Morning Worship

We offer you a warm welcome, and as is our practice, we remember that the land on which we meet is, was, and always will be native land. We acknowledge those indigenous tribes to Oklahoma: the Wichitas, Caddos, Plains Apaches, and the Quapaws, as the original custodians of the land in this place. We grieve the violence done to native language, culture, and personhood, and seek to honor the sovereignty and dignity of native peoples.

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Longing for Light, We Wait in Darkness
Bernadette Farrell arr. Mark Hayes
Glenda Stansbury

One: Let us begin the third Sunday in Lent with a prayer for illumination:

All:

One: Good morning and welcome from Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ, where no matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey . . .  

All: You are welcome here!

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Teach Me, O Lord, Your Holy Way, Hymn 465
New Century Hymnal

[Please rise in body or in spirit.]

One: "May the peace of Christ be with you."
All: "And also with you!"

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Type your new text here.

And now, as a beloved community, we pray as Jesus taught the disciples:

All: Our Creator, who is in heaven, holy is your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For you reign in the power that is love, now and always, Amen.

One: God wouldn't bring you this far to leave you. God wouldn't bring you this far to let you go.
God wouldn't bring you this far to leave you. No height, nor depth, nor anything else can separate us from the love that God will show.

All: God wouldn't bring you this far to leave you. God wouldn't bring you this far to let you go.
God wouldn't bring you this far to leave you. No height, nor depth, nor anything else can separate us from the love that God will show.

[excerpt from God Wouldn't Bring You This Far to Leave You by Tom Trenney]

And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things. When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.” But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?” And he said to them, “How many loaves have you? Go and see.” When they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples to set before the people, and he divided the two fish among them all. And all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.

Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis

The Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis is a theologian, pastor, author, and anti-poverty activist. She is the Director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice and Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. Rev. Dr. Theoharis has been organizing in poor and low-income communities for the past 30 years. Her books include: You Only Get What You’re Organized to Take: Lessons from the Movement to End Poverty (Beacon, 2025), We Pray Freedom: Liturgies and Rituals from the Freedom Church of the Poor (Broadleaf Press, 2025) and Always with Us?: What Jesus Really Said about the Poor (Eerdmans, 2017) and she has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Politico, Sojourners and elsewhere. Rev. Dr. Theoharis is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and teaches at Union Theological Seminary. She has been awarded the Freedom Award from the National Civil Rights Museum, the Selma Bridge Award, the Women of Spirit Award from the Presbyterian Church (USA) and many others.

O for a World, Hymn 575
New Century Hymnal

[Please rise in body or in spirit.]

When you meet anger, speak with love.
When you meet fear, speak with hope.
When you meet pain, speak with gentleness.

The good news is alive in the world, as long as we embody it,
so go in peace, pray for peace, wage a little peace, and love one another . . .

All: Every single other.

What Does the Lord Require?
Jim Strathdee

Part 1: What does the Lord require of you? What does the Lord require of you?

Part 2: Justice, kindness, walk humbly with your God. Justice, kindness, walk humbly with your God.

Part 3: To do justice, and love kindness and walk humbly with your God. To do justice, and love kindness and walk humbly with your God.

[Sung in a round, Part 1 begins the response, joined the second time by Part 2, then by Part 3, and then a fourth time through. For those in-person, it is our tradition for the congregation to stand and turn towards the center aisle during the benediction response so that we might "send each other forth" to embody what we sing.]