Service Sunday July 28, 2024

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Worship Leader: Rev. Marybeth Wilson

All are Welcome!

The Gathering

Welcome and Announcements.
Focusing Moment.

Acknowledgement of Land

For thousands of years, Indigenous people have harvested and shared food grown on the lands where we now live and worship. With respect and in the spirit of reconciliation, we honour and acknowledge the careful stewardship of these lands, the traditional territory of the Michi Sasgiig and Anishinaabeg Peoples, collectively known as the Williams Treaties First Nations.

Call to Worship:

One: As we gather to worship, may we be rooted and grounded in Love.

ALL: May our understanding of the power of Jesus’ Love grow deeper.

One: May we comprehend the breadth and length and height and depth

of divine Love.

ALL: May we be rooted and grounded in Holy Love.

One: Together let us worship the One who is the Source of Love.

Based on Epesians3:17-19

Hymn: There’s a Spirit in the Air” VU # 582

1 There's a spirit in the air,

telling Christians everywhere:

'Praise the love that Christ revealed,

living, working in our world.'

2 Lose your shyness, find your tongue,

tell the world what God has done:

God in Christ has come to stay.

Live tomorrow's life today!

3 When believers break the bread,

when a hungry child is fed,

praise the love that Christ revealed,

living, working in our world.

4 Still the Spirit gives us light,

seeing wrong and setting right:

God in Christ has come to stay.

Live tomorrow's life today!

5 When a stranger's not alone,

where the homeless find a home,

praise the love that Christ revealed,

living, working, in our world

Opening Prayer: Spoken in Unison

Gracious, generous God, draw us into your presence as we gather in worship this day. Like the crowds who followed Jesus, may we hunger for spiritual nourishment. Help us to recognize that You are the source of all that sustains us each and every day. We pray in the name of Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

MINISTRY OF MUSIC:

LEARNING TOGETHER:

HYMN: “Jesus Laughed Out Loud” MV # 133

1. Jesus laughed out loud

to see the children play;

his joyful presence drew a crowd

we could not send away.

2. Jesus healed a child

by asking her to rise,

and doubtful people wept and smiled

to see her open eyes.

3. Jesus felt the need;

we made the crowd sit down.

A boy had faith and all were fed,

though we were far from town.

4. Jesus climbed a hill

to pray and rest alone;

we wondered why we felt the chill

of wind and wood and stone.

5. Jesus called my name

when he was passing by;

my life will never be the same;

this love will never die.

THE WORD

Scripture: John 6:1-21

Leader: Hear and listen to what the Spirit is saying to the church.

ALL: Thanks be to God.

MESSAGE

“A Boy, a Thank You, and a ‘Sign’”

Read the text of the Message at the bottom of this page.

**OUR RESPONSE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE and THE LORD’S PRAYER:**

(spoken VU #921)

HYMN: “O for a World” VU # 697

1 O for a world where everyone

respects each other's ways,

where love is lived and all is done

with justice and with praise.

2 O for a world where goods are shared

and misery relieved,

where truth is spoken, children spared,

equality achieved.

3 We welcome one world family

and struggle with each choice

that opens us to unity

and gives our vision voice.

4 The poor are rich, the weak are strong,

the foolish ones are wise.

Tell all who mourn: outcasts belong,

who perishes will rise.

5 O for a world preparing for

God's glorious reign of peace,

where time and tears will be no more,

and all but love will cease.

PRESENTATION OF OUR OFFERINGS

Offertory Prayer In Unison

It is you who has fed us, O Christ. You provide all that we need and more. We share from what we have and who we are. Bless what we offer, enabling all who hunger to be filled. As you once did on that hillside, we give thanks to Creator, and pray nothing will be wasted. Amen.

Sending Forth:

One: Let us leave this time of worship, confident that the Holy One who nourishes us goes with us. May the grace of Christ, the love of Creator, and the community of the Spirit sustain you this day and always.

All: May it be so. Amen.

SUNG BLESSING: “May God’s Sheltering Wings” MV #214

May God’s sheltering wings, his gathering wings protect you.

May God’s nurturing arms, his cradling arms sustain you,

and hold you in his love,

and hold you in his love.

May God’s sheltering wings, her gathering wings protect you.

May God’s nurturing arms, her cradling arms sustain you,

and hold you in her love,

and hold you in her love.

A Time of Fellowship

“A Boy, a Thank You, and a ‘Sign’”

John 6:1-21

July 28, 2024 – 10th Sunday After Pentecost

For those of us who grew up in the church, the story of Jesus feeding the multitude of people is a very familiar one. After all, this story appears in all four gospels so we have plenty of opportunities to hear it and have come to know the story well. There are some slight differences among the gospel, but, overall, they tell the same story. Crowds – large crowds – have been following Jesus. They hang out with him and his disciples long enough, and in a place far enough from villages or towns, that the people begin to get rather peckish.

This time, we hear the version of the story from the perspective of the Gospel of John. It is this version that I hope you will spend a bit of time pondering with me.

I have to admit that the Gospel of John has never really been my favourite. Somehow, in John, Jesus seems more spiritual, less “down to earth” (if you’ll pardon the pun). The Jesus we meet in the other gospels seems more in touch with the people. In Matthew’s and Mark’s and Luke’s versions of this story of the feeding of the 5000, we are told that, even though Jesus and his disciples had very intentionally tried to get away on their own for a while, Jesus welcomed the crowds of people and had compassion for them. Did you get any sense of Jesus’ compassion for the people in what was read today? Not much. Even so, everywhere we read about him, we learn new elements of who Jesus was and how his life and ministry connect to us in our day and time. So let’s see what we learn today, shall we? And let’s think about what Jesus might do to feed the multitudes in our day.

It doesn’t matter whether we consider places in the world where drought or flooding are creating famine conditions, or places where conflict leads to lack of food, people are hungry. Excess heat and horrific storms brought on by climate change mean more people are hungry. And as we well know, here in Canada – right here in Haliburton County – people are hungry. Demand on the resources of food banks seems to be at an all-time high.

It wasn’t always so. Long before the time Jesus lived on this earth – in fact for most of human civilization – humans shared what they had available to them. Hunter-gatherer societies would share the fruits of their hunt or the plants they gathered. If anyone was hungry, it was because everyone was hungry. There was equity in all conditions. Today’s world is vastly different. Inequity is rampant. Some people have more than enough – way more than enough – while others wonder how they will feed their children tomorrow.

The March issue of Broadview had a wonderful – yet disturbing – article about child poverty titled “It Takes a Village”. It was 1989 when Canada’s Parliament voted unanimously on a resolution to eradicate child poverty. Do you remember what year Parliament aimed for that eradication to be accomplished? 2000! We are now 24 years beyond the deadline! Mind you, the numbers have been decreasing but only very gradually. Nearly a million Canadian children still live in poverty today. Nearly a million Canadian children regularly go hungry. Poverty is the reason so many children are hungry in Canada, and all over the world.

Which takes me back to the story from John’s Gospel. You know how I said that this gospel offered my least favourite way of seeing Jesus? Well, the more time I have spent delving into John’s Jesus who feeds the hungry crowd, the more I’m feeling a kinship with John’s Jesus that I didn’t recognize earlier. John’s version of the story of the feeding of the 5000 is the only one in which it is a boy whose food is shared among the people in the crowd. And the fact that the boy’s loaves are made from barley gives us a clue as to the boy’s economic status. Barley was the grain available to those living in poverty in Jesus’ day. My guess is that the boy would have come with his far-from-wealthy parents to be close to this man who could heal the sick. Perhaps the majority of those 5000 people in the crowd were people living in poverty. Although John doesn’t say it directly, we begin to get the impression that Jesus held the poor of his time in deep compassion. As one scholar I read says, in this passage we are shown Jesus who “provides real food for real hunger”.

Once Jesus is told about the boy with the five barley loaves and two fish, he encourages the hungry people to sit down on the grassy hillside. It’s as if they are getting ready for a picnic, relaxing, no longer shouldering their way forward to gain access to this healer man. For me, it is what comes next that is a key element in the story. Jesus gives thanks. He gives thanks to God for this blessing of food for the hungry souls who have gathered. Was it Jesus’ expression of gratitude and blessing that enabled so many to be fed that day? Perhaps. For me, how it happened is less important. As I ponder the ‘miracle’, or ‘sign’ as John calls it, what is of ultimate importance is that a huge crowd of hungry people are fed and fully satisfied. Interestingly, in John’s version of this story, Jesus doesn’t give the food to the disciples to distribute among the people, as he does in all the other gospels. Jesus himself distributes the food to these hungry souls. For a moment, I invite you to imagine the scene. Jesus, moving among the crowds, passing food to each and every person – takes his time to greet each one. I have no doubt that each person on that hillside experienced the power of Jesus’ love that day. No wonder they wanted him to be their king.

I can’t help but wonder how Jesus would react today to the throngs of hungry people surrounding him, hoping to be fed, hoping for a safe place to live, hoping for healing from their physical ailments and mental anguish. Perhaps, as he did with Philip that day on the hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilee, he would ask questions to test us, his modern-day disciples.

And here is one more really important thing I want you to notice from John’s version of the story. Jesus didn’t ask Philip, “Where will YOU buy bread for these people to eat?” No, Jesus asked, “Where will WE buy bread for these people to eat?” Jesus was assuring Philip that he was right there with Philip. TOGETHER they would find a way to feed the hungry people.

Jesus is asking us questions of vital importance today. How will WE feed these people? How will WE clothe them? How will WE house them? How will WE heal them? How will WE end child poverty? We are not alone in this crucial work. The power of Jesus’ love is with us, just as it was with the people on that grassy hillside that day so long ago.

Now, maybe it’s because I am personally passionate about the ultimate value for all of society of providing a Universal Basic Income to lift people out of poverty, but I can hear Jesus’ answers to his own questions. How will we feed the hungry people in our midst? We will provide a Basic Income adequate to cover their monthly costs. How will we clothe them? Provide a Basic Income! How will we house them? Provide a Basic Income! How will we heal them? Provide a Basic Income? Perhaps this is an oversimplification, but I fully believe that huge strides can be made when inequity is reduced and poverty is relieved.

When a child is able to share from the little he or she has, when God is thanked and blessed, I have faith that the power of Holy Love will be made apparent in our communities, in our countries, in our world. Some might say, ‘that would be a miracle’! Well, I believe in miracles! How about you? May a miracle indeed happen. Amen.