Escape Plans!

Escape Plans!

4th Sunday of Return to In-Person Worship (Printable PDF)
June 27, 2021  11 am 

PRELUDE: Will You Come and Follow Me (KELVINGROVE) —setting by David Laskey
CALL TO RETURN TO OUR SOULS       

Pastor:       Be alert, my people, for the surprising grace of the Living God!
People:      Light Of The World starting to shine within us. We can see again!
Pastor:       The scattered and shattered places within becoming whole.
People:      Our worst wounds are being healed.
Pastor:       By The Mysterious One’s constant, liberating power!
People:      The inner light Christ is always kindling!
Pastor:       We are a people freed by the Spirit’s increasing power!
People:      Hallelujah! We praise God!

HYMN:  Christ Has Arisen, Alleluia     GTG251
UNISON CONFESSION AND COMMITMENT   

Do not get lost in a sea of despair.
Be hopeful. Be optimistic.
Our struggle is not the struggle of a day
a week, a month or a year.
It is the struggle of a lifetime.
Never, ever be afraid
to make some noise
and get in good trouble,
necessary trouble.
Nothing can stop the power
of a committed and determined people
to make a difference in our society.
Why?
Because human beings are the most dynamic link
to the Divine on this planet.”
-John Lewis

HYMN:  Who Is My Mother, Who Is My Brother?  STF2225
SCRIPTURE:    Daniel 6:1-23   Genesis 19: 15-26    Matthew 25:1-13
SUNG RESPONSE:  I Love to Tell the Story      GTG462
SERMON:  Escape Plans !
HYMN:  Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning      GTG350
WELCOME
ANTHEM: Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel?— Setting by Patti Drennan
MORNING PRAYER—-conclude with the Lord’s Prayer, then Sung Response
HYMN: Come, Bring Your Burdens to God (sing twice)  GTG851
OFFERTORY: Der Musensohn (The Son of the Muses), Opus 92, no. 1 (1822); Neal Long, tenor
                 Offering link

The Son of the Muses Poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Through field and forest to roam, to whistle away my little song,
that’s how it goes from place to place!
And everything starts to move to my beat, and continues moving to my measure.
I can hardly wait for them, the first flower in the garden,
the first blossom on the tree. They greet my songs,
and when the winter comes again I still am singing that dream of them.
I sing it in the distant places, from one end of the icy landscape to the other,
then the winter blooms, becomes beautiful! This blossom too disappears,
and new joy is found on cultivated hillsides.
Then, when I find young folk by the linden tree,
I at once excite them. The dull fellow puffs himself up,
the awkward girl starts to dance to my melody.
You give wings to one’s feet
and drive your darling far from home, over hill and dale.
You dear, gracious Muses,
when shall I at last again be able also to rest on her bosom?
Translation by Beaumont Glass

Note from Neal: I find this poem striking as I reflect on the constancy of music and worship at Westport Presbyterian over a difficult 15 months. Music does indeed have the power to transform and “give wings to one’s feet.”

PRAYER OF DEDICATION:  Be Still and Know That I Am God (chant through once)
HYMN:  We Are Marching in the Light of God (marching, dancing, praying, singing) 853
BLESSING  

Pastor:       Siyahamba!
People:      Siyahamba!
Pastor:       Siyahamba E-ku-kha-nyen kwen kos       (See—yah—hahmba! Aay—koo—kah—nyen—kose, transliteration)
People:      Siyahamba!
Pastor:       (drum beat) We are singing! We are drumming!
People:      We are singing! We are drumming!—in the Bright Light of God!

SUNG BENEDICTION RESPONSE: We Are Marching in the Light of God  (Siyahamba stanza)  GTG853
POSTLUDE: Rondo in D Major for piano, 4 hands, D. 608–Franz Schubert; Neal Long and Emily Davidson

Daniel in the Lions’ Den by Henry Ossawa Tanner

Participants:
Pastor- Scott Myers
Piano- Emily Davidson
Choir-  Josh Stark, Jennifer Weiman, Em WitbolsFeugen
Camera: Josh Stark
Webpage- Martine Roesel

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