Gathering Music
Come and Find the Quiet Center
Words: Shirley Erena Murray, OneLicense #A-729109
Come and find the quiet center
in the crowded life we lead,
find the room for hope to enter,
find the frame where we are freed:
clear the chaos and the clutter,
clear our eyes, that we can see
all the things that really matter,
be at peace, and simply be.
Silence is a friend who claims us,
cools the heat and slows the pace,
God it is who speaks and names us,
knows our being, touches base,
making space within our thinking,
lifting shades to show the sun,
raising courage when we’re shrinking,
finding scope for faith begun.
In the Spirit let us travel,
open to each other’s pain,
let our loves and fears unravel,
celebrate the space we gain:
there’s a place for deepest dreaming,
there’s a time for heart to care,
in the Spirit’s lively scheming
There is always room to spare!
Call to Worship
Rae Guthrie
Based on Proverbs 8, adapted from Terri at RevGalsBlogPals
Leader: Listen!
All: Wisdom is calling!
Leader: Before all began,
God, Word, and Wisdom
Creating, calling,
from the foundations of the deep
Leader: Listen!
All: Wisdom is calling!
Leader: From the mountain tops
Earth, fields and sea
Creating, calling
From the foundations of the deep
Leader: Listen!
All: Wisdom is calling!
Leader: To those who suffer
God’s love is given
Endurance blossoms
From the foundations of the deep
Leader: Listen!
All: Wisdom is calling!
Leader: Daily, God’s delight
You, me, every one
Given hope, grace, love
As the foundation of our lives
Leader: Listen!
All: Wisdom is calling!
Leader: Poured into our hearts
That we may become
Christ’s hands and heart, love
As the foundation of our lives
Leader: Listen!
All: Wisdom is calling!
Opening Song
Open My Eyes, That I May See
Words & Music: Clara H. Scott
Open my eyes that I may see
Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me
Place in my hands the wonderful key
That shall unclasp and set me free
Silently now, I wait for Thee
Ready, my God, thy will to see
Open my eyes, illumine me
Spirit divine
Open my ears that I may hear
Voices of truth Thou sendest clear
And while the wave notes fall on my ear
Everything false will disappear
Silently now I wait for thee
Ready, my God, Thy will to see
Open my ears, illumine me
Spirit divine
Open my mouth and let me bear
Gladly the warm truth everywhere
Open my heart and let me prepare
Love with Thy children thus to share
Silently now I wait for Thee
Ready, my God, Thy will to see
Open my heart, illumine me
Spirit Divine
Confession, Pardon, and Assurance
Daesun Jang
Leader: Holy God,
We come to you in confession, not trembling in fear,
but awed by your mercies, which are new every morning.
We know the power of your grace,
and yet we come, still longing to have our hearts set at liberty.
All: Release us from our insecurities and resentments.
Release us from apathy and feelings of helplessness.
Release us from arrogance and the pressures of comparison.
Release us from the limits we place on your pure, unbounded love.
Leader: Free our hearts, O God,
that we may freely be about the work of liberation in a world full of chains.
We pray these things in the name of Jesus the Christ, your Word made flesh.
All: Amen.
Leader: Friends, let us hear, believe, and proclaim the good news of the gospel:
All: In the name of Jesus Christ, praise God, we are forgiven!
Song
Kyrie Eleison (arranged by Jay Rouse)
Kyrie Kyrie Eleison
Kyrie Kyrie Eleison
Eleison Eleison
Scripture Reading 2 Kings 5:1-14
Francis Osuji
5 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from a skin disease. 2 Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. 3 She said to her mistress, “If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his skin disease.” 4 So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. 5 And the king of Aram said, “Go, then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel.”
He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments. 6 He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his skin disease.” 7 When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his skin disease? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.”
8 But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.” 9 So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and halted at the entrance of Elisha’s house. 10 Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” 11 But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, “I thought that for me he would surely come out and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and would wave his hand over the spot and cure the skin disease! 12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” He turned and went away in a rage. 13 But his servants approached and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” 14 So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.
Leader: The Word of God for the people of God.
All: Thanks be to God.
Sermon
Wholly/Holy Listening
Rev. Dr. Jess Winderweedle
Musical Response
Stillness
Words by Lindy Thompson and Mark A. Miller, Music by Mark A. Miller
Sacrament of Holy Communion
Rev. Dr. Jess Winderweedle
Servers: Ndaie Paul Lumbala, Elizabeth Monkemeier
Leader: The Lord be with you.
All: And also with you.
Leader: Lift up your hearts.
All: We lift them up to the Lord.
Leader: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
All: It is right to give our thanks and praise.
Leader: It is right, and a good and joyful thing,
always and everywhere to give thanks to you,
Almighty God, creator of heaven and earth.
Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ.
When you gave him to save us from sin,
your Spirit led him into the wilderness,
where he fasted forty days and forty nights to prepare for his ministry.
When he suffered and died on a cross, you raised him to life,
presented him alive to the apostles during forty days,
and exalted him at your right hand.
By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection
you gave birth to your Church, delivered us death’s grasp,
and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit.
On the night in which he gave himself up for us,
Jesus 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, he took the cup,
gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples and said:
“Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood 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.”
And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ,
we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving
as a holy and living sacrifice,
in union with Christ’s offering for us.
Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here,
and on these gifts of bread and wine.
Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ,
that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.
By your Spirit make us one with Christ,
one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world,
until Christ comes in final victory, and we feast at his heavenly banquet.
Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church,
all honor and glory is yours, Almighty God, now and for ever.
All: Amen.
Leader: Come, all is ready; the gifts of God for the people of God!
Sharing in the Bread and Cup
Blessing
Rev. Dr. Jess Winderweedle
Sending Song
I’m Gonna Live So God Can Use Me
Negro Spiritual
- I’m gonna live so God can use me anywhere, Lord, anytime!
I’m gonna live so God can use me anywhere, Lord, anytime! - I’m gonna work so God can use me anywhere, Lord, anytime!
I’m gonna work so God can use me anywhere, Lord, anytime! - I’m gonna pray so God can use me anywhere, Lord, anytime!
I’m gonna pray so God can use me anywhere, Lord, anytime! - I’m gonna sing so God can use me anywhere, Lord, anytime!
I’m gonna sing so God can use me anywhere, Lord, anytime!
Drew Theo Chapel 