We Gather Together
Welcome
Song: Now That the Daylight Fills the Sky
Now that the daylight fills the sky,
We lift our hearts to God on high
That She, in all we do or say,
Would keep us free from harm today,
“All praise to You, Creator Lord!
All praise to You, eternal Word!
All praise to You, O Spirit wise!”
We sing as daylight fills the skies.
Reading: It Is Ours To Praise by Aleynu L’shabey’ah
It is ours to praise
the beauty of the world.
even as we discern
the torn world
For nothing is whole
that is not first rent
and out of the torn
we make whole again.
May we live with promise
in creation’s lap,
redemption budding
in our hands.
Sharing Stories of Sacred Spaces
Share about an awe-inspiring place you have been and why.
Song: Morning Has Broken, VU 409
Morning has broken like the first morning,
blackbird has spoken like the first bird.
Praise for the singing! Praise for the morning!
Praise for them, springing fresh from the Word!
Ours is the sunlight! Ours is the morning
born of the one light Eden saw play!
Praise with elation, praise every morning,
God’s recreation of the new day!
God Calls and We Respond to the Word
Genesis 1: 9-13
And God said, ‘Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, ‘Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.’ And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
In the Beginning: Sky Woman and Turtle Island, Haudenosaunee
From Turtle Island: The Story of North America’s First People
by Eldon Yellowhorn and Kathy Lowinger
Questions for Reflection and Discussion:
Replay the story in your mind like a movie, what scenes of the story stood out to you?
What did this story make you wonder about?
What were the relationships like in the story?
Song: For the Fruit of All Creation, VU 227
For the fruit of all creation, thanks be to God.
For the gifts to every nation, thanks be to God.
For the ploughing, sowing, reaping,
silent growth while we are sleeping,
future needs in earth’s safekeeping, thanks be to God.
For the harvests of the Spirit, thanks be to God.
For the good we all inherit, thanks be to God.
For the wonders that astound us,
for the truths that still confound us,
most of all that love has found us, thanks be to God
We are Sent Out
Prayer
Poem: To Be of the Earth by John Soos
To be of the Earth is to know
the restlessness of being a seed
the darkness of being planted
the struggle toward the light
the pain of growth into the light
the joy of bursting and bearing fruit
the love of being food for someone
the scattering of your seeds
the decay of the seasons
the mystery of death
and the miracle of birth.
Song: For the Beauty of the Earth, VU 226
For the beauty of the earth,
for the glory of the skies,
for the love which from our birth
over and around us lies,
God of all, to you we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.
For the beauty of each hour
of the day and of the night,
hill and vale, and tree and flower,
sun and moon, and stars of light,
God of all, to you we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.
For each perfect gift sublime
to our race so freely given,
graces human and divine,
flowers of earth and buds of heaven,
God of all, to you we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.
