A Gathering in Worship Offered by the People of the Church of Christ, Union
Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany 10:30 am
Meditation
Becoming a people for justice and beloved community involves becoming engaged in the healing process… Love and hope provide the strength and courage to be present to pain and to focus energies on the work God dreams for us.” ~ Howard Thurman
From There to Here: We Gather
Prelude
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 Donna Daniels, Reader
One: I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise;
All: I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted your name and your word above everything.
One: On the day I called, you answered me; you increased my strength of soul.
All: All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O Lord, for they have heard the words of your mouth.
One: They shall sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord.
All: For though the Lord is high, God regards the lowly, but the haughty God perceives from far away.
One: Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve me against the wrath of my enemies; you stretch out your hand, and your right hand delivers me.
All: The Lord will fulfill God’s purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.
¨ Hymn The Summons Bell, Maule
Reprinted with permission using OneLicense #A-723786
¨ Prayer of Confession (unison)
Holy One, it is easy to succumb to weariness when our work has seemed to yield little goodness. Hope-crushing night can seem so long. Yet You call us to keep putting out into the deep, facing the reality of our emptiness. Sometimes it is of our own making.
At other times, pressures beyond have submerged us to the point of losing our breath. So we release everything to you. We pray that Your promised forgiveness will continue to be trustworthy and true. Let it raise us up for some work of abundance made possible by your grace.
We pray this in the name of the one You raised to life, Jesus the Christ. Amen.
¨ Words of Grace
One: Friends, hear the words of Jesus, “Do not be afraid!” There is nothing in our past that matters more than what God can do, beginning now. We are forgiven by the one who has endured the depths of death and has risen to ever-new life. Not only are we forgiven, but we are also sent to fish for others, whom God also yearns to gather with the net of holy love.
This is the Good News! You can trust it with your life. Thanks be to God!
¨ 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 Oh, Freedom arr. Brazeal W. Dennard Union Church Choir
1. Oh, freedom, oh, freedom, oh freedom over me. And before I’ll be a slave, I’ll be buried in my grave, and go home to my Lord and be free.
2. There’ll be prayin’…
3. No more weepin’ …
Scripture Reading Isaiah 6:1-13
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty, and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And I said, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said, “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.”
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!” And he said, “Go and say to this people: ‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.’ Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears and comprehend with their minds and turn and be healed.”
Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said, “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is utterly desolate; until the Lord sends everyone far away, and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land. Even if a tenth part remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains standing when it is felled.” (The holy seed is its stump.)
~New Revised Standard Version: Updated Edition (Friendship Press, 2021)
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 5:1-11
Once while Jesus was standing beside the Lake of Gennesaret and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.”
When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to burst. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’s knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and all who were with him were astounded at the catch of fish that they had taken, and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who are partners with Simon.
Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
~New Revised Standard Version: Updated Edition (Friendship Press, 2021)
Sermon Collaboration Makes Miracles Rev. Christina Ryan Perkins
Video Reflection
A chance to take in what we have heard.
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.
Offertory
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 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 Old Hundredth
To God all glorious heavenly Light, To Christ revealed in earthly night, To God the Spirit now we raise Our joyful songs of thankful praise. Amen.
Prayers of the Community
One: Loving God, gather us anew into your net of love. Interrupt whatever overwhelms us with the gift of your renewing grace. Plumb every depth and reveal Your holy abundance. Let it awaken us to what you make possible when we risk answering your invitation to begin again. Gift us with the courage to trust the command of Christ to put out into the deep, even when it doesn’t seem to make sense.
Answer our trust with Your promised presence, which reveals an ever-new rising. Bless us with this of as we gather together to pray…
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.
¨ Hymn Here I Am, Lord Schutte
Reprinted with permission using OneLicense #A-723786
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
Today we light this candle to recognize the work of the Kentucky Equal Justice Center(KEJC), a non-profit poverty law advocacy and research center that serves the state’s non-profit legal services community and low income families.
Founded in 1976, the center advocates for the state’s most underserved communities helping people with health care access, housing, wages, education, and more. Over the years, they have successfully challenged funding cuts to nursing homes, prompted legislative action on human trafficking and predatory mortgage lending, and represented workers in struggles to collect owed wages. More recently , they are collaborating with a diverse coalition of partners to help advance housing needs of Kentuckians with the lowest incomes.
KJEC like many nonprofit agencies have seen a drastic reduction in giving and last week were forced to suspend operations “due to financial constraints”. Five days later, thanks to “an outpouring of generosity from partners and more than 350 individual donors,” KEJC has reopened with reduced staff. Although their financial status remains fragile, they will remain open for the next six months while they re-evaluate the scope of their work and seek sustain able funding. Donations can be made at bit.ly/GivetoKEJC.
From Here to There
¨ Benediction
¨ Benediction Song What Love Demands Mark Hayes
Those who are able & willing are invited to fill the aisles as we sing the Benediction Response together. If you’re at home or in the balcony, you are part of the embrace too. The embrace is as wide as God’s love!
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 Andorra, Italy, Malta, Portugal, San Marino, Spain and Vatican City and our brothers and sisters at Bethlehem Baptist 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, and prayers that the cease-fire will hold.
¨ 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.
¨ 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.
¨ 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.
¨ Kerry Jones, out of the hospital an recuperating at home from his stem cell transplant.
¨ Muse Watson, recovering at home from surgery
¨ For Ramona Culp who had a heart incident that resulted in a new pace-maker. May God speed the healing!
¨ Rev. Kent’s cousin, Kathy, undergoing chemotherapy for esophageal cancer.
¨ Teri VanPelt, with an ongoing respiratory infection.
¨ Ally Nurre, recovering from a recent knee replacement.
¨ Kelly Mehler, undergoing chemo-therapy in Lexington, and Teri as she cares and worries for him.
Birthdays: Feb. 9 – Sage Jodock; 10 – Alison Szewczyk, Betsy Whaley, Colin Weckman; 11 – Cora Livingston; 12 – Ashley Cochrane; 13 – Ben Livingston; 14 – Greg Lakes, Ras Cornett
Cecelia McKinney’s 90th birthday will be Feb. 22!! She’d love cards from church friend: 406 Sea Gull Ct., Edgewater, FL 32141
If we haven’t got your important dates, let us know.
We’ll help you get connected in FellowshipOne Go!
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