Gathering Music
“A Round of Goodness” – Rev. Dr. Gary Simpson
- The Lord is Good
- Grace and mercy, they surround me
- Every morning, there’s a new blessing
Call to Worship
Marcel Okito
Adapted from re:Worship
Leader: Come to the water,
all you who are thirsty!
Though you have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money—free!
Why spend your money on what cannot nourish,
and your wages on what will never satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me,
and you shall eat what is good,
and delight in the richest of foods.
Come,
pay attention!
Listen carefully to what I have to say,
and you will live!
Opening Song
Great is Thy Faithfulness
Words: Thomas L. Chisholm, Music: William M. Runyon
1. Great is thy faithfulness, O God, Creator;
there is no shadow of turning with thee;
thou changest not, thy compassions, they fail not;
as thou hast been, thou forever wilt be.
Refrain:
Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
all I have needed thy hand hath provided;
great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
2. Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
sun, moon, and stars in their courses above
join with all nature in manifold witness
to thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love. Refrain
3. Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside! Refrain
Poem
Josh Phillips
“My Father and the Fig Tree” by Naomi Shihab Nye
For other fruits my father was indifferent.
He’d point at the cherry tree and say,
“See those? I wish they were figs.”
In the evenings he sat by my bed
weaving folktales like vivid little scarves.
They always involved a figtree.
Even when it didn’t fit, he’d stick it in.
Once Joha was walking down the road and he saw a figtree.1
Or, he tied his camel to a figtree and went to sleep.
Or, later when they caught and arrested him,
his pockets were full of figs.
At age six I ate a dried fig and shrugged.
“That’s not what I’m talking about!” he said,
“I’m talking about a figtree straight from the earth—
gift of Allah!—on a branch so heavy it touches the ground.
I’m talking about picking the largest fattest sweetest fig
in the world and putting it in my mouth.”
(Here he’d stop and close his eyes.)
Years passed, we lived in many houses, none had figtrees.
We had lima beans, zucchini, parsley, beets.
“Plant one!” my mother said, but my father never did.
He tended the garden half-heartedly, forgot to water,
let the okra get too big.
“What a dreamer he is. Look how many things he starts
and doesn’t finish.”
The last time he moved, I got a phone call.
My father, in Arabic, chanting a song I’d never heard.
“What’s that?” I said.
“Wait till you see!”
He took me out back to the new yard.
There, in the middle of Dallas, Texas,
a tree with the largest, fattest, sweetest figs in the world.
“It’s a figtree song!” he said,
plucking his fruits like ripe tokens,
emblems, assurance
of a world that was always his own.
1- A trickster figure in Palestinian folktales The above is excerpted from 19 Varieties of Gazelle by Naomi Shihab Nye.
Scripture Reading
Luke 13:6-9
Vincent Yohanna
6Then Jesus told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ 8He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. 9If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
Leader: The Word of God for the people of God.
All: Thanks be to God.
Pre-Sermon Music
We Need a Word – Rev. Dr. Gary Simpson
We need a word. We need a word
If we’re going to pass from death to life
We need a word
Sermon
“What To Do with the Dung”
Rev. Dr. Gary Simpson
Musical Response
When the fig tree fails to blossom
Words: David Gambrell, Music: Mark Miller
When the fig tree fails to blossom
and no fruit is on the vine
when the fields are bare as deserts
and our hope is hard to find
When a song of celebration
seems entirely out of place,
When our lives are stretched to breaking
hanging by a thread of grace
We will rejoice
We will rejoice
in the Lord in the Lord
we will rejoice
in the Lord in the Lord
When the sun and moon are shaken
and the heavens lose their light
When we think we are forsaken
there’s a comforter in sight
For the day is surely coming
when these labor pains have passed
We will greet the new creation
and with all the saints at last
(Chorus)
Communion
Rev. Dr. Gary Simpson
Servers: Daesun Jang, Samantha Nyachoto
Blessing
Rev. Dr. Gary Simpson
Sending Song
“Victory Is Mine” Dorothy Norwood/Alvin Darling
James Rufflin
Victory is mine,
Victory is mine,
Victory today is mine.
I told Satan to get thee behind,
Victory today is mine.
Victory is mine,
Victory is mine,
Victory today is mine.
I told Satan to get thee behind,
Victory today is mine.
Joy is mine,
Joy is mine,
I know that joy is mine.
I told Satan to get thee behind,
I know that joy is mine.
Happiness is mine,
Happiness is mine,
Happiness today is mine.
I told Satan to get thee behind,
Happiness today is mine.
When I rose this morning,
I didn’t have no doubt,
I knew that the Lord would bring me out.
I fell on my knees,
Said, “Lord help me please”
Got up singing and shouting the victory.
Victory is mine,
Victory is mine,
Victory today is mine.
I told Satan to get thee behind,
Victory today is mine
Victory is mine,
Victory is mine,
Victory today is mine.
Drew Theo Chapel 