You are invited to the in-person Worship Service on July 9 at 10 am. The bulletin for this Sunday is available for viewing HERE.
You can worship live on ZOOM by clicking the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9658816441 or Meeting ID: 965 881 6441
You can also watch Sunday services at your convenience by going to our website “watsonville1stumc.org” and click YouTube or Facebook. Each Sunday worship will be uploaded on Sunday afternoon for your viewing.
Ordinary Time
Sunday, July 9, 2023, 10 am
Psalm 96:1-2, 11-12
1 O sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Sing to the Lord; bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.
11Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
let the sea roar and all that fills it;
12 let the field exult and everything in it.
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy.
Children’s Time “Let’s Go Forest Bathing” Pastor John
Special Music River Sung by Eden Edell
by Leon Bridges
Nature Knows
by Eden Edell
[Eden Edell grew up in the Bay Area, has been playing music for over twenty years, performing for ten, and has written more than a handful of songs. People are often moved when they hear Eden sing and the stories she tells in her music. Her musical style is Indie Folk but she also sings Blues and Jazz tunes. Her music is described as ethereal and grounding at the same time.]
Message “What Mystics Teach Us” Rev. John Song
It’s no secret that we are living in fraught times, dangerous times, times that are demanding — on our souls, communities, and the planet itself.
Thomas Berry observes that a lack of a sense of the sacred is what’s killing the Earth. The need to recover the sacred is evident virtually everywhere at this time in history — whether climate change and our abuse of Mother Earth are the cause or the war in Ukraine and the lack of reverence for human lives.
These are evidence of how profoundly and readily our species is out of touch with the sacred. One of the principal reasons human beings have lost a sense of the sacred: the modern era left us with an anthropocentric, human-centered, essentially narcissistic relationship to the world. to shift out of an anthropocentric way of living and into a life that consciously serves God, the Universe, the Earth, and each other.
How do we ground ourselves so that we can keep our balance, act out of integrity, and contribute to a saner, safer, and more sustainable world? Mystics have something to teach us on how to live in an alignment with God’s vision for the world and nature.
Hildegard of Bingen, the 11th century German woman, Christian mystic, hears God say:
“I am the breeze that nurtures all things green.
I encourage blossoms to flourish with ripening fruits.
I am the rain coming from the dew
that causes the grasses to laugh
with the joy of life.”
“It is to the mystics that we owe what is best in humanity.”
~ Carl Jung, the 20th century Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst
“God is delighted to watch your soul enlarge.”
~ Meister Eckhart, the 13 century German theologian, philosopher, and mystic
