How to Overcome Your Rival

Prelude – Jean Herrera

Adam: God be with you.

All: And also with you.

Welcome and Announcements – Adam Ericksen

Lighting of the Peace Candle – Melanie and Raleen

Our tradition at CUCC is to light a peace candle at the beginning of each worship service to center ourselves around the Peace of God. I invite you to join us in lighting the peace candle…

Raleen/All: We pray for peace
in our hearts,
in our homes,
in our communities,
in our nations,
and in our worlds.

Scripture Readings – Melanie, Raleen, and Jeff 
Luke 14:1; 7-14

Call to Worship – Melanie, Raleen, and Jeff
Melanie: We invite you to join us in the Call to Worship. You can follow along in the description of the video if you would like to do so…

Melanie: God, we are aliens and sojourners in this world

Raleen/All: But you invite us to be your guests.

Jeff: You lavish us with your hospitality

Raleen/All: And lovingly welcome us into your family.

Melanie: God invites us to share their abundance with one another.

Raleen/All: For providing hospitality opens the door to Heaven.

Jeff: Hospitality fulfills the law of love. 

Raleen/All: May we open our hearts to embrace the stranger, the friend, the poor, and share divine generosity toward all. Amen.

Children’s Moment - 

Passing of the Peace – Jeff, Melanie, and Raleen

Jeff: Friends, we come to the moment where we pass the peace. I invite you to type peace in the chat section as we pass the peace to one another.

Raleen: Beloved of God, may the peace of Christ be with you.

Melanie/All: And also with you.

Song

Invitation to the Offering 

Community Prayer and Lord’s Prayer – Melanie, Raleen, and Jeff (Jeff is person one, Melanie is person two, Raleen is person three)

One: I invite you to join us in our community prayer. At the end of each prayer, we will say, “God in your love.” Please respond with “Hear our prayers.” We will conclude with the Lord’s prayer, which you can say in whichever version you are most comfortable with. Please join us in prayer:
One: For the peace from above, for the love and kindness of God, and for the salvation of our bodies and souls, God in your love
Three: Hear our prayers.
Two: For the peace of this world, for the welfare of all people, and for God’s justice to spread throughout creation, God in your love
Three: Hear our prayers.
One: For hope in the midst of our circumstances, God in your love.
Three: Hear our prayers.
Two: For the good earth, which God has given to us, and for the wisdom and the will to care for it, God in your love.
Three: Hear our prayers.
One: For those traveling on land, water, or air, God in your love.
Three: Hear our prayers.
Two: For the widows and orphans, the sick and the suffering and the marginalized, God in your love.
Three: Hear our prayers.
One: For the poor and oppressed, for the unemployed and the destitute, for prisoners and captives, and for all who remember and care for them, God in your love.
Three: Hear our prayers.
Two: For those who have lost loved ones and for the hope that they remain eternally in your glory, God in your love.
Three: Hear our prayers.
One: For the courage to rise up for justice when we feel overwhelmed by injustice, God in your love. 
Three: Hear our prayers.
Two: For the Holy Spirit to inspire us to love more deeply and more boldly than ever before, God in your love.
Three: Hear our prayer.
One: In all the prayers we have spoken aloud, and in all of the prayers that remain in our hearts, we come before you, the Living One, praying together as you taught us …

Three: Our God,
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 and ever. Amen.

Sermon – How to Overcome Your Rival

Unison Benediction – Melanie, Raleen, Jeff, and Adam

Melanie: Please join us in the Unison Benediction…

Melanie: May God bless you and keep you.
Jeff: May God’s face shine upon you and be gracious unto you.
Adam: May God look upon you with kindness and bring you peace.
Jeff: This day and forever more. Amen
-Numbers 6:24-26