The Christmas season is a time when the juxtaposition of the sacred and secular feels sometimes blatantly opposed, and sometimes quite blurred. The word “sacred” points to something dedicated as “holy” and “set apart.”

This year, we are invited to a spiritual journey of seeing all things pregnant with the Holy. What could our experience of the Advent and Christmas season be like if we lived it imagining that everything is reflecting the sacred?   (Worship Design Studio)

“… you know what time it is. The hour has already come for you to wake up from your sleep… the night is far gone, the day is near.”    – Romans 13: 11-14

 “Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.”    – Matthew 24: 36-44

For our online community, have a candle nearby and something to light it with for the beginning of the service.

Come friends!  Join me as we begin our time of waiting!  We begin our first Advent worship in reflecting on “Sacred Time, Hope”.

Join us in person or via Zoom or FaceBook Live. 

Bulletin Link

11.27.2022

Worship Music Links

Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus
The First Noel
God, Who Stretched the Spangled Heavens

O Come, All Ye Faithful

You may give your Tithes & Offerings by mail or click here.

Worship begins at 10:15 AM. Come early and pick up your hymnals. Fellowship follows worship. We have Children’s Godly Play School with enhanced safety and fun for your children. Everyone over age 2, please wear masks (for everyone’s safety and comfort).  We have masks available at the door!

Bulletins will not be handed out in person, you are welcome to bring your own printed bulletin, use your electronic devices, or follow along on the screen as we project the order of service.

ZOOM Link

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86824473010?pwd=Z29RUE9IanVyaC9YaUlRUEIzQm1hUT09

Meeting ID: 868 2447 3010
Passcode: 326043

  To join via Telephone (no computer or smart device) please dial the number below then, when asked, dial the meeting ID & Password provided.

1(669) 900-6833

Meeting ID: 868 2447 3010
Passcode: 326043

To join Sunday Worship via Facebook, log onto your Facebook account and search for the ‘Lake Merritt United Methodist Church’ page or click here.

“Wherever you place your foot, there rests a blessing.”  – Rumi

⁴ When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”  And Moses said, “Here I am.” ⁵ “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”  – Exodus 3:4-5

The Blessing Cup!  Blessings.  What are they?  How do they come?  What do they do for us?  The dictionary defines blessing as: “to consecrate or to hallow by a religious rite of words; to make or pronounce holy or sacred.”  To bless is not so much to “make sacred,” however, as it is to acknowledge the sacredness that is already there.  All of creation is sacred because it is made by God.   Wherever we place our feet – wherever we are – can be a blessing if we are aware of the inherent sacredness and beauty of that place.  All the places where we are standing is holy ground.

This Sunday is the Thanksgiving Sunday.  As we reflect on our gratitude to God for all that God has done for us and we pray through the Blessing Cup, may we grow in awareness of the countless blessings that are ours.  May we become more aware of how we ourselves are a blessing in the lives of others.  Most of all, may our love and appreciation for the Giver of all gifts, the best of all blessings, continue to grow and be enriched.   (The Cup of Our Life, P. 118)

Bring a cup that represents blessing of your life!  Join us.

Join us in person or via Zoom or FaceBook Live. 

Bulletin Link

11.20.2022

Worship Music Links

We Gather Together
Now Thank We All Our God
Fill My Cup, Lord

Come, Ye Thankful People, Come

You may give your Tithes & Offerings by mail or click here.

Worship begins at 10:15 AM. Come early and pick up your hymnals. Fellowship follows worship. We have Children’s Godly Play School with enhanced safety and fun for your children. Everyone over age 2, please wear masks (for everyone’s safety and comfort).  We have masks available at the door!

Bulletins will not be handed out in person, you are welcome to bring your own printed bulletin, use your electronic devices, or follow along on the screen as we project the order of service.

ZOOM Link

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86824473010?pwd=Z29RUE9IanVyaC9YaUlRUEIzQm1hUT09

Meeting ID: 868 2447 3010
Passcode: 326043

  To join via Telephone (no computer or smart device) please dial the number below then, when asked, dial the meeting ID & Password provided.

1(669) 900-6833

Meeting ID: 868 2447 3010
Passcode: 326043

To join Sunday Worship via Facebook, log onto your Facebook account and search for the ‘Lake Merritt United Methodist Church’ page or click here.

“Marcus Borg notes that compassion is the central quality of God in both the Hebrew and the Christian scripture.  Borg emphasizes that God is compassionate – God feels our pain, our loss, and our suffering.

Siblings, this Sunday we reflect on the cup of Compassion.  Bring a cup that reminds you of compassion to worship and as we pray with our cup this week, we can draw both inspiration and comfort from God who is our example of how to hold the hurting ones of our world in our hearts and offer them the cup of compassion.  Join us.

Join us in person or via Zoom or FaceBook Live. 

Bulletin Link

11.13.2022

Worship Music Links

You Are the Seed
Something Beautiful
Fill My Cup, Lord

Great is Thy Faithfulness

You may give your Tithes & Offerings by mail or click here.

Worship begins at 10:15 AM. Come early and pick up your hymnals. Fellowship follows worship. We have Children’s Godly Play School with enhanced safety and fun for your children. Everyone over age 2, please wear masks (for everyone’s safety and comfort).  We have masks available at the door!

Bulletins will not be handed out in person, you are welcome to bring your own printed bulletin, use your electronic devices, or follow along on the screen as we project the order of service.

ZOOM Link

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86824473010?pwd=Z29RUE9IanVyaC9YaUlRUEIzQm1hUT09

Meeting ID: 868 2447 3010
Passcode: 326043

  To join via Telephone (no computer or smart device) please dial the number below then, when asked, dial the meeting ID & Password provided.

1(669) 900-6833

Meeting ID: 868 2447 3010
Passcode: 326043

To join Sunday Worship via Facebook, log onto your Facebook account and search for the ‘Lake Merritt United Methodist Church’ page or click here.

“How large a cup of tears must I drink, O God? How much is enough?” – Ann Weems

“I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them.” – Jeremiah 31:13

This Sunday, we will ponder our life experiences of brokenness.  Friends, we invite you to bring a broken cup as a symbol of the broken parts of our lives. The broken cup has a valuable lesson to teach us.  Anne Lamott shares, “Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come.  You wait and watch and work, and you don’t give up.” 

Come! Let us hold our brokenness in the light and love of God. 

Join us in person or via Zoom or FaceBook Live. 

Bulletin Link

11.06.2022

Worship Music Links

Spirit Song
Communion Responses
Make Me a Channel of Your Peace

You may give your Tithes & Offerings by mail or click here.

Worship begins at 10:15 AM. Come early and pick up your hymnals. Fellowship follows worship. We have Children’s Godly Play School with enhanced safety and fun for your children. Everyone over age 2, please wear masks (for everyone’s safety and comfort).  We have masks available at the door!

Bulletins will not be handed out in person, you are welcome to bring your own printed bulletin, use your electronic devices, or follow along on the screen as we project the order of service.

ZOOM Link

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86824473010?pwd=Z29RUE9IanVyaC9YaUlRUEIzQm1hUT09

Meeting ID: 868 2447 3010
Passcode: 326043

  To join via Telephone (no computer or smart device) please dial the number below then, when asked, dial the meeting ID & Password provided.

1(669) 900-6833

Meeting ID: 868 2447 3010
Passcode: 326043

To join Sunday Worship via Facebook, log onto your Facebook account and search for the ‘Lake Merritt United Methodist Church’ page or click here.

This Sunday, we celebrate All Saints Sunday. All Saints (November 1 or the first Sunday in November) is a day of remembrance for the saints, with the New Testament meaning of all Christian people of every time and place. We celebrate the communion of saints as we remember the dead, both of the Church universal and of our local congregations. We remember our saints in our lives. Bring a cup that represents your saint. We will have a moment to share about her or his life during the gratitude and prayer time.

Come and join us in person or via Zoom or FaceBook Live. 

Bulletin Link

10.30.2022

Worship Music Links

For All the Saints
Fill My Cup, Lord
May You Run and Not Be Weary

You may give your Tithes & Offerings by mail or click here.

Worship begins at 10:15 AM. Come early for check-in and get your worship supplies. Fellowship follows worship for as long as you would like to stay. We have Nursery and Children’s Godly Play School with enhanced safety and fun for your children. Everyone over age 2, please wear masks (for everyone’s safety and comfort).  We have masks in case you drop or forget yours!

Bulletins will not be handed out in person, and you are welcome to bring your own printed bulletin, use your electronic devices, or follow along on the screen as we project the order of service

ZOOM Link

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86824473010?pwd=Z29RUE9IanVyaC9YaUlRUEIzQm1hUT09

Meeting ID: 868 2447 3010
Passcode: 326043

  To join via Telephone (no computer or smart device) please dial the number below then, when asked, dial the meeting ID & Password provided.

1(669) 900-6833

Meeting ID: 868 2447 3010
Passcode: 326043

To join Sunday Worship via Facebook, log onto your Facebook account and search for the ‘Lake Merritt United Methodist Church’ page or click here.

“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people.  It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life.”                            – Anne Lamott

it is time for me to see the flaws of myself and stop being alarmed

it is time for me to halt my drive for perfection and to accept my blemishes

it is time for me to receive slowly evolving growth the kind that comes in God’s own good time and pays no heed to my panicky pushing

it is time for me to embrace my humanness to love my incompleteness

it is time for me to cherish the unwanted to welcome the unknown to treasure the unfulfilled

if I wait to be perfect before I love myself I will always be unsatisfied and ungrateful

if I wait until all the flaws, chips, and cracks disappear I will be the cup that stands on the shelf and is never used.

– Joyce Rupp

This Sunday, we are invited to see our chipped cup.  Friends, if we really live our life, life marks us both externally and interiorly. Flaws and inadequacies come with the territory of being human.  Do you have a chipped dish or a cup?  Bring it to worship.  This week, we will embrace our own flaws and look at them and see what they can tell us about our relationships with God and with others.  (The Cup of Our LIfe, p. 53-54)

Come and join us in person or via Zoom or FaceBook Live. 

Bulletin Link

10.23.2022

Worship Music Links

Many Gifts, One Spirit 
Be Thou My Vision
Fill My Cup, Lord
I Want to Walk as a Child of  the Light

You may give your Tithes & Offerings by mail or click here.

Worship begins at 10:15 AM (Come early for check-in and get your worship supplies. Fellowship follows worship for as long as you would like to stay. We have Nursery and Children’s Godly Play School with enhanced safety and fun for your children. Everyone over age 2, please wear masks (for everyone’s safety and comfort).  We have masks in case you drop or forget yours!

Bulletins will not be handed out in person, and you are welcome to bring your own printed bulletin, use your electronic devices, or follow along on the screen as we project the order of service

ZOOM Link

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86824473010?pwd=Z29RUE9IanVyaC9YaUlRUEIzQm1hUT09

Meeting ID: 868 2447 3010
Passcode: 326043

  To join via Telephone (no computer or smart device) please dial the number below then, when asked, dial the meeting ID & Password provided.

1(669) 900-6833

Meeting ID: 868 2447 3010
Passcode: 326043

To join Sunday Worship via Facebook, log onto your Facebook account and search for the ‘Lake Merritt United Methodist Church’ page or click here.