The United Church of Gainesville – October 25, 2020
If you would like to watch the service as a playlist, please click here and you will be directed to our YouTube page. If you prefer, you may click on the individual links below at your own pace.
Welcome to Worship, Enlistment Message, Special Music, and Prayers
Welcome to Worship – Rev. Talia Raymond
Message from the Enlistment Team
Special Music – “Trees”, words by Joyce Kilmer, music by Zach Neece, performed by the Bodine Chorale at UCG, videography by Holden Martin
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
Prayers
Time with Children – Tim Martin
Join us at United Tribes Activity Time at 10am!
Reading, Sermon, and Responsive Song
Reading – Rev. Andy Bachmann
The 20th century pastor and Christian ethicist, Reinhold Niebuhr, once wrote a slim volume called The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness: A Vindication of Democracy and a Critique of Its Traditional Defenders. In it, he reflects on this commandment of Jesus to his disciples: Be wise as serpents, and innocent as doves. He also offers this bit of cogent analysis:
Humanity’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but humanity’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.
Sermon – “Such a Time as This,” Rev. Bromleigh McCleneghan
On the book of Esther, including Esther 4:12-17
When they told Mordecai what Esther had said, Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, ‘Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 1For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.’
Then Esther said in reply to Mordecai, ‘Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. After that I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.’
Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.
The Keep Going Song, by the Bengsons, recording shared with permission
You can purchase the Bengson’s music at a host of online retailers; visit their website at bengsons.com.
With gratitude to all the folx who sent in photos for our Keep Going montage.
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Here are the UCG friends celebrating a birthday this week.
Happy Birthday!
Leigh Baker 10/26
Jessica Elkins 10/26
Lynda Dillon 10/26
Joyce Ellifritt 10/27
Jahzara Winchester 10/27
Benjamin Hackett 10/28
Ryan Kruse 10/28
Debbi Dykes-Howe 10/29
Koa Larson 10/30
David Thaler 10/30
Carla Summers 10/31
Sunday Schedule
Join Us!
11:15am – Sunday Seminar – “The Beatitudes,” with Daniel Webster – How much do you remember about the Beatitudes? Can you recount who is blessed? Tune to this session and have your cobwebs swept away. The Beatitudes are a foundation of Christian ethics and deserve to be the fundamental basis of our every thought, but we all need this refresher course. It’s time for a booster shot everybody. Click here to join. Meeting ID: 829 6457 0385 Passcode: UCG
Please also join us at 12:30pm for Congregational Coffee Hour. Bromleigh will be available on our Zoom account to talk and share. She’ll be prepared to talk about the online worship experience, but with no set agenda other than hoping to see your faces and have a chance to touch base. Join here. Meeting ID: 875 0792 2974 Passcode: UCG
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