But first, a prayer by Walter Brueggermann:
You are the God of all things new.
You lurk on Saturday night in silence
just as you lurked
at the edge of the old deportation.
And then you leapt up on Easter morning with new life,
just as you enunciated homecoming for our ancient people.
You refuse the power of death
and have broken open our displacement with new possibility.
We give thanks for your promises you have kept among us,
and for your promises still under way,
promises of a new heaven,
a new earth,
a new Jerusalem, and
a new covenant.
We watch with eager longing
for your newness
that will outrun all our losses.
Emancipate us from our anxiety to watch for your gifts of newness
and to receive the strange forms
that your new beginnings may take among us.
At the far edge of our exile,
just as the new day breaks,
we will shout with glad elation,
"He is risen indeed!"
8:15
Every once in a while our Chancel Choir will sing at 8:15. This is one of those lucky times! The song they are singing this morning, Freedom, is actually a medley of five African American spirituals. Two of them you will recognize as songs we've sung in the last few weeks. There may be no group for whom freedom has been as allusive as the African American community in the United States. Mark Hayes, who arranged this piece, is one of our choir's favorites! John Van de Voort is the soloist today. Criag Beck, Brad Footh, Becky Graham, Erik Hulse, Jeremy Krug, and Danny Rojas are helping with the instruments.
Our opening hymn, This Is a Day of New Beginnings, was written by Brian Wren. Wren says the song, "written for a New Year’s Day service [1978] at Holy Family Church, Blackbird Leys, Oxford. In itself, the new year is an arbitrary convention, its “newness” a mere mark on the calendar. The recurrent awakening of life in nature is not a strong enough foundation for hope of real change. Yet by faith in the really new events of the Christian story, a day, or a month, or and hour can become charged with promise, and be a springboard to a changed life!" Read more here. Today is your next chance for a new beginning! Take advantage of it and start now!
If you weren't here last week you might refer back to last week's blog for information on Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone).
9:30
We have several "secular" songs today. But secular is really a misnomer. Secular suggests that God is not involved. God's grace can be involved in anything! Our hope is that when you hear songs like Freebird outside of worship that you'll think about God, maybe think about what you learned today, and even say a prayer of thanks for the way that God redeems the world, including music!Freebird
Love Is Alive
Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)
Worn
Message in a Bottle
10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)
11:00
Our opening hymn, This Is a Day of New Beginnings, was written by Brian Wren. Wren says the song, "written for a New Year’s Day service [1978] at Holy Family Church, Blackbird Leys, Oxford. In itself, the new year is an arbitrary convention, its “newness” a mere mark on the calendar. The recurrent awakening of life in nature is not a strong enough foundation for hope of real change. Yet by faith in the really new events of the Christian story, a day, or a month, or and hour can become charged with promise, and be a springboard to a changed life!" Read more here. Today is your next chance for a new beginning! Take advantage of it and start now!
If you weren't here last week you might refer back to last week's blog for information on Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone).
This morning's anthem, Freedom, is actually a medley of five African American spirituals. Two of them you will recognize as songs we've sung in the last few weeks. There may be no group for whom freedom has been as allusive as the African American community in the United States. Mark Hayes, who arranged this piece, is one of our choir's favorites! John Van de Voort is the soloist today. Criag Beck, Brad Footh, Becky Graham, Erik Hulse, Jeremy Krug, and Danny Rojas are helping with the instruments.
Today's Sermon:
The monkey story is not a new one. I heard it a week ago at a Court of Honor for a church member, but when I Googled it I found several references. I ran out of time this week, but look for a blog post later today on http://revliv1.blogspot.com/ about some other ways that we can think of the monkey story.
As a pastor I hear lots of stories from people who feel like everything that has happened to them happened because God planned it that way. It's not true. Sometimes it was a monkey throwing the ball! If you feel like everything that happens because God planned it you might go back to my sermon from September 8.
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