Gathering Music

“Welcome”
Words: Laurie Zelman, Music: Mark A. 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.

Call to Worship

Cassie Montelongo

From M. Jade Kaiser, enfleshed

Leader: Behold, the glistening sign of hope.
A distant but shining star is
cupped by the darkness
that gently holds
the future.
All: Do we dare to feel its warming glow
in these days so cold with fear?
Leader: Do we dare to wonder where it leads us,
or choose the path we know?
All: The Holy has painted possibility
across the night sky.
It flickers with potential,
trembles with vulnerability,
shimmers with beauty, still.
Leader: Come, seekers.
All: The journey is before us.
A new day is born.

Opening Song By Gentle Powers (Von guten Mächten wunderbar geborgen)

Lyrics by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Music by Siegfried Fietz

Surrounded by such true and gentle powers
So wondrously consoled and without fear
Thus will I spend with you these final hours
And then together enter a new year

By gentle powers lovingly surrounded
With patience we’ll endure, let come what may
God is with us at night and in the morning
And certainly on every future day

The worries of the old year still torment us
We’re troubled still by long and wicked days
Oh Lord give our frightened souls the healing
For which you’ve chastened us in many ways

By gentle powers lovingly surrounded
With patience we’ll endure, let come what may
God is with us at night and in the morning
And certainly on every future day

And though you offer us the cup so heavy
So painful, it’s the most that we can stand
Not faltering, with thanks we will accept it
And take it as a gift from your good hand

By gentle powers lovingly surrounded
With patience we’ll endure, let come what may
God is with us at night and in the morning
And certainly on every future day

And should it be your will once more to grant us
To see the world and to enjoy the sun
Then we will all the past events remember
And finally our life with you is one

By gentle powers lovingly surrounded
With patience we’ll endure, let come what may
God is with us at night and in the morning
And certainly on every future day

Opening Prayer

Albarka Wakili

(adapted from Glenn Mitchell, MINemerge)

Leader: O Star-flinging God,
whose light dances across eternity,
dazzle us into your presence.
Open our hearts to the mystery of your love.

Awaken us to your presence,
knit to the ordinary.
Reveal to us what is possible, but not yet present.
Heal us, that we might be healers.

Reconcile us to you and to ourselves,
that our living might be reconciling.

Stop us often, we pray
with news that is good
with hope that holds
with truth that transforms with a Word
that touches this trail we’re on.

May the word of your grace guide our steps
like the sun by day
and the north star by night,
as we travel into the gift of a new semester.

Amen.

Scripture Reading – Isaiah 9:1-4

Carrie-Lee Farnham

9:1 But there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. In the former time God brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time God will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness – on them light has shined.
3 You have multiplied exultation; you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest,
as people exult when dividing plunder.
4 For the yoke of their burden and the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.

Leader: The Word of God for the people of God.
All: Thanks be to God.

Sermon

“Light, Gloom, and Life”

Dean Edwin Aponte

Musical Response

Jesus, the Light of the World

Sacrament of Holy Communion

Rev. Dr. J. Terry Todd, Servers: Hyunjun Jung, Rin McLaughlin

Adapted from Rev. Christine Battjes

Leader: God be with you.
All: And also with you.
Leader: Lift up your hearts.
All: We lift them up to God.
Leader: Let us give thanks to God our Creator.
All: It is right to give our thanks and praise.

Leader: O God, keeper of our days,
we are grateful for the ways you have been revealed to us in the past:
through the love of community – gathered here and beyond;
through nature and the beauty each season brings;
and through a shared hope ignited within us that does not flicker or fade.
Confident of your love,
we bring our whole selves into your presence:
our achievements and our failures,
our proud moments and our hidden shame,
our undying dreams and our detached resolve.
At this gracious table we meet you
in bread made of common wheat,
broken and shared and made whole again
through a sacred communing with all of creation.

All: Holy, holy, holy God of love and majesty,
the whole universe speaks of your glory,
O God Most High.
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of our God!
Hosanna in the highest!

Leader: On the night in which Jesus gave himself up for us,
he took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread,
gave it to his disciples, and said:
“Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.”

When the supper was over, Jesus took the cup,
gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said:
“Drink from this, all of you;
this is my cup of the new covenant,
poured out for you and for many
for the forgiveness of sins.
Do this, as often as you drink it,
in remembrance of me.”

In thanksgiving for Christ’s offering to us,
we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving
as a holy and living sacrifice,
as we proclaim the mystery of faith.

All: Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.

Leader: Spirit of All Life,
move among this bread and this cup
and make us mindful of our oneness with all creation
so this meal of simple substance
may become a true communion
with the one who makes every tomorrow possible.
In Christ’s name we pray.
All: Amen.

Sharing in the Bread and Cup
Leader: The body of Christ given for you. The cup of Christ poured out for you. Come, and share in this meal.

(Reminders: Pitcher with ribbon has wine. Crackers are gluten free. Receive a cup at the back of the chapel and come forward.)

Blessing

Dean Edwin Aponte

Sending Song

We Are Marching in the Light of God – South African hymn

We are marching in the light of God.
We are marching in the light of God.
We are marching in the light of God.
We are marching in the light of God.
We are marching, we are marching, ooh,
We are marching in the light of God.
We are marching, we are marching, ooh,
We are marching in the light of God.

Siyahamba, ekukanyen’ kwenkos’,
Siyahamba, ekukanyen’ kwenkos’,
Siyahamba, ekukanyen’ kwenkos’,
Siyahamba, ekukanyen’ kwenkos’,
Siyahamba, siyahamba, oh,
Siyahamba ekukanyen’ kwenkos’.
Siyahamba, siyahamba, oh,
Siyahamba ekukanyen’ kwenkos’.