Gathering in Worship Offered by the People of the Church of Christ, Union

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

June 28, 2020   10:30 am

 
Meditation
“If you are a person who judges, listen carefully to the speech of one who pleads. Don’t stop the person from telling you everything that they had planned to tell you. A person in distress wants to pour out his or her heart, even more than they want their case to be won. If you are one who stops a person who is pleading, that person will say “why does he reject my plea?” Of course not all that one pleads for can be granted, but a good hearing soothes the heart. The means for getting a true and clear explanation is to listen with kindness.” —Phtahhotep, The Maxims (or Instruction) of Ptahhotep is an ancient Egyptian literary composition based on the Vizier Ptahhotep’s wisdom and experiences, composed around 2375-2350 BC. The Instruction of Ptahhotep addresses various virtues that are necessary to live a good life and how to live accordingly to Maat, the personification of truth, justice, and the cosmic order, an important part of the Egyptian culture.
From there to here: we Gather
Welcome
A welcoming Spirit blows through us all! As the Berea community responds to the governor’s suggestion to avoid gathering in large groups, we worship online to limit the risk of exposure to Covid-19. We’re delighted to welcome you into this virtual circle of God’s healing love and light.
The Call “Shine On Me,” Elizabeth Reumann Dorie Hubbard, Reader
At first I wanted the dark. I wanted to feel the shadows around me, holding me, hiding me. I burrowed into it. I hibernated deep in a cave, rolled up like a sleeping bear, my dark past clutched inside me, my secret safe. But then a light shone in, small but strong, like a flashlight’s beam. Someone was searching for me. Eyes closed, I burrowed deeper until I felt myself weakening, shriveling. The darkness deepened, blotting out love, joy, peace, like itself. “Come back!” I heard my muffled voice, calling to the light. “Find me, please. Shine on me.”
Passing the Peace at Home
Building the Community: News that Connects Us

The Living Word among us

This month our justice candle will be lit in honor of all those who are a part of the food supply chain. Despite the pandemic, these individuals continue to work extremely hard and risk their lives every day to make sure our world does not starve. Many of those in this ever-essential industry are immigrants or migrant workers, who face the challenges of discrimination, low wages, and lack of adequate benefits for themselves and their families. Regardless of citizenship status, almost all are considered to be the working poor.
Retail and Restaurant Workers who face the risk of infection from the public, which does not always maintain social distancing, wear masks, or follow other recommended hygiene practices. They also face a great deal of emotional trauma from the customers who are often rude and sometimes even make death threats to employees. Sadly, Calvin Munerlyn of Flint, Michigan was killed for enforcing mask-wearing rules. Retail and restaurant workers continue to receive less than livable wages from the corporations they work for and receive little assistance from our government, despite the dangerous conditions under which they work.
Anthem Spirit Wind John T. Bartsch, Jr.
Pearl Marshall, Handbells; Susan Stephens, piano
Epistle Lesson  Romans 6:112-23 Donna Abner, Reader
Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Children’s Moment
Please join in singing as we bless children everywhere:
May God’s presence 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.
Hebrew Scripture Lesson                            Genesis 22:1-14 Donna Abner, Reader
After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ He said, ‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt-offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.’ So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt-offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. Then Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.’ Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac said to his father Abraham, ‘Father!’ And he said, ‘Here I am, my son.’ He said, ‘The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?’ Abraham said, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt-offering, my son.’ So the two of them walked on together.
When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ He said, ‘Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.’ And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt-offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place ‘The Lord will provide’; as it is said to this day, ‘On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.’
Sermon The Winds of Change:Sailing on the Whisper of a Breeze Rev. Kent Gilbert

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.
A Chance for Generosity: www.easytithe.com/union
Our gifts help sustain this particular community of caring by sustaining the building, pastors and staff, and all the materials that make our ministry of healing, justice, and teaching available to all in need. In addition, a portion of our contributions flows out to aid those in need via many external agencies.
Many friends give online, and you can use your smart phone or computer and go to www.easytithe.com/union. You don’t have to register to make a contribution, but if you do, it can make future generosity that much easier. You can even give by text! Text to 859-448-3403 (Example: Text “$50.00 Offering”)
Your contribution is love made visible. Thank you!
Offering Music
Silent Reflection and Prayer
Center yourself, either now or sometime today, and breathe deeply and peacefully.

• To whom are you listening?
• Who is listening to you?
• To whom are you indenturing yourself?

Our Prayers for Others
You are very welcome to email or phone prayer requests to the office for the bulletin. Please do so by 10 am Thursdays, and be sure you have permission to share the information.
¨ 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 Kenya and Tanzania and our brothers and sisters at Liberty Avenue Baptist Church in our hearts, and pray for them. Please hold these concerns in your prayers, today and throughout the week.
¨ All those seeking a new and just society and those fearful that they will be supplanted, may God open their hearts and include them in grace.
¨ May the church work and pray without ceasing until the violence caused by white privilege and preference is eradicated from our hearts and our society.
¨ Families and Friends in Crises…may God be present to every need and heal every rift and wound and those who care for them.
¨ Jaidyn, granddaughter of Sandy Bowles McClure, soon to undergo open heart surgery.
¨ Guy Patrick, recovering from intestinal surgery.
¨ Teri VanPelt, experiencing health concerns.
¨ Marie, Dorie Hubbard’s kindergarten aged great grand-niece, who has had a recurrence of cancer and is back in treatment.
¨ Emily Hoskins, who is pregnant and has gestational diabetes.
¨ Our church family members in nursing homes, or who are homebound: Alva Peloquin,  Loyal Jones, Jennie Kiteck, Mary Miller, Lois Morgan, Barb Smith, Jan Hamilton.
¨ Children in detention centers, that they may be reunited with their families soon.
¨ George Mountjoy, living with cancer.
¨ Those affected by the Covid-19 virus, their families and friends living with fear, anxiety, and feelings of isolation, may God bring peace to all who love them; and our wider community as we cope with the new realities of living.
Prayers of the People Sean Mack, Reader
Please join me in prayer: Creator of the universe, During these difficult and challenging times, we long for your everlasting love. Our hearts are weary and systemic sin continues to burden our souls. However, even in the midst of a global pandemic, we know you are with us. You are in the soil that allows crops to grow. You are in the grass, the trees, the flowers, and the vegetation that envelops the earth. You are in the rain that nourishes life. You are in the oxygen we breathe. You are in the sunlight that continues to shine. You are in our little hands and feet that we learn to crawl and walk on. You are in our wrinkles and white hairs that time gifts us with. You are in the fur, the paws, and the tails of our closest friends. You are in the strings, bells, and whistles of the instruments we play. You are in the brushes and paint of our artwork. You are in the music that plays on the car radio. You are in both the masked and unmasked we see in  the stores we venture into. You are with the police and the protesters. You are with the sick and the healthy. You are with those in power and the most disinherited of humankind. Dear God, we miss the physical closeness and embrace that we can share with our fellow human beings, but we take comfort in the idea that one day, we will again be able to share the gifts of communal gathering with one another. We take refuge in the understanding that you are always in our hearts, souls, and minds. Amen. And Now, as Jesus taught his followers, we pray to you ….
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 Spirit, Spirit of Gentleness
Chorus: Spirit, spirit of gentleness, blow through the wilderness, calling and free, Spirit, spirit of restlessness, stir me from placidness, wind, wind on the sea.

1. You moved on the waters, you called to the deep,

then you coaxed up the mountains from the valleys of sleep;
and over the eons you called to each thing;
“Awake from your slumbers and rise on your wings.”

2. You swept through the desert, you stung with the sand

and you goaded your people with a law and a land;
and when they were blinded with idols and lies,
then you spoke through your prophets to open their eyes. 

3. You sang in a stable, you cried from a hill,

then you whispered in silence when the whole world was still;
and down in the city you called once again,
when you blew through your people on the rush of the wind.

4. You call from tomorrow, you break ancient schemes.

From the bondage of sorrow all the captives dream dreams;
our women see visions, our men clear their eyes.
With bold new decisions your people arise.
James K. Manley (20th century), hymn-writer. Published in Everflowing Streams (1981).                         “Spirit,” l. 1-4 (1978).
The Sending & Blessing Rev. Kent Gilbert
Postlude Conquering the Impossible  Rodrigo Fernando
In Worship Today…
Each week many elements come together to make our worship together rich and deep.
This week we are grateful for Dorie Hubbard, Donna Abner and Sean Mack, Readers; and Marty Hensley, Jeff Hutton, Sayer Kobersmith, Sean Mack and Olin Perry, in the sound and camera equipment booth.
Many thanks to the Worship Team who crafted this service: Don Cardwell, Debbonnaire Kovacs, Jennifer Melton and Sharona Nelson.
Congregational Meeting to consider revised 2020 budget on Sunday afternoon, July 19. Zoom Webinar format.
Bulletin Announcements and News can now be found at union-church.org/news