Fauntleroy Church, United Church of Christ

Sunday Worship - September 7, 2025

*Asterisks invite those who are comfortable to please stand.

PRELUDE Bronwyn Edwards

WELCOME Rev. Leah Atkinson Bilinski

OPPORTUNITIES FOR ENGAGEMENT Carolyn Tucker

*OPENING HYMN No. 292, v.1-3 “Breathe on Me, Breath of God”

Words: Edwin Hatch, 1886; alt. Music: Robert Jackson, 1894. Public Domain.

*CALL TO WORSHIP (responsive) Ellen Burroughs

Leader: In the midst of a hard world and hard times, we have come to worship the One who first breathed life into us and seeks to breathe life into us still.

RESPONSE: GOD WITHIN US, GOD AROUND US, GOD SURROUND US WITH YOUR POWER.

Leader: Our stories tell us: God was there at the dawn of time, moving over the chaotic waters. To individuals and whole peoples, God came. God was there every step of the way in the exodus and the exile, leading the enslaved and imprisoned to freedom, making ways where none were apparent. In the prophets, God cried out for right relationships with God and one another. In Emmanuel, “God with us,” God came close again, becoming love incarnate in Jesus Christ. And today, in the body of Christ present in this room (which is each of us and all of us together), God is here, too.

RESPONSE: GOD WITHIN US, GOD AROUND US, GOD SURROUND US WITH YOUR POWER.

Leader: You see: we worship a God who loves us too much to remain far off, cares too much to not walk beside us, and believes in us too thoroughly to settle for less than that of which we are capable.

RESPONSE: GOD WITHIN US, GOD AROUND US, GOD SURROUND US WITH YOUR POWER.

Leader: In the midst of a hard world and hard times, we have come to worship, feel, and know our come-close God. May God prepare our hearts for all it means to truly worship, feel, and know the Divine at work in us and the world.

*OPENING HYMN PT. 2 (use words below)

Words: Leah Atkinson Bilinski, 2025. Written for this service. Music: Robert Jackson, 1894. Public Domain.

Breathe on us, Breath of God, mold us in your own hand.

Make of this church a force for love that grows– across the land.

Breathe on us, Breath of God, raise in us prophet sight

To know the contours of your vis’n, and lines– ‘tween wrong and right.

Breathe on us, Breath of God, fill us with life anew

Strengthen us for the paths ahead, to do– what you would do.

A TIME FOR CHILDREN with BLESSING OF BACKPACKS Pastor Karyn

INVITATION TO GENEROSITY & BLESSING Pastor Karyn

SINGING TO THE CHILDREN “Go, Now in Peace”

(children may leave for Sunday School if they’d like)

Go now in peace, go now in peace.

May the love of God surround you,

Everywhere, everywhere, you may go.

PRAYER OF DEDICATION (unison) Ellen Burroughs

Generous God, as we have been blessed, so we seek to bless. May all the gifts we place before you fully reflect the beauty you call forth in us and honor what you are seeking to mold and bless in this world. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING Jeremiah 18:1-12 (NRSV) Ellen Burroughs

SERMON “God Knows the Beauty That is Possible” Pastor Leah

CHOIR ANTHEM “Requiem” Zachary Fitzgerald, Music Director

Written by Eliza Gylkinson. Arr. Craig Hella Johnson. Used with permission of Christian Copyright Solutions WORSHIPCast License No. 12825.

PASTORAL PRAYER Pastor Karyn

THE LORD’S PRAYER (unison)

Our Father/Mother/Creator, 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 sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

INVITATION TO CHRIST’S TABLE Pastor Leah

COMMUNION SONG “Broken Body of Christ” (insert)

Lenora Rand for “The Many.” Permission granted for use by Christian Copyright Solutions WORSHIPCast License No. 12825.

WE REMEMBER THE STORY TOGETHER Pastor Leah and Ellen Burroughs

WE COME TO CHRIST’S TABLE

Ushers will release you pew by pew down the center aisle for communion. When you come to the trays, please take a cube of bread (all bread is gluten-free) and a chalice of juice and return to your seat via the side aisles. We will partake of the bread and juice together after all have been served.

Our church practices an open table of extravagant welcome. You do not need to be a member of this church, of a certain age, or have your faith or beliefs all figured out to partake of communion. If you simply desire to better know the Divine with this community of Christ’s people, you will find meaning at Christ’s table.

*SHARING OUR THANKSGIVING

In “passing the peace” style, you are invited to greet others and share “I give thanks for you in the body of Christ!” Or “I give thanks for you; PLEASE STAY FOR THE PICNIC!”

*CLOSING HYMN No. 290, v.1-3 “Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart”

Words: George Croly, 1854; alt. Music: Frederick C. Atkinson, 1870. Public Domain.

*BENEDICTION Pastor Leah

*BENEDICTION RESPONSE No. 283 “Spirit of the Living God”

Words and Music: Daniel Iverson, 1926. Public Domain.

Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me;

Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.

Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me.

Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.