Sunday Service Order
Light a Candle
Open the Word
Greetings and Check-In
Take a Deep Breath
Invocation
Fill us with peace, that we may live as brothers and sisters, harming no one. O God of the poor, help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth, so precious in your eyes. Bring healing to our lives, that we may protect the world and not prey on it, that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.
Amen.
Confession
O Holy One, we have strayed from Your ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against Your holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done. Holy One, have mercy upon us and forgive our sins. Amen
Scripture Readings
O Lord My God, You Are Very Great
104
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
O Lord my God, you are very great!
You are clothed with splendor and majesty,
2
covering yourself with light as with a garment,
stretching out the heavens like a tent.
3
He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters;
he makes the clouds his chariot;
he rides on the wings of the wind;
4
he makes his messengers winds,
his ministers a flaming fire.
5
He set the earth on its foundations,
so that it should never be moved.
6
You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
7
At your rebuke they fled;
at the sound of your thunder, they took to flight.
8
The mountains rose, the valleys sank down
to the place that you appointed for them.
9
You set a boundary that they may not pass,
so that they might not again cover the earth.
10
You make springs gush forth in the valleys;
they flow between the hills;
11
they give drink to every beast of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12
Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell;
they sing among the branches.
13
From your lofty abode you water the mountains;
the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
14
You cause the grass to grow for the livestock
and plants for man to cultivate,
that he may bring forth food from the earth
15
and wine to gladden the heart of man,
oil to make his face shine
and bread to strengthen man's heart.
16
The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly,
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
17
In them the birds build their nests;
the stork has her home in the fir trees.
18
The high mountains are for the wild goats;
the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.
19
He made the moon to mark the seasons;[a]
the sun knows its time for setting.
20
You make darkness, and it is night,
when all the beasts of the forest creep about.
21
The young lion's roar for their prey,
seeking their food from God.
22
When the sun rises, they steal away
and lie down in their dens.
23
Humanity goes out to work
and labors until the evening.
24
O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom have you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
25
Here is the sea, great and wide,
which teems with creatures innumerable,
living things both small and great.
Swedenborg Insights:
Divine Love and Wisdom n. 340
There is a continual influx from the spiritual world into the natural world.
If one is unaware of the existence of the spiritual world and does not know that it is distinct from the natural world as something prior is from something subsequent, or as a cause is from the effect caused, he cannot know anything about this influx.
It is owing to this that people who have written about the origin of plants and animals have only been able to trace that originate from nature. Or if they have traced it from God, they have supposed that God imparted to nature from the beginning the power to produce such forms. They have done this in ignorance of the fact that nature has not been endowed with any power; for it is lifeless, and contributes no more to the production of these forms than a tool in the work of a craftsman, which to act must continually be wielded.
It is something spiritual, something which takes its origin from the sun where the Lord is and descends to the outmost elements of nature, which produces the forms of plants and animals and creates the marvels that exist in both, filling them with substances from the earth so that those forms remain fixed and constant.
Because we now know of the existence of the spiritual world, and know that anything spiritual comes from the sun where the Lord is and which emanates from the Lord and that it is this which impels nature to act, as something living does something lifeless, moreover that forms of a like character exist in that world as in the natural world, it can be seen that plant and animal forms have sprung and continue perpetually to spring from no other origin than the Lord through that world-thus that there is a continual influx from the spiritual world into the natural world.
SERMON
Offering
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Community Prayer with Lord's Prayer
(congregation responds, "Lord hear our prayer.")
Benediction
Now may the peace that passes all understanding be with you all this day and forevermore.
AMEN
Discussion with Q&A
