A Gathering in Worship Offered by the People of the Church of Christ, Union
January 11, 2026
10:30 am
Baptism of Jesus
Meditation
Like roots finding water, we always wind up moving towards what sustains us. ~ Mark Nepo
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 Pam Chabora, Reader
One: Come together in the presence of the eternal God.
All: The moment is now. The place is here.
One: In this holy place, may eternity and time overlap.
All: May this be a sacred place where we know the Lord is our God.
One: Sovereign God calls each of us by name and rests a spirit of grace upon all who seek.
All: God, wash our eyes to see your world around us.
One: Sluice our ears to hear the voices of your people.
All: Empower us to cry out for your holy justice.
One: Strengthen us to love with your unending love.
All: Today as we remember whose we are, may we know what we see, rather than see what we know. May we honor and glorify the God of everflowing streams, and proclaim all that is springing forth. Today let us remember and renew our covenant with the Living God. Amen.
~Diane Zaerr Brenneman, Words for Worship 2 (Harrisonburg, VA: Herald Press, 2009, ad.)
¨ Hymn Today We Are Called to Be Disciples Kingsfold
1. Today we are all called to be disciples of the Lord, to help to set the captives free, make plow-share out of sword, to feed the hungry, quench their thirst, make love and peace our fast, to serve the poor and homeless first, our ease and comfort last.
2. God made the world and at its birth ordained our human race to live as stewards of the earth, responding to God’s grace. But we are vain and sadly proud; we sow not peace but strife. Our discord spreads a deadly cloud that threatens all of life.
3. Pray justice may come rolling down as in a mighty stream, with righteousness in field and town to cleanse us and redeem. For God is longing to restore an earth where conflicts cease, a world that was created for a harmony of peace.
4. May we in service to our God act out the living word, and walk the road the saints have trod till all have seen and heard. As stewards of the earth may we give thanks in one accord to God who calls us all to be disciples of the Lord.
¨ Prayer of Approach and Confession
Eternal God, you are great and greatly to be praised. Your word is life and truth. We have come to hear it. Like the rain that waters the earth, let your Word water our lives.
In a mighty stream may we pour forth your justice. Let it wash over us like the waves of the sea. Let it splash our sins away. Quiet the voices in us and around us so that we might hear your voice alone. We have not done well. We would do better.
For this we ask your help: Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
¨ 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 Talk About a Child, trad. Union Church Orchestra
Scripture Reading Isaiah 42:1-9
Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry out or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth, and the coastlands wait for his teaching.
Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.
I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols. See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.
~ 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 Matthew 3:13-17
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.”
Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw God’s Spirit descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from the heavens said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
~ New Revised Standard Version, updated
Sermon Drips to Drops Rev. Kent Gilbert
Video Reflection
A chance to take in what we have heard and reflect together.
Water of Blessing Remembered and Renewed
All God’s children are beloved. Today, with many other Christians, we celebrate a renewal of Baptismal Vows, using both words and water. During the readings and music, a branch from a Christmas tree will be used to sprinkle water over the congregation as a reminder that like the rain, the grace of God falls on all people.
Whether baptized or not, we invite all who will to join in prayers for grace and wholeness, and for strength to resist the powers of harm in this world. May this be a way to recommit to service in the way of Jesus.
Water of Blessing Litany
One: God calls us to the water to find a new way:
a new grace,
a new hope,
a new faith,
a new life.
All: God calls; we come.
One: Come to the water and let go of the outworn:
outworn habits,
outworn pains,
outworn angers,
outworn burdens.
All: God calls; we come.
One: God blesses the water and it
heals us,
cleans us,
renews us,
refreshes us.
All: God blesses; we praise.
One: Come to the water and receive
blessing,
freedom,
mercy,
love.
All: God blesses; we praise.
One: Bless to us this water with your presence, Lord. Amen.
Receive this water, gift of God, and hear for yourself how God names you: Beloved.
All: By the waters of baptismal grace we promise to love and serve God by following the Christ. We pray to boldly and creatively embody the life and ministry of Jesus by celebrating the transforming power of God, the compassion of Christ, and the leading of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Asperges Hymn #351 I Was There to Hear Your Borning Cry Borning Cry
1. I was there to hear your borning cry,
I’ll be there when you are old.
I rejoiced the day you were baptized,
to see your life unfold.
I was there when you were but a child,
with a faith to suit you well;
In a blaze of light you wandered off
to find where demons dwell.
2. When you found the wonder of the Word
I was there to cheer you on;
You were raised to praise the living God,
to whom you now belong.
Should you find someone to share your time
and you join your hearts as one,
I’ll be there to make your verses rhyme
from dusk ’till rising sun.
3. In the middle ages of your life
not too old, no longer young,
I’ll be there to guide you through the night,
complete what I’ve begun.
When the evening gently closes in,
and you shut your weary eyes,
I’ll be there as I have always been
with just one more surprise.
4. I was there to hear your borning cry,
I’ll be there when you are old.
I rejoiced the day you were baptized,
to see your life unfold.
Living Prayer
Call to Prayer
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 Iran, Iraq and Syria and our siblings at Bearwallow Pentecostal Holiness Church in our hearts, and pray for them today and throughout the week.
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.
Offertory
A Chance for Generosity: 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 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.
Silent Prayer and Prayers of the Community Pam Chabora, Reader
God who brings the water to earth and causes rivers of grace to flow, wear away all our hardness. Make supple our dry souls and quench our thirsty greed. With the resistless power of these drops unleash the torrent of remembrance and promise in your people. Remind us of what Love demands. Rinse us free of what has kept us stuck where no love lies. Lift us body and mind and soul on waves of hope and healing and carry it quickly to those who hurt so deeply and need your touch so much.
Like water, help us fill every crevice with your compassion, to channel your relentless flow to shape the world like justice. Like water let us be incompressible, yet gentle as quiet peace in wearing down the rough places: never stopping, never relenting in these holy tasks.
You, O, God came to us in our brother, Jesus, and watched as he washed and made covenant with you. Watch with us, too, that you might also be well-pleased when like waters of love, we rise to serve your kin-dom.
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 #326 Crashing Waters at Creation Stuttgart
- Crashing waters at creation,
ordered by the Spirit’s breath,
first to witness day’s beginning
from the brightness of night’s death.
2. Parting water stood and trembled
as the captives passed on through,
washing off the chains of bondage –
channel to a life made new.
3. Cleansing water once at Jordan
closed around the One foretold,
opened to reveal the glory
ever new and ever old.
4. Living water, never ending,
quench the thirst and flood the soul.
Wellspring, Source of life eternal,
drench our dryness, make us whole.
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
Murphy Davis (1948-2020) was an advocate for the Homeless and an Activist Against the Death Penalty.
Rev. Murphy Davis and her husband, both pastors in the Presbyterian Church, made the abolition of the death penalty, creating housing for the unhoused, the struggles for racial and economic justice, and the abolition of war their life’s work. In 1981 Davis helped found the Open-Door Community, a diverse residential Christian Community dedicated to the economic conditions that create homelessness.
Murphy Davis stated “The flagrant destruction of the earth and its precious resources and the destruction of human hope and dignity are part of the same death-dealing spirit that says: Serve yourself, Take what’s yours and then get yourself a gun and an insurance policy to protect it. Use up whatever you want right now and let someone else worry about tomorrow.” americanswhotellthetruth.org
¨ Benediction
¨ Benediction Response Jean Ritchie you’re invited to join in singing:
Brightest and best of the suns of the morning,
Dawn on our darkness, and lend us thine aid;
Star of the east, the horizon adorning,
Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid.
Our Prayers for Others
¨ Dave Reilly’s nephew, Herb Post, ill with kidney cancer that has spread to his lung.
¨ 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.
¨ That the fragile ceasefire in the Middle East may hold; and those suffering receive the aid they need.
¨ 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.
¨ Our neighbors experiencing housing insecurity, homelessness and food insecurity.
¨ Our church family members in nursing homes or who are homebound: Dorie Hubbard, Susan Kramer, Sara Parker, Hattie Parks, Cheryl Payne, Alva Peloquin, Laura Robie, Theresa Scherf.
¨ The Mehler family, at the passing of Robin Mehler’s father, Kelly Raulerson, in Asheville, NC. Asa and Eli have lost two grand-fathers in three months.
¨ A group of Berea neighbors & Union friends travelling together, on what was to have been Eef Fontanez’ retirement celebration.
¨ Celebrations with Prayers of Joy!
Birthdays: January 13 – Siddharthini Wilton; 14 – Gaige Biggs, Levi Broadbridge; 15 – Hattie Parks, Terry Beishline; 16 – Kent Gilbert
Anniversaries: January 14 – Terry & Deb Beishline
If we haven’t got your important dates, let us know. We’ll help you get connected in FellowshipOne Go!
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