Service Sunday August 4, 2024

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Worship Leader: Rev. Anne Beattie-Stokes

All are Welcome!

Watch a recording of the whole service below using YouTube.

The Gathering

Welcome and Announcements.
Focusing Moment.

Acknowledgement of Land

With gratitude and respect we acknowledge that our sacred space is located on Treaty 20 territory in the traditional territory of the Michi Saagiig and Chippewa Nations, collectively known as the Williams Treaties First Nations. We acknowledge that we as settlers and newcomers to this land are party to these treaties, and so we seek to live in right relations with our indigenous neighbours who have been stewards of these lands and waters since time immemorial.

Call to Worship:

One: Life is a pilgrimage.

All: From birth to death, we travel with God.

One: El camino es la meta.

All: The journey is the goal.

One: To live fully, awake in every moment on the way –

All: this is how Christ calls us to live.

One: May our worship open us to his transforming love.

All: Amen!

Hymn: All the Way My Saviour Leads Me” VU #635 v. 2

All the way my Saviour leads me,

cheers each winding path I tread,

gives me grace for every trial

feeds me with the living bread.

though my weary steps may falter,

and my soul athirst may be,

gushing from the rock before me,

lo, a spring of joy I see.

(Words: Fanny J. Crosby 1875, Music: Robert S. Lowry 1875)

HYMN: “We Praise You, O God” VU #218

1 We praise you, O God, our Redeemer, Creator;

in grateful devotion our tribute we bring.

We lay it before you; we kneel and adore you;

we bless your holy name, glad praises we sing.

2 We worship you, God of our mothers and fathers,

through trial and tempest, companion and guide.

When perils o'ertake us, you will not forsake us,

but faithful to your promise, you walk by our side.

3 With voices united our praises we offer

and gladly our songs of thanksgiving we raise.

Our sins now confessing, we pray for your blessing,

to you, our great Redeemer, forever be praise!

Opening Prayer: Spoken in Unison Prayer of Approach

God of hope, your love is poured into our hearts

and so we come in worship to offer thanks and praise.

God of love, your Spirit has been given to us

and so we will go from here to care for the earth,

to seek justice, and to love and serve others

in the power and compassion of Jesus Christ.

Touch us, fill us, and renew us in this time.

For we pray in Christ’s strong and holy name. Amen

MINISTRY OF MUSIC:

LEARNING TOGETHER:

HYMN: “O God, our Help in Ages Past” VU Page 806

1 O God, our help in ages past,

Our hope for years to come,

Our shelter from the stormy blast,

And our eternal home.

2 Under the shadow of thy throne

thy saints have dwelt secure,

sufficient is thine arm alone,

and our defence is sure.

3 Before the hills in order stood,

Or earth received its frame,

From everlasting thou art God,

To endless years the same.

4 A thousand ages in thy sight

Are like an evening gone,

Short as the watch that ends the night

Before the rising sun.

5 Time like an ever-rolling stream

Soon bears us all away;

We fly forgotten, as a dream

Dies at the opening day.

6 O God, our help in ages past,

our hope for years to come,

be thou our guard while troubles last,

and our eternal home.

THE WORD

Romans 5:1-5

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

ALL: Thanks be to God.

MESSAGE

“The Curious Connection Between Suffering and Hope”

Read the message at the bottom of this page.

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

(spoken VU #921)

A MINUTE FOR AFFIRMING AWARENESS

PRESENTATION OF OUR OFFERINGS

Offertory Prayer In Unison

Holy One, Creator, Giver of all,

with these gifts we express our gratitude for all we have and are.

We express, too, our commitment to the way of Jesus

who calls us to live with compassion for all,

and to work for justice and peace on earth.

May what we give be a blessing to others.

In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

Hymn: “May the God of Hope Go With Us” VU #424

1 May the God of hope go with us every day,

filling all our lives with love and joy and peace.

May the God of justice speed us on our way,

bringing light and hope to every land and race.

Praying, let us work for peace,

singing, share our joy with all,

working for a world that's new,

faithful when we hear Christ's call.

2 May the God of healing free the earth from fear,

freeing us for peace, both treasured and pursued.

May the God of love keep our commitment clear

to a world restored, to human life renewed. R

Sending Forth:

One: Life is a pilgrimage, and the journey is the goal.

So let us go from here in the hope does not disappoint,

the hope that has the power to transform suffering

into compassion, into joy, into justice, and into abundant life.

All: We go with hope in our hearts. Amen!

SUNG BLESSING:

Go now in peace, never be afraid.

God will go with you each hour of every day.

Go now in faith, steadfast strong and true;

know God will guide you in all you do.

Go now in love and show you believe;

reach out to others so all the world can see.

God will be there, watching from above;

go now in peace, in faith and in love.

Amen…amen…amen…

A Time of Fellowship

ON THE WAY

The Curious Connection Between Suffering and Hope

When I got up on the second day of my Camino in 2019,

I was so stiff and so sore that I could hardly move.

My feet hurt; my hips hurt; my muscles hurt;

even my hands hurt from gripping my hiking poles.

After some stretching and breakfast, I felt more human,

and was able to move pretty well.

But still, I laughed when I drew my reflection card for the day,

and it was the passage that you just heard read.

“Suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character

and character produces hope and hope does not disappoint,

because God’s love has been poured into our hearts

through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”

When I drew that card, I couldn’t help but think that God has a sense of humour,

Sore feet and an aching body can’t compare to the suffering

that many people endure,

but perhaps, the suffering one experiences on the Camino

focuses your attention in a way that makes this passage understandable.

As we left the town of Portomarin that morning, and crossed the River Torres,

I called to my ancestors to see who wanted to walk with me,

who wanted to discuss this curious connection between suffering and hope.

It was my maternal grandmother, Clara Waugh, and her great-great grandmother,

my four times great grandmother, Bethiah Eaton Crandall, who showed up.

I thought it interesting that it was women who were eager to talk

about suffering and hope.

In the dawn light, as we climbed a long, long, long hill, through a thick forest,

my physical pain ratcheted up again,

and we began our conversation about suffering – particularly their suffering as women.

Back-breaking work,

child birth without anaesthesia,

confined roles and rigid expectations,

losing children at birth or too young.

Bethiah talked too about her unfulfilled dreams,

and the longing for a bigger life than she was allowed to lead as a woman in the 1700s.

Clara talked about being ill as a child and kept home from school,

and about marrying into a life of poverty.

I talked about my dad’s long illness and death at age 60

and about my other losses – really the only suffering I have known.

But even grief pales in comparison to the horrors that people suffer –

being burned out of your home or business or church like the people of Jasper,

living in a war zone like the people of Ukraine, Palestine and Sudan,

enduring food insecurity and starvation in Yemen, Sudan, and Nigeria,

being mentally ill, drug-addicted and homeless.

However large or small, everyone suffers in this life,

and according to Paul, suffering produces endurance.

So at the top of that long hill as the sun broke through the morning mist,

my ancestors and I talked about endurance, and the consensus was that women endure.

They have to.

They have to hold things together for their families.

They have to keep going. They have to suffer without breaking

Bethiah and Clara had no choice but to endure.

The hungry and the homeless,

those trapped in war zones, people with cancer or chronic pain,

refugees, – have no choice but to endure – to suffer without breaking.

On the Camino, I chose to suffer;

I chose to keep going despite pain and fatigue.

I chose to endure – to suffer without breaking –

because I believe that our God can use suffering to transform us.

So I wonder: what have you suffered in life and how have you been able to endure?

Silent reflection

Holy One,

God who is always with us,

it is by your grace that we endure.

Thank you.

According to Paul, endurance produces character.

Of that I have no doubt – but my question is –

what kind of character is produced by suffering?

Character is defined as the sum of qualities that make a person who they are

and that distinguish them from other people.

Like a jeweler’s mark on gold that has been refined by fire,

character is a symbol branded on the soul through all we have experienced,

and through what we have made from our experience.

Bethiah’s character seems to have been marked by joy. Clara’s, not so much.

Enduring suffering makes some people more understanding and loving, stronger

and more assured of God’s presence and grace,

but others it just makes bitter, resentful, and closed in on themselves.

Why the difference, I wonder? Is it openness to God?

Is it the community supporting you? Having role models of faith?

Giving thanks in all circumstances?

So what, I wonder, what kind of character has suffering created in you? And why?

Silent Reflection

Holy One,

where we have become resentful or bitter, forgive us.

Through prayer, through gratitude, through the people in our lives

open us, instead, to your transforming love.

Where we have become understanding and compassionate,

deepen us in the ways love, justice and peace.

Under the afternoon sun on the Camino, as we passed a wayside cross,

we talked about hope.

Bethiah and Clara hoped for food for the winter and clothes for their family,

for peace of mind and for a better life for their children.

I hope that climate change will be reversed,

that my great nieces and nephew whose mother died suddenly in June will be okay.

I hope that I will and those I love will continue to be healthy, grow in love,

and to find new ways to serve,

So I wonder: in your heart of hearts, what is your deepest hope?

Silent Reflection

God of the cross,

enable us to be people of hope.

And whatever we hope for, ground us in your love

for truly, that is what we need most.

The early Christians in Rome lived in the heart of empire’s darkness.

They suffered violence and subjugation, persecution and hostility.

Faced with death, they couldn’t afford false hopes and empty promises.

They needed a hope that does not disappoint.

We need that hope also.

In the face of climate change, in a world of seemingly endless suffering,

for all that each of us faces in life and in death,

we need a hope that will not disappoint us.

Paul assures the Romans of peace with God,

and of access to God’s grace through Jesus.

He gives them a hope that is forged in the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross,

and realized in his resurrection.

That hope is our hope –

the hope does not disappoint because it has the power to transform suffering.

As God transformed the death of Jesus into new life,

so God transforms our suffering into compassion, into joy,

into justice, and into new and abundant life.

The hope we have in Jesus does not disappoint,

because God’s love has been poured into our hearts

through the Spirit of Jesus that has been given to us.

We are not alone.

Thanks be to God.

Amen!