Gathering as the Body of Christ
Prelude
(in-person service only)
Welcome and Sharing of Announcements
*Call to Worship
Leader: Thank you, Lord, for the people gathering around us today. Let us take this time to give thanks for these things of the earth that give us the means of life.
People: Thank you for the plants, animals, and birds that we use as food and medicine.
Leader: Thank you for the natural world in which we find the means to be clothed and housed.
People: Thank you, Lord, for the ability to use these gifts of the natural world.
Leader: Help us to see our place among these gifts not to squander them or think of them as means for selfish gain.
People: May we respect the life of all you have made.
Leader: May our Spirit be strengthened by using only what we need and may we use our strength to help those who need us.
*Opening Prayer
O God, we thank you for this earth, our home; for the wide sky and the blessed sun, for the salt sea and the running water, for the everlasting hills and the never-resting winds, for trees and the common grass underfoot. We thank you for our senses by which we hear the songs of birds and see the spend our of the summer fields, and taste the autumn fruits, and rejoice in the feel of the snow, and smell the breath of spring. Grant us a heart wide open to all this beauty; and save our souls from being so blind that we pass unseeing when even the common thorn bush is aflame with your glory, O God,our creator, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.
Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918)
Opening Hymn
“All Things Bright and Beautiful”
UMH #147
Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
Prayer Response
“Let Justice Flow Like Streams”
by Jane Parker Huber
1) Let justice flow like streams of sparkling water, pure,
Enabling growth, refreshing life, abundant, cleaning, sure.
2) Let righteousness roll on as others’ cares we heed,
An ever flowing stream of faith translated into deed.
This is one of two hymns Jane Parker Huber wrote for special events emphasizing economic justice for women at the time of the reunification of two Presbyterian denominations in 1983.
Scripture Readings
Genesis 1:27-28
27 So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”
Genesis 2:4-17
4 In the day that the Lord[a] God made the earth and the heavens, 5 when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; 6 but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground,[b] and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.10 A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four branches. 11The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; 12 and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”
NRSV
Message
"Ecology: God’s Stewards "
Pastor Seok-Hwan
Message in Music
“Morning Has Broken”
by Eleanor Farjeon
Beth Fowler, Jane Beatty, and Mark Beatty
(online service only)
*Offertory Prayer
O God, We bring these gifts like red raspberries in a cup. Like dandelions in a bouquet brought by a six-year-old. They never seem like enough, and we are
never quite enough to get the captives freed, to get the people fed, to get the good news spread. So we offer them for your blessing, confident in your grace, which makes raspberries a feast and dandelions a fragrant garden.
"For All Who Minister," A Worship Manual for the Church of the Brethren,
Brethren Press, Elgin, IL, 1993, p. 121
Closing Hymn
“God of the Sparrow, God of the Whale”
UMH #122
The Blessing and Sending Forth
May we live mindfully through our days, praying for and working on behalf of all whose lives are impacted by our own. Go forth to share the light of Christ with all of Creation. Amen.
Postlude
(in-person service only)
In-Person Servers
Organist: Matt Cron
Usher: Roy Higgins
Greeter: Sharon Lipp
Liturgist: Jodie Kruger
Online Servers
Liturgist: Preeti Wesley
Video: Bill Kruger
