Gathering Music

“Welcome” – Laurie Zelman/Mark Miller

Let’s walk together for a while and ask where we begin
To build a world where love can grow and hope can enter in.
To be the hands of healing and to plant the seeds of peace,

Singing welcome
Welcome to this place.
You’re invited to come and know God’s grace.
All are welcome, the love of God to share,
‘Cause all of us are welcome here; all are welcome in this place.

Let’s talk together of a time when we will share a feast,
Where pride and power kneel to serve the lonely and the least,
And joy will set the table as we join our hands to pray,

Singing welcome,
Welcome to this place.
You’re invited to come and know God’s grace.
All are welcome, the love of God to share,
‘Cause all of us are welcome here; all are welcome in this place.

Let’s dream together of the day when earth and heaven are one,
A city built of love and light, the new Jerusalem,
Where our mourning turns to dancing, every creature lifts its voice!

Crying welcome!
Welcome to this place.
You’re invited to come and know God’s grace.
All are welcome, the love of God to share,
‘Cause all of us are welcome here; all are welcome in this place.

Introduction to the Service/Guest Speakers and Invitation

Saffet Catovic

Rev. Peter Cook serves as the executive director of the New York State Council of Churches and is an ordained United Church of Christ clergy. Peter has served congregations in _

Pieter Frederich is a member of the Orthodox Church and is an activist journalist who has written four books on Hindu supremacy, its origins its implications for national and international human rights.

Rev. Neal Christie is a United Methodist elder who served with the General Board of Church and Society for 24 years and then as senior staff in the Baltimore Washington Conference. He led the ten-year revision of the UMC Social Principles and focuses on social justice education, advocacy and conflict transformation.

All three are Principals with The Religious Nationalisms Project (TRNP)

Call to Worship

Pieter Friedrich

One: Worship is a place to rest. We breathe deeply here. We still our aching bones.

Many: We sit in the quiet. We surround ourselves with music. Worship is a place to rest.

One: Worship is a place to grow. We listen for God’s word. We invite it to challenge us.

Many: We lean in with curiosity. We ask questions. Worship is a place to grow.

One: Come rest and grow here. For where two or more are gathered, God is always there.

Many: Your Word is like soil, something we can root ourselves in. Your Word is like the sun, big enough to touch everything with its warmth. And your Word is like a gardener, a love that prunes and encourages, waters and delights, seeds and tends.

One: As we turn to your text today, warm our bones, tend to our broken pieces, and show us how to grow. With hope, we pray, Amen

Opening Song

“This Is My Song”
Words: Georgia Harkness, Lloyd Stone

This is my song, O God of all the nations.
A song of peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my home, the country where my heart is.
Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine.
But other hearts in other lands are beating
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean
And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine.
But other lands have sunlight too, and clover
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
O hear my song, Thou God of all nations,
A song of peace for their land and for mine.

This is my prayer, O Lord of all earth’s kingdoms.
Thy kingdom come, on earth, Thy will be done.
Let Christ be lifted up by all who love him.
And hearts united learn to live as one.
O hear my prayer, Thou God of all nations:
Myself I give Thee; let Thy will be done.

Opening Prayer

Pieter Friedrich

(adapted from Faithful America)

Leader: Let us pray.

Divine Creator, we come to you this day seeking to remember the truth that lives deep within us, your truth.

As we strive to uncover your holy truth of love, peace, and justice from the hateful rhetoric of religious nationalisms, please remind and strengthen us that your love is available to all, regardless of the different labels we apply to one another.

Give us the courage to be your reconciling presence on earth, to be pillars of love in a world defined by anger, fear, and separation. Help us to love our neighbors and ourselves, even when the world tells us we should not, and even when – especially when – it is hard.

Be with us, now and always, Amen.

Scripture Reading

Luke 13:6-9

Rev. Peter Cook

Then 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. So 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?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If 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

Sermon

“One More Year”

Rev. Neal Christie

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)

Blessing

Rev. Peter Cook

Sending Song

Together We Serve (TFWS 2175) – Daniel Charles Damon

VERSE 1
Together we serve united by love
Inviting God’s world to the glorious feast
We work and we pray through sorrow and joy
Extending your love to the last and least

V2
We seek to become a beacon of hope
A lamp for the heart and a light for the feet
We learn year by year to let your love shine through
Until we see Christ in each person we meet

V3
We welcome the scarred the wealthy the poor
The busy the lonely and all who need care
We offer a home to those who will come
Our hands quick to help our hearts ready to dare

V4
Together by grace we witness and work
Remembering Jesus in whom we grow strong
Together we serve in Spirit and truth
Remembering love is the strength of our song