August 17, 2025

asbcsite
Aug 14, 2025
3 min read

Preacher: Rev. Dr. Boon Lin Ngeo

Please use this Order of Service to easily follow the service online.

CLICK HERE FOR HYMNS (or scroll to the bottom)

Prelude: Richard Harper

Chalice Lighting:

We light our chalice, symbol of our free Unitarian faith

Sign of the spark of life in all living beings

Fire of commitment to love and justice

As the chalice cup embraces the flame

May we hold one another in loving community

Sharing our gratitude, our pain and our hopes for our world

For we are co-weavers of the story of the universe

A web of intimate connections and infinite possibilities

Opening Hymn: Bring Many Names. NCH 11

Welcome & Announcements

Call to Worship:

We worship the God who inhabits our world and indwells our lives.

We need not look up to find God, we need only to look around:

within ourselves, beyond ourselves,

into the eyes of another.

Prayer of Invocation:

First Sacred Reading: John 12: 20-25

²⁰Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. ²¹They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” ²²Philip went and told Andrew, then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. ²³Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit. ²⁵Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Passing of the Peace

Sharing of Our Joys & Concerns

Prayers of the People/Pastoral Prayer

Offering & Doxology: We Give You But Your Own – NCH 785

We give you but your own, what e'er the gift may be; All that we have is yours alone, we give it gratefully

Second Sacred Reading: Shushogi by Dogen

Time flies quicker than an arrow and life passes with greater transience than the dew. However skillful you may be, how can you ever recall a single day of the past? Should you live for a hundred years just wasting your time, every day will be filled with sorrow; should you drift as the slave of your senses for a hundred years and, yet, live truly for only so much as a single day you will in that one day not only live a hundred years of life but also a hundred years of your future life.

Hymn of Reflection: When Peace, Like a River NCH 438

Sermon: The Clock is Ticking!

Closing Hymn: Some Glad Morning NCH 595

Benediction: Rev. Dr. Boon Lin Ngeo

Postlude: Richard Harper

All Souls Bethlehem Church

An Open and Affirming Congregation

Pastor: Rev. Dr. Boon Lin Ngeo

Ministers: All Members of ASBC

Minister Emeritus: Rev. Bill Nye

First Time Visitor?

Please sign our red Guest Book (located near the entrance)