A Gathering in Worship Offered by the People of the Church of Christ, Union
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 23) 10:30 am
Meditation “As you start to walk on the way, the way appears… And if he closes before you all the ways and passes, he will show you a hidden way which nobody knows.” ~Rumi
Prelude
Welcome
From There to Here: We Gather
¨ The Call Paul Jacobs, Reader
One: Liberating love cajoles me into life even when I think I would prefer to remain on the sidelines. It offers me Hope in the grace of this present moment.
That Hope bids me pay attention to the present moment, telling me that all the love I need is there, everything I need to love is there. It engages all my energies, reminding me that I am a part of God’s liberating love for others.
It allows me to trust in that love even when my bungling efforts fail or when countersigns like rejection, oppression, and injustice, seem to prevail. Even then, especially then, it calls me to believe in God’s redeeming Presence.
~ Rose Mary Dougherty, Trusting Love: An Undefended Heart.
¨ Hymn #22 Black Sing Praise to God Lobe den Herren
1.Sing praise to God, who has shaped and sustains all creation! Sing praise, my soul, in profound and complete adoration! Gladsome rejoice-organ and trumpet and voice- joining God’s great congregation.
2. Praise God, our guardian, who lovingly offers correction, who, as on eagle’s wings, saves us from sinful dejection. Have you observed, how we are always preserved by God’s parental affection?
3.Sing praise to God, with sincere thanks for all your successes. Merciful God ever loves to encourage and bless us. Only conceive what godly strength can achieve: strength that would touch and caress us.
4.Sing praise, my soul, the great name of your high God commending. All that have life and breath join you, their notes sweetly blending. God is your light! Soul, ever keep this in sight: amen, amen never ending.
¨ Prayer of Approach and Confession
One: O God, so often we take you for granted. We take for granted that you will answer our prayers, that you will heal us and make us whole. We take for granted that you love us. Forgive us for not appreciating your grace and presence in our lives.
Help us to be more thankful. Give us faith to see you in everything and everyone around us, so that we may be truly grateful. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
~ posted on Waiting for Water: Liturgy for The Easter Journey 2013
¨ Words of Assurance
One: Joy Unspeakable erupts when you least expect it, when the burden is greatest, when the hope is gone after bullets fly. It rises on the crest of impossibility, it sways to the rhythm of steadfast hearts, and celebrates what we cannot see.
~Barbara A. Holmes, Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative Practices of the Black Church
¨ Passing the Peace
Announcements, Prayers and Celebrations
Announcements
Lighting the Justice Candle
Justin Dart, who is thought of as the “father” of the Americans with Disabilities Act, was born in 1930 in the US to a very wealthy family. He contracted polio at 18 and was given 3 days to live. He survived, but from then on was confined to a wheelchair. The brush with death and the change in his abilities changed his outlook on life; from this point on he turned his tremendous energy into social activism. He entered the University of Houston, where he formed the first student group to oppose the school’s policy of segregation. Although he graduated, the University refused to give him a teaching certificate because he was confined to a wheelchair. He went on to earn a masters degree and went into business; working for Tupperware International in Japan where he hired women and people with disabilities in order to empower them. He and his wife traveled the country at their own expense meeting with the disabled; listening and organizing. His efforts culminated in the signing of the Americans With Disabilities Act in 1990. He died in 2002 from complications of polio.
Word And Worship
Choir Anthem Sing to the Lord of Harvest Healey Willan Union Church Choir
Sing to the Lord of harvest, sing songs of love and praise; with joyful hearts and voices your alleluias raise! By him the rolling seasons in fruitful order move; sing to the Lord of harvest a song of happy love.
By Him the clouds drop fatness, the deserts bloom and spring, the hills leap up in gladness, the valleys laugh and sing. He filled with His fullness, all things with large increase. He crowns the year with goodness, with plenty, and with peace.
Heap on His sacred altar the gifts his goodness gave, the golden sheaves of harvest, the souls He died to save. Your hearts lay down before Him when at His feet ye fall, and with your lives adore Him who gave his life for all.
Hebrew Scripture Lesson Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7, p. 926
Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it, but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.
But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will bring about at the right time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches but rather on God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.
~ New Revised Standard Version
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.
Gospel Lesson Luke 17:11-19 , p.1261
On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten men with a skin disease approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’s feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? So where are the other nine? Did none of them return to give glory to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”
~ New Revised Standard Version
Sermon Turning Toward Rev. Kent Gilbert
Visual Reflection
Living Prayer
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.
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. In addition, a portion of our contributions flows out to aid those in need via many external ministries.
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. Baskets are placed at the head and foot of each aisle for those who wish to make an in-person donation. Electronic donations can be made very simply and easily at: https//: www.easytithe.com/union
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!
Offering Music Myr, Zaraz Joan Szymko
Kasey Crockett, Henry Heydinger, Jeremy Sturgill, Esther Tuwe
This piece, sung by our choir scholarship students, means “Peace Now” and is by Ukrainian composer Joan Szymko. “Peace Now” are the only lyrics and they are repeated as a prayer in musical form throughout the piece.
Community Prayer Paul Jacobs, Reader
Healer and author of our salvation,
Help us build a house of peace.
Help us build houses of thanksgiving where we can all shelter.
Help us build houses of hope in weary lands, and troublous times, where the music of dancing hearts shall keep the night at bay and invite others to the dawn.
We stop and turn toward you now with all praise for what you are doing in our midst, for you are tending the sick! You are crying for hope in the streets of injustice! You are raising up young leaders and strengthening those with age in their bones! The evergreen love for your creation has not ceased, and your vision for a kin-dom in shalom has not dimmed! We praise you for all this, and we know that our help is coming from you! Help us build such houses, O lord, and dwell with us there. Wherever you are, we will call our home, and it will be our refuge. All this we pray with the hope and assurance of Jesus, your Christ, who taught us to reach to you as…
Our Lord’s Prayer
All: 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 Simple Gifts trad.
1. ‘Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free,
‘Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
Chorus: When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we will not be ashamed,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.
2. ‘Tis a gift to be gentle, ’tis a gift to be fair,
‘Tis a gift to rise and breathe the morning air,
And everyday to walk in the path we choose,
‘Tis a gift we pray we may ne’er come to lose.
3. Tis a gift to be loving, ’tis the best gift of all
Like a quiet rain that whispers when it falls,
And if we have this gift we may truly believe, ‘
Tis better to give than it is to receive.
¨ Benediction
Postlude Waltz Grieg Union Church Orchestra
You are welcome to be seated to appreciate the music following service, and to show appreciation at the end with applause.
Our Prayers for Others
¨ 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. https://union-church.org/ministries/prayer/. Let us hold the people of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Panama; and our brothers & sisters at St. Thomas Lutheran 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 17,000 Kentucky residents, and 295 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.
¨ Joan English’s family, at the loss of a third beloved elder in a year & a half, her uncle Bob Peterson.
¨ Jeff From’s family, at the death of his mother, Darla.
¨ Doris Mosely, sister of Deb Beishline, with Covid and heart issues.
¨ Dorothy Chao’s cousin’s son who died from depression, and a very dear friend who passed away suddenly from cancer.
¨ Cecelia McKinney, whose Florida home was flooded in the Hurricane.
¨ Maggie Park and her family, at the death of her cousin, Nicholas Gwiazdowsky.
¨ Dottie Lovell, recovering from surgery on her broken back.
¨ Patsy Boyce, sister-in-law of Bob and Jean Boyce, undergoing chemotherapy
¨ Betty Hibler, in her move to Black Mountain, NC. New address: 200 Tabernacle Rd., Apt. D-54, Black Mountain, NC 28711.
¨ Truman & Joyce Fields in their recent move. New address: 202 Stocker Dr. #202, Richmond, KY, 40475.
¨ JoAnn Russell, Reda Hutton’s aunt, facing several medical challenges.
¨ Michelle, beloved nurse at Morning Pointe, undergoing treatment for cancer.
¨ Jess Burton & Jake Graber and their little girl, Lila, who has serious gastric issues.
¨ Important dates—if we haven’t got yours, let us know. We’ll help you get connected in FellowshipOne Go!
Birthdays—Oct. 11 – Matt Jadud, Katie Basham
Leave a Reply