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.

 

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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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