Worship on the Lord’s Day
10:00 am 28 July 2024
Online & Onsite (Mixed Presence) Gathering as a Worshipping Community
Led by the Rev Brad Childs
Music director: Binu Kapadia Vocalist: Vivian Hough
Children’s Time: Fionna McCrostie Elder: Jane de Caen
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: In the midst of life’s storms, God is there
P: What have we to fear?
L: In the darkness and terror, God is with us.
P: Of whom shall we be afraid?
L: Rise up, people of God, for you are loved and saved
P: Thanks be to God who cares deeply for us. Amen.
Opening praise: Forever God is faithful
Prayers of approach and confession
Lord, we come before you at this time and in this place because we see a world that is not right. And if we were honest, we’d have to admit that we are part of that. We are also not right. We make mistakes and help build more problems in the world too. When we do something wrong, however, we tend to excuse it. We see our own reasoning but not others. We allow ourselves leeway but hold others to account.
Our work lives home lives and political lives are not pure of wrongs and mistakes.
But we do know what few people in the world are prepared to do. We come and we admit that we are all sinners. We acknowledge that we are not above others. We admit that we see people in need and don’t always jump to help. Our hearts are loving and our lives beautiful, but we don’t always do everything we can.
Father, we confess our wrongs. We search our hearts, and we silently confess to you the things we could or should do better with.……
For our sins, we ask forgiveness.
And for the rest of our journey, we ask for clear vision, strength to do what is needed to be done and lives that turn from mistakes to service as you slowly make us more like the image of Christ our Lord.
Turn our deeds to you, our hearts to you and our lives to you. Amen.
Response: I waited, I waited on you, Lord
Assurance of God’s grace
According to the scriptures, the Lord forgive us our debts and takes our sins upon himself. But consequently, we are also told to forgive others just as we have been. In the name of Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven. Now we must forgive as well. Amen.
We listen for the voice of God
Children’s time
Response: Jesus loves me (371)
Story: Going on Vacation (Fionna)
I am a student just like some of you. I go to school, and I work hard to get good grades.
Just like some of you I am on my summer vacation. For part of my summer vacation, I went to Asia! I visited Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand.
Have any of you taken a vacation already this summer? Are some of you going on vacation later this summer? Where to?
Sounds relaxing!
Did you know that Jesus taught his disciples that it was important for them to take a vacation? Jesus’ disciples traveled from town to town telling others about God and His love for them. They traveled everyday preaching, teaching, and healing the sick. They worked so hard that they often didn’t even have time to stop to eat or sleep. They became very tired.
When Jesus saw how tired they were, he said to them, “Come with me to a quiet place and get some rest.” The Bible then says, “So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.” I think it is important to notice a couple of things about what the Bible says.
First, Jesus said, “Come with me.” When we take a vacation, we need to remember to take Jesus with us. Some people never give Jesus a thought when they go on vacation. We should include Jesus in all that we do, even when we are on vacation.
Second, the Bible says the disciples went away to a quiet place. Their main purpose was to rest and renew their strength. Some people plan a vacation that is so full of activities that when they come home, they are more tired than when they left!
I hope that you have a great summer vacation. Don’t forget to take Jesus with you, and don’t forget to set aside some time for rest and relaxation. Then come back home refreshed and renewed!Prayer: Dear Lord, thank you for vacation time when we can rest and renew our strength. Help us to remember to include you in everything we do. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer (535)
Transition music
Song: Jesus, Lover of my soul (676)
Today’s Message
Scripture reading: Hebrews 6:19 & Matthew 14:25-31
Response: Thy word is a lamp unto my feet
Message: Anchored by Hope
Welcome everyone! It is an interesting day since we’re starting a new 4-week series called Anchor. Anchor, get it? Ship, anchor, Dayspring a Ship. Ships have anchors, our Session has anchor groups.
I’m “beating the dead horse”.
In part, I would like to see how some of these things work or don’t. Now, please just rush to tell me you love or hate it. Know that it’s a test. In this world, we are increasingly on our screens. Younger people tend to be much more visual learners than auditory learners. So if you are one of those people who thinks having a greater impact on the young people you know and wish were more apt to attend, then you should give this a fair shake. On the other hand, you should also know that the church is not McDonald’s catering to every whim and will. And an argument can be made that the less use of screens, the more unique a worship service is from the world around. I suspect, not to commit the fallacy of the middle ground, but in this case, the middle ground is probably best.
Or amazing volunteers in the media booth and Dr. Carr with those online, with music and with Lynn and others, the full staff and I, Communications, Inclusion and Worship committee will all have conversations around this.
This week we begin our series of four Sundays of being Anchored. You should know it’s built around a single Bible verse; Hebrews 6:19 which says;
“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure…”
Actually – that’s not even the entire verse…I know it sounds pretty ambitious or perhaps odd to talk about one-half of one Bible verse for the next four weeks. But this is the power of the Bible, the living word. And I think lately I’ve been getting a little too deep and focused on minutia.
I don’t ever want anyone to think that they can’t read and understand the bible. Yes, doing word studies and research often gives you much deeper insight, but even on its surface, the Bible is a love story that almost anyone can read and understand easily.
It speaks to us in every season of our lives. Every circumstance, suffering, and victory. The Bible is truly amazing, and I hope one of the things you take from our series is a renewed interest in scripture and the practice of reading it whether that’s reading the narratives of the first five books or the History of the early church in Luke and Acts or the miracles of Jesus in Mark, the wisdom addressed to young people in the Proverbs or the poetry of the Psalms (the single most influential text world-over in all human history). In the next four weeks, I hope everyone will take some time to delve into the scriptures at home, as a part of how we all seek to hear God speak directly to our innermost being.
Now, getting back to anchors… most of us have seen one of these at one time or another. An anchor is a simple but amazing invention, used by fishermen and sailors for thousands, of years. The basic concept of an anchor is that it is a “device, normally made of metal, used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current.”
An anchor is simple in its design, but very powerful in its function.
As believers, we are encouraged to remain steadfast and committed to our faith through every trial and storm that life may bring. While storms rage around us, emotions heighten, and bad things happen, we as followers of Jesus Christ are anchored in a common hope… and as you may have guessed, that hope is a man called Jesus.
This idea is far from new. As one Bible commentator says the anchor “was an ancient Christian symbol for safety, security, and hope. It has been found on the walls of the Roman catacombs. Even within the first century, the cemetery of St. Domitilla includes them. Epitaphs from the third century abound. In the cemetery of St. Priscilla, there are seventy archaeological examples serving much in the way tombstones do today. Along with the ancient fish symbol we see (sometimes backwards) on the back of cars, the ChiRo, the Anchor was used specifically to mark Christian graves and carved during burial ceremonies as a sign of hope for families facing the loss of a loved one.
Of course, different people use different symbols. Today the Roman Catholic church tends to use the Crucifix (Jesus’ suffering on the cross). Protestants tend to use the empty cross in order the focus on Christ off of the cross and after the resurrection. Early worshipers tended to use fish, a shepherd’s crook and the anchor. All speak to hope.
But What is the specific “hope” the author of Hebrews is referring to in verse 6:19? What actually inspired the ancient church to use an anchor? Yes, of course, the answer is Jesus, but why is the conclusion being drawn that we have “this hope” and not another one?
To better understand what’s going on in Hebrews 6:19 is simple and it’s the same with almost any verse. We simply look at the context. We read the section of verses that come before this one, and at some point also read the first six chapters of Hebrews altogether which preceded this one. But for now, let’s start with Hebrews 6:13
Hebrews 6:13-17
13 When God made his promise to Abraham since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.”[d] 15 And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.
16 People swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all arguments. 17 Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. 18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.
Okay so a long time ago God promises that Abraham was to be the father of the Hebrew nation, and since God couldn’t swear on anything greater than himself He simply said, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” In the Scriptures, God made a simple promise to Abraham, and He stayed true to His promise.
Promises of course are easy to make, easy to break, and hard to keep. Regardless of the reason why people break promises, it is undeniable that promises frequently get broken. We’ve all had it happen to us, and we’ve all done it a time or two—or more—ourselves. We know firsthand that sometimes it’s hard to keep promises, and sometimes people don’t keep promises. That’s why when someone does keep his promise—-especially one that really costs him something—-we tend to sit up and take notice.
In his book, Up from Slavery, Booker T. Washington tells of meeting an ex-slave from Virginia who exemplified the kind of sacrifice that is sometimes involved in keeping promises. This man had entered into a contract with his master whereby he would be allowed to purchase freedom for himself by paying so much for so many years to his master. And, while he was earning the money to pay for himself, his master released him from service on his plantation, so that he would be able to labour wherever and for whomever he could earn the most money.
Well, the slaves went north to Ohio because the wages were better there. But each year, he would return to his master’s plantation to present that year’s payment to his master. After a few years, the U.S.A was embroiled in the Civil War, and President Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation which ended slavery and brought freedom to all the slaves, including this man. But he still owed his master three hundred dollars.
Now, think about this for a minute. This former slave was free. He didn’t have to pay his former master the final three hundred dollars to purchase his freedom—-he had already been made free by the Emancipation Proclamation. But he had made a promise. And he was a man of his word. And so he walked from Ohio back to Virginia and presented his former master with the full amount he had promised him, down to the last dollar.
Our God is a promise keeper even when it’s not deserved, even when it hurts. Like when he promised to be a final sacrifice for all and died upon the cross. Luckily, as Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.” He’s not going to have a midlife crisis or go on some crazy existential journey. He remains the same. And this is incredibly good news in a world that’s constantly changing and moving.
Be encouraged today. Especially those of you who fled from the sin and slavery of the world to take hold of Jesus. He is the hope, the specific hope that we have. He is firm and secure. He is an anchor for the soul.
To point here is that once we have committed ourselves to Jesus, we are able to “anchor” ourselves to Him.
This is how Albert Barnes, a biblical commentator, beautifully describes this reality: “Hope accomplishes for the soul the same thing which an anchor does for a ship. It makes it fast and secure. An anchor preserves a ship when the waves beat and the wind blows, and as long as the ship holds to the anchor, the ship is safe, and those aboard remain safe. So, with the soul of the Christian. In the tempests and trials of life, his mind is calm as long as his hope of heaven is firm. If that gives way, he feels that all is lost.”
In the coming weeks, we’ll talk about the storms and tempests of life in addition to the temptation to hold fast to other things that we think may keep us safe. But for now, let’s consider how peaceful it must be to sleep and work on the deck of a ship whose anchor is steadfast and secure.
It’s obviously not a perfect metaphor, but this is in some way how it feels to be anchored to hope. If you are anchored, firm and secure – if your connections are strong and the anchor is trustworthy then… what room is there left for anxiety or fear?
With so much uncertainty in the world… excessive worry, trouble sleeping, illness, war, abusive governments, career and money worries, physical safety, broken relationships, depression, turmoil, confusion, division, death and dying … is it any wonder that our cities and cultures are struggling with epidemic levels of stress, and why nearly 60% of Canadians have been prescribed antianxiety or antidepressants at the same point? Friends, family, and neighbours, ourselves, we are literally grasping for anything firm and secure to hold fast to. But everything we grab gives way. Hope, wrongly applied, will often leave us worse off than when we started. These are not solutions in and of themselves (DO NOT STOP TAKING THEM). But these are not our ultimate hope.
The Apostle Peter knew this. You probably remember this story. It’s from Matthew 14:25-31 and it goes like this. 25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said and cried out in fear. 27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” 29 “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
Everything was going well for Peter until he took his eyes off Jesus and began to have doubts. He forgot he needed to be connected with the anchor especially when things are all out of wack.
An anchor is simple in its design, but so very powerful in its function. Over the next few weeks, we are going to continue talking about anchors, boats, hope, and Jesus. In the meantime, it would be good for all of us here today to take some time this coming week to slow down and spend some time thinking about the things or people we’ve put our hope our hope in. Has someone you trusted ever let you down in the past? Has someone ever lied to you, misled, or manipulated you? Are you anxious or depressed? Have you ever felt fearful of people, places, and situations? Do you ever say, “If I get into heaven” instead of “When I get to heaven”? If you identify with any of the situations I just described, or possibly something I’ve missed, it doesn’t mean you’re weak, dumb, gullible, or broken. It means you’re human. I have felt all of these things and probably made others feel them too. And that makes me exactly the type of person Jesus came and died for.
In Mark chapter 5, there is a story about a woman afflicted with bleeding for 12 years. She spent all her money on doctors, with no relief. She was ostracized from her community and family, set aside and forgotten about. According to the levitical law of the time, everyone she touched and every place she sat became unclean, because she was unclean.
But then, Jesus shows up.
She pushes her way through the crowd and touches the very edge of His garment. Thinking to herself, “If I can just get to Jesus, He can heal me.” And He does. He heals her completely. Physically and socially, He restores her.
She is not alone.
Jesus is our hope, firm and secure.
And it is THIS HOPE we grab hold of.
Even if all you can muster right now is to grasp at just the very edge of His garment, then you’ve got more than enough. AMEN.
Song: We have an anchor
We respond to serve God: Our time of giving
Reflection on giving: We acknowledge all the gifts and offerings that are given – the sacrifices of love that people make to each other and to this congregation. So, whether that is your prayer life – whether that is your phone calls to others – whether that is a cash donation or an offering ot time – we thank you and we offer that up to God.
Prayer for our world
Lord our God, we come into your presence, pleading with you to bring the world what it needs, so that people may be freed from all their pain and enabled to serve you. Let the power of Jesus Christ be revealed in our time. For he has taken on our sin that justice might arise on earth, that all might have life and might see your salvation, which you will bring when the time is fulfilled. Let your power be revealed in the world, and let your will be done, your name be kept holy, and all wrongs be righted in this turbulent and difficult age.
O Lord our God, you alone can help some things. You alone are the Savior of all peoples. In your great mercy you can bring peace. We look to you. And when we consider your Word, we remember the mighty promises you have given, promises which are to be fulfilled in our time and all times.
Father, especially today we pray a prayer of thanksgiving for Ruth’s celebration of 100 years.
We pray thanksgiving on the good news that new life is springing forth. We praise you for our homes and loved ones for leading couples together and for moments of grace and calm.
But, Lord, be with and aid us as we seek to be with those who suffer. For those who have lost a baby, we pray for care.
For those soon to conceive, we beg for safety.
For women in places where they are subject to unfair treatment, we ask for change.
Where people seek help for their children or others, provides strength to all.
Where votes are counted, we pray for wise thoughts.
Wherever people feel unloved, send your people to prove them wrong.
Where war rages on we ask for peace. Brighten the days of the people of Jasper.
Where tragedy arises, point out the helpers.
Where photos are lost, aid the people’s memories in their place.
While these things are beyond us, we also know that we have roles to play. While only you can address the fullness of these issues, we ask for the gifts and resources to do more than simply speak or pray. Aid us as your body in the world, but Lord, where only you can act, please do.
Come, Lord Jesus, Come.
Our anchor holds. Let us hold firm to our anchor in you.
In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray Amen.
Song: I, the Lord of sea and sky (592)
Sending out with God’s blessing
The Lord will keep you from all evil. He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forward and for evermore. Go … with Christ. Amen.
Response: Benediction (as you go)
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.
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Mental Health Care Resources
Brad has asked that I provide a listing of mental health resources. The list below is not exhaustive, and I am not recommending any of them. Rather, I am just providing information. Addresses and phone numbers can be found via the internet using your search engine (e.g. Google) or in your phone book. Websites give you a good sense of what kind of services are offered and of how they are provided. I am happy to assist you to find a resource that meets your needs.
Alberta Health covers the cost of some therapeutic resources (ER, Soluna, and CASA – also private practice psychiatrists). Others offer services for varying levels of payment, including a sliding scale based on client income. Psychologists and some other services may be covered by private healthcare insurance and/or First Nation healthcare provisions). – (The Rev.) John C Carr, ThM, PhD
A. If you have a critical mental health issue (suicidal thoughts, heightened levels of anxiety, acute depression, etc.) go immediately to the Emergency Room of the nearest hospital.
B. Here are some counselling resources on the south side of the city of Edmonton.
- Soluna Wellness Centre (Trauma Healing for adults)
- Terwillegar Counselling Centre (Individual, Couple, and Family Counselling
C. Here are some other Edmonton resources for Individual, Couple, and Family Counselling.
- Cornerstone Counselling
- Catholic Social Services
- The Family Centre
- Community Counselling Centre
- CASA: Mental Health Services for Children & Families
D. For problems with alcohol or non-prescription drugs, contact Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) or Narcotics Anonymous (NA).