First Presbyterian Church of Weedsport
Sept. 21, 2025
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Rev. Brian Copeland
WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS Liturgist
POSTLUDE Liturgist
OPENING SENTENCES (Responsive) Liturgist
Remember, O people, the needs of the poor and the suffering of the downtrodden, and hold to account all who are in high positions,
for God our Savior desires everyone to know the truth that they are loved.
God will raise the poor from the dust and make them sit with princes.
So let us offer supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings for everyone,
for the Lord is high above all nations, yet nothing is below God’s notice.
There is one God; and in Christ Jesus one mediator between God and humankind,
who gave himself a ransom for all. Praise the Lord!
HYMN: Where Charity and Love Prevail (Insert)
CONFESSION AND PARDON (Responsive) Liturgist
Jesus Christ gave himself as a ransom for all who fall short of the goodness of God.
Trusting in God’s mercy, let us turn to God and make our confession.
Holy God, we confess that we are too concerned with our own peace. We seek the comfort of silence and ignore the cries of the oppressed. We are inwardly focused,
missing your call to serve the world in justice and love. Forgive us, O God. Equip us to fulfill your will for a world in which all know dignity, and all are treated with equity, as your beloved children.
SILENT PRAYERS OF CONFESSION MAY BE OFFERED
God our Judge is also our Savior. The good news is sure: in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven.
SPECIAL MUSIC
CHILDREN’S TIME (Children may leave to go to Sunday School after the Children’s Time.)
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION (Unison)
Faithful God, how blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Sanctify us by your Word and Spirit so that we may glorify you in the company of the faithful; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
FIRST SCRIPTURE READING: Psalm 79:1-9 Liturgist
SECOND SCRIPTURE READING: Jeremiah 8:18-9:1 Rev. Brian Copeland
The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
SERMON Rev. Brian Copeland
HYMN #358 Help Us Accept Each Other
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH Adapted from the Confession of 1967, 9.32–33
The life, death, resurrection, and promised coming of Jesus Christ has set the pattern for the church’s mission. His human life involves the church in the common life of all people. His service to men and women commits the church to work for every form of human well-being. His suffering makes the church sensitive to all human suffering
so that it sees the face of Christ in the faces of persons in every kind of need. His
crucifixion discloses to the church God’s judgment on the inhumanity that marks human relations, and the awful consequences of the church’s own complicity in injustice. In the power of the risen Christ and the hope of his coming, the church sees the promise of God’s renewal of human life in society and of God’s victory over all wrong. The church follows this pattern in the form of its life and in the method of its action. So to live and serve is to confess Christ as Lord.
JOYS AND CONCERNS
PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION AND THE LORD’S PRAYER
Trusting in the power of God to deliver us, let us make our prayers of intercession for all,
saying: God our Savior, hear our prayer.
INVITATION TO THE OFFERING (Offering plates are not passed. Offering plates are on the front and back tables.)
PRAYER OF DEDICATION (Unison)
We give you thanks and praise, O God, for you have chosen the poverty of the world to make your people rich in faith. Help us to put our faith into practice through the offering of our lives— giving food to the hungry, clothes to the naked, and shelter to the poor; all for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord, your Word made flesh. Ame
HYMN: Lord Make Us More Holy (Insert)
BLESSING AND CHARGE
POSTLUDE
*Large print bulletins are available. Please ask the greeter.
Reminders:
Sept. 25 – Doug’s to Go here to benefit the Weedsport Good Samaritan Fund.
Oct. 22 – Doug’s to Go here to benefit the Lion’s Club
