Proper 24 / Ordinary Time 29 / Pentecost 22
Worship
Lectionary Worship Workbook, Series IV, Cycle C
Soul Motion
Object:
If we love the Lord with all our hearts, minds, and strength,
we are going to have to stretch our hearts, open our minds,
and strengthen our souls ... God cannot lodge in a narrow mind;
God cannot lodge in a small heart. To accommodate God they must be palatial.
-- William Sloan Coffin, Credo
Call To Worship
Leader: I'm glad today is Sunday and we are here together.
People: We are grateful for sanctuary and for faithful friends.
Leader: God is with us as usual.
People: There's a poem we like to remember:
We lift our eyes to the hills;
From where does our help come?
Our help comes from God who made heaven and earth.
God, our protector never dozes or sleeps;
God guards us and is ever by our side.
The sun will not hurt us during the day
nor the moon during the night.
God will protect us from danger and will keep us safe.
God is with us as we come and go, today and forever!
Leader: How good those words are -- sweeter than honey; we gain wisdom and comfort from them.
People: Thanks be to God for divine wisdom!
Prayer Of Thanksgiving (Leader)
Gracious God -- your word is light for our paths; your presence gives us strength for each day. Thank you. We open our minds to your voice this hour; speak so we can understand and live in ways to honor you. With our whole selves, we are alert for your guidance. Amen.
Call To Confession (Leader)
Every now and then, we find ourselves wrestling with God, like Jacob did at the River Jabbok. In these next few minutes, we make time to be introspective and notice what is weighing us down, hindering our smooth engagement with the Holy. Let's pray the printed prayer and then speak with God in the silence of our own hearts.
Community Confession (Unison)
Holy One -- sometimes life seems so difficult.
Sometimes it seems as if no one cares enough to listen.
Sometimes our burdens seem too great to bear one more day.
Reveal to us the changes we need to make in order to be free from distress.
Remove the impediments of guilt and shame so that we can honor you with our decisions and our behavior, our attitudes and our hopes.
Set us on the path which gives us deep peace. Amen.
Sermon Idea
The theme of the texts seems to be that scriptures and relationship with God enable us to know ourselves and to get along in a corrupt environment. The readings again today challenge the preacher/interpreter to find the essence for divine-human relationship and for justice in human society. Several questions arise:
* How does one locate the Word of God for this generation?
* How does a preacher read the Bible and make the leap across the centuries from first- century cosmology to twenty-first-century understanding of the universe?
* Where is justice?
Whose responsibility is it to make sure it happens?
What has globalization done to the American sense of justice?
Who has benefited from it?
While Psalm 121 gives us comfort as does Psalm 23, it is a jump from the spiritual/psychological truths of the poem to the practical economic ones. Perhaps that's the message: God is willing to hang in with our questions even though we can't possibly see the whole picture. God is willing to sustain us as we explore ways to "extract" justice for ourselves and for a world much bigger than the one with which Jesus spoke. Perhaps we personally and as a nation struggle with demons and with angels. The metaphor in Psalm 119:103 -- God's instruction is sweeter than honey -- can give way with an extension of the Psalm 119 reading and conclude with another metaphor: God's Word is a lamp to guide us and a light for our paths. God does appeal to all our senses!
Contemporary Affirmation (Unison)
We recognize God's creative imagination as we look up, around, and down;
we recognize God's love as we talk with and care for others;
we recognize God's presence as we pay attention to our daily tasks.
We know Jesus of Nazareth to be a wise teacher, mentoring disciples then and now
in kingdom of heaven activities;
we know Jesus to be light for the world!
We experience the Holy Spirit;
When we gather, we encourage one another to continue our journey with God;
we use all our senses to perceive holy guidance and to respond with gratitude;
we are not alone! The Spirit and one another's companionship sustains us.
Amen!
Offertory Statement (Leader)
With the shuffle of paper money and the clicking of coins, we make known our commitment to ministry in this place and to a "justice realm" throughout the global village.
Doxology
For The Fruit Of All Creation (v. 1), tune: EAST AKLAM
For the fruit of all creation, thanks be to God.
For the gifts to every nation, thanks be to God.
For the plowing, sowing, reaping, silent growth while we are sleeping,
Future needs in earth's safe keeping, thanks be to God.
Prayer Of Thanksgiving (Leader)
Living God -- take our paper and our coins; take our checks and our talents and stretch them till we ourselves are fed; stretch them more till we share our daily bread. Amen.
Intercessory Prayers (Leader or Readers)
God of Earth and Sky -- you have made us humans very smart; we can go and come from space; we can travel around the planet; we can feed millions; we can make weapons; we can build cities; we can decipher languages and write our histories. Help us also to be respectful and helpful neighbors. Help us also to parent our children with love and mentor them in ways that give them the tools they need to be healthy adults.
God of Air and Fire -- we think we are more sentient than other creatures yet we malign the soil and the air with toxic substances. We think we deserve a feather in our caps for our ingenious inventions yet people in our cities are hungry and cold; our televisions display affluence yet there are not enough jobs in our towns to sustain our citizens with minimal skills nor to enable immigrants to begin a new, productive life. Let our hearts and minds imagine and develop other options of coexistence.
God of Peace -- when we sit here together we think that peace is the absence of stress, violence, and greed. Here we enjoy tranquility and we easily think about how we might serve our neighbors. But as we listen for your voice, we recognize that peace is an attitude about ourselves in relationship to you; we recognize that peace is energy, generosity, and responsibility. Enter the human realm again and let peace overtake greed; let peace expand in America to include jobs for everyone that pays for shelter, food, and clothing; let peace weave its warmth and beauty to provide for people in every country and in every camp; let peace surround children of every color and language.
God of Sanity -- our world seems so huge and yet so small. The issues out there are mountainous. So are our own problems. Our mortality gets to us and we feel cranky and cynical; our death-defying medicines and our antigravity cosmetics do little to free us from disease and atrophy. So we turn to you, our Maker, asking for strength to make it gracefully from the cradle to the grave. We turn to you asking you to soothe our discomforts and give us health for our psyches and bodies. Revive us with holy enthusiasm. Amen.
Benediction
Leader: May Great Mystery follow you around day and night.
People: The autumn moon expands our sense of wonder;
Leader: May clear skies encourage you to look beyond your self;
People: Empowering relationships send us to bless others;
Leader: Go from this sanctuary intent on your walk with God.
People: We go bearing words of peace and hospitable attitudes.
Leader: Amen.
Music
Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown
Words: Charles Wesley, 1742
Music: Trad. Scottish melody; harm. Carlton R. Young, 1963
CANDLER
I To The Hills Will Lift My Eyes
Words: The Psalter, 1912; alt. 1988
Music: Scottish Psalter, 1615
DUNDEE
Ours The Journey
Words and Music: Julian B. Rush, 1979
OURS THE JOURNEY
we are going to have to stretch our hearts, open our minds,
and strengthen our souls ... God cannot lodge in a narrow mind;
God cannot lodge in a small heart. To accommodate God they must be palatial.
-- William Sloan Coffin, Credo
Call To Worship
Leader: I'm glad today is Sunday and we are here together.
People: We are grateful for sanctuary and for faithful friends.
Leader: God is with us as usual.
People: There's a poem we like to remember:
We lift our eyes to the hills;
From where does our help come?
Our help comes from God who made heaven and earth.
God, our protector never dozes or sleeps;
God guards us and is ever by our side.
The sun will not hurt us during the day
nor the moon during the night.
God will protect us from danger and will keep us safe.
God is with us as we come and go, today and forever!
Leader: How good those words are -- sweeter than honey; we gain wisdom and comfort from them.
People: Thanks be to God for divine wisdom!
Prayer Of Thanksgiving (Leader)
Gracious God -- your word is light for our paths; your presence gives us strength for each day. Thank you. We open our minds to your voice this hour; speak so we can understand and live in ways to honor you. With our whole selves, we are alert for your guidance. Amen.
Call To Confession (Leader)
Every now and then, we find ourselves wrestling with God, like Jacob did at the River Jabbok. In these next few minutes, we make time to be introspective and notice what is weighing us down, hindering our smooth engagement with the Holy. Let's pray the printed prayer and then speak with God in the silence of our own hearts.
Community Confession (Unison)
Holy One -- sometimes life seems so difficult.
Sometimes it seems as if no one cares enough to listen.
Sometimes our burdens seem too great to bear one more day.
Reveal to us the changes we need to make in order to be free from distress.
Remove the impediments of guilt and shame so that we can honor you with our decisions and our behavior, our attitudes and our hopes.
Set us on the path which gives us deep peace. Amen.
Sermon Idea
The theme of the texts seems to be that scriptures and relationship with God enable us to know ourselves and to get along in a corrupt environment. The readings again today challenge the preacher/interpreter to find the essence for divine-human relationship and for justice in human society. Several questions arise:
* How does one locate the Word of God for this generation?
* How does a preacher read the Bible and make the leap across the centuries from first- century cosmology to twenty-first-century understanding of the universe?
* Where is justice?
Whose responsibility is it to make sure it happens?
What has globalization done to the American sense of justice?
Who has benefited from it?
While Psalm 121 gives us comfort as does Psalm 23, it is a jump from the spiritual/psychological truths of the poem to the practical economic ones. Perhaps that's the message: God is willing to hang in with our questions even though we can't possibly see the whole picture. God is willing to sustain us as we explore ways to "extract" justice for ourselves and for a world much bigger than the one with which Jesus spoke. Perhaps we personally and as a nation struggle with demons and with angels. The metaphor in Psalm 119:103 -- God's instruction is sweeter than honey -- can give way with an extension of the Psalm 119 reading and conclude with another metaphor: God's Word is a lamp to guide us and a light for our paths. God does appeal to all our senses!
Contemporary Affirmation (Unison)
We recognize God's creative imagination as we look up, around, and down;
we recognize God's love as we talk with and care for others;
we recognize God's presence as we pay attention to our daily tasks.
We know Jesus of Nazareth to be a wise teacher, mentoring disciples then and now
in kingdom of heaven activities;
we know Jesus to be light for the world!
We experience the Holy Spirit;
When we gather, we encourage one another to continue our journey with God;
we use all our senses to perceive holy guidance and to respond with gratitude;
we are not alone! The Spirit and one another's companionship sustains us.
Amen!
Offertory Statement (Leader)
With the shuffle of paper money and the clicking of coins, we make known our commitment to ministry in this place and to a "justice realm" throughout the global village.
Doxology
For The Fruit Of All Creation (v. 1), tune: EAST AKLAM
For the fruit of all creation, thanks be to God.
For the gifts to every nation, thanks be to God.
For the plowing, sowing, reaping, silent growth while we are sleeping,
Future needs in earth's safe keeping, thanks be to God.
Prayer Of Thanksgiving (Leader)
Living God -- take our paper and our coins; take our checks and our talents and stretch them till we ourselves are fed; stretch them more till we share our daily bread. Amen.
Intercessory Prayers (Leader or Readers)
God of Earth and Sky -- you have made us humans very smart; we can go and come from space; we can travel around the planet; we can feed millions; we can make weapons; we can build cities; we can decipher languages and write our histories. Help us also to be respectful and helpful neighbors. Help us also to parent our children with love and mentor them in ways that give them the tools they need to be healthy adults.
God of Air and Fire -- we think we are more sentient than other creatures yet we malign the soil and the air with toxic substances. We think we deserve a feather in our caps for our ingenious inventions yet people in our cities are hungry and cold; our televisions display affluence yet there are not enough jobs in our towns to sustain our citizens with minimal skills nor to enable immigrants to begin a new, productive life. Let our hearts and minds imagine and develop other options of coexistence.
God of Peace -- when we sit here together we think that peace is the absence of stress, violence, and greed. Here we enjoy tranquility and we easily think about how we might serve our neighbors. But as we listen for your voice, we recognize that peace is an attitude about ourselves in relationship to you; we recognize that peace is energy, generosity, and responsibility. Enter the human realm again and let peace overtake greed; let peace expand in America to include jobs for everyone that pays for shelter, food, and clothing; let peace weave its warmth and beauty to provide for people in every country and in every camp; let peace surround children of every color and language.
God of Sanity -- our world seems so huge and yet so small. The issues out there are mountainous. So are our own problems. Our mortality gets to us and we feel cranky and cynical; our death-defying medicines and our antigravity cosmetics do little to free us from disease and atrophy. So we turn to you, our Maker, asking for strength to make it gracefully from the cradle to the grave. We turn to you asking you to soothe our discomforts and give us health for our psyches and bodies. Revive us with holy enthusiasm. Amen.
Benediction
Leader: May Great Mystery follow you around day and night.
People: The autumn moon expands our sense of wonder;
Leader: May clear skies encourage you to look beyond your self;
People: Empowering relationships send us to bless others;
Leader: Go from this sanctuary intent on your walk with God.
People: We go bearing words of peace and hospitable attitudes.
Leader: Amen.
Music
Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown
Words: Charles Wesley, 1742
Music: Trad. Scottish melody; harm. Carlton R. Young, 1963
CANDLER
I To The Hills Will Lift My Eyes
Words: The Psalter, 1912; alt. 1988
Music: Scottish Psalter, 1615
DUNDEE
Ours The Journey
Words and Music: Julian B. Rush, 1979
OURS THE JOURNEY
