A Forest That Prays

We held virtual worship on Sunday, August 9, 2020 at 10am. You can watch the recording on our Facebook page (click here) or below.

Church Forests of Ethiopia, photo New York Times

To clasp the hands in prayer
is the beginning of an uprising
against the disorder of the world.

Karl Barth

WELCOME based on a poem by
e.e. Cummings

As we gather,

i Thank You God…

As we see each other,

i thank You God for most this amazing day

As we seek a lesson from your creation,

for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;

We give you thanks for this moment,

and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

PRAYER OF CONFESSION AND ASSURANCE Wendell Berry

The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

YOUNG PEOPLE’S MESSAGE Danielle Sturgeon

HEBREW SCRIPTURE Psalm 148

Halleluia!

Praise the Lord from the heavens;
praise God in the heights.
Praise the Lord all you angels;
sing praise, all you hosts of heaven.

Praise the Lord, sun and moon;
sing praise, all you shining stars.
Praise the Lord, heaven of heavens,
and you waters above the heavens.

Let them praise the name of the Lord,
who commanded, and they were created,
who made them stand fast forever and ever
giving them a law that shall not pass away.

Praise the Lord from the earth,
you sea monsters and all deeps,
fire and hail, snow and frost,
stormy wind fulfilling his command!

Mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars!
Wild animals and all cattle,
creeping things and flying birds!

Monarchs of the earth and all peoples,
princes and all rulers of the earth!
Young men and women alike,
old and young together!

Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for God’s name alone is exalted;
God’s glory is above earth and heaven.
God has raised up a ray of strength for the people,
bringing out praise from all the faithful,
from the children of Israel who are close to God.
Praise the Lord!

GOSPEL Luke 18:1-8

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.
He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’”
And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to those children who cry out day and night? Will God delay long in helping them? I tell you, Abba will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

REFLECTION A Forest That Prays

MUSIC Sweet Hour of Prayer music & photos
by Kathryn Parker

PRAYER FOR THE WEEK Mary Oliver

On Love

I have been in love more times than one,
thank the Lord. Sometimes it was lasting
whether active or not. Sometimes
it was all but ephemeral, maybe only
an afternoon, but not less real for that.
They stay in my mind, these beautiful people,
or anyway beautiful people to me, of which
there are so many. You, and you, and you,
whom I had the fortune to meet, or maybe
missed. Love, love, love, it was the
core of my life, from which, of course, comes
the word for the heart. And, oh, have I mentioned
that some of them were men and some were women
and some — now carry my revelation with you —
were trees. Or places. Or music flying above
the names of their makers. Or clouds, or the sun
which was the first, and the best, the most
loyal for certain, who looked so faithfully into
my eyes, every morning. So I imagine
such love of the world — its fervency, its shining, its
innocence and hunger to give of itself — I imagine
this is how it began.,
SHARING PRAYERS