Flower Sharing Sunda
Worship
Special Days For Celebration
Worship Resources For Eighteen Occasions Throughout The Year
Comments on the Service
Usually observed in mid-summer, Flower Sharing Sunday is a time when members of the church bring garden flowers to the Sunday service. The announcement of the day is made in advance and vases (one pound coffee cans wrapped in wallpaper will do!) are distributed. On Flower Sharing Sunday the various vases - filled with flowers - are brought to a room adjacent to the Sanctuary. There, planning committee members do any rearranging that might be needed. During the singing of an opening hymn ("For the Beauty of the Earth") children of the congregation bring the flowers into the Sanctuary, placing the arrangements throughout the chancel area. An austere, barren place is quickly changed into a "garden" filled with flowers. Following the service the individual vases of flowers are taken to shut-in members of the church.
Scripture:
Matthew 6:28-33
1 Corinthians 13
Suggested Service Hymns:
"For the Beauty of the Earth" - F. Pierpoint
"This Is My Father's World" - M. Babcock
"All Things Bright and Beautiful" - C. Alexander
"Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee" - Henry van Dyke
Order of Worship
"Come, Let us walk in the light of the Lord ..."
THE PRELUDE "Air for G String" J. S. Bach
THE CHORAL INTROIT
THE OPENING LITANY
Leader:
The psalmist calls us into fellowship and worship: "Sing a new song to the Lord; sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord and bless God's name, proclaim God's triumph day by day."
People:
O Creator God, you have fashioned a world of great beauty. We pray for the eyes to see the beautiful -from the flowers of the field to a loving human spirit. We pray for hearts to sense a harmony in all creation.
Leader:
The psalmist continues, "Ascribe to the Lord, you families of nations, ascribe to the Lord glory and might; ascribe to the Lord the glory due to God's name."
People:
Indeed, our prayer is of praise to God for the gift of creation. We see by microscope the grand expanse of the universe. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised!
Leader:
The psalmist concludes, "Let the heavens rejoice and the earth exult, let the sea roar and all the creatures in it, let the fields exult and all that is in them; then let all the trees of the forest shout for joy before the Lord when he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the earth with righteousness and the peoples in good faith."
People:
O Creator God, you have fashioned a world of great beauty, yet a world shared with each of us for only a time. We pray for that "right spirit within" that will allow us to see the beauty, to sense the great gift that we have in the world about us, and to care for it as stewards of the Heavenly King. Amen
(From Psalm 96)
THE OPENING HYMN "This is My Father's World"
THE INVOCATION
THE WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
"... That God may teach us God's Way ..."
THE PRESENTATION OF TITHES AND OFFERINGS
The Doxology and Prayer of Dedication
THE READING OF THE SCRIPTURE: Matthew 6:28b-33
THE ANTHEM
THE CHILDREN'S MESSAGE
THE SERMON "For the Beauty of the Earth"
(A sermon disguised in a story)
"... and that We may walk in God's Pathways." (Isaiah 2)
THE BLESSING OF THE FLOWERS
Minister: As these flowers have grown in beauty from the earth, and as their beauty makes glorious this place for worship,
People:
So may they now go forth to brighten the rooms of the home-bound friends. May they take with them the love of Christ for all his disciples, and the love of God for the whole family of earth.
Minister: Bless, O God, these flowers in their ministry this day, may they speak our love and caring.
People:
Bless us, O God, that as we see beauty in the flowers and in the sharing, we may find in all your creation the works of your love and salvation. Amen
THE CLOSING HYMN
THE BENEDICTION AND CHORAL RESPONSE
THE POSTLUDE "He Who Suffers God to Guide Him" J.S. Bach
Children's Message
The children may be invited to come into the chancel, perhaps seated amid the flowers. The children's sermon can be developed around one of two themes:
1. The variety present in the vases of flowers represents a variety that is part of God's creation and a variety that adds to show the variety that exists within the human family (languages, colors, sizes, and ages). In that mix of "differentness" is also found a great beauty and blessing. The specialness of human individuality, created in God's spiritual image, is enhanced by the variety of human life that surrounds each one of us.
2. The sharing of the flowers is a small example of the way God shares his love with us. The flowers were brought to the church by families who wanted to share the product of their gardens so that all persons in the church could see and appreciate the beauty of the flowers. But there is more. Following the service the sharing continues as the flowers are taken to people who are ill or old and unable to be present. The children might be asked to tell about how they share - like sharing a smile with someone or sharing time with a grandparent. Sharing can be a "ministry" in the name of Jesus.
A Preaching Resource
"For the Beauty of the Earth"
Matthew 6:28-33
(A sermon disguised in a story)
It seemed to David that the sun came up all at once. One moment it wasn't there, and then the next moment it was full-formed, resting on the top edge of the hill toward Nazareth. The sun rested ever so lightly upon that hilltop, then immediately began its daily traveling that would end with it tucked behind another hill to the west.
That sun was intriguing to a little boy. Being careful to shade his eyes, he would watch it early in the day, and then monitor its fast decline into the western horizon. Never did he look at it when it was highest in the sky. "It will hurt your eyes," his mother said. His older sister was more graphic: "If you look at it even for an instant it will burn out your eyes and leave you with nothing but holes in your head." Sarah had a way with words.
That sun would come over the horizon each morning and send its rays down the foot path that went from the village to the gardens. For a few moments that sun's rays would skim along the path so that it made the hard, smooth dirt seem like a long, dark purple path of water. David had looked ever so intently at the path when he first noticed the shimmering make-believe water. Only when he ran after it did he see that it was still the path, hard-pressed by generations of bare feet. It was an illusion. It appeared to be something it wasn't. That life can hold illusions was another lesson David had to learn - along with never looking up at the noontime sun.
His village was small, with twenty-five families, and so routine. Each person had his or her place, a known place. It was a village fulfilling an eternal purpose. It worked through its daily cycle just as the sun did. The men of the village worked at the fishing, and the building - and the talking of the world. They prayed, too, in the synagogue.
The women bore the children, and did the weaving and the baking and tending to the little plots of land that grew the vegetables and grains. The plots were nearby, sometimes up against the house itself.
Some of the plots were shared, as two or three families joined by blood cared for a common crop. Others were for a single family, a plot that had been handed down from grandfather to father to son.
David was charged with work in the family's garden, often taking water to carefully pour near the stalks, or to spend hot hours using a stick to break up the drying ground in the midst of the plantings. While he did not enjoy the work, he never questioned doing it. His work was part of the larger plan for life that touched every person in the village. Although he never thought it specifically, he certainly would have felt that the sun itself would stop in its journey across the sky if he ever shirked from his part in the work of each day.
But while the work of watering and weeding was not joyful, being near the flowers was a joy. Bordering the plots of wheat and produce, and marking off the hard-pressed footpath to the village, were the beautiful, variegated flowers.
They were purposely set there to mark a line, but that utilitarian reason was forgotten by the gentle beauty that they brought. The reds and yellows and violets and oranges and blues mingled together in bright profusion. Green leaves formed a frame for some of the flowers, and halos for others.
There was the thin webbing of tiny lacy flowers that seemed so fragile that even a spider's step would crush them. David would stop just to look, trying to see where so lacy a design gained its strength. How could they grow?
Other flowers along the way were low to the ground, moving out rather than up. As if afraid to leave the protection of Mother Earth they moved across the surface with little flower-faces always positioned to the sun. How beautiful are the flowers of the fields.
"David, tend your work." A mother's voice called from the cluster of houses that formed the village. It was not his mother's voice, but that did not matter. He moved away from the little pansy faces and turned to the dry soil from which the wheat of a new crop was beginning to break through. Carefully he broke the larger pieces of earth so that the grain would grow straight.
As he worked, his eyes would often move to the flowers that bordered him. Their fragrance was brought toward him by the breezes, and the brightness of the colors contrasted with the browns of earth, and the growing greens of the grains. How he loved the flowers.
About noon, when the sun was in that particularly dangerous zenith, and David was very careful not to look skyway, a shadow fell upon the bit of earth he was scratching. It was the shadow of a man. David looked up to see a kindly face intent on the work he was doing.
"You are doing a good work, my child." The man's voice told that he was from a nearby village. "Do you like to work with the earth?"
David thought his answer, for he had never been asked such a question. "Yes," he replied, "When I can be near the flowers." He turned, pointing to a row of bright red and orange and yellows that marked the near boundary of the plot.
"How beautiful they are," said the man, walking to the border. "How beautiful, and how wondrous for their great variety, their color, their shapes, and smells. Indeed, God is a great artist for he paints beautiful pictures with the flowers."
That was a new idea to David, an idea that somehow the design of life could be illustrated in the flowers and their growth and beauty. There was a plan. And in the plan a care and beauty revealed.
As grown-ups came closer the man stood and began walking away. People seemed to be hurrying to be near him, to talk with him and share the walking. David watched as he continued down the hard-packed path, stopping here and there to talk. Every now and then he looked down at the flowers that graced the path's edge. Once he put out his hand to touch a tall, yellow flower. He was a big man, wearing the cloak of a working man, and walked with a grace that showed him to be in harmony with the world about him.
David looked again at the flowers nearby, seeing this time the symmetry of one to another, as well as the variety marking one different from the next.
Because of the man's words he saw the flowers now as a gift from God, given to make things beautiful. Of course, they still marked off the paths and plots, but sticks and twine could do the same. Here, graced in the midst of the little village hot under the noon sun, and a village of humanity caught in a sameness that marked one generation equal to the last, here there was the gift of a unique beauty in the form of the flowers. A new idea to the mind of the little boy - an idea touching his soul.
David next did a very impulsive thing. Surely he would hear the shouts from the village women. He ran to the edge of the row, and picked the largest flower he could find. He pulled it right out of the ground, roots and all. He ran as fast as he could until he caught up with the man. Running up, pushing through the adults that seemed so intent on hearing every word spoken, David wove his way to the man's side. "Here," he said. "Here is a flower for you. It came from my garden."
The man looked down, took the flower into his hand, smelled its fragrance and thanked David for the kindness of the gift. He laid his hand upon his head. David could feel in that instant a special warmth of love - like the warmth of the sun, like the warmth of the flowers upon his eyes, like the warmth of his mother's kiss.
"Thank you," said the man. And he moved on down the roadway, with the people pressing closer. David stood still for a very long time, watching the man and the crowds.
It seemed the further the people walked that the assembly about the man grew greater. Soon David could not even see him, in spite of his height. He only knew that at the center of the throng was the kind man who had stopped to talk with him, and to admire the beauty of the world - the man with whom he had shared a flower.
David stood, thinking that he might get a better view. He walked to the rise in the land that was the summit upon which the morning sun rested. At that incline David saw the whole company of people crowded close around his new friend.
He was now seated upon a large, flat rock, and talked with great animation. The words were lost in the distance. David moved closer so as to hear, walking now at the outskirt of the assembly.
Now he heard the man's voice, understanding the words. He was saying.
Consider the lilies of the field.
They neither toil nor spin, yet I
tell you Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed as one of these ...
Just so, your Heavenly Father plans
and cares for you.
David heard the words clearly. As the man spoke David saw that his hand still held the flower. It was a pretty flower that God had made, that showed God's care and love and plan. Perhaps the flower from his garden had prompted the words of hope. David did not know, but he did see that his flower - root and all - still rested in The Master's hand.
Usually observed in mid-summer, Flower Sharing Sunday is a time when members of the church bring garden flowers to the Sunday service. The announcement of the day is made in advance and vases (one pound coffee cans wrapped in wallpaper will do!) are distributed. On Flower Sharing Sunday the various vases - filled with flowers - are brought to a room adjacent to the Sanctuary. There, planning committee members do any rearranging that might be needed. During the singing of an opening hymn ("For the Beauty of the Earth") children of the congregation bring the flowers into the Sanctuary, placing the arrangements throughout the chancel area. An austere, barren place is quickly changed into a "garden" filled with flowers. Following the service the individual vases of flowers are taken to shut-in members of the church.
Scripture:
Matthew 6:28-33
1 Corinthians 13
Suggested Service Hymns:
"For the Beauty of the Earth" - F. Pierpoint
"This Is My Father's World" - M. Babcock
"All Things Bright and Beautiful" - C. Alexander
"Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee" - Henry van Dyke
Order of Worship
"Come, Let us walk in the light of the Lord ..."
THE PRELUDE "Air for G String" J. S. Bach
THE CHORAL INTROIT
THE OPENING LITANY
Leader:
The psalmist calls us into fellowship and worship: "Sing a new song to the Lord; sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord and bless God's name, proclaim God's triumph day by day."
People:
O Creator God, you have fashioned a world of great beauty. We pray for the eyes to see the beautiful -from the flowers of the field to a loving human spirit. We pray for hearts to sense a harmony in all creation.
Leader:
The psalmist continues, "Ascribe to the Lord, you families of nations, ascribe to the Lord glory and might; ascribe to the Lord the glory due to God's name."
People:
Indeed, our prayer is of praise to God for the gift of creation. We see by microscope the grand expanse of the universe. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised!
Leader:
The psalmist concludes, "Let the heavens rejoice and the earth exult, let the sea roar and all the creatures in it, let the fields exult and all that is in them; then let all the trees of the forest shout for joy before the Lord when he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the earth with righteousness and the peoples in good faith."
People:
O Creator God, you have fashioned a world of great beauty, yet a world shared with each of us for only a time. We pray for that "right spirit within" that will allow us to see the beauty, to sense the great gift that we have in the world about us, and to care for it as stewards of the Heavenly King. Amen
(From Psalm 96)
THE OPENING HYMN "This is My Father's World"
THE INVOCATION
THE WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
"... That God may teach us God's Way ..."
THE PRESENTATION OF TITHES AND OFFERINGS
The Doxology and Prayer of Dedication
THE READING OF THE SCRIPTURE: Matthew 6:28b-33
THE ANTHEM
THE CHILDREN'S MESSAGE
THE SERMON "For the Beauty of the Earth"
(A sermon disguised in a story)
"... and that We may walk in God's Pathways." (Isaiah 2)
THE BLESSING OF THE FLOWERS
Minister: As these flowers have grown in beauty from the earth, and as their beauty makes glorious this place for worship,
People:
So may they now go forth to brighten the rooms of the home-bound friends. May they take with them the love of Christ for all his disciples, and the love of God for the whole family of earth.
Minister: Bless, O God, these flowers in their ministry this day, may they speak our love and caring.
People:
Bless us, O God, that as we see beauty in the flowers and in the sharing, we may find in all your creation the works of your love and salvation. Amen
THE CLOSING HYMN
THE BENEDICTION AND CHORAL RESPONSE
THE POSTLUDE "He Who Suffers God to Guide Him" J.S. Bach
Children's Message
The children may be invited to come into the chancel, perhaps seated amid the flowers. The children's sermon can be developed around one of two themes:
1. The variety present in the vases of flowers represents a variety that is part of God's creation and a variety that adds to show the variety that exists within the human family (languages, colors, sizes, and ages). In that mix of "differentness" is also found a great beauty and blessing. The specialness of human individuality, created in God's spiritual image, is enhanced by the variety of human life that surrounds each one of us.
2. The sharing of the flowers is a small example of the way God shares his love with us. The flowers were brought to the church by families who wanted to share the product of their gardens so that all persons in the church could see and appreciate the beauty of the flowers. But there is more. Following the service the sharing continues as the flowers are taken to people who are ill or old and unable to be present. The children might be asked to tell about how they share - like sharing a smile with someone or sharing time with a grandparent. Sharing can be a "ministry" in the name of Jesus.
A Preaching Resource
"For the Beauty of the Earth"
Matthew 6:28-33
(A sermon disguised in a story)
It seemed to David that the sun came up all at once. One moment it wasn't there, and then the next moment it was full-formed, resting on the top edge of the hill toward Nazareth. The sun rested ever so lightly upon that hilltop, then immediately began its daily traveling that would end with it tucked behind another hill to the west.
That sun was intriguing to a little boy. Being careful to shade his eyes, he would watch it early in the day, and then monitor its fast decline into the western horizon. Never did he look at it when it was highest in the sky. "It will hurt your eyes," his mother said. His older sister was more graphic: "If you look at it even for an instant it will burn out your eyes and leave you with nothing but holes in your head." Sarah had a way with words.
That sun would come over the horizon each morning and send its rays down the foot path that went from the village to the gardens. For a few moments that sun's rays would skim along the path so that it made the hard, smooth dirt seem like a long, dark purple path of water. David had looked ever so intently at the path when he first noticed the shimmering make-believe water. Only when he ran after it did he see that it was still the path, hard-pressed by generations of bare feet. It was an illusion. It appeared to be something it wasn't. That life can hold illusions was another lesson David had to learn - along with never looking up at the noontime sun.
His village was small, with twenty-five families, and so routine. Each person had his or her place, a known place. It was a village fulfilling an eternal purpose. It worked through its daily cycle just as the sun did. The men of the village worked at the fishing, and the building - and the talking of the world. They prayed, too, in the synagogue.
The women bore the children, and did the weaving and the baking and tending to the little plots of land that grew the vegetables and grains. The plots were nearby, sometimes up against the house itself.
Some of the plots were shared, as two or three families joined by blood cared for a common crop. Others were for a single family, a plot that had been handed down from grandfather to father to son.
David was charged with work in the family's garden, often taking water to carefully pour near the stalks, or to spend hot hours using a stick to break up the drying ground in the midst of the plantings. While he did not enjoy the work, he never questioned doing it. His work was part of the larger plan for life that touched every person in the village. Although he never thought it specifically, he certainly would have felt that the sun itself would stop in its journey across the sky if he ever shirked from his part in the work of each day.
But while the work of watering and weeding was not joyful, being near the flowers was a joy. Bordering the plots of wheat and produce, and marking off the hard-pressed footpath to the village, were the beautiful, variegated flowers.
They were purposely set there to mark a line, but that utilitarian reason was forgotten by the gentle beauty that they brought. The reds and yellows and violets and oranges and blues mingled together in bright profusion. Green leaves formed a frame for some of the flowers, and halos for others.
There was the thin webbing of tiny lacy flowers that seemed so fragile that even a spider's step would crush them. David would stop just to look, trying to see where so lacy a design gained its strength. How could they grow?
Other flowers along the way were low to the ground, moving out rather than up. As if afraid to leave the protection of Mother Earth they moved across the surface with little flower-faces always positioned to the sun. How beautiful are the flowers of the fields.
"David, tend your work." A mother's voice called from the cluster of houses that formed the village. It was not his mother's voice, but that did not matter. He moved away from the little pansy faces and turned to the dry soil from which the wheat of a new crop was beginning to break through. Carefully he broke the larger pieces of earth so that the grain would grow straight.
As he worked, his eyes would often move to the flowers that bordered him. Their fragrance was brought toward him by the breezes, and the brightness of the colors contrasted with the browns of earth, and the growing greens of the grains. How he loved the flowers.
About noon, when the sun was in that particularly dangerous zenith, and David was very careful not to look skyway, a shadow fell upon the bit of earth he was scratching. It was the shadow of a man. David looked up to see a kindly face intent on the work he was doing.
"You are doing a good work, my child." The man's voice told that he was from a nearby village. "Do you like to work with the earth?"
David thought his answer, for he had never been asked such a question. "Yes," he replied, "When I can be near the flowers." He turned, pointing to a row of bright red and orange and yellows that marked the near boundary of the plot.
"How beautiful they are," said the man, walking to the border. "How beautiful, and how wondrous for their great variety, their color, their shapes, and smells. Indeed, God is a great artist for he paints beautiful pictures with the flowers."
That was a new idea to David, an idea that somehow the design of life could be illustrated in the flowers and their growth and beauty. There was a plan. And in the plan a care and beauty revealed.
As grown-ups came closer the man stood and began walking away. People seemed to be hurrying to be near him, to talk with him and share the walking. David watched as he continued down the hard-packed path, stopping here and there to talk. Every now and then he looked down at the flowers that graced the path's edge. Once he put out his hand to touch a tall, yellow flower. He was a big man, wearing the cloak of a working man, and walked with a grace that showed him to be in harmony with the world about him.
David looked again at the flowers nearby, seeing this time the symmetry of one to another, as well as the variety marking one different from the next.
Because of the man's words he saw the flowers now as a gift from God, given to make things beautiful. Of course, they still marked off the paths and plots, but sticks and twine could do the same. Here, graced in the midst of the little village hot under the noon sun, and a village of humanity caught in a sameness that marked one generation equal to the last, here there was the gift of a unique beauty in the form of the flowers. A new idea to the mind of the little boy - an idea touching his soul.
David next did a very impulsive thing. Surely he would hear the shouts from the village women. He ran to the edge of the row, and picked the largest flower he could find. He pulled it right out of the ground, roots and all. He ran as fast as he could until he caught up with the man. Running up, pushing through the adults that seemed so intent on hearing every word spoken, David wove his way to the man's side. "Here," he said. "Here is a flower for you. It came from my garden."
The man looked down, took the flower into his hand, smelled its fragrance and thanked David for the kindness of the gift. He laid his hand upon his head. David could feel in that instant a special warmth of love - like the warmth of the sun, like the warmth of the flowers upon his eyes, like the warmth of his mother's kiss.
"Thank you," said the man. And he moved on down the roadway, with the people pressing closer. David stood still for a very long time, watching the man and the crowds.
It seemed the further the people walked that the assembly about the man grew greater. Soon David could not even see him, in spite of his height. He only knew that at the center of the throng was the kind man who had stopped to talk with him, and to admire the beauty of the world - the man with whom he had shared a flower.
David stood, thinking that he might get a better view. He walked to the rise in the land that was the summit upon which the morning sun rested. At that incline David saw the whole company of people crowded close around his new friend.
He was now seated upon a large, flat rock, and talked with great animation. The words were lost in the distance. David moved closer so as to hear, walking now at the outskirt of the assembly.
Now he heard the man's voice, understanding the words. He was saying.
Consider the lilies of the field.
They neither toil nor spin, yet I
tell you Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed as one of these ...
Just so, your Heavenly Father plans
and cares for you.
David heard the words clearly. As the man spoke David saw that his hand still held the flower. It was a pretty flower that God had made, that showed God's care and love and plan. Perhaps the flower from his garden had prompted the words of hope. David did not know, but he did see that his flower - root and all - still rested in The Master's hand.
