Generosity Cycle Worship Suggestions

November 3, 2024

Mark 12:28-34

Love God, Love Neighbor

Preparation:

Each week for the next six weeks, the gathered community will be asked to write thoughts related to creating a communal statement of generosity. You will need pens and paper for the community to write. These papers will be collected during the Disciples’ Generous Response and will need to be compiled by the pastor team or another group after each service to begin to develop this statement. You can find instructions for each week at this link (insert link here). This week is the fourth week of the Generosity Cycle. The focus is on Discover. You can find information about the Generosity Cycle at (insert link here).

Prelude

Welcome and Call to Worship

Welcome to our worship service dedicated to discovering generosity and the way it beautifully reflects our love for God and neighbor. Today is the fourth week of the Generosity Cyle and our worship theme is Love God, Love Neighbor. It is also communion Sunday.

Communion calls us to discover the deep generosity that lives within us. The bread and wine serve as a reminder of the abundant grace and compassion given to us and the call to extend that same grace and compassion to others. We will continue to explore together the joy that comes from cultivating a generous heart and how it enriches our individual lives and strengthens our bond as a community.

Today is a sacred time when we come to the communion table. May we experience the essence of communion as a living, breathing expression of our interconnectedness. As we share in the sacred meal, may it be a catalyst for renewed commitment to one another and to our call to reflect God’s abundant generosity through our words and actions. Through centering moments, reflection time and the Disciple’s Generous response we will continue our journey toward creating a communal statement of generosity as we explore the question: When it comes to generosity, what is the one thing that is absolutely essential for you?

May the discoveries we make today in the spirit of generosity and communion resonate within our hearts, guiding us on our journey toward peace, justice, and compassion for all God’s creation.

From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
    my vows I will pay before those who fear him.
The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
    those who seek him shall praise the Lord.
    May your hearts live forever!

All the ends of the earth shall remember
    and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
    shall worship before him.
For dominion belongs to the Lord,
    and he rules over the nations.

(Psalm 22:25-28)

Hymn of Invitation                

“As We Gather At Your Table”                                                                      
CCS 523

or “Come Away from Rush and Hurry”                                                        
CCS 83

Opening Prayer

Scripture Reading                  

Mark 12:28-34

Children’s Focus Moment

Read “Last Stop on Market Street” by Matt De La Pena

Synopsis: Last Stop on Market Street is a story about appreciating differences, happiness, and inequity. Every Sunday after church, CJ and his Nana take the bus to its last stop on Market Street. This Sunday, CJ begins to wonder why they have to wait in the rain, why they don’t have a car, why they always make this trip. Nana responds by giving him different ways of appreciating what they have, what their routine is, and the different people they meet. Nana shows CJ the value in differences and the joy in helping those that need it.

Discussion and Questions:

• Who are your neighbors? Kids answer.
• But can neighbors be people who live far away from you, too? Or are they just people who physically live close to where you live?
• Why is CJ upset at the beginning? How does his mood change throughout the book?
• Nana helps CJ see that there is beauty everywhere we look. Where are some places you find beauty in your school? Your neighborhood?
• CJ and Nana volunteer at a soup kitchen on Sundays – they help cook and serve food to people. Can anyone tell about a time when you helped someone do something? How did you feel?”
• Jesus once said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Was CJ doing that in this book?  Have you every loved your neighbor like that?

Centering Moment

Introduction:

For our centering moment today we’re going to do a breath prayer. This involves breathing in and out and silently reciting a phrase with each breath in and out.

Sit in a way that is comfortable for you, a position that will allow you to take a deep breath in and out.

Breathe slowly and deeply.

The prayer phrase we’ll be focusing on is:

Love the Lord with all my heart

Love my neighbor as myself

As you breathe in, inhale the love of God, and say Love the Lord with all my heart

As you breath out, exhale love to your neighbor and say Love my neighbor as myself

Breath in: Love the Lord with all my heart

Breath out: Love my neighbor as myself

Breath in love, Breath out love

Breath in love, breath out love

Closing:

May your love for God and neighbor be a beacon of light in a world that yearns for compassion and may this centering moment serve as a reminder of the transformative power of love.

Hymn of Reflection

“Called By Christ to Love Each Other”                                                        
CCS 577

or “We Are One in the Spirit”                                                                       
CCS 359

Reflection Time

For the past three weeks, we have been discussing the importance of having a communal generosity statement—a statement that tells the world around us and keeps us focused as a community on what is important to us when it comes to generosity. We have thought about what generosity means to us personally and as a community, we have discussed that intentionality is essential, and we have talked about our values when it comes to generosity and money.

As you think about these last few weeks, what have been some words or phrases that have risen within you? What do you still feel needs to be a part of this communal generosity statement? When it comes to generosity, what is the one thing that is absolutely essential for you?

(Ask the congregation/group to take some time and think quietly to themselves, get with a partner, or get with 3-4 people and discuss what are the essentials when it comes to a statement of generosity)

(Post these questions on a slide or easel board)

What do you feel still needs to be a part of this communal generosity statement? When it comes to generosity, what is the one thing that is absolutely essential for you?

(Feel free to discuss as a congregation by having people share their answers out loud.)

Hymn of Commitment

Help Us Express Your Love”                                                                       
CCS 621

or “Bear Each Others Burdens”                                                                    
CCS 374

Morning Message: Based on Mark 12:28-34

Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper

Hymn of Preparation

“Eat This Bread”                                                                               
CCS 528

or “O Lord, How Can it Be”                                                             
CCS 529

Communion Scripture Reading: Matthew 26:17-30

Invitation to Communion

All are welcome at Christ’s table. The Lord’s Supper, or Communion, is a sacrament in which we remember the life, death, resurrection, and continuing presence of Jesus Christ. In Community of Christ, we also experience Communion as an opportunity to renew our baptismal covenant and to be formed as disciples who live Christ’s mission> Others may have different or added understandings within their faith traditions. We invite all who participate in the Lord’s Supper to do so in the love and peace of Jesus Christ.

Blessing and Serving of Bread and Wine

Disciples’ Generous Response

Items needed: (give each person two pieces of paper. The first with the question: What do you feel needs to be a part of this communal generosity statement? The second with the question: When it comes to generosity, what is the one thing that is absolutely essential for you?)

We all have the need to understand and control things. We want to be in full control of something before we risk stepping into it. Often though that’s not possible. Generosity, for instance, doesn’t work like that. Generosity isn’t something for your head to “figure out,” it’s something that comes from your heart. In fact, generosity begins and ends in our hearts. Once we get our heads involved, it becomes more of a math problem than an exercise in compassion.

Please take a moment to answer the questions on the paper you have been given. What do you feel needs to be part of our communal generosity statement? When it comes to generosity, what is the one thing that is absolutely essential for you?

Each week as we answer questions about generosity they will be gathered and reviewed by the pastor team to help create a communal statement of generosity that will be presented next week for our review. So, take a moment to answer the questions on your paper. Once you’ve written your answers down, please place them in the offering baskets/plates when they are passed.

This is also the first Sunday of November and communion. On this Sunday, we draw emphasis to Abolish Poverty, End Suffering, which includes Oblation ministry. This ministry is grounded in the ethic of abundance and the deep compassion that lives within us. It is a call to reflect God’s abundant generosity through tangible words and actions. As think about what is absolutely essential to us when it comes to generosity and as we express in tangible ways our belief in an abundantly generous God, may our hearts grow more aligned with God.

Blessing and Receiving of Local and Worldwide Mission Tithes

Closing Hymn

“Now Let Us From This Table Rise”                                                
CCS 644

or “Go Now Forth Into the World”                                                   
CCS 646

Benediction

Sending Forth (Doctrine and Covenants 162:8c)

Continue your journey, O people of the Restoration. You have been blessed thus far but there is so much yet to see, so much yet to do. Go forth with confidence and live prophetically as a people who have been loved, and who now courageously choose to love others in the name of the One you serve. Amen.

Postlude