Event details

Join us online for worship on Sunday, March 21, 2021. The service will have magnificent music provided by Penna Rose, Director of Chapel Music and Eric Plutz, University Organist and Trevor Maloney, soloist.

The recorded service is available Sunday at 8am here Chapel Service . This service will remain archived after the premiere (along with concerts and other amazing programs), and we encourage you to return to them whenever you might find that to be helpful.

Please note this is a fully virtual event.

Guest preaching today is Jeff Chu, Co-host of Evolving Faith, Editor-at-large at Travel+Leisure, Teacher-in-Residence at Central Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, MI. This is the fifth Sunday of the Lenten Season.

Bulletin for Sunday, March 21, 2021 – Fifth Sunday in Lent

Invitatory: Meditation by Duke Ellington (1899-1974)

Welcome and Announcements: Dean Boden

Call to Worship: Dean Thames

Prayer of Confession: Let us confess our sins to God. Almighty and everlasting God, always more ready to hear than we are to pray, always willing to give more than we either desire or deserve: pour upon us the abundance of your mercy; forgive what we have been, help us to amend what we are, and direct what we shall be; that we may delight in your will and walk in you

Assurance of Forgiveness

Reading: Psalm 121 (Read by Nathaniel J. Hontz ’21)

I lift up my eyes to the hills; from where is my help to come? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. The Lord will not let your foot be moved and the One who watches over you will not fall asleep. Behold, the One who keeps watch over Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord, the Lord, watches over you; the Lord is your shade at your side, so that the sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve you from all evil and shall keep you safe. The Lord shall watch over your going out and your coming in, from this time forth for evermore.

Solo: Then Shall the Righteous Shine Forth from Elijah by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) and performed by Trevor Maloney, soloist

Reading: John 12:20-33

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say— ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.

Sermon: “Lift Up Your Eyes” by Jeff Chu ’99

Hymn: Beneath the Cross of Jesus (St. Christopher)

Beneath the cross of Jesus I gladly take my stand, the shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land; a home within the wilderness, a rest upon the way, from the burning of the noontide heat, and the burden of the day.

I take, O cross, your shadow for my abiding place; I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of Christ’s face; content to let the world go by, to know no gain or loss, my sinful self my only shame, my glory all the cross.

Pastoral Prayer

Lord’s Prayer: 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, for ever and ever. Amen.

Prayer for Princeton: O Eternal God, the source of life and light for all peoples, we pray you would endow this University with your grace and wisdom: give inspiration and understanding to those who teach and to those who learn; grant vision to its trustees and administrators; to all who work here and to all who bear her name give your guiding Spirit of sacrificial courage and loving service. Amen.

Solo: As Pants the Hart for Cooling Streams (Martyrdom) and performed by Trevor Maloney, soloist

Benediction

Voluntary: Prelude in B Minor, BWV 544 by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

University Chapel Staff: The Rev. Alison L. Boden, Ph.D., Dean of Religious Life and of the Chapel; The Rev. Dr. Theresa S. Thames, Associate Dean of Religious Life and of the Chapel; Penna Rose, Director of Chapel Music; Eric Plutz, University Organist; Elizabeth Powers, Chapel Administrator; Alexandra Miller-Knaack, Seminarian Intern; Edgar Gomez, Sexton; Lisa McGurr, Sexton

The University Chapel is a welcoming community of faith. We gather to sing God's praises, to hear God's living Word, to seek justice, and to proclaim God's love for all people.

Jeff Chu '99 is an essayist, a journalist, and co-curator of the Evolving Faith gathering. A candidate for ordination in the Reformed Church in America, he received his M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, where he also served as a farmhand and resident storyteller at the Farminary. Jeff is the author of Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian's Pilgrimage in Search of God in America, an editor-at-large at Travel+Leisure magazine, and the writer of a weekly newsletter called Notes of a Make-Believe Farmer (jeffchu.substack.com). He lives with his husband, Tristan, and their dog, Fozzie, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he tries not to kill things in his community-garden plot but also recognizes that every dead plant and every new seed can become a sermon illustration.

CALENDAR - The services listed below are fully virtual events and can be viewed here Chapel Service.

Sunday, March 28, 2021, University Chapel Service - Palm Sunday - The preacher will be Dean Thames.

Wednesday, March 31, 2021, 8pm - Stations of the Cross by Marcel Dupré with poetry of Paul Claudel - Ken Cowan, organist - Alison Boden, reader

Thursday, April 1, 2021, 8pm - Maundy Thursday Service

Friday, April 2, 2021, 8pm - Good Friday Tenebrae Service

Sunday, April 4, 2021, University Chapel Service - Easter Sunday - The preacher will be Dean Boden

For additional information, please visit chapel.princeton.edu or call 609-258-3047.