Pentecost 2000: No One But Us
Seekers Church
A Christian Community
In the Tradition of the Church of the Saviour
Pentecost 2000
No One But Us
SILENT REFLECTION
…Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? There is no one but us. There is no one to send, nor a clean hand, nor a pure heart on the face of the earth, nor in the earth, but only us, a generation comforting ourselves with the notion that we have come at an awkward time, that our innocent fathers are all dead–as if innocence had ever been–and our children busy and troubled, and we ourselves unfit, not yet ready, having each of us chosen wrongly, made a false start, failed, yielded to impulse and the tangled comfort of pleasures, and grown exhausted, unable to seek the thread, weak, and involved. But there is no one but us. There never has been.
Annie Dillard. Holy the Firm .
PRELUDE
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: God, how fertile your genius!
You shape each thing,
You fill the world with what you do.
Voice 1: We watch the sea, wide and deep,
filled with fish, large and small,
with ships that ply their trade,
and your own toy, Leviathan.
Voice 2: All look to you for food when they hunger;
you provide it and they feed.
You open your hand, they feast, you turn away, they fear.
Community: Let our songs give joy to God, who is a joy to us.
INVOCATION
HYMN
WORD FOR THE CHILDREN
SILENCE
LITANY
Leader: The Holy Spirit comes among us —
And then all that has divided us will merge
And then compassion will be wedded to power
People: We stand in God’s holy place —
Leader: And then softness will come
to a world that is harsh and unkind
And then both men and women will be gentle
People: We stand in God’s holy place —
Leader: And then no person will be subject to another’s will
And then all will be rich and free and varied
People: We stand in God’s holy place —
Leader: And then the greed of some
will give way to the needs of many
And then all will share equally in the Earth’s abundance
Community: We stand in God’s holy place. Amen.
SILENCE
PRAYERS
COMMON CONFESSION
Leader: Holy Spirit of Pentecost,
We live bound in the tension
between commitment and arrogance.
Who do we think we are, claiming “No one but us,”
and believing we can make a difference
in this troubled world?
Voice 1: We think that we alone are called to make a difference,
to bring peace and justice to this time and place.
Voice 2: Yet we are just a tiny band of ordinary individuals
who try — and fail —
and trust that you will love us in our imperfection.
Community: Holy God, forgive us for losing the thread
that connects each of us to the other,
to the knowledge that “no one but us”
includes all those who offer you their gifts.
INDIVIDUAL PRAYERS OF CONFESSION
ASSURANCE
Leader: Take comfort in the good news of the risen Christ.
When the Holy Spirit, the Advocate comes,
whom Christ sends from the Divine Parent,
we will be guided into all the truth.
Amen.
PRAYERS OF THE COMMUNITY
HYMN
THE WORD
FIRST LESSON
SILENCE
GOSPEL LESSON
SERMON
SILENT REFLECTION
OFFERING
SHARED REFLECTIONS
ANNOUNCEMENTS
HYMN
BENEDICTION
Leader: Sisters and brothers in Christ,
let us go forth to stand in God’s Holy place —
And then all will care for the sick and the weak and the old
And then all will nourish the young
And then all will cherish life’s creatures
And then all will live in harmony
with each other and the Earth
And then everywhere will be called Eden once again. Amen.
Worship Resources
Call to Worship: Psalm 104
Litany: Judy Chicago. untitled poem, from The Dinner Party
Assurance: After John 15: 26; 16:13
Benediction: Chicago. op.cit.
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