This Sunday

“The Eternal Rememberer”

By Rev. Rick Hoyt-McDaniels

May 25, 2025

10:00 AM, In-person and Via Zoom 

"We remember them" we say, in one of the litanies from our hymnal. But if honoring the dead depends on memory, then what happens when memory fails? And does the value of a life die with the death of the last person who remembers? I can't respect such a contingent valuation. Something greater than human memory is necessary to give lasting honor to those precious but forgotten lives that came before.

Order of Worship
May 25, 2025

PRELUDE, 

WELCOME, Worship Associate

ANNOUNCEMENTS, Board Member

BELL

OPENING MUSIC, 

CALL TO WORSHIP, #528, “I’ve Known Rivers” by Langston Hughes

I’ve known rivers:

I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.

I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.

I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I’ve known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

*OPENING HYMN, #358, “Rank by Rank Again We Stand”

Rank by rank again we stand, from the four winds gathered hither.  

Loud the hallowed walls demand whence we come and how, and whither.  

From their stillness breaking clear, echoes wake to warn or cheer;  

higher truth from saint and seer call to us assembled here.

Ours the years’ memorial store honored days and names we reckon, 

days of comrades gone before, lives that speak and deeds that beckon.  

From the dreaming of the night to the labors of the day, 

shines their everlasting light, guiding us upon our way.

Though the path be hard and long, still we strive in expectation; 

join we now their ageless song one with them in aspiration. 

One in name, in honor one, guard we well the crown they won; 

what they dreamed be ours to do, hope their hopes, and seal them true.

*CHALICE LIGHTING, 

*COVENANT, led by Worship Associate

            Love is the spirit 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 humanity in fellowship,

            thus do we covenant. 

*SONG OF HOPE AND FAITH

            From all that dwell below the skies,

            let songs of hope and faith arise.

            Alleluia! Alleluia!

            Let peace, good will on earth be sung,

            from every land, by every tongue.

            Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! 

CHILDREN’S MESSAGE, “”, Rev. Rick Hoyt-McDaniels

CHILDREN’S BENEDICTION, May Love Surround You” by Carole Etzler

May love surround you with warm gentle arms.

May love surround you and keep you from harm.

And may you always continue to grow.

May you find happiness wherever you go.

OFFERING, Rev. Rick Hoyt-McDaniels

            Music:  

RESPONSE, “From You I Receive”

From you I receive

To you, I give

Together we share

And from this, we live.

JOYS & SORROWS, 

            Music:  

            Readers:  

MEDITATION OR SILENCE/PRAYER/READING, Rev. Rick Hoyt-McDaniels

ANTHEM, 

SERMON, “The Eternal Rememberer” Rev. Rick Hoyt-McDaniels

*CLOSING HYMN, #281, “O God, Our Help in Ages Past”

O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, 

our shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal home:

Before the hills in order stood, or earth received its frame, 

from everlasting thou art God, to endless years the same.

A thousand ages in thy sight are like an evening gone, 

short as the watch that ends the night before the rising sun.

Time, like an ever-rolling stream, soon bears us all away: 

we fly forgotten, as a dream dies at the opening day.

O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, 

be thou our guard while troubles last, and our eternal home.

*BENEDICTION, #128 William Schulz

We affirm that every one of us is held in Creation’s hand—

A part of the interdependent cosmic web—

And hence strangers need not be enemies:

That no one is saved until we All are saved

Where All means the whole of Creation

*EXTINGUISHING THE CHALICE, 

CLOSING MUSIC

BELL