Gathering Meditations: "Either fly as far as you can from men, or else, laughing at the world and the men who are in it, make yourself

one in many things." ONE OF THE DESERT FATHERS (Merton # CXXIX) "Humor is the foundation of reconciliation." FRANCIS DE SALES

"The fullness of joy is to behold God in everything." JULIANA OF NORWICH “The Christian should be an alleluia from head to foot.” AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

*Please rise in body or spirit

Prelude, Welcome and Ways of Discipleship *Call to Worship One: Joy is loose, All: In the wiggles of the children, One: The whispers of the youth, All: The smiles of the adults. One: We praise God for this glorious day, All: Let the praise break forth in the most unlikely places and in silly ways. One: Joy and praise fills our hearts and in our songs All: Let the laughter be deep, for we are God's people.

*Opening Song Christians, We are Made for Laughter …see insert (tune of “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee”#89)

Holy Humor Break (Time to share your Holy Humor)

Time with Our Young Disciples

The 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, forever. Amen.

Sharing our Joys and Prayer Concerns Prayer Song #2145 I’ve Got Peace like a River 1. I’ve got peace like a river 2. I’ve got joy like a fountain 3. I’ve got love like an ocean

Responsive Prayer of Confession Leader: We believe in God, who made us in His image. People: We live, we love, we laugh, because we are like Him. Leader: We believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Lord and Savior. People: He had the last laugh on the devil when He rose from the dead. Leader: We believe in the Holy Spirit, coequal and coeternal with the Father and the Son. People: Our counselor, our guide, our motivator - He is our joy! Leader: Forgive us, Lord, when we take ourselves too seriously, when we don't claim the hap-piness that is rightfully ours as your children, when we forget that you will have the last laugh in this world. People: Restore to us the joy of our salvation, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Silent Reflection and Meditation Pastoral Prayer

Epistle Reading 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Sermon Fools for Christ Rev Susan Oeffler Response Take Time to Be Funny …see insert

(tune of Take Time to be Holy#395)

Invitation to Stewardship Offertory *Doxology Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise God, all creatures here below; Allelu-ia! Alleluia! Praise God, the source of all our gifts! Praise Jesus Christ, whose power up-lifts! Praise the Spirit, Holy Spirit! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

*Prayer of Dedication

Holy Humor Break (Time to share your Holy Humor)

*Closing Song #261 Lord of the Dance

*Benediction

*Postlude

The Easter People Gather

Laughing and Dancing in the Streets of the Kin-dom

Tapping Into Spiritual Butterflies and Joy

Joy that Bubbles Over

Holy Humor Sunday -3rd Sunday of Easter

The flowers in the Briggsville UMC sanctuary today

are donated by Steve & Linda Krejchik

in honor of their anniversary on April 13

1 Corinthians 1:18-31 Common English Bible (CEB)

The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are being destroyed.

But it is the power of God for those of us who are being saved. It is written

in scripture: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will reject the intel-

ligence of the intelligent. Where are the wise? Where are the legal experts?

Where are today’s debaters? Hasn’t God made the wisdom of the world fool-

ish? In God’s wisdom, he determined that the world wouldn’t come to know

him through its wisdom. Instead, God was pleased to save those who believe

through the foolishness of preaching. Jews ask for signs, and Greeks look

for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, which is a scandal to Jews and

foolishness to Gentiles. But to those who are called—both Jews and

Greeks—Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom. This is because the fool-

ishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is

stronger than human strength.

Look at your situation when you were called, brothers and sisters! By ordi-

nary human standards not many were wise, not many were powerful, not

many were from the upper class. But God chose what the world considers

foolish to shame the wise. God chose what the world considers weak to

shame the strong. And God chose what the world considers low-class and

low-life—what is considered to be nothing—to reduce what is considered to

be something to nothing. So no human being can brag in God’s presence. It

is because of God that you are in Christ Jesus. He became wisdom from God

for us. This means that he made us righteous and holy, and he delivered us.

This is consistent with what was written: The one who brags should brag in

the Lord!

April 2016 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fr Sat

10 Holy Humor Sunday

Pancake Breakfast EUCC, 8:30—10:30

EUCC Bylaw committee meet after worship today

11

Pastor

Sue off

12

Parsonage walk-thru,

5:30 pm

BUMC trustees, 7 pm

13 Youth Group 6:30, Briggsville

14 BUMC worship @ MUMC, 6 pm Joint Worship @ MUMC, 6:30

MUMC Trustees, 6 pm

15 16

17 18

19 20 21

22 23

24 EUCC Council meets after worship

25

26

BUMC finance 6 pm

BUMC Ad Council, 7

pm

27 Sharing Supper at Endeavor School 5-6:30 pm

28

Heritage House service, 1-2 pm

29 30

1 Helping Hands Guild, EUCC 9:30—10:30

2

Pastor

Sue off

3 4 5 SPRC, 6 pm, Briggsville

6 7

www.trinityunitedparish.org tuparish@gmail.com

P.O. Box 36, Briggsville, WI 53920 (608) 981-2500

Rev. Susan Oeffler

cell (608) 617 - 8149 home (608)340-5340 preachersue@yahoo.com

Office Hours:

Tuesday 8:30 -3; Thursday 8:30 - 2:30 pm

Worship Times:

Briggsville United Methodist Church, 8:30am Moundville United Methodist Church, 9:30am

Trinity Endeavor United Church of Christ, 10:45am

Pastor Sue out

Office hours this week:

Tues & Wed: 8:30 am —2:30 pm

$957,000 raised in state

for ‘Imagine No Malaria’ As of March 21, more than $957,000 to-

ward the $1 million goal has been collect-

ed for the “Imagine No Malaria” campaign

sponsored by the Wisconsin Conference

UMC. A total of 366 churches have par-

ticipated in the effort. In 2012, there was

one death attributed to malaria every 60

seconds in sub-Saharan Africa, but contri-

butions have reduced that number to one

every 2 minutes, and continuing efforts

can reduce even further the number of

deaths from the mosquito-borne disease.

Trinity Endeavor UCC Bylaws

Committee will meet following

worship service TODAY!

Pastor Sue out

Dells Delton UMC

Annual Salad Luncheon

Thursday, May 5

11:00—1:00 PM

320 Unity Dr., Wisconsin Dells

Adults $8, Children under 12: $5

Hygiene kits selected

for mission project

The Missions Committee has decided to col-

lect items for general hygiene kits for men,

women and children. These kits will be taken

to Annual Conference on June 10th, as part of

the Ingathering. The kits are distributed by

our WI Conference to meet the needs at Har-

bor House (Superior), United Methodist Chil-

dren's Services (Milwaukee), Northcott

Neighborhood House (Milwaukee) and Solo-

mon Community Temple (Milwaukee). More

information on the contents of the kits can be

found online at http://

www.wisconsinumc.org/Resources/

Documents/AnnualConference/

Ingathering.pdf, or watch for more infor-

May 15 Save the date:

Mystery Dinner

5 pm

at Endeavor UCC

Sharing Supper

Wednesday, April 27

5—6:30 PM

FREE!

Endeavor Elementary School