Even though these past months have changed your way of learning and seemingly made things so different, we, as your church family are always here for you! So, for all of our members and member's children and grandchildren who are graduating from Elementary, Middle, High School, College, or Graduate School we congratulate you on your accomplishment. We pray that you will find your wings... Mark Harris captures the spirit and presents this message to you...

It's only for a moment you are mine to hold
The plans that heaven has for you
Will all too soon unfold
So many different prayers I'll pray
For all that you might do
But most of all I'll want to know
You're walking in the truth
And if I never told you, I want you to know
That as I watch you grow
I pray that God would fill your heart with dreams
And that faith gives you the courage
To dare to do great things
I'm here for you whatever this life brings
So let my love give you roots
And help you find your wings
May passion be the wind
That leads you through your days
And may conviction keep you strong
Guide you on your way
May there be many moments
That make your life so sweet
Oh, but more than memories
I pray that God would fill your heart with dreams
And that faith gives you the courage
To dare to do great things
I'm here for you whatever this life brings
So let my love give you roots
And help you find your wings
It's not living if you don't reach for the sky
I'll have tears as you take off
But I'll cheer as you fly
I pray that God would fill your heart with dreams
And that faith gives you the courage
To dare to do great things
I'm here for you whatever this life brings
So let my love give you roots
And help you find your wings

PENTECOST SUNDAY

St. Johannes Lutheran Church
May 31, 2020

Kyrie eleison, on our world and on our way. Kyrie eleison, every day!

from Setting 4 of the Lutheran Liturgy

Pentecost

WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Welcome to this St. Johannes Lutheran Church celebration of the Festival of Pentecost coming to you via video streaming from Facebook or Our Website!

We are so glad you are joining us for this special service and if you are not already a member of St. Johannes we invite you to join us for worship in our beautiful sanctuary at 48 Hasell Street in Charleston, South Carolina once we allowed to gather again for Sunday Services.

I am Pastor Rich Donoughue, and am currently serving as the interim pastor for St. Johannes. Please feel free to call the church office if you have any pastoral needs. Our Parish Administrator, Amy Biafano, is back working in the office.

I am leading the video version of our service today from the Sanctuary at St. Johannes. The video version is available by logging onto our website and choosing "Services." (www.stjohanneschurch.org). Then select Pentecost where you will be treated to wonderful music by our amazingly talented organist-Sean Holleran. This week we welcome Chuck Long and "guests" reading our lessons.

Mozart Veni, Sanctus Spiritus

☩ GATHERING ☩

The Holy Spirit calls us together as the people of God.

P: In the name of the Father, and of the ☩ Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
C: Amen.

P: Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid: cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
C: Amen.

P: Let us confess our sin in the presence of God and of one another.
Silence is kept for reflection.
Most merciful God,we confess that we are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves. We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways, to the glory of your holy name.
C: Amen.

P: In the mercy of almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us, and for his sake God forgives us all our sins. As a called and ordained minister of the church of Christ, and by his authority, I therefore declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the ☩ Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
C: Amen.

APOSTOLIC GREETING

P: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
C: And also with you.

CANTICLE OF PRAISE Page 149 This Is The Feast Of Victory
PRAYER OF THE DAY
P: The Lord be with you.
C: And also with you.

P: O God, on this day you open the hearts of your faithful people by sending into us your Holy Spirit. Direct us by the light of that Spirit, that we may have a right judgment in all things and rejoice at all times in your peace, through Jesus Christ, your Son and our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
C:        Amen.

☩ WORD ☩
God speaks to us in scripture reading, preaching, and song.

FIRST LESSON Acts 2:1-21

P: A reading from Acts.
¹When the day of Pentecost had come, [the apostles] were all together in one place. ²And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ³Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. ⁴All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
⁵Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. ⁶And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. ⁷Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? ⁹Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, ¹¹Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” ¹²All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” ¹³But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
¹⁴But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. ¹⁵Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. ¹⁶No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
¹⁷‘In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
¹⁸Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
¹⁹And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
²⁰The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
²¹Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ ”
P: The word of the Lord. C: Thanks be to God!

PSALM 104:24-35 (in unison)
²⁴How manifold are your works, O Lord!
In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
²⁵Yonder is the sea, great and wide, with its swarms too many to number,
living things both small and great.
²⁶There go the ships to and fro,
and Leviathan, which you made for the sport of it.
²⁷All of them look to you
to give them their food in due season.
²⁸You give it to them; they gather it;
you open your hand, and they are filled with good things.
²⁹When you hide your face, they are terrified;
when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.
³⁰You send forth your Spirit, and they are created;
and so you renew the face of the earth.
³¹May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
O Lord, rejoice in all your works.
³²You look at the earth and it trembles;
you touch the mountains and they smoke.
³³I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will praise my God while I have my being.
³⁴May these words of mine please God.
I will rejoice in the Lord.
^35bBless the Lord, O my soul. Hallelujah!

SECOND LESSON 1 Corinthians 12:3-13
P: A reading from First Corinthians.
^3bNo one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.
⁴Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; ⁵and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; ⁶and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. ⁷To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. ⁸To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, ⁹to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, ¹⁰to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

¹²For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
P: The word of the Lord. C: Thanks be to God!

GOSPEL St John 20:19-23

P: The holy gospel according to St. John the 20^th chapter.

C: Glory to you, O Lord!
¹⁹When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. ²¹Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” ²²When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
P: The gospel of the Lord. C: Praise to you O Christ

SERMON by Pastor Rich Donoughue
Silence for reflection follows the sermon.

The paraments are red, the flowers are red. It’s a new day. It’s a birthday in the mind of many – the birthday of the church. From 12 to millions upon millions. And we sit at home and wonder where the excitement lies. How can this small congregation on the peninsula of Charleston grow? And that is the wrong question.
We have lost some loving members of this church. We have others who are failing. How can we help it to grow? Wrong question!
Whether you wish to focus on John’s account of the reception of the Spirit on that Easter night (It is all one event in St John’s mind and written as such) or the more famous story by St Luke, The story begins in fear or in seclusion in a upper room. The place where Jesus ate his last meal with the disciples. The story must walk past the cross. There is no resurrection without a death.
But now they are filled
          The days of Pentecost are filled
                   The house is filled with sound – imagine a hurricane or tornado
                             The disciples are filled with the Spirit.
What may have been perceived to be an emptiness following Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension, is now an event filled with the power of God. The Spirit was sent forth and they were created, as the psalmist says.
And to this group was the given the gift of speaking in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. (For those of you who have enough trouble with English, let alone Spanish or French or Russian or, don’t be dismayed – it’s a gift you didn’t get I guess). And remember what Paul notes today – varieties of gifts, services and activities. All for the common good. All for the message of the Gospel to be heard. All for the hearers to finally say, “Jesus is Lord.”
As we come to that point of confessing Christ as Lord, we are reminded of the gift Jesus gives to the disciples that Easter night. “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” That comes across as a very authoritarian power given to the disciples. That belongs better to St Matthew’s understanding in Chapter 18 of his Gospel, We recall in John’s Gospel that sin is not portrayed as faults in our daily life or violations of the 10 Commandments, but rather the separation of ourselves from God. That separation was closed by the very death of Christ Jesus. We are no longer outsiders gazing into the family of God, but God’s children redeemed through the blood of the cross. It is the Spirit and the gift of the Spirit that Luther describes in the meaning of the third Article of the Creed as the person of the blessed Trinity who calls us through the Gospel. And so the disciples are sent in this text as the ones who will carry the Gospel, proclaim the Gospel, discern through the Gospel the very faith and work of the church.
I want to encourage you not to ask the question, “How can this little congregation grow?” I want you to ask, “What does this surrounding community need? And how will we provide for that need, from the variety of gifts, services and activities with which we have been blessed? How will we live the Gospel message in our place and ministry in the community of faith and in the community of Charleston?
Rosie used to stand on a crate at Wall and Broad Street and shout to the people scurrying around her in the financial district that they needed to repent and be saved. There’s a man that roams the streets between Summerville and Moncks Corner carrying (or rolling – it has wheels) a large cross. We could stand on the portico of the church and shout to the neighborhood. Yet I suspect we would be largely ignored.
But how is God asking and using you to proclaim God’s love in Christ for all people by what you say and do? What is the best way for us to live and speak that Good News to the neighborhood?
There had to be a death before there could be a resurrection. So what needs to die at St Johannes to see the Spirit raise it to new life? It’s not a work we do on our own. It’s a ministry empowered by the Spirit.
As we look about in our minds eye at the people who are part of our community of faith, as we recall the years and the people who shared God’s blessings throughout the area, we can see the gifts of the Spirit in each one. And I pray in this Pentecost season that inspired by the Spirit and gifted by the Spirit we continue the ministry to which we have been called and gifted and sent.

Hymn of the Day #394 Hail Thee, Festival Day
(Vs 3-6)

NICENE CREED
P: Using the words of the Nicene Creed, let us declare our faith:
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary
and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,*
who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION
P: Uplifted by the promised hope of healing and resurrection, we join the people of God in all times and places in praying for the church, the world, and all who are in need.                                                       A brief silence.
We call on your spirit of unity, giving thanks for our different vocations. Activate and utilize the diverse gifts present in your church, that they reveal your love for all. Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
We call on your spirit of life, present in air, wind, humidity, storms, and oxygen in our atmosphere, breathing energy into all things. Heal with your breath the whole creation, especially those who struggle to breathe due to air pollution. Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
We call on your spirit of righteousness. Wherever we as a people are divided, unite us. Wherever we are prideful, humble us. Give each one of us a heart for justice and empathy. Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
We call on your spirit of healing. Bless nurses, doctors, midwives, chaplains, counselors, and hospice workers as they care for those in need. We pray for all who long for comfort especially The family and friends of Betty Budds, the family and friends of Henry Kuznik, Marcy Floyd, Connie Morgan, Charles Long III, Anne Foster, Marie Mood, Barbara Lyerly, John Fowlkes, Mary Sweat, Elmore Marlow, Ted Bowers, Bob Oswald, Bill Cornwell, Marilyn Stehmeier, Harry Klutz, and Pooh Kanapaux and those we now lift up to you in our hearts, or with our lips…. Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
We call on your spirit of friendship. As Elizabeth welcomed Mary to her home, give us a spirit of welcome to those whom we meet in this congregation and outside these doors. Surprise us daily with unexpected grace, that we rejoice in every blessing you send. Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
Here other intercessions may be offered.
We call on your spirit of hope. As you have led your saints in all times and places, stir in us the desire to follow their example, leading us from death to new life in you. Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
With bold confidence in your love, almighty God, we place all for whom we pray into your eternal care; through Christ our Lord.


Lord's Prayer
P: Lord, remember us in your Kingdom and teach us to pray.
C: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

☩ SENDING ☩
God blesses us and sends us in mission to the world.

BLESSING
P:
May the One who brought forth Jesus from the dead raise you up to new life. May He fill you with hope, and turn your mourning into dancing. Almighty God, Father, ☩ Son, and Holy Spirit, bless you now and forever.
C: Amen

SENDING HYMN ELW #399 O Holy Spirit, Root of Life

DISMISSAL
P: The Holy Spirit empowers you. Go in peace. Share the good news.
C: Thanks be to God. Alleluia!

POSTLUDE

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