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Order of Worship
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: “Beloved remember that you are dust and to dust you will return. You will die; this is true. And this is true too: God breathed life into you, imagined goodness for you, and remains with you amid every joy and every sorrow. Beauty is written into your being, grace in every breath, gift in every heartbeat.” (Unknown)
Welcome: We continue our movement through the Lenten season this week with another kind of “letting go.” This week we lament that so much in life is out of our control. This is frustrating to us and so sometimes we have been tempted to believe the sayings that tell us if we just “think positively,” we can turn it all around. Yet our experience tells us that this doesn’t always work. Let us embrace this season as a time of letting go and of nurturing “what is” as we seek to embrace our holy, good enough, lives.
Gathering Music: Good Enough (Marcia McFee/Marsha Moors/Chuck Bell)
-Michelle Currie
Call To Worship:
One: God desires to gather us; Like a mother eagle, she gathers us together. Her wings spread out before us
Many: Her presence, all around us; To nurture is her nature
To mother is her gift
One: For our safety, she reaches: For our good, she moves
Sheltering over us
Many: She is our fortress; Deep beneath her wings,
She is our strength
One: Because of us, she is wounded, By her wounds we are saved
Until all fear is gone; Until the work is finished
Many: In her, we find our justice; In her, we find our peace
Opening Hymn: Take Time to Be Holy
(Lyrics)
Take time to be holy speak oft with thy Lord
Abide in him always and feed on his word
Make friends of God’s children help those who are weak
Forgetting in nothing his blessing to seek
Take time to be holy let him be thy guide
And run not before him whatever be tide
In joy or in sorrow still follow the Lord
And looking to Jesus still trust in his word
Take time to be holy be calm in thy soul
Each thought and each motive beneath his control
Thus led by his spirit to fountains of love
Thou soon shalt be fitted for service above
Opening Prayer: Calling on God Based on Psalm 27
Let us pray together:
Holy One, Our Light and Salvation,
we call out to you, sometimes afraid of the struggles in life.
Shelter us in days of trouble, lead us on level paths.
Open us this day to your grace and peace,
transform our frustrations into simple and ‘good enough’
moments that fill our days with your grace.
Amen
Lord’s Prayer
Awakening: To Be Humble To Be Kind (by Alternate Routes) -Michelle Currie
Scripture: Psalm 27, Luke 13: 31-35 -Sue Maccalous
Sermon: My Shadow Places -Beth Baskin
Music: Instrumental ~ The Prayer -Michelle Currie
Musical call to Prayer: (two times) Hush now in quiet peace, be still your mind at ease. The Spirit brings release, so wait upon the Lord. Michelle Currie
Prayers of the People
Silent Prayers Pastoral Prayer
Closing Music: Gonna Lay My Burden Down
(Lyrics)
Gonna Lay down my burden
Down by the riverside (3x)
Gonna lay down my burden
Down by the riverside – gonna study war no more
*(Chorus) 2x
I ain’t gonna study war no more
Study war no more
Ain’t gonna study war no more
Gonna try on my long white robe
Down by the riverside 3x
Gonna try on my long white robe
Down by the riverside, down by the riverside (*Chorus)
Gonna lay down my heavy load
Down by the riverside (3x)
Gonna lay down my heavy load
Down by the riverside, down by the riverside (*Chorus)
Blessing for the Week:
“You walk among the fellowship of the afflicted, a club no one wants to join. And while this life isn’t shiny, it does come with superpowers. Superpowers of ever-widening empathy and existential courage that gets you back up after another fall
and a deepened awe at the beauty and love that can be found amid life’s rubble. Like flowers that grow from the cracks in the sidewalk.
These virtues blossom in you. And thank God for you.
Blessed are all of us who struggle, for we are in good company,
and we’ll never walk alone.” From Good Enough
Benediction
And now, may the God who loves all of creation, especially when life is painful, and Jesus, our companion along this crooked path called life, and the Holy Spirit, who loves to improvise in surprising ways,
go with you, dwell among you, and give you joy. Amen.
Postlude: Good Enough
Worship Materials Marcia McFee © www.worshipdesignstudio.com/goodenough. Used and adapted with permission.
“Good Enough” theme song by Marsha Charles, Marcia McFee, Chuck Bell. Used with permission of Worship Design Studio.
“A Blessing for a Joyfully Mediocre Journey” from Good Enough: 40’ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection by Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie. Used with permission. Purchase the book at www.katebowler.com/goodenough.
Focus quote does not have an author. This was shared in a reflection by Rev. Terry Hershey in his Sabbath Moments message.
Our Scripture Readings:
Psalm 27
27:1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
27:2 When evildoers assail me to devour my flesh– my adversaries and foes– they shall stumble and fall.
27:3 Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war rise up against me, yet I will be confident.
27:4 One thing I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple.
27:5 For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will set me high on a rock.
27:6 Now my head is lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the LORD.
27:7 Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me!
27:8 “Come,” my heart says, “seek his face!” Your face, LORD, do I seek.
27:9 Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger, you who have been my help. Do not cast me off, do not forsake me, O God of my salvation!
27:10 If my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will take me up.
27:11 Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.
27:12 Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and they are breathing out violence.
27:13 I believe that I shall see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
27:14 Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!
At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.”
He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.'”
A Word of God that is still speaking,
Thanks be to God.