Proper 27B/Ordinary 32B/Pentecost 25

		Proper 27B/Ordinary 32B/Pentecost 25 Sunday, November 7, 2021 FOR POETRY PEW CLICK HERE FOR A BEAD AND A PRAYER CLICK HERE A LITURGY FOR WORSHIP Use As Much Or As Little As You Choose
		Centering In Preparation We are here, O Present Spirit, becuase we know you are here. Nothing can keep us from you . . . nothing can separate us from your loving-kindness. May we feel you in each breath we take. May we know you in each thought we think. May we be in you with every beat of our heart. May we be yours in everything we share here. Opening Words (from Psalm 146) Praise God, my soul! I will praise you all my life; i will sing praise to my God while I live! Happy are those whose help is the God of Israel, whose hope is in God Most High, the Holy One who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in it! O God of Hosts, you keep faith forever. God will reign forever — your God, Zion! — through all generations. —Priests for Equality. The Inclusive Bible. Opening Prayer Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal One: we live in your mercy and compassion. May your Spirit move within us that our worship would be sincere and genuine. For we long for the integrity that is you, O God, our Wisdom and Truth. Amen. The Gloria Glory be to God on high, and the goodwill of peace be with all. Holy. Holy. Holy God of heaven and earth, your glory fills all in all. Amen. Prayer For the Day Giver-of-All-Things, good and beautiful and prefect as they are: grant us the insight to know our portion. Provider-of-All, help us to give of what you have given us, that the portion for each be fulfilled in sharing. For you are the Blessing-of-Life that transforms us from claiming what is ours, to the reality that all we have has come from you. So, reinstill within us not only the desire to share with those who have less, but to live in generosity for all who are in need. Blessed are you and blessing in your Kin-Dom, now and forevermore. Amen. Prayer For Illumination Your word is a light on our path, not only in the day, but also in the night. Our our ears, and minds, and spirits, that we may hear anew the message of your Liberating-Word. Amen. Reading From the Hebrew Scriptures—Ruth 3. 1-15, 4. 13-16 One day, Naomi said to Ruth, “My daughter, it’s my duty to ensure your security and fulfillment, and make sure you are provided for. And Boaz, whose workers you have been following, is our closest relative. Tonight he’ll be winnowing grain on the threshing floor. Wash up and put on perfume and dress in your finest clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor. But don’t let him know you’re there until he has finished eating and drinking. “When he goes to sleep, watch to see where he lies down. Then go and ‘uncover his feet’ and lie down with him.§ He’ll tell you what to do next.” Ruth replied, “I will do as you tell me.” So she went down to the threshing floor just as her mother-in-law told her to do. Boaz ate and drank until he was tipsy. Then he went to sleep against the bundles of grain. When Boaz was asleep, Ruth silently approached, laid down next to him, and “uncovered his feet.” In the middle of the night Boaz awoke and was startled to find a woman lying at his feet. “Who’s there?” Boaz asked. cloak over me, for you are my family redeemer.” “May God bless you, my child,” Boaz replied. “You have shown yourself even more loyal to the family than you did before. You could have sought someone younger, whether rich or poor. Rest easy, my child, I am more than willing to do what you ask. Everyone knows that you are a person of great character and integrity. “But there is a problem: it is true that I am a close relative, but there is another who is even more closely related to you than I am. Stay here tonight, and I’ll go and talk to him in the morning. If he wishes to carry out his obligations as a redeemer-trustee, that is his right. If not, then as God Most High lives, I will marry you! Now rest your head until morning.” So Ruth lay at his feet until the morning, but got up before dawn so that no one else would see that she had been there. Boaz thought it best that no one know she had been to the threshing floor. Before she left, Boaz said, “Bring me your cloak and hold it out.” When she did so, he poured out six measures of grain and lifted it for her to carry. Then Ruth went back to town. So Ruth and Boaz were married. And from their union, YHWH enabled Ruth to conceive and she gave birth to a child. Then the women of the village said to Naomi, “Praised be to God, who has not abandoned you but provided you with yet another redeemer! May the child’s name be remembered through all of Israel — and give you renewed life and support you when you are old! For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and has proven better than seven of your own children could ever have been, has given birth to him.” Naomi took the child into her lap and she became his caretaker. —Priests for Equality. The Inclusive Bible. Psalmody—Psalm 127 If the God of Hosts doesn’t build the house, the builders work in vain; if God Most High doesn’t guard the city, the sentries watch in vain. In vain you get up early and stay up late, sweating to make a living, because God loves us and provides for us even while we sleep. Children are the heritage God gives us; our descendants are our rewards. Having children when you are young is like equipping an archer with wonderful new arrows. Happy are those who have filled their quiver with such arrows! When they argue with their enemies at the city gate, no one will be able to make them feel ashamed. —Priests for Equality. The Inclusive Bible. Reading From the Epistles—Hebrew 9. 24-28 For Christ didn’t go into a holy place made by human hands, a copy of the real one. Christ went into heaven itself and now appears on our behalf in the presence of God. High priests of old went into the Most Holy Place every year with the blood of an animal. But Christ didn’t make a self-offering more than that one time; otherwise, Christ would have had to suffer many times ever since the creation of the world. But now that the Consummation is upon us, Christ has appeared once and for all, to remove sin through self-sacrifice. It is appointed that everyone must die once and then be judged by God. In the same way, Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many, and then will appear a second time — not to deal with sin, but to save those who are waiting for Christ’s appearing. —Priests for Equality. The Inclusive Bible. Reading From the Gospels—Mark 12. 38-44 In his teaching, Jesus said, “Beware of the religious scholars who like to walk about in long robes, be greeted with excessive praise in the market squares, and take the front seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. These are the ones who swallow the property of widows and offer lengthy prayers for the sake of appearance. They will be judged all the more severely.” Jesus sat down opposite the collection box and watched the people putting money in it, and many of the rich put in a great deal. A poor widow came and put in two small coins, the equivalent of a penny. Then Jesus called out to the disciples and said to them, “The truth is, this woman has put in more than all who have contributed to the treasury; for they have put in money from their surplus, but she has put in everything she possessed from the little she had—all she had to live on.” —Priests for Equality. The Inclusive Bible. Call To Healing and Reconciliation Healing-Reconciler, we know our brokenness. We feel the pain of separation and independence. We seek to be made one in you and one with each other. Hear us now as we pray for your wholeness to recreate us. Prayer For Brokenness God of Everlasting Love, we confess that we are short-tempered and short-sighted. We do not have patience for those who cry out for justice because we are focused on ourselves. We do not perceive how our lives are connected to others when all we notice are our own troubles. We fail to remember that our days are short, but You are the one who reigns forever. You remind us time and again that we are connected to each other. You have commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves. You call us into Your work of justice and reparation. God, hold us accountable. Remind us when we are focused only on ourselves instead of the world You called us to participate in. Keep us to Your ways of love, justice, and mercy. Amen. —rev mindi (http://rev-o-lution.org) Words of Assurance There is more than enough love to go around. More than enough resources. More than enough of everything, when we remember we are one body in Christ, when we remember we are all children of God. Know that you are loved and needed, and that you need to love one another. When we love each other, our needs are met in the care of Christ’s community. Go and work to build up the reign of God on earth as it is in heaven, for you are loved, forgiven, and restored. Amen. —rev mindi (http://rev-o-lution.org) Prayer of Intercession Loving God, you never leave us alone, nor fail to watch out for our well-being, restoring us and providing for us. Because you are faithful, we come to you now to make our petitions known to you. We pray for the church and its leaders; may we continue to be living witnesses for you. Silence . . . We pray for the global community; enable us to serve those in need and work for peace. Silence . . . We pray for all those who are cheated and abused; help us be advocates for the powerless, that we might enact godly justice. Silence . . . We pray for those who suffer; make us agents of your restoration and healing. We pray for your creation; make us good stewards, that many generations will know the goodness of your gifts. Silence . . . We remember those who have come to their eternal rest; help us to comfort those who grieve their loss. Silence . . . We lift up to you the prayers we hold secretly, for we know that you know all things. Silence . . . These prayers we lift to you, O God, trusting not only in your hearing them, but also in the fulfilling of your will. Blessed are you and blessed is your Kin-Dom, now and forevermore. —Long, Kim. Feasting on the Word Worship Companion: 2. (altered) Prayer of Thanksgiving and Dedication You call to us, O God, and we shall follow. We thank you that from the stony paths on which we walk, and the bruises of our stumbling, you call us on to solid ground where we can build a faith that stands against the storms of life and offers us protection. We thank you that we can set aside all that holds us back and start again by following when you call, knowing that we walk where you have been before, a path that leads to life in its fullness. You call to us, O God, and we shall follow. —Birch, John. The Act of Prayer: Praying through the Lectionary (altered). Sending Forth Beloved of God, oo out in love to care for strangers. Go out in love to care for kin. Go out in love to care for neighbors. Go out in love to care for yourselves. —Scifres, Mary; Beu, B. J.. The Abingdon Worship Annual 2021 Dismissal with Blessing Blessed by God, be blessing to all. Bless the poor. Bless the hurting. Bless the grieving. Bless the lonely. And, in your blessing know that all is a gift from God. Amen.
		POETRY PEW POETRY Boaz Asleep Victor Hugo Boaz, overcome with weariness, by torchlight made his pallet on the threshing floor where all day he had worked, and now he slept among the bushels of threshed wheat. The old man owned wheatfields and barley, and though he was rich, he was still fair-minded. No filth soured the sweetness of his well. No hot iron of torture whitened in his forge. His beard was silver as a brook in April. He bound sheaves without the strain of hate or envy. He saw gleaners pass, and said, Let handfuls of the fat ears fall to them. The man’s mind, clear of untoward feeling, clothed itself in candor. He wore clean robes. His heaped granaries spilled over always toward the poor, no less than public fountains. Boaz did well by his workers and by kinsmen. He was generous, and moderate. Women held him worthier than younger men, for youth is handsome, but to him in his old age came greatness. An old man, nearing his first source, may find the timelessness beyond times of trouble. And though fire burned in young men’s eyes, to Ruth the eyes of Boaz shone clear light. So, Boaz slept among his heaps of grain in darkness, as among the ruins of summer. Reapers sprawled nearby like fallen troops. And this took place in very ancient times. Then, judges led the tribes of Israel. People wandering with tents as herdsmen saw the footprints left by giants where the earth was soft still from the waters of the flood. As Jacob slept, as Judith slept, so now did Boaz on his threshing floor, while overhead a door came open, and a dream fell from the sky into the old man’s mind: he saw a live oak grow out of his belly far up into the blue; and many people climbed it in a long chain, while a king sat singing at the root, and a god died at the crown. And Boaz murmured, sleeping, in his soul: Could this come forth from me, past eighty? Still, I have no son. I have no wife. The one who shared my bed, Lord! years ago, you took from my house into yours, though she and I are yet one soul–hers half-alive in me and mine half-dead in her. And shall a nation come from this ruined flesh? Shall I now have a child? I might believe it, young, when I could still see mornings rise out of the night as if in triumph. Now, I tremble like a birch in winter. Old, a widower, alone at nightfall, I have turned my soul to face the grave, an old ox turned by thirst down to the river. So said Boaz in his dream, his ecstasy still turning him toward God, eyes blurred with sleep. The cedar does not feel the rose bloom at its root, and Boaz did not feel, at his feet, the young woman. Ruth, a Moabite, had come while Boaz slept, and now lay at his feet, who knows what light from what door in the heavens finding her breast naked, tender to its stirring as his dreams. But Boaz did not know Ruth came to him, and Ruth did not know what God asked of her. The night breathed out a freshness from wild clumps of asphodels over the hills of Judah. The dark was nuptial, and august, and solemn. Hidden angels must have hovered over them, for Ruth saw in the night sky, here and there, a dark blue movement like a wing. The breath of Boaz sleeping mixed with a dull hush of brookwater in the moss. It was the time of year when lilies open and let go their sweetness on the hills. Ruth was dreaming. Boaz slept. The grass looked black. And little bells of sheep were trembling on the verge of silence. Goodness came down clear as starlight into the great calm where the lions go to drink. All slept, all, from Ur to Bethlehem. The stars enameled the deep black of the sky. A narrow crescent in the low dark of the west shone, while Ruth wondered, lying still now, eyes half opened, under twinging of their lids, what god of the eternal summer passing dropped his golden scythe there in that field of stars.
		A BEAD AND A PRAYER CROSS I long to be in your presence, O God. My soul reaches out to you. But, I find that you are already here. I will worship in the holy presence of God-With-Us. INVITATORY O God, open my lips. And my mouth will declare your praise. Make haste, O God, to deliver me; come without delay to help me, O God. Glory be to God on high, and on earth, peace and goodwill to all. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. CRUCIFORM Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires, known, and from whom no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name; through your Beloved and Only Begotten One. Amen. WEEK I—Ruth 3. 1-15, 4. 13-16 ◊ One day, Naomi said to Ruth, “My daughter, it’s my duty to ensure your security and fulfillment, and make sure you are provided for. And Boaz, whose workers you have been following, is our closest relative. Tonight he’ll be winnowing grain on the threshing floor. Wash up and put on perfume and dress in your finest clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor. But don’t let him know you’re there until he has finished eating and drinking. ◊ “When he goes to sleep, watch to see where he lies down. Then go and ‘uncover his feet’ and lie down with him. He’ll tell you what to do next.” ◊ Ruth replied, “I will do as you tell me.” So she went down to the threshing floor just as her mother-in-law told her to do. Boaz ate and drank until he was tipsy. Then he went to sleep against the bundles of grain. When Boaz was asleep, Ruth silently approached, laid down next to him, and “uncovered his feet.” In the middle of the night Boaz awoke and was startled to find a woman lying at his feet. “Who’s there?” Boaz asked. cloak over me, for you are my family redeemer.” ◊ “May God bless you, my child,” Boaz replied. “You have shown yourself even more loyal to the family than you did before. You could have sought someone younger, whether rich or poor. Rest easy, my child, I am more than willing to do what you ask. Everyone knows that you are a person of great character and integrity. “But there is a problem: it is true that I am a close relative, but there is another who is even more closely related to you than I am. ◊ Stay here tonight, and I’ll go and talk to him in the morning. If he wishes to carry out his obligations as a redeemer-trustee, that is his right. If not, then as God Most High lives, I will marry you! Now rest your head until morning.” So Ruth lay at his feet until the morning, but got up before dawn so that no one else would see that she had been there. ◊ Boaz thought it best that no one know she had been to the threshing floor. Before she left, Boaz said, “Bring me your cloak and hold it out.” When she did so, he poured out six measures of grain and lifted it for her to carry. Then Ruth went back to town. ◊ So Ruth and Boaz were married. And from their union, YHWH enabled Ruth to conceive and she gave birth to a child. Then the women of the village said to Naomi, “Praised be to God, who has not abandoned you but provided you with yet another redeemer! May the child’s name be remembered through all of Israel — and give you renewed life and support you when you are old! For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and has proven better than seven of your own children could ever have been, has given birth to him.” Naomi took the child into her lap and she became his caretaker. —Priests for Equality. The Inclusive Bible. CRUCIFORM Giver-of-All-Things, good and beautiful and prefect as they are: grant us the insight to know our portion. Provider-of-All, help us to give of what you have given us, that the portion for each be fulfilled in sharing. For you are the Blessing-of-Life that transforms us from claiming what is ours, to the reality that all we have has come from you. So, reinstill within us not only the desire to share with those who have less, but to live in generosity for all who are in need. Blessed are you and blessing in your Kin-Dom, now and forevermore. Amen. WEEK II—Psalm 127 ◊ If the God of Hosts doesn’t build the house, the builders work in vain . . . ◊ . . . if God Most High doesn’t guard the city, the sentries watch in vain. ◊ In vain you get up early and stay up late, sweating to make a living, because God loves us and provides for us even while we sleep. ◊ Children are the heritage God gives us; our descendants are our rewards. ◊ Having children when you are young is like equipping an archer with wonderful new arrows. ◊ Happy are those who have filled their quiver with such arrows! ◊ When they argue with their enemies at the city gate, no one will be able to make them feel ashamed. —Priests for Equality. The Inclusive Bible. CRUCIFORM Call To Healing and Reconciliation Healing-Reconciler, we know our brokenness. We feel the pain of separation and independence. We seek to be made one in you and one with each other. Hear us now as we pray for your wholeness to recreate us. Prayer For Brokenness God of Everlasting Love, we confess that we are short-tempered and short-sighted. We do not have patience for those who cry out for justice because we are focused on ourselves. We do not perceive how our lives are connected to others when all we notice are our own troubles. We fail to remember that our days are short, but You are the one who reigns forever. You remind us time and again that we are connected to each other. You have commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves. You call us into Your work of justice and reparation. God, hold us accountable. Remind us when we are focused only on ourselves instead of the world You called us to participate in. Keep us to Your ways of love, justice, and mercy. Amen. Words of Assurance There is more than enough love to go around. More than enough resources. More than enough of everything, when we remember we are one body in Christ, when we remember we are all children of God. Know that you are loved and needed, and that you need to love one another. When we love each other, our needs are met in the care of Christ’s community. Go and work to build up the reign of God on earth as it is in heaven, for you are loved, forgiven, and restored. —rev mindi (http://rev-o-lution.org) WEEK III—Hebrew 9. 24-28 ◊ For Christ didn’t go into a holy place made by human hands, a copy of the real one. Christ went into heaven itself and now appears on our behalf in the presence of God. ◊ High priests of old went into the Most Holy Place every year with the blood of an animal. ◊ But Christ didn’t make a self-offering more than that one time; otherwise, Christ would have had to suffer many times ever since the creation of the world. ◊ But now that the Consummation is upon us, Christ has appeared once and for all, to remove sin through self-sacrifice. ◊ It is appointed that everyone must die once and then be judged by God. ◊ It is appointed that everyone must die once and then be judged by God. ◊ In the same way, Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many, and then will appear a second time — not to deal with sin, but to save those who are waiting for Christ’s appearing. —Priests for Equality. The Inclusive Bible. CRUCIFORM Loving God, you never leave us alone, nor fail to watch out for our well-being, restoring us and providing for us. Because you are faithful, we come to you now to make our petitions known to you. We pray for the church and its leaders; may we continue to be living witnesses for you. Silence . . . We pray for the global community; enable us to serve those in need and work for peace. Silence . . . We pray for all those who are cheated and abused; help us be advocates for the powerless, that we might enact godly justice. Silence . . . We pray for those who suffer; make us agents of your restoration and healing. We pray for your creation; make us good stewards, that many generations will know the goodness of your gifts. Silence . . . We remember those who have come to their eternal rest; help us to comfort those who grieve their loss. Silence . . . We lift up to you the prayers we hold secretly, for we know that you know all things. Silence . . . These prayers we lift to you, O God, trusting not only in your hearing them, but also in the fulfilling of your will. Blessed are you and blessed is your Kin-Dom, now and forevermore. —Long, Kim. Feasting on the Word Worship Companion: 2. (altered) WEEK IV—Mark 12. 38-44 ◊ In his teaching, Jesus said, “Beware of the religious scholars who like to walk about in long robes, be greeted with excessive praise in the market squares, and take the front seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. ◊ These are the ones who swallow the property of widows and offer lengthy prayers for the sake of appearance. ◊ They will be judged all the more severely.” ◊ Jesus sat down opposite the collection box and watched the people putting money in it, and many of the rich put in a great deal. ◊ A poor widow came and put in two small coins, the equivalent of a penny. ◊ hTen Jesus called out to the disciples and said to them, “The truth is, this woman has put in more than all who have contributed to the treasury; ◊ for they have put in money from their surplus, but she has put in everything she possessed from the little she had—all she had to live on.” —Priests for Equality. The Inclusive Bible. CRUCIFORM You call to us, O God, and we shall follow. We thank you that from the stony paths on which we walk, and the bruises of our stumbling, you call us on to solid ground where we can build a faith that stands against the storms of life and offers us protection. We thank you that we can set aside all that holds us back and start again by following when you call, knowing that we walk where you have been before, a path that leads to life in its fullness. You call to us, O God, and we shall follow. —Birch, John. The Act of Prayer: Praying through the Lectionary (altered). INVITATORY Beloved of God, oo out in love to care for strangers. Go out in love to care for kin. Go out in love to care for neighbors. Go out in love to care for yourselves. —Scifres, Mary; Beu, B. J.. The Abingdon Worship Annual 2021 CROSS Blessed by God, be blessing to all. Bless the poor. Bless the hurting. Bless the grieving. Bless the lonely. And, in your blessing know that all is a gift from God. Amen.