Beacon Worship 7/18/2021

We hope you join us for worship, either live-streaming on our Youtube Channel or via Zoom. Email info@thewordatbeacon.org for zoom info.

Gathering Time (unmuted)

Feel free to say hi and check in with others before the service begins!

Welcome/Announcements

• Our virtual midweek prayer gathering will be this Wednesday at 6pm on Zoom

• We are looking for folks to help water the plants in the garden. You can sign up here: https://signup.com/go/hWWYJWR

• Join us on Thursday, July 22nd at 5pm for our next work day, where we’ll be mowing the lawn, caring for the garden, and doing some indoor cleaning.

• Our next in-person, outdoor worship service will be on Sunday, August 1 at 5pm. Everyone is invited to bring their own communion elements.

Facing God: adapted from Psalm 68

(Remain muted and read liturgy aloud at home)

Leader: Sing to God, sing praises to God’s name

All: lift up a song to our God who rides upon the clouds.

Leader: Parent of orphans and protector of widows

All: is God in the holy habitation.

Leader: God give the lonely a home to live in;

All: and leads out the prisoners to prosperity.

Leader: God gives power and strength to God’s people. Let us worship God.

By Way of Sorrow

You've been taken by the wind

You have known the kiss of sorrow

Doors that would not take you in

Outcast and a stranger

Chorus:

You have come by way of sorrow

You have come by way of tears

But you'll reach your destiny

Meant to find you all these years

Meant to find you all these years

You have drunk a bitter wine

With none to be your comfort

You who once were left behind

Will be welcome at love's table

Chorus

All the nights that joy has slept

Will awake to days of laughter

Gone the tears that you have wept

You'll dance in freedom ever after

Chorus

Laying Down Our Burdens & Assurance

(Remain muted and read liturgy aloud at home)

All: God of all hope and joy, we confess that we continue to live in fear. We speak of your great love but our own hearts condemn us. We express concern for others but our own actions betray us. Our loneliness scares us and keeps us isolated. Forgive us, God of grace. Revitalize us and give us new life. Reconnect us with our community and use us to remind others that they are not alone. We pray in the name of God Emmanuel, who is always with us. Amen.

Leader: The Good News is that Christ has come and Christ will come again.

All: In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. Thanks be to God.

Refrain: Standing on the Promises

Standing, standing

Standing on the promises of God my Savior

Standing, standing

I’m standing on the promises of God

Children's Bible Story

Lectio Conversation (John 4:5-30, 39a)

(Hold onto these questions while we read our scripture.)

What stands out to you about this text? Why do you think Jesus engages this particular woman in so much conversation?

So [Jesus] came to a Samarian city called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by the journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone into the city to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

“I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.”

Jesus replied, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.”

Jesus said to her, “I AM he, the one who is speaking to you.”

Just then his disciples returned. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” They left the city and were on their way to him. Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.

The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Discussion

Homily

For You My God I Wait

For you, my God, I wait

With hope born of the Word.

Like sleepless ones who long to dream

I wait and call my Lord.

Lord, hear my pleading voice,

And let me know you hear!

As sleepless ones feel rest approach,

I know my God is near.

If you should list my faults,

The sins of heart and hand,

Like sleepless ones who groan at dawn

I know I could not stand!

O God, you are my hope;

I know that you forgive.

Your love redeems me from the depths

So I may rise and live.

Prayers of the People

Now is the time when we share the prayers on our hearts and minds. If you have a private prayer, you can email them to us throughout the week and the pastoral team will pray over them.

If you have a prayer, please unmute your mic to share.

After each prayer, I will lead our response on mute:

Lord in your mercy // hear our prayers

***

Now I will offer a prayer for the greater community and world. We will end by saying the Lord’s Prayer together in whatever language you prefer. Let us pray.

(muted)

Leader: Just as God/Christ taught us to pray...

All: Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, Amen.

Offering

To give online, click here: https://www.thewordatbeacon.org/donate

To give your prayers, email us at info@thewordatbeacon.org

Daughters of Zion (The Porter’s Gate)

When will the truth come out?

When will Your justice roll down?

When will Your kingdom come, and evil be undone?

When will the wicked kneel

And the abused be healed?

When will our sisters speak

With no more shame or fear?

How long? How long?

When will the daughters of Zion rejoice

In the house of the Lord?

Out of the miry clay, we will rise up someday

Sorrow won't always last, the dark will surely pass

Woe to the wicked ones

For what their hands have done

God is our righteous judge

And He will raise us up

So how long? How long?

When will the daughters of Zion rejoice

In the house of the Lord?

So let Your justice roll down

Let Your justice roll down

Let Your justice roll down

(Let Your justice roll down)

Let Your justice roll down

(Let your justice roll down)

So how long? How long?

When will the daughters of Zion rejoice

In the house of the Lord?

Sending/Blessing (from Ephesians 2)

(Remain muted and read liturgy aloud at home)

As we close this time together, let us read this word from the letter to the Ephesians:

All: For Christ Jesus is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God.

Leader: The steadfast love of God goes with you, the deep and abiding peace of Christ goes with you, and the comfort and guidance of the Holy Spirit goes with you, now and always. Amen.

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Feel free to hang out a little longer and catch up with others! Please also leave us feedback in the chat so we know what's working well and what to tweak for the future.