Service for Sunday, July 10, 2010

Subject: Sacrament

 Hymn 176 

 Based on the Danish of Nikolaj F. S. Grundtvig

 Long hast thou stood, O church of God,

   Long mid the tempest's assailing,

 Founded secure on timeless rock

   Rises thy light, never failing;

 Shining that all may understand

 What has been wrought by God's command,

   O'er night and chaos prevailing.

 Let there be light, and light was there,

   Clear as the Word that declared it;

 Healing and peace to all it gave,

   Who in humility shared it.

 Ah, they were faithful, they who heard,

 Steadfast their trust in God's great Word,

   Steadfast the Love that prepared it.

 Let there be light, the Word shines forth,

   Lo, where the new morning whitens;

 O church of God, with Book unsealed,

   How its page beacons and brightens.

 Living stones we, each in his place,

 May we be worthy such a grace,

   While Truth the wide earth enlightens.

The scriptural selections are from Proverbs and Psalms.

Proverbs 22:1,2,4,6,17‑21,23 (to ,)

A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.  The rich and poor meet together: the Lord is the maker of them all. 

By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, and honour, and life. 

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. 

Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart unto my knowledge.  For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee; they shall withal be fitted in thy lips.  That thy trust may be in the Lord, I have made known to thee this day, even to thee.  Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge, That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee? 

For the Lord will plead their cause,

Psalms 34:1‑4,22

I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.  My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.  O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.  I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. 

The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.

Silent prayer, followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s prayer, with its spiritual interpretation as given in the Christian Science textbook.

Our Father which art in heaven,

Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious,

Hallowed be Thy name.

Adorable One.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever-present.

Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Enable us to know – as in heaven, so on earth

God is omnipotent, supreme.

Give us this day our daily bread;

Give us grace for today; feed the famished affections;

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And Love is reflected in love;

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil;

And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.

For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and All.

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 Hymn 298

 Communion Hymn –  Mary Baker Eddy

 Saw ye my Saviour?  Heard ye the glad sound?

 Felt ye the power of the Word?

 'Twas the Truth that made us free,

 And was found by you and me

 In the life and the love of our Lord.

 Mourner, it calls you,‑‑"Come to my bosom,

 Love wipes your tears all away,

 And will lift the shade of gloom,

 And for you make radiant room

 Midst the glories of one endless day."

 Sinner, it calls you,‑‑"Come to this fountain,

 Cleanse the foul senses within;

 'Tis the Spirit that makes pure,

 That exalts thee, and will cure

 All thy sorrow and sickness and sin."

 Strongest deliverer, friend of the friendless,

 Life of all being divine:

 Thou the Christ, and not the creed;

 Thou the Truth in thought and deed;

 Thou the water, the bread, and the wine.

Reading of the Tenets of The Mother Church

Tenets of The Mother Church

The First Church of Christ, Scientist*

1. As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.

2. We acknowledge and adore one supreme and infinite God. We acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God's image and likeness.

3. We acknowledge God's forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts.

4. We acknowledge Jesus' atonement as the evidence of divine, efficacious Love, unfolding man's unity with God through Christ Jesus the Way-shower;and we acknowledge that man is saved through Christ, through Truth, Life, and Love as demonstrated by the Galilean Prophet in healing the sick and overcoming sin and death.

5. We acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection served to uplift faith to understand eternal Life, even the allness of Soul, Spirit, and the nothingness of matter

6. And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure.

Mary Baker Eddy

Solo: Sacrament

 

The lesson-sermon from the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, read by the First and Second Readers.

The content of the Lesson Sermon may be found in the Christian Science Quarterly. You may also read the Lesson-Sermon for this week online by clicking here.

The First Reader briefly invites the congregation to kneel in silent Communion. This is concluded by the

audible repetition of the Lord's Prayer (spiritual interpretation omitted).

 Hymn 1.

 Communion Doxology – Tate and Brady

 Be Thou, O God, exalted high;

 And as Thy glory fills the sky,

 So let it be on earth displayed,

 Till Thou art here and now obeyed.

"The Scientific Statement of Being" (S&H p. 468} and the correlative scripture according to I John 3:1-3.

There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual.

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p.468

1John.3

[1] Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

[2] Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

[3] And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

James 4:10

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.