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October 19, 2025
TRADITIONAL Service
Union-Congregational Church

Gathering Music                                          

Welcome and Announcements                      

Sharing the Peace of Christ

Call to Worship                         
Leader: Creator God, we praise you!
All: Risen Christ, we greet you!
 

Leader: The turning leaves remind us of your glory;
All: they sing of the beauty of your love.
 

Leader: Help us to turn to you, God, and so reveal our deepest beauty.
All: Alleluia! Come, Holy Spirit, and transform us by your grace. Alleluia!

Opening Prayer (unison)                       
Persistent God, you remain with us through destruction and uprooting, plucking up and breaking down. You watch over us as we build and plant. Root your covenant within us, that, held steadfast in your grace, we might grow ever more persistent
in following you, whether the time is favorable or unfavorable, continuing on in what we have learned. And let us firmly believe, bound together with those from whom we have learned; through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

Opening Hymn: #478 Sweet Hour of Prayer

Children’s Time                             

Reading of Scripture                      
Jeremiah 31: 27-34
27 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals. 28 And just as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord. 29 In those days they shall no longer say: “The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” 30 But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of the one who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge. 31 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 No longer shall they teach one another or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.

Luke 18: 1-8
Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3 In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my accuser.’ 4 For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’ ” 6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8 I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

After reading, please say, “Here ends the readings for today. May God bless us as we learn from these holy words. Amen.”

Message: Justice Is Coming…Do Not Lose Heart

Song: “Do Not Lose Heart” by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan 

Do not lose heart
Do not lose heart
Life is at work
Do not lose heart

Have courage, friends
Have courage, friends
Lean into love
Have courage, friends

Prayers of the People
Time for Silent Prayer
Joys and Concerns 
After each prayer petition, Jacob will say, “God in your mercy”, and the congregation is invited to respond: “Receive our prayer.” 
Pastoral Prayer
The Lord’s Prayer (unison)

We Offer Our Gifts

Doxology
 

Prayer of Dedication (unison)
Gracious God, we give you these gifts as symbols of our lives. Receive them with love, bless them with grace, and use them according to your will. Help us to listen for your voice, to hear your cry for justice, to discern your Word, and to humbly follow, for the sake of the healing of the world, in the name and the Spirit of Christ. Amen.

Closing Hymn: #495 Stand by Me (v. 1-3)

Benediction
Do not lose heart, friends. God is with you, now and forever. May you go from this place empowered to heal the world and bring forth the justice you seek.

Sending Music                                    

Opening Prayer: Connections Year C Vol 2, p.163 ©2022 WJK
Call to Worship, Prayer of Dedication: Rev. Steve Garnaas-Holmes, Unfolding Light