Gathering Music
“Every Praise”
“God Has Work for Us to Do”
Call to Prayer
Cory Jones
To Those Who Have Died in the Desert by Orthon Perez
One: In memory of those who went to look for a better life, yet only encountered death
Many: In memory of those who risked everything
One: Of those who went with hope in their eyes and challenge in their souls
Many: The sun burned them and the desert devoured them and the dust erased their names and faces
One: In memory of those who never returned … we offer these flowers and say with the deepest respect …
Many: Your thirst is our thirst, your hunger is our hunger, your pain is our pain. Your anguish, bitterness, and agony are also ours.
One: We are a cry for justice that no one would ever have to leave their land,
Many: their beliefs, their dead, their children, their parents, their family, their roots, their culture, their identity
One: From out of the silence comes a voice that speaks
Many: So that no one will ever have to look for their dream in other lands, so that no one would ever have to go to the desert and be consumed by loneliness
One: We are a voice in the desert that cries out
Many: Education for all! Opportunity for all! Jobs for all! Bread for all! Freedom for all! Justice for all!
One: We are a voice that will not be lost in the desert
Many: that insists that the nation give equal opportunity to a dignified and fruitful life to all its children. Amen.
Sung Evening Confession
“Come Out”
words by Tanya Linn Bennett & Mark Miller, music by Mark Miller
Come out, come out of your comfortable spaces
Come meet Jesus in the difficult places
Have you not heard every valley’s exalted?
Mountain’s made low, but the lowly are lifted
Come out, come out of your well-to-do places
Come meet Jesus in the struggling spaces
Come out the kin-dom of God is upon us
Come out the wilderness and follow Jesus
Scripture
Sarah Grant
Psalm 139:7-10 (NIV)
7 ¿A dónde podría alejarme de tu Espíritu?
¿A dónde podría huir de tu presencia?
8 Si subiera al cielo,
allí estás tú;
si tendiera mi lecho en el fondo del abismo,
también estás allí.
9 Si me elevara sobre las alas del alba,
o me estableciera en los extremos del mar,
10 aun allí tu mano me guiaría,
¡me sostendría tu mano derecha!
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
Sung Response
“What Does the Lord Require of You?”
Reading
Jeanette Zajac
Home (excerpts) by Warsan Shire
no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well
you only leave home
when home won’t let you stay
no one leaves home unless home chases you
fire under feet
hot blood in your belly
it’s not something you ever thought of doing
until the blade burnt threats into
your neck
no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck
feeding on newspaper unless the miles travelled
means something more than the journey.
no one crawls under fences
no one wants to be beaten
pitied
no one chooses refugee camps
or strip searches where your
body is left aching
or prison
i want to go home,
but home is the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun
and no one would leave home
unless home chased you to the shore
unless home told you
to quicken your legs
leave your clothes behind
crawl through the desert
wade through the oceans
drown
save
be hunger
beg
forget pride
your survival is more important
no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear
saying –
leave,
run away from me now
i don’t know what i’ve become
but i know that anywhere
is safer than here
Reflection
Laura Kushner
Sung Response
“I Need You to Survive”
Prayers of the People
George Dredden
Blessing and Further Action
Kirsten Trambley
New Sanctuary Coalition
First Friends of New Jersey and New York
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Drew Theo Chapel 