Worship on the Day of Pentecost
10:00 am June 08, 2025
Minister: The Rev. Brad Childs Music Director: Binu Kapadia
Vocalists: Sam and Ann May Malayang
Welcoming Elder: Iris Routledge Children’s Time: Vivian Houg
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
Brad: This past week, I was away in Hamilton, Ontario, at McMaster University, for the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. It’s where all the big decisions are made, and it’s essentially just five days of meetings. However, I wanted to highlight five key conversations. Understand that people feel differently about different motions, but I’d like to point out a few of the decisions that were made.
- We decided to write a sternly written letter to the government of Canada urging the nation to boycott goods and services where profits would end up being used against the people of Palestine.
- We decided to create a network of resource centers throughout the country that can provide guidance, materials, a lawyer, and other assistance to congregations much more quickly than is currently possible.
- We decided to create a special commission with the power to issue to evaluate the use of local resources, which sounds nice, but in truth, it also means something people may not be pleased with in the end. It means that a group from outside the Presbytery will be able to determine on their own and without input from congregations, if a congregation should remain open or if it might be directed to amalgamate with another congregation.
- When congregations amalgamate—whether voluntarily or through a decision by the commission—and this process involves the sale of one or more church properties, 15% of the proceeds from the sale will be allocated to the national church offices. These funds will be designated to support Indigenous ministries.
- Lastly, I want to note that each year a group of YARs (which stands for Young Adult Representatives) are chosen to attend the assembly and speak to, but do not vote on the presented motions. Easily the highlight of this year’s assembly was found in the YARs presentation at the end. Particularly for me, were the words of three young ladies who called for the church to be less focused on debating social issues and political divides in order to spend our energy on the simple gospel message of scripture in the local congregations. They were passionate, kind and thoughtful, and we as a denomination are blessed to have such people as not just the future leaders of the denomination but also for the ministries they already provide. They are not just the future, they are the here and now, and I was extremely proud and inspired by their faith.
Preparation for worship
Call to worship:
L: Come, people of God, let us gather with joy!
P: We come to worship the Lord who gives life and breath to all creation.
L: The Lord calls us from every place, every path, every week of wandering.
P: We bring our burdens, our questions, our thanks, and our praise.
L: This is the day the Lord has made-
P: We will rejoice and be glad in it
L: Come, Holy Spirit, move among us, renew us, and guide us.
P: We open our hearts to God’s presence. We are here to worship.
Opening praise: Holy Spirit, you are welcome here
Prayers of approach and confession
Holy God, From our scattered lives, we gather to praise you.
You are great and wonderful, wise and compassionate.
With joyful hearts, we celebrate the gifts and guidance of your Spirit.
At the dawn of creation, you sent your Spirit to bring life.
Over the centuries, your Spirit equipped your people to proclaim your love and justice.
Through the flames of Pentecost, your Spirit gave birth to the church with energy and wonder.
Today, your Spirit is at work in the world, bringing renewal and hope here and everywhere.
Transform us by your Spirit to become more faithful followers of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Almighty God, You poured out your Spirit to guide your disciples, and empower your church with gifts for ministry.
We confess we often resist the Spirit’s guidance.
The challenge to change makes us uncomfortable.
We overlook the gifts others can offer and fail to live out Christ’s love for the world.
Forgive us, O God.
Send your Holy Spirit to us again to open our minds and hearts to the challenges in ministry you set before us in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Response: I will trust in the Lord
Assurance of God’s pardon
Hear and believe this promise of the good news:
If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation.
The old life has passed away, and a new life has begun.
Know that in Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!
You are set free to live life anew in the power of the Spirit. Amen.
We listen for the voice of God.
Song: Open our eyes, Lord (445)
Children’s Time
Once there was someone who said such amazing things and did such wonderful things that people began to follow him. But they didn’t know who he was. So one day they simply had to ask him. And he said, “I am the Light.”
When you say the word “light,” strike the match and light the Christ candle.
Let’s enjoy the Light.
Sit peacefully and enjoy the light.
People who love the Light can become one with the Light. This is how your light becomes one with the Light. Watch.
Hold up one of the small candles and look at it. Then look at the child opposite you and say: ….. , this is your light.
Now take another candle and hold it up toward the all the other children,look at the child and say: ….. , this is your light.
Light the candle, put it in a holder, and place it next to the first candle. Alternating from both sides of the center child, continue lighting candles for each child, placing them in holders, forming a semicircle around the Christ candle. When several candles are lit, say:
Look how the light is growing. It all came from the Light here.
Point to the Light.
Look, the light is in so many places at once.
After lighting more candles, say:
Many have come to the Light to receive their light. But the Light is not smaller. It is still the same…. I wonder how so much light could be given away and the Light still be the same?
Sit silently and enjoy the light.
There comes a time when the Light is changed so it’s not just in one place anymore. It can be in many places at once. Watch. You see the light is just in one place now.
Point to the flame in your candle.
I’m going to change the light so it is not just in one place anymore. It can be in many places all at once. Watch.
Slowly lower the candle snuffer over your light, holding it over the wick a moment and then slowly raising it. Watch the smoke curl up into the air and fade into the whole room.
Now I will change your light so it can be in more than one place.
Change the light of each child. When all the lights are changed, change the Light as you say:
Even the Light was changed. The Light that was just in one place at one time is in all places in all times. So, the Light can be everywhere in this room, and even in other places.
Prayer
The Lord’s Prayer (535)
Song: Spirit of the living God (400)
Scripture: Romans 8:14-17 and John 14:8-17
Response: Glory to the Father
Message: A magnitude and a mountain of Grace
A message on our adoption as Children of God, equals in God’s sight and indistinguishable from our Brother Jesus Christ in the love afforded to us.
Ruby and Arnold had adopted a baby boy after five years of trying unsuccessfully to conceive a child. To their surprise, before the adoption had been finalized, Ruby discovered that she was finally pregnant. Ruby and Arnold decided to go ahead with the adoption anyway, and she had a boy of her own only months after receiving their child from the adoption agency.
One day, when the boys were both 8 years old, an old childhood friend came by to visit Ruby and her family. She hadn’t seen Ruby in years, but she was aware of the adoption. Sitting on a bench outside the old farm house, the friend asked, “Which child is yours, Ruby?” Taken aback a bit by the question, “Both of them,” Ruby answered. “Oh, I’m sorry that must have sounded incredibly rude,” said the friend. “I didn’t mean it that way.” “What I meant was, which one was adopted?” “You know,” said Ruby… “I’ve forgotten”. (From 750 Illustrations pg. 13)
In the ancient world surrounding the 1st century, Roman citizens garnered specific benefits previously unheard of. Official citizens whose names were recorded and carefully kept in the Roman Book of Citizenship enjoyed a wide range of privileges and protections defined in detail by the Roman state. Citizens held the right to vote in the Roman assemblies and had the right to stand for civil or public office. They could enter into legal contracts and own property. They had the right to sue and be protected in court, as well as the right to appeal their case. A Roman citizen would be protected by stationed soldiers while travelling local roads. A Roman citizen could not be tortured or whipped, nor could a citizen receive the death penalty for anything other than treason. And… even if convicted of treason, a Roman citizen still could not be crucified (as this was too undignified for a Citizen of Rome to endure). Roman citizens were freed from paying many state taxes, could legally marry and pass citizenship to their spouses and children. Citizens of Rome were also the only people allowed to wear the Toga: a symbol of citizenship for all to see.
For a citizen of Rome, citizenship and conforming to the Via Romana (Roman way of life) was the highest place in society. A toga was a badge of honour and proclaimed one’s status. During a boy’s teen years, a Roman citizen’s father would determine when it was time for his son to pass from childhood to adulthood, typically around the age of 14. The rite of passage was similar to a confirmation, a bar mitzvah, or an Indigenous person’s vision quest in many ways. It was heralded as one of, if not the most crucial, days in a boy’s life.
In a formal public ceremony, the boy would begin the long procession down the streets to the Forum. The father would have gathered his slaves, freedmen, clients, relatives, friends and dignitaries, making use of all his influence to make his son’s special day all the more important. The boy would stand before the crowd, strip off his childhood clothing, have his name added to the Roman book of citizenship and then his father would place his new Toga Virilis (toga of manhood) upon him (the kind he would wear from that day forward). This was a sign that the boy was now officially elevated to the highest class of people. The day was so important that Roman citizens were commonly referred to as togatus, “toga-wearers”. On this day, the boy would be considered a man and would be invested with all the powers and privileges of Roman citizenship. He could now vote and could now legally receive his inheritance if his father were to die, and could lawfully pass this on to his children when the time came.
In the Roman world, adoption was a significant practice. Two of my cousins were adopted after my aunt lost her first child, only a few hours after he was born. Isaiah came from the United States, but his younger sister Lindsey came from South Korea. Certainly, it was a little harder for Lindsey than for Isaiah because it was apparent that she was an adopted child. And she did have to deal with a lot more negative talk than he did. And so, while today adopted children do sometimes have to face a certain undeserved stigma, this was not the case in ancient Rome. In Roman law, the rights of an adopted son were no different from those of a natural son; citizenship was citizenship, and Romans didn’t care how you came about it. More to the point, no one looked down on adoption. In fact, it was extremely common. For families with too many sons or families with no boys at all, adoption was the norm even among one’s slaves.
The procedure was simple. A sum of money was exchanged between the parties, and the boy assumed the adoptive father’s name, plus a cognomen (a third name) that indicated his original family. Adoption was not secretive or considered shameful, nor was the adopted boy expected to cut ties to his original family. Like a marriage contract, adoption was a way to reinforce inter-family ties and forge political alliances. The adopted child was often in the most privileged situation among all the children, enjoying both original and adoptive family connections. Almost every politically famous family in Rome had adopted children. Augustus Caesar, for example, had the full name Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (“Octavianus” – a cognomen, meaning “Augustus Caesar was adopted”)- the adopted child who came to be Caesar.
Paul, of Course, addressed his letter to the Romans (a group of people exceedingly familiar with the practice of adoption). In it, using the Roman imagery, Paul explains to the people that they were once mere slaves but have been adopted and granted new citizenship. He tells them that they have received their own Toga Virilis from God… the Holy Spirit.
He writes, “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba,[b] Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ-”
Now I’m going to say something that is probably going to annoy a lot of people. In 1977, at the age of 77, German Theologian Joachim Jeremias wrote a book called New Testament Theology: The Proclamation of Jesus, where he introduced a very original concept. In his book, Jeremias argued that the Aramaic word “Abba” probably originated from childhood babble and could therefore be translated as “daddy.” As Pastor Tony Campolo likes to say, “Now that’ll preach.” And it did. For years, ministers have been using this information to deliver powerful sermons, as people are reminded that we can cry out to God just as a child cries for their father. And I agree with the point. We can. But the problem is that Jeremias was clearly incorrect in his assumption. This idea is widely panned among biblical scholars as a nonsense translation.
Ab, in fact, is merely a Hebrew and Aramaic word for “father” and appears 1,215 times in the Old Testament alone. The addition of the ba or “ba” at the end is how Aramaic adds an article to the word, meaning its proper translation is “The Father”. As Paul writes to a Greek audience in Rome, mostly unfamiliar with the Hebrew and Aramaic languages, he immediately interprets the word for his readers, adding the Koine Greek “Ha Pater” (Pa-ta-r), “The Father”, after its usage. Both times Paul uses the word Abba in his writing, he also includes its translation to explain its meaning, “Abba Father.”
So, unfortunately, what my minister told me as a youth (that Abba means “daddy”) is not terribly accurate. But one must still ask the question. Why would Paul write in Greek but still include one Hebrew / Aramaic word only to translate it afterwards? It’s odd. It’s similar to how we pray in English, but we conclude our prayers with “Amen,” a Hebrew word meaning “so let it be so.” But why? Although the word “Ab / Abba” does appear throughout the Old Testament, it wasn’t a word typically used in prayer. Instead, it was used primarily to describe lineage (as in, “Whose child is that?”). Abba was meant to convey a blood relationship. And that’s what makes it so odd, because Jesus used ‘Abba’ in his prayers, calling God his own Father. In doing this, the people would have been surprised. They would have seen this word as essentially improper and far too personal. A good way to think about this might be to consider that calling God “Father” can easily be seen as figurative, but “Abba” implies (in modern parlance) that we have God’s very DNA within us. A lot of people believed this word overstepped the bounds of polite conversation. But Jesus didn’t think so. After all, God is Jesus’s father. Early Christians were struck by this. They loved that Jesus used Abba in his prayers and began to do the same, even if they didn’t speak Hebrew or Aramaic, just as we do with the word “amen”. Saying “Abba” became one of the first traditions in the Christian church (along with Amen and a word from the Psalms that appears a significant number of times, Selah, which is a musical notation for a reflective pause). If you read the Psalms, you have undoubtedly seen the word Selah and probably skipped over it without much thought. However, in the early church, these three words were considered almost sacred and have therefore never been translated, even in English-language Bibles.
Like Jesus, the Apostle Paul didn’t find this word too personal or improper. Abba was already in everyday use by the time Paul began his missionary journeys. For Paul, this word was not odd at all. It was just right. When Paul writes to the Romans, he uses the imagery of a Roman father adopting a slave boy and calling him his own son and placing a toga on him as proof of the boy’s Roman citizenship. For Paul, God the Father also adopted us. Paul says that God clothed us with the Holy Spirit (just as the Romans clothed their adopted children with togas) and also claims this as proof of our citizenship in Heaven. Incidentally, at adoption, a child (or they also adopted adults as well) would have their name printed in the great record of Roman Citizenship (which is why Paul also often uses the imagery of having our names recorded in the “book of life”.
But even more powerfully than a merely human adoption, in this case, Paul says that God makes us not only His children but His own flesh and blood children, allowing us to call out to God the Father just as Jesus did – Abba (flesh and blood of the Divine).
“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba,[b] Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.
He, our Father, adopts us to himself and, because of that, grants us the full rights as citizens of heaven, people whose names are recorded in the book of life, heirs to the highest throne, sons of God and siblings to Christ. And like Ruby, when God asks which child is His and which is adopted, he too responds, “I’ve forgotten”.
May you wear the Holy Spirit, wherever you may go, proof to the world around you that you are no one’s slave but rather a child of God, flesh and blood of your Father, heir to the throne of the highest King and sibling of Jesus Christ. –Amen
Song: “Abba, Abba, hear us,” we cry (785)
We respond to serve God.
Our time of giving
Prayers of the people
God of all places, people and times; hear us as we speak to you of our gratitude and our concerns in the world; and let us hear your voice calling us to help build your commonwealth of grace and reconciliation in the world you love.
We thank you for the Spirit’s presence among us, for the gifts you bless us with and for the ways people use the gifts you give to bring life and joy to the world.
Blow through us on this day of Pentecost and renew our faith.
Re-awaken in us love for God, strengthen our fellowship with one another and nurture our care for one another and your creation.
Let your Pentecostal flames warm our hearts, with trust in Jesus Christ and hope for the future being created among us.
Nurture us to do great things in your name.
Wind of the Spirit: Blow through us and renew our energy to serve you in Christ’s church.
Open our eyes to recognize the need for ministry and mission in changing times.
Open our hearts to welcome newcomers and meet those we don’t yet know.
Open our hands to share in the tasks that need doing, and open our lips in prayer and praise.
Wind of the Spirit: Blow through us and give us new understanding for those whose lives seem so different from ours, and for those facing situations we’ve never encountered.
For those with whom we’ve disagreed and for those whose values challenge our expectations.
For problems and challenges we face at home or at work and for the complex issues we face in your world.
Wind of the Spirit: Blow through us and bring us healing and peace for all who face pain or illness, discouragement or disappointment.
Bring healing for all who know sorrow, sadness or grief.
Bring healing for those who face stress and pressure.
Bring healing to places in the world facing conflict and for the creation struggling for life itself.
Wind of the Spirit: Blow through us and bring us the wisdom and compassion we see in Christ Jesus.
Blow through us and equip us to serve the world you love in his name.
Song: I am the church! You are the church! (475: vss 1,2,4,5)
Sending out with God’s blessing
May the Spirit of truth guide you in all wisdom as you go from this place. May the fire of God’s love ignite your hearts to share the Good News with boldness and compassion. And may the peace of Christ, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds until we meet again. Amen.
Response: Amen, we praise you name
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 (© 2025) 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.
Video recordings of the Sunday Worship messages can be found here on our YouTube Channel.