Listening to the Sea

I'm sharing excepts from our September 8, 2013 worship service in lieu of a sermon. Our guest speaker was Mark Berte, Executive Director of Alabama Coastal Foundation: www.joinacf.org

*CHIMING THE HOUR

*LIGHTING THE CHRIST CANDLE

*PROCESSIONAL SONG              “Alleluia”                   p. 9 in songbook

(Signs of the Sea are placed on the altar.)

WELCOME                                                                                                                

CALL TO WORSHIP         from Psalm 104

Voice 1: ¹Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty, ²wrapped in light as with a garment. You stretch out the heavens like a tent,  ³you set the beams of your chambers on the waters, you make the clouds your chariot, you ride on the wings of the wind.

ALL:     Bless the Lord.

Voice 2:  ⁵You set the earth on its foundations, so that it shall never be shaken. ⁶You

cover it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. ⁷At your rebuke they flee; at the sound of your thunder they take to flight. ⁸They rose up to the mountains, ran down to the valleys to the place that you appointed for them.

ALL:     Bless the Lord.

Voice 3: ¹³From your lofty abode you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work. ¹⁴You cause the grass to grow for the cattle, and plants for people to use, to bring forth food from the earth, ¹⁵and wine to gladden the human heart, oil to make the face shine, and bread to strengthen the human heart.

ALL:     Bless the Lord

Voice 4: ²⁵Yonder is the sea, great and wide, creeping things innumerable are there, living things both small and great. ²⁶There go the ships, and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it. ²⁷These all look to you to give them their food in due season; ²⁸when you give to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.

ALL:     ³¹May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works.

LISTENING TO THE SEA

PRAYERS OF THE SEA      “Bless the Lord”   p. 19 in songbook

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE       “Lord of Life”        p. 53 in songbook

            We hold these creatures in the Light of God’s Love . . .

                        SUNG RESPONSE: “Lord of Life, We Come to You” p. 53

            We hold these places and situations in the Light of God’s Love . . .

                        SUNG RESPONSE: “Lord of Life, We Come to You” p. 53

            We hold these people in the Light of God’s Love . . .

                        SUNG RESPONSE: “Lord of Life, We Come to You” p. 53

HEBREW BIBLE READING              Deuteronomy 30: 15-20                                       

See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. ¹⁶If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. ¹⁷But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, ¹⁸I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. ¹⁹I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, ²⁰loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

QUESTIONS FOR SILENT REFLECTION AND PRAYER

What are ways we can “choose life” by caring for the coastlands we have “entered to possess”?  In what sense might heaven and earth “witness against” us if we harm our waters?  What “other gods” are we serving when we are careless with creation?

OFFERTORY PRAYER                                                                                                       

God, our Creator, through your love you have given us gifts to share. May we give our offerings as an expression of our deep thanks and our concern for all in need, including our fellow creatures on planet Earth.   Amen

OFFERTORY

HYMN                  “Touch the Earth Lightly”                     TENDERNESS

Touch the earth lightly, use the earth gently, nourish the life of the world in our care:

Gift of great wonder, ours to surrender, trust for the children tomorrow will bear.

We who endanger, who create hunger, agents of death for all creatures that live,

We who would foster clouds of disaster—God of our planet, forestall and forgive.

Let there be greening, birth from the burning, water that blesses, and air that is sweet,

Health in God’s garden, hope in God’s children, regeneration that peace will complete.

God of all living, God of all loving, God of the seedling, the snow, and the sun,

Teach us, deflect us, Christ reconnect us, using us gently, and making us one.

Words: Shirley Erena Murray © 1992. Hope Publishing Co.  All rights reserved.  Reprinted under OneLicense.net A-718273

MESSAGE           “Serve the Earth for Its Own Sake”                        

*PASSING THE PEACE

INVITATION TO THE TABLE

SHARING GOD’S GOOD GIFTS: the bread of life, the cup of joy, and signs from the sea

PRAYER

BENEDICTION  “The Peace of the Earth” p. 78-79 in songbook