A Gathering in Worship Offered by the People of the Church of Christ, Union
Third Sunday of Easter & Sharing of the Lord’s Supper 10:30 am
Meditation
“As often happens on the spiritual journey, we have arrived at the heart of a paradox: each time a door closes, the rest of the world opens up.” — Parker J. Palmer
Welcome
From There to Here: We Gather
The Call
One: “I have taken my fair share of bruises in this lifetime and I suspect you have too. I just want to let you know that I don’t mind taking a few more. If you are willing, so am I. So far we’ve made a pretty good team. We’ve faced down a pandemic, lived through more social turmoil, confronted environmental collapse, and watched a war ravage a nation. In each struggle we have been willing to show up and do all we can to help. Change never comes easy. But it always comes at a price. We are old enough to understand that. We have paid our dues. The point is: I am happy to keep paying them with you. If you are willing, so am I.” — The Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston
¨ May Day Processional
¨ Hymn Listen to Your Savior Call Orientis Partius
- Listen to your Savior call, “Do you love me most of all?” Jesus speaks, and speaks to you: “Love me as I first loved you.”
- “I delivered you when bound, and, when bleeding, healed your wound. Sought you wandering, set you right, for your pathway gave you light.”
- “Mine is an unchanging love, higher than the heights above, Deeper than the depths beneath, free and failthul, strong as death.”
- O my Savior, hear my need: though my love is faint indeed, Still I love you and adore – oh, for grace to love you more!
¨ Passing the Peace
Building the Community: News that Connects Us
Announcements
Congratulations to our College Graduates!
Your church family celebrates your accomplishments!
· Rhiannon Connor from Vassar College
· Madeleine Hoffman, BA from Berea College
· Mallory Lakes, BA from Eastern Kentucky University
· Nick McNiffe from West Point’s Herbert Medical School
· Bernardo Scarambone, MBA from Eastern Kentucky University
Lighting the Justice Candle
While the first day of May has been celebrated for centuries as the return of Spring, the word Mayday has another meaning. It is an internationally recognized radio word to signal distress. In 1923, the London Times announced the new air distress signal. SOS was predominantly used by boats to telegraph help in emergencies, but with the advent of air craft which uses radio to communicate, a new code was needed. Owing to the difficulty of distinguishing the letter “S” by radio/telephone, the international distress signal “S.O.S.” was replaced with the words “May-day”, the phonetic equivalent of “M’aidez”, French for “Help me.”
Today we light this candle for all those folks in distress from poverty, homelessness, drug addiction, or the horrors of war. We pray that they ask for and receive the help they need.
Word And Worship
Music
Reading from Acts of the Apostles Acts 9:1-20, p. 1330
Children’s Moment Please join in singing as we bless children everywhere:
May God’s blessing 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.
Gospel Reading John 21:1-19, p. 1314
Sermon Breakfast on the Beach …because Love Demands Rev. Kent Gilbert
Responding to God’s Love in Communion
Invitation to Communion
One: The Lord be with you!
All: And also with you.
One: Lift up your hearts!
All: We lift them unto the Lord.
One: Let us give thanks to the Lord Our God
All: It is always right to give God thanks and praise.
One: Jesus has always been one to invite.
He said, “Drop your nets and follow me.”
He said, “Let the little children come.”
He said, “Stand up from your mat, you are healed.”
Jesus has always been one to invite, and that has not changed.
So friends, you are invited to this Table. Each and every one of us—with our doubts, our fears, our scars, our joy, our dreams, our hopes, our questions—we are invited to God’s table.
And here we will be met. Here we will be fed. Here we are given a taste of an expansive life that is full to the brim with love, overflowing with joy.
So come. Not because you must, but because you can.
Come. You are invited. This Table is for you.
Call to Prayer and Offering
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.
Communion Prayer
Lord you meet us where we are, as you find us. You come to us in word and worship, in the guise of the stranger, as welcome friend on the beach. As you come to us now with cup and bread, wisdom and challenge, hear our praise as it rings with all creation:
Sanctus Halleluja
Words of Institution
One: Holy one, you who teach us what Love Demands and call us to be your compassion, the feast of your presence comforts and challenges. Like the disciples long ago, we are often in danger of returning to the old ways, as if the hope were delusion and the glory but a dream. But Jesus came to them as to us, to remind them that Love is so much more than oblivion. Love calls, demands, and makes possible the wider, deeper life you intend for all.
So we remember the many times that Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it among his friends. We remember the words he shared with love each time:
All: “This is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
One: Not just the daily bread, but also the cup of celebration is passed to us: new life, flowing like joy, and looking like company. Amongst those same friends, he took a cup, and giving thanks, said,
All: “This cup is a new covenant of my life and blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
One: For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord until he comes.
Gracious God, by this meal we recall Jesus’ birth, his ministry to all of us in danger of forgetting too much, of loving less, of having too little. Send your Holy Spirit upon us and upon this bread and cup, that we who eat and drink at this holy table may share the life of Christ, our Lord. Make a feast of what we have and may the blessing sustain us so we may bless others. “Come,” said the Lord, “Let’s have breakfast,” and speak of what love demands. Amen.
Serving One Another
All who seek the love of God are welcome at this meal and are invited to freely receive from it. When invited please come to one of the stations by exiting your pew to the left and returning by the right. If it is not convenient to come forward, the elements can be brought to your seat by signaling to the usher. All the bread is gluten-free, and the chalices are filled with non-alcoholic grape juice.
If it is not your tradition to receive, you are invited to join in prayers for the unity of the Spirit and all people, within your tradition.
Music Communion Meditation Union Church Orchestra
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”)
You can also use US mail! Mail to: 200 Prospect St., Berea, KY 40403
Your contribution is love made visible. Thank you!
Community Prayer of Thanksgiving
One: With 153 reasons to bless you, we thank you for the gift of this meal, this time, this company, this Word, this work. Thank you for opening us to what is around us already, and keeping us ready for what is yet to come. May every table in every house be so rich, and may every child know the spring of life, of enough to eat, of a safe place to sleep. By this meal, we pledge like Peter to feed your lambs. This, this is what Love Demands, lord, and we are humbled to be of service. This we pray in the way of your Christ, who 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 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 What Love Demands Mark Hayes
Dedicated to the public health workers, medical personnel, chaplains, and front-line essential workers who answered love’s demands in a time of national pandemic.
Dedicated to them by the people of Union Church, Berea, KY, in memory of Mr. Tom Warth, Dr. Richard and Ms. Judy Drake, and Ms. Mary Lou and Dr. Lester Pross.
Music to the chorus is on the next pages: please join in singing!
2nd time through—please sing “we” for “I,” and “our” for “my.”
1. What does it mean to love my neighbor? How can I live in harmony? Are you my brother or are you just another? When I look in your eyes, who do I see? I see you’re made in the image of God, uniquely gifted with the right to be loved. Neighbor or stranger, how may I serve you? What does love demand?
Chorus: Love is listening with heartfelt compassion, holding the lonely, wiping a tear. Love demands that I live in the moment to live in the question when the answer’s unclear. Love demands I seek what unites us releasing fear and whatever divides us. With God as my strength I will be the change I want to see. For that’s what love, that’s what love demands.
2. What can we do to stand for justice? What can we do so all are free? What can we do to end oppression, so all have the same opportunity? We will be God’s hands and welcoming arms. We’ll keep you safe from danger and harm. Homeless or helpless, how may we serve you? What does love demand? Love demands we do what we can. Take a stand. Lend a hand.
Chorus: Love is listening with heartfelt compassion, holding the lonely, wiping a tear. Love demands that we live in the moment, to live in the question when the answer’s unclear. Love demands we seek what unites us, releasing fear and whatever divides us. With God as our strength we will be the change we want to see. For that’s what love, that’s what love demands.
¨ Benediction
¨ Hymn Let Union Be In All Our Hearts
Please join in singing the Chorus:
Chorus:
Let union be in all our hearts.
Let all our hearts be joined as one.
We’ll end the day as we’ve begun,
We’ll end it all in pleasure.
Right, folly-rolly-rolly, too-ra-li-o
Right, folly-rolly-rolly, too-ra-li-o
Right, folly-rolly-rolly, too-ra-li-o
While we are together
¨ Morris Dancers Recessional
Postlude He Lives Union Church Orchestra
In Our Prayers
¨ 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 Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan; and our brothers & sisters at Galilee Baptist Church in our hearts, and pray for them. Please hold these concerns in your prayers, today and throughout the week.
¨ 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, including the now over 15,400 Kentucky residents, and 279 Madison County residents, who have died to date from Covid-19.
¨ Prayers for all the people of Ukraine for their safety and sovereignty, and especially those in the city of Nikolaev where the family of former Berea International student daughter of Kevin and Carla, Yulia live. Prayers also that the government of Russia will turn to reason & respect for their own peoples’ lives as well as for Ukrainian families.
¨ Ukrainian Refugees and Afghani Refugees
¨ All those feeling the oppression of depression and isolation. May God strengthen us all and build bridges to grace.
¨ 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.
¨ Our church family members in nursing homes or who are homebound: Alva Peloquin, Loyal Jones, Lois Morgan, Jan Hamilton, Laura Robie, Dorie Hubbard, Betty Wray, Sally Zimmerman
¨ Families and Friends in Crises…may God be present to every need and heal every rift and wound and those who care for them.
¨ JoAnn Russell, Reda Hutton’s aunt, facing several medical challenges.
¨ Children in detention centers, that they may be reunited with their families soon.
¨ Sharona Nelson, facing a long recovery after surgery to repair a broken shoulder.
¨ Sharona’s husband, and a faithful bridge club member, Dan Kotlow, now recovering at home.
¨ Raymond Binkley, Betty Wray’s brother, aged 94, and in ill health.
¨ Alice White, recovering from hip replacement surgery at home.
¨ Jerry Cooper, at the death of his son, Ronnie Cooper.
¨ Important dates—if we haven’t got yours, let us know. We’ll help you get connected in FellowshipOne Go!
Birthdays: May 2, Jenny Hobson; 3 – Patrick McCleary, Edd Easton-hogg; 5 – Steve Rhoces, 6 – Ann Butwell; 7 – Thomas McClure, Annriette Stolte
Anniversaries: Today May 1 – Charles & Megan Hoffman
Coming Up!
Opportunity for Generosity
The Union Church Mission Trip to the Arizona-Mexico border is coming up—May 11-19. If you’d like to donate white athletic-type socks—in all sizes—they’ll bring them. They would be much appreciated! Please bring to the church office by May 9—thank you!
Public Affairs Book Club
The Public Affairs Book Club has been meeting on Zoom — but is planning to meet in person at the church. We are completing a series of articles on foreign policy and will be making a new selection. If interesting in sharing your public affairs views come and meet with us and help us choose the next subject. We meet on the 2nd and 4thTuesdays of the month in the Wayside Room at 10 am. If interested contact John Culp, 859-302-1406, for questions or be included on our e-mail list.
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