Proper 26B/Ordinary 31B/Pentecost 24

		Proper 26B/Ordinary 31B/Pentecost 24 October 31, 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 Prepartion O God, who calls us to love — to love with all we are and all we have; move within our heart, mind, and spirit, that we would sense your presence here and your love that fills us to overflowing. Grant us the strength you provide to be courageous in our loving, and generous in our living. [a brief silence to be kept] Thank you, God, you are most worthy of our praise. Call To Worship—Psalm 6.4; 31.16; 40.11; 32.22; 11.5 Turn, O God, save my life; deliver me for the sake of your steadfast love. Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your steadfast love. Do not, O God, withhold your mercy from me; let your steadfast love and your faithfulness keep me safe forever. Let your steadfast love, O God, be upon us, even as we hope in you. For God is good; God's steadfast love endures forever, and God's faithfulness to all generations. Opening Prayer God of all seasons, God of all time, God of all words, we come. We come as we are: out of time, out of sorts, out of reason, yet seeking time to be, reasons to be and most of all to be calm in Your presence, ready to listen, and know, and follow and obey. Holy God, You gave us guidance. In all of history Your guidance has been there: muddled and devalued by words like command and order, when what You seek of us is desire, love, compassion, hope. Forgive us when our lives are full of commandments and rules and bereft of compassion and love. Forgive us when the word becomes more than the Word, when our determination to adhere to the word belies the Spirit of joy and hope. Show us, gently, humbly, lightly, softly how to follow, how to be guided into obedience and teach us acceptance of Your love, Your forgiveness and Your compassion. Amen. —from the Spill The Beans Group, Church of Scotland The Gloria Glory to God Most High, and peace be to all. O, Blessed and Holy God, You are the author of love, and you make love possible. What more would we ask for? Amen. Prayer Of the Day Your commandments, Loving God, make known to us the purpose and reason of our life. Your call to love You and love each other, is not a law to keep from breaking. Your words are an invitation to the life for which we were created. Your love is not an obligation, but a gift. May we be those who gift others with this very precious, all encompassing love. Trisagion Holy One, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal God: may your love be with us. Holy One, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal God: may your love live in us. Holy One, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal God: may your love become our love. Teach us how to love. Prayer For Illumination Merciful One, some read your word from a page because they are able to see it. Others listen to your word, spoken aloud, because they are able to hear it. Still others receive your word as a series of bumps and dots on a page, because they are able to touch it. What we ask of you today, Holy One, is that your word touch us — however we are to receive it. Inscribe it on our hearts and change us through your word. In the name of your Only-Begotten and Beloved-One, our Word made flesh. Amen. Reading From the Hebrew Scriptures Deuteronomy 6. 1-9 Here, then, are the commands, statutes and decrees which I will teach you. Obey them, so that you may enter into and occupy the land which YHWH, the God of your ancestors, gives to you. If you, and your children, and their children revere YHWH, your God, all the days of your life, and if you keep the laws and commandments which I lay before you, you will have a long life. Listen then, Israel, and observe carefully what will bring you prosperity and will increase your numbers greatly, as YHWH, the God of your ancestors, has promised, giving to you a land that flows with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel: YHWH, our God, YHWH is One! You are to love YHWH, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Let these words that I command you today be written in your heart. Teach them diligently to your children, and repeat them constantly— when you are at home, when you are walking down a road, when you lie down at night and when you get up in the morning.Tie them on your hand as a reminder; wear them as a circlet on your forehead; write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Priests for Equality. The Inclusive Bible. Psalmody Psalm 119. 1-8 Happiness comes to those whose way is blameless, who walk in your Law, YHWH. Happiness comes to those who keep your decrees, and seek you with all their heart, and do no wrong, but walk in your ways. You have commanded that your precepts be kept diligently—if only I were more faithful in keeping your statutes! Then I wouldn’t feel so ashamed when I look at all your commands. I will thank you with an upright heart, when I truly learn to be as just as you want me to be. I will obey your statutes; do not utterly forsake me. Priests for Equality. The Inclusive Bible. Reading From the Epistles Hebrews 9. 11-15 But Christ, who came as high priest of the good things which came to be, entered once and for all into the greater and more perfect tabernacle, the one made not by human hands, that is, not belonging to this creation. It wasn’t with the blood of goats and calves, but with our Savior’s own blood that Christ entered the holy place, and once and for all obtained eternal redemption. For if the sprinkling of the blood of goats and bulls and a heifer’s ashes can sanctify those who are defiled so that their flesh is cleansed, how much more will the blood of Christ, a perfect self-sacrifice to God through the eternal Spirit, cleanse our consciences from dead works, to worship the living God! Christ is the mediator of a new Covenant, so that the people who were called by God may receive the eternal inheritance that was promised. This happens because a death has taken place which cancels the sins committed under the first Covenant. Priests for Equality. The Inclusive Bible. Reading From the Gospels Mark 12. 28-34 One of the religious scholars who had listened to them debating and had observed how well Jesus had answered them, now came up and put a question to him: “Which is the foremost of all the commandments?” Jesus replied, “This is the foremost: ‘Hear, O Israel, God, our God, is one. You must love the Most High God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” The scholar said to Jesus, “Well spoken, Teacher! What you have said is true: the Most High is one and there is no other. To love God with all your heart, with all your understanding and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself—this is far more important than any burnt offering or sacrifice.” Jesus, seeing how wisely this scholar had spoken, said, “You are not far from the [Kin-Dom] of God.” And after that no one dared to question Jesus any more. Priests for Equality. The Inclusive Bible. Call To Healing and Recociliation God has created us, God is redeeming us, and God will sustain us that we would have life in its fullness, life that is even beyond our imagination and understanding. Why would we settle for less? Let us turn to God and to one another, seeking life in abundant wellness and perfect wholeness. Prayer For Healing and Reconciliation You command us to love, O God, and to love fully. Our love is to be with all we are, and all we have. We feel love in our hearts, but in our whole heart there resides hatred and apathy. Give us a heart that resolves those inner conflicts and knows but the love that overcomes our bias. We think about love often as our minds wander and process what love is. We think we know, but wisdom reminds us that love is a way of life. Give us minds that not only think, but that in courage and imagination we might think in ways of justice, kindness, and humbleness. Our souls feast upon love, it is their very life-breath. Yet, we pine within making our being love more needed than giving love. Give us spirits that stoke the fires in our core to love with spendthrift abandon, making still in equity our need for love with our need to love. Our strength is compromised, waning and waxing from life challenge to life challenge. Some days we are more aware of exhaustion than rest and restoration. Give us the ability to balance life in ways where our compassion is not in fatigue, and our mercy is not in reluctance. Hear our prayer, O Loving-One, Source-of-Life and Sovereign-Reconciler, make us anew. You command us to love not just You, O God, but everyone. You call us to love others even as you love us. O Love-Bearer, love is not easy . . . especially when the person you need us to love is not only unlikeable, but downright scorned and despicable. How are we to love those those who harm us, who do us wrong, and disagree with us even in the crucible of core foundations that we cherish without wavering? Be our strength, O God, that we would come to the place where we find our true essence is not unlike the respect and dignity of all who have been made in your image. May our strength be in our inclusion and ability to live life in a way that not only sees you in each person, but responds to every person as if they are yours . . . because, they are. Hear our prayer, O Holy One, Source-of-Justice, Soure-of-Peace, heal us and make us whole, for the sake of your Kin-Dom wherein we are both blessed and blessing. For the Kin-Dom, the power, and the glory be yours now and forevermore. Amen. Words Of Assurance and Blessing Hear the word of God for this season and all seasons: "Do not be afraid! I will never leave you or forsake you." Know that our God who began a good work in us is able to complete it. As we open ourselves to the Spirit of God, may we see more fully the wonder of God already at work in us. And so it is. Amen. Credo—from I Corinthians 13 We believe in love. Love is patient; love is kind. Love is not jealous, it does not put on airs, and it is not snobbish; it is never rude or self-seeking; it is not prone to anger, nor does it brood over injuries. Love doesn’t rejoice in what is wrong, but rejoices in the truth. There is no limit to love’s forbearance, to its trust, its hope, its power to endure. Love never fails. There are, in the end, three things that last: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. Prayer Of Intercession We pray for the Church: that we may sincerely seek to love both God and others so that the reign of God may draw near . . . For continuing conversion of heart: that we may reverence God as the sole center of our life and forsake all idols and allurements that entice us away from God . . . For all who are seeking God: that they may experience a deep and loving relationship with God and come to know that they are a beloved child of God . . . For all disciples: that the Spirit will guide and empower us to pour our lives out in loving service to others, particularly those with whom we find it hard to relate . . . For all God's servants: that those who share "their" faith may faithfully lead others to God through and a nurturing community life . . . For the poor, the sick, and the homebound: that we may generously assist them and offer encouragement and support to them . . . For all who care for the sick and homebound: that God will help them to provide their assistance with love and ever renew their strength . . . For all new and expectant parents: that God will give them the wisdom to be good parents who nurture their children with love and faith . . . For all who are discerning their direction in life: that God will inspire all who are making vocational decisions and give them the courage to follow God's invitation . . . For all who are suffering: that God will guide those living in areas of war to safety, open the channels of food for those in famine, and send your healing Spirit to all who have been tortured or abused . . . For the gift of Peace: that God will inspire dialogue that will reduce arms races and bring an end to conflicts and terrorism . . . For all who are grieving: that they may know God’s life-giving presence with them today . . . For safety: that God will protect all young people who participate in Halloween activities and help them remember the holy ones whom they are celebrating For all who are held unjustly, particularly missionaries: that God will free them, help them to give faithful witness to Christ, and reunite them with their families . . . For all who have died, particularly our family and friends who have recently died: that they may live in the light and peace of God's presence forever . . . —Joe Milner, St. Francis Xavier College Church, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO Prayer of Thanksgiving and Dedication Ever-Present, Always-Loving One: you created a people of every race, every ethnicity, every gender, and named each "good." Into one tapestry have you woven us — in diversity of color and texture and shape, you have made it beautiful. In you, O Mystery-Divine, we are wooed to a love that is all-inclusive, all-compassionate, all-encompassing, and all-merciful. Move within each of us, and through each of us, to kindle the flame of faith, hope, love, peace, and jusgtice. May we be our true selves living both as who we are, and whose we are. For we long to be the people you created and reconciled us to be. Blessed are you and blessed is your Realm of Shalom. Sending Forth Go forth, following as the Holy Spirit leads you, moving in love and compassion, pursuing justice and mercy, and trusting in the God of peace. For the Source of all life and love is as close as your very breath. Breathe deeply. —https://www.ucc.org/worship-way/ Dismissal With Blessing In all things, be the blessing that others need. For you are blessed to be a blessing. You are loved to be loving. You are sent by God. Amen.
		POETRY PEW POETRY Song of Solomon Chapter 5. 2-6 NSRV I slept, but my heart was awake. Listen! my beloved is knocking. “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one; for my head is wet with dew, my locks with the drops of the night.” I had put off my garment; how could I put it on again? I had bathed my feet; how could I soil them? My beloved thrust his hand into the opening, and my inmost being yearned for him. I arose to open to my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, upon the handles of the bolt. I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and was gone. My soul failed me when he spoke. I sought him, but did not find him; I called him, but he gave no answer. Solomon uses the love of human lovers to reflect God's love of us and in this particular poem how God comes seeking us but we hesitate. A knock upon the door of our hearts God yearns to be with us in an intimacy that is deep and wide. Yet, we wait, we pause, if but for a second and the opportunity is no more. But, not to worry . . . in every second, God's love comes again and again.
		A BEAD AND A PRAYER CROSS O God, who calls us to love — to love with all we are and all we have; move within our heart, mind, and spirit, that we would sense your presence here and your love that fills us to overflowing. Grant us the strength you provide to be courageous in our loving, and generous in our living. [a brief silence to be kept] Thank you, God, you are most worthy of our praise. INVITATORY—Psalm 6.4; 31.16; 40.11; 32.22; 11.5 Turn, O God, save my life; deliver me for the sake of your steadfast love. Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your steadfast love. Do not, O God, withhold your mercy from me; let your steadfast love and your faithfulness keep me safe forever. Let your steadfast love, O God, be upon us, even as we hope in you. For God is good; God's steadfast love endures forever, and God's faithfulness to all generations. CRUCIFORM God of all seasons, God of all time, God of all words, we come. We come as we are: out of time, out of sorts, out of reason, yet seeking time to be, reasons to be and most of all to be calm in Your presence, ready to listen, and know, and follow and obey. Holy God, You gave us guidance. In all of history Your guidance has been there: muddled and devalued by words like command and order, when what You seek of us is desire, love, compassion, hope. Forgive us when our lives are full of commandments and rules and bereft of compassion and love. Forgive us when the word becomes more than the Word, when our determination to adhere to the word belies the Spirit of joy and hope. Show us, gently, humbly, lightly, softly how to follow, how to be guided into obedience and teach us acceptance of Your love, Your forgiveness and Your compassion. Amen. —from the Spill The Beans Group, Church of Scotland WEEK I—Deuteronomy 6. 1-9 ◄ Here, then, are the commands, statutes and decrees which I will teach you. Obey them, so that you may enter into and occupy the land which YHWH, the God of your ancestors, gives to you. ◄ If you, and your children, and their children revere YHWH, your God, all the days of your life, and if you keep the laws and commandments which I lay before you, you will have a long life. ◄ Listen then, Israel, and observe carefully what will bring you prosperity and will increase your numbers greatly, as YHWH, the God of your ancestors, has promised, giving to you a land that flows with milk and honey. ◄ Hear, O Israel: YHWH, our God, YHWH is One! You are to love YHWH, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. ◄ Let these words that I command you today be written in your heart. ◄ Teach them diligently to your children, and repeat them constantly— when you are at home, when you are walking down a road, when you lie down at night and when you get up in the morning. ◄Tie them on your hand as a reminder; wear them as a circlet on your forehead; write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. —Priests for Equality. The Inclusive Bible. CRUCIFORM Your commandments, Loving God, make known to us the purpose and reason of our life. Your call to love You and love each other, is not a law to keep from breaking. Your words are an invitation to the life for which we were created. Your love is not an obligation, but a gift. May we be those who gift others with this very precious, all encompassing love. [a brief silence to be kept] Holy One, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal God: may your love be with us. Holy One, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal God: may your love live in us. Holy One, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal God: may your love become our love. Teach us how to love. WEEK II—Psalm 119. 1-8 ◄ Happiness comes to those whose way is blameless, who walk in your Law, O GOD. ◄ Happiness comes to those who keep your decrees, and seek you with all their heart, and do no wrong, but walk in your ways. ◄ You have commanded that your precepts be kept diligently— ◄ if only I were more faithful in keeping your statutes! ◄ Then I wouldn’t feel so ashamed when I look at all your commands. ◄ I will thank you with an upright heart, when I truly learn to be as just as you want me to be. ◄ I will obey your statutes; do not utterly forsake me. —Priests for Equality. The Inclusive Bible. CRUCIFORM You command us to love, O God, and to love fully. Our love is to be with all we are, and all we have. We feel love in our hearts, but in our whole heart there resides hatred and apathy. Give us a heart that resolves those inner conflicts and knows but the love that overcomes our bias. We think about love often as our minds wander and process what love is. We think we know, but wisdom reminds us that love is a way of life. Give us minds that not only think, but that in courage and imagination we might think in ways of justice, kindness, and humbleness. Our souls feast upon love, it is their very life-breath. Yet, we pine within making our being love more needed than giving love. Give us spirits that stoke the fires in our core to love with spendthrift abandon, making still in equity our need for love with our need to love. Our strength is compromised, waning and waxing from life challenge to life challenge. Some days we are more aware of exhaustion than rest and restoration. Give us the ability to balance life in ways where our compassion is not in fatigue, and our mercy is not in reluctance. WEEK III—Hebrews 9. 11-15 ◄ Christ, who came as high priest of the good things which came to be, entered once and for all into the greater and more perfect tabernacle, ◄ the one made not by human hands, that is, not belonging to this creation. ◄ It wasn’t with the blood of goats and calves, but with our Savior’s own blood that Christ entered the holy place, and once and for all obtained eternal redemption. ◄ For if the sprinkling of the blood of goats and bulls and a heifer’s ashes can sanctify those who are defiled so that their flesh is cleansed, ◄ how much more will the blood of Christ, a perfect self-sacrifice to God through the eternal Spirit, cleanse our consciences from dead works, to worship the living God! ◄ Christ is the mediator of a new Covenant, so that the people who were called by God may receive the eternal inheritance that was promised. ◄ This happens because a death has taken place which cancels the sins committed under the first Covenant. —Priests for Equality. The Inclusive Bible. CRUCIFORM Hear our prayer, O Loving-One, Source-of-Life and Sovereign-Reconciler, make us anew. You command us to love not just You, O God, but everyone. You call us to love others even as you love us. O Love-Bearer, love is not easy . . . especially when the person you need us to love is not only unlikeable, but downright scorned and despicable. How are we to love those those who harm us, who do us wrong, and disagree with us even in the crucible of core foundations . . . the things we cherish without wavering? Be our strength, O God, that we would come to the place where we find our true essence is not unlike the respect and dignity of all who have been made in your image. May our strength be in our inclusion and ability to live life in a way that not only sees you in each person, but responds to every person as if they are yours . . . because, they are. Hear our prayer, O Holy One, Source-of-Justice, Soure-of-Peace, heal us and make us whole, for the sake of your Kin-Dom wherein we are both blessed and blessing. For the Kin-Dom, the power, and the glory be yours now and forevermore. Amen. WEEK IV—Mark 12. 28-34 ◄ One of the religious scholars who had listened to them debating and had observed how well Jesus had answered them, now came up and put a question to him: “Which is the foremost of all the commandments?” ◄ Jesus replied, “This is the foremost: ‘Hear, O Israel, God, our God, is one. ◄ You must love the Most High God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ◄ The second is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” ◄ The scholar said to Jesus, “Well spoken, Teacher! What you have said is true: the Most High is one and there is no other. ◄ To love God with all your heart, with all your understanding and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself—this is far more important than any burnt offering or sacrifice.” ◄ Jesus, seeing how wisely this scholar had spoken, said, “You are not far from the [Kin-Dom] of God.” ◄ And after that no one dared to question Jesus any more. —Priests for Equality. The Inclusive Bible. CRUCIFORM Ever-Present, Always-Loving One: you created a people of every race, every ethnicity, every gender, and named each "good." Into one tapestry have you woven us — in diversity of color and texture and shape, you have made it beautiful. In you, O Mystery-Divine, we are wooed to a love that is all-inclusive, all-compassionate, all-encompassing, and all-merciful. Move within each of us, and through each of us, to kindle the flame of faith, hope, love, peace, and jusgtice. May we be our true selves living both as who we are, and whose we are. For we long to be the people you created and reconciled us to be. Blessed are you and blessed is your Realm of Shalom. INVITATORY Go forth, following as the Holy Spirit leads you, moving in love and compassion, pursuing justice and mercy, and trusting in the God of peace. For the Source of all life and love is as close as your very breath. Breathe deeply. ——https://www.ucc.org/worship-way/ CROSS In all things, be the blessing that others need. For you are blessed to be a blessing. You are loved to be loving. You are sent by God. Amen.