Worship Celebration
Worship Celebration
United Church of Hyde Park
October 7, 2018
Guiding Vision
“We are a diverse, Christ-centered people, learning together and reaching out to serve the community in faith, hope, and love.”
** Let’s gather together towards the front during
Communion Sunday. **
We Open Ourselves to God and Each Other
Prelude “Bread of Life” Bingham
Welcome
Choral Introit “Let All the World in Every Corner Sing”
*Call to Worship
One: Welcome to this place:
All: where children and seasoned citizens sit side by side,
where heaven and earth embrace in peace,
where God has been, is, and always will be.
One: Welcome to this place, as we gather with all of God’s children:
All: where we find God’s love,
where we hear the tender voice of Jesus,
where the Spirit teaches us new songs.
One: Welcome to this place, where all is made ready by our God:
All: where we bring our hunger, and find food;
where we bring our brokenness, and find healing;
where we bring our very selves, and find acceptance.
*Opening Hymn “In Christ There Is No East or West” #548
Call to Reconciliation
One: We marginalize peace, yet it is the horizon towards which we journey. We are divided from others, not so much by belief, but by fear. On this day of unity around God’s Table with our sisters and brothers throughout the world, let us confess how we have not lived as God’s beloved children. Please join me as we pray, saying,
Prayer of Confession (read together)
We have not been your people, Preparer of Peace. When we could see our brother Jesus in others, we turn away from those who are unlike us, who scare us. When we could offer peace to those around us, we break our promises, we hoard grudges in our hearts, we pander to prejudice. When we could speak of hope, we fling words that shatter another’s heart. When we could live as one with all people, we try to push them as far away from us
as possible.
Redeem us, Lover of Peace, and pour out your grace upon us. May the warmth of your tenderness melt our frozen souls, may the balm of your words mend any broken hearts we have damaged, may we be as trusting and vulnerable as a little child, as we follow Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Brother, into your kingdom of joy.
Silence is kept
Assurance of Pardon
One: The forgiveness of God be upon you; the peace of Christ rest upon you; the grace of the Holy Spirit be the gift which is placed in your life, this day and forever. From this day to the end of eternity, we are God’s children: citizens of God’s kingdom, brothers and sisters of the Prince of Peace.
All: Thanks be to God. Amen.
*Passing the Peace
We invite the congregation to openly greet one another. Show a smile, shake a hand, give a hug. Let’s share God’s love with one another. During the singing of “Blest Be the Tie That Binds” please find your way back to your seat as we continue fellowship.
*Song of Response (sung while on the way back to our seats)
“Blest Be the Tie That Binds” #557 (1st verse)
Blest be the tie that binds
our hearts in Christian love;
the fellowship of kindred minds
is like to that above.
We Listen Together for the Divine Word
Anthem “Take My Life” Mark Hayes
Prayer of Illumination
One:
Holy God, Word made flesh, let us come to this word open to being surprised. Silence our agendas; banish our assumptions; cast out our casual detachment.
Confound our expectations; clear the cobwebs from our ears; penetrate the corners of our hearts with this word.
We know that you can, we pray that you will, and we wait with great anticipation. Amen.
1st Scripture Reading Psalm 26, pew Bible p. 437
One: Here ends the reading
All: Thanks be to God.
2nd Scripture Reading Mark 10: 2-16, pew Bible p. 822
One: Here ends the reading
All: Thanks be to God.
We Respond to God’s Call
Sermon “All Hands On Deck” Rev. Charlene Hill
*Hymn of Response “O God of Every Nation” #435
Invitation to the Offering
You can now give to UCHP electronically 2 ways!
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Offertory “Blessed Are Ye Faithful Souls” Brahms
*Doxology
“Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow” # 95
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise God, all creatures here below;
Praise God above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen
*Communion Invitation
Pastor:
Jesus said:
I am the bread of life.
You who come to me
Shall not hunger;
You who believe in me
Shall never thirst.
People:
In company with all who
Hunger for spiritual food,
We come to this table
To know the risen Christ
In the sharing
Of this life-giving bread.
*Communion Prayer
Pastor: God be with you.
People: And also with you.
Pastor: Lift up your hearts.
People: We lift them up to God.
Pastor: Let us give thanks to God Most High.
*The Institution of the Meal
Communion servers are invited to come forward to the table at this time.
*Communion is shared
*Prayers of the People in Communion
Congregants are invited to share requests for prayer.
After each the pastor will offer:
Pastor: Come Holy Spirit—
And the people respond:
People: Hear our prayer!
The Lord’s Prayer (read together)
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
*Closing Hymn “Let There Be Peace on Earth” # 431
Benediction Rev. Charlene Hill
Postlude
Pastor: Rev. Charlene Hill
Director of Music – Organist: Joe Wilkinson
Liturgist: Deborah Major
1st Scripture Reading, Psalm 26 (pew Bible p. 437)
Of David.
1 Vindicate me, O LORD,
for I have walked in my integrity,
and I have trusted in the LORD without wavering.
2 Prove me, O LORD, and try me;
test my heart and mind.
3 For your steadfast love is before my eyes,
and I walk in faithfulness to you.[a]
4 I do not sit with the worthless,
nor do I consort with hypocrites;
5 I hate the company of evildoers,
and will not sit with the wicked.
6 I wash my hands in innocence,
and go around your altar, O LORD,
7 singing aloud a song of thanksgiving,
and telling all your wondrous deeds.
8 O LORD, I love the house in which you dwell,
and the place where your glory abides.
9 Do not sweep me away with sinners,
nor my life with the bloodthirsty,
10 those in whose hands are evil devices,
and whose right hands are full of bribes.
11 But as for me, I walk in my integrity;
redeem me, and be gracious to me.
12 My foot stands on level ground;
in the great congregation I will bless the LORD.
2nd Scripture Reading Mark 10:2-16 (pew Bible p. 822)
2 Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” 3 He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” 4 They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” 5 But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. 6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,[a] 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
10 Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11 He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; 12 and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
Jesus Blesses Little Children
13 People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. 14 But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. 15 Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” 16 And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.