Service Sunday April 6, 2025
The Fifth Sunday in Lent
All are Welcome!
Worship Leader: Rev. Max Ward
Music Director: Melissa Stephens
(For a Printer Friendly PDF version click this link)
All are Welcome!
Watch a video recording of the whole service using YouTube
The Gathering
WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS:
FOCUSING MOMENT:
LIGHTING THE OF CHRIST CANDLE:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF TERRITORY: In Unison
We acknowledge that we are gathered on Treaty 20 territory. For thousands of years, the First Peoples of this place have cared for the territory even as the territory cared for them. Guided by the wisdom of their traditions and their ancestors, they have been taught that the circle of life is embraced and embracing. Let us carry on this wisdom. Let us live into right relations with love and respect.
Written by Jamie Miller, First U.C., Dryden, Ont.
Gathering, Advent/Christmas/Easter 2022-2023, p.27. Used with permission.
THE APPROACH
CALL TO WORSHIP:
One: Come to this place where all are welcome.
ALL: We come regardless of who we are and what we have done or not done.
One: In this place, as in all places where God is present, healing and forgiveness are ours simply by asking.
ALL: Desiring these gifts and ready to accept them, we prepare ourselves for worship.
Written by Catherine Tovell, Kilworth U.C., London Ont.
Gathering, Easter*Lent 2025, p.31. Used with permission.
HYMN: “Though Ancient Walls” VU #691
1 Though ancient walls may still stand proud
and racial strife be fact,
though boundaries may be lines of hate,
proclaim God's saving act!
Refrain Walls that divide are broken down;
Christ is our unity!
Chains that enslave are thrown aside;
Christ is our liberty!
2 When vested power stands firm entrenched
and breaks another's back,
when waste and want live side by side,
it's Gospel that we lack. Refrain
3 The truth we seek in varied scheme,
the life that we pursue,
unites us in a common quest
for self and world made new. Refrain
4 The church divided seeks that grace,
that newness we proclaim;
a unity of serving love
that lives praise to God's name! Refrain
5 This broken world seeks lasting health
and vital unity.
God's people by God's Word renewed,
cast off all slavery! Refrain
OPENING PRAYER: Spoken in Unison
God of light, shine on us as we come together to find meaning for our lives, purpose for our community, sustenance for our faith, and joy to share with your people everywhere. Give direction to all that we do. Help us to discover anew the hope that came for us in Jesus the Christ. May we appreciate anew your gift of Jesus that has been shared as a beacon of truth and love. May our journey through Lent be one of discerning new understandings and being open to new ways to serve. Holy One, touch our lives through the spirit of the One who called us friends. Release us from fear and encourage us to act with boldness and commitment as we live our faith in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Written by Bill Steadman, Goulais River U.C., Goulais River, Ont.
Gathering, Easter*Lent 2025, p.32. Used with permission.
MINISTRY OF MUSIC
LEARNING TOGETHER
HYMN: “A Woman and a Coin – the Coin Is Lost” VU #360
1 A woman and a coin - the coin is lost!
How much it means to her, what time and toil,
what part it was to play in her bright dreams!
Am I that treasured coin worth searching for?
I'm found, and you rejoice!
What love! What love!
2 A shepherd and a sheep - the sheep is lost!
Far from the flock, the one in hundred cries,
then, risking life, the shepherd's voice and staff!
Am I that treasured sheep worth dying for?
I live, and you rejoice!
What love! What love!
3 A parent and a child - the child is lost!
The parent feeds on memories and hope,
the prodigal on husks and one last chance.
Am I that treasured child worth waiting for?
I'm home, and you rejoice!
What love! What love!
4 Dear God, you sought us when the world was lost,
you gave your only son at what a cost;
your spirit welcomes home the tempest-tossed:
now we can be all you were dreaming of.
We're safe, and you rejoice!
What love! What love!
THE WORD
SCRIPTURE: Luke 15: 1-3, 11b-32
Leader: Hear and listen to what the Spirit is saying to the church.
ALL: Thanks be to God.
MESSAGE:
“Progressive Christianity & The Prodigal Son Parable”
Listen to an audio recording of the message below or read it at the bottom of this page.
OUR REPSPONSE
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE and
THE LORD’S PRAYER: (spoken VU #921)
HYMN: “Come, Let Us Sing of a Wonderful Love” VU #574
1 Come, let us sing of a wonderful love,
tender and true, tender and true,
out of the heart of the Father above,
streaming to me and to you:
wonderful love, wonderful love
dwells in the heart of the Father above.
2 Jesus the Saviour this gospel to tell
joyfully came, joyfully came,
came with the helpless and hopeless to dwell,
sharing their sorrow and shame,
seeking the lost, seeking the lost,
saving, redeeming at measureless cost.
3 Jesus is seeking the wanderers yet;
why do they roam? why do they roam?
Love only waits to forgive and forget;
home, weary wanderers, home!
Wonderful love, wonderful love
dwells in the heart of the Father above.
4 Come to my heart, O thou wonderful love!
Come and abide, come and abide,
lifting my life till it rises above
envy and falsehood and pride:
seeking to be, seeking to be
lowly and humble, a learner of thee.
PRESENTATION OF OUR OFFERINGS
OFFERTORY PRAYER
Loving God, we are always tempted to keep what we already have, yet you whisper to us a different, more radical purpose: “Give your time to build relationships that make a difference. Give your talent in community to foster a space of unconditional loving. Give your treasure to share bounty with others.” We are paying attention, wise Spirit. We ask that you bless what we give, that we may be faithful witnesses to the Way of Jesus. Amen.
Written by Gord Dunbar, Kincardine, Ont.
Gathering, Easter*Lent 2025, p.36. Used with permission.
SUNG BLESSING: VU #108 vs 1
1 Throughout these Lenten days and nights
we turn to walk the inward way,
where, meeting Christ, our guide and light,
we live in hope till Easter Day. ©
SENDING FORTH:
A Time of Fellowship
© Music Reproduced with permission under License number A-605748, Valid for: 26/10/2024 - 25/10/2025; One License - Copyright Cleared Music for Churches.
Sermon 2025 04 06
“Progressive Christianity & The Prodigal Son Parable”
Luke 15: 1-3, 11b-32
Gracious God, be with us today in this place, in the Scriptures and in our words.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts praise your Holy name. Amen.
I think that the scripture reading about the parable of the Prodigal Son fits with Progressive Christianity in a unique way.
First, let’s begin with a little about Progressive Christianity.
Inspired by these fresh insights, progressive Christians can be in solidarity with the poor, countering the idolatry of wealth, practice nonviolence, and seek justice.
“Stagnation in thought means death for Christianity as certainly as it does for any other vital movement.
Stagnation, not change, is Christianity’s most deadly enemy, for this is a progressive world.”
-- Harry Fosdick (1922)
For medieval Europeans, it was understood that famines and plagues were sent by God as punishment for sin.
Feudalism, absolute monarchy, and slavery were ordained by God.
In the not too distant past, the Bible was cited in turning women away from the polls and relegating African Americans to church balconies.
The invention of the lightning rod was vehemently denounced by clergy as unwarranted interference with God’s use of lightning.
How the world has changed!
Today, much of the developed world takes for granted wireless phones, ease of travel, education for our children, and miracles of medicine.
We’ve long-since left the idea of a flat earth and a three-tiered cosmos behind.
And yet many Christians today make it proof of their faith that they embrace thousand-year-old religious ideas.
In virtually every field of human endeavor, new discoveries are praised.
Not so with religion.
In no area of life other than religion is the denial of progress held up as a virtue.
Somehow, the way it was in days-gone-by holds a mysterious authority over people.
When the Bible is held up as a final authority trumping all other arguments, it is good to remember that the early church didn’t even have any Bible beyond the Hebrew Scripture.
Across the Mediterranean, they gathered in small communities around the teachings and person of Jesus and thus developed the foundations of what we know as Christianity out of their own experience and insight.
Today, new understandings are feared: “don’t mess with what I’ve believed since I was a child!”
Even God changes in the Bible…
While wandering in the desert, the Hebrews carried God around in a box.
When that proved vulnerable to enemy attack, God was promoted to a throne in the sky above.
The whole of scripture is awash with change, change, and more change.
Yet the fallacy that Christianity is a static belief system offering absolute truths for the true believer remains the predominant message preached and believed by many today.
“By doubting, we come to inquire and by inquiry we arrive at truth.”
— Peter Abelard
It can be argued that many of those who have left the church altogether are thinking people who can no longer weather the shallow theology being preached.
One of the fastest growing segments of people seems to be what Bishop Spong called “the church alumni association”.
To insist upon the unchanging nature of Christian doctrines and “the way we’ve always done it” will continue to drive thinking people -- young and old alike -- out of the church.
They who refuse to put their minds and personal experience on hold will not belong to a church as it exists today.
Yet there’s no denying that while we express it in many different ways, most people desire to be spiritual.
We long to find others that we might advance our mutual understanding to the next level, perchance to change the world for the better.
That is a little bit about Progressive Christianity.
We have all heard the parable of the Prodigal Son.
It is usually interpreted as a message of sinful behaviour by the son that leaves the family farm.
The son returns to ask his father for forgiveness.
His father celebrates his return, forgiving him and loving him while his loyal brother grumbles and struggles to forgive.
Today’s message will have a bit of a different twist.
For today, set aside the traditional interpretation about all the sinfulness and forgiveness stuff.
Imagine if you will, the son that leaves the family farm is like the people that leave the family church.
The son wants to discover a different world, a different way of life.
Yet he discovers that the values learned at home, seen through critical and doubting eyes, still hold meaning.
People leave the church to find truth elsewhere when the church struggles to confess the mystery of God and life.
People want to return to a church that believes in seeking the truth from whatever source.
People want to be a part of a church that is challenged by the journey of life and asking the questions.
Imagine if you will, the other brother.
He was loyal to his father and the way things have always been.
He was irritated that his doubting brother was accepted back home so easily.
Today, the grumpy brother represents those within the church that have been very loyal to the church in the past.
Those people that are not willing to accept changes to the church because it has always been this way.
Imagine if you will, the father in the story.
Traditionally, the father represents the unconditional acceptance of God.
That message is the same today.
God invites people of all kinds.
God loves those who doubt and question just as much as those who have been faithful and sure.
God welcomes with open arms, those who have been seeking, those who have been lost to the church, as they feel ready.
That is why the Prodigal son and Progressive Christianity fit together.
Believing does not mean putting your allegiance in a set of doctrines.
It means moving from a religion of only following rules to a religion of relationship.
The heart of this “way” is compassion, hospitality, and the embracing of diversity – not for one’s own sake, but because such behavior was modeled by Jesus putting people before the rules.
He was about moving beyond belief to relationship.
And what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Jesus’ life was about living out Micah’s call.
We don’t prove our faith in God by blind and unquestioning duty to rules.
Jesus’ early followers were called those who were on “the way,” suggesting that our spiritual lives are not about following rules or being “saved” so much as it is about a life-long journey of transformation.
Being progressive is about a relationship with the divine and with one another.
It’s a relationship that does not leave us unchanged, but transforms us into more and more compassionate beings – as Paul writes, into “the likeness of Christ.”
It’s not about having all the answers, but about wrestling with and living the great questions of life.
In contrast to those who preach absolute certainty, there are those who are convinced that there’s something more to Christianity than what has been experienced in the past.
They are a group of seekers who have a “hunch” about this Jesus.
They are not preoccupied with their own eternal well-being so much as they long to change the world to reflect this Jesus’ vision of the reign of God.
These seekers are comfortable with ambiguity and understand that through difficulties, mistakes, and challenges, it’s finally the journey that is important.
It is what we learn along the way in relationship to the divine and to one another that is meaningful.
It takes work as we go down the road, sharing our experiences, our questions, and our uncertainties with one another and with God.
The grace comes in the midst of the search, as we journey down the road together.
The great mystic pastor and poet, Howard Thurman said:
“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs.
Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
The challenge of progressive Christianity will be to “come alive,” mustering the courage, wisdom, and resources to be a beacon of faithful thoughtfulness for those who have become members of the Church alumni association.
To “live the questions” is to live into that same sense of ambiguity and certainty, of faith and doubt, that is at the heart of progressive Christianity.
Inspired by insights that are at once fresh and ancient, progressive Christians can be in solidarity with the poor, countering the idolatry of wealth, practice non-violence, and seek justice.
In so doing, we may discover that the path of true wisdom is not just asking the questions for which there are no answers, but in living the questions which shape our faith, our lives, and our world.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
