July 28, 2024   

Greeting and Announcements

Welcome Statement                         (Printed on the bulletin insert)

Silence                            …a time to breathe…

Prelude and Bringing in the Light

 

*Call to Worship

Leader: We join together as hungry eaters

to be nourished by the food that you offer us.           

All: God of sustenance, give us this day our daily bread.

Leader: As you care for the wheat fields that turn into bread          

and the vineyards that labor to produce sweet wine,

tend to our bodies by feeding us what we need for healthy growth.

All: God of abundance, give us this day our daily bread.

Leader: The rich crops that you have prepared are now ready

to be harvested by our hands and our hearts.

All:  Holy Spirit, come! Give us this day our daily bread.

 

* 1st Hymn                 NCH 347     “Let talents and tongues employ”

*Prayer (Unison). We come believing in our emptiness, believing that we will never have enough, believing that what we have is unworthy. We come overwhelmed by the hunger in our world, overwhelmed by suffering of children, overwhelmed by endless tales of senseless violence, greed, and death.  We come aching from the weight of responsibility, aching from the challenge of knowing our abundance. We come clinging to our meager lunches; bless them, and us. break them, and us. share them, and us.

*The Promise    
We are forgiven. We are welcome. We are one.
For which we all say…..             

Thanks be to God!

 

*Sung Response

In the Lord I’ll be ever thankful, in the Lord I will rejoice! Look to God, do not be afraid. Lift up your voices the Lord is near.  Lift up your voices the Lord is near

                                                                                                                                                 

Invitation to the Table        

Without exception, everyone is welcome at this table. So if

you’re hungry, or even just curious, please come and taste.

Kid’s Time                    

 

Hebrew Bible                                                         2 Kings 4:42-44 

Christian Scripture                                                      John 6:1-15

Sermon    

 

Hymn                                                        Invitation (on screen)

                 

Prayers of the people and the Lord’s Prayer

Offering 

*Sung Response   

Praise God from whom all blessings flow; Praise God all creatures here below; Praise God for all that love has done;

Creator, Christ, and Spirit One.

Amen

*Gratitude Prayer (Unison)

Merciful God, the gifts we bring are so small in comparison to the vast needs in our world—Yet we have brought what we can. As You once multiplied the five small loaves and two fish, multiply these gifts as well, so that the hungry may receive all they need, and more. Amen.

 

*Closing Hymn                                         NCH #236       “Hallelujah”

*Benediction  

                    Special Music by Jack Acola   “I ask the Lord”  

Postlude    

 2 Kings 4:42-44

Elisha Feeds One Hundred Men

A man came from Baal-shalishah bringing food from the first fruits to the man of God: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give it to the people and let them eat.”  But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred people?” So he repeated, “Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus says the Lord: They shall eat and have some left.”  He set it before them; they ate and had some left, according to the word of the Lord.

John 6:1-15

Feeding the Five Thousand

 After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick.  Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near.  When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?”  He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do.  Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?”  Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place, so they[b] sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted.  When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.”  So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets.  When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”

 When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.