Order of Service / Fifth Sunday after Pentecost / July 13, 2025

 *Gathering Hymn God, Reveal Your Presence (#391 VU)

Welcome & Land Acknowledgement

Lighting the Christ Candle

Call to Worship

One: We are gathered here on this Sunday after a week of our own busyness.

  All: We are here for rest and renewal.

One: We are gathered here to feel God’s presence, like a cool breeze on a hot, humid day.

  All: We are here to release the noise and stresses of the world.

One: We are gathered to receive the good news of God’s healing power, like a parent singing a lullaby to a crying baby or a Good Samaritan stopping to help,

All: We are here to soothe our spirits and to fill our hearts with God’s love.

One: This is the day that God has made.

All: Let us rejoice and be glad in it! Let us worship!

*Mary Parsons, Gathering Pentecost 1 2025. Page 73.

Opening Prayer

*Opening Hymn Come, O Fount of Every Blessing (#559 VU)

Prayer of Confessional and Renewal (Unison)

Gracious God, too often we forget that it is you who abundantly supplies our needs. Thinking we have done it ourselves, we hoard our resources and gifts, or share them only with others in similar circumstances. We love to compare and feel that we are blessed and worthy. But you show us a different way. You invite us to share not only with those we deem worthy but with everyone. You urge us to count not the cost but rather the blessings. You promise an everlasting abundance when we open our hearts and embody true hospitality. Forgive our smallness, Gracious God, and help us to embrace the kingdom values of humility and generosity. (a time of silent confession) Amen.

*Catherine Tovell, Gathering Pentecost 1 2025. Page 73.

Words of Assurance

One: We are human. We forget. We hoard. We hold on. We make unfair comparisons.

  All: The God of creation knows our human failings and loves us in spite of them.

One: God not only loves us, God also forgives us, always.

All: Thanks be to God for such undeserved grace.

*Catherine Tovell, Gathering Pentecost 1 2025. Page 73.

Announcements and Minute for Mission

Time for God’s Children (Know that God is God, #104 MV)

Know that God is love. Know that God is love.

Know that God is love. God is good, God is love.

Prayer for Illumination

Proclaiming the Scriptures

Amos 7:7-17 God holds a plumb line in the midst of God’s people

Psalm 82 (VU p. 799) God judges in the midst of the divine council.

Luke 10:25-37 The parable of the Good Samaritan.

This is the Good News from the Bible.

  Thanks be to God.

Anthem

Sermon

*Hymn When Quiet Peace Is Shattered (#615 VU)

*Offering

*Offertory Hymn (Tune: #374VU)

Acts of kindness, times for sharing; bringing Christ to human need.

Caring for the least among us; simple actions plant the seed.

By our giving and forgiving, work a miracle of love.

Holy presence to us offered; Praise the One who reigns above.

*Offertory Prayer (Unison)

God our Provider, with thanksgiving for all you have supplied, we offer back to you and your church a portion this morning. Bless these gifts and their wise use: in building your kingdom, spreading the good news, healing, uniting, uplifting, and even resurrecting lives, relationships, and communities. Bless these gifts and the holy work they make possible. Amen.

*Elaine Bidgood Sveet, Gathering Pentecost 1 2025. Page 47.

Prayers of the People and Lord’s Prayer

*Closing Hymn There’s a Spirit in the Air (#582 VU|vs. 1,2,4)

*Commissioning

One: Go now, as people who have seen the plumb line of God, a measure of what is right and just. God calls us to speak with courage, to act with compassion, and to live with integrity in all things.

  All: We go with open hearts and faithful spirits, committed to God’s way of justice and love.

*Commissioning Song God Be With You

God be with you wherever you go. Amen, amen, hallelujah.

Peace be with you whatever you do. Amen, amen, hallelujah.

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