Join us for virtual worship on Sunday, November 8, 2020 at 10am. You may watch live via Facebook by clicking here or watching below. A recording will be available on this page after worship concludes.
CALL TO WORSHIP
Lord, what a week!
Lord, what a season!
But still, we gather in faith!
Lord, help us to persist although we may want to give up.
Lord, help us to keep trying
although we always can’t see what good it does.
Lord, help us to keep praying
although we’re not always sure you hear us.
Lord, help us to keep living in ways that seek to do your will.
Lord, help us to know when to lead and when to follow.
Lord, help us to know when to speak
and when to remain silent.
Lord, help us to know when to act and when to wait.
And at this time, Lord, help us to worship you
in Spirit and in Truth
in this strange time and place. Amen
OPENING TO GOD Restless by Brooks Williams
God did not lead me here to abandon me
God did not leave me to drown in my own tears
The day is darker now I can barely see
The road is longer and stones hurt my feet
I have sung my songs of mirth
I have hung my head and cried
You have been ever faithful; I’m the one who left your side
All the days I have wasted
chasing down the winds of empty praise
And all the times I have lost searching
for riches in abandoned mines
My heart is restless it finds no peace
I was made for you
I have bargained with my future
And I have wrestled with my past
Like a drunk man trying to be sober
every day I face the empty glass
My heart is restless it finds no peace
I was made for you
Some days my faith is a mighty river
Some days my faith is a barren land
Oh Lord please tell me why
Maybe then I would understand
My heart is restless it finds no peace
I was made for you
YOUNG PEOPLE’S MESSAGE Danielle Sturgeon & Family
EPSITLE 2 Corinthians 9:6-10
The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. As it is written,
“God scatters abroad, God gives to the poor;
God’s righteousness endures forever.”
The One who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.
GOSPEL Luke 12:13-22
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
He said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest?
Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will God clothe you—you of little faith! And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and Abba knows that you need them. Instead, strive for the Kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
“Fear not, little flock, for it is Abba’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.
REFLECTION Fear Not, Little Flock Mitchell & Barb
MUSIC Almighty Father, Strong to Save music & photos
by Kathryn Parker
PRAYER FOR THE WEEK Gary Weaver
O Lord, our lives are like a song out of tune,
lacking rhythm or harmony.
Our eyes have narrowed in vision
from focusing too long on self-concern;
we lack periphery and depth.
Our hands have lost their creative freedom
from holding on too tightly to things of insignificance.
May we lose in order to find.
May we open our eyes and see the possibilities of your Spirit;
may we lift our voices and sing, even in the face of danger.
Blessed God, roll back the clouds
and let the sun shine brightly in our souls.
May your love penetrate the uncertainties of life
and remind us of the joy which comes from
reaching higher than the shelf of selfishness
to the one of friendship, kindness, justice.
May your forgiveness challenge our arrogance
and teach us to give when it hurts,
to occasionally trust the opinion of others,
to yield to a different way of seeing and understanding.
These are times that test the soul,
that call forth the courage of morality,
the integrity of truth, the dignity of decency.
May we have the strength of committed people
who have known years of suffering for justice,
of caring for the forgotten, of seeking the lost.
And may we have that faith which finds power
in the unity of your everlasting love. Amen.
SHARING PRAYERS
LORD’S PRAYER
ANNOUNCEMENTS
BENEDICTION
POSTLUDE A Classical Postlude music & photos
by Kathryn Parker
