August 29, 2021, Worship Bulletin & Prayer Concerns

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

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost 10:30 am 

Meditation

The church is not an institution forcing us to follow rules but a community inviting us to still our hunger and thirst at its table. — Henri Nouwen

From There to Here: We Gather

Gathering Music

Welcome

The Call Steve & Teresa Gowler, Readers

One: “The further I wake into this life, the more I realize that God is everywhere and the extraordinary is waiting quietly beneath the skin of all that is ordinary.

One: Light is in both the broken bottle and the diamond, and music is in both the flowing violin and the water dripping from the drainage pipe. Yes, God is under the porch as well as on top of the mountain, and joy is in both the front row and the bleachers, if we are willing to be where we are.” ― Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening

Passing of the Peace at Home

Lighting the Justice Candle

Today we light the Justice Candle for Stacey Abrams, who is striving to ensure every American has a voice in our election system through programs such as Fair Fight 2020, an initiative to fund and train voter protection teams in 20 states. Over the course of her career, Abrams has founded multiple organizations devoted to voting rights, training and hiring young people of color, and tackling social issues at both the state and national levels. In 2019, she launched Fair Count to ensure accuracy in the 2020 Census and greater participation in civic engagement, and the Southern Economic Advancement Project, a public policy initiative to broaden economic power and build equity in the South.

Hymn         God Is Here!       Abbot’s Leigh

1. God is here! As we your people meet to offer praise and prayer, may we find in fuller measure what it is in Christ we share. Here, as in the world around us, all our varied skills and arts wait the coming of the Spirit into open minds and hearts.

2. Here are symbols to remind us of our lifelong need of grace; here are table, font and pulpit; here the cross has central place. Here in honesty of preaching, here in silence, as in speech, here, in newness and renewal, God the Spirit comes to each.

3. Here our children find a welcome in the Shepherd’s flock and fold; here as bread and wine are taken, Christ sustains us as of old. Here the servants of the Servant seek in worship to explore what it means in daily living to believe and to adore.

4. Sovereign, of earth and heaven, in an age of change and doubt, keep us faithful to the gospel; help us work your purpose out. Here, in this day’s dedication, all we have to give, receive; we, who cannot live without you, we adore you! We believe!

Hebrew Scripture Lesson Song of Solomon 2:8-13 Steve Gowler, Reader

The voice of my beloved! Look, he comes, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills. My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look, there he stands behind our wall, gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattice. My beloved speaks and says to me: ‘Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; for now the winter is past,  the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

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 Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’ You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.” Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Sermon Contents Under Pressure Rev. Kent Gilbert

Living Prayer

Call to Prayer and Offering

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 choose to, it can make future generosity that much easier.

You can even give by text! Text to 859-448-3403 (Example: Text “$50.00 Offering”)

        You can also use US mail!  Mail to: CPO 2105, Berea, KY 40404

Your contribution is love made visible. Thank you!

Offering Music    

Offertory Prayer

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.

Prayers of the Community Teresa Gowler, Reader

Speak tenderly, Lord; speak like the dove after winter, like beloved breath in the morning air, for we are sore troubled and afraid. Rise up, like love to conquer our fears and instill your people with strength. The winter of our discontent has come early to our hearts, and so to you we turn. That we may find within ourselves all goodness and fortitude to do what is right, whether besieged by trials or assailed by the world. That out of our suffering might come the means to end suffering and prevent hardship for others. That under pressure what might emerge from those who love you would be words and actions that are the emblem of your Christ, never returning to you empty, but eager to do as love demands. O healer of every ill, heal us of earthly pestilence and spiritual poison. Grant healing, that we may never defile our love of you and the creation by which you sustain us.

We pray the words Jesus taught us, reaching to you as…..

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

Benediction

Postlude I Am The Rose of Sharon (William Billings) Sung by Appalachian Association of Sacred Harp Singers

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.”

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 Liberia and Sierra Leone and our brothers and sisters at Silver Creek 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.

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

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

¨ Tom Hubbard

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

¨ Sharona Nelson, as she faces decisions regarding a difficult family situation.

¨ Christine VanPelt Ward and family, at the loss of her grandmother.

¨ The families of Laura Jackson, Jen Eich’s sister, who has died after a long illness.

¨ The Morgan family, at the loss of Chuck Morgan, Jr., last week.

¨ Ally Nurre, recovering from hip replacement surgery

¨ Dorie Hubbard’s great grand-niece, Marie, whose cancer has gotten worse.

¨ Shelagh Quigley, dear friend of Dodie Murphy, who has Covid-19.

¨ 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 now over 7700 Kentucky residents, and 115 Madison County residents, who have died to date from Covid-19.

¨ Important dates—if we haven’t got yours, let us know. We’ll help you get connected in FellowshipOne Go!

Birthdays coming up this week: today, August 29 – Jen Eich; September 2 – Dodie Murphy, Hamrick Walters; 5 – Brian Madden

Anniversaries this week: Sept. 1 – Gene & Dorothy Chao; 3 – Greg & Adria Sutherland