- Feb 10, 2023
- 5 min read
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!”
February 12, 2023 • 10:30 a.m.
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10:20am Gathering and Prelude
Wayne Shull, Music Director
Charlie Salt, AV
Joe McSwain, AV and Usher
Jerry Brines, Usher
Naomi Hanvey, Zoom App Assistance
Scotty Patton, Zoom Monitor
Jan Young, Scripture Reader
Sue Ferrozzo, Candle Lighter and Fellowship Set-Up
Marilyn Closson, Fellowship Clean-up
Rev. Genavieve Heywood, Pastor
10:30am Worship begins
God listens... all the time!
All the time . . . God listens!
*Welcoming the Light of Christ
* Hymn “Come, Let Us Join with Faithful Souls” 383 (NCH)
Public Domain
1 Come, let us join with faithful souls
Our song of faith to raise;
One family in heart are we,
And One the God we praise.
2 Faithful are all who love the truth
And perfect truth proclaim,
Who steadfast stand at God’s right hand
And glorify God’s name.
3 And faithful are the gentle hearts
To whom the pow'r is giv'n
Of ev'ry hearth to make a home,
Of ev'ry home a heav'n.
4 O God of hosts, our faith renew,
And grant us, in your grace,
To join the songs sung by the saints
In every time and place.
About Our Sacred Conversations about Racism
Merriam-Webster Dictionary: Racism (highlighted words link to definitions)
a belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
behavior or attitudes that reflect and foster this belief : racial discrimination or prejudice
the systemic oppression of a racial group to the social, economic, and political advantage of another
a political or social system founded on racism and designed to execute its principles
Community Prayer
Spoken Gratitude
Spoken Concerns
Silent Prayer
Lord’s Prayer
Response: “Awake! Awake and Greet the New Morn”
107(NCH) v.4
Rejoice, rejoice, take heart in the night, though cold the winter and cheerless, the rising sun shall crown you with light, be strong and loving and fearless. Love be our song and love our prayer, and love, our endless story, may God fill every day we share, and bring us at last into glory.
A Time of Offering
An Invitation to Share
An Offering of Hope: Leona Flowers, Hope House, Spokane
Sacred Conversations about Racism: Sam Mumford
*Offering Acclamation:
Response: “Awake, Awake to Love and Work” 89 (NCH) v.2
Come, let your voice be one with theirs, shout with their shout of praise. See how the giant sun soars up, God’s gift for all your days! So, let the love of Jesus come and set your soul ablaze.
*Dedication Prayer
Radiant God, bless us and our offerings that this little community may be found pleasing in your sight. Pour out your Spirit and strengthen us as we practice the way of Jesus. Amen
Listening for God
1 Corinthians 3:1-9 The Message translation
1-4 But for right now, friends, I’m completely frustrated by your unspiritual dealings with each other and with God. You’re acting like infants in relation to Christ, capable of nothing much more than nursing at the breast. Well, then, I’ll nurse you since you don’t seem capable of anything more. As long as you grab for what makes you feel good or makes you look important, are you really much different than a babe at the breast, content only when everything’s going your way? When one of you says, “I’m on Paul’s side,” and another says, “I’m for Apollos,” aren’t you being totally infantile?
5-9 Who do you think Paul is, anyway? Or Apollos, for that matter? Servants, both of us—servants who waited on you as you gradually learned to entrust your lives to our mutual Master. We each carried out our servant assignment. I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but God made you grow. It’s not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of this process but God, who makes things grow. Planting and watering are menial servant jobs at minimum wages. What makes them worth doing is the God we are serving. You happen to be God’s field in which we are working.
Matthew 5:21-37 The Message translation
21-22 “You’re familiar with the command to the ancients, ‘Do not murder.’ I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother ‘idiot!’ and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell ‘stupid!’ at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill.
23-24 “This is how I want you to conduct yourself in these matters. If you enter your place of worship and, about to make an offering, you suddenly remember a grudge a friend has against you, abandon your offering, leave immediately, go to this friend and make things right. Then and only then, come back and work things out with God.
25-26 “Or say you’re out on the street and an old enemy accosts you. Don’t lose a minute. Make the first move; make things right with him. After all, if you leave the first move to him, knowing his track record, you’re likely to end up in court, maybe even jail. If that happens, you won’t get out without a stiff fine.
27-28 “You know the next commandment pretty well, too: ‘Don’t go to bed with another’s spouse.’ But don’t think you’ve preserved your virtue simply by staying out of bed. Your heart can be corrupted by lust even quicker than your body. Those leering looks you think nobody notices—they also corrupt.
29-30 “Let’s not pretend this is easier than it really is. If you want to live a morally pure life, here’s what you have to do: You have to blind your right eye the moment you catch it in a lustful leer. You have to choose to live one-eyed or else be dumped on a moral trash pile. And you have to chop off your right hand the moment you notice it raised threateningly. Better a bloody stump than your entire being discarded for good in the dump.
31-32 “Remember the Scripture that says, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him do it legally, giving her divorce papers and her legal rights’? Too many of you are using that as a cover for selfishness and whim, pretending to be righteous just because you are ‘legal.’ Please, no more pretending. If you divorce your wife, you’re responsible for making her an adulteress (unless she has already made herself that by sexual promiscuity). And if you marry such a divorced adulteress, you’re automatically an adulterer yourself. You can’t use legal cover to mask a moral failure.
33-37 “And don’t say anything you don’t mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions. You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, ‘I’ll pray for you,’ and never doing it, or saying, ‘God be with you,’ and not meaning it. You don’t make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true. Just say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong.
Message: Word Power
Silent Reflection
Announcements
Bible Study Monday at 7pm at Wayne and Charlie’s homne.
Signups for Sacred Conversations about Racism
Our Light moves into the World God Loves
* Hymn: “Be Now My Vision” 451(NCH)
Public Domain
Be now my vision, O God of my heart; nothing surpasses the love you impart - you my best thought, by day or by night, waking or sleeping, your presence my light.
Be now my wisdom, and be my true word; ever within me, my soul is assured; Mother and Father, you are both to me, now and forever, your child I will be.
Riches I need not, nor life’s empty praise, you, my inheritance, now and always. You and you only are first in my heart, great God, my treasure, may we never part.
Sovereign of Heaven, my victory won, may I reach heaven’s joys, O bright heaven’s sun! Heart of my own heart, whatever befall, still be my vision, O Ruler of All.
*Benediction
Silent Meditation and Postlude
