Worship Connection for March 13, 2022

Good morning!  This page is intended to both serve as a continuing worship option for those participating in our worship service from home, and to serve in place of print resources during our in-person worship.  Following the worship service on Sunday, one or more video recordings from the service will be placed on this page, including the sermon.  This may take several hours, due to the time needed to process the videos.  We will email the congregation when the recordings have been posted.  If you would like to be added to our congregational email list, please contact pvcob.alive@gmail.com.

Contemporary Service

Traditional Service

• Thank you to the youth that washed the windows at Karis. It was much appreciated!

• Kids Connect – March 18 – Connect and reconnect with friends and other families with a simple meal, activities and time for adults to enjoy discussion with others their own age!  

• On March 19 we will be gathering with area youth (grades 6-12) to be encouraging our health workers, specifically those at Sentara RMH. More information will be coming out soon.

• The Women’s Retreat at Brethren Woods is March 25-26. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Emily Ashby.

• Our annual Easter Egg Hunt will be held Saturday, April 2nd at 10 am. Open to youth and children 5th grade and under. We are kindly requesting candy donations for the eggs by March 20th. See Debbie May for more info. 

• Backpack Pals are accepting donations of Pudding Cups and Ramen Noodles! Pudding cups are especially needed. Please leave any donations in the blue bin located in the Narthex.  Thank you!

• You are cordially invited to attend the Big Thank You Dinner being sponsored by the District Leadership Team! The event will take place here at 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 26.  If you are interested in learning more about our District’s Disaster Ministry, or would like to know more about being a volunteer, please contact 

  Brenda Diehl at brendadiehl@shencob.org or call 540-514-1343 to register.

Luke 13:6-9 NRSV

Then he told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, “See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?” He replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig round it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.” ’

Confession

Holy God,
Your goodness extends through all of creation.

But we are often too preoccupied, too fearful, too focussed to notice it

We judge our neighbors
and condemn ourselves
and leave too little room for hope and celebration.

We plan for tomorrow until today is past.
We ignore the hungry, to save food for tomorrow.
We starve our souls, thinking we control eternity.

Remind us, O God,
that you lead us on the good path,
that you are our salvation,
that in your way, we will find what our hearts are longing for.

Deliver us into your new life;
the life that knows we walk this world with you;
that you are our beginning and end;
and that you are inviting us to new life today.

Open our hearts and lives to you, now. Amen.

Assurance of God’s Grace

In Isaiah 30 we hear God’s response for those who will trust in him. He speaks a promise to the people of Jerusalem, even as the armies of Assyria loom over them. The people have been led astray by evil kings, and God has brought the Assyrians to destroy the corruptions that have taken place, but also to begin to set a track for a new deliverance for his people. The people are frantic, ready to take any recourse, but God urges them to be at peace and trust in him. The following words are selections from Isaiah 30:

For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel:
In returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you;
therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for him.
Truly, O people in Zion, inhabitants of Jerusalem, you shall weep no more.
Your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher.
When you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’
He will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous.
On every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water
The Lord will bind up the injuries of his people, and heal the wounds inflicted.