A Light on the Hill

Order of Service – 26th June 2022

The Order of Service follows below.

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The Third Sunday after Pentecost
June 26th, 2022

Prelude

Welcome

Lighting of the Candles and Introit

Day By Day by Martin How

Call to Worship

Come in freedom,
for Christ has set us free.

Come as the people of God,
for Christ has made us God’s family.

Come with love for one another, all people and all creation,
for Christ’s call and command is to love.

Come this day to live by the spirit, being guided by the spirit,
for Christ meets us here.
Let us worship God together.

Opening Prayer

We Sing: Welcome

  1. Let’s walk together for a while
    and ask where we begin
    to build a world where love can grow
    and hope can enter in.
    To be the hands of healing
    and to plant the seeds of peace,

    singing welcome, welcome to this place,
    you’re invited to come and know God’s grace.
    All are welcome, the love of God to share
    ’cause all of us are welcome here,
    all are welcome in this place.

  2. Let’s talk together of a time
    when we will share a feast,
    where pride and power kneel to serve
    the lonely and the least,
    and joy will set the table
    as we join our hands to pray,

    singing welcome, welcome to this place,
    you’re invited to come and know God’s grace.
    All are welcome, the love of God to share
    ’cause all of us are welcome here,
    all are welcome in this place.

Words: Laurie Zelman and Mark A Miller. Music: Mark A Miller. © 2007 Abingdon Press. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Used by permission under CCLI Licence 137219. Copyright cleared Music for Churches.

Litany for the Uniting Church on the occasion of the 45th Anniversary

We are a people saved by grace through faith.
Re-make us as your people, Lord.
Free us for witness and service.

As we join our praise with all creation,
re-make us as your people, Lord.
Free us for witness and service.

As we look, with all your people, for the coming of your kingdom,
re-make us as your people, Lord.
Free us for witness and service.

As we seek, with other churches, the unity for which Jesus prays,
re-make us as your people, Lord.
Free us for witness and service.

As we cry and groan and work for justice and reconciliation,
re-make us as your people, Lord.
Free us for witness and service.

As we pray and learn to love in the dark places of human life,
re-make us as your people, Lord.
Free us for witness and service.

As we long for our own transformation and for the renewal of all your church,
re-make us as your people, Lord.
Free us for witness and service.

As we seek for peace in our homes, our workplaces and our world,
re-make us as your people, Lord.
Free us for witness and service.

May your kingdom come,
And your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Music Ministry: Under the Canopy of Grace

Passing of the Peace

The peace of our God be with you.
And also with you.

Community News and Notices

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Children’s Time

Children may go downstairs for Sunday School. Parents, you are welcome to join your child in Sunday School if you feel your child may need your assistance. Alternatively, you may wish for your child to remain with you for the duration of worship. Activity packs are available from the Welcome Desks.

Scripture Reading: Galatians 5:1, 13-25

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.

Scripture Reading: Luke 9:51-62

When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set towards Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, ‘Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?’ But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village.

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ To another he said, ‘Follow me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’ Another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.’ Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’

The Gospel of Christ, light of the world.
Thanks be to God.

Sermon

We Sing: Pulsing Spirit

  1. Pulsing Spirit, rippling river, source of mercy’s tender might.
    Gentle power, humble glory, subtle, ever dancing light.
    Healing wisdom in us flowing, now reveal our human worth.
    Play beneath the muddied waters, come renew the face of earth!

  2. Spirit free, unbounded motion, beauty’s mirror, heart’s delight.
    Gift abundant all around us, flood the world with life and light.
    Fountain ancient, ever springing, play in new, creative ways.
    Lift us, stream of lavish loving, high on waves of joyful praise!

Delores Dufner and BF White. Words © 1993 Delores Dufner. All Rights reserved. ONE LICENSE, License #A‑60444

Offering

To give electronically please go to bpuc.org/give

Prayers of the People with Who Will Sing My Lullaby?

…And now with the confidence of the children of God, let us pray the prayer Jesus taught us saying:

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be Your name,

your Kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as in Heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins,

as we forgive those who sin against us.

Save us from the time of trial

and deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power

and the glory are yours now and forever. Amen.

We Sing: Where the Spirit is There’s Freedom

Refrain:
Where the Spirit is there’s freedom.
Where the Spirit is, there is life!

  1. Not by the world can our freedom be nourished,
    not by our things, only by Spirit.
    Practise, my children, to live by the Spirit,
    drop all your masks, take freedom’s clothing!

    Where the Spirit is there’s freedom.
    Where the Spirit is, there is life!
  2. Heaven on earth, here we live, free to
    love and to share, carried by joy,
    Practise, my children, to live by the Spirit,
    daring today to taste God’s future.

    Where the Spirit is there’s freedom.
    Where the Spirit is, there is life!
  3. Wounds will be healed, eyes will be opened,
    imaging God, reflecting Jesus.
    Practise, my children, to live by the Spirit,
    heaven is here, time made eternal.

    Where the Spirit is there’s freedom.
    Where the Spirit is, there is life!

Together in Song, 421. Jonas Jonson 1939- Words by permission the World Council of Churches, Geneva.

Sending Forth and Benediction

Choral Blessing

Go Gently, Go Lightly by Shirley Murray and Colin Gibson

Postlude

Come and share morning tea together, downstairs in the basement.