Service Sunday September 22, 2024

Services

Sep 18

Written By Highland Hills

(For a Printer Friendly PDF version click this link)

All are Welcome!

Watch a video recording of the whole service using 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.

In this pastoral charge, we gather on the ancestral land of the Nishnaabeg, with whom Treaty 20 and the Williams Treaty were signed.

Creator God, as we come together in worship, gathered on this land, keep us mindful of the covenants that have been broken with First Nations Peoples. Be with us as we strive to work toward respectful relationships with Indigenous Peoples.

Call to Worship:

One: Come, let us worship God,

ALL: Blessed are all who receive and share the word of God.

One: Blessed are all those who ready themselves for the coming of the kingdom of God.

ALL: We are all children of our Creator and eager to worship our God.

One: Let us praise God together in song.

Written by Robert Murdock, Collier Street U.C., Barrie, Ont.

Gathering, Pentecost 2024, p.33. Used with permission.

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.

A SONG OF FAITH: (Spoken In Unison)

God is creative and self-giving, generously moving in all the near and distant corners of the universe. Nothing exists that does not find its source in God.

Our first response to God’s providence is gratitude. We sing thanksgiving.

Finding ourselves in a world of beauty and mystery, of living things, diverse and interdependent, of complex patterns of growth and evolution, of subatomic articles and cosmic swirls, we sing of God the Creator, the Maker and Source of all that is.

MINISTRY OF MUSIC:

LEARNING TOGETHER:

HYMN: “Jesus, Friend of Little Children” VU #340

1 Jesus, friend of little children,

let me be one too;

take my hand, and ever keep me

close to you.

2 Teach me how to grow in goodness,

daily as I grow.

You have been a child, and surely

you must know.

3 Never leave me, nor forsake me;

ever be my friend;

for I need you, from life's dawning

to its end.

THE WORD

Scripture: Mark 9: 30 - 37

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

ALL: Thanks be to God.

MESSAGE

“Getting Smart”

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 A CONTEMPORARY INTERPRETATION OF THE LORD’S PRAYER:

Loving parent of all life, present throughout the cosmos,

The mere mention of your name calls us to love, respect, and care for each other. May justice for all, be imbedded in the hearts of all people.

Today may we accept only what we need, respecting creation, doing our part in sustaining the delicate balance of the natural world.

Renew us with your grace, as we stumble through this world and help us to share the spirit of forgiveness, with those who have hurt us.

Guide us with your spirit of love when we are tempted to be of this world.

May evil be removed and replaced with your love.

For by living with your love written on our hearts,

We may rise above injustice and share the glory of equality, and peace with all of creation. All the days of our lives and into eternity. Amen

By Rev. Stephanie Richmond Seagrave/ Greenbank UC,

Used with permission

Hymn: “We are Pilgrims” VU #595

1 We are pilgrims on a journey,

fellow travellers on the road;

we are here to help each other

walk the mile and bear the load.

2 Sister, let me be your servant,

let me be as Christ to you;

pray that I may have the grace to

let you be my servant too.

3 I will hold the Christ-light for you

in the night-time of your fear;

I will hold my hand out to you,

speak the peace you long to hear.

4 I will weep when you are weeping,

when you laugh I'll laugh with you;

I will share your joy and sorrow,

till we've seen this journey through.

5 When we sing to God in heaven,

we shall find such harmony,

born of all we've known together

of Christ's love and agony.

6 Brother, let me be your servant,

let me be as Christ to you;

pray that I may have the grace to

let you be my servant too.

PRESENTATION OF OUR OFFERINGS

OFFERTORY PRAYER:

In Unison:

In gratitude, we offer our givings this day. For the work of volunteers, we are forever thankful. For the untold gifts offered in the past, we are forever grateful. By the Word made flesh, we are forever inspired. Through our praise and our gifts, we offer this prayer: May these gifts be used to fulfill the building of your kin-dom here on earth. Amen

Written by Jim McKean, while at Severn Shores U.C., Severn, Ont.

Gathering, Pentecost 2, 2024, p.41. 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: God created everything as a gift of love for all to share. May we go out into the world and continue to make God’s dreams come true.

ALL: Amen!

Written by Eileen Masse, Stittsville U.C., Stittsville, Ont.

Gathering, Pentecost 2, 2024, p.41. Used with permission.

A Time of Fellowship

Sermon 22 September 2024

“Getting Smart”

Mark 9: 30 - 37

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.

Wisdom is power.

The saying goes that “Knowledge is power.”

We live in the information age.

Many practice the belief that knowledge is power.

Corporations go to great lengths to crunch the numbers, and collate the data so that they can statistically summarize in a revealing way.

To gain an understanding that their competitor doesn’t have.

Yet all this information produces very little wisdom.

That is because wisdom is of a different quality.

Wisdom isn’t the product of gathering a vast quantity of knowledge.

It is something else.

Comparing wisdom to raw knowledge is like comparing apples and oranges.

More correctly, it is like comparing coal to diamonds.

They are both made up of carbon atoms.

Yet diamonds are in a form that makes them vastly more valuable.

Wisdom is an ability to understand and comprehend life.

An understanding which goes beyond theories, even the grand theories of relativity and quantum mechanics.

Wisdom is a form of knowledge that goes beyond what is taught in most classrooms.

If mere information is power than how much more powerful is wisdom.

The quality of wisdom allows it to take an uneducated woman and make her the one that everyone comes to for advice.

Wisdom takes and uneducated man and makes him the one Kings listen to.

Perhaps that is why some people seek wisdom.

Those who are wise possess a power that is greater than those who are merely intelligent.

We seek wisdom, but it is also hard to find.

The Bible says, “Whence comes wisdom and where is understanding?”

Humans have always sought wisdom, but it is elusive.

We want to understand, but as the saying goes,

“The more I know the more I am aware of how much I don’t know.”

The truth which we seek always seems to be just out of our reach.

The book of Job says that wisdom is hidden.

It is hidden from the eyes of the living.

Even the birds of the air can’t see it.

So where do we find it.

It can’t be found in books although many wise people are well read.

Can it be found in human philosophies?

Can it be found on a mountain top?

Job comes to the conclusion that only God has true wisdom.

Only the Creator understands all things and their places in the universe.

True wisdom can come only from God.

Wisdom is hard to find because it comes from only one source, God.

Jesus’ disciples knew that wisdom is power.

They were also aware that true wisdom comes only from God.

And they knew that in Jesus, they had a direct line to God.

At times Jesus would take them aside and teach them privately.

Jesus would tell them things that he wouldn’t tell the crowds.

They were gaining knowledge from him that others didn’t have.

On one occasion Jesus and his disciples went into hiding for a while.

They were traveling through Galilee but Jesus wouldn’t let people know they were there.

Jesus was secretly teaching the disciples again.

He taught them, “The son of man will be delivered into the hands of human beings and will be killed, and having been killed he will rise again on the third day.”

This privileged knowledge made the disciples think they were great, even if they didn’t understand it.

They thought themselves wise because of what Jesus had told them.

And so as they traveled along they began to discuss among themselves which of them was the greatest.

Jesus knew what was going on.

So when they got to their destination Jesus asked them, “What were you talking about?”

They didn’t say a word.

The silence was deafening!

They were ashamed of their conduct.

In that one question Jesus imparted some real wisdom and they realized their own pride.

But don’t be too quick to judge the disciples.

We do the same thing.

Some Christians spend a lot of energy and time trying to gain a better understanding of the Bible than their peers.

They go through all kinds of mental gymnastics trying to extract some privileged knowledge from the Bible.

The most ludicrous examples are those who try to calculate the date of Jesus’ return.

Let’s see, if you take Revelation 24:1 in the original Greek, and add up the sum of the numerical value of each letter and that should produce the year that Jesus will return.

(act like I am adding it up on a calculator)

There!

Jesus will return in the year 1845.

That can’t be right.

Oh yes we need to multiply that by the square root of three.

That is three for the trinity.

Don’t laugh too hard.

Some Christians do the same thing.

We are like the disciples.

We are here in God’s house and Jesus is with us.

The crowds of this world are out there looking, Lord only knows where, for direction and wisdom.

We have been listening to the Bible which tells us of God’s plan for the world.

Like the disciples Jesus has whispered something in our ears that the world does not know.

We know that we are lost without God.

We know that God’s Holy Spirit is here with us.

We know these things and the world doesn’t!

We know them because God, the source of wisdom, has told us.

They are all lost, but we are wise.

That makes us greater than them!

Doesn’t it?

Wisdom is powerful so we desire it.

But it is elusive.

Like diamonds, wisdom is hard to find.

It comes only from God.

So we come to church, to God’s house, to ask God for wisdom.

We read the Bible and listen intently.

We pray for guidance.

The Bible tells us where wisdom is!

Look!

Jesus stops us and takes us to some children playing out in the yard.

Jesus takes one of them and hugs them and says:

“If you want to be great you must serve as I serve.

If you want to be wise you must love my children.

Because when you love my children you love me.

This is wisdom: That you love and honour God.

This is greatness that you stoop to hug a child.”

We are all children of God.

Just this week, I have encountered three ways that our church is prayerfully calling on us for our wisdom and also finding ways to help us share our wisdom.

The first is called “The Gizmo” which is a nickname for the less-funky name – “Congregational Self Assessment Tool”.

Our Regional Council is asking our Unified Board to fill out a survey to help us assess how we are doing.

The survey asks questions like who we are as a community, what things are we are proud of, what are the highlights of our ministry, what are the things we do well, what are our dreams?

It also gives a chance to look at areas where we hope we might do better. What are our learning curves? What obstacles do we see?

This tool will help us think critically and constructively about our past, present and future.

If that isn’t wisdom generating, I’m not sure what is!

The other wisdom seeking initiative that I heard about this week is a scheduled town hall meeting that the General Council Executive has set up following the October meeting.

Anyone is invited to attend the Cross-Country Check-In online, Tuesday, October 22nd at 6 PM with the General Secretary, Rev. Michael Blair.

Ideas will be shared in preparation for the November meeting of the General Council Executive.

The church seeking wisdom and sharing wisdom.

The third way is our church encouraging us all to seek truth and reconciliation on Sept. 30th.

Watch for opportunities to learn.

Let us put our faith where our mouths are; our faith in our generous God to provide.

In God’s Kingdom wisdom is to serve God and greatness is to embrace the lowly.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Highland Hills