"The Homeless" - Call to Worship Luke 9:51-62

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My congregation is journeying with a new worship series inspired by the work of the inimitable Dr. Marcia McFee, who provides excellent resources on worship at www.worshipdesignstudio.com. The worship series is called "The Outsider," and explores the many types of people on the margins that Jesus encounters (or inspires people to become) in the Gospel of Luke. I look forward to sharing further creative ideas I come across as we dream this worship series into life. This Sunday, we will journey with "the homeless" as we explore Jesus' experience of the "hospitality" of Samaria, and the persistence of the hemorrhaging woman. What follows is our call to worship that begins with the singing of "God Welcomes All," a song brought to us from South Africa by John Bell of the Iona worshiping community in Scotland.
God welcomes all, strangers and friends.
God’s love is strong and it never ends. (John Bell; South Africa)

“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests;
but the Son of humanity has nowhere to lay his head.” 

Our neighbors are hungry and poor; yet our neighborhood is the
7th fastest growing* neighborhood in the United States.

 “Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests;
but the Son of humanity has nowhere to lay his head.”

Many of our neighbors have been homeless for decades; yet our
society sees them as riff-raff and human detritus.

 “Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests;
but the Son of humanity has nowhere to lay his head.”

God loves us so much that God became our neighbor—
a refugee, a houseless vagabond, and friend to the odd and
undesirable.

Glory to God in Christ, whose homeless body bore our 
hatred as an act of love for us all.
*www.dallasnews.com/business/real-estate/2017/05/18/booming-dallas-uptown-district-one-countrys-fastest-growing-rental-markets 


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