Sunday, June 24, 2018

The Power of Story June 24,2018

Worship on Sunday, June 24 …

 We are well into our focus on the Power of Story to shape our lives and faith.  We turn to the wisdom of our Hebrew forbearers in engaging the Four-Fold Song, an old Rabbinic teaching about the way God draws us forth from our focus on self, to a broader care for community, humanity and the whole of creation.
╬ The power of story is deeply rooted in all of human history, as it is in Jesus’ story-telling culture and in our own time.  He learns early on the conjuring, transforming power stories can have on hearers.  From our earliest days, life-shaping stories are “re-membered” and shared in poetry and song.  The invitation to us all is to expand our repertoire of stories:  from the deeply personal songs of ourselves, to the broader songs of our communities of shared identity, to the burgeoning song of humanity as a whole and on to the grandest themes of creation itself.



  Readings and the Prayer of the Day are below.

 We’re hearing good response from our people on this theme and our worship gatherings!  What a blessing!

 - Pr. Brad Highum
bhighum@abidinglove.org
PRAYER OF THE DAY --------------
God of life, call us out.  Draw us forth from singing the songs of ourselves, to embrace the larger stories of our community, of all people, of all creation. Amen.

 READINGS ----------------------------

 First Reading:  Deuteronomy 4:31-40
31 Because the Lord your God is a merciful God, he will neither abandon you nor destroy you; he will not forget the covenant with your ancestors that he swore to them.  32 For ask now about former ages, long before your own, ever since the day that God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of heaven to the other: has anything so great as this ever happened or has its like ever been heard of? 33 Has any people ever heard the voice of a god speaking out of a fire, as you have heard, and lived? 34 Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by terrifying displays of power, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? 35 To you it was shown so that you would acknowledge that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. 36 From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, while you heard his words coming out of the fire. 37 And because he loved your ancestors, he chose their descendants after them. He brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, 38 driving out before you nations greater and mightier than yourselves, to bring you in, giving you their land for a possession, as it is still today. 39 So acknowledge today and take to heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. 40 Keep his statutes and his commandments, which I am commanding you today for your own well-being and that of your descendants after you, so that you may long remain in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.

 Psalm 67
1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us,
2 that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations.
3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.
4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth.
5 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.
6 The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us.
7 May God continue to bless us; let all the ends of the earth revere him.

 Second Reading:  Colossians 3:12-17
12 As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. 13 Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

 Gospel:  John 13:31-35
31 Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32 If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33 Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.' 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
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