Round Hill Community Church

ORDER OF SERVICEJuly 31, 2016

Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

PRELUDE Pastorale Sammaratini Andante Schroeder

WORDS OF WELCOME

INTROIT

CALL TO WORSHIP Leader: We have gathered here this morning to worship God.

All: We have come seeking comfort, inspiration, community and insight.

Leader: We have come to open ourselves to the power of God’s presence

in our midst.

All: We have come to offer up the seasons and the turnings in our

lives, and to ask God’s guidance in our learning and in our growing.

*HYMN No. 6 Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above

*The congregation is invited to stand

*OPENING PRAYER Almighty God, to you all hearts are open,all desires known,and from you no secrets are hid:Cleanse the thoughts of our heartsby the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,that we may perfectly love you,and worthily magnify your holy Name;through Christ our Lord. Amen.

*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 trespasses,as we forgive those who trespass against us,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.

*GLORIA PATRI

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning,is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

SUMMER HYMN SING Children may now leave for Church School.

ANTHEM The Call Vaughn WilliamsSCRIPTURE LESSON Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-19; 7:8-11

1:2 Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

1:12 I, the Teacher, when king over Israel in Jerusalem,

1:13 applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given to human beings to be busy with.

1:14 I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.

2:18 I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to those who come after me

2:19 --and who knows whether they will be wise or foolish? Yet they will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.

7:8 better is the end of a thing than its beginning; the patient in spirit are better than the proud in spirit.

7:9 Do not be quick to anger, for anger lodges in the bosom of fools.

7:10 Do not say, “Why were the former days better than these?”For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.

7:11 Wisdom is as good as an inheritance and advantage to those who see the sun.

SERMON Strangers in a Strange Land: The Voice of Ecclesiastes The Rev. Dr. Ed Horstmann

OFFERINGInvitationAnthem Hallelujah Amen (Judas Maccabeus) G.F.

Handel*Doxology Praise God from whom all blessings flow; praise him,

all creatures here below; praise him above, ye heavenly host: Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

*Hymn My Country ‘Tis of Thee (verse 4)Our fathers’ God, to thee, author of liberty, to thee we sing; long may our

land be bright with freedom’s holy light; protect us bythy might, Great God, our King.

PASTORAL PRAYER

*HYMN No. 595 Be Thou My Vision

CHURCH PRAYEROur Heavenly Father, shed forth thy blessed spirit upon all our lives. Make each one of us an instrument in thy hands for good. Purify our hearts, strengthen our minds and bodies, fill us with Christian love. Let no pride, no self-conceit, no rivalry, no ill-will ever spring up among us. Make us earnest and true, wise and prudent, giving no just cause for offense and may thy holy peace

rest upon us this day and every day throughout the coming week, sweetening our trials, cheering us in our work, and keeping us faithful to the end, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

BENEDICTION and CHORAL RESPONSE

POSTLUDE Deck Thyself With Gladness Walther

ROUND HILL COMMUNITY CHURCH CREEDI believe in God, the one universal Father of all mankind, revealed supremely in Jesus Christ, our Lord, and present with us to guide, comfort and inspire in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Kingdom of God; and in the mission of the Christian Church to proclaim the Gospel to all the world, exalting the worship of the Lord our God, and laboring for the progress of knowledge, the promotion of righteousness, the reign of peace, and the realization of human brotherhood. United in Christian love, we pray and labor for the coming of the Kingdom, the triumph of righteousness and the life everlasting. Amen.

ROUND HILL COMMUNITY CHURCH MISSON STATEMENTWe, the members of the Round Hill Community Church, a self-governing, non-denominational body, seek to foster a community of faith where people of all ages and backgrounds pursue spiritual growth; where God is worshipped in Word and praised in music; where friends are made and hurts are healed. We seek to be a community where individuals commit their time and resources to education, fellowship, and to helping those in need among our Church family and in the broader world. We are a church where faith, hope, justice and love are valued, and above all, Jesus is Lord.

CHURCH NEWS

Thank you to Kathryn Payne and Alice Melly for ushering this morning.

Thank you to Anne and Peter Alexander for hosting coffee hour this week. Please join them in the parlor following the service.

The flowers in the Sanctuary today were given by Ann Flinn in loving memory of Michael deV. Flinn.

Please keep in mind that the office is now operating on Summer Hours and will close at noon on Fridays through Labor Day.

Outreach

Summertime is a good time to peel back the layers….and clean out the closets! Do you have gently used interview clothes -- shirts, pants, jackets, suits, or shoes? Do your children or grandchildren have clothing they’ve outgrown, but that’s still in decent condition? The Outreach Committee continues to collect clothing for St. Ann’s in the South Bronx. Please bring clothing (laundered and pressed) on hangers. If you have any questions please contact Caroline Lazzara (ccclazzara@gmail.com) or Alice Fisher (sundial32@gmail.com).

Our next Simply Smiles service trip will be coming up in February 2017 when we spend a week in Oaxaca, Mexico. We all have talents and gifts to give in the service of God and in the service of others, and we encourage you to consider volunteering, sponsoring a scholarship for a local student and/or financially underwriting the cost of this trip for someone who may need the additional resources. Contact the Rev. Dan Haugh 203-869-1091 or dan@roundhillcommunitychurch.org.

Neighbor to Neighbor has identified a pressing need in their food pantry right now for donations of packable lunch items, such as individual fruit cups, juice pouches/boxes, non-perishable milk boxes, granola bars, etc. Please leave donations in the food wagon located in the Narthex.

CHILDREN’S CORNER

I love cookies. I’m pretty sure most people love cookies. They’re just plain delicious, right? I eat them as often as I can but sometimes, as an adult, I know that cookies aren’t always the healthiest choice for me, so I pass. I make that decision for myself – sometimes I tell myself “yes” and sometimes, “no.” As a child, when you ask your mom if you can have a cookie, do you always get the same answer? Probably not. Sometimes the answer may be, "yes" and sometimes it may be "no." If you ask for a cookie and it is almost time to eat dinner, the answer might be, "not right now, it would spoil your dinner." You see, your mom wants what is best for you and when you ask for something, "yes" might not always be the answer that is best for you.

Did you know that same thing is true when we pray to God? Sometimes we ask God for something and He answers, "yes" right away. Other times he may say, "no." There are also times when we ask God for something, and he says, "not right now." The reason God doesn't always say, "yes" is that He wants what is best for his children -- and what we are asking for may not be what is best for us.

God is all-powerful and can give us whatever we want, whenever He wants to, but by saying “no,” God teaches us that He is in charge. teaches us to be humble and to put our trust in Him rather than in our own strength and in what we think is best for us. When we trust only in our own strength, we may not be able to do nearly as much as we might if only we put all of our trust in God.

God wants us to pray. He wants us to ask him for everything that we need, but we must remember that what we want may not always be what we need. God loves us and wants what is best for us. That is why when we pray and ask for something, the answer is sometimes "no."

A child’s prayer: Dear Father, I know that you love me and want what is best for me. Help me to remember that when I ask for something and your answer is "no." Amen.

REFLECTIONThis “Preacher” does not claim to be a credentialed clery-person or prophet. He’s something unpredictable – a lay philosopher, going his own way. But he holds to a baseline of faith and ethics, underwritten by the Almighty. His message might be boiled down this way:

Everything passes away. God knows all, judges all. Keep God’s commandments. Enjoy the world.

Our times are not for the faint of heart. Nor is Ecclesiastes. He lodges a protest against the religious and cultural establishment of his day. More than two thousand years later, nothing has changed. He still goes against the national grain. He’s not part of the national conversation, whatever the nation.

We might dismiss Ecclesiastes as a crank, except for one inconvenient fact: somehow he has a book of his own in the Bible. His words come with the aura of divine biblical authority. His words, not ours, are found in Holy Scripture.

In the Bible, Ecclesiastes serves as a place of refuge for a particular moment in the spiritual life – a time of trouble, dismay, and recovery, whether the reader is a lone individual or a standing-room only congregation or a soul-searching nation. Ecclesiastes is the book for times when God does not answer in the expected way. Ecclesiastes is like a rocky isle on the map of Bible reading – a windswept place, hard to reach, yet nevertheless a place to land and hear things said that no one else says in scripture or in modern spiritual America.

Ray Waddle, Against the Grain: Unconventional

Wisdom from Ecclesiastes

Senior Pastor: The Rev. Dr. Edward G. HorstmannAssociate Pastor: The Rev. Dan Haugh

Minister Emeritus: The Rev. Dr. Ralph AhlbergMinister of Music: Christopher Kabala

Round Hill Community Church395 Round Hill Road, Greenwich, CT 06831

203.869.1091 roundhillcommunitychurch.org