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

Sixth Sunday of Easter

May 26, 2019        10:30 am

 
Meditation
In terror, I close my eyes. I thought I was content only to be forgiven. I felt quite noble about it. Now I find that actually, I was relieved. I am afraid to be healed! I want it more than anything… but—walk! How can he say it so casually?He is not paralyzed. He doesn’t know…
— from Biblical Meditation for Non-Mystics by Debbonnaire Kovacs

From there to here: we Gather

Welcome & Announcements
Welcome to this service of worship!  During the service, you are invited to rise in body or in spirit, standing or sitting, at points in the service marked “ ”.”
Please sign in using the pew folder, passing 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!
Prelude Child of God Mark Miller Brandi Blakeman, singer
The Call    Brad Davis
In the midst of my muddle, O God, sneak up, come alongside, break an egg over my head.
By your annoying goodness, make a royal mess of my cynicism. Provoke praise and melody and the laughter of self-pity ribbed by grace.
Bring it on, for this would be salvation to me, tired as I am of the cult of earnestness.
Give me the bread of gladness and the land will know of it, the rocks and fields will hear of it from my mouth. Though none join me, I will not be silent. With or without stringed instrumentation: a song, a psalm of joy among the peoples weary of earth.
¨  Hymn #331 Black  Come, My Way, My Truth, My Life The Call
¨  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 and hospitality.

The Living Word among us

Anthem Come to Me Dan Forrest
Union Church Choir
“Come to Me, all you who labor, come to Me, and I will give you rest. Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and you will find rest for your souls. Come, My child, learn My heart, for I am gentle and lowly. See how great My love for you, that I have called you My child.”
Epistle Lesson Revelation 21:10, 22-22.5 (p. 1527 )
In a stunning vision, John the seer is shown the New Jerusalem coming from the clouds.
Children’s Moment                                 As the children return to their seats we sing:
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.
Following the Children’s Moment, children are welcome to return to their seats. The Children’s Worship Center in the back of the sanctuary has toys, books, and drawing materials for children (or parents) who would like help staying present in the service. For children preschool age & under, care is available in the Nursery, downstairs in Room 104 off the playground.
Gospel Lesson John 5:1-9 (p. 1285)
Jesus heals a paralyzed man on the Sabbath.
Sermon The Irresistible Up Rising 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.
Acts of Reflection and Prayer
Some questions for reflection and prayer are provided below. You are free to use  – or ignore –  these prompts as you find helpful. In whatever prayer manner you adopt, please hold the concerns of those listed and those you know about in God’s peace-giving light.
Meditate on what ailments you have agreed to live with. After a few deep and honest breaths answer Jesus’ question as honestly as you can: Do you want to be made well?” The answers to this are complex.  Allow your heart to trace the outlines of your responses. As you breath in, take in God’s comfort, challenge and call in your answers.Leaves of trees gather sunlight and convert it to strength for the whole. In your prayers and in the quiet, turn your heart to a source of light in your life, like a living leaf. Who or what shines? Rest in this healing gratitude.To heal sometimes we need to realize our brokenness. What is broken? What does healing call for? What is your role, your call, your holy work? Do you have the strength you need? What do you need to ask for in order to move forward?Pray for the new lives and new loves of our graduates.
Prayer Corner What’s broken in you that needs healing? Healing is here for you. Invite the water of life into your heart.
Bell Corner Table Take a leaf from the tree, lay it on one of the countries, and pray for their healing. Ask, too, if there is something you can do to help bring that healing.
Community Sharing Table This week you can bless the women in the Knox County Detention Center for Women by donating magazines and books–paperback only. Thank you!
Children’s Fire Apply healing bandages to sick children images.
A Chance for Generosity: Offering Baskets in the Aisles
Offering baskets are placed in the aisle, and can also be brought to your seat. 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 good 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!
When invited, please join in singing the familiar chorus: Alleluia!
Our Lord’s Prayer
One: 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 #576 Black              For the Healing of the Nations  Westminster Abbey
¨  The Sending and Blessing
Postlude (please be seated)         I Can Only Imagine    Mercy Me
Brandi Blakeman, singer
Especially 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 Angola and Mozambique and our brothers and sisters at the Grace Baptist Church in our hearts, and pray for them. Please hold these concerns in your prayers, today and throughout the week.
Prayer requests to be printed may be sent to the office anytime before 10:00 am Fridays.
¨ Families and Friends in Crises…may God be present to every need and heal every rift and wound.
¨ For Victims of Disasters around the country and around the world, that God’s people may be angels of mercy to them.
¨ For Children in detention centers, that they may be reunited with their families soon. 15,000 are now detained in the US.
¨ Our church family members in nursing homes, or who are homebound: Edith Hansen, Nancy Hindman, Loyal Jones, Mary Miller, Alva Peloquin.
¨ For those who are without homes and safe places, that we may work together for solutions.
¨ John and their four girls, at the death of Erin, Michelle Hayden’s sister-in-law.
¨ Marie, great-great niece of Dorie Hubbard, battling cancer at 4 years old.
¨ Don Jiskoot, friend of the congregation, recovering from a stroke.
¨ Mary Lou Wiese’s brother, Dean Jacobs, having pain and seizures associated with new clinical trials.
¨ Jennifer Shelton, former nursery caregiver here, with health concerns.
¨ Tom Warth, recovering at home after a hospital stay.
¨ The Center family, at the sudden death of Yvonda.
¨ Patty Boyce’s brother Ed, who has died after a struggle with bladder cancer.
¨ The Kindel family, at the death of Dot Kindel.
¨ Roger Cook and the family at  Lynn’s death.
¨ On Memorial Day, we remember those who have given their lives in service.
Announcements
Union Church
Let’s celebrate Hazel Morris’ birthday! Come down to the Community Room after worship for cake & ice cream. Let’s shower Hazel with cards and love!
Learn more about the church today! Come One, Come All! Each fourth Sunday of the month anyone wanting to know more about Union Church or wanting to explore church membership, is invited to come to the Classroom, past the office at the end of the hall, and join in conversation with the Community Life and Growth Board after worship.
History of Memorial Day: Memorial Day  honors those who died in military service. Commander in Chief John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic issued the 1868 proclamation declaring the first Decoration Day, which was celebrated with a large memorial observance at Arlington National Cemetery, with about five thousand attending. Those attending placed small flags on the graves of veterans. General Ulysses S. Grant and his wife presided at the ceremony. Logan credited his wife, Mary Logan, with the suggestion for the commemoration.
But the idea had other roots as well, going back at least to 1864.
In 1865, a group of 10,000 freed slaves in South Carolina, along with a few white supporters—teachers and missionaries—marched in honor of Union soldiers, some of whom had been Confederate prisoners, reburied by the freed black Charlestonians. The prisoners had been buried in a mass grave when they died at the prison. While this ceremony can be called the first Memorial Day, it wasn’t repeated, and was soon nearly forgotten. The acknowledged and more direct root of Decoration Day was the practice of women of decorating the graves of their loved ones who had died in the Civil War.
Memorial Day was celebrated on May 30 after 1868.  Then in 1971 the celebration was moved to the last Monday in May, to make a long weekend, though a few states kept to the May 30 date.
May 31 & June 1 Rev. Kent will be attending  the Indiana-KY UCC Annual Gathering, where OUR Choir will be featured guest artists for the Friday evening banquet and concert with music by Christopher Grundy!
Sabbatical News: At Church Council’s May 20 meeting, the hiring of Rev. Nathaniel Craddock as Sabbatical Replacement Minister from June – October, 2019, was enthusiastically approved! Rev. Nate lives in Lexington and comes to us most recently from Pilgrim UCC in Cincinnati, where he was the Intentional Interim Pastor. More news coming soon!
End-of-School Pizza Party at Laura Nagle’s house on Sunday June 2 at 1:30! Predicting sunshine and an epic game of hide-and-seek. Old and new friends are all welcome. Questions? Please ask! joyfulsunflower@gmail.com
Plan for Pentecost, June 9: Wear Red to Church, Creek Clean-up Plan to be here for Church (wear red) and Church picnic and creek clean-up!
Sunday afternoon, June 9: Pentecost Service Project and Picnic. Brushy Fork stream clean-up at 1:00, to be followed by a potluck picnic at Revs. Kent and Diana’s mid-afternoon. More details in next week’s bulletin. Brought to you by the Mission & Service Board!
Congratulations, Graduates! Union’s High School graduates this year are Scottie Frederiksen, Cora Livingston, Mac Lakes, Jacob Mahurin, Maria Murphy, Kijyane Santiago, Aubrey Smith, Riley Ward, Cooper White, Shane Wilcher and Breeze Zaring! Let us know your plans after graduation and we’ll share in the Announcements!
Youth Talent Show June 7, 7:00 pm. Spring is in the air and it is that time of year again, time for the Union Church Youth Group Talent Show! This year’s talent show will be on Friday, June 7th, at 7:00 pm in the Community Room. We will have return appearances from some of last year’s great performers with brand new material, and we have several new talents as well. Some of our graduating seniors will perform, so don’t miss this chance to see them!
Tickets are $5 per person, or $15 per family. We will have concessions available for a suggested donation to enjoy with the show. All proceeds will go to help offset the costs of the Youth Group’s summer trips and activities. Please come out for this evening of entertainment and fellowship that supports a good cause.
Concert, potluck supper June 19! The Charles Wesley Singers are performing a concert here at 7 pm on June 19. Potluck supper at 5. The Charles Wesley Singers is the liturgical choir at Damascus United Methodist Church in Damascus, MD. The group of 55 singers includes 6th – 12th graders and shares music of many genres and traditions. The concert features songs about heaven and the Promised Land, including Alice Parker’s Kentucky Psalms and the Gospel anthem Goin’ Up Yonder.
The choir tours every year and, since 2006, has been accompanied by a chamber orchestra from the Academy of Saint Cecelia. All are invited to join us! No charge, offering taken for local agencies.
Around Town
Concert May 26: The International Children’s Choir will perform a concert at Berea United Methodist Church, May 26, 6:30 pm. All invited!
May 28: Understanding & Responding to Dementia-Related Behaviors: an education program provided by the Alzheimer’s Association. Behavior is a powerful form of communication and is one of the primary ways for people with dementia to communicate their needs and feelings as the ability to use language is lost. However, some behaviors can present real challenges for caregivers to manage. Join us to learn to decode behavioral messages, identify common behavior triggers, and learn strategies to help intervene with some of the most common behavioral challenges of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. May 28, 2019, 11am-12:30pm Madison County Cooperative Extension Office , 230 Duncannon Lane, Richmond  Call1-800-272-3900 to register.
The Census Bureau is hiring now and up to the 2020 Census. You must be 18 years old or older, a US citizen, have transportation, an email address, internet access to apply (you can use a computer here at the office). Pay is $14 an hour + 58 cents a mile driven for the job. Part time, flexible hours. Paid training for 3-5 days.  2020census.gov/jobs.

Regular Events Happening all Summer—you’re Invited!

Zen Meditation every weekday, 8:00 am. Join us for 20 minutes of unstructured quiet meditation in beautiful Cowan Chapel, on the Scaffold Cane Road side of the church.
Zen Teaching Mondays at 6:30 pm, Cowan Chapel. David Parks will offer Zen teaching: Meditation, Koans, Conversation, 6:30 – 8:00 pm, Cowan Chapel.
Thursday Noon Bible Study. Meet with Rev. Carla in the Classroom at noon to reflect upon the Scripture for the week and issues of the day.
Fridays – Bridge Club, 1:30 pm in the Classroom. Call Doug Hindman, 582-5806 if interested.
Fourth Sundays – Learn More About the Church. Enquirers’ Class for new members, prospective members, or those just interested in learning what Union Church is about. Meet in the Classroom after the worship service.
Fourth Tuesdays – Psalm Study, 4:00 pm, in the Classroom.
First & Third Tuesdays Memory Keepers, 7:30 pm, Wayside Room. Memory Keepers is a support group for those caring for loved ones with memory loss. For more information or resources call Doug Hindman at 582-5806 or Carla Gilbert at 985-1144.