A Deeper Life 4: Loving God with Our Body

Sunday, July 5, 2026
10:30 AM 11:30 AM 10:30 11:30

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

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Though we often discuss them as if they are separate, heart and soul, mind and strength are really inseparable. It has been said that the love of God is embodied action. What would that look like in our lives?

You are invited to join us for worship this Sunday in our beautiful sanctuary at 200 East Main Street in Endicott. Or. if you wish, you can join our livestream from home or travel by clicking on the Youtube video below. You are always welcome!

A Deeper Life 4: Loving God with Our Body

1 Corinthians 6:19-20; 1 John 3:16-22; Matthew 7:24-27

July 5, 2026 

Union Presbyterian Church 

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

Liturgist: Laura Keibel Preacher: Rev. Pat Raube 

Welcome

This is the day that the Lord has made!

Let us rejoice and be glad in it! ~Psalm 118:24

Announcements          Laura Keibel

Prelude Chris Bartlette

“We Gather Together,” John Turner

Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.     

* Call to Worship

Calling all citizens of heaven: exiled dreamers and disciples of love,

God is close to the outcast and faithful to all.

Calling all pilgrims of the Spirit, carried by the winds of hope,

God is everywhere at all times, compassionate to all.

Calling all travelers between worlds, who translate compassion into peace,

God makes neighbors of strangers and kin of the forgotten.

Come to worship and be renewed for this long journey.

Strangers in a strange land, we have come to worship the creator of all.

* Hymn # 331

“God of the Ages, Whose Almighty Hand”

(Public Domain)

God of the ages, whose almighty hand
Leads forth in beauty all the starry band
Of shining worlds in splendor through the skies,
Our grateful songs before thy throne arise.

Thy love divine hath led us in the past.
In this free land by thee our lot is cast.
Be thou our ruler, guardian, guide, and stay:
Thy word our law, thy paths our chosen way.

From war's alarms, from deadly pestilence,
Be thy strong arm our ever sure defense.
Thy true religion in our hearts increase.
Thy bounteous goodness nourish us in peace.

Refresh thy people on their toilsome way.
Lead us from night to never-ending day.
Fill all our lives with love and grace divine,
And glory, laud, and praise be ever thine.

* Call to New Life

Sometimes, there is a disconnect between our faith and our practice. Sometimes, our instincts overrule the whispering voice of the Spirit. Let us open our hearts to God’s endless compassion and power to make us new again.

* Prayer for Wholeness and Peace

Gracious One, where do we begin? You call us to do justice,

and we explain that justice is complicated.

You ask us to love mercy,

and we counter that a show of strength is necessary.

You invite us to walk humbly with you,

and we struggle to recognize you in our neighbors, in the dispossessed, in the poor and hungry places of our own hearts.

We confess we have failed to summon

the courage and compassion required by your call.

We have treated hospitality as an option,

kinship as a choice, instead of as the center of our life together.

We have claimed your name, yet rejected your way.

Forgive us, we pray.

* Words of Assurance

Friends, hear this good news:

God’s gift is love that liberates, hope that inspires,

grace that transforms.

Each of us alone and all of us together

are forgiven and set free.

Alleluia! Amen.

* Sharing of the Peace

God, the one who liberates us with love and inspires us with hope,

encourages us to sharing divine transforming grace.

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 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Matthew 7:24-27 NRSVUE

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; thereforeglorify God in your body.

“Everyone, then, who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!”

Time for Young Disciples Rev. Pat Raube

Music: “May the God of Hope Go With Us” (Hymn #765)

(Public Domain)

Anthem Pat Raube, Kathy Bartlette, Chris Bartlette

“Crowded Table,” arr. Andrea Ramsey

Maps and Records Music, Creative Pulse Music, Music of Southern Oracle.

You can hold my hand when you need to let go.

I can be a mountain when you’re feeling valley low.

I can be a streetlight showing you the way home,

If you can hold my hand when you need to let go.

I want a house with a crowded table,

And a place by the fire for everyone.

Let us take on the world while we’re young and able,

And bring us back together when the day is done.

If we want a garden, we’re gonna have to sow the seeds,

Plant a little happiness, let the roots run deep.

If it’s love that we give, then it’s love that we reap.

If we want a garden, we’re gonna have to sow the seeds.

I want a house with a crowded table,

And a place by the fire for everyone.

Let us take on the world while we’re young and able,

And bring us back together when the day is done.

The door is always open, your picture’s on my wall,

Everyone’s a little broken, and everyone belongs—

Yeah, everyone belongs.

I want a house with a crowded table,

And a place by the fire for everyone.

Let us take on the world while we’re young and able,

And bring us back together when the day is done.

Scripture 1 John 3:16-22 NRSVUE

We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?

Little children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth. And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us, for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God, and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.

Response Holy Wisdom, Holy Word.

Thanks be to God.

Sermon “Loving God with Our Body”

Affirmation of Faith from the Confession of Belhar, South Africa

We believe that God has revealed God’s self as the one who wishes to bring about justice and true peace among people; that God, in a world full of injustice and enmity, is in a special way the God of the destitute, the poor and the wronged that God calls the church to follow God in this; for God brings justice to the oppressed and gives bread to the hungry; that God frees the prisoner and restores sight to the blind; that God supports the downtrodden, protects the stranger, helps orphans and widows and blocks the path of the ungodly; that for God pure and undefiled religion is to visit the orphans and the widows in their suffering; that God wishes to teach the church to do what is good and to seek the right; that the church must therefore stand by people in any form of suffering and need, which implies, among other things, that the church must witness against and strive against any form of injustice, so that justice may rolldown like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream; that the church as the possession of God must stand where the Lord stands, namely against injustice and with the wronged; that in following Christ the church must witness against all the powerful and privileged who selfishly seek their own interests and thus control and harm others.

* Hymn #340

“This is My Song”

Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.     

This is my song, O God of all the nations,

A song of peace for lands afar and mine.

This is my home, the country where my heart is;

Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;

But other hearts in other lands are beating

With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean,

And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine.

But other lands have sunlight, too, and clover,

And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.

So hear my song, O God of all the nations,

A song of peace for their land and for mine.

This is my prayer, O Lord of all earth’s kingdoms:

Thy kingdom come; on earth thy will be done.

Let Christ be lifted up till all shall serve him,

And hearts united learn to live as one.

So hear my prayer, O God of all the nations:

Myself I give thee; let thy will be done.

Prayers of the People 

God of this day and all days,

God of this place and all places,

we come together to listen to stories about you

as we remember and share our own stories.

We give thanks for all that has been passed on to us.

We give thanks for the chance to pass on

what is dear to us. And we pray:

May we be honest and brave

in the stories we tell about ourselves.

Help us to name and own

our arrogance and our ignorance,

the damage we have caused

and the harm in which we have been complicit.

Empower us to resist the lie that all is lost.

Invite us to remember we are yours,

all the world is yours,

and with you, anything is possible.

Gracious One,

in your mercy, hear our prayers.

May we be compassionate and generous

in the stories we tell about one another.

Help us to see each other, and all others,

as our kin and your beloveds.

Give us the strength to insist on dignity for one another.

Remind us you have made us for each other,

and we know you when we love one another.

Gracious One,

in your mercy, hear our prayers.

May we be faithful and humble

in the stories we tell about you.

Help us to take seriously

the task of invoking your name.

Help us to remember that your heart

holds all of us, and all that is.

Tell us again the promise that

our home is in you and our rest is in you.

As we trust your words, may our hope be in you.

Gracious One,

in your mercy, hear our prayers.

We pray in the name of your son, Jesus, who taught us to pray together,

THE LORD’S PRAYER  (Unison) 

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. Amen. 

Prayer Response # 414

“Be Still and Know That I Am God,” John L. Bell

Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.     

Be still and know that I am God.

Call for Offering     

* Doxology # 675 (verse 4)

“All Praise to Thee, My God, This Night”

(Public Domain)

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.

* Dedication of Offering 

Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper

The Invitation
Jesus said:
I am the Bread of Life.
Whoever comes to me will never be hungry.
Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.

The Great Thanksgiving
This is the joyful feast of the people of God!
At this table all are welcome.
At this table there is more than enough.
At this table, Love abounds.
For God is love.
And those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.

May the Lord be with you:
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise!

It is a good and right and joyful thing, always to give you thanks and praise.

Out of nothing but love, you conceived our world and gave form to your people.

If God is indeed love, then
Love’s breath gave us life.
Love’s honesty named our wrongdoing.
Love’s leading guided us to freedom.
Love’s counsel rebuked our avarice, violence, and fear.
Love’s mercy offered the opportunity to live anew in covenant relationship,
again and again and again.

In the fullness of time Love came to earth,
born of a woman, human to the core,
touching the sick, embracing children,
challenging the powerful, refusing to turn away
from the suffering and hope of your people.
You are holy and we praise your name.

Sanctus

“Holy, Holy, Holy Lord,” Marty Haugen

Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.

Holy, holy, holy Lord,

God of power, God of might,

Heaven and earth are filled with Your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is He who comes

In the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest,

Hosanna in the highest.

The Words of Institution

Jesus, friend, brother, stranger, love, on that night when you were taken by the government, while you were still at table you took bread, broke it and gave it to friends and betrayers alike saying, “Take. Eat. This is my body, given for you. Whenever you do this, remember me.”

Then after supper you took the cup, lifted it high and said “Take. Drink. This is the blood of the new covenant, my blood, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sin. Whenever you drink this. Remember me.”

And so, we proclaim the mystery of our faith

Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

Pour out your Holy Spirit upon these gifts of bread and vine, that they may

become for us the body and blood of Jesus Christ, and that as we eat them we may be united in love with you and with all creation.

Communion of the People

Jesus said, I am the bread of life.

Jesus said, I am the vine, you are the branches.

Come to me and never be hungry;

trust in me, and never thirst.

The gifts of God for the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

Music during Communion: “Taste and See” (Hymn #520)

Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.     

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Loving God, you renew us at your table with the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation. May this food strengthen us in love and help us to serve you in each other. We ask this in the name of Jesus, our brother, friend, and Lord. Amen.

* Hymn # 338

“O Beautiful for Spacious Skies”

(Public Domain)

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed his grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for heroes proved

In liberating strife,

Who more than self their country loved,

And mercy more than life!

America! America!

God mend thine every flaw;

Confirm thy soul in self-control,

Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for patriot dream

That sees beyond the years

Thine alabaster cities gleam,

Undimmed by human tears!

America! America!

May God thy gold refine

Till all success be nobleness

And every gain divine!

* Benediction 

As you depart this sanctuary,

know that the God of the Ages,

whose love has led us in the past,

whose hand has kept us from alarm,

and whose grace has refreshed us,

calls us now into the never-ending light of day,

to live our lives with love and grace divine.
As we go from this place, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,

the Love of God,

and the sweet communion of the Holy Spirit go with us,
this day and forevermore.

Amen.  

Postlude Chris Bartlette

“Here I Am, Lord,” Joel Raney

Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.     

Where an * is indicated, please rise in body and/or in spirit.     

Call to Worship, Prayer for Wholeness and Peace, Assurance of Pardon, and Prayers of the People from “Fourth of July Pastoral Care Package” by Illustrated Ministry.

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A Deeper Life 4: Loving God with Our Body