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Our music in worship this series has mostly come from contemporary Reggae, folks, & hip hop musicians.  Our denomination’s hymnal includes a song called Go Forth for God written by John R. Peacey in 1975.  Here are the words to the second verse: Go forth for God, go to the world in love; strengthen the faint, give courage to the weak; help the afflicted; richly from above God’s love supplies the grace and power we seek. Go forth for God,…

David Scherer’s song “Do Justice” is a powerful witness to his experience of church:  I’m too church for my un-churched friends And not church enough for your fundamental lens I wonder when these men will come to understand I pray for the day we on the other end Some will do justice.  Some will get a benz Some’ll welcome them and some’ll just pretend. I’ve been trying to learn what you want from me To do justice love mercy walk humbly.…

Our worship series, Reaching in Love, continues this Sunday with reflection on what it means to witness to “the ends of the earth.” Acts 1.8:  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. We’ve been using Michael Franti’s “Say Hey, I Love You” throughout our worship series.  “Say Hey” describes traveling the world and falling in…

Yesterday’s Worship at The Table invited reflection on reaching in love in Samaria, among the people we see as “enemy.”  We began with prayer stations and this clip from a documentary called My So-Called Enemy: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kKOLI4t2XE&feature=player_embedded] A recording of Sunday’s message is on our Podcast.  Listen here. May God’s peace bring healing and reconciliation in our broken relationships and communities.  We pray for those who grieve over the loss of loved ones.  We pray for those discerning how to do…

Worship has been rooted in the music of Agape (Dave Scherer) throughout our Reaching in Love worship series.  We’ll have more Agape and Michael Franti in worship this Sunday as we reflect on what it means to reach in love in “Samaria.” Here is Agape’s All Are Welcome: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pV99LuyB0c&feature=related]

Sam Keen writes: In all propaganda, the face of the enemy is designed to provide a focus for our hatred.  He is the other.  The outsider.  The alien.  The enemy is not human.  If we can only kill him, we will be rid of all within and without ourselves that is evil.  How are these faces of the enemy created?  Why is the repertoire of images so universal? (Faces of the Enemy: Reflections of the Hostile Imagination, 16). What “enemies”…

Barbara Brown Taylor writes, Watch how Jesus practices what he preaches and you will note that his teaching is not limited to people who look, act, or think like him.  He does the same eye-to-eye thing with Roman centurions, Samaritan lepers, Syro-Phoenician women, and hostile Judeans that he does with his own Galilean disciples……With the possible exception of his own family, no one is dismissed from his circle of concern, for no one made in God’s image is negligible in…

We continue our reflection on Acts 1.8 in worship this coming Sunday with emphasis on what it means to reach in love in Samaria.  Acts 1.8 states: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Hostility defined the relationship between the Samaritans and the Judean Jews.  Samaria was seen by most of Jesus’ community as “the…

As we reflect this week on our neighbors, those from “all of Judea,” may this poem by Ted Loder be our prayer: I Remember Now in Silence Lord, plunge me deep into a sense of sadness at the pain of my sisters and brothers inflicted by war, prejudice, injustice, indifference, that I may learn again to cry as a child until my tears baptize me into a person who touches with care those I now touch in prayer: victims of…

Barbara Brown Taylor writes, At its most basic level, the everyday practice of being with other people is the practice of loving the neighbor as the self.  More intricately, it is the practice of coming face-to-face with another human being, preferably someone different enough to qualify as a capital “O” Other – and at least entertaining the possibility that this is one of the faces of God (An Altar in the World). In what concrete ways will you go about…

We continue with week 2 of Reaching in Love this Sunday in worship at The Table.  Worship will be rooted once again in Acts 1.8:  8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” We will focus this week on what it means to be witnesses “in all Judea.”  Judea was a very large region in…

We gathered yesterday for the first part of our Reaching in Love worship series.  Worship focused on what it means to witness and to reach in love in the places we call home.  We began with prayer stations that invited us to reflect on where we live, work, go to school, spend our time, and where we’d like to explore. God of Grace, May our worship gatherings inspire and challenge our community to reach in love with more intentionality and deeper…