The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton
Presider
The Rev. Natalie Hanson
Preacher
The Rev J. Paul Womack
Reader
The Chautauqua Choir
Sonya Subbayya Sutton
Interim Director & Organist
Owen Reyda
Organist
Sunday Morning Worship
We invite you to quietly prepare your hearts for worship during the Prelude.
*Denotes that the congregation is invited to rise in body or spirit. It is our custom to sing the first and last verses of hymns in unison; the interior verses may be sung in parts.
Prelude
Allegretto
A Simple Song, from “Mass”
Percy Whitlock, 1929
Music: Leonard Bernstein, 1971
Text: L. Bernstein, Stephen Schwartz, Psalm 121
Soloist: Symone Harcum, Denyce Graves Foundation Generational Voices Artist
Sing God a simple song: Lauda, Laude…
Make it up as you go along: Lauda, Laude…
Sing like you like to sing.
God loves all simple things,
For God is the simplest of all.
I will sing the Lord a new song
To praise Him, to bless Him, to bless the Lord.
I will sing His praises while I live.
All of my days.
Blessed is the man who loves the Lord,
Blessed is the man who praises Him.
Lauda, Lauda, Laude…
And walks in His ways.
I will lift up my eyes
To the hills from whence comes my help.
I will lift up my voice to the Lord
Singing Lauda, Laude.
For the Lord is my shade,
Is the shade up on my right hand,
And the sun shall not smite me by day
Nor the moon by night.
Blessed is the man who loves the Lord,
Lauda, Lauda, Laude…
And walks His ways.
Lauda, Lauda, Laude, Lauda, Lauda di da di day…
All of my days.
Welcome & Announcements
The Rt. Rev. Eugene Sutton
Call to Worship*
Isaiah 55: 1-3, 6
Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters!
You who have no money, come, buy food and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk, without money, without price.
Why do you spend your money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me: eat what is good, and you will delight yourselves in rich fare.
Incline your ear and come to me; listen, so that you may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you, in fulfillment of the blessings promised to David.
Behold, I have made you to be a witness to the peoples, a leader among the nations.
Thus says the Holy One, “Seek me, the Lord, while I may still be found.
Call upon me while I am near!
Let us worship God.
Hymn*
"Holy, holy, holy!"
Nicæa, John Bacchus Dykes, 1861
Reginald Heber, 1827, alt.
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee.
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty;
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!
Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore Thee,
casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea!
Cherubim and seraphim, falling down before Thee,
who wert, and art, and evermore shall be.
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea!
Holy, holy, holy; merciful and mighty;
God in three persons, blessed Trinity! Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Psalm 51, para. Stephen Mitchell
We all fall short of God’s intention for us. We know that we have not lived up to what we say with our lips, and have done harm to one another and to ourselves. Let us pray now for forgiveness and pardon for the wrongs we have committed.
Deliver us, O God…
From our lack of care for Your creation,
And the worship of our greed;
From the whisper of the tempter,
“We should take more than we need.”
Good Lord, deliver us.
From the chains of wealth and plunder,
From our avarice and pride,
From the ever-growing hunger,
From our vanity and strife,
Good Lord, deliver us.
From our constant quest for power
Over all that we survey
From the lies that we devour
From the fears we cannot face
Good Lord, deliver us.
Come and save us from our demons.
Come and strip away our hate.
Come, dear Lord, restore our reason.
Come, O God, the time is late.
Good Lord, deliver us.
Words of Forgiveness and Pardon
May the God of all mercies release us of the weight of wrongdoing, heal us from scars of guilt, restore us in God’s image, and guide us along pathways of righteousness and shalom.
Amen.
Blessed be the Merciful One who has heard the voice of our prayer!
To God be the glory. Alleluia!
The Passing of The Peace
May the peace of God be always with you.
And also with you.
You are invited to greet your neighbor saying, “Peace be with you.”
Solo
Prayer
Music: H. Leslie Adams, 1961
Text: Langston Hughes, 1927
Soloist: Symone Harcum
I ask you this:
Which way to go?
I ask you this:
Which sin to bear?
Which crown to put
Upon my hair?
I do not know,
Lord God,
I do not know.
Prayers of the People
Fran Pratt, Litany for Imagination
A paraphrase for God’s Feast (Luke 5 and Matthew 22)
Gracious and loving God,
O God, we are made by you:
Imagined by you,
Formed in your image,
And created by your love.
We often forget that we are creatures of imaginative potential;
That our imaginations, like yours, can be generative and life-giving,
And useful to your Kingdom.
We often forget that our assumptions about you are limited
By our experience here,
By words on a page,
By culture and tradition,
By our ego, and by our smallness. But with these starting points, and with imagination, we can let go of assuming
And move closer to you.
We struggle, because we only know things that you are like:
Like water
Like bread
Like wind
Like a parent
Like a Ruler.
But we know that these are incomplete comparisons; nothing we know can define you.
We pause now to open our minds to the fullness of God;
Of which we can contain only a little at a time -
A portion that gives us life
Making us hungry and thirsty for more, and fueling our imaginations.
This is what we ask for:
To be able to move past what we can see, feel,
Taste, touch and hear with our mortal bodies.
Toward a new horizon, a new reality:
A Kingdom you are imagining,
And inviting us to imagine and embody. Amen
A Prayer For God's Feast
Natalie Hanson
(A paraphrase of the Lord’s Prayer based on Luke 5 and Matthew 22)
Holy God, Lord of feast and festival, Host to all earth’s peoples, fill this world with your own abundance and joy. Teach us how to feast together, until every gathering reflects your heavenly table. More than what we want, feed us what we need. Lift away our isolation and set a place for us, as we learn to set a place for those who have excluded us. Don’t let us be spoiled by evil, nor let us spread bitterness.
For yours is a table not set by human hands, but eternal in the heavens, where there is room and grace for all. Amen. Alleluia!
The Prayer that Jesus Taught
(Traditional)
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.
Hymn*
“Jesus Calls Us O’er the Tumult”
Tune: Galilee
Invitation to the Offering
Offertory Anthem
i thank you God
Music: Gwyneth Walker, 1998
Text: e.e. cummings, 1950
i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any—lifted from the no
of all nothing—human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
Presentation of the Offering
Our Sunday offering supports not only the ministry of Chautauqua Institution’s Department of Religion, but also a tithe of your contribution is directed to organizations that meet the urgent needs of our neighbors in Chautauqua County. We thank you for your generosity! Gifts and offerings may be made by check payable to the Department of Religion, or you may donate online by visiting https://giving.chq.org/religion.
Doxology*
Reading From Scripture
The Rev J. Paul Womack, Reader
Luke 5:33-35
Some religious leaders came to Jesus and said to him, “John’s disciples, like the disciples of the Pharisees, frequently fast and pray, but your disciples eat and drink.” Jesus said to them, “You cannot make wedding attendants fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you? The days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.”
Matthew 22:1-10
Jesus spoke to the crowd in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his workers to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. Again he sent other workers, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his workers, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He dispatched his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his workers, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ Those workers went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad, so that the wedding hall was filled with guests."
Hear what the Spirit is saying to God’s people. Thanks be to God.
Sermon
Invitation to a Feast
The Rev. Natalie Hanson
Hymn*
“I am the Bread of Life”
Sr Suzanne Toolan, 1969
Blessing and Dismissal
Rev. Natalie Hanson
Come, beloved, we’re invited:
We’re invited to a feast!
A feast of sounds,
A feast of colors,
A feast of tastes,
A feast of peoples!
Come, we’re invited to a feast:
A feast of belonging,
A feast of grace,
A feast of love!
Come, we’re invited to God’s feast:
And all we have to do is accept -
All we have to say is ‘Yes’!
Yes! Yes! Alleluia!
Postlude
Fugue in G Minor, BWV 578
J.S. Bach, c. 1703
You are invited to remain seated for the postlude.
This program is made possible by Week One Presenting Sponsor Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, AHN Westfield Memorial, and HealthNow Administrative Services.
This program is also made possible by the generous support of The Samuel M. and Mary E. Hazlett Memorial Fund.
Flower Dedications
The flowers on the stage are given …
…in loving memory of of Samuel M. Hazlett, 8th President of Chautauqua Institution and his wife, Mary Emma Baxter Hazlett, by their descendants.
… in loving memory of Ada Ruth May and Michael Francis O’Connor, Helen Jane Spendley and James Francis Rovegno Sr. by their daughter, Maureen and their son, James Rovegno and family.
Happening Today
7 p.m. Palestine Park Tour Near Miller Bell Tower, Weather Permitting
8 p.m. Sacred Song Service: Birds, Trees and Gardens, Amphitheater
Weekday Morning Worship at 9:15 A.M.
Amphitheater, The Rev. Natalie Hanson
Monday, August 17 – Who’s at the Table?
Tuesday, August 18 – Table Conversations
Wednesday, August 19 – A Moveable Feast
Thursday, August 20 – Chaplain’s Faith Journey, at the Hall of Philosophy
Friday, August 21 – Communion service, at the Hall of Philosophy
Interfaith Lectures at 2 P.M.
Hall of Philosophy, Feeding the Soul
Food is more than sustenance — it is ritual, memory, identity and community. This week explores the spiritual dimensions of food in a time of ecological strain and technological innovation. How do religious traditions shape our understanding of nourishment, hospitality and justice? What wisdom can faith communities offer as we rethink agriculture, food systems and our relationship to the world around us? And how might growing gardens and sharing meals become paths to healing, belonging and connection?
Monday, August 17 – Adrienne Krone
Tuesday, August 18 – Derrick Weston
Wednesday, August 19 – Karen Florini
Thursday, August 20 – Norman Wirzba
Join the Chautauqua Choir
Thu 6:15 p.m. Rehearsal at Fletcher Hall
Fri 6:15 p.m. Rehearsal at Fletcher Hall
Sat 6:15 p.m. Rehearsal at Fletcher Hall
Do you love to sing? Do you have some choral singing experience? We invite you to join us and sing on Sundays with the Chautauqua Choir, whether for one service or the whole season. You must attend at least one out of three weekly rehearsals (though attending more rehearsals are preferred). We ask that you plan to sing both Sunday Morning and Sunday Evening services when possible.
Questions can be directed to choir@chq.org or by calling the choir library at 716-357-6321.
Join the Motet Choir
The Motet Choir, which leads our weekday worship services, comprises experienced auditioned singers who rehearse and perform a variety of works from the rich heritage of sacred choral music of the past and a diversity of styles from the present. Singers must have a background of choral singing experience with excellent vocal quality and sight-reading ability. Members of the Motet Choir are compensated in the form of a gate pass for the weeks that they sing in the choir. Interested singers should email choir@chq.org or call the choir library at 716-3576321 to schedule an audition for the 2026 Summer Season.
Chautauqua Institution
Department of Religion
Robert Wilson-Black
Director of Religion
The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton
Senior Pastor
Sonya Subbayya Sutton
Interim Director of Sacred Music
Carolyn Snider
Administrative Assistant
Alicen Roberts
Religion Graduate Fellow
Owen Reyda
Organ Scholar