Worship on Students and Colleges Sunday
10:00 am October 19, 2025
Minister: Rev. Brad Childs Music Director: Binu Kapadia
Vocalist: Fionna McCrostie Welcoming Elder: Gina Kottke
Children’s time: Lynn Vaughan Reader: Andrea Gartrell
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: God promises us justice,
P: and teaches us persistence.
L: God promises us compassion,
P: and teaches us not to lose heart.
L: God promises to be with us
P: and teaches us to tend to each other.
L: So let us worship our God of comfort and challenge,
P: We will offer prayers and praise to our God of hope and healing.
Opening praise: I lift my eyes up
Prayers of approach and confession
Awesome and eternal God of grace and beauty and power,
you created our minds to know you better.
You formed our hearts to love you better.
You crafted our voices to speak and sing your praise better.
Fill us with your Holy Spirit, so we may celebrate your glory and worship you in spirit and in truth better each day.
You offer us covenant and write your word on our hearts.
Together we are the body of Christ, and each one of us has the responsibility, the desire, to respond to you in word and deed and love.
Yet, while you are beside us, within us, above us, all around us we still manage to ignore you.
We still forget to contemplate you.
We are pleased to be in your family, but when membership in the family of God requires something of us we often find ourselves feeling busy with other things.
We are satisfied to receive your gifts but when it comes to passing on your abundance and acknowledging that all comes from you,
We can and will still hesitate.
We are happy to say an occasional prayer to you who are always with us, but we spend little time listening to you.
Instead, we tend to treat you like a gene we will call on to serve us rather than the other way around.
Help us to be your people as you are our God –
Help us to love you like you love us.
Help us to make you and your ways our first, last, always and only and forgive us when we fail to do so. Amen.
Response: I will trust in the Lord
Assurance of God’s forgiveness
The Holy One will not abandon us: the Beloved is our grace, the healer of our lives. Though we sometimes grow weary, take heart, for our God remains with us and forgives us. Thanks be to God for such mercy and grace. Amen
Musical offering: Dayspring Singers
We listen for the voice of God
Response: Jesus, we are gathered (514)
Children’s time
God and Prayer: Clothesline story
Hold out your clothesline using both hands so students can see.
When we talk to God, we can imagine that we have a “line” directly to him. It’s sort of like this clothesline.
Give one end to the child sitting nearest to you. Hold onto the other end yourself.
Tell her: Close your eyes. God holds one end”; Our prayers are at the other end.
Shake the rope and ask the student holding the other end with her eyes shut:
Can you feel me at the other end of this rope? Yes.
Because I’m alive and active! I’m God! You can’t see me, but you can sense me moving in your life!
Tell the student to open her eyes, then shake the rope. Close your eyes.
Now I can feel you! When you pray, it’s like you shake God’s rope. There isn’t a prayer that he doesn’t hear, see or feel. If you really, really wanted something from God, how hard would you shake this rope? Let the student shake the rope hard.
And for how long? Until she got an answer.
If we really really want something from God, we have to be like the old widow in the story we’ll hear about later in the service and at Sunday School. We have to be persistent. It’s like we have to “pin ourselves” to God with our prayers and not let go of him until we get an answer.
Using a clothes pins, pin an index card with suggested prayers written on them to the clothes line.
When we “pin” ourselves to God with our prayer requests – when we’re really persistent and pray all the time – it’s like our prayers stay constantly before him. He constantly feels, sees, and hears our needs and desires. And he’s always answering our prayers, whether the answer is yes or no, with our best interest at heart!
Let us pray:
Dear God,
Help me keep praying every day, even when I don’t know how long I’ll have to wait.
Give me a heart that doesn’t give up, and to trust You always to know what is best for me.
Thank You for listening, every time I pray — thank you for the love You have for me.
And now, we pray the prayer that You taught us, …
The Lord’s Prayer (535)
Song: How firm a foundation (685)
Scripture readings: Genesis 32:22-31 & Luke 18:1-8
Response: Glory to the Father
Message: “Persistence”
In his video “Name” by Rob Bell, he says, “I was meeting with my counsellor recently and somewhere in the course of our time together, we were discussing some issue in my life, and I asked him, ‘Is it normal for people to…’ and he immediately interrupts me. And he says, ‘Is it normal for who?’ And I said, ‘Well, is it normal for people to…’ and he interrupts me again. And he says, ‘Wait, wait, we’re not here to talk about other people, are we? We’re here to talk about you—your identity and what the next right thing is for you to do. So the better question is: is it normal for you?”
Why do you think we so often worry about what everyone else is doing, saying, or feeling? Should it matter to us what’s “normal” for everyone else?
The stories of Jacob and Esau and the Story of Jacob’s wrestling match are very odd, but the background is pretty simple. See, the whole thing starts back in Genesis chapter 25 when the twin boys are born. In the story, Esau (which means “hairy” – so he must have been a pretty cute baby all covered in “red hair” to deserve that moniker) is born first. Then it recalls, “his brother next came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel, and so he was named Ya’acob (Jacob)” which literally means “Leg Puller” (and figuratively means Trickster or Deceiver). The implication from the story is that Jacob, from his very birth, was a trickster who wanted to be someone he wasn’t, so much so in fact that he’s depicted as a newborn (trying even then) to pull his brother back into the womb so that he could be the firstborn.
The next time we see the two, Esau is working hard in the fields, honing his hunting skills, while Jacob hides out in the tents all day. Next, Jacob scams his brother out of his birthright (still believing he should have been born first) by selling him some leftover food referred to in the text only as “red stuff” (which doesn’t sound very appealing but was probably just red lentils). Next, Jacob fools his blind father into giving him Esau’s blessing. In short, Jacob didn’t want to be Jacob. He tried to be Esau.
When Esau finally discovers what’s happened, Esau vows to kill the little “leg puller,” and so their mother sends Jacob away to live with relatives. There, Jacob doesn’t get much better. Jacob pretty much continues his old ways and tricks his way into a very wealthy life. Eventually, Jacob is found to be embezzling from his family’s business partners and is sent away (of course, they go—but not before his wife steals some things from the main house first). You get the idea. Ja’acob is a jerk.
When our story for today comes, Jacob is doing something hazardous. He’s crossing the Jabbok, a very fast-moving swell of a river (referred to as a “broken leg”) that feeds the Jordon. More importantly, though… It’s the edge of his brother Esau’s land. The river is the border. Jacob is going home. And he isn’t wanted.
That night, Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the broken leg river. After he had sent them across, he sent over all his possessions. Jacob had planned to send five waves of gifts to Esau, hoping Esau would accept the gifts and so also him onto the land without killing him. Next, Jacob sends 220 goats, 220 sheep, 30 camels, 40 cows, 10 bulls and 30 donkeys. It seems Jacob would do anything to be anybody else but Jacob at that moment. But Jacob was such a good guy, of course, that he also made a plan just in case it didn’t work. The old leg-puller planned to split his family into two parties so that if Esau (who by now was very wealthy and very powerful) did decide to kill him, Jacob and the other half of the family might be able to get away while Esau was busy killing off the first group. What a lovely fella, huh?
Well, that night, Jacob got up by himself, crossed the river, and was utterly alone and vulnerable. And there he was, confronted with a man who grabbed him, and the two became involved in a struggle. There, Jacob wrestled with what the scripture says was “a man” until daybreak came. Then, according to the story, when the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was instantly dislocated, leaving our old friend “Leg puller” with his hip out of joint on the broken leg river.
A lot of questions abound. For example, just what does it mean that the man could not overpower Jacob and yet at the same time seems to have had the power to knock a hip out of the socket with just one finger? There are other questions as well. For example, many believe that this man is just like the man outside the city of Sodom (who spoke to Abraham), who, it turned out, was actually an “angel of the Lord”. Some Christian groups believe very strongly that it’s really the pre-incarnate Jesus who wrestles with Jacob. They also see Jesus involved in the creation story, for example, when God says in Genesis, “Let US create man in OUR image.” Some people point out that Jewish Midrash (ancient commentaries) claim that this is an angel who must return to the morning choir of YHWH at daybreak in order to sing the Father’s praises. Certain other commentators, however, claim it’s actually the Canaanite river god, while others say it’s Jupiter, citing a similar story and a nearly identical quote from a Jupiter story. No matter what view you might take, it is hard to ignore the idea that this “man” is not exactly typical but is instead presented as superhuman in some way.
In any case, then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” Then the man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered.
Now you have to understand… In the ancient Near East, your name was more than just words. Name was identity. Your name was reflective of your character, your substance, I mean, the very fibre that made you, you. Your name tells who you are and what you would be.”
Many Bible names are meaningful — they describe something about the person’s character or situation, or express a hope or prophecy about that person’s life. (Yitzchak) Isaac means “he laughs” because Sarah laughed at the idea of having a son. Yishma’el (Ishmael) means God hears me and describes how God hears his Mother, and the boy is saved. Samuel means “heard by God” or “answered prayer,” because Hannah’s prayer was answered. Elijah means “the Lord is my God”, and Elijah stands as one prophet of the Lord against a multitude. Yisra’el (Israel) means “prevails with God” because he overcame struggle. David, referred to as the “Man after God’s own heart”, means “beloved”. Abraham — “father of many”, Sarah — “princess,” Moses means “one called out”, Aaron “exalted”, Solomon, “peace bringer”. Jeremiah, “God awakens”, Ezekiel, “God gives me strength”, Daniel, who the kingdom tries to put on trial and execute – his name means “Only God is my Judge”, Paul means “humble” because he was proven wrong about Jesus, Peter means “Rock”, Joshua (How Jesus is pronounced in Aramaic) means “The Father Saves”. The names are like little clues as to how the stories will turn out in the end.
This is still true to some extent today. When Tracy and I were thinking about names for our children, we had a rule. The name had to sound good with the prefix Dr. or Judge. No one wants to see Judge Barbie Childs or Doctor Candy Childs. Naming Jacob Trickster, it might have described his very first act, but it also set his path for him as a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you name your son “Dirtbag,” you’ve pretty well determined the kind of life he’s going to live.
What is your name? Have you ever thought of your name as a reflection of who you are? We each have this unique path, a calling, a life that God has given us, and Jesus invites us to be our true selves and yet we get sidetracked, we get distracted, we get hung up on how we’re different from her or we aren’t like him, and we end up asking the wrong questions.
Do you have the sense of a unique path in your life? Are there ways in which you tend to get distracted from “your path” because of what others do, say, or think of you?
There is this well-known story in the book of John. After breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Master, you know I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” He then asked a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” “Yes, Master, you know I love you.” Jesus said, “Shepherd my sheep.” Peter was upset that he asked for the third time, “Do you love me?” so he answered, “Master, you know everything there is to know. You’ve got to know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. I’m telling you the very truth now: When you were young, you dressed yourself and went wherever you wished, but when you get old, you’ll have to stretch out your hands while someone else dresses you and takes you where you don’t want to go.” He said this to hint at the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. And then he commanded, “Follow me.” And that’s where we usually end the story. But that’s not actually the end of it.
Here’s the part of the story that is very seldom told. “Turning his head, Peter noticed the disciple Jesus loved (John) following right behind. When Peter noticed him, he asked Jesus, “Master, what’s going to happen to him?” Jesus said, “If I want him to live until I come again, what’s that to you? You — follow me.”
Peter has just been asked by Jesus to care for the disciples after Jesus leaves. Jesus asks him three times, giving Peter a chance to undo the three times he had just denied knowing Jesus. And Peter’s first thought is… well, what about Him; what’s this other guy have to do? Basically, Jesus responds, “What business is that of yours?”
How often do we get caught up in the lives of everybody else, while trying to live any life but our own?
You and I have pasts, families we come from, things we’ve done, mistakes we’ve made, and where we’ve been and what we’ve done have helped shape who we are today. So, we have to embrace our story, our history. You don’t have to be proud of every single piece of it, but you must claim it because it’s yours.
What do you think it means for people to claim their own history? Have you claimed yours?
We have limits. There are all sorts of things we aren’t. There are all kinds of people that we aren’t. Maybe this is why Jesus says to love your neighbour as yourself. How could I ever love and embrace myself, let alone someone else, when I’ve never come to terms with who I am and then who I’m not?”
What are some of your limits? Are you okay with your limitations, or do you still sometimes wish you had the abilities and circumstances of others? How often do you hear God directing you where to go and respond, “Well, what about that person?”.
Proverbs 14:30 says, “A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.”
Some people live their whole lives according to the expectations of others. Whether it’s authority figures or family members, it’s as if there’s this script that has already been written by someone else, and all they’re essentially doing is just acting it out.
Are there things in your life that you do or you did because it’s “expected” of you? If so, do these things get in the way of you doing what you really feel you should be doing? How much time do you waste wishing you had that thing or that body or that bank account or that gift? How often are you like Peter, looking over at John’s life, wishing you had it?
Jacob would do anything to escape who he was. His whole life, he wanted to have the things that others had. From the day he was born, he wanted to be anyone else but who he was.
There’s this moment by the side of the river as the night cold air begins to depart, and the smell of the water starts to rise with the sun, and Jacob faces this man who has asked him perhaps the question of his life, ‘What is your name?’ and Jacob answers him, ‘I’m Jacob.’ He’s struggled and he’s been broken, and for probably the first time in his life, he’s done pretending, and he takes off that mask he wears, and he says, “Jacob”. And it may not seem like much, but that’s a massive moment in the story and a massive moment in life for him.
He said, I’m Jacob. Not… I’m “Ben Yitsak” (I’m the son of the famous Isaac). Not “I’m Ben Yitsak, Ben Ab-raham,” I’m the grandson of Abraham. “Not even, don’t mess with me, this land we’re on belongs to Esau my twin brother. No. The mystery stranger who is probably the Angel of the Lord says, what’s your name? And he replies, “Deceiver”. “I’m Deceiver”. I’m leg puller!”
I love that.
He owns his name and who he is.
There is this amazing line in Jeremiah 9:4 where Jeremiah say, “every brother deceives” (some translations put it “Everyone sins”) But the word Jeremiah actually uses is the name Jacob. He writes, “every brother Jacobs”.
Here, and perhaps for the first time, the old leg-puller isn’t trying to be Esau anymore or anyone else for that matter. Jacob has wrestled and overcome. Not because he beat the man, because that clearly didn’t happen, but because he struggled with life (even his own errors in it) and would not give up.
And that’s when it becomes clear that the man Jacob wrestled with is really Devine. Because this man sees more in Jacob than Jacob’s father did, more than Jacob saw in himself, he saw a person (not destined to be a leg-puller or a trouble maker) but a person who struggled on. And so God changed Jacob’s name. In short, this stranger changed how Jacob saw himself. So God said, You are not just a Deceiver anymore. So God renamed Jacob Yish-Ri-El (wrestles with God) instead.
Do you think you could live in a way where you’re not comparing yourself to people who have more than you, who dress better than you, who have things you don’t, or who can do things you can’t? Or here’s a much better question. Do you think you can ever fully be you if you’re always concerned about having someone else’s life?
Job 5:2 says, “Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple.” I grew up in an evangelical church. And by the way, that is in fact the way that Martin Luther’s original followers and the first Presbyterians referred to themselves. But anyway, I grew up in a very evangelical church, and we often used words like “born again” and “saved,” and let me be clear, there is nothing wrong with those terms. Those terms come straight from the Bible. Jesus uses those terms. But I do think those terms are used in a far too specific a way.
Because I think we need to be saved from all kinds of things, and I believe the Saviour isn’t just a magical figure that saves us by pulling us up out of the fire and brimstone. I think the saviour of the universe saves us from all kinds of things. In fact, I think sometimes we need to be saved from all the times we haven’t been our true selves.
All the times we’ve tried to be someone else. All of the lies we’ve believed about who God made when God made us. All the names other people give us. All the times we’ve asked the wrong questions: ‘What about him? What about her? What about them?’ And we’ve missed the voice of Jesus saying, Don’t worry about who they are. You be my follower. ‘You, follow me.’”
And I’m not spouting cultural self-help here that says all you need to do is be you. All you need to do is discover yourself. I don’t buy that. But I do think it’s pretty hard to be a better version of you (to be the person God wants you to be) if you’re wasting all your time trying to be somebody else.
We all wrestle with all kinds of things. We all, at one time or another, seek to be that which we are not. We all wear masks from time to time. We all try to be something we’re not – forgetting that God wants to love us and help us be better us, not make us something we’re not.
May you do the hard work of the soul to discover your true self. May you wrestle and struggle on; till your hips are out of joint and yet soldier on anyway. May you find your unique path —the one God has for you, not your neighbours. May you forget what others have or what names others give us. And in the process, may you find yourself comfortable in your own skin, knowing that’s the Your God loves and wants to mold you. Amen
Song: We have this ministry (590)
We respond to serve God
Our time of giving
Prayers of the people
Creator God,
you call us to love and serve you with body, mind, and spirit
by loving your creation and our sisters and brothers.
Open our hearts in compassion and receive these petitions
on behalf of the needs of the church and the world.
We pray for those who experience your call to serve, and feel inadequate and afraid. We pray for those who seek wisdom in living day to day; encourage them to seek that wisdom in your word and laws. We pray for those who seek to serve fully as disciples of Jesus Christ; enrich them with your compassion and love for all. When we experience doubt, God, encourage us to continue to wrestle with you and with our confusion and misunderstandings. Enable us to be persistent, faithful followers of Jesus. We pray for those who are suffering, physically, spiritually or mentally, God. Enable us to dispense hope and comfort to them. We pray for our own congregation; empower us to become ever more unified in our passion to honour you as your children and serve as disciples of Jesus Christ in bringing to completion your kingdom. We pray for Students in our Theological College as they seek our ministry in your name as well as students who have grown up in this church and seek to claim their own lives now and grow in who you want them to be. We pray specifically for our own Rom, studying at Presbyterian College, for his health, well-being and knowledge. Amen
Song: When we are living (630)
Sending out with God’s blessing
12 May the Lord our loving Father, make your love for one another and for all people grow and indeed to overflow, just as the Father’s love does for us. 13And may God make your hearts strong, blameless, and holy as you stand before Him on the day Jesus comes again with all his holy people to be presented unto the Father. Amen. (1 Thessalonians 3:12-13, New Living Translation)
Response: God to enfold you
Music postlude
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Numbers in brackets after a song/hymn indicate that it is from the 1997 Book of Praise of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Those and other songs are being used in accordance with the specifications of Dayspring’s licensing with One License (3095377) and CLC (A735555).
The Rev. Brad Childs retains the copyright (© 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.