• Canned Pasta with Meat
• Canned Vegetables
(no green beans please)
• Canned Chicken & Sardines
• Canned Fruit
• Shampoo and Deodorant*
All year long, we collect food and hygiene items for Circle of Concern and Isaiah 58 Ministries. Please place your donations on the mission table outside the church office.
*Non-food products such as shampoo and deodorant cannot be purchased with food stamps.
Equal Exchange -- In the Narthex on November 10th & PW Boutique
Equal Exchange’s extra virgin olive oil is made from organic Nabali olives, an indigenous Palestinian variety that produces one of the highest quality oils in the world. Cold-pressed with a rich, peppery flavor, this olive oil can be used for cooking, baking, and dipping.
St. Mark supports this mission to build long-term trade partnerships that are economically just, environmentally sustainable, and to foster mutually beneficial relationships between small farmers and consumers (that’s us!).
Cash, Credit, Debit, Digital Wallet Payments Accepted
CENTERING PRAYER
Dear LORD, you are our only hope. Teach us to put our trust in you. God, you are our help. Teach us the path of righteousness and turn us from the ways of the wicked, for we know you love those who do justice. We will forever praise you for the glory of your righteous reign, now and forever. Amen.
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“Almighty God, as people go to the polls this day we pray first and foremost for peace. May the sense of community and connection be greater than any division or difference, no matter how entrenched. Knowing we will vote in schools, churches, synagogues, and other communal gathering places, may our commitment to care for one another grow as we stand in lines, talk to our neighbors and recognize we have more in common than we often realize. May we show one another kindness and respect, today and in the days to come.
We thank you for the freedom to vote our conscience, of which you alone are Lord. After this election, we are keenly aware that even if the political rhetoric fades the acrimony it highlighted will remain. Grant us the courage to step into the breaches and not shrink back into our enclaves of homogeneity. Send your Spirit to drive us to the places where you are already working to bring reconciliation. Remind us relentlessly that you are greater than every category we devise, more powerful than any estrangement we have created, eternal, ever present and always calling forth justice, peace and abundant life. Show us today and everyday how to live in the love of Jesus Christ, the perfect love that casts out fear. Amen.” – Rev. Dr. Jill Duffield
CALL TO WORSHIP (Psalm 146)
Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul!
I will praise the LORD as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God all my life long.
Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortals, in whom there is no help.
Happy are those whose hope is in the LORD their God.
The LORD sets the prisoners free;
The LORD opens the eyes of the blind.
The LORD watches over the strangers
and upholds the orphan and the widow,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
The Lord reigns forever. Praise the LORD!
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
O God, you are ever-faithful, yet we do not love you with our whole hearts. You show us how to love our fellow human beings, yet we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. Turn us back to you, O God, that we may follow your commandments; through Christ our LORD. (Silent Confession)
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH – WCF SC Q1
OFFERING
Invitation to the Offering
Our God is ever-faithful and provides everything we need. Let us praise the LORD through our giving that our offerings may be acceptable to God.
Prayer after Offering
Let us pray… Dear God, we offer you these gifts hoping to build up the work of your kingdom. Make us living witnesses to the way of your righteous reign. Strengthened by your many blessings may we continue to move onward in faith for the glory of your son, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.
Ruth 1:1-18
1 In the days when the judges ruled,[a] there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2 The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.
3 Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.
6 When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. 7 With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.
8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. 9 May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”
Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud 10 and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”
11 But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? 12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— 13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”
14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.
15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”
16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
Naomi entreating Ruth and Orpah to return to the land of Moab by William Blake, 1795
"My word shall accomplish that which I purpose," says the Lord, "and succeed in the thing for which I sent it."
Eternal God, as we are baptized into the death of Jesus Christ, so give us the grace of repentance that we may pass through the grave with him and be born again to eternal life, for he is the One who was crucified, dead, and buried, and rose again for us, Jesus our Savior. Eternal God, you sent us a Savior, Christ Jesus, to break down the walls of hostility that divide us. Send peace on earth, and put down greed, pride, and anger, which turn nation against nation and race against race. Speed the day when wars will end and the whole world accepts your rule. God of mercy, you are full of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in mercy, and always ready to forgive. Grant us grace to renounce all evil and to cling to Christ, that in every way we may prove to be your loving children. (Add your prayers.) Amen.
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
(Opening sentences, prayers, and blessings are from the Book of Common Worship. Readings are from the daily lectionary in Daily Prayer. Both are published by Westminster/John Knox Press.)
The Caregiving Committee oversees and cares for St. Mark members and friends in times of need and grief. Laurie Dolson started chairing this committee 3 years ago in September. The caregiving team reaches out to members in many ways: 1) sending cards to many homebound or ill members, as well as families with loss. 2) delivering various gifts to homebound members including flowering plants, mums, cookies and 24 advent bags. 3) sending gift cards to 10 college students. 4) offering refreshments for visitations and funerals 5) preparing a “we care meal” and delivering to members twice a year as well as making/delivering desserts and plants to senior living residents.
THANK YOU ST. MARK! Wow! What an awesome week of “being the church” for each other, for our community, and our mission partners! 100% of the net proceeds of $14,000 will benefit our mission partners. With great gratitude for your time, talent, and treasures!
Joyce Blackwell & Pam Ladley Co-Chairs
I volunteered at the annual ABC sale, and a young boy came into our area, eager to donate his toys. When he walked in and saw all the toys, he was so excited that he exclaimed, 'This place smells like happiness!' His joyful comment really touched our hearts. We felt truly blessed by the generosity and enthusiasm of this young donor. – Shared by Robin Warner
CENTERING PRAYER (Martin Luther)
Lord God, heavenly Father, you did not spare your only Son, but gave him up for us all to be our Savior, and along with him you have graciously given us all things. We thank you for your precious, saving gospel, and we pray that you would help us to believe in the name of our Savior faithfully and steadfastly, for he alone is our righteousness and wisdom, our comfort and peace, so that we may stand on the day of his appearing; through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, our Lord. Amen.
CALL TO WORSHIP (from Psalm 42)
Our souls thirst for God, for you, the living God.
We remember days filled with joyful shouts and loud songs of thanksgiving.
We’ve spent too much time away from you, adrift on the rolling waves of culture.
The deepest part of us calls out to the deepest part of you.
We will hope in God on sunny mornings and stormy nights.
We come to worship our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Sustainer.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Gracious God, our sins are too heavy to carry, too real to hide, and too deep to undo. Forgive what our lips tremble to name, what our hearts can no longer bear, and what has become for us a flood of judgment. Set us free from a past we cannot change; open to us a future in which we can be changed; and grant us grace to grow more and more in your likeness and image; through Jesus Christ, the light of the world. (Silent Confession)
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH – The Scots Confession Chapter One
OFFERING
Invitation to the Offering
Loving God, we thank you for being our shelter in the storm, our rock in nights of uncertainty, and our deliverance through dangerous times. Please accept these gifts we return to you in gratitude.
Prayer after Offering
Let us pray…We thank you God for all you have done in our lives. We ask you to use these gifts to share your grace in a world hungry and thirsty for righteousness. Amen.
Job 42:1-6, 10-17
42 Then Job replied to the Lord:
2 “I know that you can do all things;
no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3 You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
4 “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.’
5 My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
6 Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes.”
10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. 11 All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver[a] and a gold ring.
12 The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. 13 And he also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. 15 Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.
16 After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17 And so Job died, an old man and full of years.
God is love, and those who abide in love, abide in God, and God abides in them.
Eternal God, we praise you for your mighty love given in Christ's sacrifice on the cross, and the new life we have received by his resurrection. We thank you for the presence of Christ in our weakness and suffering, the ministry of Word and Sacrament, all who work to help and heal, sacrifices made for our benefit, opportunities for our generous giving. God of grace let our concern for others reflect Christ's self-giving love, not only in our prayers, but also in our practice. We pray for those subjected to tyranny and oppression, wounded and injured people, those who face death, those who may be our enemies. Eternal God, your love is stronger than death, and your passion more fierce than the grave. We rejoice in the lives of those whom you have drawn into your eternal embrace. Keep us in joyful communion with them until we join the saints of every people and nation, gathered before your throne in ceaseless praise. (Add your prayers.) Amen.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
(Opening sentences, prayers, and blessings are from the Book of Common Worship. Readings are from the daily lectionary in Daily Prayer. Both are published by Westminster/John Knox Press.)
