Worship on Lent 2
10:00 am 25 February 2024
Online & Onsite (Mixed Presence) Gathering as a Worshipping Community
Led by the Rev Brad Childs
Music director: Binu Kapadia Vocalist: Rom Rhoad
Elder: Heather Tansem
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
Silent preparation for worship
Call to Worship
L: On this second Sunday of Lent, we hear Jesus teaching about the suffering and rejection that he would endure on his way to the cross.
P: Like Peter, we resist this teaching. We prefer an easier way without struggle and suffering.
L: But Jesus does not hold back. He tells us that to become his followers we need to deny ourselves and take up our cross.
P: May God help us as we learn more of what it means to be friends and followers of Jesus.
Opening praise: Lord, I need you
Prayers of approach and confession
Loving and holy God, with expectancy and joy, we gather confident that you alone speak the words of life; that in you alone we have found our hearts’ desire; and that by your grace alone we have been rescued.
When the way forward is unclear, you will shed light as long as we seek it, when the way ahead is uncertain, you will give peace as long as we seek you, when the times are challenging, you will stir hope as long as we understand that You yourself are our hope.
Deep is our need for you.
Deep is our longing to know you and your purposes.
Deep is our desire to be nurtured by your grace.
You alone are worthy of our trust, praise and worship and in spirit and in truth we bow and proclaim not us lords of our life but rather You the Lord of all our lives.
Despite the joy that is ours, we confess that there are times when we find the ways of faith hard.
You created us for goodness but there are times when we would settle for much less.
There are times when others suggest an easier life are more attractive and we are easily turned around.
There are times we would substitute self-interest for loving others.
There are times when we chose anger rather than forgiveness.
There are times when we do harm to those we love and ignore the needs even of those we care for.
Forgive us for being so fickle. When our footsteps waver may your grasp our hands. In dark times feed the embers of our faithfulness with the flames of your love. May your kingdom’s power strengthen our determination and give us energy to follow your lead. We offer our prayers through Jesus our Lord and Saviour. Amen.
Response: Send me, Jesus / Thuma Mina
Assurance of God’s love
We are justified by grace as a gift through the redemption that is found in Jesus Christ and an empty tomb. He renews us over and over again. No matter what may soil us, Jesus Loves us. Thanks be to God.
We listen for the voice of God
Children’s time
Response: Jesus loves me (373)
Story
Do you like to play board games? Some of the most popular board games are Checkers, Chess, Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, and Clue just to name a few. One of the most popular board games of all time is called “The Game of Life.” It was first introduced in 1860. Wow! That’s more than 150 years ago!
The “Game of Life” is played very much like real life. At the beginning of the game, each player must choose what path he or she is going to take in their journey through life. They choose whether they are going to go to college or go out and get a job. As the game goes on, each player spins the wheel and moves his car the number of spaces on which the spinner stops. The space where your car lands gives you directions on what to do. On some spaces, you MUST follow the directions. On other spaces you only have to follow the directions if you want to. Just as in real life, you have many choices along the way, but what happens to you in the “Game of Life” depends on the choices you make. At the end of the game, the player with the most money wins.
Is that true in real life? Do you think that when life is over, the one with the most money wins? Today we will see what Jesus had to say about that.
In our Bible reading today, Jesus was teaching his followers about life. He said to them, “If you want to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel, you will save it. After all, what good is it if you gain the whole world, but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your own soul?”
Some people live as if the most important thing in life is getting more stuff: big houses, fancy cars, and pretty clothes. Others live as if the most important thing in life is following Jesus and serving him. How do they do that? By loving other people and doing good things for them. When Jesus lived on earth, everything he did was for others. If we follow his example, he promised that we will be the winners in “The Game of Life.”
How about you? Do you want to be a winner in the “Game of Life?” Then stop thinking about yourself and start thinking about others.
Prayer
Dear Father, we want to follow the example that Jesus set. We want to give up our selfish ways and give our lives in love and service to others. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer (535)
Transition music
Song: This is my Father’s world (328)
Today’s Message
Scripture reading: Romans 4:13-25 and Mark 8:31-38
Response: Jesus, remember me
Message: Aeroplanes and Happy Meals
Near the beginning of Mark’s gospel, Jesus reveals to his very disappointed disciples, that His life and His way are not going to be all puppy dogs and sunshine. He takes his closest friends aside and tells them that he will not be overthrowing the rulers of Rome and setting himself up as King. Instead, he tells them, that the people in power are going to take him and torture him and kill him.
His friends aren’t particularly happy about this idea as one may expect. And Peter, who’s sort of the “right-hand man” and probably expecting a cushy new job at the palace, actually takes Jesus off to the side and essentially tells Jesus he’d better knock off the bleak stuff and get back to the happy stuff the crowd likes.
Jesus responds like we might expect him to. Here Jesus says to Peter, “Get back behind me Satanous” (Satan). Or another way to put it might be “Get back in line Satanous” meaning literally – my adversary. One translator puts it this way, “You are not supposed to be my adversary. You’re supposed to be my student. Get back to class”.
At this point Jesus calls the crowd back to him and puts a twist on two popular sayings of the Rabbis of his time.
The first was this: “If you want to be my disciples you must take up my Yoke and Follow me.” Here Jesus puts a dark twist on it saying instead, “Whoever wants to be my disciples must take up your cross and follow me.” In other words, it won’t just be hard following my way; it may just be fatal.
Many years ago, I was on more than one committee of the national church. For several years I also served on the Board of Presbyterian College and Montreal School of Theology at McGill. At this point, I was flying to Montreal five times a year and to Toronto twice a year.
I should say that flights don’t bother me (I sort of like flying) but I would never make a very good pilot. I previously studied to be an arson investigator. I have logic and writing skills sure – But Math… Physics… Not my thing.
Anyway… as I understand it, if you were inside the cockpit of an airplane just before liftoff, you would hear the copilot or captain call out, “V1 say again V1,” (which means – the “point of no return”).
As the airplane accelerates toward the end of the runway, the pilot has to decide if the plane is moving fast enough for a safe takeoff. There is all kinds of math involved in this. Anyway, the pilot holds the throttle tight as the plane approaches the V1 speed so that the takeoff can be aborted if something goes wrong. But after V1, the plane must take off. It doesn’t matter if you’ve accidentally run someone over; it doesn’t matter if you just got struck by lightning. Nothing matters. It’s the point of no return. You can’t stop without crashing.
Christians also have a “V1” commitment. (HT ILL. 1001, 79) Once we’ve chosen to follow Him there’s really no going back. And it won’t always be fun.
Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciples must take up your cross and follow me”.
The crowd, that had gathered heard. The 77 followers heard, the inner circle of the 12 that would become apostles heard, the yet more inner circle of his three closest three friends Peter James and John heard. Jesus’ closest friend John heard. They all heard it. Everybody hears it. “Following me” might not just be gain, it might also mean loss.
I bet they didn’t want to hear that. I bet you don’t wanna hear that. I don’t wanna hear that.
Following Jesus might mean giving something up. Or more to the point – it always means that!
When we take our kids to the shrine of the Golden Arches, they always lust for the meal that comes with a cheap little prize. It’s that solemn combination, christened in a moment of marketing-genius: that is the Happy Meal. You’re not just buying fries, McNuggets, and a dinosaur stamp; you’re buying happiness. Their advertisements have convinced most children and countless others that they have a little McDonald-Happy-Meal-shaped vacuum in their little souls.
I used to attempt to buy off the kids sometimes. I tell them to order only the main items of food and I’d give them a dollar to buy a little toy on their own. But the cry goes up to the heavens like the smoke of the ancient altar, “I want a Happy Meal.” All over the restaurant, people crane their necks to look at the tight-fisted, penny-pinching cheapskate-of-a-father who would dare deny his dear children that afore-mentioned Meal-of-Great-Joy.
The problem with the Happy Meal is of course, that the “happy” wears off.
You ever wondered why Ronald McDonald wears that huge grin? Twenty billion Happy Meals are sold each year, that’s why. More than anything, Happy Meals brings happiness to McDonald’s bottom line.
The crazy thing is… When we get older, we don’t get any smarter; our happy meals just get bigger, shinier or more expensive.
We are constantly filling our lives with things that don’t matter thinking that we can be happy or that we’ll be worthwhile if we can just get the right stuff.
But what if we were actually called to give up all that stuff? What if true happiness and True Life for that matter comes not in collecting things but rather in giving them up? Maybe, maybe it’s not just stuff we can give but ourselves too?
It’s at this point that Jesus gets to the second one of those Rabbinic Quotes quite common at the time. What people were used to hearing was this: “Everyone who preserves one thing from the Torah preserves his life, and everyone who loses one thing from the Torah will lose his life.” The Apostle John will use this quote later in his book of Revelation. But here again, Jesus puts a little dark interpolatory twist on it saying, “The Son of Man must suffer. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.” (Interestingly, Jesus replaces the “Word of God”- THE Torah, with Himself). And then Jesus adds, “For what good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?”
In 2006 the stock market bragged that it had 150 “Socially responsible” mutual funds that invested in companies meeting the ethical standards of fund managers. But a new investment fund quietly surfaced around that same time, which didn’t garner a lot of widespread attention. It was called “the Vice Fund”.
According to its prospectus, the Vice Fund “favours products and services often considered socially irresponsible.” These include companies linked to alcohol, military weapons contracts, pornography, tobacco, and gambling”. The Vice Fund and another fund called the “Gaming and Casino Fund,” exploit the darker side of human nature, which is a “great investment even during times of economic downturn.” Dan Ahrens, former manager of the Vice Fund and founder of the Gaming and Casino fund, believes that bad habits don’t change, even in bad economies. “People still indulge in vices. Regardless of what happens in the stock market, they will continue to smoke, drink and gamble.”
Investors in the Vice Fund have profited. For a time, the fund returned beyond the 20% mark. (HT Ill., 490).
People made money. They made “easy money” and they never had to give anything up for it. They counted on others not to give up things.
But does that sound like the kind of life Christ called his disciples to?
To follow Jesus, that is, to be his disciple, one must (in Christ’s own words) “deny oneself” and “take up” the cross. In other words, the true disciple of Jesus must be prepared to take the hard road, the slow path, and the rocky ground. And though it’s unlikely to happen to us; like it is today in many other parts of the world… it is to share Jesus’ own gruesome fate if necessary. Jesus might be speaking figuratively to us. But that’s not what his friends and followers first heard. They heard about the cross.
That’s a hard calling. No doubt about it. That’s a very hard calling.
Carrying a cross is not easy… and guess what? – it’s not supposed to be.
A German Christian writer in the 13th century by the name of Thomas à Kempis said this: “Jesus now has many lovers of his heavenly kingdom, but very few bearers of his cross.”
At the end of this periscope, Jesus throws out a fastball that must have absolutely shocked his first listeners. First, he says that they should be willing (Note: not that they have to take up a cross – but are to be willing to) take up a cross and be killed for his sake (many of whom were). But then he adds this, “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
Wow! Ouch!
He’s saying, ‘Even when they come to kill you… don’t deny me.’
Lucky for us, we don’t live in Yemen or North Korea, Samolis or Sudan. We are blessed not to be found in a land where to be Christian means to flee your homeland, family and more. Most of us in this room will never be forced to face a choice between denying our faith and facing a firing squad. But… make… no… mistake… someone is doing that right this very second.
But don’t worry, there are other crosses for us to carry and other ways of denying Christ.
Curtis Eastman is a Youth Director and author. In his book titled Raising Heaven-Bound Kids in a Hell-Bent World, Curtis writes,
As a youth pastor, I’d just entered a convenience store with a teenager named Jeff to pay for fuel for the church van. It was apparent that the woman behind the counter had been crying. I looked at her and said the first thing that came to mind, ‘I bet you’ve heard this before ma’am but it looks like hearing it again couldn’t possibly hurt. I believe that Jesus loves you. Are you going to be Okay?’
Jeff, the young man; turned so red he looked purple and then he bolted out the door and dove into the van as if he were trying to evade a firefight in an action movie.
The clerk and I spoke for a few minutes and when I got back to the van Jeff angrily blurted out ‘Don’t ever do that to me again!’ ‘I didn’t do anything to you’ I responded with a deep look of confusion on my face. ‘Yes you did’ said Jeff, ‘you embarrassed me and you embarrassed her and you embarrassed yourself too.’
‘Jeff,’ I said, ‘She told me what was wrong and I told her that was a hard situation to be in. Then she asked me if I was religious and when I said “yes”. She asked me if I would pray for her. So I prayed for her / with her. She took my phone number and she said she wanted to visit the church next Sunday.’ ‘Jeff, I’m not embarrassed, and she’s not embarrassed. Jeff… you are the only one embarrassed.’ (HT Ill., 65)
“If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
No we won’t face a death sentence in Canada for denying Jesus or being too uncomfortable to pray in a crowded restaurant.
Never be ashamed of your faith in Jesus. And if the only trouble we get in is the stink eye from that waiter that’s a cross we should be happy with. We should be proud of it.
We all have a cross (or more than one) to carry. And while you are carrying it please remember this… Whatever happy meal looks particularly enticing today will ultimately not satisfy. We are called not just to joy but also to do something totally contrary to what comes naturally… to deny ourselves. We are called to live lives of giving, to invest in His Kingdom not the Vice Fund. And though you may never have to be nailed to that cross… Never, Ever be ashamed to carry it. Aft4er all, Jesus carried his cross for us. Amen.
Song: Brother, Sister, let me serve you (635: vss. 1-5)
We respond to serve God: Our time of giving
Reflection on giving: Dayspring is empowered to carry out our mission of worship, service, and care by generously given volunteer time, talent, and treasure. Many thanks to all who give so generously!
Prayer of gratitude and for others and ourselves
We pause now loving God, to remember with gratitude:
- a way our life has been enriched by our faith journey (silence)
- to remember with gratitude: a moment of serving or following you that makes us smile (silence)
- to remember with gratitude: a particular moment when your support was clear (silence)
- to remember with gratitude: a time when we have overcome a particular temptation with your help (silence)
- to remember, with gratitude, the people you have given us to love
(silence)
For these signs that you love us we are grateful. For the hope they give us as we continue to mature as your holy people together thank you. For the greatness you have yet to create within us, we thank you.
In hope we pray for continued healing and recreation of the world that is our home.
We ask that your grace continue to work within us. May our love become stronger and braver. May our wisdom become sharper. May we be able to bring the light and love of your Kingdom to our relationships and our work.
Lord be with your people and with your church.
We offer our prayers through Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Song: Guide me, O thou great Redeemer (651)
Sending out with God’s blessing
Now to him who is able to strengthen you, according to the gospel and the preaching of Christ Jesus; according to the revelation and the mystery kept secret from long ago and now disclosed; may He be with you today and forever, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Response: Amen, we praise your name, O Lord
Music postlude
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Numbers in brackets after a song/hymn indicate that it is from the 1997 Book of Praise of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Those and other songs are being used in accordance with the specifications of Dayspring’s licensing with One Licence (3095377) and CLC (A735555).
The Rev. Brad Childs retains the copyright (© 2024) on all original material in this service. As far as Brad Childs is aware, all of the material that has not been attributed to others is his own creation or is in the public domain. Unacknowledged use of copyrighted material is unintentional and will be corrected immediately upon notification being received.