FOR REFLECTION
Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve…. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.
― Martin Luther King, Jr.
CALL TO WORSHIP
We gather to worship God,
Who creates us and loves us;
Who gifts us with diversity and makes us for community;
Who gives Jesus Christ to show us how to live;
Who inspires children, youth, young adults, and people of all ages,
To seek justice, share power,
and live together in love and equality;
PASSING OF THE PEACE
Pastor Don: May the Spirit of Christ be with you.
Congregation at Home: And also with you.
Pastor Don: Please share the spirit within you to those around you.
OPENING HYMN For the Fruit of All Creation
HEBREW READING Deuteronomy 15:11
For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.
CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURE James 2:14-17
What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? 15 Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.
SERMON TIME
“The Mission of the Southminster Foundation”
Janet Cruz
2020 GRANT RECIPIENT VIDEO
Project Backpack Assistance and Care for our Kids is a free service providing food for families to take home over the weekend and holidays. Each week backpacks are filled with nutritious, kid-friendly, easy-to-prepare food and are discretely distributed to students.
To learn more about Southminster Foundation, visit https://www.southmin.org/southminster-foundation/
Learn more about Legacy Giving [PDF Brochure]
You can now like and follow Southminster Foundation’s brand new Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/southminsterfoundation
RESPONSIVE HYMN Take My Life and Let It Be
PASTORAL PRAYER
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear” (Psalms 46:1-2).
The Lord’s Prayer, written by Roger Courtney, 2012
Great divine spirit of love that is at the core of everything
and from which all life flows,
We acknowledge your healing and transforming power.
May the spirit of unconditional love and forgiveness flow through each of us and enable the realm of love to spread throughout the world.
Like the flowers in the fields, ensure that we have the basics we need to live
and give us the love and commitment to ensure that others have what they need too.
Give us the courage to acknowledge when we have done wrong,
to seek forgiveness from those we have hurt
and to forgive those who have hurt us,
so that we may be reconciled.
We acknowledge the power of self-giving love to transform individual hearts and the world.
We recommit ourselves to the unconditional love of others and the work of justice and peace.
Amen.
TIME FOR OFFERING
As we reflect on all of our blessings, individually and as a community, may we consider how we may give of ourselves so that the work of Christ’s love and peace may continue throughout our world. (Please contact staff@southmin.org, or one of our Trustees to discover simple ways you may give electronically or via mail. Thank you for supporting the staff and on-going ministries of Southminster Presbyterian Church).
CLOSING HYMN We Give Thee but Thine Own
FINAL BLESSING & BENEDICTION
If you have much, give of your wealth; if you have little, give of your heart.
