A Gathering in Worship Offered by the People of the Church of Christ, Union
Proper 13 of the Season after Pentecost 10:30 am
Meditation
Anything you do not have is stored in someone near you, and love is the secret map to the treasure. ~ Mike Murdock
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
One: Whoever you are, where ever you have come from, God’s steadfast love endures for ever!
All: God is our salvation; we can trust and not be afraid, for the Sovereign God is our strength and our song.
One: God gathers us from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.
All: Rich and poor, the wise and the foolish: God gathers, God feeds, God transforms.
One: We lift our hearts and our voices to the God of our salvation. Let us seek the Lord and listen for the song.
All: Amen!
Hymn #395 In Christ There Is No East or West St. Peter
1. In Christ there is no east or west,
in Christ no south or north,
but one community of love
throughout the whole wide earth.
2.In Christ shall true hearts everywhere
their high communion find.
God’s service is the golden cord
close binding humankind.
3. In Christ is neither Jew nor Greek
And neither slave nor free;
For men and women live in God,
and all are kin to me.
4. In Christ now meet both east and west,
in him meet south and north.
One joyous, true community
throughout the whole wide earth.
¨ Prayer of Approach and Confession
One: Seeking forgiveness, seeking wholeness, seeking a new way, we come before God in prayer. God is ready to satisfy those who thirst for goodness and those who are hungry for grace, will be filled with good things.
Let us in prayer make our confession:
All: Holy Lord, we bring to you our inept and evil ways, and rest the troublesome load of frustration, disappointment, regret and guilt in your hands.
Take the grime and infection from our wounds, and anoint us with the salve of forgiveness.
Take us gently by the chin and lift up our faces so that we can look up into your face without shame or fear and face the world without weight or burden.
With the love of Jesus let us recover our authentic humanity and face all coming challenges with his quiet strength and optimism. In his name we so pray. Amen!
~ adapted from a prayer written by Bruce Prewer
¨ Words of Assurance
One: Family of God, lift up your spirits with thanksgiving to God whose nature is always to have mercy.All who have come clean and sought forgiveness shall never need to revisit old shame again. The untarnished future is God’s and it is now offered to you with open hands. You are forgiven, all things have become new through Christ Jesus our Savior!
All: O give thanks to God who is so good, whose love goes on forever!
¨ 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
Scripture Reading Colossians 3:1-11
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient.
These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. But now you must get rid of all such things: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.
In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, enslaved and free, but Christ is all and in all!
~ 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 Luke 12:13-21
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
~ New Revised Standard Version, updated
Sermon Key to the Map Rev. Kent Gilbert
Video Reflection
A chance to take in what we have heard and reflect together.
Responding to God’s Love in Communion
Invitation to Communion
One: May God be with you.
All: May God also be with you.
One: People of God, open up your hearts.
All: We open them to God and one another.
One: People of God, give thanks to the Lord our God.
All: It is right to give thanks to the One who offers us lives filled with grace.
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.
Call to Prayer
One: Called by name and known within the very heart of God, we gather in hope and respond with gladness bringing the gifts of work and earnings, bringing the gifts of home and table. Our lives are hidden with Christ in God and God’s bounty. We come to unearth the treasure of communal grace hidden in our ordinary lives.
One: Called to live daringly without fear or favor, we gather, not as slave or free, male or female, rich or poor, young or old, but as all colors, all persuasions, all one body, and Christ in all. This meal is a connection with Christ and with one another. It is fuel for our passion and sustenance for our hope. It is a table set so that we may feed justice, give courage, and resist the corrosive forces in our lives.
One: So, all are welcome at this table. All who wish to be fed, all who hunger and thirst, all who have been turned down or who have turned aside or have been turned away. You are welcome here. You need not be a member of this church or any church to share in this meal, for this is Christ’s table where all are welcomed and renewed. Let us pray!
Communion Prayer
One: Thanks and praise be to you, O God, for you create life out of the dust and create community even from calamity. We thank you that you are present to direct and guide, to renew and revive. We praise you for sending us Jesus, your Servant and our brother, to walk before us the way of the cross, to turn us to you and to one another. Therefore, we join a mighty chorus of creation praising you in heaven and on from every corner of the earth:
Sanctus
Words of Institution
One: Today, Lord, we remember that on the night of his betrayal and desertion, Jesus first sat among his friends and colleagues, treating them as equals no matter their station in life. As they shared their meal together, Jesus took the bread and blessed and broke it, and gave it to them saying:
All: Take. Eat. This is my body given for you. Remember me, each time you do this.
One: After supper he took a cup, gave God thanks for the wine, and shared it with his friends, saying:
All: Take. Drink. This is God’s promise poured out for you. Remember me, each time you drink it.
One: Compassionate God, pour out your gracious Spirit on us, and on these, your simple gifts. Fill us with the broken bread that we might be whole; touch our parched lips with the cup of salvation, so we might proclaim good news. Lift us up and send us out:
All: our hearts recoiling at the oppression suffered by our sisters and brothers; our hands willing to build shelter for those cast out by the world; our arms surrounding the lost and the least in the embrace of common humanity.
One: And when we are clothed with our new self, when we are united with our sisters and brothers gathered around the Table of glory, we will sing our praises to you forever, God in Community, Holy One, as you satisfy the thirsty with your grace, and fill the hungry with your love.
All: Be present with us as we share this meal that our lives might be hidden with you in Christ’s way and that we may know your presence more and more in each day. Amen.
Serving One Another
All who seek the love of God are welcome at this meal and are invited to freely receive from it. We will share the elements today by intinction, dipping the bread in the cup. When invited please come to one of the stations by exiting your pew to the left and returning by the right. If it is not convenient to come forward, the elements can be brought to your seat by signaling to the usher. All the bread is gluten-free, and the chalices are filled with non-alcoholic grape juice.
Living Prayer
Embodied Prayer
You are invited to reflect and pray at the candle tables. You may also choose to source the essential ingredient of solitude and private prayer, remaining with your own thoughts in your pew.
Offertory
A Chance for Generosity: www.easytithe.com/union
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Your contribution is love made visible. Thank you!
¨ Doxology Lord, Listen to Your Children Praying Ken Medema
Community Prayer of Thanksgiving Sue Blyth, Reader
One: Lord God of true treasure hidden in true life, set our minds on the power of love. Let no other wealth define us or distract us. Each day that you give us our daily bread to break with one another, we are rich with what no bank can hold. Today you have graced us with common bread and cup, and dignified them by your presence and your purpose. We who have received this blessing thank you and ask that we, your common people, might be vessels in which your Holy Spirit of humility and compassion might come and gladly rest.
All: And in your resting may you stir our rising to new and hopeful beginnings. Hide your hope in our hearts, a treasure to be found by all who meet us, proclaiming God’s love and serving you with heart, mind, soul, and strength.
One: This we ask in the name of the one who taught us to reach to you as…
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 O Young and Fearless Prophet Ellacombe
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.
Lighting the Justice Candle to Lead us Forth
With the recent incidents of gun violence in our extended “local” area and in our nation, it is a good time to recognize on-going initiatives designed to reduce this violence through social justice and effective prevention strategies.
One Lexington works with community partners to ameliorate the root causes of gun violence through: advocacy for policies that make neighborhoods safer; supporting individuals, families and neighborhoods who have been affected by gun violence; “closing the trust gap between under-served communities and public safety;” and helping incarcerated youth and young adults with “successful transition to the community upon release, as well as providing alternative sentencing opportunities.” To learn more about One Lexington programs and the work of its community partners, visit lexingtonky.gov/government/mayors-office/one-lexington
¨ Benediction
One: Let us go with God to offer life to those around us.
All: We will gather up the broken to offer them healing.
One: Let us go with Jesus to wrap people in hope.
All: We will reach out to feed the hungry and shelter the homeless.
One: Let us go with the Spirit to love all those in our midst who have been forgotten.
All: We will take them in our arms and welcome them to our hearts.
¨ Benediction Response Seek Ye First Lafferty
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 Republic of Congo, Gabon, Sao Tome and Principe; and our siblings at Gloryland Baptist Church in our hearts, and pray for them today and throughout the week.
¨ Dave Reilly’s nephew, Herb Post, ill with kidney cancer that has spread to his lung.
¨ Charlie Hoffman, with cardiac issues.
¨ Carla Gilbert, and the entire family, at the death of her sister, Helen Lujin. Helen is the mom of Rev. Kent’s cousin, Kathy, who is being treated for esophageal cancer.
¨ Kelly Mehler, in his new round of chemo treatments.
¨ Reda Hutton, recovering from surgery at home.
¨ JoAnn Russell, Reda Hutton’s aunt, facing several medical challenges.
¨ 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, and starvation of those in Gaza.
¨ 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.
¨ Prayers for those undergoing cancer treat-ments. We give thanks for the doctors, nurses, and other scientists working to help them.
¨ 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.
¨ Celebrations with Prayers of Joy!
Birthdays: August 4 – Bob Berger; 7 – Truman Fields, Aetheria Luna
Anniversaries: August 5 – Dave & Kim Kobersmith, Kent Gilbert & Diana Hultgren; 6 – Jeff & Laurinda Pool
If we haven’t got your important dates, let us know. We’ll help you get connected in FellowshipOne Go!
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