Juneteenth Sunday

Sunday, June 23, 2024
10:30 AM 11:30 AM 10:30 11:30

Union Presbyterian Church 200 E Main St Endicott, NY, 13760 United States (map)

Google Calendar ICS

In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, stating that all enslaved people in Confederate states were to be freed as of January 1, 1863. However, Confederate General Robert E. Lee did not surrender until more than two years later, on April 8, 1865. And it wasn't until June 19, 1865 that Union troops arrived at Galveston, Texas with news that the Civil War was over and the last remaining 250,000 slaves were free. The executive order stated, “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves.”

This Sunday the Rev. Robin Lostetter leads our congregation’s celebration of this important date in the life of our nation. Our worship time will include a special “noisy” offering for a congregational donation to the Buffalo 10 Scholarship (you can read more about it here.)

Join us in our beautiful sanctuary, or right here online. Worship is live-streamed; videos are available here or on Youtube following the service.

Juneteenth

“Gospel ~ Good News!”

Psalm 9:9-20, Job 38:1-11, Galatians 3:23-29

Union Presbyterian Church

June 23, 2024, Fifth Sunday After Pentecost

Sharing the Light of Christ, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Liturgist: Jane Park Preacher: Rev. Robin Lostetter

Welcome

Announcements Jane Park

Prelude Chris Bartlette

"In the Garden,” Joel Raney

Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.

Call to Worship (responsive)

God summons the day to dawn,

and teaches the morning to waken the earth;
Great is the name of the Lord!
For God the valleys shall sing for joy;

the trees of the field shall clap their hands;
Great is the name of the Lord!
For God the kings of the earth shall bow,

and the persecuted poor shall shout for joy;
Great is the name of the Lord!
God's love and mercy shall last forever:

fresh as the morning, sure as the sunrise.
Great is the name of the Lord!
Let us worship God!

Hymn

“We Are Marching in the Light of God," Gracia Grindal

Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.       

1) We are marching in the light of God.

2) We are dancing in the light of God.

3) We are praying in the light of God.

4) We are singing in the light of God.

Call to New Life (“Lord, Lord, Open Unto Me” - Howard Thurman)

Open unto me, light for my darkness

Open unto me, courage for my fear

Open unto me, hope for my despair

Open unto me, peace for my turmoil

Open unto me, joy for my sorrow

Open unto me, strength for my weakness

Open unto me, wisdom for my confusion

Open unto me, forgiveness for my sins

Open unto me, tenderness for my toughness

Open unto me, love for my hates

Open unto me, Thy Self for myself

Lord, Lord, open unto me!

Let us join in the prayer for Wholeness and Peace . . .

Prayer for Wholeness and Peace (Unison) (- Peter Englert)

Today, Lord, we commemorate the end of slavery in America.

This day partially reminds us of the progress made.

This day also partially reminds us of the progress we have not made.

We celebrate the freedom of Black lives in our nation.

We grieve that we have not correctly reconciled racism in our nation.

You created each person in Your image.

The two greatest commandments call us to love You

with all our heart, souls, and minds;

Then, to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Your love for us motivates us to love each other.

If we do not love each other, then ultimately,

we have not experienced Your love.

As much as we commemorate and celebrate Juneteenth,

we grieve this day.

We mourn that our Black brothers and sisters

have not been loved as our neighbors.

We mourn that our Black brothers and sisters have been treated

less than created in Your image throughout history.

So, Lord, we confess our sins and repent.

The healing and reconciliation we desire comes from the gospel.

On Juneteenth this year, we ask You to guide our nation.

May the good news of the gospel motivate us to love each other.

May the ideals of our words match the practices of our lives.

May a fresh empowerment of Your Spirit unite us together.

Give us eyes to see and ears to hear Your will and leading. Amen.

Words of Assurance

Hear the Good News:

Christ offers himself as bread of life

to all who would receive him.

In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.

Thanks be to God! Alleluia! Amen.

Sharing of the Peace

May the peace of God be with you. 

And also with you.

Let us share a sign of God’s peace with one another.

Scripture Job 38:1-11 (CEB) Rev. Robin Lostetter

Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind:

Who is this darkening counsel

with words lacking knowledge?

Prepare yourself like a man;

I will interrogate you, and you will respond to me.

Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?

Tell me if you know.

Who set its measurements? Surely you know.

Who stretched a measuring tape on it?

On what were its footings sunk;

who laid its cornerstone,

while the morning stars sang in unison

and all the divine beings shouted?

Who enclosed the Sea behind doors

when it burst forth from the womb,

when I made the clouds its garment,

the dense clouds its wrap,

when I imposed my limit for it,

put on a bar and doors

and said, “You may come this far, no farther;

here your proud waves stop”?

Time for Young Disciples

Music: "Freedom is Coming”

Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.       

Piano Anthem Chris Bartlette

“Deep River,” Philip Le Bas

Used with permission.  

Prayer for Illumination (unison)

Almighty God, we come to you today with open hearts and open minds. We want to hear and receive what you have to say to us in this service. Speak to us today as you spoke to those who went before us. Tell us the stories of your wonders and greatness. We are ready to hear them. Remind us once again of your grace and love. Help us teach your goodness to our children and the next generation. Amen.

Scripture Galatians 3:23-29 (NRSV)

Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be reckoned as righteous by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

Response  Holy Wisdom, Holy Word: 

Thanks be to God! 

Sermon “Gospel ~ Good News!”

Statement of Faith (from The Confession of 1967)

The reconciling act of God in Jesus Christ exposes the evil in men as sin in the sight of God. In sin, men claim mastery of their own lives, turn against God and their fellow men, and become exploiters and despoilers of the world. They lose their humanity in futile striving and are left in rebellion, despair, and isolation. (THE SIN OF MAN, 9.12)

Wise and virtuous men through the ages have sought the highest good in devotion to freedom, justice, peace, truth, and beauty. Yet all human virtue, when seen in the light of God’s love in Jesus Christ, is found to be infected by self-interest and hostility. All men, good and bad alike, are in the wrong before God and helpless without his forgiveness. Thus all men fall under God’s judgment. No one is more subject to that judgment than the man who assumes that he is guiltless before God or morally superior to others. (THE SIN OF MAN, 9.13)

God the Holy Spirit fulfills the work of reconciliation in man. The Holy Spirit creates and renews the church as the community in which men are reconciled to God and to one another. He enables them to receive forgiveness as they forgive one another and to enjoy the peace of God as they make peace among themselves. In spite of their sin, he gives them power to become representatives of Jesus Christ and his gospel of reconciliation to all men. (THE LOVE OF GOD, 9.20)

God has created the peoples of the earth to be one universal family. In his reconciling love, he overcomes the barriers between brothers and breaks down every form of discrimination based on racial or ethnic difference, real or imaginary. The church is called to bring all men to receive and uphold one another as persons in all relationships of life: in employment, housing, education, leisure, marriage, family, church, and the exercise of political rights. Therefore, the church labors for the abolition of all racial discrimination and ministers to those injured by it. Congregations, individuals, or groups of Christians who exclude, dominate, or patronize their fellowmen, however subtly, resist the Spirit of God and bring contempt on the faith which they profess. (RECONCILIATION IN SOCIETY, 9.44)

Hymn #512 W & R

“We Shall Overcome,” William Farley Smith

Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.       

We shall overcome, we shall overcome,
We shall overcome someday!

Oh, deep in my heart I do believe
We shall overcome someday!

The Lord will see us through, the Lord will see us through,

The Lord will see us through someday!