A Gathering in Worship Offered by the People of the Church of Christ, Union
Proper 10 of the Season after Pentecost 10:30 am
Meditation
A Gathering in Worship Offered by the People of the Church of Christ, Union
Proper 10 of the Season after Pentecost 10:30 am
Meditation
“Looking deeply at any one thing, we see the whole cosmos. The one is made of the many. To take care of ourselves, we take care of those around us.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh
“But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” ~ Amos 5:24
From There to Here: We Gather
Prelude Prelude, Well Tempered Clavier Book I XXIV J.S. Bach
Welcome
Welcome to this service of worship! Please sign in using the pew folder, pass-ing 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 Pamela Chabora, Reader
One: This is no ordinary place: this is the house of God. This is the place where the prophets cry out for peace and justice and righteousness. It is the place where God reaches down into the corners of our lives, to offer us the mystery of holy love. This is no ordinary gathering. This is no ordinary place: this is the house of God.
All: We come trying to find what is just and right, where mercy may be found, and how to live in love. We come to worship to fill our hearts with all God provides!
¨ Hymn #588 Let Justice Flow Like Streams St. Thomas
- Let justice flow like streams of sparkling water, pure, enabling growth, refreshing life, abundant, cleansing, sure.
- Let righteousness roll on as others’ cares we heed, an ever-flowing stream of faith translated into deed.
- So may God’s plumb line, straight, define our measure true, and justice, right, and peace pervade this world our whole life through.
¨ Prayer of Approach and Confession (unison)
Merciful God, you made us in your image, with a mind to know you, a heart to love you, and a will to serve you. But our knowledge is imperfect, our love inconstant, our obedience incomplete. Day by day, we fail to grow into your likeness. In your tender love, forgive. Open us and transform us. May justice and mercy flow through us by your grace. Amen.
~ Adapted from a prayer by United Church Publishing House, Celebrate God’s Presence (United Church Publishing House, 2000).
¨ 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
Scripture Reading Luke 10:25-37
An expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.” But wanting to vindicate himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and took off, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came upon him, and when he saw him he was moved with compassion. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, treating them with oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him, and when I come back I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
~ 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 Amos 7:7-17
This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “See, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will spare them no longer; the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.” Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the very center of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said, ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.'” And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there, but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”
Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am no prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I am a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ “Now therefore hear the word of the Lord. You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac.” Therefore thus says the Lord: Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be parceled out by line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.”
~ New Revised Standard Version, updated
Sermon Strength in the Right Weakness; Weakness in the Wrong Strength Rev. Kent Gilbert
Video Reflection
A chance to take in what we have heard and reflect together.
Living Prayer
Call to 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 tables. You may also choose to source the essential ingredient of solitude and private prayer, remaining with your own thoughts in your pew.
For Prayer and Reflection
Holding Hard Truths…
No one likes hard truths that bite into comfort or routine. But not listening can be worse. We can miss dangers or do harm. Holding yourself gently now or in prayer time later, make space for some of the hard but necessary truths in your life. If you feel anxiety rise, breath slowly into it with God’s words to us “Fear not, I will carry you through” (Isaiah 43). With each breath feel both the sharpness of your truth and the solidity of holy strength. If there is something that must be done, ask for what you need to do it well. If you are yet unsure, pray and stay open, listening, and ready to move closer with God’s help.
Receiving Weakness and Strength
To get strong in good ways, we sometimes need to recognize our weaknesses. In the story Jesus tells today, how would it have been if the robbed and beaten man had shoved the Samaritan traveler away insisting that he didn’t need help with his broken bones? Today in prayer, or in conversation with someone you trust, explore where you might be turning away borrowed strength. Similarly, the story invites us to be open to the weak state of others not with derision but compassion.
Do you have strengths?
When did you last share them with an outsider to you?
What are you being led to do after your meditation on strength and weakness?
Offertory Adagio sustenuto, Op. 27. No. 2 Ludwig van Beethoven
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¨ Doxology Gathered Here in the Mystery of This Hour Phil Porter
Reprinted with permission using OneLicense #A-723786
Silent Prayer and Prayers of the Community
Lord, we are hoping always and everywhere to be good enough, strong enough, smart enough. We want to care for those we love and be able to care for the world you have gifted us. But today we are also praying to not be seduced by that power and to not forget the weakness you have always had for the tender things: the fragile heart, the open mind, the better way, the inclusive love shown over and over by our brother Jesus and countless of your best saints.
Help us hold on to what is good, what is true, what is honorable – because it is kind, it is merciful, it is holy. Grant strength for such love to all who are weak in it. Grant a weakness for life to all who are holding the power to harm others.
There are none who are not our kin. There is no one not dependent on the web of wellbeing. The straight wall, the plumb line, the cross of Christ, and the terrible speed of your mercy remind us to live your love, not only speak it. Help us, Heal us, Hold us, as we pray in the way Jesus 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 #498 Jesu, Jesu, Fill Us with Your Love Chereponi
Refrain: Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love, show us how to serve the neighbors we have from you.
- Knelt at the feet of his friends, silently washing their feet, Jesu, you acted as a servant to them. Refrain
- Neighbors are rich and poor, varied in color and race, neighbors are near and far away. Refrain
- These are the ones we should serve, these are the ones we should love, all these are neighbors to us and you. Refrain
- Loving puts us on our knees, showing our faith with by our deeds, serving the neighbors we have from you. Refrain
- Kneel at the feet of our friends, silently washing their feet, this is the way we should live with you. Refrain
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
Nelson Mandela Day On Friday July 18, the world celebrates the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela, whose struggle against South Africa’s apartheid regime energized freedom movements throughout the world. Mandela (1918-2013) became a leader in the fight against apartheid, for which he was imprisoned from 1964 to 1990, finally being released due to international pressure. He became the first Black president of South Africa (1994-1999). He played a crucial role in dismantling apartheid and establishing a multiracial democracy, leading the country through a period of reconciliation and nation-building. Mandela’s leadership earned him international recognition and numerous awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
¨ Benediction
¨ Benediction Response Send Down the Fire M. Haugen
Reprinted with permission using OneLicense #A-723786
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 Eritrea and Ethiopia and our siblings at Galilee Baptist Church in our hearts, and pray for them today and throughout the week.
¨ JoAnn Russell, Reda Hutton’s aunt, facing several medical challenges.
¨ Dave Reilly’s nephew, Herb Post, ill with kidney cancer that has spread to his lung.
¨ Rev. Christina Ryan Perkins recovering very well from complex jugular vein surgery. She will have surgery on the other vein soon. Please hold her in your prayers!
¨ Charlie Hoffman, with cardiac issues.
¨ Carla Gilbert and Jeff Melton, both recovering from surgery.
¨ The Bellando family and friends, at Richard’s passing July 4.
Ӭ B.W. Broaddus, the double first cousin of Paula White, with aggressive prostate cancer which has metastasized.
¨ Former Cincinnati Children’s Hospital chaplain Ayman Soliman, an Egyptian national whose legal asylum status was revoked by the Trump administration and was then detained by ICE. Without trial or hearing they will deport him to Egypt where his life is threatened because of his political opposition to an authoritarian regime. He has been in the US legally for more than 10 years and served thousands of families with care and diligence. Prayers for his safety and for mercy and justice to prevail.
¨ 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 treatments. 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: Today, July 13 – Paula White; 14 – Lois Morgan; 15 – Mary McConnell; 17 – Jeff Hutton; 20 – Deborah Martin, Mallory Lakes, Cavan Kobersmith; 21-Tennant Kirk
Anniversaries: June 15 – Brandon Bailey & Abi Woodie
If we haven’t got your important dates, let us know. We’ll help you get connected in FellowshipOne Go!
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