A Gathering in Worship Offered by the People of the Church of Christ, Union
June 21, 2026 10:30 am Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Meditation
“I am somebody cause God don’t make no junk.” ~ Ethel Waters
From There to Here: We Gather
Prelude
¨ Call to Worship Laura Nagle, Reader
One: Blessed are your children, O God. Blessed are the sacred weird ones. Blessed are the holy and wholly different. Blessed are the ones who are too loud, too bold, too wild, too much.
All: Blessed are your children, O God.
One: Blessed are your gay, lesbian, and bisexual children. Blessed are your trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming children. Blessed are your children who we are all learning to name, describe, and know.
Sung Response
One: Blessed are your gay, lesbian, and bisexual children. Blessed are your trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming children. Blessed are your children who we are all learning to name, describe, and know.
Sung Response
I’m beautiful in my way
’Cause God makes no mistakes
I’m on the right track, baby
I was born this way
~ From “Born This Way” by Lady Gaga; Maranda Weckman, soloist
All: Blessed are your children, O God.
One: Blessed are those who have come out. Blessed are those who cannot. Blessed are those who are still finding their way.
All: Blessed are your children, O God.
One: Blessed are those who feel boxed in. Blessed are those who feel shackled by tradition. Blessed are those who are suffocated by the roars of expectation.
Sung Response All are invited to join in singing:
I’m beautiful in my way
’Cause God makes no mistakes
I’m on the right track, baby
I was born this way
All: Blessed are your children, O God.
One: Blessed are those who struggle with self-harm and self-hatred. Blessed are those who strive to accept the person they see in the mirror. Blessed are those who strain each day just to survive.
All: Blessed are your children, O God.
One: Blessed are those who persist. Blessed are those who persevere. Blessed are those who prove to the world each day that diversity is divine.
Sung Response
I’m beautiful in my way
’Cause God makes no mistakes
I’m on the right track, baby
I was born this way
All: Blessed are your children, O God.
One: Blessed are the chosen families who have taken in the lost and forgotten. Blessed are the friends and family who have helped rewrite the stories of lives. Blessed are the allies who have loved those unable to love themselves.
All: Blessed are your children, O God.
One: Blessed are those whose ancestral queer footsteps we walk in. Blessed are those who marched and marched and marched before us. Blessed are those who have dared to dream and dared to demand justice.
Sung Response
I’m beautiful in my way
’Cause God makes no mistakes
I’m on the right track, baby
I was born this way
All: Blessed are your children, O God.
One: Every single one of them.
One: And blessed are we as well.
All: Tirelessly, Courageously, Imaginatively, Co-creating with you
One: A world where all people know and feel and have love.
All: All sexualities. All genders. All gender expressions. All families. All bodies.
One: Holy One, guide us toward your strange, boundless, undefinable love. And when we are met with the sneers, side-eye, and shame of the world, remind us who walks this journey with us. You: the One who has shattered every norm, every box, every shackle that holds us down and calls us to do the same. Amen.
¨ Hymn There’s a Wideness In God’s Mercy Holy Manna (#376)
1. There’s a wideness in God’s mercy, like the wideness of the sea. There’s a kindness in God’s justice, which is more than liberty. There’s no place where earthly sorrows are more felt than in God’s heaven; there’s no place where earthly failings have such kindly judgement given.
2. For the love of God is broader than the measures of our minds, and the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind. If our love were but more faithful, we would gladly trust God’s word; and our lives would show thanksgiving for the goodness of our God.
¨ Invocation
One: Voice, Body, Spirit, we acknowledge your presence gathering us together as your church. Today, we join in worship. May we encounter you anew. We find a good place in you and with one another.
You have made us in your image and enabled us to be in community with you, O God, as people called to service, justice, and caretaking. Let your name be praised. Let us receive your word. Let us embrace and live your truth. Amen.
¨ Passing the Peace
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.
¨ Prayer of Approach & Confession Box Breath Prayer (3x)
As we pray, we slow our breathing and our lives in order to attend to God. The leader will guide this meditation three times, and you are invited to pattern your breath with each phrase as indicated below.
Inhale: I am wonderfully made.
Hold: I am knitted with intention.
Exhale: I am wonderfully made.
Hold: I am love embodied.
¨ Words of Assurance
One: The world may feel suffocating, but the breath of the Almighty gives life. As long as we are breathing, we are not defeated.
All: Our soul breathes and our hearts sing for we have seen the Lord at work! Amen!
Word and Worship
Scripture Reading Genesis 21: 8-21
The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.” The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you. As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.”
So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.”
Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
~ 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 10:24-33
“A disciple is not above the teacher nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of the household! “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.
“Everyone, therefore, who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven, but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a child against their father, or mother, and in-laws, and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.
“Whoever loves a parent more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves a child more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
~ New Revised Standard Version, updated
Sermon Love Demands Rev. Christina Ryan Perkins
Video Reflection
Living Prayer
Call to Prayer
One: Generous God, just as you provided for all our needs in your creative acts, you have made us caretakers of your good creation. Let us accept the call to faithful discipleship, the opportunity to trust in your provision, and the generous nature you have embedded in us.
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. Next week, let us hold the people of Malawi and Zambia; and our siblings at the Church of the Nazarene 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: Glitter Blessing
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.
For Reflection
Glitter Blessing
Today we offer a glitter blessing, a recognition of the sacred beauty inherent in every person.
This glitter that we share with each other today is a reminder that each of us is beautiful in our sacred imperfection, our ever-changing selves, our glorious plurality.
As we play some music, you are invited to come forward, show us where you would like to receive your glitter blessing.
Building our Rainbow
We bear witness so all may be free to live into who Creators calls us to be.
Reflect on names, stories, places that have nourished you with Love OUT LOUD for your personhood. on the colorful paper, write a memory, name, prayer, or word of encouragement.
In-Person: You are invited to place your colorful reflections onto the adhesive board near the candle tables. If you would like someone else to place your card for you, please raise your hand and we will place your offering for you.
Virtual Participants: Those gathered virtually are invited to place your stories in the chat, we will add them to our posters.
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
One: God of tenderness – of soft, holy comfort – breathe life into our restless bodies. Empower us to embody your relentless love & grace. Help us mirror to one another that you are a God who makes no mistakes. Let these prayers reverberate far & wide:
For our Queer Youth: You are beautiful and wonderfully made as you are. You are queer enough as you are. Your journey to discover who you are in your queerness is a gift to bear witness to and worthy of celebration. Keep going. Keep embracing yourself as you are in bloom. You are enough as you are and you are a yes to God, always.
For our Queer Ancestors: Thank you for your relentless resistance so that advocacy, love, care, and justice could be manifested and continued in this moment. Your voices – Your Bodies – Your Spirits live onward in this space & beyond. Your life is a gift and we will continue to tell your stories so you live onward in just action & love.
For our Queer Elders: Your wisdom matters. Your voice is critical to our continued flourishing and your life reminds us to take up space in this world despite what others may say or do. Your heart and spirit to be as you are empowers all of us to reflect on how to show up as ourselves, authentically.
For our Allies: Your support is needed and we are grateful for how you commit to becoming aware of what the Queer Community faces daily. In furthering your awareness, we all become free. In joining hand -n-hand with the Queer Community, we work more intentionally toward intersectional justice and communal care.
For the Church: Despite the ways religion is used as a weapon of harm, the Church – the people of God – continues to embody love over hate. The ways we make space for all – not only changes lives – but saves lives.
In the great call to tend to one another, Earth and ourselves, may we continue to empower one another to be the Church that Christ nourished over meals – a table, our stories, our resilience & our deep believe in love that transcends all things through a Creator who knows our inner being and calls us in to bloom new life again & again, together. We 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.
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 remember the work of Bryan Stevenson, a public interest lawyer who founded the Equal Justice Initiative to challenge racial injustice, defend the wrongly convicted, and advocate for equal treatment under the law.
In Montgomery, Alabama, Stevenson helped create the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum, including the powerful display of jars filled with soil collected from lynching sites across the country—each bearing witness to lives lost and histories too often forgotten. Through truth-telling, remembrance, and a commitment to justice, Stevenson’s work invites us to honor the spirit of Juneteenth by continuing the pursuit of racial equality, healing, and peace. eji.org
¨ Hymn #475 God’s Eye Is on the Sparrow Sparrow
1. Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heaven and home,
When God is ever my portion? My constant friend will be:
God’s eye is on the sparrow, and I know God watches me;
God’s eye is on the sparrow, and I know God watches me.
Refrain: I sing because I’m happy, I sing because I’m free, God’s eye is on the sparrow, and I know God watches me.
2. “Let not your heart be troubled,” Christ’s tender word I hear,
And resting on God’s goodness, I lose my doubts and fears;
Though by the path God leads me, but one step I may see;
God’s eye is on the sparrow, and I know God watches me;
God’s eye is on the sparrow, and I know God watches me.
Refrain
3. Whenever I am tempted, whenever clouds arise,
When song gives place to sighing, when hope within me dies,
I then draw the closer to my Savior, from care I am set free;
God’s eye is on the sparrow, and I know God watches me;
God’s eye is on the sparrow, and I know God watches me.
Refrain
The Joy of Welcoming New Members
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.
From Here to There
¨ Benediction
Go.
Go from this place where we declare:
“all are loved.”
“all are made in the image of God.”
into world that does not agree.
Go.
Go to be Christ’s body
which means:
Go to be safety.
Go to be affirmation.
Go to embody the welcome
that Christ has extended to you
your whole life long.
Gird yourself with the truth
of your belovedness.
Armor yourself with the knowledge
of a God whose love is beyond all of our imaginings.
Walk surrounded by the peace
that can match hatred and death.
Go.
Go to be ambassadors
of the God who is Love.
“Benediction Response
Our Prayers for Others
¨ 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.
¨ Those in mortal danger in the continuing war in Iran. For the leaders of nations to set aside assassination and warfare in favor of just, diplomatic solutions to conflict.
¨ 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.
¨ Andrea Wescott, struggling with finding peace after the loss of her uncle last year in a motorcycle accident; and for all the household.
¨ On this Father’s Day, we pray in gratitude for all those who have loved us as fathers should and stewarded our lives in loving ways; and prayers for all whom this is a difficult day of remembrance or pain. May love and healing supplant all grief.
¨ JoAnn Russell, Reda Hutton’s aunt, facing several medical challenges.
¨ Our church family members in nursing homes or who are homebound: Dorie Hubbard, Susan Kramer, Hattie Parks, Alva Peloquin, Laura Robie, Theresa Scherf.
¨ Celebrations with Prayers of Joy!
Birthdays: Today, June 21 – Deborah Thompson; 22 – Jane Warth, Alida Schuyler, Teri VanPelt; 23 – Eva Sutherland; 24 – David Duffee, Daniel Hendrickson, Imogene Fowler; 25 – Stephanie Woodie; 27 – Toby Wilcher
Anniversaries: June 23 – Steve & Sandy Bolster; 27 – Greg & Rachel Lakes
If we haven’t got your important dates, let us know. We’ll help you get connected in FellowshipOne Go!
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