Service Sunday June 16, 2024
(For a Printer Friendly PDF version click this link
Indigenous Day of Prayer & Father’s Day
All are Welcome!
Watch a video recording of the whole service with YouTube below.
The Gathering
Welcome and Announcements.
Focusing Moment.
Acknowledgement of Land
The United Church of Canada acknowledges that its buildings and ministries, from coast to coast to coast to coast, are on traditional territories of Indigenous Peoples. Here we gather on land where Aboriginal people have performed age-old ceremonies of celebration, initiation and renewal. We acknowledge their living culture and their unique role in the life of the region.
Call to Worship:
One: In the presence of Creator, we gather:
ALL: People carrying burdens we may not know about looking for comfort; folks needing their spirits refreshed.
One: We draw together hoping for that touch that will enliven us, longing to be embraced in arms of love and understanding.
ALL: Help us to put aside our differences and see the earth as you see it, boundary-free.
One: You call us all: babies, toddlers on unsteady feet, school-age children with curious minds, teens with questing spirits, full of youthful confidence one moment and like frightened children the next.
ALL: We are called, as adults trying to take good paths watching out for the next generations, and those easing into their winter years passing on our teachings.
One: We are all kin in this meeting place whether we gather in person or through technology, our spirits joining to say meegwetch for all that we have been blessed with.
ALL: Thanks be to God for the goodness in our lives. Amen.
© 2022 The United Church of Canada
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike License.
HYMN: “In the Bulb There Is a Flower” VU #703
1 In the bulb there is a flower;
in the seed, an apple tree;
in cocoons, a hidden promise:
butterflies will soon be free!
In the cold and snow of winter
there's a spring that waits to be,
unrevealed until its season,
something God alone can see.
2 There's a song in every silence,
seeking word and melody;
there's a dawn in every darkness,
bringing hope to you and me.
From the past will come the future;
what it holds, a mystery,
unrevealed until its season,
something God alone can see.
3 In our end is our beginning;
in our time, infinity;
in our doubt there is believing;
in our life, eternity.
In our death, a resurrection;
at the last, a victory,
unrevealed until its season,
something God alone can see.
OPENING PRAYER:
One: Creator God, Great Spirit, we pray our thanks for the opportunity to gather in this sacred space and in our homes. Here we are most aware of the gift of wind:
All: and the four directions from which it comes.
One: Here we are most aware of the gift of sun:
All: and the four directions on which it shines.
One: Here we are most aware of the gift of humanity:
All: and the four directions in which we exist.
One: Here we are most aware of the gift of Creation:
All: and the four directions which support our living, breathing, and being.
One: This day we pray thanksgiving for the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people of Canada;
All: and we commit ourselves to be people of reconciliation in the tradition of our beloved Jesus. We pray in his name. Amen.
Written by Carolyn Wilson Wynne.
Copyright 2020 The United Church of Canada/L’Eglise Unie du Canada.
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike Licence.
To view this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ca.
Written by Elise Feltrin, Chemainus U.C., Chemainus, B.C..
Gathering, Pentecost 2024, p.40. Used with permission.
MINISTRY OF MUSIC
LEARNING TOGETHER
HYMN: “Draw The Circle Wide” MV #145
Refrain:
Draw the circle wide. Draw it wider still.
Let this be our song, no one stands alone, standing side by side, draw the circle wide.
1. God the still-point of the circle, ‘round whom all creation turns;
nothing lost but held forever, in God’s gracious arms. Refrain
2. Let our hearts touch far horizons, so encompass great and small;
let our loving know no borders, faithful to God’s call. Refrain
3. Let the dreams we dream be larger, than we’ve ever dreamed before;
let the dream of Christ be in us, open every door. Refrain
THE WORD
Scripture: Mark 4: 26 - 34
Leader: Hear and listen to what the Spirit is saying to the church.
ALL: Thanks be to God.
MESSAGE
“Father’s Day Photo Album”
Listen to an audio recording of the Message below or read it at the end of this page.
OUR RESPONSE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE and THE LORD’S PRAYER:
((sung VU #960))
HYMN: “For the Fruit of All Creation” VU #227
1 For the fruit of all creation, thanks be to God.
For the gifts to every nation, thanks be to God.
For the ploughing, sowing, reaping,
silent growth while we are sleeping,
future needs in earth's safekeeping, thanks be to God.
2 In the just reward of labour, God's will is done.
In the help we give our neighbour, God's will is done.
In our worldwide task of caring
for the hungry and despairing,
in the harvests we are sharing, God's will is done.
3 For the harvests of the Spirit, thanks be to God.
For the good we all inherit, thanks be to God.
For the wonders that astound us,
for the truths that still confound us,
most of all that love has found us, thanks be to God.
Your Generosity Matters
PRESENTATION OF OUR OFFERINGS
Offertory Prayer
It is our privilege, Creating One, to share from our individual bounties. Our gifts to the world: money, commitment, and thanksgiving. We pray for these offerings in the name of the One who shared his all. Amen.
Written by Carolyn Wilson Wynne.
Copyright 2020 The United Church of Canada/L’Eglise Unie du Canada.
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike Licence.
To view this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ca.
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: Move from here a reconciled and reconciling people with assurance that Creator God, Great Spirit accompanies you this day and every day.
ALL: Amen.
Written by Carolyn Wilson Wynne.
Copyright 2020 The United Church of Canada/L’Eglise Unie du Canada.
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike Licence.
To view this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ca.
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 16 June 2024
“Father’s Day Photo Album”
Mark 4:26-34
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.
A man was walking through the Sahara desert, desperate for water, when he saw something, far off in the distance.
Hoping to find water, he walked toward the image, only to find a little old woman sitting at a card table with a bunch of neckties laid out on it.
The thirsty man asked, “Please, I’m dying of thirst, can I have some water?”
The woman replied “I don't have any water, but why don’t you buy a tie?
Here’s one that goes nicely with your outfit.”
The man shouted, “I don’t want a tie, I need water!”
“Okay, don’t buy a tie.
But to show you what a nice person I am, I’ll tell you that over that hill there, about four miles, is a nice restaurant.
Walk that way, they’ll give you all the water you want.”
The dehydrated soul thanked the woman and walked away toward the hill and eventually disappeared.
Three hours later he returned crawling back to where the woman was still sitting behind her card table.
She said “I told you, about four miles over that hill.
Couldn’t you find it?”
The man rasped, “I found it all right.
They wouldn’t let me in without a tie.”
If you got a tie this Father’s Day, hold onto it!
You never know when you might need it!
This week, I found on the internet a “Father’s Day Photo Album.”
It was a collection of photos of fathers and their children.
These photos had been sent in by people who wanted to share them.
In one picture a man was sitting with his son in a fishing boat.
In another, two fathers were with their children on the shore.
Each of the photos showed a father and his children smiling and happy.
At that same site there were surveys and discussions of the state of Fatherhood.
As I read this discussion I realized that the photo album was not presenting the real life situation.
The photos were the ideal of what fatherhood should look like.
The discussions brought up the realities of absentee fathers.
The reality of fathers who feel the need to work overtime or who are emotionally isolated from their children.
There were some bright spots.
Many people thought that fathers were getting more involved in the raising of their children by choice.
There was a lot of discussion about changing diapers.
One father proudly proclaims, “I have changed hundreds of diapers but my father barely changed a dozen”
Yet even this points toward an ideal that is not yet reached.
We want fathers and grandfathers to be involved in the lives of their children & grandchildren.
We want that picture perfect relationship of father to child for all children.
We fathers wish we could be that way and our partners wish we could too.
We wish all children could have a relationship with their father that fits the picture perfect ideal.
Father’s Day is a little different in the church.
In the church all men are fathers.
Each time a child is baptized in the church the whole church promises “to support and uphold the child within the community of faith”.
Any Christian man who takes this vow takes the responsibility of raising and nurturing those children in the faith.
So if we were to create a photo album filled with pictures of the ideal of Christian fatherhood what would it look like?
It would include men teaching children to pray.
It would include pictures of men working beside children in serving others.
It would show men and children laughing and playing at Church picnics, Sunday School and Vacation Bible School.
It would show men listening to young people as they talk about their problems.
It would have picture after picture of men passing on the faith.
That is what we want to see.
We want to see the faith growing in the lives of our children.
We want to see the same thing Jesus was talking about in Mark.
He said, “The kingdom of God is like someone who scatters seeds and then they grow.”
The point is that all the farmer does is scatter the seed.
The seed grows on its own.
And finally it comes to fruit.
Jesus further emphasizes this point with his next parable.
He said the Kingdom of God is like a pine nut.
It is so small but it grows into a huge tree or plant.
Faith is like that: It starts with a small seed but it grows into something big.
Faith may start with singing “Jesus Loves Me” but it grows into the faith of a Martin Luther, or a Charles Wesley, or a Mother Theresa.
We want to see faith growing like a pine nut in children’s lives.
We want to see faith in God shoring up the lives of the children.
We want to see youth who are standing on the solid rock of Christ.
We want to see the love of God coming to full fruit as young people serve others in the name of Christ and devote themselves to Christ.
But in order to see all this we first have to plant it, we must have a vision.
I have thought about this for quite some time.
A while back, something that one of our members said once about her son that clicked for me.
She said that her son feels that the church needs to be a place where kids want to go, the parents will come with the kids.
That is the planting the seed part.
Providing whatever it is that kids want to be involved in is the seed that grows into families becoming connected together because of the church.
Yet we live in an area where many young people have to leave the county to find work.
Many other people are nearing retirement or are retired yet their families live in another part of the province.
We are not exactly the photo album family church.
But that is okay as long as we acknowledge that and think ahead.
What may have worked in the past to encourage families to come to church doesn’t necessarily work very well today.
I think it is partly due to families being divided, geographically.
The vision that I see is that we continue to do a good job at nurturing our senior and almost senior church family.
Yet at the same time, provide opportunities for young people to get together and have a good experience of church.
That good experience is the seed that will grow into the beginnings of a relationship with the church.
As time passes, it will be these families that see their children grow up and move off to the cities; then they will have more time for the community.
Whether it is through curling, choir or cards, the spiritual community that adults seek in the church began as a seed of hope years earlier.
This Father’s Day, as we think of our children and grandchildren, remembering Jesus’ message.
We must plant a seed that some day might grow.
We must look ahead and make changes to ensure the future of our church for generations to come.
Whether those generations are our direct descendents or not is not the point.
Let us continue to build each other up and also plant the seeds of opportunity for our young families in this community.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
