Service Sunday July 7, 2024
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All are Welcome!
Watch a video recording of the whole service using YouTube.
The Gathering
Welcome and Announcements.
Focusing Moment.
Acknowledgement of Land
We respectfully acknowledge that we are participating in this worship on the traditional territories of many different indigenous peoples. With gratitude to all of our First Nations, Metis, Inuit and all First Peoples across Canada, may we remember that we are not separate from the earth which sustains us. We respect the history, languages and cultures of the first peoples of Treaty 20, whose traditional lands we now share. We are grateful and open to the wisdom of the Elders and the teachings of those who are Two Spirit. May their wisdom inspire our actions in today’s world.
Call to Worship:
One: Praise the Lord this new day.
ALL: In worship, let the hearts of those who seek God rejoice.
One: In worship, seek the Lord and his strength.
ALL: Beyond worship, seek God’s presence continually.
One: Remember God’s wonderful works.
ALL: Praise the Lord this new day.
Written by Elaine Bidgood Sveet, First Lutheran, Rugby and Leeds, North Dakota
Gathering, Pentecost 2024, p.42. Used with permission.
HYMN: “Jesus Christ is Waiting” VU #117
1 Jesus Christ is waiting, waiting in the streets;
no one is his neighbour, all alone he eats.
Listen, Lord Jesus, I am lonely too.
Make me, friend or stranger, fit to wait on you.
2 Jesus Christ is raging, raging in the streets,
where injustice spirals and real hope retreats.
Listen, Lord Jesus, I am angry too.
In the Kingdom's causes let me rage with you.
3 Jesus Christ is healing, healing in the streets;
curing those who suffer, touching those he greets.
Listen, Lord Jesus, I have pity too.
Let my care be active, healing just like you.
4 Jesus Christ is dancing, dancing in the streets,
where each sign of hatred he, with love, defeats.
Listen, Lord Jesus, I should triumph too.
On suspicion's graveyard let me dance with you.
5 Jesus Christ is calling, calling in the streets,
'Who will join my journey? I will guide their feet.'
Listen, Lord Jesus, let my fears be few.
Walk one step before me; I will follow you.
A NEW CREED: (Spoken In Unison)
We are not alone; we live in God’s world.
We believe in God: who has created and is creating,
who has come in Jesus, the Word made flesh,
to reconcile and make new, who works in us and others by the Spirit.
We trust in God.
We are called to be the church: to celebrate God’s presence,
to live with respect in Creation, to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen,
our judge and our hope. In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. We are not alone. Thanks be to God.
MINISTRY OF MUSIC
LEARNING TOGETHER
HYMN: “Tell Me the Stories of Jesus” VU #357
1 Tell me the stories of Jesus I love to hear,
things I would ask him to tell me if he were here:
scenes by the wayside, tales of the sea,
stories of Jesus, tell them to me.
2 First let me hear how the children stood round his knee,
and I shall fancy his blessing resting on me;
words full of kindness, deeds full of grace,
all in the lovelight of Jesus' face.
3 Tell me, in accents of wonder, how rolled the sea
tossing the boat in a tempest on Galilee!
And how the Master, ready and kind,
chided the billows and hushed the wind.
4 Into the city I'd follow the children's band,
waving a branch of the palm tree high in my hand;
one of his heralds, yes, I would sing
loudest hosannas! Jesus is king!
5 Show me that scene in the garden of bitter pain;
and of the cross where my Saviour for me was slain.
Sad ones or bright ones, so that they be
stories of Jesus, tell them to me.
THE WORD
Scripture: Mark 6:1-13
Leader: Hear and listen to what the Spirit is saying to the church.
ALL: Thanks be to God.
MESSAGE
“God Bless Canada”
Listen to an audio recording of the Message below or read it at the bottom of this page.
OUR RESPONSE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE and THE LORD’S PRAYER:
(sung VU #960)
HYMN: “Sent Out in Jesus’ Name” MV #212 sung three times
Sent out in Jesus’ name,
our hands are ready now
to make the world the place
in which the kingdom comes.
(2X)
The angels cannot change
a world of hurt and pain
into a world of love,
of justice and of peace.
The task is ours to do,
to set it really free.
O, help us to obey,
and carry out your will.
A MINUTE FOR AFFIRMING AWARENESS
PRESENTATION OF OUR OFFERINGS
Offertory Prayer In Unison
Change us as we give, Loving God. Change us from those who seek their own good to those who seek the good of others. Change us as we give, Loving God. Change us from those who discuss justice to those who get daringly involved. Change us as we give, Loving God. Change us from those who call ourselves “Disciples of Jesus” to those who with boldness proclaim the good news. Change us as we give, Loving God. Change us from those who are content with what we do now to those who are committed to seek a deeper spiritual life. These gifts will enable us to change. Thanks be to God! Amen.
Written by David Sparks, Summerland, B.C.
Gathering, Pentecost 2024, p.40. Used with permission.
SUNG BLESSING: MV #150 v 4
Spirit God: be our breath, be our song.
Blow through us, bringing strength to move on.
Through change, through challenge, we’ll greet the new dawn…
Spirit God, be our song. ©
Sending Forth:
One: So let us go forth with the blessing of God:
Creator, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Let the Three-in-One strike a single, harmonious chord in our souls.
ALL: Amen.
Written by Mary Grant, Forest Hill U.C., Fredericton, N.B.
Gathering, Pentecost 1, 2023, p.31. Used with permission.
A Time of Fellowship
© Music Reproduced with permission under License number A-605748, Valid for: 26/10/2023 - 25/10/2024; One License - Copyright Cleared Music for Churches.
Sermon 07 July 2024
“God Bless Canada”
Mark 6:1-13
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.
Jesus had gained quite a reputation as a healer.
In the chapter immediately preceding this one Jesus casts out a demon, heals a woman of a lifelong malady and raises a little girl from the dead.
Then he came to his hometown!
He left there a carpenter with a religious bent and he returns as a world-renowned prophet, teacher and healer.
So of course they roll out the red carpet!
They make him the grand Marshall of a parade and give him the key to the city!
No, not exactly.
It starts off fine.
He is a holy man so they ask him to preach in the Synagogue.
And Mark tells us that many who heard him were astounded.
But some were not impressed.
When they ask, “where does he get this wisdom?” they were not praising him.
This becomes obvious when they say, “Isn’t he a carpenter and doesn’t his mother and brothers and sisters live here with us.”
They are saying that he is just a simple man and that he has no authority to say the things he is saying.
In other words he must be talking through his hat.
What was it that led the people of his hometown to reject Jesus?
Was it jealousy?
They had known him back when he was knee high to a grasshopper.
He was famous now and they weren’t.
Maybe they wanted to knock him down to size.
Their comments suggest that this may have been part of their motivation.
Luke tells us more of the story.
There, part of their motivation is possessiveness.
They are upset that Jesus is spending time with people of other regions.
He belongs to them and is from their people.
So Charity should start at home and he should do in Nazareth the same wonders he is doing elsewhere.
Either way, their familiarity with Jesus has bred contempt.
How can the extraordinary come from someone so ordinary.
How can a carpenter speak eternal wisdom?
“Naw, he’s Mary’s boy.
He can’t be a rabbi or prophet, much less the Messiah.”
And in the end their refusal to accept what Jesus is doing limits their ability to receive his blessings.
And the story ends by saying that Jesus only laid hands on a few and healed them.
Right on the heels of this rejection of Jesus he calls his disciples together.
Maybe he is going to throw in the towel or retreat to another region where the people listen to him.
No, he sends them out to proclaim the gospel.
But before they go he gives them authority over unclean spirits.
Then he gives them directions.
Go two by two so that each has a companion to strengthen them.
Basically, they are not to carry a lot of baggage, just what they need.
Secondly, they are to stay in one place where they are welcomed.
He also prepares them for rejection.
He was rejected and they will be too, so they should just shake it off and move on.
So they went forth.
They proclaimed that all should repent.
That is not an easy message and it sets one up for rejection.
Even still, they are successful!
Many demons are cast out and many are healed.
What made the difference?
Jesus’ own hometown and family reject him.
Yet the other villages in the region respond positively to the disciples.
Could it be that they were not as familiar with the disciples and so stopped listening to them?
Whereas his hometown would not listen to Jesus because they knew him?
You know people talk about Canada being a Christian nation.
I have to laugh a little.
Granted, not everyone who came to Canada came to seek religious freedom.
Many came seeking wealth and glory.
Many others were refugees and came here against their will.
Not to mention the Original Peoples that were already here, our Indigenous brothers and sisters.
All that given, many of the founders of this nation sought religious freedom to practice Christianity the way they felt led by God.
Many of the principles of our government are based on the idea that humans are fallible and that God has given us all rights.
Most of the patriotic songs we sing are hymns that recognize God as the giver of freedom.
God Save the King and O Canada are only a couple.
The Christian story permeates our culture at every turn.
Recent events have helped us learn how mixing greed, government and co-opting the church can result in the tragedy of Residential Schools and the destruction of Indigenous people and culture.
So you would think that Jesus Christ would be welcome in Canada or maybe now, Jesus isn’t welcome!
But just as in Nazareth, familiarity breeds contempt.
Instead of growing, the church in North America is shrinking.
Jesus is old hat to most folk.
You try to tell them about Jesus and they tune you out and say to themselves, “Been there done that.”
Then they go running after some new philosophy or some new religion when they feel empty.
Also, the legacy of Residential Schools is overshadowing the good and value of the present day church and our efforts with all people of Canada.
Yet in other parts of the world Christianity is growing.
In Africa and Asia the church is growing by leaps and bounds.
It is to the point where churches in Africa and Asia are sending missionaries to North America.
Oddly, Christianity is growing the fastest among cultures that are not as familiar with it as we are here in North America.
People here, like the people of Nazareth, have an old image of Jesus and they refuse to accept that he could be more than their preconceived notions of him.
Some say that Canadians are inoculated against the Christian message.
More accurately they are just plain prejudiced against it.
So what should we do?
Should we give up on Canada?
Throw our arms up in the air?
Perhaps we Christians should focus our efforts on sending missionaries to the third world instead of planting & maintaining churches here in North America.
After all they are listening and responding while many Canadians ignore the church.
It isn’t popular to be a Christian these days.
What would Jesus do in such a situation?
Well, he would send out witnesses anointed with the power to resist evil and heal the wounded and hurting.
That is what he did when his own hometown and family rejected him.
So we are to go out into a society that thinks it already knows all about Jesus.
We are called to show them that their assumptions are wrong.
We will be rejected but some will hear and invite Jesus into their lives.
We’ll continue our outreach and we’ll continue our Christian Education book studies to help us learn more about our Indigenous kin and how to be welcoming to all people.
You know we have all sung O Canada a couple of times in the last week.
God bless Canada by keeping our land glorious and free?
Why should God bless a country where so many reject God’s Word?
If we really want God to bless Canada we should be ready to go out and be used as agents of that blessing.
If we want God to bless Canada, we should be ready to listen to the needs of others and the grief of others.
If we truly want God to bless Canada, we should be ready to go out and carry the blessing of Jesus to the people of Canada.
And if they reject us, which some will do, just shake the dust off your feet and move on.
That is what the disciples did and, just as then, evil will be cast out and many will be healed!
Thanks be to God. Amen.
