Service Sunday September 1, 2024
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Worship Leader: Rev. Marybeth Wilson
All are Welcome!
Watch a video recording of the whole service below using YouTube.
The Gathering
Welcome and Announcements.
Focusing Moment.
Acknowledgement of Land
For thousands of years, Indigenous people have listened carefully to what the land is speaking to them. With respect, and in the spirit of reconciliation, we honour and acknowledge the careful stewardship of these lands, the traditional territory of the Michi Sasgiig and Anishinaabeg Peoples, collectively known as the Williams Treaties First Nations. May we, too, listen carefully to both the land and to the wisdom of our Indigenous neighbours.
Call to Worship:
One: Let us open our minds and hearts to the Heart of the Holy One.
All: Let us listen attentively to God’s Word.
One: May we know, in the core of our beings,
the depth of the love of the Creator.
All: May our hearts overflow with gratitude and peace as we worship.
Hymn: “For the Beauty of the Earth” VU #226
1 For the beauty of the earth,
for the glory of the skies,
for the love which from our birth
over and around us lies,
God of all, to you we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.
2 For the beauty of each hour
of the day and of the night,
hill and vale, and tree and flower,
sun and moon, and stars of light, R
God of all, to you we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.
3 For the joy of human love,
brother, sister, parent, child,
friends on earth, and friends above,
for all gentle thoughts and mild, R
4 For each perfect gift sublime
to our race so freely given,
graces human and divine,
flowers of earth and buds of heaven, R
OPENING PRAYER: (Spoken In Unison)
Holy One, Holy Three, we gather in your eternally loving presence, grateful for the awareness that you are always with us. We see signs all around us of the wisdom built into your creation: hummingbirds that seem to know it is almost time to migrate, leaves that begin to change colour from green to gold and crimson, and children who know when it’s time to return to school. Bless us with deeper awareness of the wonder of the world you created. Amen.
MINISTRY OF MUSIC:
LEARNING TOGETHER:
HYMN: “What Does the Lord Require of You” VU #701
1 What does the Lord require of you?
What does the Lord require of you?
2 Justice, kindness,
walk humbly with your God.
3 To seek justice, and love kindness,
and walk humbly with your God.
THE WORD
Scripture: James 1: 17-27
Leader: Hear and listen to what the Spirit is saying to the church.
ALL: Thanks be to God.
MESSAGE
“Hearers and Doers”
Read a copy of this sermon at the end of this page.
OUR RESPONSE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE and THE LORD’S PRAYER (spoken VU #921)
A MINUTE FOR AFFIRMING AWARENESS
Hymn: “Spirit God, Be Our Breath” MV #150
Spirit God: be our breath, be our song.
Blow through us, bringing strength to move on.
Our world seems inward, defensive, withdrawn…
Spirit God, be our song.
Patient God: soothe our pride, calm our fear.
Comfort us. When we know you are near
we grow more certain, our vision is clear.
Patient God, calm our fear.
Loving God: be our voice, be our prayer.
Reaching out, joining hands as we share,
we seek your guidance through friendship and care.
Loving God, be our prayer.
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.
PRESENTATION OF OUR OFFERINGS
OFFERTORY PRAYER:
In Unison:
It is from you, O God, that all blessings flow. May the gifts we offer provide a similar blessing to our community, both near and far. And may we always follow the way of Jesus, being ‘doers’ of his word of eternal divine Love. Amen.
Sending Forth:
SUNG BLESSING: “Spirit God, Be Our Breath” MV #150 verse 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.
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.
Hearers and Doers
James 1:17-27
September 1, 2024
I’m really hoping you heard the command about half way through this morning’s scripture reading. “Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers”. If any of the women in the congregation were Explorers when you were in your pre-teen years, like me you would have heard that phrase weekly. This particular command, slightly different in the King James Version of the Bible, was the Explorers motto: “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only.”
I grew up in the 1950’s and 60’s, when Sunday Schools and mid-week groups were full to the brim with children. Mrs. Book, our Explorers leader, clearly made quite an impression on me, since I remember her name all these years later. With her longish full skirts and grey hair pulled back in a bun, Mrs. Book seemed old to me at 10 or 11 years of age. I met her again 20 some years later when I got involved with UCW. Mrs. Book’s appearance had hardly changed, (she still looked ‘old’ to me) nor had her commitment to follow that Explorer’s motto. In her quiet way, she continued to be a ‘doer’ of the word.
As a young girl, I had learned that “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only” was from the epistle of James, found somewhere at the far end of the New Testament, but that was about as much as I knew. I was unaware that tradition claimed that the ‘James’ who wrote the letter was the brother of Jesus, although there is no written evidence that claim is true. I hadn’t read the opening verse of the letter which offered greetings from James to the Jewish people who had become believers that Jesus was the Messiah. These believers no longer lived in Israel but were scattered around the Mediterranean basin. I knew nothing about Martin Luther deeming James’ letter to be “an epistle of straw“, for its emphasis on ‘works’ rather than relying solely on faith in God for salvation. And there was one more thing I didn’t know as a youngster: the letter from James reads more like wisdom literature, similar to the book of Proverbs, with its pithy commands, such as the one we are considering today.
What I WAS becoming aware of, in my pre-teen and early teen years, were ways that the world in which I lived certainly didn’t seem to be either ‘hearing’ or ‘doing’ the word of God. When I was not quite 10, I recall being frightened by the prospect of nuclear war drawing close to us in North America when Russia made a secret agreement with Fidel Castro to place Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. When I was not quite 11, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, followed five years later by his brother Robert and Martin Luther King Jr. Like King, I had dreams for the world. I was far from being a hippie, but like many in my generation – perhaps you too – I envisioned the possibilities of the ‘dawning of the age of Aquarius’, “when peace [would] guide the planets, and love [would] steer the stars”.
Sadly, more than half a century later, peace is definitely not guiding the planet. Armed conflict continues to happen – in Ukraine and Russia, in Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Nigeria and so many other African nations, and, of course, in Israel and Gaza. The state of our world suggests there is little attention being paid to ‘doing’ the word. It seems few swords are being turned into ploughshares. We humans don’t seem to have taken to heart Jesus’ words: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you”.
Despite Martin Luther’s disparaging remarks about the letter of James, the people who made the final selection of what writings were to be included in the Bible didn’t agree. Here it is, still in our Bibles. And as I read verses other than those designated in today’s lectionary reading, I hear words of wisdom built on faith. I suspect even Martin Luther would be in favour of such words. For example, verse 5 of the first chapter says this: “If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given to you. But ask in faith, never doubting.” I am confident James had asked God for wisdom as he wrote his letter. A portion of the final verse of today’s reading refers to many passages found in the Hebrew Scriptures – words that James was aware would be well known by the original readers of his letter: “care for orphans and widows in their distress”. And a bit later in his letter, James writes these words, referring to both Hebrew scriptures and Jesus’ words: “You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” These are what ‘doers’ are to do – care for those in distress and love our neighbours.
Throughout my life, even during my teen years when so many of my contemporaries were abandoning church, I held firmly to my faith in the God of eternal love and the peace ushered in by the advent of Jesus the Christ.
Through the years and decades I have been proud to be connected to the United Church of Canada, a denomination in which social justice is honoured. Both as individuals and as communities of faith, we are most definitely ‘doers’ of the word in our United Church. We do what we can to make a difference – to bring the realm of heaven a little closer.
Recently, when my brother and sister-in-law were visiting, I took them to Brooksong Cancer Retreat and Support Centre to show them this wonderful facility, just one of the places supported by the Outreach Committee of Highland Hills United Church. Brooksong’s Executive Director, Barb Smith-Morrison, happened to be there which was a bonus for us. Barb speaks with passion about the Centre and its work in support of people diagnosed with cancer and their primary caregivers. Barb is an ordained Mennonite pastor and somehow our conversation evolved into talk of faith and preaching. Chuckling, Barb said that she could probably condense her thirty years of preaching into a few words: you are endlessly loved by God, so get out and do the work of Love! In preparation for today’s worship and sermon, I’d been pondering the phrase in James’ letter – “be doers of the word and not merely hearers” – for several weeks. Spoken within Brooksong, a place which I consider to be where ‘the word’ is done magnificently, Barb’s words suddenly brought it all together.
You see, the “word” we hear when we listen carefully, is precisely as Barb said: God loves us endlessly. God’s gift to us is Jesus and his story of Holy love shared widely and generously with all, no matter who we are or what we have done. There is no “merely” or “only” involved in hearing this Word! The Word of Love we hear through scripture, through our relationship with the Holy One, is nothing less than profound. God’s Word of Love profoundly affects all that we are and all that we are called to do. It is precisely that Word of Love that invites us, that encourages us, that calls us, to be DOERS of Love.
So, what I am inviting you to ask yourself this week is, ‘how can I be a DOER of love?’ How can I do God’s Word of Love out in God’s world? How are we, as a community of faith, doing God’s Word of Love? How can we continue to be DOERS of the Word? I have every confidence that each of us, when we listen carefully, will hear answers to our questions. May it be so. Amen.
