14.06.15 Trinity A English

Song:  Praise to God, the world’s creator (Jan Berry / NETTLETON, Wyeth’s Repository of Sacred Music)*

Call to Worship
Song:  Have mercy upon the family of God (David McNeish)
Prayer of Confession
Song of Praise:  Amen siakudumisa (Xhosa)*

Prayer of the Day

Sh’ma Israel (Tsvika Pik)

Reading from Hebrew Scripture:  Isaiah 42:13-14

Gospel Acclamation (Caribbean)

Gospel Reading:  Luke 15:20-24

Sermon:  Who’s your daddy? (Rev. Kikanza Nuri-Robins)
Hymn:  Loving Spirit (Shirley Erena Murray / ANGSANA, Swee Hong Lim)
Affirmation of Faith

Prayer Song:  Pray through me, Christ (David McNeish)*
Silent Meditation
Prayers of the People
Announcements

Songs:  Come to the feast (Marty Haugen)

Hallelujah! We sing your praises (South Africa)

*seasonal for Ordinary Time/June

Forces:
Soprano
Tenor/Guitar

Tenor/Bass Guitar

Drums

June 15, 2014

Trinity Sunday

Please stand, all who are able.

Song

1.  Praise to God, the world’s creator,

source of life and growth and breath,

cradling in her arms her children,

holding them from birth to death.

In our bodies, in our living,

strength and truth of all we do,

God is present, working with us,

making us creators too.

2.  Praise to God our saving wisdom,

meeting us with love and grace,

helping us to grow in wholeness,

giving freedom, room and space.

In our hurting, in our risking,

in the thoughts we dare not name,

God is present, growing with us,

healing us from sin and shame.

3.  Praise to God, Spirit in us,

prompting hidden depths of prayer,

firing us to long for justice,

reaching out with tender care.

In our searching, in our loving,

in our struggles to be free,

God is present, living in us,

pointing us to what shall be.

Call to Worship

One:  Welcome all daughters of fathers.

All:  Welcome all sons of fathers.

One:  Welcome all for whom father is a wounding word.

All:  Welcome all for whom father is an encouraging word.

One:  Welcome all who are fathers.

All:  Welcome all who wish they were fathers.

One:  Welcome all who wish for better fathers.

All:  Welcome all …

Please be seated

Song

///One:  We cry to you:

All:  Have mercy, have mercy, have mercy upon the family of God.///

Prayer of Confession

NOT ON PPT

One:  Let us pray:

One:  Great craftsman of all people,

you are the maker of every one of us.

You gift to us life and laughter and loveliness.

You accompany us through pain and terror and loneliness.

All:  You have fashioned people of every kind and outlook;

made each one of us to be image-bearers:

carriers of divine grace.

One:  Forgive us when we treat our own worth with contempt.

Or judge those around us as unworthy of your love –

the wideness of your mercy is hard to grasp.

All:  Help us to forgive those

who have treated our own worth with contempt;

or have judged us as unworthy of your love,

that we might grasp,

a little more,

the wideness of your mercy.

One:  Great mender of lives,

we ask your Spirit to be at work

All:  To restore,

One:  Refresh,

All:  Renew.

One: That in each life

All:   Your life may be revealed.

One:  We ask this in the name of the family of Christ.

All:  Amen.

Please stand, all who are able.

Song of Praise

Cantor:  Masithi!

All:  //Amen, we praise your name, O God!//

Amen, amen.  Amen, amen.

Amen, we praise your name, O God.

Cantor:  Masithi!

All:  //Amen, siakudumisa!//

Amen, bawo.  Amen, bawo.

Amen, siakudumisa!

Cantor:  Masithi!

All:  //Amen, we praise your name, O God!//

Amen, amen.  Amen, amen.

Amen, we praise your name, O God.

Prayer

NOT ON PPT

Most holy Friend, Three-person’d God, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, please help the family of the church to learn the way of love from you. Bring us together in spirit and action, bearing one another’s burdens and sharing each others gifts, and establishing here on earth colonies of heaven. In the name of Christ, our Brother and Saviour.

Amen!

Please be seated

Sh’ma Israel

Cantor, then all:

//Sh’ma Israel Adonai eloheinu, Adonai echad.//

Cantor:

Baruch shem k’vod, shem k’vod malchuto l’olam vaed.

Reading from Hebrew Scripture

Isaiah 42:13-15

NOT ON PPT

The Lord goes forth like a soldier, like a warrior God stirs up God’s fury; God cries out, God shouts aloud, God shows Godself mighty against God’s foes. For a long time I have held my peace, I have kept still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in labor, I will gasp and pant. I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbage; I will turn the rivers into islands, and dry up the pools.

Please stand, all who are able.

Gospel Acclamation

All:  ///Halle, halle, hallelujah.///

Hallelujah, hallelujah.

Cantor:  O God, to whom shall we go?

You alone have the words of life.

Let your words be our prayer

and the song we sing:

Hallelujah, hallelujah.

All:  ///Halle, halle, hallelujah.///

Hallelujah, hallelujah.

Gospel Reading

Luke 15:20-24

NOT ON PPT

So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate;  for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.

Reader:  Hear what the Spirit is saying to you today.

All:  Thanks be to God!

Please be seated

Sermon

Who’s your daddy?

THIS COLUMN IS READ	THIS COLUMN IS ON PPT WHO’S YOUR DADDY?
People get all sentimental and maudlin Around Mother’s Day Father’s day is a little different Although everyone doesn’t have great relationships with their mothers People are more likely to admit they had conflicted relationships with their fathers
Scriptures provide lots of images of God and if you try to follow them literally or lineally, they may cause some conflict for you
God the creator	In the beginning… Genesis 1:1
God as proud parent	“This is my Son with whom I am well pleased” Matthew 3: 17
God the Adoptive parent	And a voice came from heaven saying, "You are my beloved Son, and with you I am well pleased.  Mark 1:11
God who forsakes his people Capable of great rejection and abandonment	When God heard them, he was very angry, and he rejected Israel completely.  Then he abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh, the Tabernacle where he had lived among the people. He allowed the Ark of his might to be captured; he surrendered his glory into enemy hands.  He gave his people over to be butchered by the sword, because he was so angry with his own people-- his special possession. Psalm 78:59-62
God the Unforgiving	Then Joshua said to the people, "You are not able to serve the LORD, for he is a holy and jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and sins. Joshua 24:19
God the mother – amma -- who never forgets her children	Yet Jerusalem says, "The LORD has deserted us; the Lord has forgotten us."   "Never! Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for a child she has borne? But even if that were possible, I would not forget you!  See, I have written your name on my hand. Isaiah 49:14-16 Would I ever bring this nation to the point of birth and then not deliver it?" asks the LORD. "No! I would never keep this nation from being born," says your God.   "Rejoice with Jerusalem! Be glad with her, all you who love her and mourn for her. Isaiah 66:9-10
God of sentimental love and tenderness	"I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my spokesman to the world." Jeremiah 1:5
God the source of healing and forgiveness who welcomes home the prodigal son	But the father said to his servants, 'Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.  23 'And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry;  24 'for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' And they began to be merry. Luke 15:22-24
God of Unending, nurturing love	But now, O Israel, the LORD who created you says: "Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine.  Isaiah 43:1
I started out with the intention of contrasting the vengeful, angry, giver of conditional love in the Old Testament with the forgiving God of justice and mercy in the New Testament.  What happened is that as I reflected on the various images I realized a couple of things.
First, the tenderest passages are in the OT.  These are passages that use female metaphors to speak of God’s love and passages that tell of the great pain a disobedient people caused their God.  The OT God is a very personal God.
Second, I remembered that humans, not God, wrote scripture.  So in their dry spiritual times, the writers may have experienced God as having abandoned them, rejected them or punished them.  Just as kids sometimes experience their parents as not really loving them.  Scripture is a testimony to Human’s experience of the world through their understanding of the Mystery we call God.
When viewed in that way, there is great consistency in the images of God in both OT and NT.  Moreover, when looking at the relationship between God and the Christ, in the NT, we see that same personal, intimacy that is recorded in the OT.  For example when Jesus was baptized, God said, “I’m proud of you, Son.”  And when Jesus was preparing to be tortured and killed, he said, “Abba [Daddy], please don’t make me do this.”
We do the same thing. Personalize and anthropomorphize the Mystery, so that it becomes small enough for us to relate to.
God doesn’t change, but as we grow and the world changes around us, we see/experience God through different lenses and speak/write of God in ways that reflect who we are in that moment.  I told a spiritual direction ciient recently You need to reimagine your God You need a bigger god Bottom line--God is always there.  We just have to remember that God is bigger than anything we can imagine. If your god is small enough to contain, you need a bigger god too
That is why I like to use the phrase The Mystery we call God.  God is not a person.  God is not a giant Santa Claus in the sky God is bigger than anything we can imagine God, the One that is all there is God, the Trinity Father, Son, Holy Spirit Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier	The Mystery we call God.  God, the Trinity Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier
God our father, God our mother God our sibling God our friend God our creator God our savior	God our father, God our mother God our sibling God our friend God our creator God our savior
It is father’s day, and it just wouldn’t be right to let it pass without telling a story about my father.	Happy Father’s Day!
My parents met in college in Boston.   My father was at Boston University and my mother was in a music conservatory. Both were musicians and ultimately became music teachers.  They were divorced when I was very young and I grew up with a stepfather who was in the Navy.
My mother shared her love of music with all of her children.  She taught us to play and to sing and family time often involved harmonizing with one another as we gathered around the piano.  I also loved to listen to my mother play the piano.  I remember dropping to the floor, as she played, sitting near the far left end of the piano, so that I could feel the vibration of the piano when she played the bass keys.  I always loved the sound of the bass notes.  When I listened to the radio or the stereo, even as a child, I would turn up the bass so I could hear and feel, those deep, low notes.
I was an odd child because the other thing I loved was the smell of pipe tobacco.  I had a lot of allergies and was very sensitive to cigarette smoke, but pipe smoke didn’t seem to bother me.  I was always drawn to men who smoked pipes and I savored the aroma of the tobacco.
After moving back and forth across the country a couple of times, we settled in California, and our east coast relatives would come to visit us, or send their children, my cousins, for the summer.
I did not like this.  We already had a house full of children and having visitors meant there would be more people to share with.
Selfish, I know, but that is how I felt.  Biological relatives were strangers that you had to be nice to, and who disrupted the routine of my adolescent social calendar.
By the time I went away to college, I decided that it was also time for me to reconnect with my biological father and learn something about his relatives – my other family.  I hadn’t seen them since I was a small child, so I was curious and anxious because I knew what it was like to meet relatives who were strangers.
I was pretty sure that this part of my family would be just as courteous, and just as unwelcoming as I had been to the cousins who visited me in the summers of my childhood.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.  The first time I went to my father’s home in New York the house was filled with people.  It was as though I had stepped out to run a last minute errand and they waited for me to return before the party began.  These people had held a space open for me in their hearts, waiting for my return.  Fascinating-- family was a group of people who loved you even though they didn’t know you--a new concept for me.
The other surprise came as I got to know my father.  I learned that he was a musician and his instrument was the bass.  I also learned that he smoked a pipe.  It didn’t take me long to make the connection.
My love of the bass line in music and my attraction to the aroma of pipe smoke had nothing to do with music or tobacco.  It was my three-year-old memory of my father.
I think God’s love is like the music and smoke that called to me as a child.  It may be so much a part of the environment most people don’t even notice it.  It may inexplicably draw us to it.  It may be like the family that I met as a young adult.  Waiting for us, loving us, knowing we are part of them even though we haven’t had them in our lives.
God’s love is all around us.  God’s family is right next to us.  God’s table is set for us and the Family of God waits for us to enter through the door and take our seat.
Let us pray for our fathers Starting with the words of the psalmist:
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters; He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies: You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.   Psalm 23

Please stand, all who are able.

Hymn

Loving Spirit, loving Spirit,

       you have chosen me to be --

       you have drawn me to your wonder,

you have set your sign on me.

Like a mother you enfold me,

       hold my life within your own,

       feed me with your very body,

form me of your flesh and bone.

Like a father you protect me,

       teach me the discerning eye,

       hoist me up upon your shoulder,

let me see the world from high.

Friend and lover, in your closeness

       I am known and held and blessed:

       in your promise is my comfort,

in your presence I may rest.

Loving Spirit, loving Spirit,

       you have chosen me to be --

       you have drawn me to your wonder,

you have set your sign on me.

Affirmation

One:  God speaks!
with excitement!
with enthusiasm!
with new life!

All:  God is present!
God is with us!
nothing can separate us!

One:  Even when we feel unsure,
unclear,
confused,
even when we feel broken to the core of our being -

All:  We hold fast to God's love,
God's acceptance,
we are always welcome in God's household.

One:  We will each, once again,
feel like a well-watered garden.
Full of life!
Radiant in the sun!
All:  It will be good.
It is good. 

Amen!

Please be seated

Prayer Song

///Pray through me Christ that we may be one.

Pray through me Christ until your work is done.///

Silent Meditation

Prayers of the People

News of the People

Not on ppt:

Welcome cards

Service concludes with bilingual celebration

6/22 Youth BBQ

6/22 Healthy Eating on a Budget workshop

6/23 & 25 Restorative Yoga workshop

6/28 Men’s gathering

Please stand, all who are able.

Song

1.  Ho, everyone that thirsts:

Come to the waters!

here is an end to hunger:

Come to the feast!

and everyone who labors:

Come to the waters!

All you who have no money:

Come to the feast!

For this is life:

the waters of the Jordan:

for this is life:

the waters of your birth:

for this is life:

the waters that renew you:

O come to the feast.

O come to the feast.

2.  Let all who seek their God:

Come to the waters!

heed now the One who calls you:

Come to the feast!

the everlasting stream:

Come to the waters!

drink deep the Cup that saves you:

Come to the feast!

For this is life:

the floods that overwhelm you:

for this is life:

the streams of death and life:

for this is life:

the waters that sustain you:

O come to the feast.

O come to the feast.

3.  And all who are oppressed:

Come to the waters!

this is the feast of justice:

Come to the feast!

and you, the last and broken:

Come to the waters!

this is the feast of healing:

Come to the feast!

For this is life:

to die and rise in Jesus:

For this is life:

to share the life of Christ:

For this is life:

the bread and wine of justice:

O come to the feast.

O come to the feast!

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//Hallelujah!  We sing your praises, all our hearts are filled with gladness.//

Christ the Lord to us said:  I am wine, I am bread,

I am wine, I am bread, give to all who thirst and hunger.

//Hallelujah!  We sing your praises, all our hearts are filled with gladness.//

Jesus says to us still, “All who do the Lord’s will,

all who do the Lord’s will are my sisters and my brothers.”

//Hallelujah!  We sing your praises, all our hearts are filled with gladness.//

Jesus sends us all out, strong in faith, free of doubt,

strong in faith, free of doubt, tell to all the joyful Gospel.

//Hallelujah!  We sing your praises, all our hearts are filled with gladness.//