October 19, 2025
Prelude
John Bodinger, organist
Welcome & Call to Worship
[Psalm 86]
Teach us your way, O Lord, that we may walk in your truth;
give us an undivided heart to revere your name.
We give thanks to you, O Lord our God, with our whole heart,
and we will glorify your name forever.
For great is your steadfast love toward us;
you have delivered our soul from the depths of Sheol.
Let us worship the LORD!
God, Who Stretched the Spangled Heavens (Hymn 268)
Cameron/Moore
God who stretched the spangled heavens, infinite in time and place,
Flung the suns in burning radiance through the silent fields of space:
We, your children in your likeness, share inventive powers with you;
Great Creator, still creating, show us what we yet may do.
We have ventured worlds undreamed of since the childhood of our race;
Known the ecstasy of winging through untraveled realms of space;
Probed the secrets of the atom, yielding unimagined power,
Facing us with life’s destruction or our most triumphant hour.
As each far horizon beckons, may it challenge us anew;
Children of creative purpose, serving others, honoring you.
May our dreams prove rich with promise, each endeavor well begun;
Great Creator, give us guidance till our goals and yours are one.
Confession
Interceding Spirit, you know our weakness and our longing. We often struggle to look beyond our present sufferings. Amid futility and decay, forgive us when we lose hope. We would prefer a hope that is obvious and irrefutable, a faith that requires little of us. Forgive us, and open our minds to the transformative power of your love in any and every situation. Give us courage to trust and live into that reality. Amen.
Silence
There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy
Faber/Wyeth’s Repository of Sacred Music
There’s a wideness in God’s mercy, like the wideness of the sea;
There’s a kindness in God’s justice, which is more than liberty.
There is no place where earth’s sorrows are more felt than up in heaven;
There is no place where earth’s failings have such kindly judgment given.
For the love of God is broader than the measures of the mind;
And the heart of the eternal is most wonderfully kind.
If our love were but more faithful, we would gladly trust God’s Word;
And our lives reflect thanksgiving for the goodness of our Lord.
Forgiveness in Jesus Christ
Peace
The peace of Christ be with you.
And also with you.
Doxology (Hymn 592)
Ken/Genevan Psalter
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise God, all creatures here below;
Praise God above, ye heavenly host
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Prayer for Illumination
Scripture Readings
Karen Bart
Old Testament: Psalm 86:11-17
New Testament: Romans 8:18-26
Jesus, Thy Boundless Love to Me (Hymn 366)
Gerhardt/Henry
Jesus, Thy boundless love to me no thought can reach, no tongue declare;
O knit my thankful heart to Thee, and reign without a rival there!
Thine wholly, Thine alone, I’d live, myself to Thee entirely give.
O grant that nothing in my soul may dwell, but Thy pure love alone;
O may Thy love possess me whole, my joy, my treasure, and my crown!
All coldness from my heart remove; may every act, word, thought be love.
O Love, how gracious is Thy way! All fear before thy presence flies;
Care, anguish, sorrow melt away, where’er Thy healing beams arise.
O Jesus, nothing may I see, nothing desire, or seek, but Thee.
Sermon: The Ground of Hope
Scott Starbuck
Focus: Because we live with hope, we are able to see that what appears to the ordinary eye to be impossible, is possible when we allow the love of God to work in human life. Of course, to place all our hope in him means more than believing that what looks impossible is possible. It means living already, now, as we hope that the life of all will be. The one who has hope not only has faith that another world is possible but behaves as if already living in it. –Arturo Sosa, S.J.
Response: Healer of Our Every Ill
Haugen
Please join Lisa in singing the Refrain:
Healer of our every ill, light of each tomorrow,
Give us peace beyond our fear, and hope beyond our sorrow.
Pastoral Prayer & The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, 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 debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, and deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
Call to Stewardship
Ruth Seignemartin
Set apart a tithe of all the yield of your seed that is brought in yearly from the field.
-Deuteronomy 14:22
Sending: My Hope is Built on Nothing Less (Hymn 379)
Mote/Bradbury
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
Refrain:
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand.
When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil.
(refrain)
His oath, his covenant, his blood support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay.
(refrain)
Charge & Benediction
Postlude
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