Summer 1996: Choosing Life — Wet and Green, Creative and Painful

 

SEEKERS CHURCH
A Christian Community
In the Tradition of the Church of the Saviour
Summer 1996

Choosing Life —
Wet and Green, Creative and Painful

REFLECTION

The sense of the Earth,
opening and exploding upwards into God;
and the sense of God,
taking root and finding nourishment downward into Earth.

Tielhard de Chardin

PRELUDE

CALL TO WORSHIP

Leader:

The gardens of summer are blooming.
Their fruits and vegetables cover our tables
and delight our senses.

People:

God’s abundance is manifest.

Leader:

All of creation, and humanity in particular,
is showered with greening refreshment,
the vitality to bear fruit.

Unison:

Come, worship God.

INVOCATION

HYMN

SILENCE

WORD FOR THE CHILDREN

LITANY OF CHOOSING LIFE

Leader

Life is wet.
What does that mean for us as Church?

Voice 1

Wet life is children running fresh from the ocean,
flowers filled with nectar,
watermelon on the chin,
a cool pool after a hot day at the office…

Voice 2

Wet life is giving voice to the mute and the weak
who can not get what should be theirs.
Sharing power is muddy business, but it is life.

Leader

Life is painful.

Voice 1

It would be easier to look the other way,
avoid the stress, run away somehow.

Voice 2

But we are called to ask "Who is my neighbor?"
We are committed to the search for answers.
Life IS painful.

Leader

Life is green.

Voice 1

Summer can seem too green,
like too much of a good thing:
too much rain, too much lawn,
too much time with children out of school…
too much.

Voice 2

But there are many who don’t have enough:
not enough money,
not enough food,
not enough clothing,
no shelter…not enough.
"Material Sufficiency for All" is a good, green banner.

Leader

How can we choose life?

Voice 1

We can go for it all,
claiming our right to control everything we can,
using our strength and wisdom to make sure the needy get taken care of.
Sometimes that doesn’t seem right.

Voice 2

Or we can allow ourselves to trust the gospel vision
that when everyone chooses to have enough there will be enough for all.
Sometimes, that doesn’t seem right either.

Unison

Enough is best. Choose life.

SILENCE

PRAYERS

CONFESSION (Unison)

Holy God, we confess how hard it is
to live in a world of abundance and pain.
When there doesn’t seem to be enough to go around,
it’s hard to rejoice in Your bountiful gifts.
We don’t know what to do with the tension this creates in us.
Have mercy on us, O God.

INDIVIDUAL PRAYERS OF CONFESSION

ASSURANCE (Leader)

Hear the Good News!
God is merciful and forgiving.
God accepts us, and uses our very human lives
in the creation of Shalom.

PRAYERS OF THE COMMUNITY

HYMN

THE WORD

SCRIPTURE

SERMON

SILENT REFLECTION

The first Sunday of each month we switch to a Communion Liturgy here.

OFFERING

SHARED REFLECTIONS

ANNOUNCEMENTS

HYMN

BENEDICTION (Leader)

The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;
against such there is no law.
As we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

Amen.

Galatians 5: 22-23, 25