A Gathering in Worship Offered by the People of the Church of Christ, Union
Tenth Sunday after Pentecost 10:30 am
Meditation
I’m tired of all the rage, tired of all the worry. I’m ready for a great wild mercy. ~ Carrie Newcomer
From There to Here: We Gather
Prelude Forever Young Bob Dylan Al, Alice & Ruth
Welcome
¨ Call To Worship Lorilyn Howie-Kipphut, Reader
One: Beautiful are the works of God!
All: Beautiful also are the skins of God’s people!
One: Beautiful is the mind of God!
All: Beautiful also are the hopes of God’s people!
One: Beautiful is the heart of God!
All: Beautiful also are the souls of God’s people!
One: God made the heavens and the earth!
All: To God be the glory for the things God has done.
¨ Opening Hymn #558 O How Glorious, Full of Wonder In Babilone
1 O how glorious, full of wonder is your name o’er all the earth. God, who wrought creations’ splendor, bringing suns and stars to birth! Rapt in reverence we adore you, marveling at your mystic ways. Humbly now we bow before you, lifting up our hearts in praise.
2 When we see your lights of heaven, moon and stars, your power displayed, who are we that you should love us, creatures that your hand has made? Born of earth, yet full of yearning, mixture strange of good and ill, from your ways so often turning, yet your love does seek us still.
3 You have set us in communion with the wonders of your hand, made us fly with eagle pinion, pilgrims over sea and land. Soaring spire and ruined city, these our hopes and failures show. Teach us more of human pity, that we in your image grow.
4 O how wondrous, O how glorious is your name in every land, God, whose purpose shines before us toward the goal that you have planned! Yours the will our hearts are seeking, conscious of our human need. Spirit in our spirit speaking, make us yours, O God indeed.
¨ Prayer of Approach and Confession
¨ Words of Assurance
¨ Passing the Peace of Christ
All who come to this sanctuary are welcome companions on this day! You are invited to turn to those nearest you and greet them with words of peace.
Word and Worship
Scripture Reading 2 Samuel 11:1-15
In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. It happened, late one afternoon when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, “This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” So David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she returned to her house. The woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”
So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the people fared and how the war was going. Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord and did not go down to his house. When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “You have just come from a journey. Why did you not go down to your house?” Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah remain in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing.” Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.”
So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day. On the next day. David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and made him drunk, and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house. In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die.”
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 John 6:1-21
After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.”
One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place, so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.” When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.
Sermon But Where’s the Bread? Rev. Kent Gilbert
Video Reflection
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.
Offertory Oh Sister Bob Dylan & Jacques Levy Al, Alice & Ruth
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 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
Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise God all creatures here below.
Praise God above ye heavenly host:
Creator, Christ and Holy Ghost! Amen.
Silent Prayer and Prayers of the Community Lorilyn Howie-Kipphut, Reader
One: Jesus sat with all sorts, the many different colors of humanity, the broken of body and spirit, and all who were excluded. With us all he broke bread.
One: So along with everyone the world has turned its back on, along with everyone hungry and everyone hungry for justice and truth, along with everyone abused as stranger and foreigner, or withered with illness and fatigue, along with everyone who does not fit “normal,” along with everyone who questions, doubts, and even denies, along with every prejudice that has ever been flung, along with everyone made poor by other’s riches, you, you and I, are welcome.
One: Let us 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.
From Here to There
¨ Hymn #18 Guide Me, O My Great Redeemer CWM Rhondda
1 Guide me, O my great Redeemer, pilgrim through this barren land; I am weak, but you are mighty; hold me with your powerful hand. Bread of heaven, bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more,, feed me till I want no more.
2 Open now the crystal fountain, where the healing waters flow. Let the fire and cloudy pillar lead me all my journey through. Strong Deliverer, strong Deliverer, ever be my strength and shield, ever be my strength and shield.
3 When I reach the River Jordan, bid my anxious fears subside. Death of death, and hell’s destruction, land me safe on Canaan’s side. Songs of praises, songs of praises I will ever sing to you, I will ever sing to you.
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
Religious Community in Ndem, Senegal. Serigne Babacar Mbow and his wife, Soxna Aïssa Cissé, started a religious community in Ndem,Senegal, in 1985. As a religious leader, he combined this passion for social justice with the teachings of the Muridiyya, one of the largest Sufi (Islam) orders in Senegal. Ndem is a Baay Fall community, a suborder of the Muridiyya that believes that working for God and for one’s community is a form of prayer.
Ndem is within a rural agricultural region in the Sahel, the arid ecosystem south of the Sahara Desert. The Sahel, and particularly central Senegal, has faced over 100 years of intermittent drought and rising temperatures. Degraded soil and access to water are the two biggest challenges this agricultural region faces. Serigne Babacar’s vision, and the mission of the Ndem today, is to revitalize the area, improving living conditions through projects in agriculture, health, environment, education, and food and
water security. These projects serve the village of Ndem and ten adjacent villages.
Note: This article was submitted by Ashley Cochrane, whose sister Laura lives and works with this community. Mission and Service welcomes suggestions for the Justice Candle which you can send to Tennant Kirk or Carla Gilbert.
Partnership & Purpose
Today presents an opportunity to covenant together! All who would like to are welcome to join the church family – you will be received in joy.
Questions of the Congregation and New Members
¨ Covenant of Welcome
And we, the members and faithful friends of this church, renewing our own covenant to God and to each other, do now heartily welcome you to our fellowship, promising to watch over you in love, and praying that you, and we, may be true witnesses for Christ, a light in the world, and continue to increase in usefulness and joy in his service.
¨ Benediction The God of Second Chances David Haas
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!
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 Republic of Congo, Gabon, Sao Tome and Principe and our brothers and sisters at River of Life Foursquare 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.
¨ Our church family members in nursing homes or who are homebound: Jan Hamilton, Betsy Hoefer, Dorie Hubbard, Lois Morgan, Sara Parker, Cheryl Payne, John Payne, Alva Peloquin, Laura Robie.
¨ All those suffering from mental strain, trauma, and disease: 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.
¨ For all those caring for others in their illnesses and needs: may God give them both strength and encourage-ment in this work of costly love.
¨ Erikke Meadows’ mom, Prudy Meadows, with COPD.
¨ The Guild family as Will continues his struggle with brain cancer and stroke.
¨ Patty Boyce, and all the family, at Steve’s death. A service in celebration of his life will be held Aug. 11, 3pm.
¨ Donna Lovell’s dad, Donald Reed, recovering from a broken leg after a bad fall.
¨ Laura Nagle, recovering from a broken leg.
¨ Joseph Jacobs, with pancreatitis.
¨ Lynette Willis, at the loss of her sister, Kathy.
¨ John Payne is at The Terrace in Berea and would love visits and cards! 1043 Brooklyn Blvd., Berea.
¨ Prayer for a restored and renewed sense of integrity in all public officials and work: that justice may be louder than greed; fair and good governance a blessing to all people, not the favored few.
¨ Celebrations with Prayers of Joy!
Birthdays: July 29 – Barbara Frederiksen; 30 – Joanna King; 31 – Sharona Nelson; Aug. 2 – Erikke Meadows;
Anniversaries: July 30 – Kristin Boyce & Mariano Sana
If we haven’t got your important dates, let us know. We’ll help you get connected in FellowshipOne Go!
Leave a Reply