notes from august 24th meeting

Good Citizenship Sunday

Welcome
Song
Genesis reading
Call to worship
Matthew reading
Message:
- Archaic religion: dependance, single file line
- Modern religion: individualism, spreading out/bubbles
- Historic religion: transcendent power, rocks – who do you say I am?
Pledge/Prayer juxtaposition…Prayer wins
Passing of peace/Blessing bowl
Communion
Song
Benediction


THOUGHTS:
Pledge to the slaughtered lamb
Focus on Jesus
The Church’s One Foundaton – song
On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand – song
Cannot serve God and ____________
“Undr God SUGGESTS A HIGHER LOYALTY
Factoid box on bulletin
Peter’s Rock in every nation
Peter vs. Petroleum
Not bashing, but calling to a higher loyalty
Go Down, Moses – sing for Labor Day?
Shall we gather at the river – song


NEEDS:
Rocks
Sharpees
Readers
Musicians

Do you know my Name?

I have really enjoyed listening to Rickie Lee Jones' album THE SERMON ON EXPOSITION BOULEVARD over the last year or so. Here is a blurb from a New York Times article about the album:

Whatever it is Christ said doesn’t get a fair shake,” Rickie Lee Jones said. On a rainy December day, she was sniffling and coughing, fighting a bad cold and losing. “There’s not much written, it was done 150 years later, and it was used to create an empire. So can we get rid of all that and just see what the guy said?”

Anyways her song "WHAT"S MY NAME" fits this week. It might be good just to have this music in the background before and after service--the same way that the church basement roadshow folks used bruce springsteen after and before their performance.

Here are the lyrics.

For a thousand years
I've lay upon the Lake Victoria
I was winged and many-colored
And nobody knew my name

For a thousand years
I fell out of the sand into the Guadeloupe
And I made many songs into the air
And nobody knew my name

I fell like water
In sweet gasps of hydrogen up
Into the sea over the Bikini Islands
And I dove into the liquid concrete of sweet silver lake
The liquid concrete of down by the river
And nobody knew my name

Now I walk among them and I sing to them
And I open up my wrists
And nobody knows my name

And I translate into many hours of history
But nobody knows my name
I stood in the four winds
I stood in the four winds
I stood in the four winds
And nobody knows my name



So I walk again
Yeah, I walk every night
So I walk again
I look at you
Sweet every face
Do you know my name
Do you, do you know my name
Do you know my name
Do you know my name
Say it
Do you know my name
Say it
Do you know my name
Do you know my name
Do you know my
Do you know my name
Do you know my
My...

August 17th Worship Service Bulletin

August 24th Worship Service

let's start looking ahead to get ourselves better organized...cool. there is already a really good august 31 discussion going.

15th Sunday after Pentacost

* Exodus 1:8-2:10: A pharaoh who did not know the family of Joseph made his descendents into hard-labor slaves and tried to reduce their numbers by infanticide. The Hebrew midwives and the daughter of Pharoah had other ideas, and Moses is born and raised in the royal household.

* Psalm 124 (UMH 846): Refrain: Alternate refrain: "If it had not been for the Lord on my side" (TFWS 2053). See "Psalms for Singing" for an alternative.

* Romans 12:1-8: Against the backdrop of their mixed Jewish-Gentile community, Paul calls the Christians at Rome to offer themselves fully to God with transformed minds (not conformed to a Jewish-Gentile dichotomy/enmity paradigm), but with the awareness that we are being made into one body, each of us with differing gifts.

* Matthew 16:13-20: In a stronghold of Roman authority, Jesus asks the disciples who others say that he is. Peter confesses, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Jesus then calls Peter and the church in which he will eventually lead to storm the gates of death, assured of victory, and to take authority to "bind and loose" on earth.


Art Response:

First Voice:
Who do people say that I am? (Matthew 16:13)
Second Voice:
Some say you are a figment of imagination.
Some say you are irrelevant.
Some say you never existed.
Some say your existence doesn’t matter.
Some say you belong to another race.
Some say you belong to another party.
Some say you belong to the status quo.
Some say you are weak.
Some say you look after the rich, the powerful, and the famous.
First Voice:
Who do yousay that I am? (Matthew 16:15)
(Invite responses, and then end with the following.)
You are our Lord
You are our Teacher
our example
our Savior
our friend
our comforter
our advocate
our companion.
You are mother and father when none can be found.
You are love!
You are the firstborn of all creation.
You are for all races and peoples.
You belong to no political party.
You are on the side of the poor and weak.
Your arm is long and bends toward justice.
You are our source and our destination,
Our Alpha and Omega,
Our beginning and end.
You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

August 17th Worship Service

thoughts?

Lectionary:

Genesis 45:1-15: The other "bookend" of the Joseph story --Joseph, now second in command in Egypt, reveals his identity to his brothers and promises to provide land, food, and protection for the family during the famine and beyond, thanks to God's gracious provision.

Psalm 133 (UMH 850): The blessing of living together in unity -- a fitting response to the Genesis reading for today. See "Psalms for Singing" for another alternative.

Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32: Paul concludes his excursus on the theological connection between God's covenant with Israel and the church (which includes both Jewish and Gentile people, but especially Gentiles) with a strong affirmation of Israel's place in God's saving intent toward the whole world. All-- Jew and Gentile -- receive salvation by God's mercy and grace, not by merit. And to Gentiles -- God's calling and gifts cannot be called back, which means Israel's place is permanently secure while Gentiles are like grafts of a wild olive tree into a domesticated olive tree (verses 16-21, not in the lectionary reading, but critical to the argument).

Matthew 15:(10-20), 21-28: Jesus tells the crowd that it is what comes out of the heart that pollutes us. Then Jesus discovers great faith coming from the heart of a foreigner (the Canaanite woman) who won't take "no" for an answer.

Fringe Festival Tie-in: I talked with Kate Lamonte yesterday. She is performing in a Fringe Festival performance that opens next weekend. It is called Moved and Kate will be singing. She said that she would be willing to perform on Sunday morning and also perhaps bring one of the dancers along with her.

Dramatic Reading of Genesis?

A Dramatic Reading of Scripture: Genesis 45:1-5
(Adapted from Genesis 45:1-15, CEV)
Female Voice: When Joseph was alone with his brothers, he told them,
Male Voice:“I am Joseph.”
Female Voice: Then he cried so loudly that the Egyptians heard him and told
about it in the king’s palace. Joseph asked his brothers if his father was still alive,
but they were too frightened to answer. Joseph told them to come closer to him,
and when they did, he said:
Male Voice:Yes, I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt. Don’t
worry or blame yourselves for what you did. God is the one who sent me ahead of
you to save lives. Now hurry back and tell my father that his son Joseph says,
“God has made me ruler of Egypt. Come here as quickly as you can. You will live
near me in the region of Goshen with your children and grandchildren, as well as
with your sheep, goats, cattle, and everything else you own. I will take care of you
there during the next five years of famine. But if you don’t come, you and your
family and your animals will starve to death.”
Female Voice: Joseph and Benjamin hugged each other and started crying.
Joseph was still crying as he kissed each of his other brothers. After this, they
started talking with Joseph.
(Tony Peterson, Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A)


Dramatic Reading of Mathew:

The reading from Matthew for this Sunday provides two stories that can be read perhaps most fruitfully side by side, assuming you include the optional verses (10-20). Indeed, they might be read precisely alongside each other as you offer the reading of the text as follows:
Reader 1: 10-11 Reader 2: 21-23a
Pause for reflection

Reader 1: 12-14 Reader 2: 23b-26

Pause for reflection

Reader 1: 15-20 Reader 2: 27-28

Silence

Labor Sunday - Aug 31

The Romans passage is good for a Love and Harmony in the workplace idea.
The Exodus passage could go with a "Moses was a Labor Guy" message.
I'll keep looking for ideas to share in upcoming Tuesday meetings.
Joe

What You Preach--central song for 9-11 worship service/?

Can we learn it?

Click here to listen to it

WHAT YOU PREACH
[ folk -- written by Sarah Crews; Prescott, AZ ]


We are living in dangerous days
And I am freightened by what you say
We are bound to guard our borders
Sacrifice our soldiers

What kind of world is this
Where hatred can persist?
It chills right to the core
This talk of holy war

Really love your brother
Love your neighbor like that too
And only do to others
What you would want them to do to you

What they did in New York City
Is the darkest kind of crime
What can we tell our children
If we respond in kind?

We only teach them violence
It is how the West was won
Destroy the man who is different
Than your own begotten son

And really love your sister
Love your neighbor like that too
And only do to others
What you would want them to do to you
What you would want them to do to you

We are living in dangerous days
And I am freightened by what you say
It chills right to the core
This talk of holy war