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

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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