Hybrid Worship

October 23, 2022

No matter who you are, or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here. 

After our internet outage last weekend, our gratitude for the technology that allows for multiple ways of participating is renewed!

Spiritual Formation 9:00 am

Learning and Growing

Are For Everyone!

9 o'clock Spiritual Formation is the beginning of our Sunday morning "bundle" of belonging! Pastor Ken is in the Multipurpose Room this morning, facilitating formation for adults. Children are starting a new unit that's a real favorite: Honoring the Body, a unit on embodiment and incarnation. We all appreciate brave spaces and big ideas!

For more information on spiritual formation for children and adults or for assistance participating via Zoom, please email Karen. 

Welcome and Announcements

Call to Worship

One: Despite our fears and uncertainty, it is a time of good

rain, early and abundant, that renews us all.

All: We are the gatherers of all that nourishes body and soul, for we work among a harvest of possibility.

One: It is a time of good trouble, bringing justice without

violence, bringing a time of unexpected spirit, bringing

new understandings.

All: We are part of this planet that has received and

shared and lived God’s Spirit!

One: We are the bringers of good trouble, the trouble called

love. Our worship begins in gratitude.

Opening Prayer

God, we come from years of losses – pandemic years,

disappointment years, hiding years – and from broken days,

wasted hours, painful moments. Yet our hands are out, expecting love so wide it seeps through our fingers. We receive from the abundance of creation – worship blessings, life blessings, surprising blessings. Amen.

Singing Our Faith ~ "This Is A Day Of New Beginnings"

This is a day of new beginnings,

Time to remember and move on,

Time to believe what love is bringing,

Laying to rest the pain that’s gone.

For by the life and death of Jesus,

God’s mighty Spirit, now as then,

Can make for us a world of difference,

As faith and hope are born again.

Then let us, with the Spirit’s daring,

Step from the past and leave behind

Our disappointment, guilt and grieving,

Seeking new paths and sure to find.

In faith we’ll gather round the table

To taste and share what love can do.

This is a day of new beginnings;

Our God is making all things new.

SHARING

Celebrations

At this time, we share moments from our lives: birthdays, anniversaries, works of peace and justice. We celebrate even sorrows and grief as part of a comprehensive view of life.

Celebration Song

Celebrate your heart and your spirit.

Celebrate your life while you live it.

Even when it’s hard to do, celebrate the best of you.

Celebrate your dreams and your visions.

Celebrate the life you’ve been given.

Cherish all that you’re been through,

celebrate the best of you.

Ritual of Farewell

Led by Rev. Ken Heintzelman

“And now I commend you to God. . .' When he had finished speaking, he knelt down with them all and prayed. There was much weeping among them all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, grieving especially because of what he had said, that they would not see him again. Then they brought him to the ship." Acts 20

Our church family is constantly changing. People come and go. Babies are born. Children grow up. People commit themselves to one another. Loved ones and friends among us come to the end of their lives. Individuals move into our community and church life. Others leave us, moving away to new places, new experiences, and new opportunities. It is important and right that we recognize these times of passage, of endings and beginnings. Today we share the time of farewell with friends who are leaving.

Shari and Ralph: We thank you all for the love, kindness and

support you have shown us over the past years. We are grateful for the ways our presence and gifts have been accepted. As we leave, we carry with us all that we have learned here.

All: We receive your thankfulness. We accept that you go now to serve another spiritual family. We express our gratitude for your time among us. We ask your forgiveness for our mistakes. Your influence on our faith and faithfulness will not leave us with your departure. Go in joy and go in peace!

Prayer of Blessing

God, in whom we find everlasting love and trustworthy care, help each one of us to keep faith in the future that rests in your arms. The time we have shared with Shari and Ralph saw our laughter and tears, hopes and disappointments, learning and growing. Guide us as we hold these cherished memories but move in new and different directions. Let your Spirit guide Ralph and Shari as they move to new and unknown places, and let your Spirit of Life and Love also guide us as we move forward in our own journey as a faith community. Help us to hope for the time when we are all

completely one with you and with each other, as Jesus so taught and lived. Amen.

Hold this family in your heart;

watch over all their loved ones. 

Help them go and make their way;

and hold them in the arms of grace.

Invitation to Give

The cost of discipleship is bold and radical. It requires a

countercultural giving of possessions and self. Let us risk the

safety of the ordinary and choose to build with God by sharing our gifts and resources.

Offering and Offertory 

Word About Life - Luke 22

He said to his disciples, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they

have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink,

and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

Words for Mission

One: May we be blessed this week with moments of clarity:

times when we see the choices before us, and act in

integrity and compassion.

All: May these moments encourage us and all those around us.

One: These are the times!

All: We are the people.

One: All of Creation is blessed.

All: May we love all and serve all.

One: May God be with you.

All: And also with you.

One: Amen.

All: Amen.

Sending Forth Song ~ "God Is Still Speaking

God is still speaking, blessed invitation,

God is still speaking listen and draw near,

God is still speaking, see a new creation,

God is still speaking, stand and do not fear.

All creation groans and yearns God is still speaking

Seek the way that life returns, listen and draw near

Through our broken, wounded earth, God is still speaking

God can bring new seeds to birth. Stand, and do not fear.

Refrain

To the ones enslaved, oppressed God is still speaking

God is here in human dress, Listen and draw near

When the poor and lost are found, God is still speaking

When the mighty are cast down, Stand, and do not fear.

Refrain

In the bleak and hopeless hour, God is still speaking

Love is telling truth to pow’r, Listen and draw near,

Though the nations rage and fight: God is still speaking,

Hear the Word of breaking light; Stand, and do not fear.

Refrain

For those worshipping in person, our time together continues in Smith Hall for fellowship, as we celebrate our friendship with the Radcliffs.