February 25, 2018                                                                          “You Gotta Know When to Walk Away”

 

*Gathering Hymn                                         #83 Winds Be Still

 

Call to Worship                                            Catherine Grasso                                                    Worship Associate

 

Chalice Lighting                                          “And Yet You Persist”           Rev. Gretchen Haley (for Elizabeth Warren)

 

Music for the Morning                                 Make Me A Blessing                                                    Kimberly Haynes

 

Welcome

 

*Opening Hymn                                           #86 Blessed Spirit of My Life

 

*Covenant                                                     Love is the doctrine of this church.

                                                                      The quest for truth is its sacrament,

                                                                       And service is its prayer.

                                                                       To dwell together in peace,

                                                                       To seek knowledge in freedom,

                                                                       To serve humankind in fellowship,

                                                                        Thus do we covenant with each other.

 

*Hymn of Praise                                              From all that dwell below the skies

                                                                        Let songs of hope and faith arise

                                                                        Let peace, goodwill on earth be sung

                                                                        Through every land, by every tongue.

 

Offering for the Westside Food Bank

 

Time for All Ages                                              “Answer Mountain”                                                   Sarah E. Skwire

 

*Song of Blessing                                              #210 Wade in the Water

 

Life Together

 

Pulpit Message

 

Offering

 

Offertory Anthem                                            Great Divide                                                           Kimberly Haynes

 

Devotional Time

 

Reading / Reflection                                     “Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear”                  Elizabeth Gilbert

 

Pastoral Prayer

 

Silence

 

Musical Response

 

Sermon                                                       You Gotta Know When to Walk Away         Rev. Kikanza Nuri-Robins

 

Musical Response

 

Going Deeper                                               “Perseverance”                                                        Margaret Wheatley

 

*Closing Hymn                                             #1015 I Know I Can

 

*Benediction

 

Musical Benediction

 

Invitation to Fellowship

 

*Please stand in body or in spirit

 

Greeters:                         James Duckman (9am); Kirk Attebury, Michael Young & Steve Young (11am)

Ushers:                            Bonnie Brae & Peggy Kharraz (9am); Nina Emerson & Tom Foretich (11am)

Coffee:                             Sheila Bjornlie & Leah Moore (9am); Sylvia Young & Cathy Wolfson (11am)

Welcome Table:               Barbara Gibbs (9am); Carol Rig (11am)

Bookstore:                       Sarah Harper (9am & 11am)

 

Today, we share 40% of our offering with NAMI Westside Los Angeles.

 

NAMI (or the National Association of the Mentally Ill) is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness. NAMI advocates for access to services, treatment, supports and research and is steadfast in its commitment to raising awareness, removing the stigma and building a community of hope for all of those in need.

 

NAMI Westside Los Angeles is committed to improving the lives of families who love someone struggling with mental illness by educating, advocating, listening, learning and leading. Help us partner with those working to ensure hundreds of thousands of families, individuals and educators get the support and information they need.

 

About Guest Musician Kimberly Haynes: Despite limited exposure to art and music in the inner city where she was raised, Kimberly Haynes bravely followed a divinely inspired call to song. Her work is the reflection of a life woven from intense adversity and bountiful blessings, with her passion for sacred music from all over the world always guiding her. Kimberly emerged from the fire of personal challenges with her grace intact, allowing those experiences to deepen and enrich her song. With music as her prayer, her deepest desire is to be of service to the world, using art for the healing of humanity.

 

 

Chalice Lighting                            "And Yet You Persist"                   Rev Gretchen Haley (For Elizabeth Warren)

     Though you have been warned

     And given plenty of explanations

     Reasons to do otherwise

     You have persisted

     To claim a life of joy, and justice

     To carve out this time

     This space for the renewal

     Of your own heart

     Despite all the reasons, the resistance

     Fighting for your attention, luring you towards fear

     You persist

     To practice gratitude

     For this day, this life

     That has been given

     This chance to begin again

     And so let us gather

     That we might

     Offer one another courage, strength

     Healing, hope

     And this promise to

     Persist in kindness,

     Persevere in compassion

     And

     Prevail in a life that is for more than ourselves

     Come, let us worship together

 

 

Reading / Reflection

You will fail. It sucks, and I hate to say it, but it’s true. You will take creative risks, and often they will not pan out. I once threw away an entire completed book because it didn’t work. I diligently finished the thing, but it really didn’t work, so I ended up throwing it away. (I don’t know why it didn’t work. How can I know? What am I, a book coroner? I have no certificate for the cause of death. The thing just didn’t work.)

 

It makes me sad when I fail. It disappoints me. Disappointment can make me feel disgusted with myself, or

surly toward others. By this point in my life, though I’ve learned how to navigate my own disappointment

without plummeting too far into death spirals of shame, rage or inertia. That’s because by this point in my

life, I have come to understand what part of me is suffering when I fail: It’s just my ego. Elizabeth Gilbert,

Big magic: creative living beyond fear

 

 

Going Deeper

Sometimes the best thing to do is just leave things alone. To stop manipulating interfering or pushing

things along with your own worn-out energy. This is the first step—withdrawing your energy from

forcing or cajoling. The next move is to change where you are, to stop looking at the situation from the

outside and to step into it as much as you can. From inside, a whole different territory is revealed.

If we take this approach, in every situation, we discover that the resources we need are already here. We

have more than enough to work with. It’s our task to notice this abundance, and then figure out how to

work with it appropriately. What’s possible, now?

Margaret Wheatley, Perseverance

 

 

For what does Life call you to persist, in spite of the struggle or pain?

From what is it time to walk away? Is it time to pivot? Is it perhaps, an opportunity to embrace something else?