From Where Does My Help Come?

Good Morning and Welcome to Worship! Worship is often the first place that new people come into contact with this growing community of faith. And so, if you are joining us for the first time, I say to you what is said every Sunday: You are welcome here. Here is a place where all are welcome. For such is the love of God for God’s Very Good Creation.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow; praise God, all creatures here below; praise God above, ye Heav'nly host: praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kin-dom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Today we trust Love who is God;

Before, and after, but above all, with us; Maker, Remaker of life, and life’s limits Striving to sustain; to make new.

Today we trust:

God: with Earth working God: with birth emerging God: with justice by choice: — Giving sea, soil, skies voice! God with predators, with prey — with the light of each day! God with life’s harmonies, seen and unseen; God breathed praise by all creatures; God welcomed in shade of the trees.

We trust God with us urgently now.

Today we trust:

Jesus our Friend Incarnate in Earth; Who shares life with creatures shares their home with angels Who is tested, prevailing; Who knows of their frailness through flesh, blood, and birth and dependence on care.

We trust God with us urgently now.

We trust:

Jesus: who warns and heals, Jesus: repurposing Scripture; Jesus: Welcomed with branches, then nailed to the Tree.

We trust God with us urgently now.

We trust God, who is Spirit

Reshaping perceptions. Breath of life;

Wild Wind of beginnings beyond our control and unruled by our violence yet harnessed for justice; We trust God with us urgently now.

Ever-present God, you walk with us as you have the generations before us. By your word, give us wisdom, by your Spirit, grant us restoration, and set us free to serve you in love. We ask this in the name of the one who has shown us your way — Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Assurance of God’s Protection – A Song of Ascents. ¹ I lift up my eyes to the hills— from where will my help come? ² My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. ³ He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. ⁴ He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. ⁵ The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. ⁶ The sun shall not strike you by day nor the moon by night. ⁷ The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. ⁸ The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore.

The Cost of Discipleship ²⁵ Now large crowds were traveling with him, and he turned and said to them, ²⁶ “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. ²⁷ Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. ²⁸ For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? ²⁹ Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, ³⁰ saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ ³¹ Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? ³² If he cannot, then while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. ³³ So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

Is there someone in your life who has modeled what a strong relationship with God can look like? What fears do you have that you can turn over to God?

We offer both white and red grape juice. If you are afraid of spilling red grape juice, a limited number of cups with white grape juice are provided.

We gather round this table now as fellow creatures, at God’s calling flock, huddle, shoal or swarm … Drawn together to receive identity: more than our communities, or even our churches, can be alone. Like the Earth, we do not own Christ’s table which feeds and sustains us like our common home, it is ‘ours’ only when we share. Yet here, we’re welcome: like those friends Christ first gathered. Welcome for justice, fulfillment and love. Welcome, with prophets, publicans with eco-warriors and dodgy characters with those you’d expect and those you’d rather weren’t here. Called to re-celebrate; to be a work of God repurposed as friends of Jesus refreshed by bread and wine through human hands, from Earth’s own self on whom, and whom, and as whom we feed.

God be with you and in you

And also with you

Lift up your hearts

We lift them up to God

Give thanks to the Lord our God

It is right to give our thanks and praise

Throughout all ages, as mountains dance and trees applaud the cries of birth are also loud for all to hear and tend. Your Sabbath and Jubilee insist: “Refreshment and rest for all Creation”. But we made exceptions. Your People sought milk and honey, yet injustice laid lands waste. Your prophets: priests and farmers call us to account. Yet your loving signs of warning fall often by the wayside. And greed and pride insist on harmful choices knowingly embraced. Yet still comes Christ Jesus, friend of wildlife, beloved of the poor scolding the seas teaching with trees, and God’s wildness in Wind. When with Christ we shoulder the cross of healing; we shudder at the disaster of truth denied by power; and yet … risen and present through food and faith Christ calls us afresh to care for a damaged world. And so, as God’s people on earth and all the company of heaven, we praise your name and join their unending hymn:

God, Sustainer, gusting and fluttering life with the good things of the Earth: food and drink we offer; flesh and blood we are. As Jesus did, so do we: We break this bread [bread is broken]. We share this cup [cup is raised]. We trust that Jesus revealed your way of living in this world — a commonwealth of shared living as the body of Christ empowered by the Holy Spirit.

And now, in remembrance of your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ’s offering for us, as we proclaim the mystery of faith:

Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.

The bread which we have eaten is a sharing in the bread of Christ. The cup over which we give thanks is the sharing in the cup of Christ.

God-with-Earth, invited and fed at your table we are remade, repurposed. May this food empower us to cherish your Creation who we also are. And whether our cares be light or heavy, our song be strong or weak, keep our hearts warm, our hands open, our lives ever embracing and embraced by your love. Amen.

We continue our worship in the giving of our offering: As, with gratitude, and generosity we pass on what has come into our hands, give us joy in our giving, wisdom in our spending, and your peace in our hearts for the Good of the Earth in God’s cycles of glory. Blessed be God forever. Amen.

God of all creation, your desire for us is complete. We cannot follow the way of Jesus from a distance. And so, we come together today and ask that you use what we bring for your creation. In the presence of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

May the Artist who crafted creation, continue to shape your heart, may the Christ who commissioned you charge you with purpose, may the Spirit that stirs you, help you to find ways for you to be the light of God in the world, that you may honor our creator with every breath you take. Amen.