April 18, 2021, Worship Bulletin & Prayer Concerns

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

 Third Sunday of Easter 10:30 am 

Meditation

All of us evoke vague notions of community and compassion, yet how many of us went out to find an intimate other, to bring them with us today? …  A lot of white folks can travel all the way to Tibet to experience intimate otherness, but can’t imagine the idea of finding an other in their life right where they are, and saying, “Would you like to come with me?” – bell hooks, Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope

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.

Prelude Morning Song Daniel Dutton, Somerset , KY

Here it comes, big red sunball rising! Hail, hail to the morning. Let the song of joy awaken the sleeping land through the shadows dawn comes streaming The early birds begin their singing and the dew upon the webs of light quivers cool and sweet.

Chorus: Sun, I pray, let my life begin today.  I promise I will go with beauty around me. Dark nights and cloudy sorrows return at last to the sunny skies of love.

Troubled dreams, fold your wings and vanish. All the fears fade and pass. You told your heart, there is no answer; lies cannot hide. Time is a gift, receive it grateful.

Passing the Peace at Home

Building the Community: News that Connects Us

Earth Day – this Thursday, April 22- is a time to pause and think about the interdependency of all life on our wondrous planet.  As smart as we humans are with all our inventions and technology, we are still dependent on insects to pollinate the blossoms that grow into our food.  Today we light the justice candle for Lauren Roelofs, who works diligently for the survival of some of God’s smallest ,yet very important, creatures.   Laurie has established three Monarch waystations in Berea where butterflies can eat and rest, and lay eggs on their migration.  She provides educational programs to kindergarteners and college students and community members. She hopes to generate interest in planting flowers and milkweed and more organic lawn care.  Just last year she completed the campus wide self-study that resulted in Berea College becoming designated as a Bee Campus by the Xerces Society.  She says that she considers it our duty as children of God to take of the Earth.  

The Living Word Among Us    

Lesson from Acts of the Apostles Acts 3:12-19

When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, “You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you. “And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out.

Reflections     Elwood Donnelly

Reading from Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope bell hooks

“All too often we think of community in terms of being with folks like ourselves: the same class, same race, same ethnicity, same social standing and the like. All of us evoke vague notions of community and compassion, yet how many of us went out to find an intimate other, to bring them with us today? So that when we looked around, we wouldn’t just find a similar kind of class, a similar group of people, people like ourselves: a certain kind of exclusivity. I think we need to be wary: we need to work against the danger of evoking something that we don’t challenge ourselves to actually practice. A lot of white folks can travel all the way to Tibet to experience intimate otherness, but can’t imagine the idea of finding an other in their life right where they are, and saying, ‘Would you like to come with me?’”

Song Isaac Watts, Resignation

My shepherd will supply my need, Jehovah is His name in pastures fresh he makes me feed/Beside the living stream. He brings my wandering spirit back when I forsake His ways. He leads me for his mercy’s sake in paths of truth and grace. When I walk through the shades of death/Thy presence is my stay. One word of thy supporting breath drives all my fears away. Thy hand in sight of all my foes/Doth still my table spread. My cup of blessings overflows. Thine oil anoints my head The sure provisions of my God attend me all my days; Oh may thy house by mine abode/And all my work be praise. There would I find a settled rest while others go and come. No more a stranger nor a guest but like a child at home.

Children’s Moment   

Chorus: I have a little secret but it’s for you to tell and so I’ll raise it to my lips and bid it fare thee well and if you see it passing then catch it if you can and only you and I will understand.

My parents do not know it but it’s not so far away for in the woods beside my house my secret comes to play. She grabs me by the shirt tails and bids me come and go but where she comes from I will never know….CHORUS

She can whistle but she cannot talk so you hear she’s passing by and sleep at night and all my prayers are said She raps upon the windowpane and whispers ’round my head….CHORUS

Sometimes she’s a stranger and she bangs upon my door. Then she climbs the chimney tops and sweeps down to the floor; I ask her where she’s going she says she never knows to tell some other secrets I suppose….CHORUS

Gospel Lesson 1 John 3:1-7; Luke 24:36b-48

1 John 3:1-7 See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.

Luke 24:36b-48 While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence. Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you–that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

Reflections Elwood Donnelly  

Song One Day I Will

I never have seen the face of my savior,  But serving him has been such a thrill  I never have seen the gates to the city But one day, one day I will

Chorus:  One day I’m gonna walk on the streets of pure gold and they tell me that half has never yet been told. I’ll be united with my loved ones on Zion’s Holy Hill But one day, one day I will

Since the day I first met him he has been all to me And my life with his joy he has filled  I’m longing for the day when my eyes shall behold him. But one day, one day I will…

Experience, Faith, Action: Sermon Aubrey Atwater

A walk in tall grass; reading five translations of Julian of Norwich’s 13th revelation at a birthday party; deciding what do Three Questions: What is this like for you? What did Julian of Norwich mean by “All shall be well?” What is your call to action?

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 Imagine Peace Phil Edmonds

Experience, Faith, Action: Sermon Aubrey Atwater

“It behoved that there should be sin; but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well….for there is a force of love moving through the universe that holds us fast and will never let us go.”

“Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly now, love mercy now, walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”

A Time for Centering

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.

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 Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania and our brothers and sisters at First Faith Independent 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.

¨ Congratulations to Debbonnaire Kovacs at the birth of grandson Lucas Christopher (and to his parents, too 🙂 !

 ¨ Dodie Murphy, after a brief hospitalization.

¨Tom Hubbard

¨Annie Sims’ and all the family at the death of her brother, Dennis Smith, on April 6, due to complications Covid-19, in Las Vegas.

¨ Teri VanPelt, with a difficult medical diagnosis.

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

¨ Judith Singelton’s daughter, Stephanie, recovering well from surgery.

¨ 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.

¨ 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 6300 Kentucky residents, and 108 Madison County residents, who have died to date from Covid-19.

Prayers of the People

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

Closing Reading Our Real Work Wendell Berry

It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.

Sending & Blessing

Postlude

Oft I sing for my friends, when this cold form I see when I reach my journey’s end. Tell me who will sing for me.

Chorus: I wonder who (I wonder who) will sing for me (will sing for me) when I come to the cross by the silent sea, tell me who will sing for me.

When friends have gathered ’round and look down on m will they turn and walk away or will they sing one song for me. So I’ll sing until the end and helpful try to be, ever knowing there’ll be some who will sing one song for me

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 Hour with Rev. Kent,. Registration link will be sent in Monday Announcements.

· 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