Chubby Shape Book – Dayspring Presbyterian Church

Worship on the Lord’s Day
10:00 am 2023
Online & Onsite (Mixed Presence) Gathering as a Worshipping Community
Led by the Rev Brad Childs
Music director: Binu Kapadia Vocalists: Sam and Ann May Malayang
Elder: Darlene Eerkes

We gather to worship God

Music prelude

Greeting
L: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
P: and also with you.

Lighting of the Christ candle
Welcome and announcements
Mission Awareness Presentation
Silent preparation for worship

Call to Worship
L: God, our Shepherd, offers us abundant life.
P: God, you are with us!
L: God, our Shepherd, leads us by still waters.
P: God, restore our souls!
L: God, our Shepherd, walks with us through every dark valley.
P: God, we will not be afraid! God, our Shepherd, we praise for your goodness and mercy with us every day.

Opening praise: Give us clean hands

Prayers of approach and confession

God of love, we come trusting that your love has the power to defeat evil in the world.

Jesus shows us that your love defeats even the power of death.

You are with us through the darkest valleys so that we are not afraid.

We worship you with glad hearts, praising you in the name of our Risen Lord,

praying with the breath of your Spirit in us.

Renew our strength and courage to face whatever each day holds, so our lives will bring you honour and glory now and always. Amen.

God of love, we confess that too often we let the events around us shatter our trust in your love.

When terror strikes and innocents fall, we wonder if love can defeat violence.

When truth gets lost among misleading claims, we wonder if love can prevail over lies.

Forgive us, God, when we lose our trust in the power of your love so soon after it raised Jesus from death’s grip.

Response: We come to ask Your forgiveness, O Lord

Assurance of God’s forgiveness

The Apostle Paul asked: What will separate us from the love of Christ? Hardship? Distress? Peril or sword? No! he declared. Neither death nor life, nor things present nor things to come can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Let us rejoice that, no matter what is happening around us, God’s gracious and forgiving love will never let us go.

We listen for the voice of God

Children’s time

Gradual: Open our eyes, Lord (445)

Story: Brad showed the children (and the adults) many versions of the Bible – translations, paraphrases, large, small, formatted with images like comic books, etc.

Prayer: We thank you for your word. We ask you that you help us while we read it, to discover not it, but you.

The Lord’s Prayer (535)

Transition music

Song: O Christ, the Word incarnate (505)

Today’s Message

Scripture readings: Psalm 23; Acts 2:42-27; I Peter 2:19-25; John 10:1-10

Response: Behold the Lamb of God

Message: “Chubby Shape Book”

There is this really beautiful story in my daily devotional called Fragments by Dan Wolgemuth. I could just as easily tell a similar story of my own (as I suspect most of us could) but I think he captures the moment so perfectly so I’ll use his words.

The book is called School House. It’s one of Malia’s (our 4 year old granddaughters’) favorites. It’s one of those “chubby shaped books”. It has 85 words scattered across 16 pages, enhanced with some creative pictures. On page seven of the book, the teacher (a glasses-wearing lamb clothed in a purple-striped-dress) points to a flip chart with a picture of an elephant on it. The copy on page 8 reads “The teacher asks the children to name the animal. Can you name the animal?” (Incidentally, that’s the kind of writing gig I need to find. If you know how I get that job let me know).

Anyway… For whatever reason, Malia loves this book. Every time we get to page 7, I too point to the flip chart and ask her to tell me what the animal is. Sometimes she answers, sometimes she lets me know she’s tired and that I need to push on to pages 9 and 10. But mostly, we pause on that thick-stock paper of page 7.

On December 30^th, 2009 something incredible happened. It was on that chilly Denver, Colorado night that a group of us headed to the Zoo. They had more colored lights than animals and more cotton candy than lights. It seemed as much a circus as a zoo to me.

Christmas time at the zoo is a lot to take in. But in due time we made our way to the pachyderm building. The sheer size of the crowd made us realize that something more than lights and junk food was available inside.

I scooped Malia out of the wagon and we made our way through the smell of the building. An immediate left and we were on the railing right in front of two enormous elephants. The one on the left was sucking up gallon upon gallon of water and spraying it high into the air. And the one on the right shoved scoping huge bundles of fruit into its gigantic mouth. It ate a watermelon whole. Without looking at Malia first I said, “Look at the elephant’s honey”. What a waste of breath – the little girl was not only looking, she was spellbound. Her mouth was open and jaw dropped and eyes as wide as a Disney princess. She was in awe.

We stood for a long, long time; Malia and I. Malia’s expression never changed. No dialog, no question, no jokes, nothing moved her from that since of awe.

Until December 30^th 2009 at roughly 7pm, Malia only thought of an elephant as a two-dimensional, two inch high drawing on a flip chart page in a chubby shaped book. In fact on page 7 the elephant is smaller than the lamb. But not in a real life encounter.

In this encounter – the elephant was real. And it was grand.” (Fragments, p. 30)

Is it possible that we’ve done our best to tame the untameable God? That our own Chubby Shaped book just can’t ever, fully do Him justice?

In his book from the Chronicles of Narnia series, theologian and writer C. S. Lewis wrote about the child Susan’s introduction to Aslan the Lion (who stands in for God in the books). He wrote, “Aslan is a lion– the Lion, the great Lion.” “Ooh” said Susan. “I’d thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion“…”Safe?” said Mr. Beaver …”Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

The question sticks in my side and won’t let go. Have we placed The One That Hung The Stars In place on page seven in a “chubby shape book”? Is our God relegated to the pages of the Bible alone in our lives? Is He safe, manageable and confined to the copy on the page? Have we compartmentalized our faith and made a great King… small?

Or is God truly awesome?

When was the last time you really saw him that way?

In my mind, any and every authentic encounter with our God should propel us to a dropped jaw type of moment like that little girl coming to the realization that the thing in the book could never do justice to the experience of it firsthand.

I’ve had those types of moments in my life. I bet you have too. I’ve seen them in my kids’ lives and in others. They’re those December 13^th 7:00pm at the zoo types of moment.

Psalms 68:35 says, “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.” Psalm 68:35 says, “O God, You are awesome”. In Deuteronomy 10:17 it says “For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome.” But when was the last time you encountered that awesome nature?

In our reading from today it says that God want to share that with us and prove that to us. It says that God wants a life fully lived for his children. But that’s not what the forces of this world want.

Jesus says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; But I have come that they may have life, and have it to the fullest.”

The Koine Greek word used here is Perissos. It’s root meaning is excessive. And it means “more than anticipated” or “exceeding the expectations of” or “running over the limit”.

The truth is, despite those encounters with a great an awesome God we don’t always feel that way do we? Life to the fullest often seems way too far out of reach. In this life a whole lot of things try to get between us and the life God wants for us.

There is this goofy joke about a camel from a kids joke book that I find oddly inspiring and oddly insightful. It goes like this. A baby camel asked his mother “Mom, why have I got these huge three toed feet?” The mother replies, “Well son, because when we trek across the desert your large toes will help you to stay on top of the soft sand.” “Oh OK,” said the son.

A few minutes later the son asks another question, “Mom, why have I got these great long eyelashes?” “Well” said the mother camel, “They are there to keep the sand out of your eyes on the long trips through the desert sands.” “Wow, thanks mom,” replies the son.

But as kids often do the boy returns with more questions. “Mom”, says the boy “why have I got these great big humps on my back?” The mother, now a little impatient with the boy replies, “They store up to 1/5 of our body-fat and protect us from the sun’s rays and make it so we can travel on long trips through the desert without any need for food or water for a great number of days”.

“Amazing! That’s great Mom! So we have huge feet to stop us from sinking, and long eyelashes to keep the sand from our eyes and these huge humps to keep us alive while we travel very far! But Mom …” the boy continued. “Yes, son?” “Why do we live at the zoo?” (HotIl 166r)

God is great and awe-inspiring and God created each and every one of you for a purpose. He’s provided you with gifts and talents so that you can serve him, his people and his world. And there is no one at all like you.

But are you doing all that you were created to do?

Living at the zoo isn’t always so bad, but it’s certainly not where camels were created to be. Just like God wasn’t meant to be encountered only on the pages of the scriptures. You are meant to encounter God in your prayers, in your deeds, and in your everyday life.

A while back I was talking to my friend Matt Ruttan about his church in Berrie. And Matt was talking about how it can be scary for people in his church to do something new because it doesn’t feel safe. And then he said this. “Brad, the safest place for a ship is in the harbor, but that’s not where ships were created to be.”

Where were you created to be and what were you created to be out doing?

This week I would encourage all of you to seek out (very intentionally) those jaw dropped moments and spend some time in prayer asking God to reveal His presence to you in new ways. I would encourage all of you to spend some personal time alone with God, thinking about what thief came to steal away the life God has for you; what wants to destroy your hopes and dreams. This week I would encourage all of you to spend some time asking God to direct you to the abundant life (the “life to its fullest”) that God had planned for you all along.

And lastly I want you to know this. It’s never too late to see an elephant in real life. It’s never to late to seek out a new encounter with God.

The future is before you and our God is the God of life and life to its fullest!

My challenge for you today is simple. Decide this week – to live that life. – Amen

Song: Called as partners in Christ’s work (587)

We respond to serve God

Reflection on giving: We have been committed to continuing the ministry and mission that define Dayspring – using the ways described below. Thank you all for your support of our shared vision and mission.

Prayer of gratitude and for others and ourselves

Wise and generous God, shepherd of our lives, we are thankful this day for all you provide to sustain us.

You call our weary souls to rest when the world seems busy.

You bless us with the promise of new life as pastures around us turn green, announcing another spring.

You gather us around tables of friendship to draw strength from one another.

Thank you for signs of your goodness and mercy we can treasure each day.

Loving and Listening God, shepherd of the world, we bring you our prayers for others, friends and enemies, neighbours and strangers alike.

We pray for people who are struggling with illness, loneliness, grief or sadness: