Releasing The Clenched Fists!

Order of Worship

25 August 2024

WELCOME TO SHADOW ROCK UCC!

Prelude ~

Shared by Travis Meyers

WELCOME! Thanks for making Shadow Rock your chosen

spiritual family.

GATHERING IN THE SPIRIT’S PRESENCE

Centering Affirmation: Is my heart more like a closed fist or an open hand.

Welcome and Announcements

Led by Pastor Ken

Opening Words

One: Who are we and what are we called to do?

All: We are the sensitive and responsive ones

called to create a world where every person

is radically affirmed and barriers between

people become bridges of inclusion, justice,

and spirituality.

Call to Worship and Singing Our Faith

Led by Barbara Zaborowski

All: We enter the liĴle circle of each other’s arms,

And the larger circle of lovers,

whose hands are joined in a dance,

One: And the larger circle of all creatures,

passing in and out of life, who move also in a

dance,

All: To a music so subtle and vast that no ear hears it,

except in fragments. (Wendell Berry)

One: Let us celebrate the richness and diversity of life.



Singing Our Faith

~ Dance by Jim Manley

Led by Travis Meyers

1. Dance in the moon-light and dance in the sun,

Dance in your sorrow and dance in your fun.

Dance in your discos and dance in your briefs,

Dance in your doubtings and dance your beliefs,

And we’ll dance, dance, dance, come dancing with me,

A - ha, And we’ll dance, dance, dance,

come dancing with me.

2. Dance with your baby, your dog or your boss,

Dance to the manger and dance to the cross.

Dance at the graveside and dance at the feast,

Dance with the midwives and the other high priests.

Chorus

3. Dance with the debs with the sweat on their palms,

Dance where it’s hardest: homecomings and proms.

Did somebody say that you’d never be queen,

Send them our way and we’ll paint their nose green...

Chorus

4. Tall people are gorgeous and short ones are neat,

Skinny or bulgy, each body’s a treat...

So dance as you are you were made by the One

Who calls you to be what you’ve only begun...

Chorus

5. Dance with your elbows and dance with your hands,

Dance with your heart and your endocrine glands.

Make funny faces go out of your minds,

Find someone near you and bump your behinds...

Chorus

6. Dance up from childhood and into your teens,

Dance thru your screw-ups and dance in your dreams.

Come join the dancing, you make it complete,

We’ll hug you and kiss you and step on your feet...

Chorus



Centering Prayer ~

Led by Rev. Ken Heintzelman

Special Music for Thinking of You Cards

Shared by Travis Meyers

In the pew racks are cards with the title “Thinking Of You”. Please use these cards to write a note to someone so they know they are remembered and cared for. Put the card in the offering plate when it comes by and the church office will forward the cards to the person you addressed in the card. This was one of the elements of our time together you lifted up as important for all of us. Thank you! 

Invitation to Rededicate Ourselves to The More of Life Shared by Barbara Zaborowski

We prepare ourselves for experiencing the act of giving of ourselves and our offerings with the reading of this reflection.

Reflection ~ "The House of Belonging" by David Whyte

Shared by Barbara Zaborowski

I awoke this morning in the golden light turning this way

and that

Thinking for a moment it was one day like any other.

But the veil had gone from my darkened heart and I

thought

It must have been the quiet candlelight that filled my room,

It must have been the first rhythm with which I breathed

myself to sleep,

It must have been the prayer I said speaking to the other-

ness of the night.

And I thought this is a good day you could meet your love,

This is the gray day someone close to you could die,

This is the day you realize how easily the thread is broken

between this world and the next

And I find myself sitting up in the quiet pathway of light,

The tawny close-grained cedar burning round me like a fire

and all the angels of this housely heaven ascending through

the first roof of light the sun has made.

This is the bright home in which I live,

This is where I ask my friends to come,

This is where I want to love all things.

It has taken me so long to learn to love.

This is the temple of my adult aloneness as I belong to my

life.

There is no house like the house of belonging.

Offering and Offertory

Shared by Travis Meyers

Dedication of Our Offerings

Led by Barbara Zaborowski

One: By our smallest actions such as writing cards of care and putting money in the plate we become part of a bigger world. The smallest gift can be an expression of the good spirit of generosity and caring.

All: May we and these gifts be used to build a foundation of inclusion, justice and spirituality. Amen.



Words For Mission

Led by Barbara Zaborowski

One: May the God who dances in creation, who

embraces us with human love, who shakes our

lives like thunder, bless us, empower us, limit us,

and drive us out with power to fill the world

with her justice. These are the times!

All: We are the people!

One: All of Creation is blessed.

All: May we love all and serve all.

One: May God be with you.

All: And also with you.

One: Amen.

All: Amen.



EMPOWERING AND SENDING

Sending Forth Song ~ Trees of the Field

You shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace;

The mountains and the hills will break forth before you.

There’ll be shouts of joy, and all the trees of the field

will clap, will clap their hands.

And all the trees of the field will clap their hands, (clap,

clap)

The trees of the field will clap their hands, (clap, clap)

The trees of the field will clap their hands (clap, clap)

While you go out with joy.

(Repeat faster)

Thank you for being with us!

Sermon Reboot is OFF for today. We will be back September 8 after worship.

This is a time to talk about the message and explore together using the ORID Art Form Conversation methodology. What is ORID? It stands for Observation, Reflection, Interpretation, and Decision. You will get the hang of it.