Yours, Mine, and Ours (Lynn Vaughan)

Posted on July 15, 2024July 24, 2024 by John

Worship on the Lord’s Day
10:00 am 21 July 2024
Online & Onsite (Mixed Presence) Gathering as a Worshipping Community
Minister: The Rev Brad Childs S ervice led by: Lynn Vaughan
Music director: Binu Kapadia Vocalist: Glynnis McCrostie
Elder: Shirley Simpson

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: God asks, “Why have you not attended to my creation and shared the abundance of this world?”
P: God notices the chaos and destruction occurring in the world. We have been scatted and driven apart from each other.
L: Isolation and fear keep us at a distance from each other, and from God.
P: We have drifted from God’s fold in search of creature comforts,
L: only to discover that we have forgotten the promise of God’s provision.
P: The Lord promises to gather the lost and lonely, bringing us back to safety:
L: “I will raise up leaders who will care for my creation and for each other, and they shall know fear no longer.”
P: Sing for joy today as God’s righteousness is at hand, and we are witnesses to God’s justice.

Opening praise: Here I am to worship

Prayers of approach and confession

Giving and Generous God, who created all things and called them good, wee delight in the vast diversity to life.

At your invitation, we gather today for worship and prayer, we gather in awe, that you have called us to care for your creation, as stewards of your world, surrounded by people whose generosity inspires us.

Too often, we are preoccupied by looking after ourselves and caring for others, and we forget that the future is created by actions we take today.

Things we consume and acquire draw us away from your beloved community.

We settle for worldly pleasures and treasures, when you have promised us the power to create, to love, to heal.

Forgive us for so easily squandering these gifts.

Move our hearts, O God. Help us loosen our grip on all we claim to be “mine.”
Open our hearts, Holy Spirit, to receive the gifts and power you offer us. Align our hearts, Christ Jesus, to faithfully steward the creation that is “ours.” Amen

Response: We come to ask you forgiveness, O Lord

Assurance of God’s love

Be not dismayed by what we have left undone or neglected in this lifetime, for we are forgiven. God’s promise is that plans have been made for us; plans that include hope and a future. Hope springs from unexpected places, from the gifts of grace and forgiveness, given and received. As forgiven Children of God, the Love of God flows through us so that we can offer this same gift to others.

We listen for the voice of God

Children’s time

Response: My Lighthouse

Story: A Handful of Love

Good morning, Children of God! Today, I have something to share with you. Can you hold out your hand so I can share a small gift with you? Hold out your hand and let me place something in your palm. (Place one of the small items in each child’s hand.)

Hold your hand out so we can all see what you have in your hand.
Now, what happens to your hand when you say the word “Mine”?
(Many will clench their hand around the item. You may want to demonstrate and see if they copy you. Move your clenched hand to your heart.)

Yes, this is how we often think of things – that they are mine and that I need to hold them tightly and keep them safe. What else do we do to keep things safe?
(Typical responses: hide them, hug them, put them in a drawer, etc.)

Recently, I was looking for something I had hidden away for safe keeping. Of course, by the time I needed it again, I’d completely forgotten where it was … so the treasure I was keeping is still hiding somewhere in my house. Has that ever happened to you? (Receive responses…)

Okay, you still have something in your hand, right? Is it really yours? Where did it come from?

It came from me! But ultimately, it came from, or was made from, God’s creation.

Now, say this with me: Not Mine, But Ours
(Hold your hand where everyone can see it, clench fist on “Mine” and open up your hand on “Ours”. Let adults and children see what you are doing – repeat several times – invite children to join you. Invite congregation to join you.)

How do you feel when you open your hand? (Receive responses…)

Since God is the creator of all things, including these (items), can we really call them “Mine”? Are we to hide and tuck away God’s treasures so that no one can see them?

I want you to think of this as a gift from God that is given to us so that we can share it with others. I shared it with you and now you can share it with someone you love. And they may share it back with you! God’s love is meant to be shared – so thank you for helping me share these gifts – and not hide them away so they can’t be used.

Prayer

Let’s pray together. This is a repeat after me prayer …

Dear God, Thank you for all your gifts.
Thank you for sharing with me.
Thank you for helping me share with others.
Thank you for loving me.
Help me to love others by sharing your love.
Every day.

The Lord’s Prayer (535)

Transition music

Song: Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee (637)

Today’s Message

Scripture: Deuteronomy 10:12-22 & Luke 12:16-21

Response: Thy word is a lamp unto my feet

Message: Yours, Mine, and Ours

The Presbyterian Church in Canada encourages each congregation to focus at least one service during the year on Planned Giving and Legacy gifts. Dayspring has chosen to do that today, as we have recently revived our Stewardship & Planned Giving Task Force after a few years of inactivity. It should not come as a surprise to anyone that we all need to support the church financially, along with our time and talents, IF we want it to thrive and continue to be here for years to come. I have taken a pre-written sermon provided by the national church office and will be presenting that, for the most part, but with a few extra little tidbits of my own thrown in. I understand that this topic can sometimes be a bit of a prickly subject, but here we go …

I read somewhere that most people spend the first half of their lives collecting things and the second half of their lives trying to get rid of things. As I can attest after spending the summer of 2022 cleaning out my mom’s home when she moved out, and even as I look in dismay at my own dumping ground of a house, it appears we do a far better job during the first half of our lives than the second in this regard!

Do you have a piece of furniture that you have been saving – just in case your kids might need it when they finally move out? Or maybe you have a few sets of shoes or socks stashed away – just in case you run out? OR … maybe your dear husband has an entire box (or two!) full of broken shoelaces, ready to go in the event of a natural disaster or some type of emergency. BROKEN shoelaces! Seriously? How are they going to save the day, exactly? (Don’t get me started!?!) But there they are: taking up valuable space in the cupboard.

Have you noticed that we sometimes have so many things stored up that cleaning out our closets feels like Christmas, as we discover items we forgot that we’d even put away? I’ve lost track of how many things I stashed for safe keeping … and then never saw again. They are in my house somewhere – I’m pretty sure!?!

Our consumer culture skillfully motivates us to want more, newer, faster, better. You know what I mean. And yes, this drives our economy, so we just have to play along, right? Consumerism impacts people at all economic levels — it is an equal opportunity addiction! No matter how much we have, we just don’t feel like we have quite enough.

Yes, I said addiction. And this addiction often comes with a powerful word we utter almost unconsciously. I remember with a mixture of awe and dismay when my young children first grabbed hold of a toy and with vigour and conviction uttered that powerful word: “Mine!”

What does our faith say about living a life dedicated to the care and protection of material things? What does our faith say about this idea of “Mine!”?

Today, in our scripture lesson, we heard about a person who is collecting and storing up treasures. He is given the moniker: the Rich Fool. I wonder, and suspect you are wondering, what they were storing these treasures up for? Was it for personal gratification or planning for a rainy day? Some families, communities, and even churches store up resources for a rainy day, and then act as if that rainy day will never come/has never come, even as we wonder how to connect with a community where the message of God is viewed as ancient and irrelevant . . . but that is a sermon for another day. A sermon for Brad to tackle, perhaps.

Back to the person enjoying and feasting on stored-up treasures. Aren’t we all inclined to store up treasures, if we are able? Aren’t we told that good financial planning requires thinking ahead, saving and preparing for a yet-to-be-lived future, especially through these rollercoaster-like times in which we are living? It gets to be very confusing, sorting through all the messages.

So, this person is happy with their accumulated goods. We don’t know exactly what they have accumulated—maybe grain, cloth, jewels, who knows—but we do know that this stored up treasure is the source of great satisfaction and pleasure.

But then, the person learns that they will die that very night! No retirement. No bucket list. It doesn’t seem fair, and yet it is a good reality check.

The past few years have been a jarring reminder that every day is a gift. Whether we are talking about the upheaval of the pandemic, or the chaotic state of global affairs, or whether we are remembering loved ones who have left us too soon, we know that tomorrow is uncertain and our journey home to God can occur at any time. TODAY is all we can be certain of.

What if the calling of a disciple of Christ, as Mahatma Gandhi is credited with saying, is to “live simply so that others may simply live”?

Marie Kondo offers similar wisdom in her 2014 book titled The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. In addition to tips on how to de-clutter your home and organize your schedule, she offers a ritual to offer things back into the cycle of life. Whatever clothing, books or knick-knacks you are ready to give away, she suggests that we simply hold them in our hands and say: “You have served me well—I release you back into creation.” How liberating that could be to free ourselves from objects that fill our drawers, closets and physical space! This can be a radical experience. I think I REALLY need to start doing this more, for my own peace of mind.

A few years ago, a campaign to fight malaria in Africa used this tag line: If anyone has malaria, we all have malaria. This powerful mind shift acknowledges that our needs – and blessings –are not just “MINE” – they are OURS.

Here is one example of how the shift from mine to ours can impact a simple church program.

A minister discovered that benevolence donations were being collected and stored in a church member’s home, to be distributed when needed. While the member felt that the funds were her responsibility to protect, the minister knew that it wasn’t a safe practice for either the church or the individual.

To shift the church’s culture around benevolence funds, the minister bought a small wooden box shaped like a church and placed it in the sanctuary. All were invited to offer gifts into the box as they were able. The collection process became public—it became ours. The minister was astonished to discover some very significant donations in the box shortly after introducing it. By making the discretionary/compassionate/benevolent offering process part of the whole community—it not only became ours— it also grew exponentially!

Today, we honour generosity through planned giving, stewardship and legacy gifts. We celebrate the impact of shifting stewardship of life’s blessings from mine to ours. Whether we are talking about the offerings that we present every week or whether we are referring to legacy gifts that come at the end of one’s life here on earth, the impact it has on the mission and the work done by the church is undeniable.

In today’s parable, we are warned about the temptation to build barns to store what has been accumulated during our lifetime. We don’t know how or why the person in the story became wealthy. It could have been from good luck, possibly hard work or maybe built on the exploitation of others. What we do know is that his actions focused on protecting treasures rather than sharing them.

Financial planners talk about the concept of our “short-term and long-term time horizon”. Are we looking to just get through today or are we thinking about what life could be far into the future? Both scenarios can be equally important, and equally challenging. An example of long-term planning is the person who plants a tree, recognizing that they may never experience its full impact and that they are starting something that will primarily be a blessing to others in the future!

I invite you to think about planned giving as any action that connects our decisions today with the promise of a positive impact on the future. The spiritual gift of generosity through planned gifts is a future blessing, not a short-lived pleasure. It is a way to share the treasures we have built up – from the gifts that God himself has bestowed on us – when we no longer need them.

It doesn’t even take a lot of treasure to bless others. You don’t have to be wealthy to make an impact on future generations. Every gift offered is a step toward a brighter future for someone who needs it.

In the end, what does the Lord require of us? We hear that answer in our Old Testament scripture … to love and serve God with all our hearts and souls. What is important to our God? Executing justice for the orphan and the widow and caring for the stranger. What if we think about how our lives and our estates – whatever is left when we eventually go home to God – care for our community and continue to share God’s love with the world.

Imagine what a different ending Jesus’ parable might have had if the Rich Fool, rather than storing up treasure for personal pleasure, shared even a portion of those resources for the benefit of God’s creation. What if the Rich Fool had left a plan to distribute some of the remaining treasures after this life, to participate in mission works done in God’s name. Jesus could have made mention in his parable to some funds perhaps titled: the Widow and Orphans Feeding Ministry, or the Home for Desert Wanderers, or maybe even the Camel Care and Protection Fund – all founded by the one we know now as the “Wise Planner” rather than the “Rich Fool”.

What will delight your heart and soul in 20, 50, or 100 years from now because it exists—because you planted the seeds of your generosity with a vision for something that could exist in the future? Like an apple tree that bears bushels of fruit in its maturity or the mighty oak that provides needed shade for those during a heat wave, it starts out small like the little acorns you hold in your hands … and grows for years to come!

Rather than barns (or basements, or closets) to store our stuff, what if we shifted our focus to using our gifts as seeds for the future? What might be your legacy?

The empowering message of this parable is that we do not need to settle for barns when we have a future to create! Jesus invites us to see beyond the stuff of this world to the future we are creating in our hearts and minds—a future where hunger, sickness, economic injustice, homelessness and war no longer exist because people have invested in sharing and caring, in equity and security for all persons and in building God’s beloved community.

Are we ready to change our focus from what is MINE to what is possible when we see God’s way, and see the world as OURS? God and the world are waiting for us to choose. May each of us discover the power of generosity in this life! Amen.

Song: We give Thee but Thine own (661)

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!

God’s goodness fills the world, equip our eyes to see it.
God’s goodness fills the world, inviting our hands to share what God has given us. All our gifts come from God’s goodness. Today we pass that goodness along to others in Jesus’ name.

Prayer of gratitude and for others and ourselves

Abundant God, your giving knows no end.

We thank you for the gift of life. Each breath we have is from you. inspire us to live our lives with hope and purpose and with a desire to respond to your call to follow you.

We thank you for what is known and unknown that abounds throughout your creation – help us to care for such a legacy of beauty and wonder and to work to heal creation where it has been degraded and spoiled.

We give thanks for those who came ahead of us – help us appreciate their gifts of wisdom and knowledge and love passed down to us. And we are grateful for community that is around us: family and friends, strangers, and companions on the journey. Help us unfurl our fingers and open our hands, to move from a mindset of “mine” to “ours” and to give and receive support more generously.

For joy and laughter, for treasured memories and for dreams and plans for the future, we give you thanks.

We thank you for the gifts of those who labour in many ways – in our church, across our communities and around the world – help us to be filled with sincere appreciation and gratitude.

Ever Loving God, you know where the edges in our lives and our world are fraying and where they are strong and resilient. You know the depths of our delights and our sorrows. We come to you in prayer and ask that you look upon us with mercy.

We pray for all those whose burdens and struggles are heavy.

We pray for all people and countries in conflict that they may come to know your justice and be at peace; and that leaders will use their power wisely.

We pray for those who are grieving, mourning, and are bereaved. May each person be lifted on wings of love and hope and receive your healing and comfort.

In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Song: One more step along the world we go (641)

Sending out with God’s blessing

Know that we do not walk this journey alone, for we are always surrounded by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the companionship of the Holy Spirit. The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord be kind and gracious to you, the Lord look upon you with favour, and give you peace.

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).

This 2022 Legacy Sunday worship service was adapted from material written by Bonnie Ives Marden, leadership consultant and financial stewardship practitioner for the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Lynn Vaughan retains the copyright (©2024) on all original material that she prepared. As far as she is aware, all of the other material is her own creation or is in the public domain. Unacknowledged use of copyrighted material is unintentional and will be corrected immediately upon notification being received.

All I really need to know, I learned in Sunday School (Lynn Vaughan)

Posted on July 7, 2024July 7, 2024 by John

Worship on the Lord’s Day
07 July 2024    10:00 am
The Sacrament of Holy Communion
Online & Onsite (Mixed Presence) Gathering as a Worshipping Community
Led by Lynn Vaughan      Communion Liturgy: The Rev Brad Childs (via video)
Music Director: Binu Kapadia           Vocalist: Fionna McCrostie
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: Great is the Lord;
P: and greatly to be praised.
L: Praise God in cities and towns,
P: praise God in all quiet places.
L: Praise God on mountains and hilltops;
P: praise God in every valley, on every plain and in the deeps.
L: Let us raise our praise with all God’s creation;
P: We will praise God’s holy name, here and everywhere, now and always.

Opening praise: This is amazing grace

Prayers of approach and confession
Great are you, O God, and greatly to be praised.
You have made all things and called them good.
You created humans in your image and gave us a calling and a purpose.
You lift up leaders and send out disciples to take part in your reconciling work in the world.
Your love is endless, your mercy without measure.
And so, we praise you with heart, mind, strength and soul, in the name of Jesus, your Son, blessed by your Spirit, working in us, with us, around us and beyond us.

God of overflowing grace, we confess we often take your blessings for granted.
Forgetting life is a precious gift, we waste time on things that don’t matter.
We complain when things don’t go our way, ignoring those who face even steeper challenges.

Forgive us, O God. Renew our calling to share your abundant love for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Response: I waited, I waited on you, Lord

Assurance of God’s Pardon

While it is true that we have all sinned, it is a greater truth that we are forgiven through God’s love in Jesus Christ. Receive the mercy of God this day, and be at peace with God, with yourself and with one another.

We listen for the voice of God

Scripture readings (NRSV): Ezekiel 2: 1-5 & Mark 5:1-13

Response: Behold the lamb of God

Message: All I really need to know, I learned in Sunday School

When I was last standing up here a couple months ago, I told you a story about a group of fish in a puddle that were being challenged to jump from their safe and familiar life and take a leap of faith into the unknowns of the river and the sea … and the great big world that awaited them. My talk today could be considered the next step for those who chose to go along with that colourful fish when he asked them to follow him.

We live in a confusing and complicated world, and somewhat depressing, if you read the headlines every morning. There are wars in pretty much all corners of the globe, there are natural disasters one right after the other, it seems, and there are never-ending stories of people complaining about pretty much anything and everything. There are many different forces pulling at us from different directions and so much is happening, that it is sometimes difficult to make sense of it all. And even though our world has made incredible progress in many ways, and we understand so much more about our universe and about ourselves than we ever have before, there are still so many things that are puzzling.

Even something as simple as reading the Bible or following Jesus can be confusing, and Christians often disagree about what the Bible teaches us about certain topics, or what we as followers of Jesus should think about when it comes to this pressing issue or that one. But it seems to me that the BASICS of what the Bible teaches, and what Jesus teaches, are not confusing. Sometimes, it is good to simply get back to the basics.

There was a popular book written some years back with the catchy title, “All I Really Need to Know I learned in Kindergarten.” Do you remember that one? It was popular, I think, because it offered life lessons that were not only true, but they were simple … and ultimately, hopeful. They reminded us that sometimes we adults can get in the way of ourselves by making things too complicated. So, Robert Fulghum, the author of the Kindergarten book, reminded us of some simple rules, like:

Share everything. Play fair. Put things back where you found them. Take a nap every afternoon. And when you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. (Robert Fulghum)

Today, I thought I’d take inspiration from this book to offer some simple lessons from our gospel reading on how Jesus wants us to live as his followers. We’re going to get back to the basics, like we teach our children. So, I’m calling the message this morning: All I really need to know, I learned in Sunday School.

As Jesus got ready to send his followers out on their first mission trip, he gave them some clear instructions, found in Mark 6:7-13. From these instructions, I’m going to highlight five simple rules that we can hold onto as followers of Jesus.

Lesson #1 – Don’t Be a Christian Alone

In our reading today, Jesus has identified his 12 apostles, and now he is getting ready to send them out on a mission. The first thing that he does is pair them up. It’s kind of like when you’re in pre-school classes or on a field trip in elementary school, right? Jesus teaches us to stick together. Don’t try to be a Christian alone.

Throughout Jesus’ ministry, when he calls disciples – when he calls US! – the first thing he does is make us part of a community called the church. He calls us into this community because he knows that it is too hard to be a Christian alone. We need each other!

The recent experience of the pandemic was a powerful reminder of the gift and blessing of this community of faith. We truly need each other, and we are better together. In Matthew 18:19-20, it reminds us that ‘two people in tune with God’s way have a power greater than the sum of one and one’.

Jesus gathered his disciples together, and he gathers us together, too. And even when he sends us out into the world, we know that we are not facing it all alone.

For Jesus, there is no such thing as a lone-ranger Christian. Life is too hard to go it alone. Being a follower of Jesus is often too hard to face by ourselves. We need his help and his presence in our lives; but, we need each other’s help, too. Don’t be a Christian alone.

Lesson #2 – Remember that Jesus Is the Boss

In the next verse of our focus scripture, we find this second lesson. We read that “Jesus gave them [his apostles] authority over the unclean spirits.” This is the same power that Jesus himself has! This also means that when we go into the world, we go because Jesus has given us the authority to do so. Jesus is the boss.

We can go out in confidence – literally, with faith – because Jesus has given us the authority which is only his to give. He’s the boss, but he’s put us in charge. He has entrusted us to do his work: the mission of the church, growing God’s kingdom here on earth.

For anyone here today who has grown up in a household with siblings, maybe you remember back when your mom and dad would go out and leave the oldest one in charge. I remember my oldest brother, Greg, was a bit of a terror when it came to looking after the rest of us. Actually, my mom used to tell a story about visiting our elementary school during an open house one year and seeing a note posted on the classroom wall written by my other brother with his definition of what sadness was: the answer, “When Greg babysits us”. Just as a bit of a sidenote, his answer for the question about what happiness was: “When mom broke the wooden spoon”.

Anyway, back to my brother’s leadership abilities: my point is that sometimes the boss/the parent/the supervisor – whoever – leaves another in charge and gives them the authority to oversee things on their behalf.

As Christians, we are something like the older children of the world. We have been put in charge. Jesus has given us authority over the unclean spirits of this world, and we should embrace that. We should take that responsibility seriously and do a good job. But, we should also remember that we aren’t the parent. WE aren’t the boss. We are just in charge until Jesus returns.

Lesson #3 – Travel Light

The third lesson Jesus gives us is this one: “He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics.”

In other words, we are supposed to travel light when we go on the mission that Jesus sends us on. Traveling light means that we are trusting in Jesus to meet all of our needs. Traveling light means that we don’t need a back-up plan. We only need to follow instructions and trust our boss.

No matter how little or big we are, we already have the tools that God has given us to be able to do his work. Tools such as:

our love for God, which we show whenever we care for others,
a welcoming smile,
• a listening ear,
• a healing touch, like a hug or an arm around someone’s shoulder, a handshake, or a helping hand,

When we go out into the world and use these tools, we are spreading God’s love and helping to grow his kingdom!

Traveling light means that we already have everything we need in order to serve our Lord. We don’t need to read another book, make more money, have more time, solve whatever problems we face in our life right now, or do anything else before we start. We don’t need to procrastinate. We don’t need to find excuses. We have everything we need, right now, to do what Jesus is asking. So, we can and we should travel light … and start immediately.

Lesson #4 – Don’t Get Discouraged When You Fail

The fourth lesson that Jesus offers is found in verses 10 and 11. He said to the twelve, “If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.“

In other words, we go on this mission with a bit of a caution: Not everyone will accept us, or our message, with open arms. Even Jesus experienced this with the people in his home town. There will be some that will refuse to hear us, for whatever reason. All we can do with them is entrust them to God … and move on.

It is our task to enter a community, do as Jesus asks, and if we are not welcomed there, to shake the dust off our feet and move on. We are responsible for delivering the message; we are not responsible for how others respond to that message.

So, the simple lesson here is to not get discouraged when we fail. If the 12 apostles were told that they would sometimes experience failure, then we should expect nothing less than that for ourselves. I’ve read that it’s beneficial to think of the word “FAIL” as an acronym which stands for “Faith Active In Love.” When our faith is active in love, then we are serving our Lord. When we seem to be failing, we shouldn’t get discouraged. Failure in the eyes of the world might just be overwhelming success in the eyes of God. The cross proved that to us in the most powerful way.

Let me say that again: failure in the eyes of the world might just be overwhelming success in the eyes of God. Let God be the judge of your successes in life. When you feel discouraged, know that He is with you and is ready to help you move on to bigger and better things.

So, don’t get discouraged when you fail. Travel light. Remember that Jesus is the boss. Don’t be a Christian alone. And, finally …

Lesson #5 – Don’t Be Afraid to Tell the Truth

When the apostles were sent out, it was to cast out demons and heal the sick, but it was also to proclaim “that all should repent.” Repent. Turn away from your sin. Turn from your false hopes and your false gods. And turn, or re-turn, to the Lord. Our only God, and our only hope.

Our world is quick to offer false gods and false hopes. It always has, and it always will. So many celebrities are put up on pedestals. There are so many distractions all around us. So much glitter and glam everywhere. As followers of Jesus, part of our task is to point this out, and to remind the world that there is only one God, and only one source of hope.

God, our Creator, has given us a world in which to spread His kingdom.
Jesus, our Savior, came to rescue us from our sin and brokenness.
The Holy Spirit was given to us to help in the mission work to which we are called. Together, this trinity shows us the way to live in these confusing and challenging times.

It’s not always easy to live as followers of Jesus in this world, but that’s what we are commissioned to do. So, as we are sent out to do God’s will, just as were the 12 apostles, remember these basic lessons:

Don’t try to be a Christian alone.
Remember that Jesus is the boss, thankfully.
Travel light, trusting that Jesus has given us all the tools we need to accomplish his mission.
Don’t get discouraged when we fail.

And don’t be afraid to speak the truth.

Five simple lessons we can learn from today’s gospel reading. Five things we can do to get back to the basics … just like we do in Sunday School. Amen.

Song: Lord Jesus, you shall be my song (665)

We respond to serve God: Our time of giving

Faithful God, we bring our gifts with trusting hearts, seeking your blessing on the ministries these gifts support. Work through our gifts to touch the world with your healing grace through Christ, in whose name we offer ourselves to you. Amen.

Prayer of gratitude and for others and ourselves
Holy God, In Jesus, you reached out to so many different people, with so many different needs, in so many different situations.
We thank you for all the ways you have reached out to us, in the embrace of prayer, in the energy of a song, in thought sparked by a sermon, and in the wisdom of Scripture or the words of a friend.
Sometimes, your healing brings comfort; Sometimes, it brings challenge and the call to respond.
Hear us as we seek your comfort and your challenge for the world, for the church and for our own lives.

Bring comfort to those facing struggles this summer: those whose crops wither by the extremes of weather; those who cannot find enough workers for their businesses and workers who can’t find secure employment; those whose housing is insecure, and any who are losing hope that things will ever improve.Bring challenge to those whose decisions affect the well-being of the vulnerable, to those who guide planning for housing and employment, and those who respond to the changing climate and lives and livelihoods at risk.

May your wisdom and compassion guide them.Bring comfort to those who are lonely or shut in, and to all who have lost beloved family members or friends in recent months.
Bring comfort to those who feel pain or anxiety without relief, and those who wait for diagnosis or life-restoring treatment.
Offer peace to those who know there is no treatment and wait in hope for your eternal welcome.
Comfort your church in places where ministries struggle, whatever the reason.
And challenge your church to renew our vision for ministry so that our witness is faithful to your all-embracing love, expressed not only in words but also in the actions we take.
Challenge us to embrace those who differ from us and yet have a place in your heart and your eternal care. Amen

The Sacrament of Holy Communion

Invitation

Song: Here is bread, here is wine (546)

We affirm our faith: The Apostles Creed

Communion Prayer

Sharing of the bread and wine

Song: One bread, one body (540)

The prayer after Communion

Hymn: Who’s goin’ to tell the story (761)

Sending out with God’s blessing

Go in faith into whatever the week ahead may hold, assured that Christ walks with you. And may the God who made us, the Christ who mends us, and the Spirit who gives us life bring you joy and peace, now and always.

Response: The blessing

Music postlude

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The Communion liturgy is based on the liturgies of the PCC’s 1991 Book of Common Worship. 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).

Lynn Vaughans retains the copyright (© 2024) on all original material in this service. As far as Lynn is aware, all of the material that has not been attributed to others is her own creation or is in the public domain. Unacknowledged use of copyrighted material is unintentional and will be corrected immediately upon notification being received.

Jesus is the gardener of our lives (Raymond Baker)

Posted on June 30, 2024June 30, 2024 by John

Worship on the Lord’s Day
10:00 am 30 June 2024
Online & Onsite (Mixed Presence) Gathering as a Worshipping Community
Minister: The Rev Brad Childs Led by: Raymond Baker
Music director: Binu Kapadia Vocalist: Rom Rhoad
Elder: Iris Routledge

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: Out of the depths, we cry to the Lord.
P: We will wait upon the Lord.
L: Hope in the Lord!
P: For with God, there is steadfast love;
L: With God, there is great power to redeem.
P: So we offer prayers and praise to God in whom we trust.

Opening praise: Forever God is faithful

Prayers of approach and confession

Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.

We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbours as ourselves.

We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.

In Jesus’ Powerful name we pray. Amen.

Response: We come to ask you forgiveness, O Lord

Assurance of God’s pardon

Scripture teaches that there is a time for every matter under heaven.

A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance.

In confessing our sins to God, we have offered God our tears of regret.

Now is the time to rejoice in God’s mercy:

In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.

In Jesus Christ, we can make a new start. Thanks be to God.

We listen for the voice of God

Children’s time

Response: Open our eyes, Lord (445)

Story

Story: The Apple Tree

How many of you like apples?
Apples not only taste good, they are good for you. Apples are fat-free, salt-free, cholesterol-free, gluten-free, and a good source of vitamins to help you grow.

There are a lot of different ways to enjoy apples. Can you give me some examples?
* apple juice or apple cider
* applesauce, maybe in your school lunches
* have you ever had some tasty apple butter on your toast in the morning?
* apple slices dipped in caramel are a delicious treat
* my all-time favourite, of course, is apple pie. So yummy!

I am sure that all of you know where we get apples: they come from apple trees. Well, what would you do if you planted an apple tree in your garden, watered it, and took care of it and it never produced any apples? It wouldn’t be much good as an apple tree, would it?

I planted an apple tree in my yard about 10 years ago, and I was looking forward to harvesting bushels of delicious apples each summer. It started out as a bit of a twig, of course, but I had high hopes that it would grow strong and healthy in no time. Unfortunately, the ground where it sits is pretty tough AND my dogs decided to use it as a bit of a chew toy. In the first few years, it mostly just sat there looking like a bare post in the ground. Maybe it had a few leaves on it, but definitely no apples. I debated whether or not to just take it out and try again.

I decided to just keep watering it often and see what happened. After about five years, I noticed a new shoot was growing out of the part of the wee trunk that was closest to the ground. Still, there has never been any hint of an apple on this tree … and it’s ten years later!

Last week, I was walking around the yard and decided to take another peek at my sad, little tree, and this is what I saw – a bunch of small buds that are showing to be the beginnings of what will become full-fledged apples at the end of the summer!! This will be the very first time a piece of fruit has grown on this tree – as long as the dogs don’t decide to have a feast, of course!?! I’m so excited! I can’t wait to taste the apples this fall; I can’t even remember what brand they are, at this point.

This reminds me of a story that Jesus told about a man who had a fig tree in his yard that didn’t produce any figs. For many years, he waited for the tree to produce fruit — but it didn’t. He was going to have it cut down, but the gardener convinced the man to wait one more year and, in the meantime, he offered to give it some extra care and attention. The owner agreed to give the tree another chance. And guess what? The tree started producing fruit.

Jesus was really talking about us – and about God. God has “planted” us on this earth, and he expects us to produce good fruit in our life. What kind of fruit does God expect? Things like loving one another, living peacefully with our neighbours, having patience, and showing kindness. When God doesn’t see us doing these things in our life, He is very disappointed — but He is willing to give us another chance. He’s not going to give up on us. Just like the trees we talked about: they were not cut down, and they were given another chance.

Jesus is like the gardener. He wants to care for us and help us to be the kind of fruit-bearing children that God wants us to be. If we will trust in him, read the bible, and pray — Jesus will help us to produce a lot of good fruit.

Prayer

Dear Jesus, thank you for giving us another chance, help us to have the kind of fruit in our lives that would be pleasing to our Heavenly Father. And now, together, we will say the prayer that you taught us.

Prayer

The Lord’s Prayer (535)

Transition music

Song: Lord Jesus, think on me (207)

Today’s Message

Scripture reading: Luke 13: 6 – 9

Response: Thy word is a lamp unto my feet

Message: Jesus is the gardener of our lives

Today I want to begin with a story.

Let’s go way back in time to when I was nine years old. My father had a special box on his dresser and told me not to touch anything in this special box. One day, however, I looked in that box and found a pocket watch that was once owned by my Grandad. Carefully, I opened this special watch and found it very interesting. While I was examining it, Dad came home, and I did not have time to put it away. I rushed out of my parent’s bedroom, leaving the watch open and lying on the ensuite floor. Trying to pretend nothing was going on I quietly walked to my bedroom.

Minutes later, I heard my Dad’s footsteps entering my room and he looked me straight in the eye, and asked, “Raymond, did you disobey me by taking Grandad’s pocket watch out of my special box?”

I was guilty and immediately confessed. I asked my father to please forgive me and I promised never to go into his things again.

Years ago, when I was nine, I was remorseful about not respecting my father’s possessions and learned from my mistakes. Now, years later, my father sees me as a responsible and mature son. In light of this story, I find it interesting that just recently, he gifted me with his entire watch collection. It actually includes a 1950’s Rolex and other important watches to our family. As I reflect, the watch collection resembles the fruit that God bestows on us when we humbly repent.

The story I just told reminds me of today’s parable.

Let us read Luke 13:6-9,

Then Jesus told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So, he said to the gardener who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’

“‘Sir,’ the gardener*9 replied, ‘Please leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

Most mornings I listen to the news while I am getting ready, so I know what is happening in the world. Did you know that some local news was reported to Jesus in the Bible? This is found just before today’s scripture.

Jesus reflects on the news with a question for the people in Luke 13:1-3. Let me read it–

“At that time some people were there who told Jesus about the Galileans whom Pilate had killed while they were offering sacrifices to God. 2 Jesus answered them, “Because those Galileans were killed in that way, do you think it proves that they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

Then Jesus tells about a tower that collapsed in Luke 13:4-5.

4 “Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them – do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.’”

Jesus’ news update, as I am calling it, tells about two incidents where people were killed. Jesus then asked his listeners if they think these people died because they were more sinful than others. He answers his question with a resounding, “No!” Jesus then goes on to say that unless people repent of their sinfulness they will die spiritually or physically without everlasting life.

It is important to note here, that Jesus told the parable of the barren fruit tree right after emphasizing the need for repentance when the upset Galileans came to him with the sad news update.

The first point of my sermon is: we should repent and then we will be fruitful.

Before we repent, we have to humble ourselves and believe we have sinned. The word for ‘sin’ in koine Greek is HAMARTIA. The definition of HAMARTIA is to miss the mark. In the Bible the mark is the Will of God.

One summer I was a camp Pastor at Brightwood Youth Ranch just west of Edmonton. I remember telling the camp children that sin was doing something bad. Through my studies, I have learned that this explanation may have been too simplistic. In fact, everything we do that is not in God’s will, is sinning.

According to the Bible, the result of sin without repentance is death.

In Luke 13:5, Jesus says, “if one does not repent, one will surely perish,” and Romans 6:23 states, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Repentance is key!

The word for repent is the koine Greek word METANOIA.

Thayer’s lexicon defines METANOIA as: “To change one’s mind.” In other words, to repent, is to change one’s mind to the Will of God. Some pastors have used the word turn for METANOIA. In other words, we turn from sin to God’s Will in our minds.

Luke 3:8 states that we are to produce fruit in keeping with repentance.

Repentance is key!

Another important place repentance is found is in Matthew 3 where John the Baptist is baptizing people around him. John the Baptist states in Matthew 3:2, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

These people were repenting and confessing their sins and John baptized them in the Jordan River. John noticed that many of the Pharisees and Sadducees came to where he was baptizing. John said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

I baptize you with water for repentance…”

In other words, the Pharisees and Sadducees were not saved because they were descendants of Abraham, just like we are not saved because our parents were saved, and we go to church.

Did you notice John described the Pharisees and Sadducees who knew the scriptures as Vipers? They did not produce fruit in keeping with repentance and they must flee from the coming wrath. This parallels the parable of the barren fruit tree in today’s reading. God, being depicted as the owner of the vineyard, wants to cut down the tree that is not producing fruit and put it in the burn pile. Wow! This is serious.

Charles Spurgeon, a prominent pastor in England during the 1800s wrote a book called, “Turn or Burn.” In the book he said, “Trees that bring not forth fruit must be cut down; and sinners who bring not forth repentance, faith, and holiness, must die.

OK, now, I feel like I am preaching a fire and brimstone sermon that announces if we don’t repent of our sins, we will be put into an eternal fire.

Let’s slow down here. There is a solution to all of this: it is to repent, not out of fear, but out of understanding the transformation that takes place when we are repentant to God.

Repentance is key!

If we are to look for fruit, what is the fruit?

In Genesis and Leviticus, we find the phrase ‘be fruitful and multiply’. Fruitful here, means to have children. In the New Testament the meaning of ‘fruitful’ seems different.

An example of being fruitful is given in Galatians 5:22-23. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Fruit is evidence of genuine repentance. In Acts 26:20, Paul preaches that people should repent and turn to God. They demonstrate their repentance by their deeds or /fruitfulness.

Fruit also is an indication of the expanding of the Kingdom of God.

Repentance is key!

The next point of this sermon is: through Jesus we are given another chance.

The fig tree in our reading today is given another chance, but it is not just left to produce fruit on its own. No, the gardener fertilizes it, and digs a ditch for good irrigation. In other words, it is the hard work of the gardener or Jesus/and the Holy Spirit who makes the most of the second chance given to the tree or to us, the sinners. All we have to do is humble ourselves, repent and accept Christ’s sacrifice for our sins and to commit to live Godly lives.

Peter states in 2 Peter 1:5-9

5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

When we focus on Christ and read our Bibles, we slowly show Godly characteristics or fruit.

The third point of this sermon is: Jesus and the Father can be the Gardener of our lives.

Jesus actually describes the Father as the gardener of our lives in John 15:1-4.

Let me read it. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean, because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

In today’s parable found in Luke 23 the orchard owner is the Father and the gardener is Christ or the Holy Spirit working in our lives. Both Luke 13 and John 15 focus on Christ being the source of transformation in our lives.

Continuing with the gardening idea, let’s think about what Jesus was getting at in this story as he describes the gardener watering and fertilizing the tree for one more year to produce fruit. The writer of Hebrews writes in chapter 12 how God disciplines us. It draws out the similarity we have with our human fathers. The intent of our human father’s discipline is to teach their children to make good decisions, but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in God’s holiness or sanctify us and make us more Christ-like, exhibiting the fruit in our lives.

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. God does not discipline us because he is being mean, rather he is pruning us to be more fruitful. One might naturally think when we repent, we stop sinful actions. That is true, but with repentance to God, we not only stop our sinful actions, we also develop fruit in our daily lives.

This brings me back to the story I told at the beginning of this sermon about my dad’s prized pocket watch and my disobedience to him. At the time, my father told me how disappointed he was in me, relating this to Scripture, I was being pruned. Later, after many mistakes, my continued repentance and years of maturity, my father has finally gifted me his prized watches.

The focus for repentance should not be that we will be blessed with fruit. Rather, we should understand that, because Christ forgives us, we can have a relationship with God, our Father. If we humble ourselves and repent of our sins we become new creatures and are slowly sanctified and show fruit in our lives. Let me read what Jesus tells his disciples that are being persecuted in John 15:1-27

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned… 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Jesus is saying that with Christ, we can bear much fruit, because He is our source, like a vine is to the branches.

To be fruitful means to live a life that produces good works and reflects the character of Christ. It means remaining connected to Him in relationship and allowing Him to work through us to accomplish His purposes.

The final point of this sermon is: the patience of God is limited.

It is imperative that we understand God to be a merciful God who is full of grace, but we have to repent of our sinfulness. Peter 3:9, it says that the Lord is not slow about His promise. He is patient with us, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.

In the parable of the barren fig tree, the owner of the vineyard allows one more year for the gardener to nurture the tree in hopes that it will produce fruit. It is interesting that the vineyard owner noticed the tree was barren for three years. Some scholars think this number is significant, because Jesus’ earthly ministry was three years. The hearers of this message may have listened to Jesus preach many times during the three years, but some still did not repent. Just like us, we have the Bible in our own language, but we still do not repent. It has been made clear that we either repent of our sins or find ourselves at odds with God. Time is of the essence; we do not want to find ourselves barren like the fig tree, wasting soil. Instead, starting today, let us repent regularly, admitting that we need God every moment of our lives. Use the gifts he has given us to be fruitful in the kingdom of God.

Throughout the New Testament, the illustration of being pruned, so we can grow into God’s will is repeated.

Like me, you probably say, “I have already repented, so this sermon is not relevant to me.” The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 7:15 “I do not understand what I do; for I don’t do what I would like to do, but instead I do what I hate.” Later in Romans 7:24-25 Paul writes “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Paul kept sinning even while trying his best to do God’s will. I can truly relate to him in this regard. Every day, we can repent of our sins and through Christ, the gardener of our lives, we will be transformed into new creatures and will bear godly fruit.

Also, we do not know when our lives will end. Matthew 25:13 states, ““Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.” We do not know the timing of Christ’s return, nor do we know when our lives will come to an end. So, repentance and making Christ Lord of our lives is critical.

To conclude

Repentance is the key. As we repent, God will bless us with fruit in our lives. We should not repent to be blessed, rather we should repent, because we believe that Christ will redeem us and transform us to be fruitful in the Kingdom of God.
Every day, through Christ we are given another chance. Everyday becoming more mature in Christ. We may have repented of our sins and accepted Christ as saviour, but like Paul in Romans 7 We may find ourselves sinning many days but like Paul says through Jesus Christ who delivers him over and over again; all one has to do is repent.
Jesus and the Father are the Gardeners of our lives. If we have repented and accepted Christ’s sacrifice for our sins, He will feed, water and prune us, so we become fruitful and the person He created us to be. The father also prunes us so that we can be more fruitful. We can get to know God better by reading His Word and praying. Jesus and the Holy Spirit will do a good work in us, to help us mature in Christ and be fruitful!
God is waiting.

The owner of the vineyard allowed one more year for the gardener to work with the fig tree. Our Lord patiently waits for us to repent, but we do not know when our lives will end. The time to repent is every day.

The barren fig tree parable does not have an ending. I believe the reason Jesus does not tell us what happened with the fig tree after the year of grace is that the hearers need to decide how the story ends in their own personal lives.

So, will you repent and focus your life on Christ and use the gifts he has given you to be fruitful in the kingdom of God? Even though Jesus is your Saviour, continue to focus on him every day. If you are here today and you do not know Christ as the Saviour of your life, I would be happy to talk with you about that after the service.

Brothers and sisters of Dayspring, let us go forth and be fruitful.

Song: When we are living (630)

We respond to serve God: Our time of giving

Prayer of gratitude and for others and ourselves

Lord, we come before you today to say thank you. Thank you for all you have given us–for all the blessings that we can and cannot see. With a grateful heart we thank you Lord for saving us from darkness and delivering us from evil. We accept what you did on the cross as you took our sin and shame. You can take away our sickness and can heal our pain. We thank you for all you have done and are about to do in our lives. Thank you, Lord.

Song: Go ye, go ye unto the world (755)

Sending out with God’s blessing

Repent and focus your life on Christ everyday resulting in being more fruitful for the Kingdom of God. Let us go forth and be fruitful.

Response: Benediction (As you go)

Music postlude

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Raymond Baker retains the copyright (© 2024) on all original material in this service. As far as Raymond Baker 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.

Demons in the sea

Posted on June 23, 2024June 23, 2024 by John

Worship on the Lord’s Day
10:00 am 23 June 2024
Online & Onsite (Mixed Presence) Gathering as a Worshipping Community
Led by the Rev Brad Childs
Music director: Binu Kapadia Vocalist: Lind F-B
Elder: Renita MacCallum

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: Give thanks to the LORD, for God is good.
P: God’s steadfast love endures forever.
L: We see God’s wondrous works all around us,
P: so, we come to praise God’s holy name.
L: Open wide your hearts in this time of worship!
P: We lift our hearts to God with thanks and praise.

Opening praise: Graves into gardens

Prayers of approach and confession

Gracious Father in heaven, we come into your presence with adoration this morning in the name our risen Savior Jesus Christ through whom we have eternal access to you. We make a joyful noise to you, O Lord, and we bring our songs of praise because you are a great God and a great King above all gods. In your hand are the depths of the earth, and the heights of the mountains belong to you. Even the sea is yours, for you made it and prescribed limits for it and said, “Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed.”

We also praise you because you graciously sustain the world you have created by the word of your power. In your tender care, you provide for the needs of your creatures and us, your people. Lord, to man, the pinnacle of your creative works, you have given your law which is perfect because you are perfect. Your law can make the foolish wise. It is able to make the one who walks according to it like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season. It is a lamp unto our feet and light for our path.

Yet the light of your law, O Lord, also reveals the darkness in our hearts. We confess that the guilt we incurred through Adam’s first sin as well as the guilt we have earned through our own trespasses make us liable to your judgment. We confess that we have sinned against you even this week and even this morning. We have said words that are hurtful to others. We have been sinfully lazy and left undone the things to which you have called us. We have had selfish, hypocritical, and insincere motives even in our deeds which appear outwardly righteous. We have gossiped, lied, and broken promises; all the while excusing our sin or attempting to cover it by our means.

Yet, Father, we bring you praise this morning not only as our Maker and Sustainer, but also as our Savior, who has given us the free gift of righteousness, the forgiveness of our sins, and the hope of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. We know we can confess our sins to you without fear because you have set aside the record of debt that stood against us by nailing it to the cross of Jesus. Thus, we may approach you boldly and with confidence. For it’s in the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.

Response: Glory, Glory, Hallelujah

Assurance of God’s love
In the words of Christ our Lord, “I come to seek and save the lost”. It is not the righteous that need salvation but the sinners. To all of us who approach the throne with boldness… We are forgiven.

We listen for the voice of God

Children’s Time & Presentation of Bibles

Response: Open our eyes, Lord

Story and Presentation: Darlene Eerkes

Prayer: Brad

Transition music

Song: Saviour, like a shepherd lead us (485)

Today’s Message

Scripture: Psalm 107: 23-29; II Corinthians 6:1-13; Mark 4:35-41

Response: Behold the lamb of God

Message: Demons in the sea

The Sea of Galilee is Israel’s largest freshwater lake, approximately 110 square miles. It is situated deep in the Jordan surrounded by hills and right between the African and Arabian tectonic plates. As such, the area is subject to earthquakes and, in the past, volcanic activity. Although it is referred to as a “Sea”, it is just a little bit smaller than Calling Lake. The Sea of Galilee is also pretty deep with a depth of approximately 150ft. That’s enough to bury a thirteen-story building.) At about 600 feet below sea level, it is the lowest in Israel and the lowest freshwater lake on planet Earth. And it is the second-lowest lake of any kind in the world.

At the time of Jesus, the Sea of Galilee was the location of one of the world’s busiest fish markets. Even today the waters are known for their fish and the lake holds a variety of over 20 common species. When the disciples travelled the Ancient Near East, boats were the most common way to fish and nets were the most profitable by far. The boat that Jesus and the disciples went out onto the Sea of Galilee with was probably typical of the time: about 25 feet long 8 feet wide and 4.5 feet deep. These boats would usually hold 5 people with four in control of the one large sail as well as the four oars and with one person sitting on the cushion (the place of honour) steering the ruder at the stern (back of the boat).

(*Based on the Kibbutz Ginosar discovery). In 1986 a very well-preserved (typical of its time) 2000-year-old Lake Galilee fishing boat was uncovered. This is what it looks like.

According to first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, it is reported that the activity of the lake usually included around 230 fishing vessels on an average day. Most of these would tread only so far. It was few and far between that fishermen would cross the lake, with most boats straying only just a short distance from shore; staying far away from the deepest portions of the sea. They were afraid of it.

In the verses read from here today, Jesus is out in the boat with his disciples. What is important to note is that at least 4 of these men were fishermen by trade. They had worked at the Sea of Galilee, and they knew it very well. Although the sea was known for its cruel winds, high waves and quick drops in temperature at least 4 of the disciples would have had an intimate knowledge of this. But that is one of the things that makes this story a bit odd. You see, in verse 41 it says that the disciples were “terrified”. In verse 38 they say to Jesus, “Don’t you know that we are perishing?”

“Terrified”, Perishing” … really?

Why…They’re on a lake.

The Sea of Galilee is dangerous. It is almost completely surrounded by hills with deep ravines and gorges. When the wind hits the natural rock formations, they essentially act just like massive funnels that rush cold winds downwards onto the surface of the water causing strange shifts in wind direction. Small, ancient boats that dared to roam too far from shore could easily be overturned or flooded. But as dangerous as this all is, there’s something more to this story than just that.

See, the strangest thing about this story is that the sea and storm are not treated like your average force of nature. The lake is not talked about as if it’s just a mass of water or if the waves are normal. And why would it be? The story wasn’t written in 2024. These people were people of their time. And the way they understood the world was different from us.

To them, the Sea of Galilee wasn’t just a lake. A lot of people today wrongly sometimes assume that everyone in biblical times thought that the world was flat, but that simply was not the case. In fact, for most people at the time (and particularly the Hebrews), the world was thought to be a kind of bowl shape (the sides of which were called the pillars of the earth). These “pillars” then held up the land that kind of floated in the ocean. And more importantly, they held back the waters on the other side of the pillars. Space as we know it was thought of very differently. It was not an empty mass or vacuum. They believed that it was filled with water just waiting to smash through the pillars and destroy everything. Here is a well-known Hebrew Cosmological drawing.

This is what is described in the opening chapter of Genesis for example.

In creation, God brought order to the chaos of water and separated the water from the dry land. You may recall that God separates the “water from above from the water from below”. This is why the waters in the Noah’s Ark story are told to come from both above and from the ground.

Now, over the top of the bowl-shaped world is this kind of pasta strainer (called the firmament). It was thought to be rock-hard. But it was also thought to have these holes called “doors” and “windows” and so when God wanted it to rain it was said that He would just open and close them up to let rain in or to stop it.

And although there are seas both salt water and fresh water out there, for the Jews, the only safe water comes from wells or streams. Everything else (every large body of water) at some point connects to the “waters of the deep” underground (to the waters of evil or chaos just begging to break through). Interestingly, they were very scientifically correct in this regard. Lake Galilee is fed from several underground springs in addition to the Jordan.

Now, in the deep, under the land was Sheol (the place of the dead). The monsters of the deep that guard Sheol were a common part of popular understanding for both Jews and Gentiles. For the Greeks, it was the stories of Baal vs. Yam (the monster of chaos) for others Marduk and the demon serpent Tiamat. For the Jews, it was Rehab and Leviathan (great sea monsters said to stir up the water and sink ships).

Though these monsters were usually said to confine themselves to the Red and Dead Seas you have to remember that all of the waters were thought to have connected to each other under the ground by “the waters of the deep” and so these great beasts were thought to move from sea to sea by travelling under the land. And this meant that they could pop up at any time in any large body of water.

The monsters can appear from lake to lake and when they come, they are thought to bring with them massive storms and waves.

For Mark’s original audience, this story was not just about a simple natural occurrence. It wasn’t just a storm on a lake. It wasn’t only the worry of mortality. It was about the demons in the sea.

In the book of Mark, in the very next paragraph after what we have read today, we find another interesting story that makes most modern readers quite nervous. The story takes place just after Jesus and the disciples arrive safely on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. It is the story of a man possessed by evil spirits and in this story, a large number of demons begs not to be cast out into the countryside (away from home). Instead, they plead with Jesus that they might be sent into a herd of pigs instead. This crazy story from Mark 5:13 records this wild detail. It says, “Then the unclean spirits went out of the man and entered the swine (there were about two thousand), and then the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea…”.

For modern readers, this seems a strange tale. Why don’t the demons want to go out into the countryside? And when they find themselves inhabiting the bodies of the pigs why do they immediately run for the water?

But see, for Mark’s audience, the answer was simple… the evil spirits didn’t want to go out into no man’s land (back out into the country). They wanted to go home. They wanted to go back to the Sea of Galilee because that’s where they came from. The demons came from the sea.

In our story at Sea, Jesus doesn’t just calm the storm. That’s certainly not how Mark tells it. He’s not talking to an inanimate object.

In verse 39 it says that Jesus “stood and rebuked the wind and the waves”. (the word used for “Rebuked” here literally means “gagged”). It is the same word, by the way, that was used to describe the muzzling of an animal. And it is the same word used in Mark 1:25 when Jesus “rebuked” the evil spirit. Here out at sea, Jesus “rebuked” the wind and the waves as if the storm were itself a living thing.

Out on the water in that boat, they were afraid. They were afraid of dying because of the true storm… but more than that… when the waves spilled over the boat and the wind slapped them in the face, they were absolutely terrified of falling (not just into the water) but into the hands of evil and chaos itself.

In the middle of the storm, far from the safety of the shore, right in the middle of evil’s territory, where the Leviathan might lurk, and the underwater channels lead straight down to Sheol (the place of the dead), Jesus brings peace back to the water and the waves… And the people cry out, “Who is this man, that even the wind and waves obey him”.

It’s at this point that most sermons on this topic begin to ask, “What are the demons in the sea in our lives”. They might speak of troubles with marriage or addictions, poor health or just about anything to make this story relate better to today. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. But this story is not just about the demons in the sea. Its main topic is not about fear or the amount of faith we have. It’s bigger than that. This story is about the question Mark asks throughout his gospel. It’s not about what Jesus does so much as who he is. Is this guy the Psalmist said would come?

This story is about that question that the disciples ask out on that boat. This story is about who is really in control of things, “who can conquer evil” and “who can hold back the chaos”. It’s about that question the disciples ask, “Who is this, that even the wind and the waves obey him?”

And now for my little twist: This sermon is not about the calming of the sea in the book of Mark. This sermon is actually about our reading from the book of Psalms (107:23-20 ) and its depiction of God. Because it’s the answer to the question the disciples ask: “Who is this?”

Song: We cannot own the sunlit sky (717)

We respond to serve God: Our time of giving

Prayer for our world

From hunger and unemployment, and forced eviction:
Good Lord, deliver us.

People in our city need help. People in our congregation need help.
From unjust sentences and unjust wars:
Good Lord, deliver us.

For the innocent caught between waring forces, the children, infants, the infirmed and aged. For those forced to fight, without choice or deluded to believe violence rules. From neglect by parents, neglect by children, and neglect by callous
institutions:
Good Lord, deliver us.

Many of us are confined, some have children who do not call or visit. Our programs come with strings and are difficult to navigate.

From cancer and stroke, falls and fractures
Good Lord, deliver us.

From stubbed toes to Parkinsons disease, to hospital beds, blessed physicians hands, and long term care;
From famine and epidemic, from pollution of the soil, the air, and the waters:
Good Lord, deliver us.

Corporations have shifted blame from long damaging practices of their own to the average person. For honesty, fair application and a better understanding of our world we pray.
Free us Lord,

From segregation and prejudice, from harassment, discrimination and brutality:
Good Lord, deliver us.

We need not all be the same, think or act the same, but there is no place in our faith for hate. And for those working for peace.

From time eaters and family distracters and idols
Good Lord, deliver us.

Do not let us be led into foolishness by every shinny object we see. Make us humble and thoughtful and agents of healing in our homes.
From the concentration of power in the hands of ignorant, threatened or hasty leaders:
Good Lord, deliver us.

For Prime Ministers and Presidents and local peoples. Bring wisdom and judgement to voters and better character to our limited choices.
From propaganda, fads, frivolity and untruthfulness:
Good Lord, deliver us.

Our worth Lord is in You. No title and no idea of self more central than “Child of God”.

From arrogance, narrowness and meanness, from stupidity and pretense:
From boredom, apathy and fatigue, from lack of conviction, from fear, self-satisfaction and timidity, thinking to little or self, too much of self to distracted by self:
Good Lord, deliver us.

From self-satisfaction and self-abuse
From the consequences of our own folly
From resignation and despair, from cynicism and manipulation:
From all unmerciful suffering, our own and that of others:
From empty refrigerators, little closets, and tiny/empty tummies
From broken parts of life, and pain and loss of a baby in the whom.
Lord, From the unending cry of all peoples for justice and freedom:
Good Lord, deliver us and calm our storms.

Good Lord, deliver us. Deliver us, Good Lord, by opening our eyes and unstopping our ears, that we may hear Your Word and do Your Will and attempt to do ourselves all that we have asked of you as well.

Thy will be done. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Song: How firm a foundation (685)

Sending out with God’s blessing

May the God of endurance and encouragement
Grant you to live in such harmony with one another, and in accordance with Christ Jesus, that together you may, with one voice,
glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
through the Spirit of God who resides within all of you. Amen.

Response: Amen, we praise your name, O God

Music postlude

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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.

The Father’s Day

Posted on June 16, 2024June 16, 2024 by John

Worship on the Father’s Day and National Indigenous Sunday
10:00 am       16 June 2024
Online & Onsite (Mixed Presence) Gathering as a Worshipping Community
Led by the Rev Brad Childs    Elder: Sam Malayang
Music director: Binu Kapadia    Guest Pianist: Gail Lundquist
Vocalist: Lynn Vaughan

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: It is good to give God thanks, to sing praises to the Most High!
P: We will sing for joy to God who has made us glad.
L: Let us declare God’s steadfast love in the morning,
P: and God’s faithfulness by night.
L: So come to worship God with thankful, joyful hearts!
P: Let us praise God’s holy name together.

Opening praise: O come to the altar

Prayers of approach and confession
Living God, from you come vitality, love and joy.
Your peace is our companion, your love is our strength, your Son is our hope.
Your Spirit nurtures tiny seeds of purpose and potential, hidden deep in the soil of life, to surprise us with new life.

While the earth begins to bloom around us, we bring you our prayers and praise, trusting that your Spirit will renew in us the gifts we need to serve you in faithfulness in the example of Christ our Lord.

Living, loving God, as we watch our gardens and our children grow, we confess we often resist the change growth can bring.
We form opinions about many things – and cling to them.
We fear new insights and new directions.
Forgive us when we think already know enough.

Grant us faith like the mustard seed, able to grow with your blessing to become a mighty sign of your lively kingdom among us. Amen.

Response: I will trust in the Lord

Assurance of God’s love
Hear the good news! Who is in a position to condemn us?
Only Christ – and Christ died for us;
Christ rose for us.
Christ reigns in power for us.
Christ prays for us.
Believe the good news of the gospel.
In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven
And once forgiven it is now our job to forgive someone else.

We listen for the voice of God

Children’s time

Response: Jesus loves me (373)

Story: “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.” Matthew 10:40-42 (NIV)

Prayer

The Lord’s Prayer (535)

Transition music

Song: This is my Father’s world (328)

Today’s Message

Scripture reading: Genesis 22:1-4

Response: Glory. Glory hallelujah

Message: The Father’s Day

Abraham and Issac… what stranger story can be found than the story of God asking a father to sacrifice his son? But it’s not only the idea that troubling it’s also the individual verses themselves that present a problem.

See, right from the start we are told that the whole thing is just a test. It says in verse 1, “Now it came to pass that God did test Abraham” and God said to Abraham, “Abraham!” and right away Abraham responds, “Here I am”. The story continues as God speaks to Abraham and says, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love – Isaac, and go to the place of Moriah and bring him there for a burnt offering.”

Now there are a couple of problems here. See, the first one is this, God says, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love – Isaac” but the problem is simple. Abraham actually has two sons.

Long before all of this happened God had promised Abraham something. God told Abraham that his descendants would be “as numerous as the stars”. But Abraham has some trouble with this because he and his wife don’t seem able to have a child and so Abraham has a child (Ismael) by another woman. Yeah, Abraham seems to believe the promise but on his own terms. Have you ever looked at God’s promises or your understanding of them and then, tried to make it all happen on your own? I’m pretty sure I have.

But God says that this is not what he meant and tells Abraham in Gen. 12:3 that it is through Isaac (the one he didn’t plan for) that he will become the father of a nation.

See, God says, “Only son”, because by this point Ismael had been sent away. Isaac was the only son that Abraham had left. And that’s because Abraham messed up! He messed up. He tried to control the blessing and make it make sense. But it didn’t make sense. God didn’t need it to make sense.

Because of Abraham’s weak faith things didn’t get better, they got worse. And now only one child remained. And so, Isaac was Abraham’s last chance.

And so, with only one son left; without Isaac, there could be no nation (no descendants as numerous as the stars – no promise).

After sending one son away, Isaac became dearer to Abraham than we could possibly imagine. All his hopes were now pinned on this one child. Isaac was Abraham’s only son (LEFT), but more than that, Isaac was proof of God as well. He was a miracle that shouldn’t have existed at all. Abraham tried to do things on his own, but God had other plans. God didn’t need Abraham to do what God wanted to do.

Now, I just want everyone to think about this for a second. God has rejected Abraham’s attempt to do things on his own. And still, God has given Abraham a son (just as promised) and promised that he will be the Father of nations through him… that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky – but there’s a catch.

In Gen 17, God says that in order for this to come to pass Abraham must, “Walk before God and be blameless”. Isaac will be the father of many nations but ONLY if Abraham can “walk before God and be blameless”.

But we’ll get back to that.

The story continues. In verse three it says, “Abraham arose early in the morning and saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, and Isaac his son… and split the wood for the burn offering and went to the place God had told him”.

Again, there are two interesting things here. One is silly and bit unimportant and then the other is serious and very important.

The first (silly and unimportant one) is this: At this point in the ancient near east, a man in high standing (an important man) always took 2 servants with him as a status symbol.

Does anyone know why? …

It’s because the servants are meant to protect you… and if you only took one servant, then who would be there to protect you if that one servant might need to use the washroom? This is true folks.

It sounds crazy but this is true.

If you had money… then you took two servants with you because one servant – might have to pee. That is dead true.

And so, respectable men in high standing (like Abraham) took two servants with them when they travelled. It was kind of like a status symbol, like having a large SUV for the winter and a sports car for the summer. It’s probably not necessary but it’s nice to have. The second (the grotesque but important thing) that begs mentioning… is this: How much wood, do you think it takes for a burnt offering of a lamb? Have you ever built a fire for a small fish or a few hot dogs? How much wood does that take?

How heavy a load do you think you might need, to cook something that’s 50 or maybe 200 pounds? What would that bundle of wood be like? What strength might that take to carry that amount of wood on a long walk up the foothills? How hard would it be to bring that load of wood all the way up to the top of a mountain?

In verse 5-6 it says, “Abraham said to his servants ‘stay here with the donkey, and I and the LAD will go over there’” (and then it says this) “and WE will worship and WE will return to you.” “Then Abraham took the wood for the offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and Abraham took the fire and the knife and the two of them walked on together.”

Do you see what happened there?

Again, there are two more strange things worth noting.

First, Abraham says, “WE” will worship” and way more interestingly “WE will return.”

Now I don’t know exactly what Abraham thought would happen. I guess it’s also possible that he just attempted to lie to his servants so they wouldn’t stop him. I don’t know. Maybe he thought God wouldn’t make him go through with it. It is a crazy request. Maybe he thought God would bring Ishmael back from banishment or maybe even thought God would bring Isaac back to life.

But what I do know is that after Issac was born, Abraham never wavered. God called Abraham and Abraham responded, “Here I am” and that was it. God had told Abraham that he would be the father of a nation and that it would be through his son Isaac. And though Abraham once doubted God’s power, now he believed in it with his every fiber of being.

Second, remember Abraham has two servants.

He also has a donkey. But who carries the wood on this final part of the journey up the mountain top? Isaac!

Abraham piles it up and piles it up in Isaac’s hands and the two of them head off into the distance leaving the donkey and the other two men behind.

Something strikes me odd about this. In fact, it’s bothered readers of this story for at least the last 3,500 years. One might speculate that while Abraham calls his son a “lad” that Isaac is actually a rather large “LAD”.

Remember, Isaac is going to walk a long way into the distance; up the foothills and up the mountain with a heavy load (enough wood for a large sacrifice). That is a big LAD. And in fact, this is part of why the Jewish Talmud refers to this story not as the “Faith of Abraham” but rather as the Binding of Isaac and claims that Isaac and not Abraham is the real hero of this story.

But again… we’ll get back to that.

It’s an interesting picture, isn’t it? In fact, it’s a beautifully told story and a picturesque scene. A father and a son walk calmly off into the distance together. It’s so nice. But also, it’s not. It’s horrible. And the readers are shocked. And maybe that’s the whole point. Maybe it’s to tell the people in a region of the world where child sacrifice was common, that the true God would never make you do something like this.

When I’m on a long car ride, I talk. And when I read this story, I picture a father and son in some very important kind of conversation. And that is exactly what happens here. In verse 7 it says, “Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, ‘my Father’?” And just as Abraham responded to God in love, he now responds to his son Isaac the same way, “Here I am.” And in response, Isaac says, “Here is the fire and the wood but where is the lamb for the offering?”

Then in verse 8 Abraham answers in a very interesting way, he says, “God will provide for himself the lamb for the offering, my son. And so, the two of them walked on together”. But again, things are not always what they seem.

The question arises, where does the emphasis lie? See the Hebrew language has no punctuation. Translators are left to figure emphasis out for themselves. And this often changes the way we read the texts before us.

In other words, does Abraham say, “God will provide for himself the lamb my son” or does he say, “God will provide the lamb for himself, – My son” Does Abraham say, to his son that God provides, or does Abraham say to his son, “it’s you – my son” and Issac knows exactly what is about to happen. The story can and has been read both ways and it seems that this was the intent of the author. I think the confusion is on purpose.

I personally feel that in this one line’ Abraham tells Isaac that Isaac is the sacrifice. But I might be wrong. Still, that is what I think.

The story goes on. In verse 9 it says, “Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the alter there and arranged the wood and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the alter on top of the wood.”

Now let’s go back to something for a second. God tells Abraham that he will have a child. Neither Abraham nor his wife believe and say, “We are far too old”. Abraham and wife make other arrangements. Ishmel the first child is sent away. Years later we are told that Isaac was born, and Abraham is now said to be 100 years old (when Isaac is born). Now while numbers in the bible may not always be exactly what they first appear, one thing is for sure – we are being told that this guy is Very Old. That’s when Issac was born. By the time that this story takes place, Isaac is called a “LAD”.

The term, “lad” can have a variety of meanings in Hebrew. It is used for a small boy but also describes a newlywed. The first-century Jewish historian Josephus claims that Isaac is 25 years old, and the Jewish Talmud (an ancient commentary on the Jewish texts) says that Isaac is 37. The idea that Isaac is a young boy is relatively modern. But most ancient commentators agree that Isaac is most likely at least in his late teens or early twenties. What’s more, he’s a farm boy; not some city slicker.

Isaac’s a guy that grew up knowing how to put in a hard day of manual labour and he is big enough to carry all that wood through the foothills and up the mountain for his elderly father. Does anybody here want to do the grouse grid with a 50lb pack? And then Abraham is said to have just casually tied Isaac up and laid him on the altar??? No, no I don’t think so. I think we are meant to read something else into this story. I think we are supposed to see between the lines.

I think not only did Abraham respond to God “Here I am” and Abraham respond to his son “Here I am” but Isaac too responded to His father and to his God in the same way. I think Isaac might be the hero of this story. I think Isaac also said, “Here I am!” I think the conditions of the covenant had been met, that the test was over; that the two of these servants had indeed Both – “walked with God” and had been “found blameless” as the covenant commanded.

In verse 10 it says, “Abraham stretched out his hand and took his knife to slay Isaac” but then the angel of the LORD called out from heaven “Abraham, Abraham” to which Abraham responded one more time, “Here I am”.

The story concludes, “And God said, ‘Do not stretch out your hand against the LAD and do nothing to him; for I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld even your son, your only son, from me.’ Then Abraham looked and saw behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns and Abraham took it and offer the ram instead of his son.” Because of this they named the place, God provides.

Our world is full of tests. Some are easy. Some are more than a little challenging. Some like Abraham and Isaac’s seem downright impossible. And the tests we face in life will be different for all of us. But no matter what the test might be, like Isaac and Abraham before us we are called to walk with God and called to be blameless. And when God calls out to us, we should respond just as they did. Whatever the test, “Here I am” is the answer. “I’m ready”. Because if we stay true to God, God still provides.

May we all walk with God, calling out always “Here I am” and may we be found blameless in all the tests of life. – Amen

Song: My shepherd is the King (691: vss. 1-4)

We respond to serve God: Our time of giving

Prayer of gratitude and for others and ourselves

O Eternal one, we thank you for the record of the biblical witness which documents your love affair with our humankind. We thank you for these words of Jesus which remind us of our need to be welcoming. We thank you that you continually stretch us to reach beyond ourselves.

Stretch us to widen our souls to include others of your children whom we might naturally exclude.
Stretch us to grasp for more than we can reach.
Stretch us to believe in ourselves and others.
Stretch us to support and encourage others.
Stretch us to offer a cup of cold water, food, shelter and a safe haven in your name.

We pray that we might learn the lessons of Christian community. Help us to be instructed by the errors of the past in order that we may be saved from repeating them. Help us to learn exciting new behaviours and new ways. Temper our penchant for holding resentments.

Teach us that life does not have to be marred permanently by resentments.
Teach us that life is much more positive and meaningful and satisfying when it is focused on love.
Teach us that forgiveness is not a sign of weakness but of strength.
Teach us to build more expansive souls which can reach out and embrace the least of your little ones.

Send your peace and love and overwhelm and transform all of the bitterness and anger which we so often want to hold close. So lead us in your higher way.

For all who suffer and need your special grace we lift up our prayers today. Amen

Song: Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us (647)

Sending out with God’s blessing

May you go out into the world
Blessed and ready to bless
Fed and ready to feed
Forgiven and ready to forgive
Tested and found blameless and faithful

Response: God to enfold you

Music postlude

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You are Salt … or Beef Jerky (Youth led service)

Posted on June 9, 2024June 9, 2024 by John

Worship on the Lord’s Day
10:00 am 09 June 2024
Online & Onsite (Mixed Presence) Gathering as a Worshipping Community
Youth-led Service: Rom, Wesley, Matthew, Felix, Godfrey, Cohen, Marilyn, Maddie, Bianca, Kaye, John, Sam, Arghavan, Nejabastian, Corrie, Shaylynn, Tassen, Noah
Minister: The Rev Brad Childs
Music director: Binu Kapadia Vocalist: Lynn Vaughan
Elder: Rom Rhoad

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: Welcome to this place of grace and care; of hope and perseverance
P: God invites all of us to be a part of the beloved community
L: God invites us to share in the good news
P: We are welcome just as we are
L: And loved too much to stay that way
P: Let us praise the One in gratitude for all things.

Opening praise: Bless the Lord, O my soul

Prayers of approach and confession
God of all creation, we are amazed at the details in your world around us.
You care for the fragile beauty and balance in the world.
You receive praise from the depth of the sea to the tops of the mountains.
God of love – you have seen your Church grow from tiny beginnings into a worldwide community, full of diversity.
Open our eyes to your purpose for each of us, all of us.
Help us to be guided by your Holy Spirit to do your will in the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord.
God of purpose and possibility, you give us work to do.
And you give us the skills we need to do what you ask of us.
Yet we prefer to follow our own ways and to do our own thing.
We think we know better than you.
Forgive our stubborn natures and our unwillingness to love and care for all creation as we should.
By the power of your Holy Spirit, create in us a teachable spirit so we can learn new ways to serve you, becoming the people you know we can be.

Response: We come to ask your forgiveness, O Lord

Assurance of God’s love
The prophet Micah reminds us that God requires three things of us: to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.
To all who love God and seek to love our neighbours in kindness and humility, God offers forgiveness and peace.
The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ is with you all.

We listen for the voice of God

Response: Jesus, we are gathered

Story Time

Story: More than Salt (Corrie)

Introduction: As you entered the sanctuary you were given a little packet of salt… take that in your hand now and imagine if you were compared to salt! How would that feel? (pause)

You are loved more than salt! Really?

Now let’s hear a story –

Once upon a time, a long time ago, when most stories begin, there was a kingdom far away, where most kingdoms are. In this kingdom, there lived a king with three loyal knights. Now, this king was a fairly ordinary man, sometimes wise, sometimes foolish. He trusted his knights and made certain they wanted for nothing. One day, the king wanted to know how much his knights loved him.

He put the question to them.
“My loyal knights, I crave to know how much you love me. Pray, tell.”
The first knight to speak said. “My liege, I love you more than gold or silver.” (place a bar of gold/silver on sidestep of platform?)
The king was pleased that he loved him more than such valuable things, and smiled at him.
The second knight, spoke next. “My liege, I love you more than diamonds and pearls, more than rubies and emeralds, or any other gem.” (place jewels on sidestep of platform?)
Again, the king was pleased to be loved more than such precious things.

He looked to his third, and most beloved, knight.
“My liege, I love you more than salt.” He spoke simply, quietly. (Place a bag of salt on the communion table in the centre)

More than salt? More than salt?! The king was displeased. He couldn’t believe his most beloved knight had compared him to something so common and coarse as salt. The king was angry, thinking of all the gifts he’d lavished on this knight. Such was his rage that he exiled him from the kingdom. The knight left without saying a word, simply carrying away small packets of salt in his pocket.

The Knight traveled to the next kingdom, where he worked as a shepherd.

Meanwhile, in the king’s kingdom, something strange happened. As soon as the knight had crossed the border, all the salt began to disappear. At first, no one noticed. There was NO salt for their meat, NO salt for their broth, NO salt for their bread. Soon the people realized that NO new salt was coming into the kingdom. No matter how hard the caravans, ships, or gypsy traders tried, they could NOT bring salt beyond the border.

After a while, the king fell ill. As he grew weaker, sicker, the royal physicians puzzled out what could be wrong. Finally, they decreed that the king needed salt, or he would perish. Until then, no one knew that salt was necessary for life. Tales of the king’s plight reached beyond the borders, from town to town, and finally to a simple shepherd’ hut. When the knight heard of his king’s illness, he went to him. He carried nothing with him but the clothes he wore and his bag of salt. For long days, he walked, until he reached the palace. He made his way to his king’s room, where he slept fitfully, close to death.

The knight kissed the king on his boney hand and sat beside him. He cut a piece of bread, buttered it, and sprinkled salt over it. He managed to sit him up and coaxed the bread into him. The king slept again, and woke a short time later, a little stronger. The knight called for broth, sprinkled salt in it, and encouraged the king to eat. He regained his strength slowly, after that, until he was well. He again sat on his throne and kept his knight close by.

“My loyal knight, can you forgive a foolish king?”
“Of course, my liege. I cherish you.” The knight meant it, too.
From that moment on, salt flowed freely into the kingdom once more.
The king never looked down on salt again, and he knew that his most beloved knight loved him best of all, for when he said “I love you more than salt.” he meant that he loved him more than that which gives life, which is a great love indeed.

Silent Actors:

King – Matthew (special chair, crown, sceptre, ice bag when ill…)
Knight #1 – Felix (spear/sword, knight vest, gold bar

(after bringing the king his treasures, Knight #1 stands beside the king… and will help the king when sick)

Knight #2 – Godfrey (spear/sword, knight vest, jewels – gems

(after bringing the king his treasures, Knight #2 stands beside the king… and will help the king when sick)

Knight #3 – Cohen (knight vest, salt… will need to pretend for bread…)

(after bringing king salt, he is banished. Pointed out by other 2 knights… comes back)

Song: Jesus bids us shine (773)

Today’s Message

Scripture reading: Matthew 5:13-16

Music Offering: Binu, Arghavan, John, and Sam

Message: You are salt … or Beef Jerky

Part 1 – Wesley

About 2000 some years ago a very special guy named Jesus, was walking around Palestine. JESUS was a common name for Hebrew boys, but this Jesus was extra special! Matthew was one of his closest friends, and it is believed that Matthew wrote a book about his friend Jesus. This is the Gospel of Matthew that we just read from this morning.

Mathew shows Jesus to be a pretty regular guy, but he gives this outrageous story about his birth and magi coming to visit. Then Matthew talks about John the baptizer, and he says Jesus was tempted like any other person. Matthew talks about Jesus calling his disciples (a word for student-learners) and then the next thing Matthew remembers is that Jesus is up on a mount giving a group of ordinary people small sermons. We call this the Sermon on the Mount. Over the past few months, the youth here in Dayspring have been learning about some of these ideas in this sermon on the mount.

This sermon begins with the words of the beatitudes (which is Latin for “happy). This peasant-teacher – Jesus – is telling the crowd that’s gathered that people who feel sad, are blessed… that people who have lost someone they love can find comfort… that people who have no power will inherit a Kingdom… that people who seek peace are called “children of God”… and that even when people are tortured for their faith that they are blessed.

The people listening to Jesus were ordinary people – the peasants, the poor, the farmers, the people who were under the domination of another nation, forced to obey the Roman law and they did not have many freedoms. Jesus is telling them things that they had never heard before. In their minds rich people were blessed. But this crazy Jesus, from Nazareth guy told them… “Blessed are the poor”!

It was crazy, unheard-of, shocking, life-altering things that Jesus was saying.

Part 2 – Maddie

Today these words sound simple, and we don’t pay much attention to them. But think about how wild this is… “Blessed are you, who people insult, and hurl insults at”. Blessed are the people that the world makes fun of?!

But that’s what Jesus said. These common, everyday people are blessed, even when they are poor or sad or sick or judged or dominated by the Romans, needing justice or whatever…

Jesus tells them that they are blessed because GOD loves them more than they can ever imagine. Being loved by God makes them as important to God as salt is to humans, as beef jerky is to me.

After Jesus tells them how much he loves them, he reveals something even more spectacular. People are important! Jesus said,“You are the salt of the earth. Or, as I like to say, “You are beef jerky!”

Part 3 – Marilyn

Now really! Why is that spectacular? Who wants to be compared to salt?

Do you?

Maddie responds: “I do!”

Wesley responds: “Me too!”

Marilyn:

WHY do you want to be “salt of the earth”? (pause)

Salt is the mineral that God created to be a necessity of life. Salt is essential for the survival of living things. We heard the importance of salt in the story about the King and his 3 knights. Living things – animals such as cows and horses, lick blocks of salt to obtain the nutrients and minerals they require to live.

In Jesus’ day salt was a precious and valuable commodity. Indeed, salt was so valuable that it was sometimes traded ounce-for-ounce with gold. At times, Roman soldiers were even paid in salt. The word salary is derived from the word for salt. According to some people, If a Roman soldier didn’t do his job, he wouldn’t get all of his salt. That’s where we get the phrase, “He is not worth his salt,” if someone doesn’t do a good day’s work. In the Palestine of the past, much of the salt came from the Dead Sea or in Hebrew it means, “The Sea of Salt.” It was like a pool of gold.

In cultures lacking refrigeration, salt was the key preservative which allowed a thriving fishing industry to flourish. In an age before modern drugs, salt was a critical disinfectant which saved untold numbers of lives. For example, I would use salt in warm water to rid myself of a throat infection.

Maddie: Salt is a seasoning spice that transforms food from distasteful or bland to palatable and delicious. When I make chocolate chip cookies I make sure to add a little sprinklin’ of flaky sea salt on top.

Are there other ways that salt is special?

Marilyn: This wild Jesus character just says “You are the salt of the earth.”

Let’s take a moment and open those brown bags you were each given when you came into the sanctuary today… (hold up a brown bag)

Does anyone not have a bag?

(Have a couple of youth ready to distribute some bags to people who might not have received them…WAIT here – take time for everyone to open their bags.

You will notice there are baggies containing popcorn but one has NS written on it – “NO salt on the popcorn.” Please take this baggie first – and eat it (WAIT!!!! For people to do this…)

Now take the second baggie of popcorn and eat it; it has salt on it. (WAIT for people to do this)

Maddie: I like this one with salt on it.

Wesley: Yes, this one is better!

Marilyn: Which one did you like better? (Pause… there may be some responses…) I think MOST would agree that the salted popcorn tastes better.

Part 4 – Wesley

“You are the salt of the earth”.

Jesus looks out to a crowd of people and says, “You know that thing that preserves our food and keeps us from dying. That thing that takes a dull life and bland food and makes it exciting… That thing that is more precious than silver or gold – that’s you! You are that salt!

You are the salt of the earth. This is how we are to BE – salting the earth…sharing God’s love with everyone, preserving the goodness, taking care of God’s world and God’s people. As salt we will make things better, bring joy into sadness, give understanding instead of judgement, accept all our neighbours whomever they are.

But then Jesus puts to the people a small challenge. He says “But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything.”

Part 5 – Maddie

For those of you not on familiar with the land of Palestine – The Sea of Salt is more than a mile and a half below sea level. The waters of The Sea of Galilee flow into the Jordan River and from there go to their final resting place in The Sea of Salt – the lowest land elevation on earth. So once the water gets there, there’s no place to go. The hot sun evaporates the water and leaves behind a chunky white powder made up of a combination of salt and minerals. That powder contains enough salt to season meat or to flavour soup, and that’s why people used to get their salt from The Dead Sea. But it’s also mixed with minerals and it’s not pure sodium chloride – it was a quite unstable compound. When it was stored in a damp environment or even when mixed with a little dampness in the air it would frequently begin to dissipate. That’s the surface meaning of Jesus’ word. That’s how the salt “loses its seasoning.” Jesus goes on to say, “It is good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.”

Part 6 – Marilyn

But honestly that Jesus fella was on to something. I mean if we are really, actually, truly blessed… then why not share that love? Why would we NOT be salt of the earth? Why would we NOT help to make this world a better/brighter place filled with Gods’ love? Why NOT be salty?

At the same time Jesus never said that you BEING salt gives you your worth. Living as the salt of the earth does NOT make us more important. Jesus never says that you gain anything by your sharing. He does say that people will see God in you and that is a great thing. But Jesus never promises to add blessings to you because you live as the salt of the earth.

And Jesus would never ever say that… because to JESUS, we are already Salt. There are no conditions to God’s love. WE are already, no matter how normal or lowly we think we are – WE are blessed because God loves us more than we can ever imagine.

No matter what you do or don’t with this message: You are Salt.

Maddie: You are beef jerky!

Marilyn: You are loved! Amen

Song: Lord, the light of your love is shining (376)

Our time of giving

Reflection on giving: When we look at God’s world around us, we see the beginning of new growth and our gardens will soon be plentiful. We see God’s abundant care for us. We also know that God asks us to care for all Creation. We know that there are many people around the world that do not have enough food or clean water. Through World vision, we are sponsoring Joshua and his family who live in El Salvador.

Today we will take up two offerings.

Our regular offering can be given in as is our normal practice.

If you are able, please feel free to add some coins to this can or donate by putting an envelop in the offering plate labelled with this special donation. May we give out of our abundance to those in need.

Prayer of Dedication

God of growing gardens and growing hope, receive our gifts and our thanks this day. Bless what we bring and what we do, so that we become salt of the earth, in Jesus’ name. AMEN

Prayer of gratitude and for others and ourselves.

Embrace the world you love.

Bianca

God of grace and compassion, We offer you our thanks for all that we have, for our friends and families, our neighbours and fellow citizens. We name before you those whom we love. We are thankful that they are in our lives. We know that your love touches the depths of their needs and celebrates the joys of their journeys:

Keep silent for 6 seconds.

God of grace and compassion,

(Together: Bianca and Kaye) – Embrace the world you love.

Bianca

As part of YOUR Church, we celebrate our Dayspring community, where we worship together and grow in our faith in Jesus Christ. We are challenged to live what we learn and what we believe you ask of us. Make us aware of opportunities to serve you both in this church and in the world beyond these walls. Give us the courage to reach out to more neighbours where there is human need. Help us to BE salt of the earth, in Jesus’ name.

Keep silence for 6 seconds.

God of grace and compassion,

(Together: Bianca and Kaye) – Embrace the world you love.

Kaye:

God of all people, we think of neighbours in Canada and in other places in the world who are facing ongoing conflict and violence, those who crowd together in refugee compounds and homeless encampments, or who face the consequences of nature’s unpredictable destruction (fire, floods, violence wind, earthquakes).

We join our prayers with those who are desperately seeking to survive, wherever they find themselves: Give us courage and commitment to meet the greatest challenges. Inspire our hope to work and live as we seek to love all our neighbours.

Keep silence for 6 seconds.

God of grace and compassion,

(Together: Kaye and Bianca) – Embrace the world you love.

Kaye:

As summer approaches, and your creation changes around us, we give you thanks for beauty in your world, for the living and nonliving things.

Thank you for the chance to participate in your creation – walking, biking, camping, swimming and all the recreational activities we can enjoy.

Yet we know that we sometimes forget how we are guilty of misusing these gifts and we damage your creation with our selfish ways and careless actions.

Show us how to act for justice with compassion so that all your creation is precious, and all your peoples are cared for as we show love to all our neighbours in the world.

Keep silence for 6 seconds.

We know in our hearts that you love us and that you offer us your grace and compassion. So, loving God, we offer these and all our unspoken prayers in the name of Jesus Christ, who taught us to say together …

The Lord’s Prayer

Song: I’m gonna live so God can use me (648)

Sending out with God’s blessing

Friends – Keep your eyes open as you walk in God’s world. Look for ways to share God’s love. And may the God who loves you more than Salt, The Christ who flavours you as salt, And the Spirit who gives us life, empower you to BE salt of the earth. Amen.

Response: Go forth into the world

Music postlude

————————————————————————-

The Rev. Brad Childs and Elder Darlene Eerkes retain the copyright (© 2024) on all original material in this service. As far as they are aware, all of the material that has not been attributed to others is their own creation or is in the public domain. Unacknowledged use of copyrighted material is unintentional and will be corrected immediately upon notification being received.

Jars of Clay

Posted on June 2, 2024June 2, 2024 by John

Worship on the Lord’s Day
02 June 2024    10:00 am
The Sacrament of Holy Communion & General Assembly Sunday
Online & Onsite (Mixed Presence) Gathering as a Worshipping Community
Led by the Rev. Brad Childs     Elder: Lynn Vaughan
Music Director: Binu Kapadia           Vocalist: Glynnis McCrostie
Guest Pianist: Darolyn McCrostie
Guest Violinists: Rob Hryciw & Thomas Schoen

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: Raise a song of joy and gladness before God.
P: We will make music and sing God’s praises.
L: Sing aloud to God, our strength!
P: We will shout for joy to the God who made us.
L: Worship God who makes all things new!
P: We will celebrate God’s goodness in prayer and praise.

Opening praise: Everlasting God

Prayers of approach and confession

God of all life and each life, you created us in love to enjoy your presence in creation.

You made us in your image so that we would find purpose and possibility in our lives.

You gave us Sabbath rest to breathe in your grace and peace week by week.

In Jesus, you show us how to share grace and peace with one another.

Refresh us in this time of worship, so that we may leave with a deep sense of well-being at our core, for we offer ourselves to you through Christ, our Saviour. Amen

God of all life and each life, you created us to enjoy your presence, yet we confess it is easy to lose track of that joy.

When times are tough, we feel resentful.

When someone else succeeds, jealousy creeps in.

Some days bad news is all we hear.

Draw us back to your goodness and grace.

Response: Glory, Glory, Hallelujah

Assurance of God’s forgiveness

Jesus said, “Come to me all you who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest” Friends, trust that peace and forgiveness are God’s gift to you this day. Be renewed by the power of the Spirit that moves with you into each new day.

Music Offering: Rob, Thomas, and Darolyn

Hymn: The clay-stained hands of love (296)

We listen for the voice of God

Scripture readings (NRSV): I Samuel 3:1-20 & II Cor 4:5-12

Response: Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet

Message: Jars of Clay

Paul is the King of Metaphors. Or perhaps it is young coauthor Timothy.

Let me try it this way and see if it makes it a little more clear what the bible is saying here. This is the Brad Version: We have this Good News inside us. Something from the Divine with the power to change people. It is inside us: fragile, broken people, harmed, attacked, complex, beautiful people. But we continue on, in our brokenness; with the good news of the resurrection shining through us even in our weakness.

Paul and Timothy, in Macedonia in 56 AD, wrote a letter to the congregation in Corinth. In this section, they say that we, as Christians everywhere, have this special treasure kept in jars of clay—meaning our fragile human bodies, complete with scars, sins, contradictions, mixed emotions, and everything else that also makes us beautifully human.

We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. It is power from God and something beyond ourselves. This treasure is the Good News: we do not need to be perfect, shining, golden examples of Christ. We cannot earn God’s love because we already have it; it is simply given.

But still, we beat ourselves up for sins already forgiven. We consider our pain, marks of shame and nothing else, even if we were victims of them.

We get beat up by life and think it degrades our worth. We beat on each other. We could, like this congregation in Corinth, (also be physically afraid of our government, from persecution or abuse).

In Paul’s day Jars of Clay were extremely common, extremely useful but also easily broken.

And yet just like the $100 bill that gets torn or wrinkled or wet or stuck in the mud, yet it’s value remains the same. Our value lies so heavily upon what we contain within these easily damaged but very useful jars of clay.

John Newton once said, “I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be. But still, I am not what I used to be. And by the grace of God, I am what I am.” We are not made on a potter’s wheel but in the image of God, the perfect Potter. He is the one moulding us, shaping us, and filling us with His treasure, His grace, and His power.

God’s grace is most powerfully demonstrated in flawed people, in our weaknesses and imperfections. The metaphor of a clay jar is significant: clay jars in Paul’s time were common, everyday items. They were not particularly beautiful or strong. They were prone to cracks and easily broken.

Our flaws provide the perfect backdrop for His grace to shine. In our weaknesses, His strength is made perfect. In our brokenness, His healing power is displayed. In our sinfulness, His forgiveness is magnified. The clay jar, with all its cracks and imperfections, does not subtract from the treasure it holds.

Here’s the thing: His power is not dependent on our strength. It is often most evident in our weaknesses. The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'” God’s power is not diminished by our frailty; it is magnified. You need not be perfect to be His. It appears the more fragile you are, the more useful you can be.

It’s a sad fact and it’s insane, but for some reason, there is this theory that if a Christian person doesn’t live up to absolute perfection, we believe that Jesus Christ upheld, then we are hypocrites. But what’s the alternative? Be perfect. Because it’s a bit late for that. We aren’t perfect. We are just following the one who is.

What a sad situation it is when people believe this. But it’s worse yet when we Christians do it to each other.

You know, there is this logical fallacy called the No True Scotsman fallacy. If you haven’t heard of it, it goes like this: Say a man called Alex makes this statement, “All true Scottish people love haggis. It’s part of who we are!” But his friend Hill replies, “But Alex, you know none of the guys in the neighbouring town like haggis.” To which Alex then replies, “Then they aren’t true Scottish people.” In short, if a person is proven wrong after claiming everyone in a particular group acts equally, they insinuate that “those people” aren’t truly a part of the group. And of course, it’s always they who are evil, never us.

But look, the physician comes for the sick whether that’s because you did wrong or you got beat up by the world. And listen, if sinners and struggling and broken people cannot also be “real Christians” despite their faults, and their wounds ‘s left. Or as Canadian musician Matthew Goode put it, it heaven’s for clean people, it’s vacant. It would be nice if we could stop doing this to each other but I also do it and don’t see it. It’s that whole “plank in the eye”/”speck in the eye” thing.

You may recall that Moses was a likely stutterer, yet God used him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. David was an adulterer and a murderer, yet God called him a man after God’s own heart. Peter denied Christ three times, yet he was chosen to lead the early church. Paul himself was a persecutor of the Christians before he became one of the most influential ones of all time.

God does not call the qualified; He qualifies the called. He does not look for perfection; He looks for willingness. He does not require us to be strong; He asks us to lean on His strength. His grace is sufficient for us, for His power is made perfect in our weakness.

We have these fragile lives, and they are breakable. But inside us is a powerful message. “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” Not gold vaults, not diamond-strong containers, but imperfect, flawed, breakable clay jars like you and me.

If the famous Director Steven Spielberg is making a movie you can pretty well guarantee it will have an estranged father-and-son relationship involved.

Saving Private Ryan, Poltergeist, ET, Lincoln, War of the Worlds, Close Encounters, AI, Sugarland Express, Hook, Catch Me if You Can, Jurassic Park, BFG, and of course the most obvious to me, Indian Jones and The Last Crusade.

In the film, a group of Nazis force Indy to determine from a mysterious treasure room, what cup Jesus used at the last supper. As a kid, I remember that pivotal scene being very impacting. The Nazis chose the biggest, most gold and richest cup and died from the curse eliciting the phrase “You have chosen poorly” from the thousand-year-old Knight of Templar who guards the sacred cup’s location. Indiana on the other hand looks around the room quickly before wrapping his hands around a small dirty wooden and copper cup exclaiming “That’s the cup of a carpenter”. The audience is then treated to the phrase, “You have chosen wisely”.

It is the usefulness and not the shine that God loves.

This doesn’t mean pain is good. Don’t get me wrong but I do have a very good quote for you because I could never put it this well.

Theologian J.I. Packer once said, “God uses chronic pain and weakness, along with other afflictions, as his chisel for sculpting our lives. Felt weakness deepens dependence on Christ for strength each day. The weaker we feel, the harder we lean. And the harder we lean, the stronger we grow spiritually, even while our bodies waste away.” Charles Hadden Spurgeon adds, “The Lord’s mercy often rides to the door of our heart, upon the black horse of affliction.”

In our lives, we may feel like we are too flawed, too broken to be used by God. We may feel like our mistakes and failures disqualify us from His service. But the truth is, our flaws do not disqualify us from God’s grace; they qualify us for it. God’s grace is not for the perfect; it is for the broken, the flawed, the sinful. It is for people like me.

Twice in the chapter, the authors proclaim, “Therefore we do not lose heart,” showing the clear theme of this message. Even if our status is taken away or we are thrown in prison or beaten or abandoned, God still uses us and blesses us. It says we are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

We all, Christians everywhere, carry the death of Jesus with us, which shines through all the cracks in these fragile jars. The treasure that Paul refers to in 2 Corinthians 4:7 is the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, and the salvation that comes through Him. This treasure is of immeasurable worth, far surpassing any earthly riches. Because it is the message that while Love is not God, God is Love and you are God’s beloved. Made of clay, yes and yet, God has chosen to place this priceless treasure in us, frail and flawed human beings. Clay jars were not the kind of containers one would typically use to store something of great value. Yet, this is precisely the point Paul is making. God deliberately chose what is weak and ordinary to carry the extraordinary message of His love and salvation.

God does not wait for us to rid ourselves of flaws before He can use us. Instead, He uses our imperfections to display His power and grace.

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

⁷But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. ⁸We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. ¹⁰We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. ¹¹For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. ¹²So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

Song: We have this ministry (590)

We respond to serve God: Our time of giving

Prayer for ourselves and for our world

God of communion and community, we give you thanks for our life together in Christ, and for the work of the Spirit that draws us closer to you and each other.

We pray for the life of our denomination as it meets in the General Assembly throughout the next few days.

Send your Spirit to work in and through the commissioners, opening minds and hearts to your leadership.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ sustain us in communion and community, even when we differ over decisions and directions.

God of compassion and concern, Thank you for the ministries and mission Presbyterians undertake together in Canada and throughout the world you love.

Thank you for the lessons learned and hope inspired by all the partners we have worked with in different cultures and on different projects.

We pray for all who serve in ministries supported by Presbyterian Sharing and Presbyterian World Service and Development.

Open our hearts to support their work with generous giving and ongoing prayer, so that lives will be healed, transformed, and strengthened according to your compassionate concern.

God of our hearts and our hopes, We pray for those you have given us to love.

Hear us as we name them before you in silence.

We pray for those who serve our nation and communities as leaders in business and politics, in health care and education, in the military and all emergency services.

Grant them wisdom and resilience when resources are stretched, so, their choices address the needs of the most vulnerable.

We pray for those who face uncertainty, unrest and threat from violence day by day.

In this moment of silence, we bring before you people in our community and those in places around the world where injustice and deprivation are unrelenting.

God of the earth and all its fullness, in this season of planting and growing, nesting and nurturing, we pray for the environment and all the creatures it supports.

Protect species and habitats at risk,and make us better stewards of all you have entrusted to us.

But above all, aid us as we reach out with the good news of Salvation in Jesus Christ and his incomparable saving love found in the next life yes, but also in the now. Amen.

The Sacrament of Holy Communion

Invitation

All those from any place, with faith in Jesus Christ are invited to table. Let us not return to God the offerings of our lives and the gifts of the earth.

Song: All who hunger, gather gladly (534)

We affirm our faith: The Apostles Creed (539)
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

Communion Prayer

Almighty and merciful God, in the face of much that seems to deny your presence, we give you grateful thanks for the victory of Christ, that has become our victory in him.

We thank you for revealing yourself in Jesus our Saviour.

He blessed little children when adults thrust them aside.

He touched lepers and made them whole; wept at the death of a friend; confronted fear in the darkness of a garden; was subject to the torturer’s lash and the scoffer’s tongue; and he suffered as we suffer.

We thank you that in his death and resurrection Christ has overcome all that can destroy us.

We thank you that nothing in our lives, no power or principality, no occasion of pain or fear, can ever separate us from your love.

In our weakness your strength is shown.

Help us, gracious Lord, so to bear our infirmities before the world that we may testify to your strength and become to others a means of grace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit, be honour and glory throughout all ages. Amen.

The words of Institution

The Lord Jesus, on the night before he died, took bread, and after giving thanks to God, he broke it and said, “This is my body, that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

In the same way, he took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant sealed in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do it in remembrance of me.”

Every time you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Sharing of the bread and wine

The bread of heaven. Amen.

The cup of salvation. Amen.

Song: One Bread, one Body (540)

The prayer after Communion

Rejoicing in the communion of saints, we praise your name, most holy God.

We give you thanks for all your servants who lived for you, departed in the faith, and are now at peace with you.

We thank you for all saints of every age and especially those who have been dear to us,mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters in the faith who have led us to you.

Believing that we are still at one with them we pray that we may follow their faith and example until that time when we feast with them in your heavenly kingdom.

Hear us heavenly Father, for the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Hymn: Let us talents and tongues employ (563)

Sending out with God’s blessing

Go in the strength of the Spirit, to greet those, you meet with gifts of nderstanding and friendship, serving gladly in Jesus’ name.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Response: God to enfold you

Music postlude

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Wounds

Posted on May 26, 2024May 26, 2024 by John

Worship on the Lord’s Day
10:00 am       26 May 2024
Online & Onsite (Mixed Presence) Gathering as a Worshipping Community
Led by the Rev Brad Childs
Music director: Binu Kapadia     Vocalists: Cheryl & Peter Sheridan
Children’s Time: Vivian Houg and Marc Johnson     Elder: Darlene Eerkes

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: Loving God: you call us together
P: To worship God as the people of God.
L: You call us by name and just as we are: you know each of our needs; you know our experiences; you know what rests in our minds and our hearts, and in your love you call us:
P: To worship God as the people of God
L: We come together, our heads, our hearts and our hands and feet yearning to be remade and redirected to paths of justice, and in ways of love. Help us, Jesus, to walk in the paths of justice and love that you yourself have walked:
P: To worship God as the people of God.
L: God invites us to worship as beloved and loving people! Mold us, Holy Spirit:
P: To worship God as the people of God.

Opening praise: Here’s my heart. Lord

Prayer of lament for children who did not return from Residential Schools

Creator God, we pray for Love. We thank you for the love that these families and communities hold for their daughters, mothers, grandmothers, aunties, sisters, cousins, and friends. We mourn with them. We pray for all those whose lives are marked by trauma because of these murders and disappearances. Hold them in love, Abba. Catch every tear that falls.

Creator God, we pray for Honesty. May those who have information about the whereabouts of these women and girls be moved to share it?

Creator God, we pray for Humility. Give Canadians the humility to open their hearts to hear stories from this country that are not celebratory: stories of colonization, racism, and marginalization.

Creator God, we pray for Wisdom. May the leaders of the inquiry and all those who direct them have the wisdom that comes only from you to listen deeply and make wise recommendations, so that we may all heal together.

Creator God, we pray for Respect. May the families who share their pain and perspectives with the inquiry be treated with respect—may the inquiry be centred on their needs.

Creator God, we pray for Truth. These stories are far from simple and clear-cut. May the truth of the impacts that Indigenous women bear become clear.

Creator God, we pray for Courage. For families and community members testifying. For inquiry commissioners crafting recommendations. Civil society organizations hold the inquiry to its mandate. For Canadians, as we prepare to listen to these stories and to advocate for action on its recommendations. For our political leaders, as they prepare to respond to the recommendations.

And Lord we also confess that too often we have let ourselves ignore these and other issues. In Christ’ name we pray. Amen.

Response: Here’s my heart, Lord

Assurance of God’s loving grace

In Christ, we are new creations. Let the old fall away and embrace the new. Forgiveness is found in Christ for all those who wish to change.

We listen for the voice of God

Children’s time

Response: Open our eyes, Lord (445)

Story: This is Trinity Sunday, a day we set aside every year to celebrate our wonderful 3 in 1 God. The Trinity cannot be completely explained by me (or really by anyone else), because we don’t totally understand it. It is a bit of a mystery, so I’ll do the best I can, but remember that this comparison doesn’t explain everything about God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Although the word “trinity” does not appear in Scripture, it is taught in Matthew 28:18-19. Some people think God is a very big idea to understand, and God is, but we don’t need to understand everything about the mysteries of God to love God and to serve God with our hearts, our minds and our whole bodies. God loves us. Because of that love, God shows God’s self to us in different ways. Trinity means 3, just like a triangle has 3 sides.

I don’t want you thinking God is like an egg or water or an apple. God made all these things; they are part of his creation. God is greater than this similarity, but it’s the best I can do to help you understand the concept of the Trinity. Does that make sense?

Have you ever eaten an apple? Of course you have. Look at this apple. It is one of God’s creations. It can help us understand that there is still only one God. Have the children name the three parts of the apple, the skin, the flesh and the core. All the parts are uniquely different, but they are all one apple.

There are basically three parts – the skin, the flesh, and the core. All the parts are still one apple, yet they are all uniquely different. Each part of the apple – the peel, flesh, core – have different functions, yet are all “apple” and nothing else. The Trinity [three parts] of God – Father, Son Jesus, Holy Spirit – are all God in different forms. Just as the peel protects the apple – God the Father protects humankind, an apple has flesh – Jesus was God made flesh and the core of the apple, like the Holy Spirit, contains the seeds. Just as seeds of apple trees grow in fertile, watered and cared for ground; seeds of faith will sprout, grow and flourish. The seeds of faith are just that – faith – in God. We Christians need to nurture and care for one another to keep the seeds of faith alive.

Prayer: Dear God, help us to know your love through Jesus, to feel your power in the Holy Spirit, and to praise your splendor in creation. Amen.

Source: https://sermons4kids.com/sermons/an-apple-for-trinity

The Lord’s Prayer (535)

Transition music

Song: Holy, Holy. Holy (299: vss. 1, 3, 4)

Today’s Message

Scripture reading: Psalm 147; Zechariah 8:16-17; Micah 6:8

Response: Glory to the Father

Message: Wounds

It was over ten years ago now. I was the minister of First Church in Regina. I had done my first 40 or so funeral services and became a sort of “go-to” for people without a church association. And I was at the time serving as the Moderator of the Presbytery and as the Moderator of the Synod. Because of this, when Prince Charles came to town, I got the invitation to come. When they filmed local Christmas services, I did the opening prayers. Whatever the activity required some level of ministerial presence, either I or the three other guys in my theology book club did it.

So, I wasn’t surprised when a small group of local activists came to my office with the news that they would like me to speak at a ceremony. The reason, however, did surprise me.

Someone had noticed one small grave marker in a corner of a farmer’s field outside the airport. It was the old location of the Regina Indian Industrial School. It had been taken over by the United Church in 1945 and torn down in the 1980s. But it was originally operated by the Presbyterian Church.

The reason they came to see me. There was one marker… but there were dozens of mounds. From correspondence with the government, church records and other materials like ground penetrating radar, it was determined that likely 38 children resided in that field. And while early letters are rather kind, after a few years the correspondence becomes almost completely about finances.

Now I want to be fair. I think this was one of those well-meaning plans that didn’t go well. But residential schools (especially one like this one which taught farming) at the time seemed like the only way to get kids regular medical care (which they had on site) while not getting “left behind” without an education in a newly technological world. You can imagine the alternative of having only white kids getting an education and everyone being left behind. And while horror stories exist to be sure, it’s always good to remember that the principal and teachers and nurses’ children all stayed in the same dorms, ate the same food, and got the same medical attention. It is 100% true that these schools also did good. But I understand that probably sounds to some people like I’m saying Nazis did build large instruction and boost the economy… while murdering 6 million people. That’s because I am.

In the end, we had the ground scanned, discovered the marker of the Principles two children, located the burial space, commissioned a book, and funded indigenous artists to make a music video and dance along with a documentary film which we premiered. We planned 3 feasts of remembrance and three mass funerals as well as attempted to connect with the federal government about the issue.

It bears saying that when I first agreed to speak publicly about this issue, I was advised by some folks at the national church offices that I needed to make a “confession” but NOT an “apology” because (not to put to fine a point on it but) a confession is to God and an apology can get us sued.

So, I wrote three apologies; not because I’m a good guy – ‘cause I’m a contrarian and I’m full of beans as my grandma says.

Now wouldn’t you know it 8 years later another group discovers the bodies of more children, this time in Kamloops – and this time people seem to notice. Improvements are being made, just slowly.

When I first came to Canada I had no idea about the history of native peoples. I didn’t know any about residential schools (didn’t know what they were) and had never met someone taken away from their home to attend a school by force – though in the US, the government did a similar thing with the Amish who didn’t go to school and were becoming completely incapable of surviving outside the colony. They are now legally required to attend school until grade 8.

I had no idea what had taken place at these schools until I was introduced to Sheryl Bear a famous Canadian artist and activist. And that is when I decided that I was guilty of something, despite also, not being guilty at the same time.

I wrote an article for the Presbyterian Record Magazine. I wrote the most popular and silliest of the monthly columns, but I also wrote two very serious op-eds. One was shortened and submitted and won an award in Canadian Journalism. I’d like to read my original entry now.

My editor changed the title to

Why Issues Surrounding the Residential Schools Should Matter to Us

My original title was: I might not be a racist, But I benefit from it.

I will read it in full now.

I don’t believe I have ever personally mistreated a native person on the grounds of race. I never personally created any rules restricting First Nations people. When The Presbyterian Church in Canada set up Residential Schools I wasn’t even born yet. I had nothing to do with it. I’m an immigrant. I didn’t even come to Canada until 1999. I didn’t join the Presbyterian Church in Canada until 2005. What exactly do I have to apologize for? I don’t like being blamed or taking the blame for things I didn’t do. Who does?

I was born in a small community in the State of Kansas. “Bleeding Kansas” is its nickname due to corruption in the White House at the time which led to a change in the number of entered “Slave States”. You see, there weren’t just Union States and Confederate States. Union States were covering the Northeast as well as Nevada, California, and Oregon. Then there were Union States not permitting slavery (which is different). There were also Border Union states between the Union and the “Deep South”. Then there were three Union States that permitted slavery (bet you didn’t know that). That was Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona. Then there was Kansas who simply entered the Union (sort of). So, what happened? People above us permitted slavery and people below us did not. People Northeast of us did not and people Southeast of us did. People Northwest of us permitted slaves and the people Southwest of us were confederates. We were surrounded. So, they all met in Kansas for 8 years of fighting while tensions grew within the state itself and neighbours simply started killing neighbours in the middle of the night. I’m not a Yankee! Only people from 20 Union states are. I’m not a Southerner. And I’m not a Confederate. I’m just “bloody”.

As you might imagine race and racism are often just under the surface of what’s going on. But am I a racist? Unlike 50million living today, I never owned a slave. I didn’t grow up thinking about race the same way that my grandparents’ generation or my parents’ generation did. When I was little, I just didn’t notice it. My brothers’ (then and still) best friend is black. My best friend was Japanese. Early on in life, the only racism I ever encountered was when I was the target. The other kids at my Amish school hated me because I was “Zee English”. Eventually, I had to be pulled out and switch schools. But me? I’m not a racist. I didn’t own a slave or set up a “separate but equal” water fountain. I know slavery was/is wrong but, just what exactly do I have to feel sorry about when it comes to slavery?

Well actually quite a lot. Indeed, I may not be a racist… but I’ve sure benefited from it. The fact is, the rapid prosperity experienced in the United States occurred on the backs of slaves and on land first claimed by the Europeans though Native Americans were already living there. Even people who belonged to the Union had investments in the South, wore clothes made by slaves and had sugar for their tea that came from free labour. They might not have been racist themselves, but they sure benefited from it. Even today, many major companies still exist that were slave fueled at one time (part of The Canadian National Railway Company for example claimed the loss of dead slaves for insurance purposes). They still thrive today because of the money they made with slaves for future investments.

My family moved to the United States legally at a time when people from Asia, Africa and other areas were restricted. The best land of course was gone by the time immigration opened more broadly. My ancestors might not have been racists, but they benefited from it. Once here my ancestors were never relocated forcibly. When they died, they passed down money earned on land not made available to other races. Later on, they lived in better communities where non-whites were discouraged from living. If I have any inheritance coming to me (and I most certainly do not), that’s where it’s coming from.

My grandparents received small business loans unavailable to non-whites. They voted in elections and voted for people that best represented them and their particular class as to be expected but those politicians and platforms had little interest in representing non-whites. In their newer neighbourhoods, police protection appeared easier to come by. My parents were safer. They had public swimming pools, libraries, and playgrounds close to them. No one stopped them from using these facilities. They were encouraged too.

When my parents were young there were segregated schools that received more funds and drew interest from more and better-qualified teachers than non-white schools would get. They have got newer materials, up-to-date books, and better facilities. They were trained better to get higher-paying jobs. They learned from textbooks that reflected their race, religion, class, and opportunities and spoke more favourably to issues textbooks written by non-whites might have. Little to no mention of non-white heroes were anywhere to be found. They had tons of people who looked just like them to look up to, making it clear that they too could be doctors, scientists and engineers. People told them they could someday be the “president of the United States”. My parents might not have been racist, but they sure benefited from it.

When my parents and grandparents went to college, they were eligible to receive student loans. No one stopped them or protested their education. While they were training to be the boss others were being kept for labor. When a co-worker of colour was hired, often, they would be paid less, leaving more money for white workers. When cuts were made often people of color were cut first saving white jobs. My father might not be racist, but he probably benefited from it. He built a house with a higher wage because of it. He bought me my Sunday dinner with it, and my shoes too. I may not be racist, but I benefited from it when I got new toys someone else didn’t.

Very few of us would ever consider ourselves racist and yet there is no doubt that we benefit from racism. We were born into or inherited a system which restricted some and propped up others and helped create a cycle which can be escaped from but isn’t as easy to do as it is to say. Today I own a house built on land that was taken from someone long ago. When the government first sold that land to a homesteader the homesteader didn’t steal that land and wasn’t a bad person for buying it… but that homesteader sure benefited from racism and so have I. I benefit from it every time I shop at a store or buy gasoline made with oil pulled up out of the ground that belonged to someone else. I may not be a racist, but I benefit from it.

When I joined the Presbyterian Church in Canada the residential schools were all closed, an apology in the form of a “confession” had already been issued (provided at the end of this service text) and people by and large just wanted to forget about it and move on. And that makes sense. After all, what did most of us ever have to do with those schools anyway?

Well in truth it sort of doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if they were closed. It doesn’t matter if rather conveniently the United Church inherited the “problem” from Presbyterians seemingly freeing us from the past. It doesn’t matter at all. Because I call myself a Presbyterian now. I joined this church, and I don’t just get to identify with this denomination and its rich heritage when it suits me. I don’t get to celebrate with it without admitting the faults with it. I don’t get to be a part of the “Continuing” Presbyterian Church without being a part of the history it’s continuing from.

Sometimes when we think about the issues surrounding Residential Schools in Canada, we are tempted to brush them off and go about our business. It’s tempting to think, “Get over it”. It’s tempting to blame others or ignore the issues altogether. But the truth is, there is no getting around it or away from it. And it’s not someone else’s problem. We all have a role in it.

I may not be a racist, but I’ve benefited from it. How about you?

-The Rev. Brad Childs

Song: O for a world (730)

Our time of giving

Prayer for others and ourselves

Creator God of love and justice, Comforter of those who mourn,

We turn to you acknowledging the actions of your church, our complicity in running residential schools and taking children from their families. We have asked forgiveness and committed to work for truth, healing and reconciliation. But we recognize that for some, that change came too late.

The names of more of the students who died and never made it home from residential schools are beginning to be known, but we know these lists are incomplete; that there will be more names and that some names may never be publicly known. But you know, Loving and Healing God, their names, and their stories, their hearts and their families.

For those children whose names we do know, those we do not yet know, and for the intergenerational harm, the trauma still present today that grew from their absence, we apologize. We pray for healing for the siblings, family, and friends of those were taken from home but did not return, and for the intergenerational impacts the schools continue to cause today in families and communities.

For where there was joy, and we took it:

Laughter and we stifled it.
Play and we turned it to tears.
Family and we broke it.
Dignity, and we stifled it.

We repent and renew our commitment to walk a new path. We honour the children lost and hold the memory of their lives in our hearts.

Comforting God, we pray for healing in the communities and families of all who experienced residential schools, and strength for all who pursue healing, truth and reconciliation. Amen.

Song: Make me a channel of your peace (740)

Sending out with God’s blessing

As we go out today, may the Spirit rouse in each of us, minds prepared to be unsettled, hearts that yearn for justice, and bodies that work for peace. Guide and impassion us in love and justice, to walk lightly and humbly and seek truth and reconciliation, healing, and wholeness. May God’s transforming love flow freely through each of us. Amen.

Response: Benediction (As you go)

Music postlude

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The Confession

In 1994, The Presbyterian Church in Canada adopted a confession recognizing the church’s role in operating residential schools and the harm those schools caused to Indigenous children, their families and communities. The Holy Spirit, speaking in and through Scripture, calls The Presbyterian Church in Canada to confession. This confession is our response to the word of God. We understand our mission and ministry in new ways in part because of the testimony of Aboriginal peoples.

We, the 120th General Assembly of The Presbyterian Church in Canada, seeking the guidance of the Spirit of God, and aware of our sin and shortcomings, are called to speak to the Church we love. We do this, out of new understandings of our past not out of any sense of being superior to those who have gone before us, nor out of any sense that we would have done things differently in the same context. It is with humility and in great sorrow that we come before God and our Aboriginal brothers and sisters with our confession.
We acknowledge that the stated policy of the Government of Canada was to assimilate Aboriginal peoples to the dominant culture and that The Presbyterian Church in Canada co-operated in this policy. We acknowledge that the roots of the harm we have done are found in the attitudes and values of Western European colonialism, and the assumption that what was not yet moulded in our image was to be discovered and exploited. As part of that policy we, with other churches, encouraged the government to ban some important spiritual practices through which Aboriginal peoples experienced the presence of the creator God. For the Church’s complicity in this policy, we ask forgiveness.
We recognize that there were many members of The Presbyterian Church in Canada who, in good faith, gave unstintingly of themselves in love and compassion for their Aboriginal brothers and sisters. We acknowledge their devotion and commend them for their work. We recognize that there were some who, with prophetic insight, were aware of the damage that was being done and protested, but their efforts were thwarted. We acknowledge their insight. For the times we did not support them adequately nor hear their cries for justice, we ask forgiveness.
We confess that The Presbyterian Church in Canada presumed to know better than Aboriginal peoples what was needed for life. The Church said of our Aboriginal brothers and sisters, “If they could be like us, they could think like us, talk like us, worship like us, sing like us, and work like us, they would know God and therefore would have life abundant.” In our cultural arrogance, we have been blind to how our understanding of the Gospel has been culturally conditioned, and because of our insensitivity to Aboriginal cultures, we have demanded more of the Aboriginal people than the Gospel requires and have thus misrepresented Jesus Christ who loves all peoples with compassionate, suffering love that all may come to God through him. For the Church’s presumption, we ask forgiveness.

We confess that, with the encouragement and assistance of the Government of Canada, The Presbyterian Church in Canada agreed to take the children of Aboriginal peoples from their own homes and place them in residential schools. In these schools, children were deprived of their traditional ways, which were replaced with Euro-Canadian customs that were helpful in the process of assimilation. To carry out this process, The Presbyterian Church in Canada used disciplinary practices which were foreign to Aboriginal peoples, and open to exploitation in physical and psychological punishment beyond any Christian maxim of care and discipline. In a setting of obedience and acquiescence there was opportunity for sexual abuse, and some were so abused. The effect of all this, for Aboriginal peoples, was the loss of cultural identity and the loss of a secure sense of self. For the Church’s insensitivity we ask forgiveness.

We regret that there are those whose lives have been deeply scarred by the effects of the mission and ministry of The Presbyterian Church in Canada. For our Church we ask forgiveness of God. It is our prayer that God, who is merciful, will guide us in compassionate ways towards helping them to heal.
We ask, also, for forgiveness from Aboriginal peoples. What we have heard we acknowledge. It is our hope that those whom we have wronged with a hurt too deep for telling will accept what we have to say. With God’s guidance our Church will seek opportunities to walk with Aboriginal peoples to find healing and wholeness together as God’s people.

Pentecost

Posted on May 19, 2024May 19, 2024 by John

Worship on the Pentecost Sunday
10:00 am 19 May 2024
Online & Onsite (Mixed Presence) Gathering as a Worshipping Community
Led by the Rev Brad Childs
Music director: Binu Kapadia Vocalist: Ann May Malayang
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: Breathe upon us, Holy Spirit,
P: and inspire our worship with your truth.
L: Stir in our hearts, Holy Spirit,
P: and fill us with your love.
L: Strengthen us, Holy Spirit,
P: and move us to act with your power.
L: Breathe in us, Holy Spirit,
P: and receive our prayers and praise.

Opening praise: Holy Spirit, you are welcome here

Prayers of approach and confession
God of power and possibility, with the flame of your Spirit, you give us energy to move into the world in Jesus’ name.
With the breath of your Spirit, you refresh us to engage life in its complexity.
Your Spirit embraces us in the diversity and difference you wove into our creation and united us in your love.
We praise you for your presence with us in every time and place.
In this time of worship, send us the Holy Spirit once again.
Renew us to serve you in the world that aches for the healing and wholeness you offer through Jesus Christ, our Risen Lord.
God of mystery and mercy, we confess we have not always paid attention to the urging of your Spirit to follow your will and your way.
Too often we claim to belong to Jesus, yet we ignore his teaching.
You created us to love one another, but we resist loving those who differ from us.
Stir our hearts with your Holy Spirit.
Transform who we are, and direct who we shall become through Christ’s redeeming love.

Response: We come to ask your forgiveness, O God

Assurance of God’s love

These words are worthy of our trust and acceptance: In Jesus Christ our sins are forgiven. Be at peace with God, with yourself and with one another. Thanks be to God for God’s steadfast love and mercy!

We listen for the voice of God

Children’s time

Response: Jesus, we are gathered

Story

When I was in school, I studied several languages (Spanish, Latin, Greek and Hebrew). I’m not great with any of them.

Pentecost took place with people from all around the known world who spoke many different languages.

There were Flames, Tongues, and Fire.

People heard God’s Message in their own languages.

The Bible has been translated into 1,658 languages to share God’s message.

One language that everyone speaks is Love. If you love someone, they know it. Now the Holy Spirit has never given me the special gift of speaking in tongues, but I know what the language of Love is. It’s kindness and respect. It’s sharing God’s message by how we act and how we treat each other.

God has given you a message to share, in English, in any language you speak and in all you do.

Prayer: Our God, we pray that you will help us to speak the language of love – to share the Gospel with all people whether we share the same language or not.

The Lord’s Prayer (535)

Transition music

Song: When the Spirit of the Lord (398)

Today’s Message

Scripture reading: Acts 2:1-21 and Romans 8:22-27

Response: Glory to the Father

Message: Pentecost

I heard a story some time ago about a boy who was wandering around the narthex of a large downtown church one Sunday morning. As the ushers looked over, they saw the boy stop and carefully examine a large bronze plaque that was hung on the wall. The ushers came over to say “Hello.” “Why are all those names up there?” the boy asked the ushers. “Those are the names of people who died in the service.” the usher replied. With eyes now open as wide as they had ever been the boy stared at the ushers and asked “the 9:30 service or the one I come too?”

Sometimes it’s easy to get confused about things in the Church. Pentecost is one of those things. Most people know what Christmas is; many know what Easter is but very few people generally know what Pentecost is. And really that’s very understandable because most Christians tend to disagree a bit about what Pentecost is about.

My Grandmother Grace once told me about how she and her friends used to hide in the bushes outside the Pentecostal church and watch the people roll around in the aisles. She said that one of her great regrets in life is laughing at the so-called “Holy Rollers” when all they were doing was trying to understand God in their own way.

The events of Pentecost and different understandings about what happened at Pentecost have helped to create a whole host of different denominations and sects of Christianity. The Toronto Blessing is a group of Charismatic Christians that believes itself to be weekly experiencing the Holy Spirit as worshipers go through fits of uncontrolled laughter. It may not be for me… but I doubt laughing every really hurt anyone.

Many Pentecostals believe that only those who speak in tongues have been given the Holy Spirit and therefore are the only true Christians. That seems odd and perhaps rude at first but then again, John Calvin was the complete opposite. He believed that the original Pentecost experience was a miracle but that it existed only for the birth of the church and that miracles were no longer needed and so, no longer happened. When people spoke of the miraculous, he argued with them (considering them uneducated). It seems Pentecost (a day that’s supposed to be about unity) is dividing us. We all seem to understand what happened differently.

In the story from Acts chapter two, the disciples are gathered together when suddenly a sound “something like” a violent wind came from heaven and filled the house. And then what seemed like “tongues of fire.” Then the tongues separate and rest on each person. And then everyone in the room begins to speak in “other tongues.”

Outside there is a large crowd with people gathered from all around the known world. But somehow everyone outside hears the gospel message proclaimed in their own native language. Some of the people nearby are skeptical and think the disciples and other travelers are simply drunk and attempt to dismiss them. But many others come to believe.

Just what was happening at Pentecost though is a little hard to tell. There was no camera around to capture the event; it was written two thousand years ago, and it was written in another language complete with its own traditions, background, idioms and much more. At first it might seem straightforward enough (The Holy Spirit came as tongues made of fire and gave people a magical language so they could share the gospel with the world beyond) but… What does it mean that Luke (the writer of Acts) doesn’t actually say that a great wind came? No instead he himself can’t describe it…calling it “something like a mighty wind.”

Next Luke can’t describe the so-called tongues… instead calling them “what seemed like tongues of fire.”

Next what does tongues of fire mean? By tongues are we meant to literally envision tongues but made of fire? Or are “tongues of fire” a figure of speech that describes the flickering edges or tops of the flames? What is speaking in tongues anyway? Are they speaking other human languages as some suggest? Did they know the languages they were speaking but simple felt compelled to speak as some say… or did they speak human languages they had never studied before? Or are they babbling nonsensical words or are they speaking the language of angels as many Charismatic Christians believe?

On the more literary front, many scholars have pointed out that the events of Acts 2 appear to mirror the events that take place at the bottom of Mt. Sinai in the book of Exodus. Both have a violent wind, both have the theophany (fire of God), both have the presence of God being revealed in a new way, both have a multitude of people gathered, both make a point to note that people from foreign lands are present and both note the Word being given to the people to share.

Other scholars have noticed that what happened in Acts 2 is actually the exact opposite of what happened in Genesis 11 at the Tower of Babel. The say that in Babel the people didn’t trust in God’s promise to Noah to never again flood the earth and so they began to make a structure to reach the heavens where they could go and be above God’s reproach and so be “like gods” themselves. In response God confuses their language and scatters them throughout the world as a curse. In contrast to this, on the day of Pentecost they say, God lifts the curse and creates a kind of universal language and speaks to people from all around the known world who are all gathered together once again.

Is the story history the way we define history, history the way they defined history or was the whole event meant to be a literary or figurative way of explaining the beginnings of a spiritual revival that first century people would have easily understood but has been largely lost on us?

Want to know what I think happened? Would you like to know exactly what I think happened?

I don’t have a clue. I don’t know why but strangely and quite frankly I don’t really care all that much to know exactly what happened.

But I’ll tell you what I do know.

Three times a year the Jews were to take a pilgrimage up to Jerusalem. Shavu’ot is one of the three. It comes from Ex. 34:22 which says that God’s people were to have a festival on the Sabbath following seven weeks after the Passover. In Leviticus 23:16 it says, “You shall number the festival after 50 days”. By the New Testament times, the Hebrew Bibles were nearly out of use and most people; even Rabbis read a Greek translation called the Septuagint. The Septuagint translation of the above texts just reads “You shall have a festival at ‘pentekostes’” the Greek word for 50 (“You shall have the festival at 50”). While the Passover was about the exodus from Egypt, the pentekostes was commonly thought to be about the giving of the Ten Commandments. But officially the holiday was a pre-harvest festival called “The Feast of First Fruits.”

See in the early first temple period when the nomadic Israelites had just left the desert and first begun to farm, they began to celebrate the festival of first fruits. It was an extreme act of faith. See farmers didn’t just cultivate crops all at the same time. It took a long time to plant and a long time to bring in the crops. Farming is hard and dangerous today, but this was an even harder time. For most people there were no irrigation systems, no safe place to store next year’s seed, no guarantee of pleasant weather, no pesticides to keep crops from being destroyed, and only a few ways to take out loans (none of which were pleasant) if nothing grew. A weak harvest could mean starvation and the death of a whole extended family. Two weak harvests and death was almost certain. Now it should be noted that Leviticus asks the people to give a tithe or tenth of their earning as a sacrifice to God for the festival but here’s where the feast of first fruits gets really serious.

See – at the feast of first fruits, they gave 1/10 of their harvest. But it’s not 1/10 after the harvest is all over. It’s the first 10% of the crop. At the beginning of the harvest before it had all come in, long before they knew if the rest of the crop would mature, if the rain would come, if the bugs wouldn’t eat it all, if there would be enough to eat, if enough to eat… enough to store, if enough to store then enough to save for planting the following year. Before they knew anything at all… they would take the first 10% of their crop, and during the harvest season… travel to the Temple in Jerusalem (at the time when they should be watching their crops most carefully) and they would take that first 10% (their only food for the whole year thus far… all of it) and they would burn it.

They would burn it because they trusted God would provide them with more.

Shavu’ot… Pentekostes… That is why the disciples are gathered together in that room 50 days after Jesus was killed. There is a party going on… it’s the 50^th day. It’s a pentecostes. It is an exciting time… but it’s also a very selfless time when the people really stepped up to the plate in faith, where they stuck their necks out as far as they could possibly go.

And on that day, the Ruach HaKodesh (the very Breath of God) came into that place. And as opposed to how things had been before (an insular and tight knit group), verse four says the Breath of God and the Fire and Spirit “came to all present.” What’s more the Spirit didn’t just “rest” on them as He did in the Old Testament but instead verse five says he “filled them.” Everyone began at once preaching the gospel and outside travelers from all around the known world heard the message of Christ in his or her own language. Because of Pentecostes when the people gave their first fruits, God birthed the Church through the disciples… the First Fruits of many (including you) who would share the gospel with others. Because he trusted that there would be more.

Sometimes it’s easy to get confused about things in the Church. And that’s understandable. Exactly what happened that first Christian Pentecost day two thousand years ago? I don’t have a clue. I don’t know for sure if they were literal tongues or just flames (both would be miracles). I don’t know if the story is more literal or literary. I don’t know for sure if they were known languages, angelic tongues, or something else. I don’t know if God still does the same kind of miracles today or if this was just for those first believers. I don’t know… but strangely and quite frankly I don’t really care all that much. Because I may not know all the minute details of exactly what happened at that first Christian Pentecost, but I do think I know what it means that it happened.

I think what John the Baptist had said in Luke 3:16 came true when he said,
“I baptize with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

I think Jesus did what he said he’d do in John 14:16 when he said, “And I will ask the Father and He will send you another advocate who will never leave you.”

I think what Christ said Acts 1:8 came true where he said, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”

I think that first Pentecost day they were the first fruits of those called to proclaim the message of Christ to all the world and that you and I are a part of that harvest just as you and I are called to proclaim it to all the world in every language and every corner of creation. Because Acts chapter two is the birthplace of the Church as we know it… and when the Bible says, “12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, ‘What does this mean?’” I believe Peter is right to answer that question by saying, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Because the Church might be confusing at times and the gospel hard to grasp but the Spirit of God wants everyone to hear it.

May the Lord Bless you and keep you,

May you be the first fruits of all those you touch,

And may we always proclaim Happy Birthday to the Church of Jesus Christ, in every language everywhere knowing that by the power of the Sprit, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Song: I am the church (475)

We respond to serve God: Our time of giving

Reflection on giving: At Pentecost, God poured out gifts of the Spirit upon the Church, to equip Christ’s followers to bear witness to him throughout the world. We offer our gifts and our lives to God so that the witness of the Church will continue with the blessing of the Holy Spirit in this generation and beyond.

Prayer of gratitude and for others and ourselves

Spirit of grace and power, bless the gifts we offer so that they may accomplish surprising things in Jesus’ name. Bless our lives, too, so that our words and actions bear witness to Jesus’ love and mercy each and every day.

Wind of the Spirit, blow through your whole church on this day of Pentecost: Blow through us and renew our faith. Re-awaken our love for God. Let the flames of your love warm our hearts with trust in Jesus Christ. Dare us to do great things in his name.

Wind of the Spirit, blow through us and renew our faith and hope.

Wind of the Spirit, blow through us and give us energy to serve you as the body of Christ working in the world. Open our eyes to recognize needs for ministry and mission around us. Open our hearts to welcome newcomers and meet those we don’t yet know. Open our hands to share in tasks that need doing, and open our lips in prayer and praise.

Wind of the Spirit, blow through us and renew our faith and hope.

Wind of the Spirit, blow through us and give us understanding for all those whose lives seem so different from ours (brief silence)

for those facing situations we’ve never encountered (brief silence)
for those with whom we’ve disagreed (brief silence)
for problems and challenges we face at home, at work, and in the world facing so much turmoil. (longer silence)

Wind of the Spirit, blow through us and renew our faith and hope.

Wind of the Spirit, blow through us and bring healing

for all who face pain or illness, discouragement, or disappointment (brief silence)
for all who know sorrow, sadness, or grief (brief silence)
for those who feel pressure in these uncertain times (longer silence)

Wind of the Spirit, blow through us and renew our faith and hope.

Wind of the Spirit, blow through us and bring us the compassion we see in Christ Jesus to serve the world you love in his name.

Blow through us and refresh us as his faithful followers.

Unite us across our differences as together, we pray, Amen.

Song: Jump with joy (406)

Sending out with God’s blessing

On this Pentecost Day, go in the strength of the Spirit to serve with renewed energy wherever the Spirit moves you. And may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit, and the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Response: God to enfold you

Music postlude

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Sent into the World (Lynn Vaughan)

Posted on May 12, 2024May 13, 2024 by John

Worship on the Seventh Sunday of Easter
Mother’s Day / Christian Family Sunday
10:00 am 12 May 2024
Online & Onsite (Mixed Presence) Gathering as a Worshipping Community
Led by the Lynn Vaughan
Music director: Binu Kapadia Vocalist: Linda Farrah-Basford
Elder: Gina Kottke

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: Clap your hands, all you peoples;
P: We will shout to God with songs of joy.
L: For God is awesome, reigning over all the earth!
P: We will sing praises to God every day.
L: Let us worship God with all we have to offer.
P: We will offer God our love – heart, body, mind and soul!

Opening praise: Love the Lord, your God

Prayers of approach and confession

God of promise and purpose, we praise with thankful hearts.

As the beauty of the seasons change the beauty of your world lifts our hearts in praise. You lifted up Jesus to be by your side, and so we know he is always by our side as the future opens before us. Show us the promise and purpose in our own lives – how we can unfurl with new life and move into the future empowered by the Holy Spirit, embraced by the love of Christ our Lord.

Lord Jesus Christ, you called your followers to carry the Good News of God’s love and forgiveness to the ends of the earth. Yet we confess we cannot always find the words to tell others of our faith.

We try to act out your love, but it’s hard to tell others why we do what we do for you.

Forgive us. Give us the courage to speak openly of our commitment to you.

Response: I waited, I waited on you, Lord

Assurance of God’s forgiveness

Friends, remember the promise the Apostle Paul declares: What will separate us from the love of Christ? Hardship? Distress? Peril or sword? Neither death nor life, nor things present nor things to come can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Let us rejoice that, no matter what is happening around us, no matter what path we are looking to follow, God’s deep love will always be with us.

We listen for the voice of God

Children’s time

Response: My Lighthouse

Story

Our theme in Sunday School today is “Sent into the World”, so we’re going to do a little experiment to demonstrate how that might look for us, as Christians.

This bottle I have and the water inside of it is going to represent the world we live in. It has the potential to be pure and beautiful and clear but, unfortunately, our world is sometimes a messy place. Sometimes, bad things happen. Sometimes, people are too busy looking out for themselves that they forget to look out for each other. They forget to love one another and be kind, as Jesus teaches us. So, that makes our world look a little murky and cloudy. (add food colouring to water)

After Jesus and his disciples ate their Last Supper together before his crucifixion, he prayed for them. He prayed that as they lived in the world, they would not become part of the murkiness and bad things that happened in the world. He wanted them to go out into the world and share the gifts he had given them, but he did not want them to become stained. He wanted them to remain the people God made them to be. He wanted them to know His love and to share that love with others. So, he prayed for them.

This prayer doesn’t just apply to Jesus’ disciples; it applies to us, too.

So, here we are, getting ready to go out into the world. Let’s see what happens. (pour oil into water in jar, shake it up)

When we first put these things together, it appears that the water and oil become one, right? But wait a minute.

Have the oil and water really become one? Let’s let the bottle stand for a little while and see what happens. Look! The water and oil have separated. That shows us that even when they were all mixed together, they were never really all together as one.

This is a pretty good picture of what Jesus wants US to be like in this world of ours. Even though we live in the world, we don’t have to become part of the muck and the bad stuff that so often exists. We can rise above everything bad and negative in the world and be separate from it, showing off our love and compassion for each other. We can teach others about God’s kingdom and everything good that happens when we follow Jesus and open our hearts to having a relationship with God.

Prayer

Dear Jesus, help us, as we live in this world, to remain faithful to your call to be separate from the world and show off your love.

The Lord’s Prayer (535)

Transition music

Song: God forgave my sin (774)

Today’s Message

Scripture reading: Acts 1:1-14 and John 17:1-19

Response: Behold the Lamb of God

Message: Sent into the world

This Sunday’s Gospel text comes at a unique time in the Church year.

The Easter season begins a time of 50 days that ends with Pentecost, which will happen next Sunday, and it includes the outpouring of the Holy Spirit onto Jesus’ disciples. During the 50 days of Easter, we have the chance to revel in the new life Christ brings when he conquers death.

This past Thursday, which is ten days before Pentecost, marks the day of Christ’s Ascension into heaven. So then, today, the 7th Sunday of Easter – is kind of an “in between” Sunday.

On this particular Sunday of the Easter season:

Christ is no longer physically present with the disciples, as he has been since his resurrection, but
The Holy Spirit has not yet come upon them and given them the courage and motivation to begin their mission work as they are sent out into the world.

This scenario is a very typical moment for our own experiences of Christian life. We know Christ is risen. We know He has the power to conquer death. But, like the Apostles during this in-between time before Pentecost, we sometimes feel a bit scared and powerless to go out and face the world.

In the Gospel reading from John 17 that we just heard, we are taken back in time to Jesus’ last meal with his friends – the Last Supper – and the great and mysterious prayer he recited after dinner. Jesus is acutely aware that he is about to leave them. He has done all he can to protect his friends and teach them about God’s love, up until this time, but now he must entrust them to his Father’s care.

The prayer that Jesus recites bounces around a bit and is a little confusing, but it emphasizes three main things: belonging, being informed, and being sent. Today, I’m choosing to focus on the being sent part of things.

The disciples are made aware that Jesus, the Son, was “sent” by the Father. This “sentness” seems to be crucial to a true and transforming faith.

Jesus prays that his disciples – that WE – are being sent out in the same way as he was sent. He gives us the big green light to GO into the world to spread the message of the gospel and TRUST that all will be well as we face the future … and all the uncertainties that come along with that.

I’m going to share with you a little story about some fish who were kind of stuck in their own little world, set in their ways, when they were suddenly given the opportunity to follow a new path and take a chance on something that could change their sheltered lives forever. We are reminded that Christ offers an invitation to each one of us, as well. He holds it out and waits for us to respond. No one is forcing us to accept it. No one coerces us into believing. We each receive an invitation to follow Him and go out into the world to continue to spread the good news.

Do we dare respond to this invitation? Are we ready to follow this teacher? Are we ready to live our lives with him and be sent out to do His work? As I tell the story, see if you recognize any of the characters in the story in the people around us. See if you recognize any of the characters in yourself!

This is a story about some fishes who lived in a very small puddle of water.

“Give me that waterbug!”

“No, I saw him first!”

“Get your fins off my supper!”

“He’s mine, I tell you!”

And so, every day, the little fishes would fight. In such cramped quarters, there isn’t much else to do — except swim in circles and hunt for waterbugs. Their stagnant puddle, cradled between the roots of an ancient oak, lay just beside a swiftly flowing river. Life never seemed to change for the puddle fish.

But one morning, as they swam in circles and hunted for waterbugs, there was a sudden noise:

SPLASH!!!

“Watch yourself! Stand clear!”

An amazing, brightly coloured fish had jumped into the riverside puddle. This large fish had blue and red and golden scales. And — what was most unusual to the inhabitants of this particular puddle of water — he was smiling.

At first, the frightened puddle–fishes huddled together against the puddle’s far edge. Finally, one of them asked, “Where do you come from?”

The Sparkling Fish smiled brightly: “I come from the sea.”

“The sea? What’s the sea?”

The Sparkling Fish shook his head in surprise. “You don’t know about the sea? No one has ever told you? Why, the sea . . . the sea is what fish are made for!” He rubbed a golden fin against his head, puzzled.

“How can I explain the sea to you? Well … it’s not like this little puddle; it’s endless! You don’t have to swim in circles all day; you can dance with the tides. Life isn’t lived in the shade — the sun arches over the waves in silver and crimson! And there are many splendid sea–creatures, such as can hardly be imagined! It’s endless! And sparkling clear. The sea is what fish are made for!”

Just then, a waterbug skirted the surface overhead, but no one moved. Then a pale gray puddle–fish spoke up: “How do we get to the sea?”

The Sparkling Fish pointed toward the large black root that lay close to the river’s edge. “It’s a simple matter. You jump from this little puddle into that river, and trust that the current will take you to the sea.”

Astonishment clouded the puddle–water. At last, a brave little fish swam forward with a hard, experienced look in his eye. He was a Realist Fish.

The Realist Fish looked down at the muddy puddle–bottom and frowned. “It’s pleasant to talk about this ‘sea–business’. But if you ask me, we have to face reality. And what is reality? Obviously — it’s swimming in circles and hunting for waterbugs.”

A look of distaste mingled with pity crossed his face. “It’s all pie–in–the–sea nonsense. Of course, I sympathize; you undoubtedly dreamed this up because of some trauma you suffered as a little guppy. But life is hard. It takes a real Fish to face the facts.”

The Sparkling Fish smiled: “But you don’t understand. I’ve been there. I’ve seen the sea. It’s far more wonderful ….” Yet before he could finish speaking, the Realist Fish swam away.

Next, there neared a fish with a nervous twitch in his tail. He was a Scared Fish. He began to stutter: “If . . . if I understand y–y–you, we’re supposed to j–j–jump into th–th–that river over there?”

“Yes. For a fish who wants to go to the sea, the way to get there lies through the river.” The Sparkling Fish swam closer. (It’s difficult to understand someone when he stutters underwater.)

The Scared Fish’s voice jumped to a screech: “B–B–But . . . have you looked at that river over there? I’m just a small fish! That river is deep and strong and wide! Why, a small fish would be swept away by the current! If I jumped out of this puddle, I wouldn’t have any control! NO! I just can’t. . .”

The Sparkling Fish whispered, “Just trust me. Trust that the river will take you some place good . . .” But before he could finish, the Scared Fish hurried away.

Finally, there swam out a figure who seemed very solemn and learned. (He had been in this particular school of fish longer than anyone else.) He was a Theologian Fish.

Calmly, he swam to the middle of the puddle and adjusted his spectacles. Setting down a small shellfish podium, the Theologian Fish pulled out a sheaf of notes from his vest pocket. Then he smiled at the puddle–fishes: “My brothers and sisters, our distinguished visitor has expressed many views which certainly merit consideration.”

Then, he bowed respectfully to the Sparkling Fish: “However, my colourful friend, we must also concede that those fishes who so gracefully inhabit this humble puddle have also expressed many views which merit consideration. By all means, let us be reasonable.”

He glanced down at his notes, and then his smile brightened: “We can work this out. Why not form a discussion group? We could meet every Monday at seven o’clock, and I’m certain that some of the puddle–fish would be happy to bring coffee and doughnuts ….”

The eyes of the Sparkling Fish were sad: “No, this will never do. Talking is important, but in the end — it is a simple matter. You jump. You jump out of this puddle and trust that the river will take you to the sea.”

From somewhere above the muddied waters, a sparrow was singing. The light in the Sparkling Fish’s eyes shone with a bright urgency: “Besides, don’t you know? Summer is coming!”

The puddle–fishes murmured: “Summer is coming! Summer is …. Summer is coming. What difference does that make?”

The Sparkling Fish pointed toward the sun: “Summer is coming. The spring rains filled this little puddle to overflowing. But this puddle is going to dry up someday. No puddle lasts forever.”

The puddle–fishes were stunned. But then the Realist Fish swam to the front. There was a dark contempt on his face as he spat out his words: “That’s just like you religious people. When you don’t honestly convince people of what you believe, you try to scare them. You’re just one of those end–of–the–puddle fanatics!”

He swam away in disgust.

But then, all the colours of the Sparkling Fish — blue, red and gold — brightened into a warm glow. He whispered: “It is a simple matter. You jump. You jump from this little puddle, and trust that the river will take you to the sea. Will take you to a better future. Now … who will come and follow me?”

At first, no one moved. But then, a few puddle–fish swam to his side. Together, they jumped into the river, and the current swept them away.

The remaining puddle–fish were quiet for a long time.

Then, once again they began to swim in circles and hunt for waterbugs.

So now, ask yourself: are you ready to jump? Amen

Song: We are marching (639)

We respond to serve God: Our time of giving

Reflection on giving: Even as the season of Easter draws closer to its end this week, we continue to receive the blessings God pours out for us in Christ and in creation. Our gifts to God speak of our gratitude for these blessings and our commitment to share them with the whole world.

Eternal and ever-present God, bless the gifts we offer today with the power of your Holy Spirit. Use them and us to witness to the love of Jesus Christ and bring healing and hope to the world in his name. Amen.

A Prayer for Christian Family Sunday

Lord Jesus Christ, You came to us bearing God’s love to live with us, to walk with us, and to show us how to love.

You pray with us and for us day by day.

Today we turn to you with our hopes and our concerns.

Draw near to us and to those for whom we pray, so that your love will be known in our world this day.

Lord Jesus, on this Christian Family Sunday, we pray for the families we belong to. Thank you for parents, grandparents and great-grandparents for the generations who started our families and all they have given to us.

Today we thank you especially for our mothers and pray for all the mothers around the world.

Give mothers hope for their children, and peace in the world to raise their children safely.

Comfort and support each member of our families and guide each child and young person into the future.

Lord Jesus, we pray for families in our community and in your world

We remember families in need:

Families who are struggling under economic pressures…

Families who know sorrow because someone has died or gone away…

Families who live in fear because they are in the midst of some kind of trouble…

Surround these families with your love and bring them courage to face whatever tomorrow brings.

Lord Jesus, we pray for each other and for our church family:

Thank you for the friendship and fellowship we share, and the unique gifts each one brings to our life together.

Show us our paths into the future and give us important things to do in your name. Amen.

Song: Who’s goin’ to tell the story (861)

Sending out with God’s blessing

Go in strength, with the assurance that Christ walks with you, to witness to his love in truth and action. And may God’s resurrecting love open the future for you, empowered by the Spirit, and embraced by the presence of Jesus Christ, our Risen and Ascended Lord.

Response: Go forth into the world

Music postlude

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Lynn Vaughan retains the copyright (© 2024) on all original material in this service. As far as she is aware, all of the material that has not been attributed to others is her own creation or is in the public domain. Unacknowledged use of copyrighted material is unintentional and will be corrected immediately upon notification being received.