For Sunday July 31, 2016
Year C, Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost
Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost :: Green ::
Hosea 11:1-11 :: Psalm 107:1-9;43 :: Colossians 3:1-11 :: Luke 12:13-21
*Disciples note! This is a General Assembly promotion Sunday. Official Liturgical Resources for promotion can be found here
Call to Worship (Responsive)
Adapted from Psalm 107
L: O give thanks to the LORD, for God is good; and the LORD’s steadfast love endures forever.
P: Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, those God redeemed from trouble
L: and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.
P: Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to an inhabited town;
L: hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them.
P: Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and God delivered them from their distress;
L: The LORD led them by a straight way, until they reached an inhabited town.
P: Let them thank the LORD for God’s steadfast love and wonderful works to humankind.
L: For the LORD satisfies the thirsty, and the hungry are filled with good things.
P: Let those who are wise give heed to these things, and consider the steadfast love of the LORD.
Invocation:
Everlasting, Eternal, Loving Creator; we come together in this holy place seeking to know your presence and your love. We eternally claim the fact that you are always with us: that you bend down to feed us; that you lead us out in times of trouble; that you take us in your arms and heal us. Help us to be aware of your presence yet again. Bind us up in cords of human kindness and bands of love. Grant us full knowledge that you come not in wrath, but in loving kindness. As we seek to worship you in fullness and in truth, guide us. Help us to share the kind of love you have given to us in the sending of your Son, Jesus.
Stewardship Moment:
Good stewardship cares for all God has given to you in the way God would have you do so. Too often, we replace God’s guidelines with our own, forgetting that God knows more about what will happen in our lives than we do. That’s the salient point of the Parable of the rich man who built new barns. How might that parable have differed if the rich man had always given generously to the poor, sometimes even beyond the tithe, knowing that his barns held enough? I suspect he would still die, but he would die as a good steward in the eyes of God. How does your parable end? Do you have enough? Have you been generous and faithful in your stewardship? God knows the answer. Do you?
Offertory Prayer:
Eternal, Loving, and Faithful God; we bring before you these, our tithes and offerings. Help us to bring them with a generous heart and spirit. Help us to use them with your reign in mind. We offer them out of our love and devotion to you. Amen.
Communion Meditation:
Paul said to the Colossians, “there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!” As we come to the table today, let us come seeking to see Christ in everyone who would gather with us. That’s what Paul was teaching, and I think what Christ was saying when he said “drink of this cup, ALL of you.” We come to this table to meet the risen Lord, a gift which is open to all.
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Scripture Quotations from the New Revised Standard Version. Online Scripture links a service of the Jean and Alexander Heard Divinity Library, of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN