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.
Sacred Conversations
Worship in Junly
A poor widow and a powerful prophet. An unnamed woman and an itinerant rabbi. A man possessed by demons and that same rabbi. A young intern and his teacher who is about to die. Ordinary people engaged in sacred conversations. That’s our focus in worship this month.
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Worship This Month
I Know You Are of God
July 6
8:30am Contemplative Communion
10:00am
“Now I know that you are of God,” a poor widow told the prophet Elijah. (I Kings 17:8-24) Her proof? Two miracles. First, after she fed him her last bit of food, her flour jar kept being replenished. Second, when her only child died, Elijah brought the boy back to life. The prophet showed he was “of God” not with a beatific aura or cosmic crown, but by offering food and healing—offering life. The weekend of a national holiday, how does our country demonstrate we’re “under God?” (Hint: It’s not through military might or violence.)
She Has Shown Great Love
July 13
8:30am Contemplative Communion
10:00am
“She has shown great love,” Jesus said of a woman who disrupted a fancy dinner of a respected religious leader. (Luke 7:36-8:3) “She” was “a woman in the city, who was a sinner”—which covered multiple human actions. She then doubled her sin by touching the Rabbi (i.e., Jesus). When the very religious host rebuked her, Jesus rebuked him and turned the notion of sin upside down, comparing the women’s actions with the host’s lack of hospitality toward his guest of honor (Jesus). He extolled the woman’s great love and even her faith over that of his host. I doubt he was invited back.
What Have You to Do with Me?
July 20
8:30am Contemplative Communion
10:00am
“What have you to do with me?” cried a naked man to Jesus. (Luke 8:26-39) The Gospel says he was afflicted with demons (a 1st c. description of a mental illness) and lived in the tombs outside Gadara, a rich and big Roman city in northwest modern-day Jordan. Called the “New Athens,” Gadara had wide paved streets, public baths for the rich and famous, and two theaters. What it didn’t have was any place for someone afflicted by illness or poverty or both. No wonder the man living in the tombs asked Jesus, “What do you have to do with me?” The question continues to echo through our time.
Give Me a Share of Your Spirit
July 27
8:30am Contemplative Communion
10:00am
Knowing that death was near, the prophet Elijah asks the young prophet Elisha, “Tell me what I may do for you before I am taken from you.” (2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14) Elisha answers his teacher, “Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit.” Not riches, not property, no shares of stock— but a double share of the spirit that had empowered the old prophet to stand up to evil and keep his faith. Young Elisha knew his challenges might exceed even those of Elijah. He knew what to ask for. In our time of challenge and uncertainty, what do we need?