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Wherever and whenever we gather, we are the body of Christ… WE’RE GLAD YOU ARE HERE! Settle in and engage the spirit. Here is some helpful information-
Help us support our ministry - Give here Second Sunday after Pentecost June 22nd, 2025 Building Community… WELCOME OPENING MEDITATION Today the church calendar invites us to enter “Ordinary Time.” But don’t be misled. The word ordinary here does not mean unimportant, and certainly not boring. It means our focus is not on a specific event in the life of Jesus or an extraordinary moving of the Spirit, such as Pentecost. Rather, ordinary means normal. It is the time in the church year when we give heightened attention to our growth as followers of Christ, and of our mission in our neighborhood and world. I invite you now to take a moment to quiet your minds and allow God’s Spirit to focus our attention for this moment. PRELUDE & PASSING OF THE PEACE CALL TO WORSHIP from Psalm 22 ONE: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Do not be far away! MANY: Deliver us from the sword. ONE: You our God are holy, your love endures always. MANY: We will praise you in the great gathering of the congregation. ONE: The poor shall eat and be satisfied. All people, even to the ends of the earth will turn to you. ALL: People everywhere to the end of time will praise you; future generations will be told of you, proclaiming your deliverance even to those yet unborn, and they will say “Our God has done it!” HYMN “Praise to the Living God” #8 PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION ONE: Holy God, there is much that tries to separate us from one another. Creed and color, gender and nation, class and culture call for our fragmentation, but you call us to live together in your grace. You call us your children. You call us beloved. Today, let the refrain: “There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male or female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” guide us with every step. ALL: Loving and holy God, we confess that we hold tightly to our pride and resist your transforming grace. You offer us freedom and a welcome place in your family, yet we struggle, trying to earn what you have already given. We cling to our old ways of doing and thinking. You call us your beloved children. Help us hear and claim our new identity. Free us from the bonds of limited imagination and empower us to thrive in your life of faith and grace. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. WORDS OF ASSURANCE ONE: Children of God: Faith has come, and we are free. Receive your forgiveness today. ALL: We forgive one another, as we have been forgiven. We will live in our freedom to love and be loved, to serve and be served, to bring peace in our families, communities, and world. HYMN "For the Healing of the Nations" #576 MESSAGE FOR YOUNG DISCIPLES OF All AGES Opening to the Spirit’s Call… PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE We seek health and healing with…Mary Seibert-recent shoulder replacement; Thea Roberts-hospitalized, (dance acquaintance of Rich Hebel); Gary Wert-treatment for recurring cancer We continue to pray with… John Hoover-physical therapy; Katie Hoover-continuing physical therapy; Nancy Bingaman; Peggy Anderson; Brad and friend-recovering from surgery; Dan Brouse-meds working for atrial fibrillation, ongoing bladder cancer; Yvonne-medical; Shirley Welch-recovery from shingles; Denice-medical-especially heart; Kelly; Bruce and Cindy; David Lever; Christine; Mary Lohr; Bob Brandis; Carol Ann Simpson; Jan Mindish; Becki; Pam; Deb; Debbie Husser; Hunter Leisey; John, Brad & Amy Epps; Tom Ordille; Sue Mannello; Bryce and family; and Daulton Snowden, Katy Rowe We pray for… the Lamberson Family, compassion and advocates for love LORD'S PRAYER MANY: Our Creator/Mother/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. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. ANNOUNCING MISSIONS & MINISTRY CENTERING ON OUR GIVING We believe in transformation through Christ. However, God will not transform us without our willingness to change, to partner and participate in the process. As long as we hold onto all that is binding us, we cannot be healed, set free, and move toward Christlikeness. Our time, our talents, and our treasures are essential parts in our partnership. MUSICAL REFLECTION ON OUR GIFTS Sung Response (Tune #780) 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. PRAYER OF DEDICATION ALL: Gracious and transforming God, you clothe us in grace and love. Receive these gifts as signs of our desire to live into Christ’s vision of your beloved community. May we shed old divisions and embrace the unity you intend for all people. Use our gifts to build bridges, mend hearts, and proclaim that in Christ, all are one—equal, cherished, and free. May our giving reflect the boundless love you pour into us. We pray this in the name of the one who makes us whole. Amen. Discerning through Story… PSALM PSALMS #42 and 43 As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, "Where is your God?" These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my help and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep at the thunder of your torrents; all your waves and your billows have gone over me. By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. I say to God, my rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk about mournfully because the enemy oppresses me?" As with a deadly wound in my body, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me continually, "Where is your God?" Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my help and my God. Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people; from those who are deceitful and unjust, deliver me! For you are the God in whom I take refuge; why have you cast me off? Why must I walk about mournfully because of the oppression of the enemy? O send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my help and my God. GOSPEL Luke 8:26-39 Then they arrived at the region of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As Jesus stepped out on shore, a man from the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had not worn any clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, shouting, at the top of his voice, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me," for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) Jesus then asked him, "What is your name?" He said, "Legion," for many demons had entered him. They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss. Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding, and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd stampeded down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. When those who herded the swine saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they became frightened. Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. Then the whole throng of people of the surrounding region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and left. As he was leaving, the man from whom the demons had gone out begged that he might be with him, but Jesus said, "Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you." So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him. HEBREW SCRIPTURE 1Kings 19:1-15a Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow." Then Elijah was afraid; he got up and fled for his life and came to Beersheba in Judah; he left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die, "It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors." Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, "Get up and eat." He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. He ate and drank and lay down again. The angel of the LORD came a second time, touched him, and said, "Get up and eat, or the journey will be too much for you." He got up and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. At that place he came to a cave and spent the night there. Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" He answered, "I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts, for my people the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away." Then Elijah heard these words: "Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake, and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire, and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" He answered, "I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts, for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with them. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away." Then the LORD said to him, "Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. SERMON In the Silence Pastor Mike Schutz Going Forth with God’s Love! CLOSING HYMN “Guide Me, Oh My Great Redeemer” #18 BENEDICTION POSTLUDE Today in worship: Liturgist: John Horn Tech: John Horn Greeters/Ushers: Wendy Whitehaus Cole, MJ Farr-Stine Acolyte: MJ Farr-Stine The altar flowers are placed in memory of Margaret Fisler under the Fisler Trust. Remember to pick up an extra item or 2 when you are shopping for food and drop it in the blue bin at the back of the sanctuary. The donated items are picked up from HUCC every week and taken to our local food bank at Zion Lutheran Church Hummelstown. Thank you for your care!! 
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