Bulletin 2 by Pastor Katy Stenta

Drive in Worship September 20th 2020
Announcements
Call to Worship
Give thanks to the Lord and Call on the name of God
Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord Rejoice

Spirit 319
Spirit, Spirit of gentleness,
Blow through the wilderness, calling and free
Spirit, Spirit of restlessness, Stir me from placidness,
Wind, Wind on the sea

  1. You move the waters,You called to the deep
    Then You coaxed up the mountains
    From the valleys of sleep And over the eons
    You called to each thing, Awake from your slumbers
    And rise on your wings
  2. You swept through the desert, You stung with the sand
    And You gifted your people, With a law and a land
    And when they were blinded with their idols and lies,
    Then You spoke through Your prophets
    To open their eyes
  3. You call from tomorrow, You break ancient schemes,
    From the bondage of sorrow. The captives dream dreams
    Our women see visions, Our men clear their eyes.
    With bold new decisions, Your people arise.

Genesis 37:20-28, 50:15-21
(1 finger)’Here comes this dreamer. 20Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.’
(2 fingers)’but when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, ‘Let us not take his life.’
(3 fingers) Reuben said to them, ‘Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him’—that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father.
(4 fingers) Then Judah said to his brothers, ‘What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh. And his brothers agreed.
(5 fingers) When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.
(Pastor Katy) Joseph was enslaved, abused by his owner’s wife and eventually imprisoned. There he told the prisoners who would be punished and set free according to their dreams. Eventually the Pharaoh heard and freed him, listening to the dreams of Pharaoh Joseph foretold a drought, so that only Egypt was ready for it. For this reason, Joseph’s brothers journeyed to Egypt for food.
(6 fingers) Realizing that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers said, ‘What if Joseph still bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong that we did to him?’
(7 fingers) So they approached* Joseph, saying, ‘Your father gave this instruction before he died, 17“Say to Joseph: I beg you, forgive the crime of your brothers and the wrong they did in harming you.” Now therefore please forgive the crime of the servants of the God of your father.’
(8 fingers) Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
(9 fingers) Then his brothers also wept,* fell down before him, and said, ‘We are here as your slaves.’
(10 fingers) But Joseph said to them, ‘Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? 20Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today. 21So have no fear; I myself will provide for you and your little ones.’ In this way he reassured them, speaking kindly to them.

Children’s Sermon

Sermon “God with All of Us” Pastor Katy Stenta

God, only you would bring a feuding family together and find a way to bless and reunite them. As we live with suspicion and in a divided nation, we pray that you teach us how to be gracious and forgiving. We pray that we don’t refuse to help one another out of prejudices or hate, and we pray that you order all things for good. We pray this using the prayer your son taught us. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed by 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 and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the Kingdom and Power and the Glory Forever. Amen.

O God of Every Nation 289

  1. O God of every nation, of every race and land
    Redeem the whole the creation with Your almighty hand
    Where hate and fear divide us And bitter threats are hurled
    In love and mercy guide us And heal our strife torn world
  2. From search for wealth and power and scorn of truth and right
    From trust in bombs that shower destruction through the night
    From pride of race and station and blindness to Your way
    Deliver every nation, Eternal God we pray.
  3. Keep bright in us the the vision of days when war shall cease
    When hatred and division, Give way to love and peace
    Till dawns the morning glorious When peace on earth shall reign
    And Christ shall rule victorious O’er all the world’s domain

Bulletin 1 by Rev. Dr Barb Hedges-Goettl, God of the Rainbow Coat Prayer, More Narrative Lectionary Resources

Author: katyandtheword

Pastor Katy has enjoyed ministry at New Covenant since 2010, where the church has solidified its community focus. Prior to that she studied both Theology and Christian Formation at Princeton Theological Seminary. She also served as an Assistant Chaplain at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital and as the Christian Educational Coordinator at Bethany Presbyterian at Bloomfield, NJ. She is an writer and is published in Enfleshed, Sermonsuite, Presbyterian's today and Outlook. She writes prayers, liturgy, poems and public theology and is pursuing her doctorate in ministry in Creative Write and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. She enjoys working within and connecting to the community, is known to laugh a lot during service, and tells as many stories as possible. Pastor Katy loves reading Science Fiction and Fantasy, theater, arts and crafts, music, playing with children and sunshine, and continues to try to be as (w)holistically Christian as possible. "Publisher after publisher turned down A Wrinkle in Time," L'Engle wrote, "because it deals overtly with the problem of evil, and it was too difficult for children, and was it a children's or an adult's book, anyhow?" The next year it won the prestigious John Newbery Medal. Tolkien states in the foreword to The Lord of the Rings that he disliked allegories and that the story was not one.[66] Instead he preferred what he termed "applicability", the freedom of the reader to interpret the work in the light of his or her own life and times.

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