Worship on the Lord’s Day
22nd Sunday after Pentecost Students & Colleges Sunday
10:00 am October 20, 2024
Minister: Rev. Brad Childs
Music Director: Binu Kapadia Vocalist: Vivian Houg
Welcoming Elder: Gina Kottke Children’s time: Lynn Vaughan
Reader: Judy Smith
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
Preparation for worship
Call to worship:
L: Bless the LORD, O my soul, for the Lord our God is very great.
P: God is clothed with honour and majesty, wrapped in brightness
like a garment.
L: God stretches out the heavens like a tent, riding on wings of the wind.
P: O Lord, in wisdom you have made each unique creature. With all of them, we come to praise you.
L: Let us praise God’s holy name together!
Opening praise: O come to the altar
Prayers of approach and confession
God of all time and of all creation,
you are eternal and unchanging,
you are the same yesterday today, and tomorrow
and yet you are new each day.
You are the source of all things:
you are radiant in splendor,
you are filled with honour and majesty,
you laid the foundations of the earth and set the limits.
Your love cannot be measured, and so we offer you our worship and our adoration.
You have called us to discipleship and to follow you, but we often stray from you and your path.
Hear us as we confess our sins to you and one another.
God of mercy, your loving kindness endures forever: we confess that too often our love has been fleeting, our devotion shallow, and our pride without limits.
We have nursed anger, nurtured suspicion, and failed to forgive and to accept forgiveness.
Hear us, O God, as in silence, we make our private confession to you.
Response: We come to ask your forgiveness
Assurance of God’s grace: God is kind, patient, and gentle with us when we stray. Know that your sins are forgiven, forgive those who have sinned against you, and work for peace in this world. Amen.
Musical Offering: How deep the Father’s love for us
(Sam and Ann May Malayang)
We listen for the voice of God
Response: Open our eyes, Lord (445)
Children’s Time
Story
Last weekend, we celebrated Thanksgiving and many of you might have enjoyed turkey during your special dinners. One of the best things about that is the “wishbone”. Do you know what that is? After you finish eating, two people each hold one side of the wishbone, close their eyes and make a wish. Then, you pull on the wishbone until it breaks apart. The one who gets the biggest piece is supposed to have his or her wish come true. What kind of things would you wish for?
Do you ever make a wish to be more like Jesus?
One of the most popular wishes, I think, at least when I was a kid, would be to wish about what your life might be like if you were a king or a queen. Let’s talk about that.
A king or queen is the head or leader of a country. We think of them as being rich, perhaps living in a grand palace. They have all the clothes they need and more. They may wear a crown and own many jewels. We think of them sitting at a long, beautiful table enjoying a feast. There are servants who wait on them and bring them what they need or what they want.
What kind of king or queen would you be? What would you ask for? What would you do? How would you treat people? Would you be a kind leader or a difficult one?
Here is what Jesus says about being a leader: “…whoever wants to become great among you shall be your servant.” (Mark 10:43) This sounds kind of upside down, doesn’t it? A king or queen needs to be a servant. Sounds a bit backwards, right?
Jesus teaches us that the very best leader is the one who cares about all people and wants to do what is best for them. Even though a king or queen may be very powerful, they are most powerful when they serve the people of their country and make sure those people have what they need to be happy and successful. That makes the kingdom better!
Jesus has been called the King of Kings – powerful above all, and he tells us, “The Son of Man (Jesus) came not to be served, but to serve.” (Mark 10:45) Jesus comes to each one of us as a servant, offering his gift of God’s love.
So, when we make a wish to become more like Jesus in our lives, we need to think about what HE considers most important as a leader and how he lived his life for others.
Prayer
Dear God,
Help us to mean it when we say, “I wish I could be more like Jesus.”
Please show us, each day how to become better leaders by being a greater servant to those around us.
The Lord’s Prayer (535)
Transition music
Song: Brother, sister, let me serve you (635: vss 1,2,4,5
Scripture readings: Judy Smith Job 38:1-7, 34-41 & Mark 10:35-45
Response: Thy word is a lamp unto my feet
Message: “But to Serve”
Gregory Tolle has a great story about complaints; I’d like to read a little of it now.
In 1995, when my wife Jenny and I moved from Fort Worth, Texas, to a small town in rural southwest Oklahoma, we discovered the cable service had inadvertently been disconnected before we moved in, even though we had pre-arranged for it to be set up the previous owner we still had no cable. After moving in on Thursday, we called the first thing Friday morning to get the cable all set up (which, at the time, seemed a terrible nuisance). We were told, however, that the worker responsible for servicing our particular area only came to town on Thursdays. We had just missed him. We would have to wait a week to get our cable hooked up.
Coming from Fort Worth, we were used to outstanding service, and more than that, we were used to instant gratification. The competition was so fierce in the Dallas/FortWorth Metroplex (with 7 million people) that businesses went to ensure the customer’s happiness. At the time, the thought of another week seemed like a very long time to us. We decided to “make do” with an old 12-inch black and white television and its old TV antenna. Thinking back now, I’m unsure why that thing made it through the Keep it Or Toss it packing we had just done. But it did. We had to place that little thing in just the right spot in the house to get a fuzzy picture and one available ABC affiliate channel streaming in from 40 miles away. We decided we could tough it out and “rough it” for a while.
So then, Thursday rolled around, and Jenny waited at home patiently for the cable guy to come and flip the switch that would connect us to the outside world again. But he hadn’t arrived by 4:30, so I called the cable company. Bad news. They didn’t show a work order for the job. They also asked with whom we had spoken because whoever it was didn’t seem to know what they were talking about. The guy scheduled to come out to our little area of the sticks didn’t come in on Thursdays; he came on Wednesdays. Once again, we missed him by one day. We would have to wait another six days for the service person to arrive.
The next Wednesday, my wife waited again for the now very much anticipated visit by the cable guy. But then came a phone call from the cable company at 3 o’clock… the end of their workday in the office. More bad news. They were calling to tell us that they had forgotten the man responsible for service in our area, who worked on Wednesdays but was also on vacation. He will be back the following week to hook up our cable. 7… more… days!
Knowing it would be another seven days, Jenny called me at the office, and I stormed home as quickly as possible. I was very much displeased. I was tired of that fuzzy little television and miserable about one more week with it. I found the cable company number, and I called. The office was closed, and one more day was lost. So I called first thing in the morning (now very angry) and asked for the “person in charge.” I told that person exactly what I thought about their terrible customer service.
Truth be told, it didn’t do any good at all. Nothing could be changed.
Just under a week later, the cable guy showed up to hook the cable. However, when we discovered the quality or lack of quality the cable system gave us, it was clear that the cable matched the customer service very well.
Later, we learned the reason for this poor-quality cable. The cable company was pirating the signal from a satellite and charging us for a bad signal that they had been stealing all along. The whole thing was a scam.
Have you ever had a situation like that?
Gregory Tolle doesn’t have a monopoly on receiving lousy service. He’s certainly not the only dissatisfied customer in the world. I think we have all received bad service at one time or another. It may not have been the cable company. Maybe it was a restaurant, a grocery store, or an auto repair shop.
The bottom line is that we generally expect quick and decent service.
I believe that good service happens when management sets the tone.
Jesus was talking about that in our story this morning from Mark 10:35-45. In the scripture, James and John are concerned about a promotion (for lack of a better word). They asked to rule beside Jesus and His Kingdom, which they still mistakenly believe to be an earthly kingdom, thinking that Christ would sit up on some big silly throne somewhere in Jerusalem or Rome. To put it bluntly, they were looking for power, perks, priority, privilege, and position. They were trying to get their piece of the pie, calling for their just desserts. But they never would have asked who could take this seat if they only knew what the just desserts would be like. If they only knew what it meant to be on the right hand and the left hand of Jesus, the day he came into his kingdom. If they knew that on that day, the one at Jesus’ right and left hands were also hanging on crosses… they wouldn’t have been so eager.
So, Jesus used this moment to discuss leadership. He told them that leadership in his kingdom requires suffering and service. He told them that to be great, they must first become servants. Jesus reminded them that discipleship is not a direct ticket to some eternal easy street.
Instead of ruling over people, authentic leadership means giving good service.
Our goal as Christians is not to gain a good seat of power in the kingdom but to provide good service to those in need so that the Kingdom is built here on earth.
Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be Done – what? On Earth… as it is in Heaven.
To paraphrase John F. Kennedy, we should ask not what our church can do for us but rather… what we can do for our church. Or, to put it more broadly, we should ask not what the kingdom can do for us but what we can do for the Kingdom of God in this world.
What a different world this would be if that were most often the case.
I love the way that NT Wright put this. He said, “We have seen in our century what happens when people dream wild dreams of world domination and use the normal methods of force and power to implement them. What we have not seen… is what might happen if those who worship the Lord and Servant-King were to take up his image seriously and follow in the servant’s footsteps.”
What a world it would be if we gave the world the service it needs. If, like the unknown author, we could say, “When I stand before God at the end of my life, I will hope that I will not have a single bit of talent left within me, and I can say with all certainty, ‘I used everything you gave me, Lord.’
Bishop Bruce Blake offers a different analogy in his book Power, Partnership and Passion: The Marks of a Faithful Congregation. Blake says, “We should spur a bib-mentality in which we wait to be served, and instead, we should embrace an apron-mentality in which we do the serving.” There is a discernible pattern in moving from serving – to serving others. It’s called growing up. When we are young, we must be served. We demand it. However, as we mature, we tend to become servants somewhat naturally. Children, of course, don’t start out feeding and clothing themselves. Only in those short-tempered moments of anger with the person on the other end of the customer service line do we regrettably revert back to whinny babies with nothing but the thoughts “fed me” on our minds.
But genuine faith demands adulthood – faithful ministry and discipleship – demands servanthood.
This takes place in more ways than one in our lives. It has implications for everything from how we live to what we do with our money, to our politics, to what our church services look like, to how we act towards others the world might perceive as somehow “less than.”
When we serve, people see the God we serve within us.
So, do people see the God that I serve? Do they see that God when I call customer service, when I go to a restaurant, when I pick my car up from the shop, or when the grocery store line is long?
For me, the answer is, “I bet a lot less often than I would hope.”
Likewise, the world is crying out for good service. It is crying for good service from the disciples of Jesus Christ, who were told to provide just that.
The only questions left are: For whom… and how will you provide a good service today? Amen.
Song: Called as partners in Christ’s service (587)
We respond to serve God: Our time of giving
Prayer of gratitude, and for others and ourselves
Gracious God, we offer you these gifts, small tokens of our love for you. Bless them with the power of your Holy Spirit so they may accomplish more than we can even imagine, in the name of Jesus Christ, our Saviour and our Friend. Amen.
God of each and every life, you open our eyes on the world you love to show us your presence and purpose in all creation.
We thank you for the wonders of the seasons as they change, and for gifts of love and compassion you offer us through friend and stranger.
We pray for the earth as it struggles to support your many creatures.
Make us better stewards in creation, and kinder neighbours to both friend and stranger.
God, in your deep mercy,
Hear our prayer.
God of justice, you open our eyes on the world to show us its struggles and conflicts.
We see the burdens many are carrying, and the way differences create division.
We pray for all those struggling with daily expenses these days and for those feeling stress over hard choices.
Show us how to support those in difficulty and mend relationships in our community.
God, in your deep mercy,
Hear our prayer.
God of compassion, you open our eyes on the world to show us suffering and despair.
We see challenges for health care all around us, and share the impatience to improve access to needed treatments in so many communities.
We pray for those who are suffering in so many places in the world you love.
(Keep silence for 15 seconds)
Give strength and compassion to all who provide life-giving care, and courage and hope to all who wait for healing.
God, in your deep mercy,
Hear our prayer.
God of wisdom,
You open our eyes on the world to show us its complexities.
We see countries locked in old animosities and communities overwhelmed by fresh upheaval.
We pray for the millions displaced in current conflicts and by natural disasters.
Open the eyes of leaders here and around the world to the suffering of the earth and those in their jurisdictions.
And open all our eyes to ways we can participate in solutions to situations which break your heart and ours.
God, in your deep mercy,
Hear our prayer.
(For Students and Colleges Sunday)
God of the generations, you open our hearts to receive your calling to serve in an ever-changing world.
We give you thanks for the students and teachers in our Theological Colleges as they study together and explore new ways of serving the church and the world you love.
This morning, we pray specifically for our own Rom, who will be beginning a candidacy process this very week.
Provide confidence in you, calm, wisdom and understanding. Bless Rom and the many others with deep faith and hope as you lead them to take up the callings you prepare for them in the name of Christ, our teacher and your servant. Amen.
Song: Help us accept each other (632)
Sending out with God’s blessing
Remember – God is your refuge, watching over you to guide you on your way.
So may the God who made you,
The Christ who mends you,
And the Spirit who brings you life
Bless and keep you now and always. Amen.
Response: Go forth into the world
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 License (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.