that came down from heaven,” the Jews started arguing over him: “Isn’t this the son of Joseph? Don’t we know his father? Don’t we know his mother? How can he now say, ‘I came down out of heaven’ and expect anyone to believe him?”
Jesus said, “Don’t bicker among yourselves over me. You’re not in charge here. The Father who sent me is in charge. He draws people to me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come. Only then do I do my work, putting people together, setting them on their feet, ready for the End. This is what the prophets meant when they wrote, ‘And then they will all be personally taught by God.’ Anyone who has spent any time at all listening to the Father, really listening and therefore learning, comes to me to be taught personally—to see it with his own eyes, hear it with his own ears, from me, since I have it firsthand from the Father. No one has seen the Father except the One who has his Being alongside the Father—and you can see me.
“I’m telling you the most solemn and sober truth now: Whoever believes in me has real life, eternal life. I am the Bread of Life. Your ancestors ate the manna bread in the desert and died. But now here is Bread that truly comes down out of heaven. Anyone eating this Bread will not die, ever. I am the Bread—living Bread!—who came down out of heaven. Anyone who eats this Bread will live—and forever! The Bread that I present to the world so that it can eat and live is myself, this flesh-and-blood self.”
Message: “Putting People Together” offered by Rev. Susan Bresser
Contemplative Music (A Time to Reflect and Commit.)
Ministry Moment: offered by Rev. Greta Hietpas.
Closing Hymn: Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah UMH 127.

We will SING this as a congregation - with masks - “stand as you are able”:
WORDS: William Williams: trans. From the Welsh by Peter and William Williams
MUSIC: John Hughes

Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,
pilgrim through this barren land.
I am weak, but thou art mighty;
hold me with thy powerful hand.
Bread of heaven, bread of heaven,
feed me till I want no more;
feed me till I want no more.

Open now the crystal fountain,
whence the healing stream doth flow;
let the fire and cloudy pillar
lead me all my journey through.
Strong deliverer, strong deliverer,
be thou still my strength and shield;
be thou still my strength and shield.

When I tread the verge of Jordan,
bid my anxious fears subside;
death of death and hell's destruction,
land me safe on Canaan's side.
Songs of praises, songs of praises,
I will ever give to thee;
I will ever give to thee.
Benediction: offered by Rev. Susan Bresser.
Postlude: Toccata on "Come Thou Fount" by Albert Travis, offered by John Sheaffer, pipe organ.
Prepare for worship next Sunday by reading John 6:51-58
Flowers Donated by: In memory of Sue Petry by her family.