Online Worship for November 7, 2021

Welcome to Church of the Holy Cross’s live streaming worship service for November 7, 2021. Feel free to follow the service text by scrolling down, or you may download and print the service in PDF format below.

Online Worship November 7, 2021
Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Rev. Eric S. Anderson, Pastor

WE GATHER TO WORSHIP GOD

Welcome                                                                                     Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Prelude: Meditation–Lasky                                                        Kayleen Yuda

Call to Worship: based on Psalm 127                                        Carolyn Lum-Bellem

Leader: We have risen early. We have gone late to rest.
All: But what have we produced with anxious toil?

Leader: We have built our houses. We have gathered our communities.
All: But who do we trust to keep the peace of our lives?

Leader: For ourselves, for our community, for our children, let us trust in the LORD.
All: In God we find our peace, our faith, and our hope. Let us worship God!

Invocation: based on Psalm 146                                                 Carolyn Lum-Bellem

Most of our days, and most of our nights, we live with barely a thought of you, O God. We rely more on our intelligence and our energy and our resources than we do on you. We look to other people for what we cannot provide ourselves: family, friends, community, governments. We find that sometimes what we need is beyond all the help that any human beings can provide. O Creator of the stars and planets, you who gives justice to the oppressed and food to the hungry, accept our humble worship and meet our deepest needs, for we know to rely on you, O God. May you reign forever! Amen.

Hymn #563: We Cannot Own the Sunlit Sky                              Eric Anderson
                                                                                                    Doug Albertson
                                                                                                   Movement led by Genie Phillips

Scripture                                                                                    Carolyn Lum-Bellem

1 Kings 17:8-16
 Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.” As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.” She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.

Mark 12:38-44
As he taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

Story/Sermon: A Bad Sermon About Giving                             Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Pastoral Prayer                                                                          Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Please join me in 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, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen

Instrumental Anthem: Abendfeier Op.84– Gustav Merkel        Kanako Okita

Call to Offering                                                                          Carolyn Lum-Bellem
Elijah and the widow of Zarephath helped one another to survive in a time of hardship. In this moment of giving, share what you have so that others may live through their crises of the body or the spirit, and so that you, too, may have support when you need help to get through the day. Please send your offering through the mail in an envelope to 440 West Lanikaula Street, Hilo, Hawai’i, 96720, or give online at holycrosshilo.com/donate. Let us pray together:

Offertory Prayer
God who gives, receive these offerings and bless them. Bless them so that they do not become a mere appearance of faith. Bless them so that they do not become a mere showing of sharing. Bless them so that they truly build up your people, here and near or far away. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Vocal Anthem: Make Us One — Sally DeFord                          Joanne Pocsidio, soprano
                                                                                                    Taarini Godbole, violin
                                                                                                    Kayleen Yuda, piano

Celebration of Holy Communion
Invitation to Communion

Come for the food God gives.
Here is no message, no commandment,
no promise, no warning, no blessing,
though God gives those at other times.

Come for food if you are hungry
or you have never been hungry,
or remember it every day.

Come if you plant and harvest,
drive a truck, stock shelves,
bus tables, toss pizza dough.
Come if you work in the kitchen
at an assisted living community,
school, hospital, food pantry, prison.

Come if you win a bakeoff or open cans.
Come if eating has been a hard issue for you,
or the word “wine” hurts,
because alcohol has impacted your life
or the life of someone dear.

Come and let God meet you as food.

                                        Words of Remembering

There are sacred stories
about eating together
that remember a garden with many trees,
barley fields gleaned to feed the poor,
a starving widow with a child
who offered her last meal and oil
to offer bread to a wandering prophet,
a whale who saved another prophet
by swallowing him to ferry him to safety.

There are sacred stories
that celebrate festivals, the end of famines,
the kindness of strangers, and
even the generosity of ravens.

We remember that Jesus
made a wedding brighter,
multiplied a small child’s lunch,
ate with those who were not welcome
at respectable tables,
while telling awkward parables
that made people angry.

We remember a Passover meal
when Jesus washed gnarly toes,
dipped bread in gravy with a betrayer,
shared a cup with one he knew
would deny him,
and made sure everyone was fed, ­
before taking a small piece of holiness,
and pouring a sip of compassion,
and naming himself as food.

And so now we come,
clothed in our own sad times and joys,
replacing even the wisest of words with food
and we pray …

Prayer of Consecration (unison)

God, in this pot-luck we call church, you feed us as hungry guests so we can host your Monday to Saturday table of love. May our memories of picnics and barbecues, school lunches and banana bread, the first Jell-O after surgery and the dish brought to a home of grief, remind us that Jesus’ breath of peace hovers over the meals of every child of God and makes this bread and cup a miracle deep as faith and ordinary as hope. Amen.

Sharing of the Elements (Psalm 34)
Leader:            Taste and see that God is good. Eat this bread.
Unison:           Sharing love, we will never be hungry.
Leader:            Happy are those who take refuge in God.
                        The cup on your table is blessed
                        so that you can become a blessing to others. 
Unison:           Drinking deeply, we will never thirst.

Prayer of Thanksgiving (unison)
God, in this shared meal we call church, you feed us as hungry guests so we can host your Monday to Saturday table of love. Thank you for trusting us to find the recipe for our particular community and your world. Amen.

Announcements                                                                         Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Benediction                                                                                 Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Postlude: Gigue—Telemann, arr. Simone                                   Kayleen Yuda

Permissions:
Meditation—Lasky
© 1984 Lorenz Publishing Company
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890

We Cannot Own the Sunlit Sky
Text: Ruth Duck, 1984, rev. 1989
© 1992, GIA Publications, Inc.
Tune: ENDLESS SONG, attrib. to Robert Lowry, 1869
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890

Abendfeier Op.84– Gustav Merkel
Public Domain

Make Us One
Text and Music by Sally DeFord
defordmusic.com
Streamed by permission of the author

Communion liturgy by Maren Tirabassi
Giftsinopenhands.wordpress.com
Used by permission

Gigue—Telemann, arr. Simone
George P. Telemann
© 1984 Lorenz Publishing Company
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890

                                                         Dates to Remember
Today, November 7— Trustees meeting after worship service

Pastor                                                 Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Moderator                                          Woody Kita
Lay Reader                                         Carolyn Lum-Bellem
Chapel Decorations                           Moira Tanaka
Choir Accompanist                            Kanako Okita
Choir Director                                   Doug Albertson
Organist                                             Kayleen Yuda
Soprano                                              Joanne Pocsidio
Violinist                                              Taarini Godbole
Hand Bell Director                            Anna Kennedy
Childcare Coordinator                      Evonne Shioshita
Movement Leader                              Genie Phillips
Projected Imagery                             Sue Smith
Web Master                                       Ruth Niino-DuPonte  
Videographers                                    Eric Tanouye, Bob Smith

This week at the Church of the Holy Cross

• Bible Study with Pastor Eric: Tuesdays, 3:00 p.m. via Zoom.
• Pickleball: Mondays, 12 noon, Tuesdays, 8:30 a.m., Wednesdays, 2:00 p.m., Thursdays, 8:30 a.m., Fridays, 8:30 a.m., Saturdays 12:00 p.m., Sundays 1:30 p.m. Building of Faith—limited to 10 attendees
• Online Song – Wednesday, 11:00 a.m. online.
• Community Concert – 2^nd and 4th Fridays, 6:00 p.m. online.