Worship At United
Coming together for worship at United is like finding water in a dry and thirsty land. That’s why we do so, not only on Sunday mornings but midweek, too!
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Like a stream in the desert, worship can refresh and renew us. Each week it offers us God’s new life and hope, for ourselves and for this world. At United, worship is the center of our life together, from which everything else flows: outreach, education, care, among others.
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Whether on Sunday mornings, midweek, or other times, worship at United offers that new life in different ways. Sometimes – especially in the Sunday 8:30 AM service and the midweek contemplative services – worship is like the deep, still waters that God promises in the 23rd Psalm. In the later Sunday service, worship can be like a living stream, offering life in all kinds of ways. Similarly, like on Mardi Gras and Fiesta Sundays, worship is a river, full of life and surprises.
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At United, we believe all of us – regardless of age – need the living waters of worship. That’s why children and younger youth join in the first part of the late service each Sunday and why Children’s Ministry always begins with prayer and song. It’s also why we offer a number of “intergenerational” services for all ages throughout the year.
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We hope you’ll join us in worship at United. Together may we be renewed by the waters of life God offers us each week.
Ask the Animals
Worship This Summer
But ask the animals, and they will teach you, the birds of the air, and they will tell you; ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you, and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
The Book of Job (12:7-9)
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The Biblical book of Job seems like an unlikely source for an environmental ethic. Yet early in Job’s argument with his “friends” about human suffering and God’s will, he looks to animals, birds, and plants to affirm his faith that God is a God of all life.
In worship this summer, we’ll engage a number of unlikely Biblical texts about the natural world that offer profound insights into the nature of the mystery we call God. They challenge us to rethink our relationship both to that mystery and the world around us. Join in – and bring a friend!
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Worship This Month
The Hand that Shapes Us
June 7
“Every wild animal of the forest is mine,” proclaims God through Psalm 50. “I know all the birds of the air, and all that moves in the field is mine.” A dominant thought through much of Christianity has been that we humans are the center of the universe, with the right to use this earth and all living things solely to satisfy our own wants. Yet the Bible offers a different vision, one where the same hand and heart that shapes and holds us also shapes and holds the whole world and all with whom we share life. We simply need to find our proper place.
8:30am Contemplative Communion
10:00am Sanctuary Service
(livestreamed)
Faithfulness to All Generations
June 14
In many indigenous traditions, the plumbline for decision-making is the impact on the “7th Generation” from ours. Would you be surprised that the Bible teaches the same ethic? Psalm 100 proclaims that God’s “faithfulness extends to all generations.” That our faithfulness—be it to God, our neighbors, or the rest of creation—should do the same.
8:30am Contemplative Communion
10:00am Sanctuary Service
(livestreamed)
On Eagles' Wings (Summer Solstice and Father's Day)
May 17
8:30am Contemplative Communion
10:00am Sanctuary Service
(livestreamed)
“As an eagle stirs up its nest and hovers over its young,” Moses told his people, “so God alone guided you and bore you aloft on its wings.” He continued, “God fed you with produce of the field and nursed you with honey from the crags.” On this secular holiday called “Fathers’ Day,” who sheltered and guided you when you were young? Who’s fed you and sweetened your life? Who “raised you up on eagles’ wings?” A good time to give thanks for the “eagles” of our lives.
Consider the Seahorse (Pride Weekend)
June 28
8:30am Contemplative Communion
10:00am Sanctuary Service
(livestreamed)
From eagles and sheep to wolves and ostriches, the Bible is filled with all kinds of creatures great and small, including a hippo in the Book of Job and the great whales of Psalm 104. Had the Bible’s writers known the world beyond the deserts of the Ancient Near East, they might have included seahorses and a platypus or two. Yet even within its geographic confines, the Bible’s birds and animals display an extraordinary diversity of color, size, shape, care for their young, and other characteristics. The Creator’s extraordinary creativity is a good thing to consider, especially the weekend we celebrate our human diversity.