Order of Worship
Quest: The Awakened Traveler
Let us be as open vessels that God’s spirit may enter.
The Community Gathers: Experience God’s presence in the assembly. Please greet one another with joy and welcome new friends into our community of love.
You are welcome here…come and worship!
Focus: We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our
exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. T. S. Eliot
Welcome Back ~ Sharon Gaudin & Beth Baskin
Gathering Music: Home (by Gtreg Holden & Drew Pearson) -Michelle Currie
Responsive Call to Worship:
Leader: God has set this day before us,
A day set apart, a day of rest and praise.
All: God has set our lives before us,
A span of years in which we love, and learn, and serve.
L: God has set God’s seal upon our hearts,
All: So that we might live fully in deep love.
Let us worship God.
Opening Hymn: Be Thou My Vision #450 vs. 1-3
Invocation:
Sojourning God, your Spirit exists everywhere, on every path,
inviting us to move with curiosity and compassion toward
each other. Give us courage to leave the familiar,
to venture out beyond our walls,
taking leave so that we will see with wider vision,
know with deeper appreciation, exist with expanded perception.
Nudge and guide us, we pray. Amen.
Lord’s Prayer:
Awakening: Home (by Charlie Smalls) -Michelle Currie -Michelle Currie
Scripture: Psalm 121, Exodus 13: 17- (Reader – Nancy Bancroft)
Sermon: Leaving Home Rev. Paula Norbert
Response: Meditative Instrumental ~ Michelle Currie
Musical call to Prayer: (sung two times) Hush now in quiet peace, be still your mind at ease. The Spirit brings release, so wait upon the Lord.
Prayers of the People
Silent Prayers Pastoral Prayer
Offertory: Simple Gifts (by Joseph Brackett) -Michelle Currie
Doxology: Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise God all creatures here below. Praise God above ye heavenly hosts, Creator, Christ and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Prayer of Dedication:
Benediction:
As you step out of this door, and any other door, this week,
may you be aware of your very movement as a spiritual act
of expanding your horizon,
traveling beyond your preconceptions,
and embracing the infinite delight of this earth and its beings.
And may the Creator continue your unfolding,
the Christ accompany your deeper knowing,
the Spirit enliven your growing,
until one day we all gather in the Kin-dom of Love.
Closing Hymn: Here In This Place #401 vs. 1, 2 & 4
Recessional: Go in Peace
Go in peace and the peace of God be with you this day.
Go in peace and the peace of God be with you always.
celebrate and share the joy. Celebrate new life.
Go in peace and the peace of God be with you always
Thank you to Music Director and Musician Michelle Currie.
There is a prayer
like a wide river
it never ends
does not begin
around the world
it’s always flowing
and I am stepping in,
we are stepping in.
We are praying
for those in distant places
different languages and faces
every hour of the day,
and we are praying
with enemies and strangers
in gratitude, in danger
calling God’s ten thousand names
There is a prayer
like a wide river
it never ends
does not begin
around the world
it’s always flowing
and I am stepping in,
we are stepping in.
First Reading
Psalm 121 (NRSV)
I lift up my eyes to the hills—
from where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
He who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade at your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time on and forevermore.
Second Reading
Exodus 13: 17-21 (NRSV)
When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was nearer; for God thought, “If the people face war, they may change their minds and return to Egypt.” So God led the people by the roundabout way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of the land of Egypt prepared for battle. And Moses took with him the bones of Joseph who had required a solemn oath of the Israelites, saying, “God will surely take notice of you, and then you must carry my bones with you from here.” They set out from Succoth, and camped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness. The Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night.