A Gathering in Worship Offered by the People of the Church of Christ, Union
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost September 22, 2013
Welcome to this service of worship. We are glad that you are here today. You are invited to rise in body or in spirit as you are able and willing at points in the service marked “*.”
Hearing enhancement devices and large print bulletins are available in the vestibule. After checking in on FaceBook and Twitter, please silence your cell phone, pager, etc, so all may worship undistracted.
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.
Meditation
“Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.”
— Blaise Pascal (French Mathematician,
Philosopher and Physicist, 1623-1662)
Gathering to Worship
Welcome & Announcements
Prelude The Gift of Love (O Waly Waly) Robert J. Powell
* Call to Worship
One: We gather together to celebrate the joy in our lives.
All: God’s love fills our hearts to overflowing with laughter.
One: We gather, in God’s presence, to find comfort and hope for our pain.
All: God’s grace wipes away our tears and knits us together as one people.
One: We gather together, in God’s presence, to worship God in faith and truth.
All: Alleluia! Amen!
* Hymn #8 Black Praise to the Living God Diademata
* Call to Confession
* Prayer of Approach and Confession
One: Before we speak, God knows our needs, yet our words open our hearts to God’s grace. Let us prepare ourselves for God’s healing as, in words and silence, we tell of all that separates us from God and one another. Please join me as we pray:
All: First, Everlasting God, we must confess how we have not lived as your people. We serve many masters – work, wealth, power, addictions – yet find no hope in them. We hear the cries of the poor, and shut the doors of our hearts to them. We ridicule those who expose their hopes and dreams to us.
Forgive us, Compassion’s Heart, and heal us of our brokenness. Make us well, so that by our healing, we might be the hope and love others need in their lives, even as Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, brought these gifts to us, calling us to be faithful with the grace, peace, and joy entrusted to us.
[Silence is kept]
* Words of Assurance
One: Now that we have let go of the pain, the bitterness, the anger of our lives, let us be kind, tender-hearted, and gentle towards each other, forgiving as God has forgiven us. In Christ’s name we are forgiven, loved, and free.
All: We are God’s beloved children, with God’s grace and love in our hearts and in our hands. Thanks be to God! Amen.
* Passing the Peace of Christ
All who come to this sanctuary are welcome companions on this day. Please turn to those nearest you and greet them with words of peace.
Hearing the Word
Anthem O Come, Let us Sing Unto the Lord (Psalm 95) Martin How
Union Church Choir
O come, let us sing unto the Lord; let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation! Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and show ourselves glad in him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all Gods. in his hand are all the corners of the earth, and the strength of the hills is his also.
The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands prepared the dry land. O come, let us worship and fall down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker. For he is the Lord our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
God Speaking through the Hebrew Scriptures Amos 8:4-7 (p. 1085)
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 Children’s Moment, Little Church for children Preschool & under is available in the Nursery, downstairs off the Fellowship Hall, and Children’s Church, for grades K-3, takes place in the chapel. If this is your child’s first time attending Little Church or Children’s Church, please accompany them to fill out a registration form. Otherwise, children are welcome to follow volunteers to their worship spaces.
God Speaking through the Gospels Luke 16:1-33 (p. 1258)
Jesus delivers a challenging parable about the shrewdness of a dishonest servant and follows it with several sayings about the nature of faithfulness.
Sermon From Profit to Prophet: Invest in the Rest Rev. Kent Gilbert
Prayers of the People
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 Kiyosato, Japan and is also rung in the hope of peace for all nations.
Silent Prayer and Prayers of the Community
Our Lord’s Prayer
One: ….Our Maker, our Mother,
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.
Offering Our Gifts
Call to Offering
Offertory Praeludium in B-Flat J. Ludwig Krebs
* Doxology Avery/Marsh
Walking Forward in Faith
* Closing Hymn Live Into Hope (opposite) Truro
* Benediction and Sending Forth
Postlude Poco Vivace (op. 9 no. 6) Hermann Schroeder
_____________________________
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 Belarus, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine and our brothers and sisters at Dreyfus Church of Christ in your hearts, and pray for them. Please also hold these concerns in your prayers today and throughout the week.
* Those in harm’s way in the service of our country and all those who wait and worry for them. We pray especially for peace and justice in Syria as the world deliberates.
* Michelle Tooley
* Sally Zimmerman, undergoing testing for breast cancer
* A friend of many in the congregation who is dealing with many losses at once
* Abi Dietz, now a year into her recovery, and for those supporting her
* Patti Smithson, recovering well at home after successful surgery on her neck
* Peggy Baker, recovering at UK Hospital
* Lori Wallhauser, daughter-in-law of John and Mary Wallhauser, recovering from a stroke, in Cincinnati
* Dawn Manor, Dot Kindel’s daughter, and the family. Dawn has recently had surgery and the family is moving to Berea
* Rose Brandenburg, Larry’s aunt, at Kenwood Nursing Home in Richmond
* Edith Hansen, at The Terrace
* Shirley Dean, on hospice care for lung cancer
Assisting in Worship
Worship Leaders today is Merlin Kindel. Next week: Grace McKenzie
Announcements…
You Matter! Please Sign In, Check in on FB/Twitter and Try a Name Tag! It’s hard to get to know people elsewhere, but we don’t want it that way at church. Use the pew folder in your row, passing it back when all have signed, and whether you are a first time visitor or a long-time member, a name tag helps everyone connect the dots. Mobile phone users can also check in on Facebook and Twitter.
Countdown to Sabbatical: September 29 Blessing Service! Rev. Kent will begin his 4 month sabbatical with a preparatory retreat beginning October 1. Next Sunday we will bless his journeys as well as the congregation’s time of supporting and sustaining each other under the leadership of our boards, our officers, and of course, our Associate Pastor Rachel. Sabbatical is meant to be a fruitful time for pastors and parishes, so there will be many special opportunities during this period while Rev. Kent is absent. Join us next Sunday, Sept 29 for a special blessing service. On October 6th, Rev. Kent and Rev Ed McCurley of First Christian Church will “tag-team” preach for the 14th and last time (Ed is retiring from the ministry in December). After that, Kent will travel to Japan, Europe, and Northern California to rest, renew, and recharge.
Want to experience worship with our wise and fun kids? Sign up to volunteer as an assistant to Anna Kate one Sunday for Children’s Church! A sign-up sheet will be passed around during the service, or you can sign up online by clicking on “Faith Development Opportunities” on our website.
Calling cooks! We need folks to help make dinner for Wednesday Nite Live – this week (and a few others this fall)! If you can help with the labor Wednesday evening, we can help pay for it. Contact Rev. Rachel or Susie Ritchie.
There’s still time to join in on The Trade Game! Join us at 9:30am on Sundays for the next five weeks as we explore the ethics of international trade through a role playing game – kind of like a murder mystery dinner theater about world events! Contact Kim Kobersmith to play at kim.kobersmith@gmail.com.
The Gospel According to Macklemore (and other musical social critics) 6:00 pm Tuesday this week — Pizza provided!! Come explore Macklemore and other musicians’ take on social justice, and how our biblical faith lines up (or doesn’t) with these social movers and shakers. We met last Thursday for the first time and had a great discussion — you’re welcome to come this week! Back to Thursday next week.
The tentative topics and Macklemore songs are below. If you have musicians to suggest who also address these topics, we want to hear about them. Post below and we’ll use them in the study. We’ll meet in the Fellowship Hall, 7:00 pm, downstairs unless you hear otherwise…
· Sept. 26: Faith and Idols: “Neon Cathedral,” “Gold,” “Make the Money”
· Oct. 3: Justice: “Same Love,” “A Wake,” and “Jimmy Iovine”
· Oct. 19: Going Against the Grain: “Ten Thousand Hours” and “Can’t Hold Us.”
· Oct. 17: Grace: “Starting Over”
Invite your friends!
Newcomers and Prospective Members Meeting September 25 — If you want to know more about membership at Union Church or just find out what we are about, plan now to come to Wednesday Nite Live on Wed., Sep. 25 at 5:45 p.m. for dinner in the Community Room, and then meet in the Wayside Room (just off the sanctuary on the street side) for an informal meeting with pastors and members of the Community Life and Growth Board. All are welcome.
Here’s a way to help our neighbors! The Food Bank reports a particular need for peanut butter, rice and dry beans. Please don’t forget the Food Bank when you gather you fruits and vegetables from your gardens. One of our freezers went on the blink this past week. Do you have a freezer or know a friend who has one that could be donated to the Food Bank? Please call 985-1903 and ask for Jerry or Peg. You can leave a message and we will get back to you.
Plans are “under-foot” to refurbish the sanctuary floor. It was such a joy to welcome the community into our remodeled space for Rev. Rachel’s installation, but not everything was as good as it should be. Now, thanks to some saved funds and a generous challenge grant, we are raising funds to finish the job! See September’s Consider for details.
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