Gathering in Worship Offered by the People of the Church of Christ, Union
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
August 23, 2020 10:30 am
Meditation
If there were not diversity in the body, and all the members were the same or nearly the same, the body would be a nearly unrecognizable, non-functional entity. — Clarice Martin
From there to here: we Gather
Welcome
As the Berea community responds to the governor’s suggestion to avoid gathering in large groups, we worship online to limit the risk of exposure to Covid-19. We’re delighted to welcome you into this virtual circle of God’s healing love and light.
The Call by Anthony Wilson Joan English, Reader
There’s an old Mel Brooks routine where the psychiatrist tells his patient, “Listen to your broccoli, and your broccoli will tell you how to eat it.” It means, of course, that when you don’t know what to do, you get quiet and try to hear that still small voice inside. It will tell you what to do. The problem is that so many of us lost access to our broccoli when we were children. When we listened to our intuition when we were small and then told the grown-ups what we believed to be true, we were often either corrected, ridiculed, or punished.
If you asked innocently, “Why is Mom in the bathroom crying?” you might be told, “Mom isn’t crying; Mom has allergies.” Or if you said, “Why didn’t Dad come home last night?,” you might be told brightly, “Dad did come home last night, but then he left again very early.” And you nodded, even though you knew that these were lies, because it was important to stay on the adults’ good side. So you may have gotten into the habit of doubting the voice that was telling you quite clearly what was really going on. It is essential that you get it back.
Passing the Peace at Home
Building the Community: News that Connects Us
The Living Word among us
Special Music
Hebrew Scripture Lesson Exodus 1:8-2:10 Betty Hibler, Reader
Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, ‘Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.’ Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labour. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.
The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, ‘When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.’ But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, ‘Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?’ The midwives said to Pharaoh, ‘Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.’ So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, ‘Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.’
Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him for three months. When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.
The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. ‘This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,’ she said. Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, ‘Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?’ Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Yes.’ So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.’ So the woman took the child and nursed it. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, ‘because’, she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’
Children’s Moment
Please join in singing as we bless children everywhere:
May God’s blessing 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.
Gospel Lesson Romans 12:1-8 Joseph Jacobs, Reader
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God– what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.
Sermon Sheer Gifts and Gear Shifts Rev. Kent Gilbert
Living Prayer
Ringing of 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.
A Chance for Generosity: www.easytithe.com/union
Our gifts help sustain this particular community of caring by sustaining the building, pastors and staff, and all the materials that make our ministry of healing, justice, and teaching available to all in need. In addition, a portion of our contributions flows out to aid those in need via many external agencies.
Many friends give online, and you can use your smart phone or computer and go to www.easytithe.com/union. You don’t have to register to make a contribution, but if you do, it can make future generosity that much easier. You can even give by text! Text to 859-448-3403 (Example: Text “$50.00 Offering”)
Your contribution is love made visible. Thank you!
Offering Music
Silent Reflection & Prayer
Today we pray to be reconnected, made re-aware, of the gifts that power our lives. In this prayer, let go of your inventory of short-comings. With each breath expel those thoughts and take in who you are, as you are, where you are. This is a prayer to find what is important, to connect to YOUR strengths made whole in God’s company. As you breathe, breathe in the fact that you are “enough” and are a contributing part of God’s greater body, greater grace, greater reach for love and hope and justice. Just as you are, you are vital. Breathe in that reality in this moment. Centered there: listen. Ask for clarity to attend to the right things. Focus on what is yours to shift and yours to gift. How will you give your insight hands and feet? How will you act on what you are learning?
Let’s continue our worship with this prayer from Maria Hartz:
Our Prayers for Others
You are very welcome to email or phone prayer requests to the office for the bulletin. Please do so by 10 am Thursdays, and be sure you have permission to share the information.
¨ 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. Let us hold the people of Liberia and Sierra Leone and our brothers and sisters at Silver Creek Baptist Church in our hearts, and pray for them. Please hold these concerns in your prayers, today and throughout the week.
¨ All those seeking a new and just society and those fearful that they will be supplanted, may God open their hearts and include them in grace.
¨ Families and Friends in Crises…may God be present to every need and heal every rift and wound and those who care for them.
¨ Those feeling isolated because of staying home with compromised immune systems or other health conditions
¨ Jeff Pool and the family, at the death of his mother, Billie Faye Pool, at 94.
¨ Jaidyn, granddaughter of Sandy Bowles McClure, soon to undergo open heart surgery.
¨ Marie, Dorie Hubbard’s kindergarten aged great grand-niece, who has had a recurrence of cancer and is back in treatment.
¨ Our church family members in nursing homes, or who are homebound: Alva Peloquin, Loyal Jones, Jennie Kiteck, Mary Miller, Lois Morgan, Barb Smith, Jan Hamilton.
¨ Children in detention centers, that they may be reunited with their families soon.
Those affected by the Covid-19 virus, their families and friends living with fear, anxiety, and feelings of isolation, may God bring peace to all who love them;
¨ and our wider community as we cope with the new realities of living.
Prayers of the People Maria Hartz, Reader
You who are author of our gifts and muse of our ministries, have given us both challenge and hope in your call. We cannot be all, alone. You give us different gifts in order that together we might be whole. You allow for our finitude and failure, offering always a path of return. When we forget, forgive us, and transform our thinking as we transform our lives. All those who sorrow are in our hearts. Grant the gift of loving grace to flourish among us for the consolation of all in need. Fortify us with the gift of perseverance in the struggle for compassionate justice: let us never rest until the suffering stops. And give us again ears to hear the broccoli: the wisdom planted beneath the words of this world, the whisper of your righteous healing on every plate. This we pray because Jesus showed us how to listen, and we forget. Hear us now, and help us remember as we reach to you as…
Our Lord’s Prayer
Our Maker, our Mother, and 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 sins as we forgive those who sin 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.
From Here to There
Hymn God of Change and Glory Katherine
- God of change and glory, God of time and space, when we fear the future, give to us your grace. In the midst of changing ways give us still the grace to praise. Many gifts, one spirit, one love known in many ways, In our difference is blessing, from diversity we praise one Giver, one Word, one Spirit, one God known in many ways, hallowing our days. For the giver, for the gifts, praise, praise, praise!
- God of many colors, God of many signs, you have made us different, blessing many kinds. As the old ways disappear, let your love cast out fear. Many gifts, one spirit, one love known in many ways, In our difference is blessing, from diversity we praise one Giver, one Word, one Spirit, one God known in many ways, hallowing our days. For the giver, for the gifts, praise, praise, praise!
- Freshness of the morning, newness of each night, you are still creating endless love and light. This we see, as shadows part, many gifts from one great heart. Many gifts, one spirit, one love known in many ways, In our difference is blessing, from diversity we praise one Giver, one Word, one Spirit, one God known in many ways, hallowing our days. For the giver, for the gifts, praise, praise, praise!
The Sending & Blessing
Postlude One Day Rachel Garbanzo Nunez
Justice Candle
Today we honor a Berea treasure, Jenny Hobson. Jenny is engaged in numerous activities to improve our community. Local children know her as the “book lady.” Her day job at Berea Community Schools has her researching and purchasing and distributing books to increase literacy for children of all ages.
Others know her as a writer whose blog is a commentary on the joys and struggles of families today as they navigate parenting and work and friendship. (http://jennyhobsonschoice.blogspot.com.) Recently she joined three other women to write and produce a podcast, That’s What We Said.
She is an activist, supporting peace and justice issues and writes to congress about inequities, especially in the area of health care. Her Letters to Mitch are especially insightful and witty.
News and Announcements here: https://union-church.org/news/
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