Sunday Service Order
Light a Candle
Open the Word
Greetings and Check-In
Take a Deep Breath
Invocation
Lord, we come before you today and we thank You for all the blessings that You have given us. Many times our lives are so full of busywork that we neglect our relationship with You, for that we are sorry. Continue to pull us to Yourself, guide us in our journey, and hold us close to you until the day we come home to be with You forever. Be with us now as we gather in Your name, may we feel your presence among us. In your holy name, we pray. Amen.
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
Psalm 137
1
By the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
2
There on the poplars
we hung our harps,
3
for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
4
How can we sing the songs of the Lord
while in a foreign land?
5
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill.
6
May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not consider Jerusalem
my highest joy.
7
Remember, Lord, what the Edomites did
on the day Jerusalem fell.
“Tear it down,” they cried,
“tear it down to its foundations!”
8
Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction,
happy is the one who repays you
according to what you have done to us.
9
Happy is the one who seizes your infants
and dashes them against the rocks.
Swedenborg Insights:
On our own we know nothing of heavenly and spiritual affairs, so we learn about them from divine revelation, which is the Word. —Secrets of Heaven 3880
The Word fills us with good desires that come from love and truths that lead to wisdom, provided we read it with the help of the Lord and not just on our own. It fills our will with good desires that come from love and fills our understanding with truths that lead to wisdom. As a result, we gain life by means of the Word. —Sacred Scripture 3
The inner meaning gives the Lord’s Word life. That meaning is like a soul whose body is the superficial sense. The case resembles that with human beings; when our body dies—when we join the angels—our soul comes alive, and when our soul lives, we no longer know anything of bodily affairs. By the same token, we no longer know what the literal meaning of the Word is, only what its soul is. —Secrets of Heaven 1143
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
