A Gathering in Worship Offered by the People of the Church of Christ, Union
All Saints Commemoration
Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 27) 10:30 am
Meditation
Earth cannot escape heaven, Flee it by going up, Or flee it by going down, Heaven still invades the Earth, Energizes it, Makes it sacred. ~Meister Eckardt
The First Path: Recognizing the Inherent Goodness of Creation
The first path invites us to celebrate! The pulse of creation is singing the goodness of God and God’s gift of goodness in all things. We become more aware of the beauty of all that is and tap into gratitude as our first task in creating more goodness in the world.
Prelude
Welcome and Invitation
We Begin
¨ Sung Response Gathered Here In the Mystery of This Hour
¨ Prayer in 360°
Please stand and join as we look at the goodness of God all around us. As we turn and pray, you are invited to sing the last line of our song when indicated.
One: Facing East…
All: May the air we breathe be purified and may our lives feel that breath of Spirit anew. May we receive the gifts of dawning insight and inspiration.
One: Facing South …
All: May we be open as children to receive and share the gifts of food, learning, and creativity. May we share our play and our work with energy and passion.
One: Facing West…
All: May water be pure and available to all, and may we be sustained and nurtured over the entire face of the earth. May we let go and be cleansed of all that keeps us from living as we were created to be.
One: Facing North…
All: We welcome those who came before us and the ways of living and spiritual wisdom they shared with us.
One: Let us turn and face the center as the Christ light comes into our midst. When we have come full circle:
All: May we walk good paths, living on the earth in Oneness as siblings, rejoicing in one another’s blessings, supporting and caring in one another’s sorrows. Teach us to live as spirit in flesh like Jesus. Amen.
Sung Response
You are invited to sing our refrain as a round. You can follow the choir, Rev. Kent or other song leaders as we make a communion of harmony.
¨ Lighting the Christ Candle (unison)
God of all the living, of saints and seekers, You who never leave our side in all the paths of life, be with us as we traverse the pain and blessing of loving and living in communion through every season of our lives.
We praise you for the cycles of creation, life, and death, and for setting us among the splendor of such grace. Your love centers us in every season, and holds us in sacred communion with all who have gone before. Amen and Amen.
¨ Hymn #299 Black For All the Saints Sine Nomine
¨ Passing the Peace
The Second Path: Befriending the Dark Places
This second path invites us to acknowledge the pain that coexists with goodness and gratitude. We listen to the groans of the world and the Spirit helps us to grieve and to intercede on behalf of all those who suffer, letting go of our fear that can make things worse at times.
Listening
Silence and Sound mingle to bring us to mindfulness. We ring the Peace Bell to call us to holy work.
Letting Go and Holding on with Love
We hold communities in need and loved ones known and unknown in our hearts during our prayers. We bring the light of God’s to our own needs as well, as we pray. Please join in singing the refrain twice when indicated. You are invited to hum, add harmony or participate with movement as we unite through word and song.
Please join in singing “Breathe” Michael Stillwater
All Saints Day Remembrance
Remembering All Saints Day gives us an opportunity to celebrate and remember those in our lives who have gone before us. Their presence in our community has contributed to and shaped our work, our life, character and story. For those worshipping at home, let me invite you to have a candle or candles to light for your loved ones as you participate from home.
Sung Refrain
Remembering All Those Who Have Died
We lift the memory of all those who have died this year. Please stand and remain standing if you have lose someone in the roles that will be called.
Sung Refrain
Lord’s Prayer
Each week we will explore a version of the prayer Jesus taught. This week we encounter a version from Hawaiian poet and artist, Kaleo Ching. He starts with the Hebrew words for Father and Mother–Abba, Imma.
Let us pray together: Abba Imma in heaven, holy be your name. Your reign come, your yearning be done on earthas it is in heaven. Give us this day the bread we need. Forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors Guide us through life’s trials Shelter us all from evil In your Grace, your wisdom, and your love. Amen.
Special Music I Surrender, Lord Cindy Ovokaitys, Mark Austin Union Church Choir
Lord, in the quiet of this place, I am surrounded by Your grace. I come with heavy heart and soul. I long for You to take control. And I surrender, Lord. As I come before Your presence, I surrender, Lord! I come to offer all my Life. I trade my darkness for Your light. I give to You my every care. My every sorrow You will bear. All to Jesus I surrender. All to Him I freely give. I will ever love and trust in Him; in His presence daily live. I surrender all to Thee my blessed Savior I surrender.
The Third Path: Exclaiming the Divine Creative
This third path creates space to explore how God is working in and through us and all of the universe to renew each day every direction. Each moment offers opportunity to express our God-gifted creativity. We hear messages–ancient and new–that express and affirm the Divine at work and encourage us in our creative collaboration with the Divine.
Reading
Apprehend God in all things,
For God is in all things.
Every single creature is full of God.
If I spent enough time with the tiniest creature—
Even a caterpillar—
I would never have to prepare a sermon. So full of God
Is every creature.
Earth cannot escape heaven,
Flee it by going up,
Or flee it by going down,
Heaven still invades the Earth,
Energizes it,
Makes it sacred.
All hiding places reveal God.
If you want to escape God,
God just runs into your lap.
For,
God is at home.
It is we who have gone out for a walk.
~ Meister Eckhardt
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.
Please note that Union Church services are livestreamed, including the Children’s Moment. A “no camera zone” is at the back of the balcony, behind the AV booth.
Reading Luke 20:27-38
Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to himand asked him a question: “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies leaving a wife but no children, the manshall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman and died childless;then the secondand the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died.In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.”
Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.Indeed, they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.Now he is God not of the dead but of the living, for to him all of them are alive.” ~ NRSV updated edition
Sermon Dance Anyway Rev. Kent Gilbert
Ringing of the Peace Bell
Responding to God’s Love in Communion
Communion Invitation
One: Creator God is with us!
All: God is with us now!
One: Lift up your hearts!
All: We lift them up to God!
One: Let us give thanks to the Holy One!
All: It is right to give our thanks and praise!
Communion Prayer
Sanctus please join in singing these words to the tune of our Gathering Chant
Gathered here, we give praise and thanks to you Gathered here, we lift our voices Gathered here, in the glory of your love Hosanna, now!
Words of Remembrance and Blessing
The narrative of hope is ours to share, remembering the life and ministry of Jesus in his gift to us:…
All: “Take, eat, all who hunger, that you may be strong for blessing. Take, drink, all who thirst. My life flows through you for a new and better covenant of grace.”
One: Christ has come, Christ has lived and died for us, Christ rises in our midst. Remembering sisters and brothers of this world, in Oceania: American Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia (Maohi Nui), Kanaky, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and at Bethlehem Baptist Church and other houses of worship near and dear; in the company of a great cloud of witnesses, let us keep the commandment to love one another.
Serving One Another
At this table, and at tables at home, eating this bread and eating the meals we recall with family and friends now past, we connect ourselves to God. You need not be a member of this church or any church to be welcome at this meal. We are connected by all that is, and your participation is a blessing, a needed thread in the tapestry of life. The bread is gluten free, and the small cups contain non-alcoholic juice. The larger chalice contains fortified wine for intinction, respecting the tradition of many in our midst and providing protection against transmission in the common cup. You may choose to partake or refrain in the ways you are led.
You are invited to join this living prayer of connection in many ways: first by sharing this meal. Also, you are invited to write the names of those you are connected to and remembering on the pieces of red tissue you’ve been given. During communion, you may tie these to any of the twine strands. At the end of the service we will process to the memorial garden for a blessing as we connect our hearts with the turning season.
Offering Music
A Chance for Generosity: www.easytithe.com/union
Our gifts help sustain this particular community of caring by sustaining the building, pastor and staff, and all the materials that make our ministry of healing, justice, and teaching available to all in need. 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!
The Fourth Path: Embodying Compassion and Power
The fourth path will lead us out. We pray for movement within our own hearts to embody peace and passion–compassion and power–on behalf of spreading goodness throughout the week. We not at the mercy of “the way it is,” but can claim our agency to be fully present and fully active in the world into which we now go.
Getting Strong
We are strengthened and renewed by so much of what we hear, see, experience. With that blessing we prepare for the service about to begin in our daily lives after worship. What will you take with you for your sacred work?
Community Prayer Teresa Gowler, Reader
One: Like fresh rain in a drought,
like sunshine breaking through clouds,
like morning dew after a long night,
pour out your Spirit upon us gathered here
and on these gifts of bread and fruit of the vine.
Make them be for us the manna we need to feed a hungry world
and the salve we require to heal a hurting planet.
a shoulder, holding hands, making eye contact across a distance, or simply holding their image in your heart and mind, whatever is comfortable to you.
Challenge us, Spirit. Nudge us to reach out,
to touch your holiness in all things
and be changed by our encounters.
Show us our oneness, our connections,
always and already there.
Open our eyes and once we see it,
let us never un-see it.
Let us know it.
Let us live it.
Let us share it.
All: We pray this in the name of your holy dancing three-in-one, Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer of all! Amen!
Holding Connection
Announcements
We share opportunities for Beloved Community and ways to serve.
Lighting the Justice Candle to Lead us Forth
Today we are pleased to light this candle to celebrate and bring awareness to Room in the Inn (RITI). In this era when everything goes by initials is can be hard to understand what is what. Let us spell it out for you. RITI is Room in the Inn.
Room in the Inn is a community based initiative to care for the homeless. Volunteers work to secure overnight shelter and food for folks who do not have a warm safe place to be during the harshest winter months. This shelter is provided in a dignified way allowing the homeless to seek refuge from the cold with the confidence that they will be treated like guests in an inn. Room in the Inn’s model is meant to build community by humanizing the homeless, a simple measure many initiatives fail to provide.
The Berea Room in the Inn started in 2019 with the support of local Churches. Determination, faith, and commitment helped local volunteers adapt the model to continue service through Covid. RITI was able to provide housing at a local hotel and food through the efforts of “good samaritans” and local restaurants.
As Berea RITI is gearing up to provide shelter again this winter consider donating your time, talent (cooking) and/or money. RITI would greatly blessed from your gifts … and you might just benefit as well!
Check them out on Facebook facebook.com/ritiberea
Hymn You Shall Go Out with Joy
Procession to the Garden
In the Garden
Commending Our Love to Creation
Benediction
Special Music A Gathering of Spirits Carrie Newcomer Deborah Thompson, vocalist
Please come down to the Community Room after worship for Coffee Hour and conversation
Cover art and needlepoint altar decoration by Reda Hutton
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 (Link to World Council of Churches Ecumenical Prayer cycle. (union-church.org/ministries/prayer/). Let us hold the people of Oceania: American Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia (Maohi Nui), Kanaky, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu; and our brothers & sisters at Bethlehem 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 17,300 Kentucky residents, and 303 Madison County residents, who have died to date from Covid-19.
¨ The families and friends and for all the emergency responders to the floods in our Eastern counties: that safety return, that homes be rebuilt, that all needed help will come.
¨ Prayers for 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 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: Jan Hamilton, Betsy Hoefer, Dorie Hubbard, Loyal Jones, Lois Morgan, Cheryl Payne, Alva Peloquin, Laura Robie, 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.
¨ Donna Abner and Curt Rath, married here in Cowan Chapel last Sunday!
¨ Doris Mosely, sister of Deb Beishline, with Covid and heart issues.
¨ Cecelia McKinney, whose Florida home was flooded in the Hurricane.
¨ Doug Hindman in St. Joseph hospital in Lexington.
¨ Maurice Hibbard, recovering at home from a heart attack.
¨ Lois Morgan, at the death of her sister.
¨ Patsy Boyce, sister-in-law of Bob and Jean Boyce, undergoing chemotherapy.
¨ JoAnn Russell, Reda Hutton’s aunt, facing several medical challenges.
¨ Michelle, beloved nurse at Morning Pointe, undergoing treatment for cancer.
¨ Eric Dodson and family, at the death of his father, Gene Dodson.
¨ Jess Burton & Jake Graber and their little girl, Lila, who has serious gastric issues; and Jake, hospitalized with respiratory and other health issues.
¨ Important dates—if we haven’t got yours, let us know. We’ll help you get connected in FellowshipOne Go!
Birthdays: Nov. 8 – Jo Wernegreen; 10 – Mary Robert Garrett; 11 – Betty Wray
Betty Wray will be 97 on Friday! Let’s shower her with cards! 1400 Gibson Bay Dr; Richmond; KY; 40475
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