Today’s service may be viewed on Facebook Live Stream at this link in the comfort of your own home or in person in the sanctuary.  Join us!

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“At every moment, our lives are an intermingling of beauty and brokenness; you might say that beauty and brokenness are two sides of the same human coin.”   Matthew Stuhlmuller

Gathering Music                Polly Dunford          

Welcome and Announcements     Lin Hagen                    

Call to Worship 

You who gather in this place today, look around now and see the faces of those you know and love.

Neighbors, friends, family, and creatures, a community of kindred hearts.  (Pause and look at the faces.)

You who gather in this place, take a moment now to look around and see the faces of those you hardly know.

Strangers, sojourners, forgotten friends, the ones who need an outstretched hand.  (Pause and look around.)

Members of North Anderson Church and guests, take a moment to look around and honor all the cherished lives assembled here.  (Pause and look around.)

We acknowledge a unique Presence that shines in you, in me, and in every person and creature on earth. 

You who gather in this place today, come, let us unite our lives as one in search of all that is redemptive and live-giving.

Opening Hymn             “Morning Has Broken”                 Hymnal #664

     1)  Morning has broken like the first morning; blackbird has spoken like the first bird.

          Praise for the singing! Praise for the morning! Praise for them, springing fresh

            from the Word!

    2)  Sweet the rain’s new fall sunlit from heaven, like the first dewfall on the first grass.

         Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden, sprung in completeness where God’s feet pass.

     3)  Mine is the sunlight! Mine is the morning, born of the one light Eden saw play!

          Praise with elation; praise every morning, God’s recreation of the new day!

Contemporary Reading                        “Hope” by Lisel Mueller

 

It hovers in dark corners
before the lights are turned on,
it shakes sleep from its eyes
and drops from mushroom gills,
it explodes in the starry heads
of dandelions turned sages,
it sticks to the wings of green angels
that sail from the tops of maples.

It sprouts in each occluded eye
of the many-eyed potato,
it lives in each earthworm segment
surviving cruelty,
it is the motion that runs
from the eyes to the tail of a dog,
it is the mouth that inflates the lungs
of the child that has just been born.

It is the singular gift
we cannot destroy in ourselves,
the argument that refutes death,
the genius that invents the future,
all we know of God.

It is the serum which makes us swear
not to betray one another;
it is in this poem, trying to speak.

“Hope” by Lisel Mueller from Alive Together. © Louisiana State University Press, 1996.

Scripture               Luke 14:15-24

     

Sermon       “If I Were Going to Preach a Sermon”            Rev. Dr. Tom Richie

Contemporary Reading                      “One Song” by Rumi

Every war and every conflict
between human beings has happened
because of some disagreement about names.

It is such an unnecessary foolishness,
because just beyond the arguing
there is a long table of companionship
set and waiting for us to sit down.

What is praised is one, so the praise is one too,
many jugs being poured into a huge basin.
All religions, all this singing, one song.

The differences are just illusion and vanity.
Sunlight looks a little different
on this wall than it does on that wall
and a lot different on this other one,
but it is still the same light.

We have borrowed these clothes,
these time-and-space personalities,
from a light, and when we praise,
we are pouring them back in.

Hymn of Invitation                           “Live into Hope”                                  Hymnal #772

1)  Live into hope of captives freed, of sight regained, the end of greed.

The oppressed shall be the first to see the year of God’s own jubilee!

2)  Live into hope!  The blind shall see with insight and with clarity,

removing shades of pride and fear, a vision of our God brought near.

3)  Live into hope of liberty, the right to speak, the right to be,

the right to have one’s daily bread, to hear God’s word and thus be fed.

4)  Live into hope of captives freed from chains of fear or want or greed.

God now proclaims our full release to faith and hope and joy and peace.

The Sacrament of Holy Communion

This sacred table is a reminder of who we are, what we are, and how we are, and that is enough.  Let us gather at this table.

Prayers of the People

Closing Hymn and Offertory                    “Though I May Speak”                Hymnal #693

1)  Though I may speak with bravest fire, and have the gift to all inspire,

and have not love, my words are vain, as sounding brass, and hopeless gain.

2)  Though I may give all I possess, and striving so my love profess,

but not be given by love within, the profit soon turns strangely thin.

3)  Come, Spirit, come, our hearts control; our spirits long to be made whole.

Let inward love guide every deed; by this we worship, and are freed.

Benediction

Discussion

Shalom   (“May you be well and whole and in communion with all creation.”)

        Shalom, my friends, Shalom, my friends, Shalom, Shalom.

       Till we meet again, Till we meet again, Shalom, Shalom

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Calendar of Service 

August 20 - Dr. Keith Ray; Indoor service

August 27 - TBD

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Laurie’s Peanut Butter Whiskey Band will be performing at Jocassee Valley Brewing on Saturday, August 19 at 6:30 pm. Don’t miss it!

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Auditions are happening now for the GAMAC-sponsored Anderson Children’s Choir for the 2023-2024 school year. Boys and girls ages 8-10 (grades 3-5) are invited to try out. Call (864) 231-6147 or visit www.gamac.org for more information.

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The Youth Choir for the Concert of Hope and Remembrance will begin practicing on Tuesday, August 22 at 6:00 pm at Boulevard Baptist Church in Anderson. Boys and girls who are rising third graders through early teens are invited to join the choir. Boys whose voices are beginning to change are welcome to attend. There is no audition. The concert will be on Saturday, October 14 at the same location.

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New Foundations Home for Children is seeking school supplies. Please bring your donations to the church by the last Sunday in August. Copies of the list of needed items are in the church.

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The Keenagers are still finalizing their upcoming schedule of activities so stay tuned! In the meantime, mark your calendars for Wednesday, August 30 for an afternoon of games and (homemade) ice cream from 1 to 4 pm!

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Joanne reminds us all to keep up the food donations for AIM (Anderson Interfaith Ministries)!  Bring your non-perishable items to the church. This is an on-going need that should become part of everyone’s shopping routine.

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Are you interested in becoming a member of NACCP?  Would you like to make this community your spiritual home?  Please contact Keith at keithdray@gmail.com or at 864-508-1530.

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Sarah Shumpert shared the Westside Community Center needs a new roof. They are asking folks to donate $40 in honor of the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Day being signed into legislation as a national holiday. Donations can be made online through the United Way of Anderson County.  Use the “Donation Description” box to designate your donation for the Westside Community Center roof.

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Remember in prayer: Linda McFall; Patti Pitts; Bonnie Marsden and son Michael; Glennie Burns; Mary Alice Mundy; Jason Harding; Mike Johnston; Madison Bishop (Whitney’s niece); Jackie Moore; Latha and Cheryl Semones; Immigrant families; Victims of all violence, oppression, and injustice; People of Ukraine. 

NACCP is an inclusive Faith Community that values questions

and the journey to the answers.

Ministry Leader: Dr. Keith Ray
keithdray@gmail.com

Pianist and Choir Director: Polly Dunford

Mailing address: P.O. Box 4346, Anderson, SC 29622

Phone: 864-225-3575

Website:  naccpchurch.org

Church News:  naccpnews@yahoo.com

Instagram:  northandersonccp

Facebook:  NorthAndersonCommunityChurchPresbyterian