Worship on the Third Sunday after the Epiphany
10:00 am January 25, 2026
Minister: The Rev. Brad Childs Music Director: Binu Kapadia
Vocalist & Welcoming Elder: Lynn Vaughan
Children’s time: Brad Reader: Saber Fort
Prayer with the Elders: Gracious and loving God, we gather before You in humble gratitude. As elders called to lead, we ask Your presence among us: fill our hearts with Your Spirit, steady our minds, and make us attentive to Your word. Bless those who are weary, heal those who are suffering, comfort those who mourn, and renew hope in the anxious and the discouraged. Grant wisdom to our leaders and servants, guide every prayer and song offered here, and shape our lives to reflect Your love. Forgive our failings, unite us in compassion, and empower us to serve our neighbours faithfully. Bless this time of worship that it may deepen our faith, strengthen our community, and send us forth to live as Your faithful people. In Your holy name we pray. Amen.
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: The Lord is our light and salvation.
P: We will not be afraid.
L: Behold the beauty of the Lord!
P: God will shelter us on any day of trouble and set us high upon a rock.
L: Let God’s people shout for joy!
P: For Christ calls us and claims us as his own.
L: Come and worship in unity and love; let us rejoice together!
Opening praise: This I believe
Prayers of approach and confession
Gracious God, You are our light in the dark and the steady hand that guides us. You are our peace when life is chaotic, and your grace meets us when we fall. You bring healing to weary bodies and hopeful renewal to worn-out hearts. You are love—unconditional, patient, and present. In moments when tears blur our vision and doubts creep in, you send comfort and courage that quiet our fears. You invite us into lives of purpose, asking us to walk the path of justice, speak truth with humility, and choose goodness even when it’s costly. For your steady presence, your patient leading, and the ways you shape us into more loving people, we offer our praise and our gratitude.
Merciful God, You call us into compassion, yet we so often point fingers instead of listening. You teach us peace, but we cling to grudges and build walls between one another. You ask us to trust—to step forward when you call us—but fear and second-guessing keep us stuck. We confess how easy it is to protect ourselves rather than to show up for others. Forgive our smallness, our rush to judge, our unwillingness to be changed. Help us practice mercy in our words and actions. Remind us that unity doesn’t mean uniformity, and that real peace requires honest work and brave humility. Strengthen our hearts so we can take the risks love asks of us: to forgive, to listen, to serve, and to speak truth in kindness. Teach us to live out your justice with compassion, to hold fast to hope, and to trust you more than our anxieties. May our lives reflect your mercy and bring healing to the places we touch. Amen.
Response: Glory, glory hallelujah
Assurance of God’s pardon
God calls to us in love and forgiveness, and welcomes us in with a warm embrace. Hear the good news of the Gospel. Rejoice that in Christ we are forgiven, and be at peace with God, yourself and with each other.
We listen for the voice of God
Song: Jesus we are gathered
Children’s time
There is a legend I want to tell you. It goes like this:
When Alexander the Great was King and set out from Macedonia and Greece to conquer the Mediterranean world, he received a message during one of his campaigns about a soldier of his who was misbehaving in a way that was harming the reputation of all the Greek troops. When Alexander the Great heard about this man, he sent word that he wanted to speak with the soldier in person.
When the young man arrived at the tent of Alexander the Great, the commander asked him for his name.
“My name is Alexander, sir”, came the reply.
Alexander the Great asked the soldier again, “What is your name?”
“Alexander, sir”, came the reply again.
And for a third time, Alexander the Great asked the question, What is your name?”
Now very fearful, the soldier answered a third time, “Alexander, sir”.
And with that, Alexander the Great walked up only inches from the soldier’s face and said, “Soldier, either change your behavior or change your name”.
Matthew 5:16 says, Let your light shine before all people that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. If we call ourselves Christians, Christ’s resurrection is in our hands. If we claim His name as ours, we need to back it up in how we live.
The Lord’s Prayer (535)
Song: The church is wherever God’s people (484)
Scripture readings: Isaiah 9:1-14; Psalm 27:1, 4-9; 1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Response: Behold the Lamb of God
Message: A house divided.
This week’s message focuses on unity in the church in Corinth and how that unity and division relate to us today.
Imagine a bustling international port city today, think a modern Singapore or Dubai on steroids. Ships from every corner of the empire dock, unloading goods, ideas, and people. Wealth flows in, markets boom, and the population swells rapidly. But beneath the prosperity lies tension: newcomers from dozens of cultures clash over customs, loyalties, and status. Lawsuits are filed constantly, personal freedom reigns supreme, and social hierarchies are rigid; wealthy patrons hold disproportionate power, while the rest scramble for scraps.
That was ancient Corinth in the mid-first century AD. Julius Caesar re-founded the city as a Roman colony in 44 BC, settling it with freed slaves, veterans, and merchants. By the time Paul wrote his first letter (around AD 53–55, perhaps just a decade or so later), Corinth had exploded into a thriving metropolis of perhaps 80,000–100,000 people. Its strategic location on the isthmus saved traders massive time and money. Yet morally and socially, it was chaotic, a melting pot where “anything goes” as long as Caesar got his taxes. The culture prized individual liberty, persuasive speech, and climbing the social ladder. Lawsuits were almost a national sport.
Into this whirlwind stepped the young church. Paul had planted it during his second missionary journey, but reports soon reached him, via “Chloe’s household”, of serious problems. The believers were fracturing. In today’s passage (1 Corinthians 1:10-13), Paul pleads urgently:
“I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household, have informed me that there are quarrels among you… What I mean is this: One of you says, ‘I follow Paul’; another, ‘I follow Apollos’; another, ‘I follow Cephas’; still another, ‘I follow Christ.’”
Paul uses the Greek word “schismata” (divisions), like political factions or rival political parties. In Roman society, such cliques were common: align with a powerful patron and gain influence. But Paul says, “Not here. Not in Christ’s church.” As Jesus said, “A house divided cannot stand”.
Why did this happen? Corinth’s culture seeped in. The city was home to elite rhetoricians and teachers who prized eloquent speech, feats of memory, and persuasive power. Sophists—travelling experts in rhetoric—would wow crowds with memorized speeches or entire plays, charging fees to train the ambitious. When Paul arrived, humble and tent-making, refusing patronage money, he didn’t fit the mould. Apollos, by contrast, was eloquent, fervent, and skilled in debate (Acts 18:24-28). Peter (Cephas) had apostolic authority. So the church splintered into personality cults: “Paul’s my guy—he started it.” “Apollos is better—he’s a master speaker.” “Peter’s the real deal.” And some, thinking themselves superior, said, “No, *I* follow Christ alone”. And we might be tempted to say, “Well, what’s wrong with that? Those people get it.” We all follow Christ; that’s Paul’s point. But it seems these folks were doing it arrogantly, still making it “me vs. you.” By saying, “I follow Christ,” they were attempting to stand out and belittle others through their superiority. It’s one of those “I am the REAL Christian” sort of statements.
This wasn’t just preference; it echoed the world’s divisions: rich vs. poor (remember how the wealthy hogged the Lord’s Supper?), status vs. lowly, insider vs. outsider. Old habits die hard. The Corinthians wanted Christ’s benefits without transformation, Christianity as an add-on to their existing loyalties.
Think of the parable of the man who found a priceless pearl. He sold everything to buy it, but imagine he tried to keep his old house, his old job, his old grudges, saying, “I’ll take the pearl, but only if I can hang onto these too.” The pearl’s value demands total surrender. Half-hearted commitment misses the point.
Or consider a modern example: family reunions where old rivalries flare up. One side clings to “our way,” another to “their way,” and soon everyone’s in factions. The gathering that should unite becomes a battlefield. That’s what Paul saw in Corinth, and what can creep into any church.
Paul cuts through it: “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul?” No! The cross unites us under one Saviour. Baptism marks us as one body. The church isn’t a club for favourite preachers or social climbing. It’s the family of God, where we lay down personal agendas for the good of the whole.
I know I’ve told this story before, but it’s worth telling again. Once upon a time, long ago and far away, Otto the Conqueror reigned over his people. Known for his erratic behaviour and brutality, Otto was so busy conquering new territory for his country that he had no time to find a wife. When his advisors became concerned that Otto had not married, and would therefore produce no heir to the throne, Otto commanded his men to find him a suitable wife who was beautiful, intelligent, and a nobleman’s daughter.
And so Sophia was discovered, in a land across the sea. Her father, a convert to Christianity (and a previously self-described “terrible man”), now very much changed and loved by his family and his people, required but one thing. The daughter’s royal husband he said must be a baptized Christian (the faith that took his former behavior away and helped him to become something wholly new). From that he thought, everything else would take care of itself. After meeting with Sophia’s father Otto was oddly struck by his kindness and gentle heart. And after seeing the amazing heart of Sophia and her father, Otto the Conqueror agreed to become a Christian and then Otto set out to marry his bride, accompanied by five hundred of his best warriors who were there as always to keep him safe.
When they arrived (for the baptism and wedding) in Sophia’s land, Otto was promptly baptized—whereupon his loyal warriors demanded that they, too, be baptized. Though most likely born of devotion to the king than Christ, it was a strange yet moving scene. There was only one problem: it was a custom in Sophia’s gentle and peace-loving land that Christian converts could not be professional soldiers (but belong only to the ranks meant for defense). At this news, the warriors doubted they could ever follow their king in Christian baptism.
But when the next morning came, the men told Sophia and Otto’s family, that they were all, every last one, ready to convert. As the story goes… That day, five hundred warriors marched out into the water to be baptized. But before they lowered themselves into the water to fulfill the Christian rite, all of them drew their swords, lifting them high into the air. Those who watched were dumbstruck by the strange and previously unseen spectacle of five hundred dry arms rising up high out of the water, grasping five hundred swords while the men were dunking themselves in the cool, crisp water.
All the warriors were baptized completely, except for their swords and their fighting arms.
You see, the night before, the soldiers had met and talked and debated and finally had decided… they could give all of themselves to this Christ they had heard about… all except for their fighting arms and their swords. These they said, would remain the possession of the state.
The Corinthians had a similar view. They believed that they could hold on to everything they already believed, be unchanged, and yet still be Christians. But you can’t. You can’t be completely unchanged.
We’re not so different. We bring our preferences, our comforts, our “non-negotiables.” We dip into the waters of faith but keep one arm raised, clutching what we won’t release—maybe pride, grudges, materialism, or the need to be right. We want God’s blessings on “our” terms.
Yet Paul urges in Romans 12:1: “Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.” Wholehearted surrender. No partial immersion.
The church thrives when we choose unity over division: listening more than arguing, serving more than status-seeking, focusing on Christ more than personalities. When we do, the watching world sees something different, not another faction, but one family under one Lord.
Two questions to carry home:
- What are you still holding high above the water—refusing to let the cross touch it fully?
- What small step this week could you take to heal a division or build unity instead of adding to it?
Let’s pray we all lower that arm, fully immersed in Christ, together as one. Amen.
Song: We are God’s people (472: vss 1,3,4)
We respond to serve God
Our time of giving
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Prayers of thanksgiving and intercession
God — the ground of our life, the presence in every breath and step — we come before you asking for peace, unity, justice, and mercy across this fragile world you’ve given us. We hold before you now people who live day by day under the shadow of war and violence: cities and neighbourhoods where routine has been shredded, families forced apart, children learning fear as if it were normal. We think of places in the headlines where old grievances flare into new suffering and where ordinary life is interrupted by the logic of retaliation. Speak a word of peace into those broken places. Soften hardened hearts, restrain the impulse to escalate, and give leaders wisdom shaped by compassion rather than conquest.
We bring to you those burdened by economic uncertainty: people watching prices climb faster than paychecks, parents deciding which bills to pay, workers who have lost steady work or watched savings evaporate. For small business owners who pour themselves into something only to see it fail, for renters who fear eviction and for those whose dignity is threatened by dependence, pour out your presence. Make creative, just solutions possible — inspire communities to share resources, protect the vulnerable, and rebuild opportunities so people can live with security and hope.
We remember those crushed by discrimination, harassment, and exclusion — students bullied for the way they speak or dress, employees passed over or demeaned, people made to shrink themselves so others will feel comfortable. For anyone made ashamed of who they are or denied basic respect, speak dignity into their lives. Help us dismantle systems and attitudes that normalize contempt. Teach us to listen, to stand with the marginalized, and to act so that every person can walk freely in the truth of their identity.
We lift up those who face illness, chronic pain, delays in care, or the hollow ache of grief. For people waiting for tests and answers, for those who endure disability without adequate support, for caregivers stretched to their limit, we ask for strength, clarity, and tender relief. Let healing — in whatever form it comes — touch bodies and minds. Give endurance where cure is not immediate, consolation where loss is raw, and reliable care for those too often left on the margins.
We pray for people of many faiths and none, seeking dialogue, mutual respect, and cooperation. For congregations and individuals who risk relationship across creed lines, bless those efforts and deepen understanding. Where fear of the other closes doors, open ways of hospitality and shared service so neighbors of different convictions can build the common good together.
We commit before you the whole creation — land, sea, air, and every living thing — wounded by neglect, pollution, and short-term choices. Teach us practical wisdom: to mend the rips in the world’s fabric, to steward resources justly, and to model restraint and care so future generations inherit abundance rather than scarcity. Give us imagination to pursue policies and daily habits that protect what is vulnerable.
Voice a word of peace, dignity, healing, reconciliation, and wisdom into these situations. Embrace us and all your children with a love that moves us from prayer into action: to comfort, to advocate, to repair, and to share abundance. Shape our hands and our decisions so we become instruments of the care and justice you call us to live. Amen.
Song: We are one in the Spirit (471)
Sending out with God’s blessing
Go into the world to live out the gift of unity in Christ, eager to serve and open to learn from the Christ who calls us and sets us free. May the love of God, the peace of Christ and unity in the Holy Spirit be yours now and always. Amen
Response: God to enfold you
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 (© 2026) 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.
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