Service Sunday October 13, 2024

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All are Welcome!

Normally, I would have a recording of the whole worship service for you to watch using YouTube. Unfortunately, this week I blew it and there is no recording. My apologies. Sincerely, Max.

The Gathering

Welcome and Announcements.
Focusing Moment.

Acknowledgement of Land

Let us, in this place, remember, acknowledge, and give thanks for the Indigenous Peoples, who have had ties to this land from time beyond memory. We honour and acknowledge Treaty 20, which was signed in Port Hope 200 years ago, with the Curve Lake First Nation, the Hiawatha First Nation, the Mississaugas of Scugog Island, and the Chippewas of Rama First Nation. We acknowledge their stewardship and commit to join with them to care for the land and the waters.

Call to Worship:

One: The leaves are changing colour as the fall season unfolds.

ALL: We gather to give thanks to God.

One: The harvest is in. Some tables are full, yet some are empty.

ALL: We bring our yearnings for a just sharing to God.

One: The community gathers to worship, to celebrate, and to give thanks to our Creator.

ALL: We give thanks to God for this community of faith.

One: Let us worship together.

Written by Catherine Tovell, Kilworth U.C., London, Ont.

Gathering, Pentecost 2024, p.45. Used with permission.

Hymn: “Come, You Thankful People, Come” VU #516

1 Come, you thankful people, come,

raise the song of harvest home!

All is safely gathered in,

safe before the storms begin;

God, our maker, does provide

for our needs to be supplied:

come to God's own temple, come,

raise the song of harvest home!

2 All the world is God's own field,

harvests for God's praise to yield;

wheat and weeds together sown,

here for joy or sorrow grown;

first the blade, and then the ear,

then the full corn shall appear:

Harvest-giver, grant that we

wholesome grain and pure may be.

3 For our God, one day, shall come,

and shall take this harvest home;

from the field shall in that day

all offences purge away;

giving angels charge at last

in the fire the weeds to cast;

but the fruitful ears to store

in the garner evermore.

4 Even so, God, quickly come

to your final harvest home!

Gather all your people in,

free from sorrow, free from sin;

there for ever purified,

in your presence to abide:

come, with all your angels, come,

raise the glorious harvest home.

OPENING PRAYER: Spoken in Unison

God, Our Creator, you have given us so much. Thanksgiving fills our hearts as we return to worship. God, Our Foundation, you have supported us so well. A sense of blessing is ours as we take our place in the faith community. God the Challenger, you are ahead of us as we consider the coming months. We will not shrink from the path of truth and justice. God the Eternal One, you know our joys, our fears, and our uncertainties. In good days and the days of anxiety, we will trust you, our loving God. Amen.

Written by David Sparks, Summerland, B.C.

Gathering, Pentecost 2024, p.46. Used with permission.

MINISTRY OF MUSIC:

LEARNING TOGETHER:

Hymn: “Give Thanks, My Soul, for Harvest” VU #522

1 Give thanks, my soul, for harvest, for store of fruit and grain;

but know the owner gives so that we may share again.

Where people suffer hunger, or little children cry,

with gifts from God's rich bounty may thankfulness reply.

2 Give thanks, my soul, for riches of woodland, mine, and hill;

but know that gold and timber are the Creator's still.

God lends to us, as stewards, abundance we might share,

and thus provide earth's children the blessing of God's care.

3 Give thanks, my soul, for labours, that strength and days employ;

but know the Maker's purpose brings toil as well as joy.

Show forth, O God, your purpose; direct our will and hand

to share your love and bounty with all in every land.

THE WORD

Scripture: Luke 17:11-19

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

ALL: Thanks be to God.

MESSAGE

“One Out of Ten”

Listen to an audio recording of the Message below or read the message at the end of this page.

OUR RESPONSE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE and THE LORD’S PRAYER (spoken VU #921)

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.

PRESENTATION OF OUR OFFERINGS

OFFERTORY PRAYER:

Thank you, Gracious God. Gratitude is the foundation of our giving. And so we thank you for all you have entrusted to each of us individually. We thank you for this church you have entrusted to us together. Thank you for leading us to give ourselves away through the sharing of time, talents, and resources to your glory always. Amen

Written by David Sparks, Summerland, B.C.

Gathering, Pentecost 2, 2024, p.46. 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: This can be a week to count our past blessings.

ALL: Which ones were truly great, and which ones disappointing? Which ones were received by grace and which by our own force?

One: This can be a week to take stock of past woes.

ALL: Which ones were truly awful, and which had silver linings? Which ones did we give to God, and which were guarded as our own problems?

One: This is a week to trust in God with all your heart,

ALL: and perhaps lean a little less on our own understandings.

One: Let us go forth counting on the blessing of God in our lives.

ALL: Amen!

Written by Karen Boivin, Osgoode-Kars U.C., Ottawa, Ont.

Gathering, Pentecost 2, 2024, p.46. Used with permission.

A Time of Fellowship

Sermon 13 October 2024

“One Out of Ten”

Luke 17:11-19

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.

Where you are, your location, can make all the difference in the world.

The old saying goes that the three secrets to a business success are location, location and location.

Where you are makes a difference in our spiritual lives too.

Where do we stand and where are we going?

The place where the healing of the ten lepers took place is important to understanding the meaning of this incident.

Jesus and the Disciples were on their way to Jerusalem and they were passing between Samaria and Galilee.

Peter, at this point, had already said that Jesus was the Messiah the son of the living God.

They knew Jesus was the Messiah, but I doubt they fully understood what that meant.

The disciples were more concerned about their present location than their final destination of Jerusalem.

They were probably concerned about which side of the border they were on between Samaria and Galilee.

As they entered each village they wanted to know if it was a Samaritan or a Galilean village.

You see Samaritans and Jews just didn’t mix.

The Jews considered the Samaritans to be the opposite of themselves.

The Jews were the chosen people of God.

The Samaritans were just another nation of not-chosen, other people.

The disciples were so concerned about limiting their contact with any Samaritans that they missed the significance of where they were.

They knew that the Messiah had come for the children of Israel.

But what they didn’t realize was that the Christ had come for the Gentiles too.

Christ came first to the chosen nation of Israel, but only as a way to get to the rest of the world.

So there they were, headed for Jerusalem and the cross of Christ.

On the one side were the children of Israel, the people of God, who would reject their king.

On the other side were the lost nations of the world who God also loved very much.

As Jesus and the disciples traveled this road to the cross, they came to a village.

As they approached this town a group of ten people called to Jesus from a distance.

This is what lepers in the ancient world were required to do, to stay away from towns.

They were forbidden to enter lest people came into contact with their uncleanness.

They were isolated from society and were required to beg for their food because they could not carry on a trade of their own.

As if the ravages of their awful disease were not bad enough they were also isolated from their family and friends.

They couldn’t carry on a trade.

They couldn’t even go home for holidays.

But there is something interesting about this group other than the fact that they were lepers.

This group of lepers included both Jews and Samaritans.

It must certainly be true that misery loves company.

Samaritans and Jews as a rule had nothing to do with one another.

Yet this group, excluded from both sides of the broader community, roamed around together keeping one another company just to survive.

Somehow this group of lepers knew that Jesus was in the area.

They knew that he was a healer.

Maybe they had heard how he had healed lepers in the past.

They hoped that Jesus could heal them too.

Then they could return to their families and start their lives over again.

So they went to see him and they raised their voices together and cried, “Jesus, Teacher, have mercy on us.”

In other instances when Jesus healed lepers, he actually touched them and healed them on the spot.

This group obviously didn’t want to impose on the good teacher by coming too close, but they probably did expect him to heal them right then and there.

Instead Jesus told them to go to the temple to be examined by the priests.

Going to the priests was something that they were supposed to do after they were healed.

They obviously were not healed yet.

Imagine what was going through their minds.

“What is Jesus doing?

Is he playing a dirty trick on us?

What if we go all the way to Jerusalem to the temple just to be told once again that they were unclean?

That would be awful.”

Despite their doubts they left for Jerusalem.

Imagine their surprise when it happened.

Here they were on their way to Jerusalem and all of a sudden they were healed.

Some of the group probably pinched themselves to see if it was a dream.

Eventually most of them started running to Jerusalem so that they could be declared clean by the priests and could return to their families and their lives.

Yet one turned around and ran back to Jesus to give thanks.

The one who turned back was a Samaritan, the outsider.

We have good reason to give thanks.

If we were to count all our blessings we might surprise ourselves.

As Canadians we enjoy freedoms that people in other parts of the world can only dream about.

As Christians we are free to worship and we are recipients of an abundance of material blessings.

I doubt any of us will go home to empty cupboards today and yet there are people in our community who struggle.

As mentioned earlier, this is Thanksgiving Sunday, Food Centre Sunday and the last Sunday of our Food Centre Drive.

So often, those that use the services of a food centre are stigmatized as others almost like today’s lepers.

Those people, we are tempted to say, who access the food centre, do so whether it be to access a few days worth of food to meet an immediate need covering a food shortage at home or some of the other services available like connections to jobs, connections to health services and other supports to help find a longer term solution to the situation.

They are still people!

They are still members of our community.

They are our neighbours.

You might even be surprised to hear a story or two from people here today who may have needed the help of a food centre or some other kind of help in the past when times were tough.

I won’t ask anyone here to raise their hand but just know that we are a part of the community and the community is a part of us.

Jesus reminds us how to be caring and also reminds us to be compassionate for our neighbours.

Every morning when we wake up, give thanks to God!

Give God the glory for every breath that we take and every bite we eat!

Thanks be to God. Amen.