Gathering Music
“Welcome”
Words: Laurie Zelman, Music: Mark A. Miller, OneLicense #A-729109
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.
Gathering Words
“Be Revealed” Rin McLaughlin
Adapted from M. Jade Kaiser, enfleshed
Leader: So much has been hidden:
All: To protect narratives and people.
To disempower.
To confuse.
Leader: Unsatisfied with stories that get us by
but never get us free,
may we be people who look beyond,
All: who listen beneath,
who feel through and through.
Leader: Though we know only in part,
and we prophesy only in part,
we do not grow weary in faith.
All: Though evil shrouds our view,
with each new learning and unlearning
the partial fades away.
Leader: The histories
People: and complicities
Leader: and losses
People: and power
Leader: of our entangled lives
cry out for understanding.
Leader: With courage, we open ourselves to truth.
All: With humility, we endeavor to be transformed.
Leader: With hope, we hold on to each other.
People: May Love lead us in the Sacred work of unveiling.
Leader: May all that shrouds justice be uncovered
and the ways of healing revealed.
Opening Song
“Lift Every Voice and Sing”
Words: James Weldon Johnson, Music: J. Rosamond Johnson
- Lift every voice and sing, till earth and heaven ring,
ring with the harmonies of liberty;
let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies,
let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us;
sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
let us march on till victory is won. - Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod,
felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet
come to the place for which our forebears sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered;
we have come, treading our path thru the blood of the slaughtered,
out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last
where the white gleam of our bright star is cast. - God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;
thou who hast by thy might led us into the light,
keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee;
lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee;
shadowed beneath thy hand, may we forever stand,
true to our God, true to our native land.
Psalm of Imperial Lament
María Carolina Alderete
Adapted from M. Jade Kaiser, enfleshed
My heart is heavy, O God.
So weary of living in the land of an empire.
My taxes, they wage wars on the innocent.
My government, treats life like a game.
My religion, complicit in acts of terror.
Who will unseat White Supremacy from its throne?
I long for Love’s intervention.
Protect those who will bear the impossible burdens of U.S. aggression.
Those who are made invisible before our compassion.
Parents. Children. Our siblings. Lands and Kin of all kinds.
Their deaths won’t register on our news crawls.
Their tears dismissed as “radical” politics.
Fear turns us inward.
We become a part of the destruction,
cold to distant loss,
resigned to the narratives constructed for us.
Give us courage.
All of us.
To condemn imperialism.
To reject insular notions of love.
To let truth lead us in resistance
and compassion usher us into active solidarity.
Your power does not work through control nor domination,
but still, it is greater than the force of any military.
Do not let us be seduced into the bowels of despair,
nor convinced of our helplessness.
Keep us steady in pursuit of the truth
that makes only those who delight in power tremble.
Let your Justice, O God, rise –
that peace may draw near.
Scripture Reading – Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25
Jennifer Nelson
24 Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel, and they presented themselves before God. 2 And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Long ago your ancestors—Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor—lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods. 3 Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan and made his offspring many.
14 “Now, therefore, revere the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt and serve the Lord. 15 Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living, but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
16 Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods, 17 for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. He protected us along all the way that we went and among all the peoples through whom we passed, 18 and the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.”
19 But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. 20 If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good.” 21 And the people said to Joshua, “No, we will serve the Lord!” 22 Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord, to serve him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.” 23 He said, “Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.” 24 The people said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and him we will obey.” 25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and made statutes and ordinances for them at Shechem.
Leader: The Word of God for the People of God.
All: Thanks be to God.
Sermon
“Threats and Promises”
Rev. Dr. Beth Quick
Musical Response
“We Trust the One Who Brought to Life”
Text: Stephen M. Fearing, Tune: KINGSFOLD (See UMH 179), OneLicense #A-729109
We trust the One who brought to life the earth, the sky, and sea,
Who authors ev’ry breath we breathe, and holds eternity.
Though idols tempt at ev’ry turn, to God alone we sing.
We train our hearts to seek and serve the justice God will bring.
Trust not the passing breath of those whose voice roar and rage,
Who think themselves above reproach, who rise in ev’ry age.
Bear fruits that praise our Living Lord, whose reign endures alone.
Though mortals die and turn to dust, our God is on the throne.
God keeps the faith when leaders scheme to silence and oppress.
God sets the pris’ners free in love and raises the distressed.
God watches over strangers’ ways, upholds the bruised and bent,
And brings to ruin wicked ones, ‘till all their pow’r is spent.
To you O God, we lift our praise; for you, our hearts arise;
In you, we mortals place our trust; with you, we name the lies:
The lies of violence, greed, and fear, the lie of scarcity.
In you, we find the truth of life, the truth that sets us free
Sacrament of Holy Communion
Rev. Dr. Beth Quick
Communion Servers: Lerato Pitso, Alison Johnson, Katherine Rollo
Blessed Assurance
A Sung Communion Liturgy
for the Season after Pentecost/Ordinary Time
TUNE: ASSURANCE, Text: Beth Quick, 2018. Adapted 2023.
Incorporating phrases and refrain from “Blessed Assurance” by Fanny J. Crosby.
Lift up your hearts, friends, time to give thanks!
Time now to gather, our voices to raise!
Called to the table, hearts turned to God,
Come to meet Christ here, come now to praise.
Refrain: This is God’s table; come find your place.
Table of blessing, table of grace.
This is God’s table, this is God’s gift.
We are invited; come to the feast!
God sent us Christ in the fullness of time:
God-come-among-us, human, divine.
Christ lived among us; he shared the good news:
God’s kin-dom for all, God’s kin-dom for you.
Refrain: This is our story, this is our song,
praising our Savior all the day long;
this is our story, this is our song,
praising our Savior all the day long.
During the supper, Jesus took bread.
Thanking and sharing, disciples he fed.
“This is my body, given for you.
Eat and remember when this you do.”
Refrain: This is God’s table; come find your place.
Table of blessing, table of grace.
This is God’s table, this is God’s gift.
We are invited; come to the feast!
After the supper, Christ shared the cup
“This is my life – it’s poured out for you.
Sign of forgiveness, sign of God’s love,
Given to all: God’s promise made new.”
Refrain: This is God’s table; come find your place.
Table of blessing, table of grace.
This is God’s table, this is God’s gift.
We are invited; come to the feast!
Blessed assurance! Jesus is mine!
O, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Here at the table, gift from above,
filled with God’s goodness, lost in God’s love.
Refrain: This is our story, this is our song,
praising our Savior all the day long;
this is our story, this is our song,
praising our Savior all the day long.
Blessing
Rev. Dr. Beth Quick
Sending Song
“Hope Will Not Fail”
Words: David Bjorlin, Music: Mark Miller, OneLicense #A-729109
Hope will not fail, no, hope will not fail.
Though anguish and apathy seem to prevail,
No, hope will not fail; hope, hope will prevail.
Peace will not fail, no, peace will not fail.
Though vengeance and violence seem to prevail,
no, peace will not fail; peace, peace will prevail.
Believe in the coming, the coming of peace!
Though vengeance and violence seem to prevail,
No, peace will not fail; peace, peace will prevail.
Joy will not fail, no, joy will not fail.
Though mourning and misery seem to prevail,
No, joy will not fail; joy, joy will prevail.
Believe in the blessing, the blessing of joy!
Though mourning and misery seem to prevail,
No, joy will not fail; joy, joy will prevail.
Love will not fail, no, love will not fail.
Though hatred and hopelessness seem to prevail,
No, love will not fail; love, love will prevail.
Believe in the power, the power of love!
Though hatred and hopelessness seem to prevail,
No, love will not fail; love, love will prevail.
