A Gathering in Worship Offered by the People of the Church of Christ, Union
Second Sunday of Easter Holy Humor Sunday
Meditation
“I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.” ~ Wilson Mizner
From There to Here: We Gather
Welcome
Welcome to this service of worship! Please sign in using the pew folder, passing it back down the row so all can greet one another by name, and place the sheet in an offering plate. We’re glad you’re here! During the service, you are invited to rise in body or in spirit, standing or sitting, at points in the service marked “<>.”
The Call Jeff Pool, Reader
One: When the Lordrestored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.
All: Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy.
One: When the Lord raised Jesus from the dead, we were like those who dream.
All: Now our mouths are filled with laughter, and our tongues with shouts of joy.
One: The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoice.
All: May all those who have sowed in tears reap with shouts of happy hilarity. Hip hip hooray!
~ posted on the website of the Lorraine Avenue Mennonite Church, Wichita, Kansas. www.lorraineavenue.ks.us.mennonite.net/
¨ Hymn # 253 Yours Is the Glory Judas Maccabeus
1 Yours is the glory, Resurrected One! Endless is the victory you o’er death have won. Angels clothed in radiance rolled the stone away; conquered is the grave in which your body lay. Refrain: Yours is the glory, Resurrected One! Endless is the victory you o’er death have won.
2 See, it is Jesus, Jesus has appeared; do not doubt at all for nothing you will fear. Let the church with gladness hymns of triumph sing; tell it without ceasing: Death has lost its sting. Refrain.
3 Am I still frightened? One whom I adore, Jesus lives again, gives peace forevermore. Jesus is my victory, life and strength and Head; Jesus is my glory, nothing shall I dread. Refrain.
¨ Prayer of Approach and Confession
One: Chuckling, chortling God, who lifts our hearts when we feel most down, who strikes the light of joy in the midst of despair’s gloom, who surprises us with wonder and awe, enter into our hearts this morning, we pray.
Open our minds to the endless possibilities you create for growing closer to you with a giggle.
Open our eyes to your presence in all things, allowing us to respond in joy.
All: We confess we have been too often the prisoner of the world’s despair, of our own fears and worries. Lift us with laughter at our folly and hold us with healing love, we pray.
With joy we come into your arms, and your merry heart does us good like medicine for the soul. Lift us to laugh with Christ and be restored. Amen.
~ adapted from a prayer posted on the website of the Two Rivers Pastoral Charge, United Church of Canada. www.2riversunited.com/
¨ Words of Assurance
¨ Passing the Peace of Christ
All who come to this sanctuary are welcome companions on the journey of faith. Please turn to those nearest you and greet them with words of peace.
Word and Worship
Special Music All Things Dull and Ugly Monty Python, 1989 Bernardo Scarambone
All things dull and ugly, all creatures short and squat, all things rude and nasty, the Lord God made the lot.
Each little snake that poisons, each little wasp that stings, God made their brutish venom. God made their horrid wings.
All things sick and cancerous, all evil great and small, all things foul and dangerous, the Lord God made them all.
Each nasty little hornet, each beastly little squid; who made the spiky urchin? Who made the sharks? God did!
All things scabbed and ulcerous, all pox both great and small, putrid, foul and gangrenous, the Lord God made them all. Amen.
~Source: LyricFind
Scripture Reading Psalm 150
Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty firmament! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his surpassing greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with clanging cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!
~ New Revised Standard Version, updated
Children’s Moment as the children return to their seats we sing:
May God’s blessings guard, protect and guide you. God bless you, God bless you. Our savior’s loving arms be ever ’round you. God bless you, God bless you.
Scripture Reading John 20:19-31
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe. Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
~ New Revised Standard Version, updated
Sermon Busting a Gut Rev. Kent Gilbert
Video Reflection
A chance to take in what we have heard and reflect together.
Living Prayer
Ringing the Peace Bell
The Union Church Peace Bell was created by Jeff Enge in honor of Union Church member Carl Eschbach (1904-1998). A twin bell hangs in Berea’s sister province in Japan and is also rung in the hope of peace for all nations.
Embodied Prayer
You are invited to reflect and pray at the candle table. You may also choose to source the essential ingredient of solitude and private prayer, remaining with your own thoughts in your pew.
“A Merry Heart Doeth Good Like a Remedy” Proverbs 17:22
As you pray today, you are invited to find your merry heart again. Laughter, particularly laughs shared in a community can indeed be a medicine for all kinds of ills. On the tables around the sanctuary you will find containers with jokes to share here and wherever you find yourself this week. True humor helps us release the burdens of our world without creating a burden on another.
What might you do to raise the spirit and lessen the anxiety of those whom you may have ignored or overlooked?
What doors and what peace would you open and bring to them… and yourself?
Breathing Peace: So that you might Continue to Believe…
John’s story shows the power of Jesus breath into the disciples’ fears while literally breathing forgiveness and peace upon them. In the quiet now, or at a time later this week when you can settle, pay attention to the breaths you are taking. Breathe in the parts of the Gospel (Literally, “Good News”) that you need.
Imagine each breath coming from Jesus to you; imagine your peace growing with every inhalation.
Let this power your forgiveness.
Let that peace return to the world when you exhale, but with the purpose of forgiving those who have wounded you if you can.
Let every exhale be slowly fill the world with the hopes you have for release.
Offertory A Chance for Generosity: www.easytithe.com/union
A community of caring relies on support. Your recurring or one-time donation will make a ministry of healing, justice, and teaching available to all in need.
¨ Use your smart phone or computer and go to www.easytithe.com/union. No registration required, but registering once makes future generosity simply entering an amount and a click.
¨ Baskets for checks or cash are located at the head of each aisle for those who wish to make an in-person donation.
¨ Give by Text. Text an amount to 859-448-3403 (Example: Text “$50.00 Offering”).
¨ Give by Mail to: 200 Prospect St., Berea, KY 40403.
Your contribution is love made visible. Thank you!
¨ Doxology Alleluia!
Silent Prayers and Prayers of the Community Jeff Pool, Reader
Our Lord’s Prayer
Our Maker, Our Mother, and Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; Thy kin-dom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kin-dom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
¨ Hymn God of the Poor Graham Kendrick
1. Beauty for brokenness;
Hope for despair.
Lord, in the suffering
This is our prayer.
Bread for the children
Justice, joy, peace
Sunrise to sunset
Your kingdom increase!
2. Shelter for fragile lives,
Cures for their ills,
Work for the craftsman
Trade for their skills
Land for the dispossessed
Rights for the weak
Voices to plead the cause
Of those who can’t speak.
Refrain: God of the poor,
Friend of the weak,
Give us compassion we pray.
Melt our cold hearts
Let tears fall like rain
Come, change our love
From a spark to a flame.
3. Refuge from cruel wars,
Havens from fear,
Cities for sanctuary,
Freedoms to share.
Peace to the killing-fields
Scorched earth to green
Christ for the bitterness
His cross for the pain. Refrain
4. Rest for the ravaged earth,
Oceans and streams;
Plundered and poisoned
Our future, our dreams.
Lord, end our madness
Carelessness, greed
Make us content with
The things that we need. Refrain
5. Lighten our darkness,
Breathe on this flame,
Until your justice
Burns brightly again.
Until the nations
Learn of your ways
Seek your salvation
And bring you their praise. Refrain
~Graham Kendrick © 1993 Make Way Music. grahamkendrick.co.uk
International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
From Here to There
Community Connections
Announcements
We share opportunities for Beloved Community and ways to serve. Please see the listing of church & community events, prayers, and notices in the pages following the service.
Recognition of Our College Graduates!
Graduating from Berea College: Kaitlyn Ferguson, Jeriel (Jeri) Byron-Dixon, Chloe Beyler, Amyah Weakley
Graduating from Eastern Kentucky University: Olivia Puckett
December, 2024, grad from Landmark College, Putney, VT, Associates Degree in Liberal Arts: Sophie Gravel
Lighting the Justice Candle to Lead us Forth
Pope Francis, 1936 – 2025 Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was a Catholic priest who was elected Pope in 2013, serving until his death on Easter Monday last week. He was the first pope from the Jesuit Order, the first Latin American pope, and he chose Francis as his papal name in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi.
Francis was criticized by Catholic conservatives, but was consistent in his beliefs and actions. He showed humility, lived simply, and advocated tirelessly for peace and tolerance. He urged acceptance of LGBTQ people, increased the role of women in the church and opposed the death penalty, among his many other efforts toward peace and inclusion. His papacy will be remembered for his all-encompassing vision.
¨ Benediction
¨ Benediction Response God of the Poor Graham Kendrick
Postlude
Our Prayers for Others
¨ Each week we join millions of Christians who pray for one another through the ecumenical prayer cycle and, locally, the Berea Ministerial Association’s prayer cycle (World Council of Churches Ecumenical Prayer cycle: union-church.org/ministries/prayer). Let us hold the people of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia; and our brothers and sisters at Big Hill Pentecostal Holiness Church in our hearts, and pray for them today and throughout the week.
¨ All the people of Ukraine for their safety and sovereignty. Prayers also that the government of Russia will turn to reason & respect for their own peoples’ lives as well as for Ukrainian families.
¨ All those affected by the devastating losses in the current conflict in the Middle East.
¨ Our church family members in nursing homes or who are homebound: Jerry Cooper, Jan Hamilton, Betsy Hoefer, Dorie Hubbard, Susan Kramer, Lois Morgan, Sara Parker, Cheryl Payne, Alva Peloquin, Laura Robie, Theresa Scherf.
¨ In a season when we remember the reversal of an unjustified death, we pray for all who suffer from injustice and cruelty, personal or systemic. We pray for God’s righteousness, mercy and peace to prevail for all who are being wrongfully persecuted.
¨ All those suffering from mental strain, trauma, and disease, and those who care and worry for them: may God soothe and heal all who are troubled.
¨ Our Kentucky neighbors, hit again with flooding in these recent storms.
¨ We pray for our country, and those who are directly affected by the actions and inaction of our government to address the needs of its people and the world.
¨ Members and Friends who need safer housing and income security.
¨ JoAnn Russell, Reda Hutton’s aunt, facing several medical challenges.
¨ The Guild family as Will continues his struggle with brain cancer and stroke.
¨ Muse Watson, continuing to gain strength after his surgery.
¨ Rev. Kent’s cousin, Kathy, undergoing chemotherapy for esophageal cancer, and her mother, Helen, who is Rev. Carla’s sister.
¨ Kelly Mehler, who has resumed treatment for his lymphoma.
¨ Barb Taylor’s son, David, undergoing treatment for prostate cancer.
¨ Rev. Christina’s family: her brother-in-law, Jamie, with stage 4 cancer and his wife, her sister Veronica. They’ve got two small children.
¨ Maya Todd, with heart issues.
¨ Melissa Zook, recovering from surgery.
¨ Max Ponnie, Emily LaDouceur’s son, who badly broke his tibia at a track meet.
¨ A memorial service will be held for Dottie Blackburn on Sunday, May 11, 2 pm, n the sanctuary
¨ Celebrations with Prayers of Joy!
Prayers of Commendation and Celebration to all our College Graduates, and prayers for the final days of the semester for all students, staff and faculty alike!
Today’s Worship Leader, Rev. Jeff Pool, is celebrating the 50th anniversary of his ordination! Thanks be to God!
Birthdays: today, April 27 – Susan Doring-Zook, Bryce Carlberg, Samantha Melton; May 2 – Jenny Hobson, Grace Hutchins; 3 – Edd Easton-Hogg; 4 – Doris Mosley; 5 – Steve Rhodes
Deb Beishline’s mom, Doris Mosley, will turn 90 on May 4! Her address is 7851 State Rte. 298 Apt. 705; Kirkville; NY; 13082
Anniversaries: May 1 – Charles & Megan Hoffman
If we haven’t got your important dates, let us know. We’ll help you get connected in FellowshipOne Go!
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