Gathering Our Spirit with God's Spirit

The cross in the pond is still in the middle of the Living Room. Now there’s a chair on the bridge in front of it, with lights shining down on the cross. Brian Oakley sits in the chair the whole worship gathering. Around it are cardboard boxes, tables, computers, brooms, a blanket. As the worship gathering progresses, Brian slowly creates a cage/box for himself and seals it off, leaving a little room to see out, but not much. Then during Wendy's song at the end, he begins to disassemble it and open up. 

All readings are on the screen. Background for the Prufrock slides might include dusty city streets, etc. 

• “Once in a Lifetime” by Talking Heads plays
• A Journeyer steps up to light the lamp and another rings the bell
• Rick (E) and Leslie (L) make announcements

Worshiping with Our Children

• A Journeyer leads our children in talking about how sometimes we feel sad or disconnected from God, but that doesn’t mean God isn’t at work. God is always with us, and we can find God many ways – say prayers, listen and breathe, find good friends, take a walk. God is all around. 

Welcome and Breathe

• "How Beavers Build a Lodge" video plays - stop video at 2 mins in
• Rick welcomes, has us breathe...

God’s Spirit and Our Spirit

• A Journeyer reads Reading One [all readings happen back by the sound board]

Adam and Eve said, “I am hiding from you, God.”

A man Jesus invited to follow him said,  “I will follow you, Jesus, but only after I've finished with my family’s business affairs.”

• Brian Oakley comes to chair
• Brian reads excerpts from T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” while Rick comments 
• A Journeyer reads Reading Two from back by sound board

The prophet Jonah said, “God, I will serve you but don’t send me to that city. It’s dangerous.”

The warrior Gideon said, “Who, God – me? I can't be a great warrior; I’m a nobody.”

• Wendy Colonna talks about Prufrock, sings a song – up front – a sad/meditative song
• A Journeyer read Reading Three from back by sound board

A rich young man said to Jesus, “I can't follow you, Jesus – I want to keep my money and prestige.”

King David said, “I was conceived to be sinful and there is nothing I can do to regain your acceptance, God.”

Giving -- To Help God Do God's Work in This World  

• A Journeyer reads from the Jewish scriptures, the book called Ecclesiastes, “The Teacher,” from back by sound board

Nothingness, nothingness. That’s all there is. Nothingness. There isn’t anything new, and there isn’t any point. What do people gain from all the hard work they do to make a living? People born, people die. The sun comes up, and the sun goes down, and comes back around to where it’ll come up again. Everything is exhausting. Nothing I can see gives me any pleasure. Someone says, “Here’s something new!” and I listen – and it’s the same thing over again. Nobody even remembers the generation before them. And nobody will remember us either. 

• The same reader says an offering prayer
• Wendy Colonna, up front, sings a song as the ushers pass the baskets and then take them to the cross

Telling The Story and Our Story

• A Journeyer reads Reading Five from back by sound board

Moses said, “Don’t send me, God; I don’t speak well. I’m scared. I’m a criminal.”

A group of Jesus’ followers told him, as they were leaving, “I can't stand to hear the things you're teaching us; it’s too hard.”

• Rick talks

Go Out to Serve with Courage and Grace

• Wendy sings “Right Where I Belong” while Brian removes parts of the dam slowly, looks around, looks at cross
• A Journeyer, up front now, reads from what the apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome -- and to us:

I don’t consider the sufferings I go through now to be anything compared to the beauty and power that God is slowly unveiling in front of me. God’s Spirit helps us when we feel weak; God, who searches our hearts, knows what is inside us. And if God is for us, can anyone stand against us and win? God has given us everything, without holding back any good thing. What can separate us from the love of Christ? Can difficulty, or panic, or being attacked, or poverty, or danger? 

And all of Journey said:

No. In everything, in the midst of everything, in every difficult moment, we rise up. We win. We conquer. Nothing – not death, not daily living, not the powers of this world, not anything around us, not height, not depth, nothing in all creation – nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Amen. 

• The same reader dismisses us 
• “Once in a Lifetime” by Talking Heads plays again as folks depart