Thanksgiving 1998: Gather Us In

 

Seekers Church:
A Christian Community
In the Tradition of the Church of the Saviour

Thanksgiving 1998

Gather Us In

Coming to the woods’ edge
on a Sunday morning walk,
I stand resting a moment beside
a ragged half-dead wild plum
in bloom, its perfume
a moment enclosing me,
and standing side by side
with the old broken blooming tree
I almost understand,
I almost recognize as a friend
the great impertinence of beauty
that comes even to the dying,
even to the fallen, without reason
sweetening the air.

Wendell Berry, A Timbered Choir, pg. 87

Prelude

Call To Worship

Leader:

Shout to the Lord, all earth,
serve the Lord with gladness,
enter God’s presence with joy!

People:

Show that the Lord is God,
our maker to whom we belong,
our shepherd, and we the flock.

Leader:

Enter the temple gates,
the courtyard with thanks and praise;
give thanks and bless God’s name.

Unison:

Indeed the Lord is good!
God’s love is forever,
faithful from age to age.

Invocation

Hymn

Word For the Children

Silence

Litany

Leader:

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and our children’s lives may be,

Voice 1:

I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water,
and the great heron feeds.

Voice 2:

I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.

Voice 1:

I come to the presence of still waters.

Voice 2:

And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light.

Unison:

For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Silence

Prayers

Common Confession

Leader:

Our holy temple has been sacked.
Not one stone is left upon another.
All have been thrown down.
We are like leaves scattered in the wind.

Voice 1:

We are the destroyed
and the destroyer.

Voice 2:

We are the trees that sway
and the saw that fells.

Voice 1:

We are the river that sings
and the sewage that poisons.

Voice 2:

We are the breeze that blows
and the exhaust that spews.

Unison:

We are exiles from the Promised Land.
Gather us in, Lord.

Individual Prayers of Confession

Assurance

Leader:

God chose you as the first fruits for salvation
through sanctification by the spirit
and through belief in the truth. Amen.

Prayers of The Community

Hymn

The Word

First Lesson

Silence

Gospel Lesson

Sermon

Silent Reflection

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

Offering

Shared Reflections

Announcements

Hymn

Benediction

Leader:

Do not worry about anything,
but in everything by prayer
and supplication with thanksgiving
let your requests be made known to God.

 

And the peace of God,
which surpasses all understanding,
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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Worship Resources

Call to Worship:

Psalm 100

Litany:

Wendell Berry, The Peace of Wild Things

Confession:

Kate Amoss

Assurance:

2 Thessalonians 2:13

Benediction:

Philippians 4:6-7