METROPOLITAN INTERDENOMINATIONAL CHURCH CELEBRATING 35 YEARS OF UNCONDITIONAL LOVE FOUNDERS DAY. SUNDAY, February 28, 2016 THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT

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1 METROPOLITAN INTERDENOMINATIONAL CHURCH CELEBRATING 35 YEARS OF UNCONDITIONAL LOVE FOUNDERS DAY SUNDAY, February 28, 2016 THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT PREPARATION The Pastor s entrance and the beginning of the musical prelude are the calls to silent, personal preparation for the worship of God. THE GATHERING We are standing on Holy ground, And I know that there are angels all around. Let us praise Jesus now, We are standing in God s presence on Holy ground. LITANY The City Leader: O God, the City, for people to live and to know one another. People: Help us to love the City. Leader: O God, who was laid off last week and can t pay the rent nor feed the kids. People: Help us to be with you. Leader: O God, who hangs on street corners, who tastes the grace of cheap wine and the sting of the needle. Leader: O God, who is pregnant without partner, who is child without parent, who has no place to play. Leader: O God, who can t read nor write, who is on welfare and who is treated like garbage. Leader: O God, who lives and no one knows their name and who thinks that they are nobody. Leader: O God, who is cold in the slums of winter, and whose playmates are rats. Leader: O God, who is chased by the cops, who sits in jail for seven months with no charges brought, waiting for the Grand Jury, and no money for bail. Leader: O God, who is old and lives on forty dollars a month in one crummy room and can t go outside. Leader: O God, who lives in the projects of federal, state, and city indifference. People: Help us to see you. Leader: O God, who is fifteen and in the sixth grade. People: Leader: Help us to touch you. O God, who works all day, who feeds and cares for her children at night and dreams of better days, and is alone. Continued

2 Leader: O God, whose toys are broken bottles, tin cans, whose play yard is garbage and debris, and whose house is the floors of the condemned buildings. Leader: O God, who holds tight the hem of her mother s dress, whose eyes are empty, whose tears are large and whose face is dirty. Leader: O God, who is HIV-positive and consumed by fear. Leader: O God, who is uneducated, unskilled, unwanted and unemployed. Leader: O God, who is all people. ALL: Help us to love you. From a litany written by Father Robert Castle, Episcopal Church, Jersey City, New Jersey SONG OF LIBERATION LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING Lift every voice and sing, til earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of liberty; Let our rejoicing rise, high as the list ning skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us; Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on till victory is won. Stony the road we trod, bitter the chast ning rod, Felt in the days when hope unborn had died; Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet come to the place for which our fathers sighed? We have come over the way that with tears has been watered, We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered, Out of the gloomy past, til now we stand at last, Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast. God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way; Thou who hast by Thy might led us into the light, Keep us forever in the path, we pray. Lest our feet stray from the places our God where we met Thee, Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee; Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand, True to our God, true to our native land. WELCOME Visitors standing If you are here for the first time, we are delighted that you came. If you are dropping in for a second or third visit, we are glad you found something you were looking for. We hope you will be challenged by our worship and that you will come back again. If you are looking for a faith community, we would welcome you as a part of our church family. When you are officially welcomed as a visitor, you will receive a Visitor s Information Card. Please fill it out, and return it to the Pastor, or place it in the offering plate. WELCOME! CONCERNS OF CHURCH AND CITY D. Billye Sanders Your tithes and gifts help us: Pay the mortgage, utilities, maintenance, and security for the Metropolitan Meeting House; Provide free pastoral counseling (spiritual, marital, grief) services to members of our congregation; Fund the programs of the First Response Center, serving >700 people living with HIV/AIDS, and others at-risk; Pay for the personnel and operating costs of our ministries; Provide educational materials to assist in the spiritual growth & development of our community; Maintain meeting space for ministries, including Girl Scouts, various groups, and community events; Fund our annual Anniversary and Homecoming celebrations; Provide emergency assistance to members of the congregation and community through our benevolence fund. Every gift of your time, talent and treasure makes a vital difference in the life and ministries of Metropolitan Interdenominational Church. Thank you.

3 RECOGNITION OF FOUNDERS CELEBRATION IN DANCE The Metropolitan Praise Dancers Alexis Marks, Choreographer OFFERTORY For all things come from You, and of Your own we have given You. 1 Chronicles 29:14 DOXOLOGY Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise God all creatures here below Praise God above ye heavenly host: Creator, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen. PROCLAMATION THE WORD Luke 13:1-9 CHORAL RESPONSE Harry Emerson Fosdick Grant us wisdom, Grant us courage, For the living of these days, For the living of these days. PREPARATORY PERIOD THE MESSAGE THE SENIOR SERVANT THE GOD OF ANOTHER CHANCE 1 At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 He asked them, Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. 4 Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did. 6 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. 7 So he said to the gardener, See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and I still find none. Cut it down! Why should we be wasting the soil? 8 He replied, Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down. Luke 13:1-9 SERMON NOTES

4 RESPONSE Please do not leave the sanctuary or in any other manner create a distraction during the invitational period. This is a moment of unparalleled importance. MOMENTS OF REFLECTION Voices of Metropolitan INVITATION TO LIFE IN CHRIST This church will welcome into its membership any persons who love and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and who promise to live according to His Laws of Love, recognizing all people as brothers and sisters for whom He gave His life. THE LORD S SUPPER Communion Prayer We do not presume to come to this, Thy table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in Thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs from under Thy table. But Thou art the same Lord whose property is always to have mercy. Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, so to partake of this sacrament of Thy Son, Jesus Christ, that we may walk in newness of life and grow to reflect Thy Spirit in all things forevermore. Amen. (We will eat and drink together after all have been served.) FELLOWSHIP CIRCLE We ve come too far to turn back now; By the grace of God we re gonna make it somehow. Nobody knows the trouble we ve seen; We ve come too far to turn back now. THE INNER NEED FOR LOVE There is a direct continuity between the need to be loved, to be deeply cared for, and the heart, the very pulse beat of the individual s experience of God in the religious encounter. Here the individual is laid bare, stripped of all façade what I am in and of myself is finally dealt with. The person has a sense of being touched at their deepest center, at their very core, and all other experiences of love are but imitations of this great experience. All other experiences of love at other levels are what may be regarded as readying experiences for the great and tremendous experience which is the significant element in the religious experience itself. This is the essence of the meaning of the love of God. In the presence of God, at last, a person is relieved of all necessity for pretending. They can stand clean in the sense of being undisguised and utterly without shame. This does not mean that limitations are overlooked, that sins are no longer sins, but it does mean that anything less than the very core of one s being is not quite relevant. To be touched there is to be placed in a position to have one s life thoroughly examined, thoroughly explored, but from the center, the ultimate point of reference within the individual. There is nothing that cannot be dealt with here. There is nothing that cannot be handled or encompassed from this point of leverage. There is nothing that cannot be understood, placed in this perspective of the event and the logic of one s own life. What happens here truly happens. The religious experience carries with it the judgment that this encounter with God is completely exhaustive and all-comprehending. HOWARD THURMAN METROPOLITAN INTERDENOMINATIONAL CHURCH th Avenue North, Nashville, TN 37208; Mailing Address: P.O. Box , Nashville, TN Phone: (615) 72METRO ( ) Fax: (615) website: Rev. Edwin C. Sanders, II, The Senior Servant Pastoral Staff: Rev. John Cross, Rev. Marcella Lockhart, Rev. Clifford Smith, Rev. Christopher Davis, Rev. Terry Terrell, Rev. Mary Jo Smiley, Rev. Regina McCrary, Rev. Neely Williams, Rev. Stephanie Thompson, Rev. Cherie Booker, Rev. Christopher Goodwin

5 UPCOMING EVENTS MIDWEEK FELLOWSHIP: Wednesday, March 2, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. Dinner by Circle 5; Bible Study 7:00 8:00, Classes for Adults and Children Financial Freedom/Entrepreneurship Seminar Series meets Saturday mornings 9:00 11:00 at the First Response Center, th Avenue North, Nashville Call: Sunday, February 28, 2016 Founders Day Brunch In March, THE WEEK OF PRAYER FOR THE HEALING OF AIDS begins Saturday, March 5, 2016 with PRAYING THROUGH THE NIGHT. Ecclesiastical Council Meeting Saturday, April 2, :30 4:30 p.m. REACH 2020 Nashville Mobile Market: Fresh Fruit & Vegetables Fridays, 9:00 10:30 a.m. at MetroCenter Teachers Apartments (Teachers Tower) Friday evening Dancercise, 7 pm // Voices of Metropolitan Rehearsal, Saturday, 12 2 pm Saturday Evening Worship, 6 7 pm Photo Directories have arrived! One free for each family photo, then $10.00 each. United Way Employee Giving Campaign: Designate #3255 to support the First Response Center. For the Combined Federal Campaign, Write In Metropolitan Interdenominational Church First Response Center. Support Metropolitan while you shop. (1) Register your Kroger Plus card online and select Metropolitan as the organization you wish to support. Go to Koger.com/communityrewards or call option 3. Renew registration annually, in August. (2) Register at Smile.Amazon.com, select Metropolitan FRC as the charity you support, then always shop through Smile.Amazon; 0.5% of the proceeds will support the work of the FRC. ~ Giving Summary ~ Date Offering - Budgeted Offering - Actual Offering (Un)Realized Summary (Un)Realized January, 2016 $ 28, $ 21, ($ 7,182.00) February 7, 2016 $ 5, $ 4, ($ ) February 14, 2016 $ 5, $ 3, ($ 1,912.88) February 21, 2016 $ 5, $ 6, $ 1, February, 2016 $ 17, $ 15, ($ 1,643.00) 2016 Year to Date $ 46, $ 37, ($ 8,825.00) ($ 8,825.00) SICK, SHUT IN, and RECOVERING MEMBERS Leon McKinley Corder 1902 Elliott Avenue; Nashville, TN Send prayers, not visitors, please. Ella Louise Gant 908 Cannon Street; Nashville, TN Lynda Hodgers P.O. Box 54; Guys, TN Evelyn Martin 3253 Spears Road; Nashville, TN Connie Ryans 1703 Pecan Street; Nashville, TN Rev. Mary Jo Smiley Rm #200, Creekside Rehab. Center, 306 West Due West Ave, Madison TN Ernestine Williams 2712 Vista Lane; Nashville, TN Mary Grace Williams 293 Becklea Drive; Madison, TN Emmilye Wilson-Walton P.O. Box 78795; Nashville, TN

6 METROPOLITAN INTERDENOMINATIONAL CHURCH CELEBRATING 35 YEARS OF UNCONDITIONAL LOVE Sunday, February 28, THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT FOUNDERS DAY Metropolitan Interdenominational Church is a community of believers inclusive of all and alienating to none, leading the way to spiritual growth by sharing God s love with the world. INTERVENTIONS INTERVENTIONS have proven to be an important strategy in halting, forestalling and preventing people from continuing down paths of destruction in life. Whether the impending disaster is selfinduced or externally inflicted, the only thing that matters at the moment is that the situation is not allowed to advance any further. The death sentence imposed upon the fig tree by the owner of the vineyard in Jesus parable in Luke 13:6-9 results in a reprieve when the gardener intervenes and insists that all measures have not been exhausted to get the tree to bear fruit. INTERVENTIONS like the one reflected in this story are essential in everyday life if we are ever going to be successful in reversing the patterns of destruction that are evident all around us. Our friends, neighbors, coworkers and children who are caught up in the ravages of self-destructive behavior all need INTERVENTIONS. Our politicians, business leaders and the powerful in our communities need INTERVENTIONS to help them move beyond their greed-driven desire to dominate and control. Our families who have bought into archaic models of male gender superiority need INTERVENTIONS to create home environments of equality, peace and justice. Our clergy and faith leaders need INTERVENTIONS to move away from our obsession with prosperity theology and putting down of any of God s children because of our -ism s and phobias related to some aspect of any individual s personhood. INTERVENTIONS are in order whenever we find ourselves out of order with regard to the mandate to care for, nurture and protect all of God s creation. We all need to rejoice in the awareness that our Lord and Savior is acting on our behalf to make INTERVENTIONS. (reprinted from Sunday, March 7, 2010) -Senior Servant MIDWEEK FELLOWSHIP MEAL SCHEDULE March 9 Circle 6 March 30 Circle 2 March 16 Circle 7 April 6 Circle 3 March 23 Circle 1 April 13 Circle 4 BIBLE READINGS Read Pray Sacrifice Fourth Sunday in Lent February 29-March 6, 2016 Joshua 5:9-12 Psalm 32 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32