March 14, 2021, Worship Bulletin & Prayer Concerns

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

Fourth Sunday of Lent

March 14, 2021 10:30 am 

Meditation

It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure. –– Joseph Campbell

From There to Here: We Gather

Welcome

As the Berea community responds to the governor’s suggestion to avoid gathering in large groups, we worship online to limit the risk of exposure to Covid-19. We’re delighted to welcome you into this virtual circle of God’s healing love and light.

Sung Response Vessels Holy and Whole

Vessels, holy and whole; Broken, needing the One; Open, body and soul; Healer, come.

The Call Hazel Morris

Each of us is created a precious and holy vessel of embodied love. Together we gather and together we hold the love of God for one another. Let us worship together, gathering the pieces and letting the light come through.

Sung Response Vessels Holy and Whole

Beach glass begins as something whole and yet discarded. When pain comes and brokenness enters our lives, Jesus reaches out to touch and remind us that brokenness is not the end of beauty.  In a year when pandemic has wreaked havoc on our world,  our journey to physical health, spiritual depth, and community healing begins with this realization.

Sung Response Vessels Holy and Whole

Prayer of Approach and Confession

The Latin origins of the word “confess” is to “study and acknowledge.” This is the beginning of compassion for ourselves and others. It is the beginning of healing.  As we study and acknowledge all that needs fixed in and around us, Let us pray…

Creator God, fashioned by your hand in your own image, shapes and colors of diverse and immense beauty, too often we ignore the sacred nature of our physical lives. The Holy Vessels you have fashioned are tired and suffering, ravaged by months of disrupted rhythms and ailment. We confess Our fragility. It has come into full view and we are frightened. We cannot fathom the proportions of loss and so we look away, sometimes even from our own needs.

Help us, Healer.

Show us our strength.

Forgive our inertia.

Move us to move one step at a time toward greater care.

In this  moment, we sense and acknowledge our yearning for wholeness.

Sung Response Vessels Holy and Whole

Words of Assurance  

Passing the Peace at Home

Building the Community: News that Connects Us

Today we light the Justice Candle in honor of Greta Thunberg, a Swedish teenager, who in August 2018 at the age of 15, decided not to go to school one day and started a strike for the climate outside the Swedish Parliament. Her actions sparked a global movement for action against the climate crisis, inspiring millions of students to go on strike for our planet, thus causing legislators throughout the world to take notice. Greta is the author of the book “No One Is Too Small To Make A Difference” – a collection of her speeches that have made history across the globe, published in 2018.

On Earth Day, April 22, 2020, Greta Thunberg was awarded the Human Act Award, by the Human Act Foundation, for “her fearless and determined efforts to mobilize millions of people around the world to fight climate change”. The $100,000 prize money was donated to UNICEF and doubled by the Foundation.

The Living Word Among Us    

Singing Together As Moses Raised the Serpent Up Led by Steve Bolster

1. As Moses raised the serpent up, God’s Child is lifted high, and all who in that Child believe shall never, never die.

2. For God so loved the world that God all human life to free, gave to the world God’s Child that all might live eternally.

3. That Child was sent into the world not to condemn but save; now through Christ’s name all are redeemed—what wondrous love God gave.

Sung Psalm Debbonnaire Kovacs, cantor Psalm 107

The psalms were originally musical compositions. During Lent we will pray the psalms in musical form with congregational responses. Please sing the response when invited.

Response: Consider the steadfast love of God.

O give thanks to God, for She is good; for Her steadfast love endures forever. Let the redeemed of God say so, those whom She redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and the west, from the north and the south. R

Some were sick through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities endured affliction; they loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. R

Then they cried to God in their trouble, and She saved them from their distress, God sent out Her word and healed them, and delivered them from destruction. Let them thank God for steadfast love, for Her wonderful works to humankind. And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of Her deeds with songs of joy. R

Hebrew Scripture Lesson Numbers 21:4-9 Charles Hoffman, Reader

From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.’ Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.’ So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

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 Lesson  John 3:14-21 Jenny Bromley, Reader

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

Sermon Holy Vessels: Looking Deep, Lifting Up Rev. Kent Gilbert

Living Prayer

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”)

Your contribution is love made visible. Thank you!

Offering Music

Our Prayers for Others

You are very welcome to email or phone prayer requests to the office for the bulletin. Please do so by 10 am Thursdays, and be sure you have permission to share the information.

¨ 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 Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden; and our brothers and sisters at Emmanuel Baptist Church in our hearts, and pray for them. Please hold these concerns in your prayers, today and throughout the week.

¨ 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.

¨ Families and Friends in Crises…may God be present to every need and heal every rift and wound and those who care for them.

¨ Teri VanPelt, with a difficult medical diagnosis.

¨ Robert Rorrer, undergoing treatment for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

¨ The family of Helen Connelly, at her passing.

¨ Richard Olson, recovering from surgery at St, Joseph Hospital, Main.

¨ Lois Morgan, recovering from a broken wrist.

”Our church family members in nursing homes or who are homebound: Alva Peloquin, Loyal Jones, Jennie Kiteck, Mary Miller, Lois Morgan, Barb Smith, Jan Hamilton

¨ JoAnn Russell, Reda Hutton’s aunt, facing several medical challenges.

¨ Fred and Dale Brown, with Fred’s health issues, and Dale as she cares for him.

¨ Children in detention centers, that they may be reunited with their families soon.

¨ 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  over 5000 Kentucky residents, and ninety Madison County residents, who have died to date from Covid-19.

Prayers of the People Hazel Morris

Healer of our Healer of our spirits, Hear our cries for healing of brokenness. Help us see the sacred nature of our physical lives And show us how to be compassionate for ourselves and others. We trust that beauty from brokenness is possible when we seek to bind together that which is wounded. We pray especially for those who are suffering physical loss, loss of health, and isolation. We pray for each person who suffers from weariness of inactivity or weariness of over-activity. We ask for courage and encouragement as we seek, in our brokenness, to bring healing and recovery. And we pray as you taught us…

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

Taking Our Prayers into the Week

Jesus recalls the healing Moses offers to the people, and reminding us that we have to look deeply, sometimes painfully deep, into the soul of our pain. But Jesus also reminds us that God is not doing all of this for punishment, coercion, or control. God is did not come to the world to point to brokenness and say “Aha! I knew it!” God sent Jesus to heal and make whole.

I invite you to take up a piece of beach glass if you have some now and examine it closely, noticing the worn edges and the color, feeling the texture and thickness.
Shift your thinking to your own rough edges. What broken edges in your own life need help? Can you look deep there, too? Can you see both the broken and the beauty. What will you do in this Lent season to focus on healing of body, mind, and spirit?

Take a moment to think on this and then when you are ready, enclose the broken piece in your hand and hold it to your heart, breathing (“spirare”) deeply and inviting that Spirit to live and move in you in these next weeks. Keep your piece close at hand… perhaps on your desk, nightstand, or pocket where you can feel it regularly this week.

Invitation to Connection

Sending & Blessing

Sung Response Vessels Holy and Whole

Vessels, holy and whole; Broken, needing the One; Open, body and soul; Healer, come.

OUR FELLOWSHIP PRINCIPLES:

“Union Church welcomes all followers of Christ and works with all who work with Him; respecting each person’s conscience; working by love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.”

· Come to Coffee Hour after worship! https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87387600761

· Sundays, 9:30 am! Book Study led by Steve Connelly Register here so we can send you a link 

· Tuesday, Thursday &  Saturday Meditations with Rev. Shannon Abbott  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpIl_p8CabDEIS9ytj-xXm2vVDg_hyN03

· Wednesday, 10:00 am – Coffee Hours with Rev. Kent,. Registration link will be sent in Monday Announcements.

· Wednesdays, 6:30 pm—Kentuckiana Assocation of the United Church of Christ, worship services during Lent  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88690638991?pwd=MFBXVkpGL1REcSsrTkxXQVkwejE4dz09

· Thursdays, 10:30 am – Bible Study with Rev. Carla, 10:30 am. Register here

· Join the Union Church Facebook Group – it’s a bit less church business, a bit more fellowship and cat videos, administered by our Community Life & Growth Board – Union Church Facebook Group