Worship on the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
10:00 am Aug 17, 2025
Minister: Rev. Brad Childs Music Director: Binu Kapadia
Vocalists: Sam and Ann May Malayang Welcoming Elder: Darlene Eerkes
Children’s Time: Lynn Vaughan Reader: 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
Preparation for worship
Call to worship:
L: We draw near to God with humble spirits
P: We will confess our sins and seek God’s forgiveness
L: We receive God’s healing and restoration
P: We will extend God’s compassion to others
L: We commit ourselves to God’s kingdom
P: We will work for justice and peace in the world
Opening praise: Here I am to worship
Prayers for grace
God of majesty and mystery,
You call us together in your presence with that great cloud of witnesses who have worshiped you in song and service for centuries.
This morning we join with those in heaven as we sing your praises. Our praise joins theirs as we fix our eyes on Jesus and wait for your Spirit to guide us.
We praise you for your great love and mercy, revealed in Christ, at work in us through the Spirit.
Holy One, Three in One,
we offer you all glory and honour in our worship, seeking to renew our faith and commitment to serve you in the world that belongs to you.
Attentive God,
You care for us like a gardener tending a beautiful vineyard,
blessing us with what we need to be fruitful. The world you shared with us provides for our needs.
Yet we confess that, all too often, we fail to live up to your hopes for us.
Instead of love and kindness, we produce anger and resentment.
Instead of generosity, we produce greed and jealousy.
Forgive us, O God.
In your mercy, renew in us the fruit of the Spirit
through the grace of Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Response: We come to ask your forgiveness
Assurance of God’s grace
Hear the good news! Although we have not always been faithful to God, God remains faithful to us. In Jesus Christ, God offers us forgiveness. Through the gift of the Spirit, God renews us to live faithfully in Jesus’ name. Thanks be to God! Amen!
We listen for the voice of God
Response: Open our eyes Lord (445)
Children’s Time: Run with Endurance
Have you ever won a trophy or a medal for something? (Allow time for responses.) When we think of medals, we often think of the Olympics where athletes have a chance to win gold, silver, and bronze medals. One of my favourite things to watch in the Olympics are the track races where people run faster than anyone else in the world!
Several years ago, when the Olympics were held in Barcelona, Spain, the world saw one of the greatest moments in Olympic history. A young man named Derek Redmond had dreamed all his life of winning a gold medal in the 400 meter running race. He had worked hard and trained for many years to get to the Olympics, and his dream was within his reach. He was in the semi-finals and was running the race of his life. He could see the finish line just ahead as he rounded the final turn. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his leg and he fell to the track with a torn muscle in his right leg.
Derek struggled to his feet and started to hop toward the finish line on one foot in an attempt to finish the race. (Ask the kids to hop on one leg.) Suddenly, a large man came out of the stands, pushed aside a security guard and ran to Derek’s side. It was his father, Jim Redmond. “You don’t have to do this,” he told his son. “Yes, I do,” said Derek. “Well, then,” said his father, “we’re going to finish this together.”
And they did. They stayed in Derek’s lane all the way to the end. At first, the crowd watched in silence. Then they rose to their feet and cheered – and cried at such an act of love and determination.
Derek Redmond didn’t win the gold medal, but he walked away with the incredible memory of a loving father who, when he saw his son in pain and struggling, left his seat in the stands to help him finish the race.
Our scripture reading today describes a race that you and I are running that is even bigger and more important than the Olympics. In Hebrews, it says, “Since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses, let us run the race that God has set before us. Throw aside anything that will slow you down. Keep your eyes on Jesus.”
So, what is this race that we have before us? What are they talking about?
It is the race of living our LIFE, following the example that Jesus set for us and showing our obedience to follow God’s wishes.
Life is like a race that has been set before us. We may struggle and face many obstacles along the way, but we have a great crowd of witnesses who are cheering us on. We have family and friends who love us and want us to succeed. We have a Heavenly Father who watches over us and will help us when the pain is too great. And, we have a Saviour, who left His place in heaven and came to earth to show us how to run the race well. If we keep our eyes on Jesus, we will finish the race successfully.
Let us pray. This is a repeat-after-me-prayer:
Dear Jesus, sometimes life is difficult.
Help us to keep our eyes focused on You and to run the race that is set out before us, knowing that you are always there to give us your love and support.
And now, we pray the prayer that you taught us …
The Lord’s Prayer (535)
Song: Spirit of the living God (400)
Scripture readings: Jeremiah 23:23-29 and Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Response: Thy word is a lamp unto my feet
Message: Marathon Runners
U.S. runner Arla Runyon, competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. She qualified for the finals in the 1,500-meter race and finished only seconds behind the medal winners. But here is the rub.
Runyon is, and had been, legally blind for 22 years before this…
legally blind.
And not just legally.
She was/is blind.
Runyon can’t see any colours. Yeah, technically, she does see some things vaguely. Nothing is what it is, though. All she can make out are rare and random formless blobs of grey popping in and out of her line of vision while concentrating. So when she races, she follows the large blob of figures in front of her, moving up and down and getting further away. It’s like following the darker smoke in a room filled with smoke. She follows the blur. The most significant challenge is rounding the final turn, where there are fewer runners, and then sprinting toward a finish line that she cannot see and does not know when she has crossed. But she does it. She won’t ever be the best because she needs someone to follow. But she can follow the best. And she does.
What better a picture of the Christian life has there ever been.
Like Runyon, many of us run by following what we can perceive rather than by clear sight. Her story becomes a picture for our spiritual race—when the finish line is hidden, we press on by faith. We may not always see Jesus exactly, but we know generally where we are going if we follow the picture we do have. And if we do. We too finish the race.
We may not always see Christ clearly, but if we keep following, we can finish the race. That’s precisely the problem Hebrews addresses: how to keep running when sight and certainty are lacking. The letter encourages followers of Jesus not to be crushed by the troubles of this world. That’s not to say the letter denies trouble—far from it. What it does insist is that, no matter what storms we face, we aren’t alone.
The trouble is, in the middle of suffering, that promise can feel distant. This world can be a challenging and lonely place, and when hard times hit, we often feel abandoned. Hebrews doesn’t deny that feeling; it meets it head-on by pointing to Jesus’ own suffering as both pattern and proof.
So the author turns our attention to the center of the Christian story—Jesus on the cross—not only as tragedy but as our guide. Hebrews points to the crucifixion as proof that hardship comes to all. People sometimes ask, Why do bad things happen to good people. Well, are you more of a “good person” than Jesus? Because if not, then I think we have to admit that the idea that only good things happen to good people got nailed to a cross 2000 years ago. It’s not a good argument. Instead, the writer says, “Look to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.” That phrase asks us to see Jesus not only as one who suffered (so we’re in good company) but as the one whose faithfulness leads to redemption. It’s not simply, “You’re not alone”; it’s also, “You can get through this.” And more than that, “there is more to life than, well, life”.
One modern translation even renders the word often translated “author” as “architect” or “builder.” Jesus is out architect and builder of our lives. That image is powerful: if you’re worried about how things will end up, why not go to the one who designed the plan in the first place? If you believe in God and believe God has something planned for you, then when things get hard, to whom should you go? To the people and places that messed things up? Or to the one who designed things?
We go to the architect.
And yet acknowledging that truth doesn’t make the path easy (maybe it makes more sense, but certainly not “easy”). To say “look to Jesus” is not to pretend trials vanish. It’s hard. Real hard.
I love this little story. In it, a man got bored sitting at home, and so he walked across the street to the schoolyard where a kids’ baseball game was taking place. He watched a Little League game for a short while and then went to the fence and asked one of the youngsters playing ball what the score was. “We’re losing 18 to 0,” the boy answered. “Wow. That’s pretty serious,” said the man, “But you don’t look worried.”. “Why should I be?” the boy replied. “We haven’t come to bat yet.”
That little boy gets it. He knows the game isn’t over until you’ve taken your turn. Too often, we treat life as if the score at this moment, this very second, is the whole story of the game. But it never works that way. We forget that the race continues, that innings change, that turn follows turn. Richard Christian puts it well: “When faced with seemingly impossible situations, we see the wall and not the bricks… taken day by day, task by task, it’s built one brick at a time.”
That’s what faith looks like in practice—small, steady steps.
Hebrews gives us two important pieces of advice for that steady faith. First: “Let us throw off everything that hinders… and the sin that so easily entangles” (Heb. 12:1). And this means… think to see if you have any part in the problems in your own life. Maybe you are wholly innocent. But maybe not. Perhaps you have problems. Maybe they are of your making, and maybe they aren’t, but if they are – “Physician heal thyself”. Control what you have control over.
The Greek behind “hinders” (ὄγκος, onkos) pictures a heavy load—think of an extra traveller’s bag you carry for no good reason. It isn’t the coat you need for warmth or the purse with your wallet; it’s the extra, unnecessary weight that makes the trip harder. It’s something you carry but you don’t need to. So, drop it.
When I read this, my first thoughts go back to watching the 1989 movie Spaceballs with my cousins, which we watched on repeat. Do you remember that movie? It’s a Star Wars parody by Mel Brooks. And in one scene, Canadian John Candy and his Captain Loan Star are carrying spoiled Princess Vespa’s luggage. They realize that they are all about to die, and she is worried about her changes of clothes and her giant hair dryer. Fed up the two dump the contents of her trunk out into the desert sand. Because it’s a comedy, they close the luggage containers and start carrying them away empty. But there lies the joke. Why? Why carry useless weight? We go from one useless weight to another useless weight. But we all do it.
The writer is saying: drop the baggage. If something drags you down—an unhealthy relationship, a guilt you won’t lay aside, something that happened to you that you can’t shake, habits that sap your strength—pray about it, name it, and begin to unload it. It may take time. But drop the things that bring you down.
Second: persevere. The word Hebrews uses is ὑπομονή (hupomone)—steadfast endurance. It’s not blind faith. It’s not without reason. It’s based on past experience. This is not grim endurance only; it is a patient, hopeful perseverance that trusts God even when progress is slow. That’s the kind of endurance athletes train for.
Have you heard to Sir Roger Bannister. For years, the four-minute mile was held up as impossible. For centuries, the idea of running a mile in under four minutes sat firmly in the realm of the impossible. It wasn’t just a challenge—it was presumed to be a scientific certainty that it couldn’t be done. Experts in sports physiology believed the human body wasn’t engineered for such speed over that distance —until one man, focusing mind and body, chipped away at the barrier through disciplined training and changed the whole world’s imagination about what human beings can do. Bannister didn’t just run; he retrained his mind about what was possible. In Christian life, we train our hearts the same way: small disciplines, daily prayers, steady obedience. Over time, they change the race.
So ask yourself: what is your extra bag? What thoughts, habits, or relationships weigh you down? What sins keep tripping you up? Confess them. Bring them into the light. Lay them down and ask God to lift them from you. That’s not a one-time fling at a problem; it’s a daily practice of choice—choose to fix your eyes on Jesus rather than on the obstacle.
And remember you’re not running alone. Hebrews points to a “great cloud of witnesses.” This is not a distant roll call of names—we are surrounded now by people who ran the race before us and by those who still run beside us. The author goes through an incredible litany of heroes. Remember this is book by a Hebrew and for Hebrews and so the author asks, why do bad things happen to good people? And the answer comes, WAIT, bad things happened to all our heroes. And then he goes through the list until he gets to Jesus.
The ancients—Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham—show us steadfastness. They didn’t have perfect lives and they didn’t go without problems. But that’s also true for our parents, teachers, ministers, friends, and neighbours. We all go through things. We aren’t alone – not remotely. And did they have hard times because they were evil or bad? NO! Moses went through hard times, Jesus went through hard times. Hard times exists for everyone.
And yet those voices from the past call to us and they also remind us that we aren’t remotely alone. Those voices form an amphitheatre of encouragement: cheering, praying, and reminding us that endurance is possible. When you feel weak, picture that crowd. The author of Hebrews says, remember Moses, remember Rehab, remember Sampson, Gideon, David… Let their stories and their courage bolster your hope.
Well I say, remember that one faithful Christian who saw things to the end. Remember that one person who made it through harder things than you. That’s the point here. Remember, you aren’t remotely alone. But instead look to those people and to the greatest of those people. Look to Jesus. Be fixed on him.
How do we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus? Not by ignoring reality, but by looking where the race leader points. Read his life; practice his ways; pray like he taught us; trust the God who raised him from the dead. Jesus is both a pioneer—he went before us—and a perfecter—he brings our faith to its goal. We keep going, by doing the next faithful thing, and we do it one brick (not wall) brick at a time. As the old book says, “slow and steady wins the race”.
Faith isn’t finished in one grand leap; it is formed in thousands of small, faithful choices. Get up and pray. Read a verse. Make the phone call you’ve been avoiding. Sit quietly with someone lonely. Forgive one minor offence. Return a favour. Give away a little extra. Each act is a brick laid in the course God has for you.
Find a rhythm that anchors you. Runners train with a plan; Christians grow with habits. Commit to simple spiritual practices: daily prayer (even five minutes), regular scripture (a short passage read slowly), worship with others, and service once a week. These are not magic spells; they are the steady exercises that keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and keep your feet moving down the path.
Lean on the people around you. Ask for help. Tell a trusted friend where the weight sits on your shoulders and invite them to pray with you. We were never meant to run in isolation. Let others cheer you on, and be part of someone else’s “cloud of witnesses” by encouraging them when they stumble.
Be patient with yourself. Progress is rarely neat. You will fall; that is part of the race. What matters is getting up, learning, and getting back on track. Remember Paul’s image: athletes discipline their bodies for a short while to win an eternal prize (1 Cor. 9:24–27). Our training here shapes an everlasting hope.
Trust God’s provision one day at a time. When the finish line looks far, focus on the next step. When fear says you can’t…, remember the One who walks beside you. When doubt whispers, “you’re alone”, remind yourself of the Father’s voice at the river—“This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased”—and that same Father delights in you.
So what will you throw off this week? What baggage will you leave behind? What one concrete step will you take to run more closely in step with Jesus? Make one decision now, and ask God to help you keep it.
Go now in the peace of God. Run with steady feet, shed the weights that hold you back, and keep your eyes on Jesus. May the God of endurance and encouragement give you strength for this week, the love of Christ hold you close, and the fellowship of the Spirit keep you company—today and always. Amen.
Song: The Kingdom of God is justice and joy (787)
We respond to serve God
Our time of giving
Prayers of the people
Thankful for the good gifts God gives us in Christ and in creation, let us present to God the fruit of our labour for God’s work in the church and the world.
Faithful God, bless the gifts we offer to you today. Use them to plant seeds of faith, hope and love in the world, so that your goodness will grow among your people, and your name be honoured for Christ’s sake. Amen.
God in whom we live and move and have our being:
As we gather in your presence today, we give you thanks for your faithfulness to your people across many generations and in so many situations.
Thank you for the faithfulness we meet in the world around us,
In friendships that endure,
In communities that pitch in when someone is in trouble,
In workers who go that extra mile,
In countries who offer safety or sustenance when disaster strikes
and strangers are in desperate need.
Faithful God, hear our prayer,
And renew our faithfulness.
Compassionate God,
we are aware of many challenges in our own lives,
in the lives of those we care about, and in the world around us.
Show us how our care and concern can respond to the prayers of those we love:
In faithful silence, we lay before you the concerns on our hearts this day:
We pray for those who have been in the headlines lately,
whose situations concern us deeply, whose lives cry out to you for help…
Faithful God, hear our prayer,
And renew our faithfulness.
We pray for those who are suffering behinds the scenes in our community:
those who are ill or waiting on treatment;
those who are bereaved;
those struggling to make ends meet or find the right job;
those who are lonely,
those who are moving this summer & will need new friends…
Faithful God, hear our prayer,
And renew our faithfulness.
We pray for those looking forward to a new beginning this coming Fall:
those starting at a new school or in a new college or university program;
those beginning new work or new activities;
those settling into a new home and neighbourhood;
those welcoming new members into the family through birth, adoption or marriage…
Faithful God, hear our prayer,
And renew our faithfulness.
We pray for our congregation.
Gather us into new and renewed friendships.
Show us how to reach out with your love and generosity.
Equip us to meet every challenge we face with faithfulness and commitment.
Song: You are holy, you are whole (828)
Sending out with God’s blessing
“Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.” And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen.
Response: The blessing
Music postlude
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Numbers in brackets after a song/hymn indicate that it is from the 1997 Book of Praise of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Those and other songs are being used in accordance with the specifications of Dayspring’s licensing with One License (3095377) and CLC (A735555).
The Rev. Brad Childs retains the copyright (© 2025) on all original material in this service. As far as Brad Childs is aware, all of the material that has not been attributed to others is his own creation or is in the public domain. Unacknowledged use of copyrighted material is unintentional and will be corrected immediately upon notification being received.
Video recordings of the Sunday Worship messages can be found here on our YouTube Channel.