Sunday Worship Bulletin, July 20, 2025

Veradale United Church of Christ

An Open & Affirming Congregation

Worshiping God in Christ – Welcoming All – Working for Justice & Peace

“No matter who you are, or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here!”

July 20, 2025

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

10:20 Gathering and Prelude

Wayne Shull, Music Director

Charlie Salt, AV

Tom Cuilla, Usher Coordinator

Joe McSwain, Usher

Jerry Brines, Usher

Wayne Shull, Scripture Reader

Diane Smith, Candle lighter

Gregg Glisson, Fellowship Set-up

_______, Fellowship Clean-up

_______, Zoom Monitor

Rev. Gen Heywood, Pastor

10:30am Welcoming the Light of Christ 

Land Acknowledgement 

We worship on the unceded traditional territory of the Spokane, Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla, Coeur d’Alene, and other tribes. We acknowledge the history of indigenous genocide, removal, and erasure that continues to this day.  We recognize the role that Christian communities played in these injustices, and we recommit ourselves to seeking more peaceful, just, and neighborly ways of sharing this land with all who call it home.

Community Affirmation

God seeks justice...all the time!  

All the time...God seeks justice!

Service and Fellowship Opportunities 

Next Sunday “Ask the Pastor”

No Bible Study Monday

Silent Prayer, Tuesday 9:00 to 9:30am

String-A-Lings practice Wednesday, 5:30pm 

 Community giving this month: School Supplies

Opening Hymn

Hymn: We have Come into Christ’s House RB 204

We have come into his house and gathered in his name to worship him. We have come into his house and gathered in his name to worship him. We have come into his house and gathered in his name to Christ the Lord. Worship him, Christ the Lord.

So, forget about yourself, concentrate on him and worship him. 

So, forget about yourself, concentrate on him and worship him.So, forget about yourself, concentrate on him and worship Christ our Lord. And Worship him, Christ the Lord.

Let us lift up holy hands and magnify his name and worship him.Let us lift up holy hands and magnify his name and worship him.Let us lift up holy hands, magnify his name and worship Christ our Lord.Worship him, Christ the Lord.

He is all my righteousness; I stand complete in him and worship him. He is all my righteousness; I stand complete in him and worship him. He is all my righteousness; I stand complete in him and worship Christ the Lord. Worship him, Christ the Lord

Community Prayer

Hymn: “Glory to the Lamb” RB 143

Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb. 

Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb.

Prayers of Gratitude

Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb. 

Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb.

Prayers of Concern 

Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb. 

Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb.

Prayers in Silence 

Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb. 

Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb.

 Lord’s Prayer

Response: “His Name is Wonderful” RB 108

His name is wonderful. His name is wonderful. His name is wonderful. His name is wonderful, Jesus my Lord. He is Mighty King, Master of Everything. His name is wonderful, Jesus my Lord. He’s the Great Shepherd, The Rock of all ages, The Almighty God is he. Bow down before him. Love and adore him. His name is Wonderful, Jesus my Lord.

A Time of Offering

 An Invitation to Share 

Dedication Hymn 780 (NCH) Praise God from whom all blessing flow. Praise God all creatures here below. Praise God for all that love has done; Creator, Christ, and Spirit, One.  Amen

Dedication Prayer

Bless, O God, these gifts of our time, talent, and treasure. Multiply them to help us be an embassy of your way known in Jesus. Amen.

Listening for God

Amos

Written around 760-753 BCE from Tekoa (about 6 miles south of Bethlehem, Kingdom of Judah) It was a time of great prosperity for Judah and Israel – with some people had plenty while denying the needs of others which Amos saw as moral decay.

1¹The Message of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa, that he received on behalf of Israel. It came to him in visions during the time that Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam II son of Joash was king of Israel, two years before the big earthquake.

2God roars from Zion, shouts from Jerusalem! God’s Message: “Because of the cruelty Damascus, I’m not putting up with her any longer. Damascus will fall. Because of the cruelty of Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, Judah, and Israel 

2 I’m not putting up with them any longer.They buy and sell upstanding people. People for them are only things—ways of making money. They’d sell a poor man for a pair of shoes.They’d sell their own grandmother! They grind the penniless into the dirt, shove the luckless into the ditch.

3 ⁸God has spoken— what prophet can keep quiet?

5 ^7-9 Woe to you who turn justice to vinegar and stomp righteousness into the mud. Do you realize where you are? 

^10-12 People hate this kind of talk. Raw truth is never popular. But here it is, bluntly spoken: Because you run roughshod over the poor and take the bread right out of their mouths, You’re never going to move into the luxury homes you have built. You’re never going to drink wine from the expensive vineyards you’ve planted. I know precisely the extent of your violations,    the enormity of your sins. Appalling!You bully right-living people, taking bribes right and left and kicking the poor when they’re down.¹³ Justice is a lost cause. Evil is epidemic. Decent people throw up their hands. 

Protest and rebuke are useless, a waste of breath.¹⁴ Seek good and not evil— and live!You talk about God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies, being your best friend. Well, live like it, and maybe it will happen.

¹⁵ Hate evil and love good, then work it out in the public square. Maybe God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies, will notice your remnant and be gracious.

^16-17 Now again, my Master’s Message, God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies: “Go out into the streets and lament loudly! Fill the malls and shops with cries of doom! Weep loudly, ‘Not me! Not us, Not now!’ Empty offices, stores, factories, workplaces. Enlist everyone in the general lament. I want to hear it loud and clear when I make my visit.”        God’s Decree.

18-20Woe to all of you who want God’s Judgment Day! Why would you want to see God, want him to come? When God comes, it will be bad news before it’s good news; the worst of times, not the best of times.

 “I can’t stand your religious meetings. I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image making. I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. 

Do you know what I want?    I want justice—oceans of it.I want fairness—rivers of it.    That’s what I want. That’s all I want.

    6 ^3-6 Woe to you who are rushing headlong to disaster! Catastrophe is just around the corner! Woe to those who live in luxury and expect everyone else to serve them! Woe to those who live only for today, indifferent to the fate of others! Woe to the playboys, the playgirls, who think life is a party held just for them! Woe to those addicted to feeling good—life without pain! those obsessed with looking good—life without wrinkles! They could not care less about their country going to ruin.    

7 God showed me this vision: My Master was standing beside a wall. In his hand he held a plumb line.

^8-9 God said to me, “What do you see, Amos?”

I said, “A plumb line.”

Then my Master said, “Look what I’ve done. I’ve hung a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel. I’ve spared them for the last time. This is it!

8 My Master God showed me this vision: A bowl of fresh fruit.

² He said, “What do you see, Amos?”

I said, “A bowl of fresh, ripe fruit.”

God said, “Right. So, I’m calling it quits with my people Israel. I’m no longer acting as if everything is just fine.”

^4-6 Listen to this, you who walk all over the weak, you who treat poor people as less than nothing, who say, “When’s my next paycheck coming so I can go out and live it up? How long till the weekend when I can go out and have a good time?” Who give little and take much and never do an honest day’s work. You exploit the poor, using them— and then, when they’re used up, you discard them.

^7-8 God swears against the arrogance of Jacob: “I’m keeping track of their every last sin. “God’s oath will shake earth’s foundations, dissolve the whole world into tears. God’s oath will sweep in like a river that rises, flooding houses and lands, and then recedes, leaving behind a sea of mud.

9^11-12 “But also on that Judgment Day I will restore David’s house that has fallen to pieces. I’ll repair the holes in the roof, replace the broken windows, fix it up like new. David’s people will be strong again and seize what’s left of enemy Edom, plus everyone else under my sovereign judgment.” God’s Decree. 

Message: Amos Declares: God is Indignant

Meditation in Music

Announcement Reminder

Our Light moves into the World God Loves

*Closing Hymn:  Sing Halleluia RB 319

Sing Halleluia to the Lord. Sing Halleluia to the Lord.

Sing Halleluia. Sing Halleluia. Sing Halleluia to the Lord.

Benediction 

Communal Blessing

Be Yourself.

Grow in Christ.

Live with Compassion

Sunday Worship Bulletin, July 13 2025

Veradale United Church of Christ

An Open & Affirming Congregation

Worshiping God in Christ – Welcoming All – Working for Justice & Peace

“No matter who you are, or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here!”

July 13, 2025

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

10:20 Gathering and Prelude

Wayne Shull, Music Director

Charlie Salt, AV

Joe McSwain, Usher

Jerry Brines, Usher

Maureen Carroll, Scripture Reader

Heidi Fowler, Candle lighter

Sue Ferrozzo, Fellowship Set-up

Naomi Hanvey, Fellowship Clean-up

Scotty Patton, Zoom Monitor

Rev. Gen Heywood, Pastor

10:30am Welcoming the Light of Christ 

Land Acknowledgement 

We worship on the unceded traditional territory of the Spokane, Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla, Coeur d’Alene, and other tribes. We acknowledge the history of indigenous genocide, removal, and erasure that continues to this day.  We recognize the role that Christian communities played in these injustices, and we recommit ourselves to seeking more peaceful, just, and neighborly ways of sharing this land with all who call it home.

 Community Affirmation

God listens ...all the time!  

All the time...God listens!

Service and Fellowship Opportunities 

Next Sunday “Amos Declares God is Angry ”

No Bible Study Monday

Silent Prayer, Tuesday 9:00 to 9:30am

String-A-Lings practice Wednesday, 5:30pm 

 Community giving this month: School Supplies

Welcoming the Light of Christ

Hymn: Make a Gift of Your Holy Word 317 (NCH)

1.   Make a gift of your holy Word, let it pour on my head and heart like your rain, sovereign and loving God. Let it fill my life each day, touch my hunger and my thirst, the deep suffering that I know on life’s lonely, wandering way.

2.    Let your Word come into our lives, as your winds blow o’er all the Earth, we pray. God of salvation, come, that we shall be fully free from the sins that keep us bound, made pure by your Spirit’s gift of the resounding victory.

3.   Grant all people your holy Word. Quench the thirsty Earth as the first morning dew, O gracious God of life. Let it teach love’s healing way, in our war-torn suffering world. Let it bind us one to one toward a just and peaceful day.

Community Prayer

Hymn: “Glory to the Lamb” RB 143

Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb. 

Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb.

Prayers of Gratitude

Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb. 

Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb.

Prayers of Concern 

Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb. 

Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb.

Prayers in Silence 

Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb. 

Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb.

 Lord’s Prayer

Response: “His Name is Wonderful” RB 108

His name is wonderful. His name is wonderful. His name is wonderful. His name is wonderful, Jesus my Lord. He is Mighty King, Master of Everything. His name is wonderful, Jesus my Lord. He’s the Great Shepherd, The Rock of all ages, The Almighty God is he. Bow down before him. Love and adore him. His name is Wonderful, Jesus my Lord.

A Time of Offering

 An Invitation to Share 

Dedication Hymn 780 (NCH) Praise God from whom all blessing flow. Praise God all creatures here below. Praise God for all that love has done; Creator, Christ, and Spirit, One.  Amen

 Dedication Prayer

Holy One, as you are one in justice, love, and mercy, make us one. Bless these gifts and make them pleasing in your site. May the day soon come when sharing by all will mean scarcity to none. Amen.

Listening for God

Luke 10:25-37

 Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?”

He answered, “What’s written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?”

He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.”

“Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.”

Looking for a loophole, he asked, “And just how would you define ‘neighbor’?”

Jesus answered by telling a story. “There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.

 “A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I’ll pay you on my way back.’

“What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?”

“The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded.

Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”

Message: Go and Do

Meditation in Music

 Announcement Reminder

 Our Light moves into the World God Loves

*Closing Hymn:  Micah 6:8 RB250

He has shown thee, O, man, what is good and what the Lord require of thee?

But to do justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God.

Benediction 

Communal Blessing

Be Yourself.

Grow in Christ.

Live with Compassion

Sunday Worship Bulletin, July 6, 2025

Veradale United Church of Christ

An Open & Affirming Congregation

Worshiping God in Christ – Welcoming All – Working for Justice & Peace

“No matter who you are, or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here!”

July 6, 2025

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

10:20 Gathering and Prelude

Wayne Shull, Music Director

Charlie Salt, AV

Joe McSwain, Usher

Jerry Brines, Usher

Marvin Wilson, Scripture Reader

Stephanie Wallis, Candle lighter

_________, Fellowship Set-up

_________,Fellowship Clean-up

Scotty Patton, Zoom Monitor

Rev. Gen Heywood, Pastor

10:30am Welcoming the Light of Christ 

Land Acknowledgement 

We worship on the unceded traditional territory of the Spokane, Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla, Coeur d’Alene, and other tribes. We acknowledge the history of indigenous genocide, removal, and erasure that continues to this day.  We recognize the role that Christian communities played in these injustices, and we recommit ourselves to seeking more peaceful, just, and neighborly ways of sharing this land with all who call it home.

Community Affirmation

God hopes in us ...all the time!  All the time...God hopes in us!

Service and Fellowship Opportunities 

Next Sunday “The Samaritan”

Bible Study Monday 7pm

Silent Prayer, Tuesday 9:00 to 9:30am

String-A-Lings practice Wednesday, 5:30pm 

 Community giving this month: School Supplies

Welcoming the Light of Christ

Hymn: This is my Song 591 (NCH)

This is my song, O God of all the nations, a song of peace for lands afar and mine; this is my home, the country where my heart is; here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine: but other hearts in other lands are beating with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country's skies are bluer than the ocean, and sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine; but other lands have sunlight too, and clover, and skies are everywhere as blue as mine: O hear my song, O God of all the nations, a song of peace for their land and for mine.

Hymn: “Glory to the Lamb” RB 143

Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb. 

Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb.

Prayers of Gratitude

Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb. 

Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb.

Prayers of Concern 

Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb. 

Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb.

Prayers in Silence 

Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb. 

Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb.

 Lord’s Prayer

Response: “His Name is Wonderful” RB 108

His name is wonderful. His name is wonderful. His name is wonderful. His name is wonderful, Jesus my Lord. He is Mighty King, Master of Everything. His name is wonderful, Jesus my Lord. He’s the Great Shepherd, The Rock of all ages, The Almighty God is he. Bow down before him. Love and adore him. His name is Wonderful, Jesus my Lord.

A Time of Offering

 An Invitation to Share 

Dedication Hymn 780 (NCH) Praise God from whom all blessing flow. Praise God all creatures here below. Praise God for all that love has done; Creator, Christ, and Spirit, One.  Amen

Dedication Prayer

  Holy One, your hope in us never wavers. Fill our offerings of time, talent, and treasure with your blessing so that this little church may shine the light of hope and healing.Amen

Listening for God

2 Kings 5:1-14 The Message

1-3 Naaman was general of the army under the king of Aram. He was important to his master, who held him in the highest esteem because it was by him that God had given victory to Aram: a truly great man, but afflicted with a grievous skin disease. It so happened that Aram, on one of its raiding expeditions against Israel, captured a young girl who became a maid to Naaman’s wife. One day she said to her mistress, “Oh, if only my master could meet the prophet of Samaria, he would be healed of his skin disease.”

4 Naaman went straight to his master and reported what the girl from Israel had said.

5 “Well then, go,” said the king of Aram. “And I’ll send a letter of introduction to the king of Israel.”

So he went off, taking with him about 750 pounds of silver, 150 pounds of gold, and ten sets of clothes.

6 Naaman delivered the letter to the king of Israel. The letter read, “When you get this letter, you’ll know that I’ve personally sent my servant Naaman to you; heal him of his skin disease.”

7 When the king of Israel read the letter, he was terribly upset, ripping his robe to pieces. He said, “Am I a god with the power to bring death or life that I get orders to heal this man from his disease? What’s going on here? That king’s trying to pick a fight, that’s what!”

8 Elisha the man of God heard what had happened, that the king of Israel was so distressed that he’d ripped his robe to shreds. He sent word to the king, “Why are you so upset, ripping your robe like this? Send him to me so he’ll learn that there’s a prophet in Israel.”

9 So Naaman with his horses and chariots arrived in style and stopped at Elisha’s door.

10 Elisha sent out a servant to meet him with this message: “Go to the River Jordan and immerse yourself seven times. Your skin will be healed and you’ll be as good as new.”

11-12 Naaman lost his temper. He spun around saying, “I thought he’d personally come out and meet me, call on the name of God, wave his hand over the diseased spot, and get rid of the disease. The Damascus rivers, Abana and Pharpar, are cleaner by far than any of the rivers in Israel. Why not bathe in them? I’d at least get clean.” He stomped off, mad as a hornet.

13 But his servants caught up with him and said, “Father, if the prophet had asked you to do something hard and heroic, wouldn’t you have done it? So why not this simple ‘wash and be clean’?”

14 So he did it. He went down and immersed himself in the Jordan seven times, following the orders of the Holy Man. His skin was healed; it was like the skin of a little baby. He was as good as new.

Message: Naaman, the Healed Foreigner

Sharing Holy Communion

Hand sanitizer passed around.

Pastor: Friends in Christ, we gather at our many tables mindful of the presence of God’s Spirit that is here with us.  We seek to honor the request of Jesus given in the scripture.  Of all the teachings Jesus gave to our ancestors, this he asked them and us to do for him to remember him. 

When Jesus and his friends sat together at a Passover meal, Jesus took bread; giving God thanks and praise, he broke the bread.  He gave it to his friends saying, “Take this all of you and eat of it.  This is my body that is broken for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.”

After the meal had ended, Jesus poured out the cup and again he gave God thanks and praise.  He gave the cup to his friends and said, “Take this all of you and drink from it.  This is the cup of the new covenant.  Do this as often as you drink of it in remembrance of me.”

Let us pray.

All: Loving God, you are with us in questioning and learning.  We thank you with humble hearts. Let your presence be felt among us.  Come, Holy Spirit come.  Bless this bread and this cup and all who have gathered in your Spirit.  Refresh us and renew us as Christ’s body in the world today.  In the name of Jesus, we pray.  Amen.

Silence as all who want to receive come forward. We will break bread and share a common cup or you can receive the packaged bread and drink,

Prayer of Thanksgiving

All: We thank you, God, for your presence at all our tables where we remember and experience the presence of Christ.  Help us to live more fully the way of Christ. Strengthen our faith, increase our love for one another, and let us show forth your praise in our lives, through Jesus Christ our Savior.  Amen.

Meditation in Music

Announcement Reminder

Our Light moves into the World God Loves

*Closing Hymn: “America the Beautiful” Melody 594(NCH)

O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain for purple mountain majesties, above the fruited plain! America! America! God’s gracious gifts abound and more and more we’re grateful for life’s bounty all around

Indigenous and immigrant,  our daughters & our sons, O may we  never rest content till all our truly one America! America! God grant that we may be a sisterhood and brotherhood from sea to shining sea.

How beautiful sincere lament, the wisdom   born of tears, the courage called for to repent the bloodshed through the years America! America! God grant that we may be a nation blessed with none oppressed true land of liberty

How beautiful, two continents, and islands in the sea that dream of peace, non-violent, all people living free. Americas! Americas! God grant that we may be a hemisphere where people here all live in harmony.

Benediction 

Communal Blessing

Be Yourself.

Grow in Christ.

Live with Compassion