ORDER OF WORSHIP Sixth Sunday After Pentecost WE GATHER AS GOD S PEOPLE

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1 ORDER OF WORSHIP Sixth Sunday After Pentecost July 16, :30 and 10:30 a.m. Where there is no extravagance there is no love, and where there is no love there is no understanding. Oscar Wilde With Jesus, however, the device of parabolic utterance is used not to explain things to people's satisfaction but to call attention to the unsatisfactoriness of all their previous explanations and understandings. Robert Farrar Capon *Those who are able, please stand. Underlined items 8:30 am worship. Pastoral Greeting and Announcements No matter who you are, or where you are on life s journey, you re welcome in this United Church of Christ congregation WE GATHER AS GOD S PEOPLE Prelude Cantabile from Finlandia Jean Sibelius *Call to Worship One: God scatters the seeds of reconciliation and love... and waits. All: So much of it lands on flat pathways or rocky roads and won t take root. One: God scatters the seeds of healing and hope... and waits. All: Shallowness and fear claim the seeds and they cannot live. One: God scatters the seeds of redemption and peace... and waits. All: These are the places of deep growth where the seed will cast down strong roots. May our hearts be the rich soil in which God s love takes root. Amen. *Opening Hymn Wonderful Words of Life #323 *Prayer of Confession One: The seed of your realm is forever being sown into our lives and into our world, O God. But it doesn t always take root. Sometimes it fails to find a place to grow. 1

2 All: Forgive us when life makes us hard and resistant, like a well-trodden path where old habits, old systems and old patterns of thinking keep your message from growing. One: When we become so immersed in the short-lived, shallow, rock-hiding soil of the moment, where your life too easily gets blown away by the wind, offer us your abounding grace. All: And when our fears, insecurities, desires and self-absorption tangle like thorns around that grace and choke it into silence, remind us that your love is steadfast and unending, able to persist and grow even in the most arduous conditions. *Words of Assurance One: God hears our cries, heals our wounded hearts and prepares good things for us. Let us place our trust in our gracious God who has always loved us and will continue to love us forever. All: Thanks be to God! *Praise Response Gloria Patri Glory be to the Creator, and to the Christ, and to the Holy Ghost, As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Amen. Children s Message Blessing Song Go, My Children, with My Blessing #431 Go, my children, with my blessing, never alone. Waking, sleeping, I am with you; you are my own. In my love s baptismal river, I have made you mine forever; Go, my children, with my blessing, you are my own. WE LISTEN FOR GOD S WORD Psalm Reading Psalm 119: OT page 537 Large print page 699 Reader: God is still speaking, People: Thanks be to God. Special Music Thy Word Amy Grant Barb Gubana, Sign Soloist 2

3 *Gospel Reading Matthew 13:1-9, NT page 13 Large print page 16 Reader: God is still speaking, People: Thanks be to God. Sermon Vicki McGaw Hymn of Response In the Bulb There Is a Flower #638 Naming of those in need of Prayer Silent Prayer, Prayers of the People WE RESPOND TO GOD S LOVE Prayer of Our Savior (in unison) 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 trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. Call to Offering (Please complete a purple My Second Offering card to record the ways you share your time, talent and treasure, then put it in the offering plate. Be sure to participate in the Ritual of Friendship using the pad in your pew, then check in on Facebook using your silenced cell phone.) Offertory Pastorale Domenico Zipoli *Doxology (tune 46) Praise God from whom all blessings flow; Praise God, all creatures here below; Praise God above, ye heavenly host: Creator, Christ and Holy Ghost. Amen. *Prayer of Dedication (in unison) Generous God, thank you for all the blessings you have poured into our lives. Receive these gifts that they may become seeds of hope and love. Amen. Sacrament of Holy Communion (8:30 am only) 3

4 WE GO OUT WITH GOD S WORD *Closing Hymn You Are Salt for the Earth, O People see page 5 *Commissioning and Benediction Postlude Praeludium Hermann Schroeder Please remain seated and enjoy the Postlude. Serving Today 8:30 am 10:30 am Reader Tom Ropas Tom Ropas Acolyte Andrew Eitner Acolyte Assistant Lorraine Ropas Ushers Gus Fralick Arlene Schreiber Matt Bechtold Pam Simon Interpreter Lori Palmer Sound System Gus Fralick Rich Camarati Greeting you this morning: Paul & Shirley King This week s card corner people are Estelle Sekula & Rudy Viol. Please send them a thinking of you card to Franklyn, Brook Park, OH The altar arrangement is placed by Kay & Art Shank in celebration of their 50th wedding anniversary. 4

5 You Are Salt for the Earth, O People Used by permission. One License #A