Gathering Music

Call to Prayer

One: God is our salvation, guiding us out of the darkness of the world.
Many: Redeeming God, as trees stretch towards the sun, we seek your healing light.
One: God is our salvation, when we hunger for direction and meaning.
Many: Sustaining God, as branches bear fruit, your word feeds our souls.
One: Come now, put down the burdens of your days. God is our salvation.
Many: We rest in the garden of God’s reconciling love.

Sung Confession

Lord I Need You by Matt Maher

Lord, I come, I confess
Bowing here I find my rest
Without You I fall apart
You’re the One that guides my heart

Chorus:
Lord, I need You, oh, I need You
Every hour I need You
My one defense, my righteousness
Oh God, how I need You

Where sin runs deep Your grace is more
Where grace is found is where You are
Where You are, Lord, I am free
Holiness is Christ in me

So teach my song to rise to You
When temptation comes my way
When I cannot stand I’ll fall on You
Jesus, You’re my hope and stay

First Reading

1 Peter 4:8-11 (NRSV)

8 Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Be hospitable to one another without complaining. 10 Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. 11 Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To God belongs the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.

Sung Response

I Need You, You Need Me by David Frazier

I need you, you need me.
We’re all a part of God’s body.
Stand with me, agree with me.
We’re all a part of God’s body.
It is God’s will, that every need be supplied.
You are important to me, I need you to survive.

Second Reading

1 John 3:1-2, 16-18 (NRSV)

1 See what love the Holy One has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know God. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when God is revealed, we will be like God, for we will see the Holy One as they are.

16 We know love by this, that Christ laid down Christ’s life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. 17 How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a sibling in need and yet refuses help? 18 Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.

Sung Response

I Need You, You Need Me by David Frazier

I pray for you, You pray for me.
I love you, I need you to survive.
I won’t harm you with words from my mouth.
I love you, I need you to survive.
It is God’s will, that every need be supplied.
You are important to me, I need you to survive.

Third Reading

In the Arc of Your Mallet by Rumi

Don’t go anywhere without me.
Let nothing happen in the sky apart from me,
or on the ground, in this world or that world,
without my being in its happening.
Vision, see nothing I don’t see.
Language, say nothing.
The way the night knows itself with the moon,
be that with me. Be the rose
nearest to the thorn that I am.

I want to feel myself in you when you taste food,
in the arc of your mallet when you work,
when you visit friends, when you go
up on the roof by yourself at night.

There’s nothing worse than to walk out along the street
without you. I don’t know where I’m going.
You’re the road and the knower of roads,
more than maps, more than love.

Silent Reflection

Sung Response

I Need You, You Need Me by David Frazier

I need you, you need me.
We’re all a part of God’s body.
Stand with me, agree with me.
We’re all a part of God’s body.
It is God’s will, that every need be supplied.
You are important to me, I need you to survive.

Unison Prayer of the Day

Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver, Source of all that is and that shall be, Father and Mother of us all, Loving God, in whom is heaven: With the bread we need for today, feed us. In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us. In times of temptation and test, strengthen us. From trials too great to endure, spare us. From the grip of all that is evil, free us. For you reign in the glory of the power that is love, now and forever. Amen.

Blessing

Preserve us, O God, while waking, and guard us while sleeping, that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in your peace. May we arise each day with a voice of blessing in our hearts. May we allow the wild beauty of the divine world gather us, mind us, and embrace us in belonging. Amen.

Sending

Be Thou My Vision (v. 1, 4, 5 – words adapted from New Zealand Prayer Book)

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
naught be all else to me, save that thou art –
thou my best thought by day or by night,
waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

Riches I heed not, nor folk’s empty praise,
thou mine inheritance, now and always:
thou and thou only, first in my heart,
Sovereign of heaven, my treasure thou art.

Sovereign of heaven, my victory won,
may I reach heaven’s joys, O bright heav’n’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
still be my vision, O Ruler of all.

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Worship Notes

Call to Worship: https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2019/06/call-to-worship-prayer-god-is-our.html
Blessing: adapted from “Belonging,” In To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings by John O’Donohue and from the New Zealand Prayer Book