Welcome to Worship – Sunday, June 30, 2024 (2024)

“The Path That Unwinds…”
June 30, 2024 – 10 a.m.
Our livestream beginshereat 10 a.m.

The past is history. The future, a mystery.
This moment is a gift which is why it is called the present.
– Deepak Chopra, from his book The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success

WELCOME and ANNOUNCEMENTS – Rev. Sandy Reimer

UCG STORY CORPS – Peggy Bowie

PRELUDE – “Now I Walk in Beauty” (a Navajo prayer) – offered by UCG Choir

CALL TO WORSHIP by Mary Austin, adapted from a Navajo blessing.

I arise, facing East. I am asking for the light.
I am asking I that my day shall be beautiful with light.
I am asking that the place where my feet are shall be bright,
That as far as I can see, I shall follow it aright.
I am asking for the courage to go forward through the shadows.
I am asking toward the light; I am asking toward the light.

REPRISE – Please join the choir in singing twice:
Now I walk in beauty – beauty is before me –
beauty is behind me – above and below me.

RESPONSIVE PRAYER – “In the Beginning” by Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Please join in reading the lines that are in bold.

In the beginning, darkness covered the face of the deep.
Then the rushing breath of life hovered over the waters.
Let us breathe together.
Let us catch our breath from the need to make, to do.
Let us be conscious of the Breath of Life.

We breathe out what the trees breathe in.
We breathe in what the trees breathe out.
Together we breathe each other into life.

Blessed is the One within the many.
Blessed are the Many who make one.

TIME WITH THE CHILDREN – “The Snail and the Whale” written by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler – shared by Lisa Ingram

PRAYER

BIRTHDAYS

INTERLUDE AND OFFERING
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PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE – Rev. Larry Reimer

Choral Response: Mark will play this once; we will then sing it twice.

Ubi caritas – et amor – Ubi Caritas – Deus ibi est.
Where there is charity and love, God is there.

READING – “Moments Between” by Susan McLaughlin – read by Andy Ingram

Notice the moments between one thing and another,
the soft delicate shift between two things:
the space between awake and asleep, between a bud and a bloom,
when the sunrise becomes the day and the twilight the night,
the moment from unborn to first breath, the fleeting second between last breathand death
the inconspicuous moments: when pain becomes memory, when the child becomes an adult, whenthe face in the mirror is no longer a reflection of youth,
simple moments: the last piece in a puzzle, the last sentence in a book,
lasting moments: when a friend’s touch heals and simple words soothe,
when sorrow becomes joy, and when alone becomes connected.

READING – “Summer” by Marv Hiles, An Almanac for the Soul

Summer comes to us like a determined friend and develops in days. Right now, our bodies and souls are making adjustments as our place under the sun shifts. We stand between the times, and there is always much to learn on the boundary, on the threshold. The earth turns on its axis, and time, like a current of air, moves past, leaving us alone on the tip of the moment with our thoughts. In the roundel of seasons, there is never more than a pause. The rising and falling light never stops, and we are about to be carried by summer winds across the skies.

SCRIPTURE – The 23^rd Psalm – an arrangement by Bobby McFerrin (singer and songwriter) dedicated to his mother Sara – Offered by Edo Carter, Melvin Smith-Lopez, Allan March, Chad McInnis, Andy Olivenbaum, Larry Reimer

SERMON – “The Path that Unwinds…” –Rev. Sandy Reimer

PRAYER

SONG – “Give Yourself to Love” by Kate Wolf – Elizabeth Clark, vocal;
accompanied by Mark Burlingame, Alan Hill and Larry Reimer

Soloist – Kind friends all gathered round, there’s something I would say,
That what brings us together here has blessed us all today.
Love has made a circle that holds us all inside.
We join as a community where love and hope abide.

Chorus –Give yourself to hope, if change is what you’re after.
Open up your heart to the tears and the laughter,
And give yourself to hope and give yourself to hope.

Soloist – Hope is born in fire. It’s planted like a seed.
Hope can’t give you everything, but it gives you what you need.
Hope comes when you are ready; it comes when you’re afraid.
It will be your strongest ally for the future to be made.

Repeat chorus twice.

BENEDICTION – May you find your breath, in that moment between moments, as you stand at the doorway, and may the path unwind before you as you step into your future with vision and with hope. Amen.

POSTLUDE