Sunday Gathering - June 12

Prelude 

Welcome…
Good Morning and welcome to Trinity United Church on this Sunday, June 12, 2022. I am Betty Anne Dempsey, retired Diaconal Minister; It is a pleasure to lead you in worship today in the theme of Abundance and Gratitude…

Acknowledgement 
We acknowledge and respect the Kwikwetlem peoples on whose traditional territory our Trinity United Church stands…and we work and live in hope of right relationship and reconciliation

Candle Lighting
God of Extravagant Abundance, as we light this candle, we recognize your presence, filled with the Spirit of your Love. May we reflect your gracious love to all! May it be so.

Let us take a moment to center ourselves into this sacred time that we share with one another and with God…let us pray

Opening Prayer
Loving and Holy God, we come in abundant gratitude;
it is such a privilege to bring our honest prayers to you,
to open the Scriptures and discover not only ordinary women and men, but Jesus himself!
This gives us the permission we need to be honest; not just ‘polite’ prayers, and not just the heartfelt prayers that come out of the needs we experience, but the questions and challenges, and anger and hurt of our very human emotions bursting from our hearts and minds and flung out at you!
Thank you for listening to these…and thank you for being in this day with us in whatever unfolds.
May it be so…and Amen

Hymn: This is God’s Wondrous World VU 296

Scripture:  

John 6:  1-15 New International Version “Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand”

Psalm 8 The Message Bible …on Gratitude

Message: Rev Betty Anne  “Scarcity, Abundance & Graditude”

Choir Anthem: 

Offering      (slide??)
Your offering: your financial gifts, your gifts of time and skill are what make our ministry possible. If you are not already on Pre-Authorized Remittance, we invite you to participate in our ministry by making a financial gift, either by sending a cheque to the church office, or by clicking the “on-line giving” on our website.
We have been gifted with much, and so we give…

Hymn: Grateful for the Life You Give Us MV 182 (chorus only sung twice)

    
Community Prayers
Holy One, Loving God, we welcome you into this place. We welcome you into our homes, into our lives, into our hearts, asking that you would make your presence known to us both today and throughout the coming week.
We thank you, Creator, for your abundance, another day of life, for this beautiful summer day, for the promise of a miraculous, persistent, “won’t-abandon-us-no-matter what” enduring hope, despite the chaos, the disorder, the challenges we face.
Gracious God, we humbly offer prayers of support to the many suffering and hurting in our world;
For the lonely and heartbroken, we pray for your comfort and your peace.
For the sick and the tired, we pray for your grace and your strength.
For the persecuted and defenseless, we pray for your stamina and your justice.
For the confused and the disoriented, we pray for your wisdom and guidance.
Gracious God we need you to sustain us, to revive us, to hold us, to reorient us, to call us to your marvelous service in love of neighbor and in bringing about your kindom which knows no sickness, no suffering, no delusion, no injustice, no end.
Patient God, in this troubling time of pandemic and uncertainty, we ask that you would teach us to listen.
Teach us to listen to those far from us– the whisper of the hopeless, the plea of the forgotten, the cry of the anguished.
Teach us to listen, O God, to ourselves. Help us to be less afraid to trust the voice inside.
Teach us to listen, Holy Spirit, for your voice — in busyness and in boredom, in certainty and doubt, in noise and in silence.
Holy One, Loving God, stay with us on this journey, that we may share the Good News with all, and share our stories of abundance and gratitude…and hold tightly to each other as we walk in the way that Jesus taught us, we pray… 
Our Father…

Hymn: Each Blade od Grass MV 37

Blessing: May you go from here with gratitude and certainty that you are never alone! May you go filled with the abundant love of God and share it with every one you meet! May it be so! Amen

Postlude