“Zion Signal” – a call to the faithful wherever they are scattered.

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Order of Worship

“Let all things be done decently and in order.”
– 1 Corinthians 14:40

Welcome & Call to Worship

Psalm 131

A song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem. A psalm of David.

1 
Lord, my heart is not proud;
    my eyes are not haughty.
I don’t concern myself with matters too great
    or too awesome for me to grasp.

2 
Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself,
    like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk.
    Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.

3 
O Israel, put your hope in the Lord—
    now and always.

Scripture Reading

  • Matthew 3:13-17 

    Beloved Child of God

    13 Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to talk him out of it. “I am the one who needs to be baptized by you,” he said, “so why are you coming to me?”

    15 But Jesus said, “It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires.[a]” So John agreed to baptize him.

    16 After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened[b] and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.”

  • Shemot (Exodus) Chapter 18

    1 Jethro, the former ruler of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard about all that God had done for Moses and for His people Israel, that God had brought Israel out of Egypt.

    2 So Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took Moses’ wife, Zipporah, after she had been sent away,

    3 and her two sons. The name of the older one was Gershom [“a stranger there”], because Moses had said, “I have been a stranger in an alien land.”

    4 The name of the younger one was Eliezer [“my God is an aid”], because Moses had said, “the God of my father came to my aid, and He rescued me from Pharaoh’s sword.”

    5 Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came to Moses, together with his sons and wife, into the desert where Moses was encamped, to the Mountain of God.

    6 He sent word to Moses: “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am on my way to you, together with your wife, with her two sons.”

    7 Moses went out to greet his father-in-law. He prostrated himself and kissed him, they inquired after each other’s welfare, and they entered the tent.

    8 Moses told his father-in-law everything that God had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for the sake of Israel, as well as all the travail that had befallen them on the way, and how God had rescued them.

    9 Jethro rejoiced over all the good that God had done for Israel, that God had saved them from the hands of the Egyptians.

    10 Jethro said, “Praised be God who rescued you from the hands of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who liberated the people from the authority of the Egyptians.

    11 Now I know that God is greater than all the deities, for He foiled a nation’s intent by turning the very scheme that they plotted against others, against themselves!”

    12 Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, offered up an ascent-offering and peace-offerings to God, and Aaron and all the elders of Israel came to eat a meal with Moses’ father-in-law in the presence of God.

Prayer of the People

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Prayer of the People ~

Responsive prayer and intercession for our community, nation, and world.

The Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth;

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried.
The third day He rose from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Church Universal,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.

Amen.

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Beloved Before Burden
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Beloved Before Burden
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Preamble

Before Moses organizes leadership,
before Israel receives law,
before Jesus says a word in public or lays a hand on a wounded body,

God speaks belonging.

Not instruction.
Not correction.
Not expectation.

A voice.
A name.
A pleasure taken in him.

That matters on a weekend when the nation gathers to watch strength,
to measure worth by performance,
to crown heroes and discard them by Monday morning.

Because every spiritual collapse begins the same way:
when burden outruns identity,
when people are asked to carry weight
before they are told they matter.

And every people who have had to survive in this country know this lesson well.
We have been praised for our labor,
borrowed for our gifts,
celebrated for our endurance,
and rarely spared the cost of carrying it all.

So Scripture interrupts us here on purpose.

Before the work, God names the worker.
Before the demand, God claims the beloved.
Before the world decides what someone is useful for,
God decides who they are.

Faithful communities do not endure by staying busy.
They endure by remembering themselves,
by refusing to confuse survival with worth,
by insisting that identity is not earned under pressure.

Belovedness comes first.
Everything else must answer to that.

And when a people remember this,
they do not just make it through the season.
They learn how to stay whole while they do.

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Benediction

Go now—
not driven, but declared.
Not overextended, but ordered.
Not alone, but held in shared work.

May the God who spoke belovedness over the waters
teach you how to carry weight without losing joy,
to lead without burning out,
and to remember who you are
before remembering what must be done..

Amen — Ashe — So Be It.

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