August 4, 2024
WORDS OF GREETING AND GATHERING
Chris Zepp
WELCOMING STATEMENT
RISE believes that God has open arms, and so should we. Our Creator wants us to love, accept and affirm every human being, including persons of every age, race, ethnic background, nationality, gender identity, sexual orientation, family or socioeconomic status, educational background, religion or creed, and physical or mental ability. We celebrate our diversity and recognize the sacred worth and dignity of all. Everyone is invited and encouraged to join us as we seek to follow Jesus with mutual respect, understanding, and love.
*Read more about “Why Pronouns Matter” HERE.
Opening Music
Brent Holl
“This is God’s Perfect World”
This is God’s perfect world
And to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings
The music of the spheres
This is God’s perfect world
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas
His hand the wonders wrought
This is God’s perfect world
The birds their carols raise
The morning light, the lily white
Declare their maker's praise
This is God’s perfect world
He shines in all that's fair
In the rustling grass, I hear him pass
He speaks to me everywhere
This is God’s perfect world
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is king, let the heavens ring
God reigns, let the earth be glad
The Lord is king, let the heavens ring
God reigns, let the earth be glad
“Holy Manna”
~William Moore/The Columbian Harmony
Brethren, we have met to worship and adore the Lord our God.
Will you pray with all your power while we try to preach the word?
All is vain unless the Spirit of the holy One comes down.
Brethren pray, and holy manna will be showered all a-round.
Sisters, will you come and help us? Moses' sisters aided him.
Will you help the trembling mourners who are struggling hard with sin?
Tell them all about the Savior. Tell them that he will be found.
Sisters, pray, and holy manna will be showered all around.
Is there here a trembling jailer, seeking grace and filled with tears?
Is there here a weeping Mary pouring forth a flood of tears?
Brethren, join your cries to help them, sisters, let your prayers abound!
Pray, oh pray that holy manna will be showered all around.
Let us love our God supremely, let us love each other, too.
Let us love and pray for sinners till our God makes all things new.
Christ will call us home to heaven, at his table we'll sit down.
Christ will gird himself and serve us with sweet manna all around.
SCRIPTURE READING
Sheridan Horne
Psalm 78:23-29 (CEB)
23 God gave orders to the skies above,
opened heaven’s doors,
24 and rained manna on them so they could eat.
He gave them the very grain of heaven!
25 Each person ate the bread of the powerful ones;
God sent provisions to satisfy them.
26 God set the east wind moving across the skies
and drove the south wind by his strength.
27 He rained meat on them as if it were dust in the air;
he rained as many birds as the sand on the seashore!
28 God brought the birds down in the center of their camp,
all around their dwellings.
29 So they ate and were completely satisfied;
God gave them exactly what they had craved.
John 6:24-35 (CEB)
24 When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. 25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26 Jesus replied, “I assure you that you are looking for me not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate all the food you wanted. 27 Don’t work for the food that doesn’t last but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Human One will give you. God the Father has confirmed him as his agent to give life.”
28 They asked, “What must we do in order to accomplish what God requires?”
29 Jesus replied, “This is what God requires, that you believe in him whom God sent.”
30 They asked, “What miraculous sign will you do, that we can see and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”
32 Jesus told them, “I assure you, it wasn’t Moses who gave the bread from heaven to you, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 The bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 They said, “Sir, give us this bread all the time!”
35 Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
THEOLOGICAL Reflection
“Carbs are for the Soul”
Alexis Owens
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
Can you recall a time when you asked God a specific question, or made a specific request, but the answer was not quite what you expected? What was the outcome, did it differ from the outcome you were praying for, and how did that outcome alter the trajectory of your journey?
As a society we are constantly at work. Working on our homes, working at our jobs, working on our relationships with our spouses, children, family, friends and teachers. Working to make money to provide for our families. Do you think you work equally as hard on providing food that perishes as you do in seeking out the food which will fuel you for eternity (God’s will and hope for your life)?
Jesus frees us to embrace God’s will and to work towards mending God’s creation. How do you intend to use that grace to help better this world?
BONUS QUESTION: What is your favorite comfort food?
Prayer
“BLESSED BE GOD’S NAME”
Like the sun & the moon, love will endure
Blessed be God’s name
From age unto age & shore unto shore
Blessed be God’s name
Let the mountains & the hills bring a message of peace
Blessed be God’s name
As welcome as rain that falls on dry soil
Blessed be God’s name
Defending the poor & the children in need
Blessed be God’s name
Redeeming their lives from exploitation & greed
Blessed be God’s name
Advocates of force will shrink from love’s power
Blessed be God’s name
Love’s harvest abundant, luxuriant in flower
Blessed be God’s name
Like the sun & the moon, love will endure
Blessed be God’s name
From age unto age & shore unto shore
Blessed be God’s name
Offering and NOMOFOMO
One of our core values is, "God gives to us, so we give back." We're called to give as a joy-filled response to what we've been given. Your financial gifts make a tremendous difference in the lives of God's beloved in Harrisonburg and beyond. Whether it's helping to make sure children in our community have enough to eat, helping to respond to the mental health crisis in our community, or providing much needed backing for the operating costs of our spaces and staff — your gift is a part of God's dream and we are grateful for everyone who partners with us on this journey!
Summer “Sittings”
6-8 pm Every Wednesday Night
Pale Fire Brewery, Lower Patio (inside if rain)
Through September 11
We have been LOVING hanging out with you all each week. If you have not made it to one of the Sittings yet we highly encourage you to join us! This is an awesome time of connection, contemplation, and getting to know each other a little bit better! There is no “agenda” - just openness, availability, and community :-)
Feel free to bring dinner with you, eat before you come, OR purchase dinner at Pale Fire!
You DO NOT have to come the entire time, feel free to come late or only stay for a portion of time!
Immediately following the Sitting this week, we will be moving the last items remaining in our Safe Space Offices at the Ice House to our storage areas at Otterbein UMC. Many hands will make for a much easier time, so we’d love your help! Contact Alexis or Chris if you have any questions or have a larger vehicle that we can utilize that evening.
Don’t already know about The Sitting? You know how some people have “standing” appointments or office hours? Well, since we always need to do things just a little bit differently, we took that idea and decided to try having some “sitting” hours this summer. Everyone is invited to join Alexis and/or Chris at Pale Fire on Wednesday nights throughout the summer. We meet outside on the lower patio (or inside in the event of rain) so we can enjoy the music of the Harrisonburg Summer Concerts next door at Turner Pavilion (Information about the concert series can be found HERE.) Whether you have some burning theological questions or you just want to hang out and enjoy some music with friends, we’ll be there and happy to chat!
NEXT Sunday -
FINAL Summer
walk on the RISE side!
We believe that being in and amidst nature helps us to better connect with our creator, and wanted to provide a few opportunities for folks to get connected in this way throughout the summer!
Sunday, August 11 - Hillandale Park Loop
We will head over to Hillandale immediately after worship to get a change of scenery and spend some time together outside and moving our bodies walking the the 1.4 mile loop. Great for Kids! Lead by Alexis.
Your source of information for all things RISE! Check out the latest edition if you haven’t already! Its packed with info on all our events this summer, staffing updates, etc.
closing SONG
“Keep On the Sunny Side”
~Ada Blenkhorn and J. Howard Entwisle
There's a dark and a trouble side of life
There's a bright and a sunny side too
Though we meet with the darkness and strife
The sunny side we also have in view.
So keep on the sunny side, always on the sunny side
Keep on the sunny side of life
It will help you everyday it will brighten all the way
If you'll keep on the sunny side of life.
Oh the storm in its fury broke today
Crushing hopes that I cherish so dear
Clouds and storms will in time pass away
And the sun again will shine bright and clear.
So keep on the sunny side, always on the sunny side
Keep on the sunny side of life
It will help you everyday it will brighten all the way
If you'll keep on the sunny side of life.
Let us greet with a song of hope each day
Though the moments be cloudy or fair
Let us trust that our Saviour always
Will keep us everyone in his care.
So keep on the sunny side, always on the sunny side
Keep on the sunny side of life
It will help you everyday it will brighten all the way
If you'll keep on the sunny side of life.
Parting BLESSING
An excerpt from “The Summer Day” by Mary Oliver
“...I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
REMEMBER - YOU ARE A GIFT!
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