July 29, 2018
Pentecost 10
Call to Worship (from Ephesians 3)
One: May God’s Spirit strengthen us!
Many: May Christ dwell in our hearts, in faith!
One: Gathered here, we are rooted and grounded in love.
Many: Together, we yearn to know the deep love of Christ,
as we worship God.
All: Sing “Into My Heart” (camp song)
“Into my heart, into my heart, come into my heart, Lord Jesus. Come in today, come in to stay, come in to my heart, Lord Jesus”
Opening Prayer
God, gathered in this sacred space,
we rejoice in the power and love you share with us
and with all your beloved children.
As we worship, tune our hearts and focus our minds.
Allow us to gain strength to comprehend your amazing love
so we might go from here to share that love with a hate-filled world.
Stewardship Moment (from John 6)
We often play a game called “splits”, when we invite a group to physically move in response to a series of questions.
Are you wearing something red? Go right.
If you don’t have on something red, go left.
Are your eyes blue? Go right.
Are your eyes some color other than blue? Go left.
What would you do today if we asked “do you live with a sense of scarcity?”
What would you do if we asked “do you live your life with a sense of abundance?”
In all four Gospels, we hear the story of Jesus feeding a crowd. It’s a classic description of those who feared scarcity coming to recognize Jesus as One living in abundance.
In John 6, Jesus asked Philip “where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?”
Philip responded “six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.”
Then Andrew offered: “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish.
But what is that among so many people?”
Jesus had the crowd sit, took the loaves, blessed them and gave them to everyone.
Not only did everyone get something, but they ate “as much as they wanted”, until “they were satisfied”!
People of faith, recognize we live in abundance! In some way, when we take on the attitude of gratitude for all we have, we find there is as much as we want – enough to satisfy!
Today, we’re invited to live into the abundance of life as we receive our morning offering. As each of us willingly offers from our abundance, may we all eagerly rejoice in the ways God provides!
Prayer of Thanksgiving
God of abundance,
we thank you for the moments when we fully remember we are made in your image! Thank you for the abundant love which surrounds us and fills us.
Thank you for this opportunity to share from that abundance.
We pray you will use these gifts and use each of us to be the “show and tell” of your over-flowing presence in the world. AMEN
Invitation to Communion
The story we know of the feeding of the 5000 includes a subtle connection to this communion feast. Both meals include Jesus engaging in a four-fold action:
take, bless, break, give.
At this table, we’re reminded week by week of the ways Jesus offered life to his followers. And as we sing, we step into that same drama, with our hymn, “Take Our Bread” (Chalice #413)
Today, will you sing this hymn as a prayer?
Today, let’s invite God not only to take the bread which someone has prepared and brought to the sanctuary, but also to take our hearts, for we recognize we’ve “brought ourselves the best that we could.”