Service Sunday September 8, 2024

Services

Sep 5

Written By Highland Hills

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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 land on which this building sits, and the places where most of us are worshiping today, is land that has been walked on, hunted on, and lived on for thousands of years. It is the Traditional land of the Anishnaabeg people, and it is with humility and respect that we give thanks that we are here, in the space where we are in touch with Creator who made it and who made us. May our worship honour the relationships that are celebrated and invited here, and may we always remember the story of this land, the people who live here, and the call to live with respect and thanksgiving.

Call to Worship:

One: Let us enter this place together, ready to worship with thanksgiving for the abundance of God that we experience every day.

ALL: God gave us a wide and wondrous world in which to live.

One: Here, in this holy place, in community, surrounded by the wonders of God’s glorious Creation, we will worship with prayer, song, hearts, and minds.

ALL: This is the day that God has made! Let us rejoice and be glad!

Written by Allison Abbott-Wiebe, St. Paul’s U.C., Graysville, Man.

Gathering, Pentecost 2024, p.27. Used with permission.

Hymn: “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing” VU #326

1 O for a thousand tongues to sing

my great Redeemer's praise,

the glories of my God and King,

the triumphs of God's grace.

2 Jesus! the name that charms our fears,

that bids our sorrows cease;

'tis music in the sinner's ears,

'tis life and health and peace.

3 He speaks, and listening to his voice,

new life the dead receive,

the mournful broken-hearts rejoice,

the humble poor believe.

4 Hear him, you deaf; you voiceless ones,

your tongues again employ;

you blind, behold your Saviour comes,

and leap, you lame, for joy!

5 My gracious Master and my God,

assist me to proclaim,

to spread through all the earth abroad

the honours of your name.

OPENING PRAYER: (Spoken In Unison)

Great Creating God, we pause, in awe of your creation, in awe with your creation. We pause, amazed that we are your creation, and that all of your creation is one with you. We pause, enthralled at the ecstasy of love and the power of the wholeness we experience in your creating power. May we journey in the world always amazed, always in wonder, always in awe. May we experience Creation’s wonder, and may we acknowledge and express that wonder in all that we do. We are indeed blessed. You are indeed a blessing. Amen

Written by Anna Atkinson, Cedar U.C., Nanaimo, B.C.

Gathering, Pentecost 2 2024, p.28. Used with permission.

MINISTRY OF MUSIC:

LEARNING TOGETHER:

HYMN: “Now There Is No Male Or Female” VU #627

1 Now there is no male or female,

now there is no free or slave,

now there is no Jew or Gentile

in the earth Christ died to save.

Christ has set us free for freedom:

we no more sing slavery's creed;

old submissions cannot claim us,

Christ has set us free indeed.

2 Crucified with Christ the Saviour,

baptised in his holy death,

and as Christ was raised to glory

we have new life on this earth.

Power of water and God's naming,

turning us from dark to light,

joins us to those who, before us,

ran the race and fought the fight.

3 Death has no dominion o'er him,

so for us death holds no power;

life's own waters now have marked us

born to God this very hour.

From this moment and forever

dead to sin, alive in Christ,

born of water and the Spirit,

now in Christ we find our life.

THE WORD

Scripture: Mark 7:24-37

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

ALL: Thanks be to God.

MESSAGE

“We are the Dogs!”

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: “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.

2. Let our hearts touch far horizons,

so encompass great and small;

let our loving know no borders,

faithful to God’s call.

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.

PRESENTATION OF OUR OFFERINGS

OFFERTORY PRAYER:

In Unison:

Generous and loving God, in your name we dedicate these gifts for the work of your kin-dom in this place. There is much to be done to restore your Creation and rectify injustice in this world. So, with grateful hearts, we pledge to share, as we are able, our time, talents, and monetary gifts where they are needed. Bless the gifts we offer, today and every day. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen

Written by Anne Mathewson, St. David’s Trinity U.C., Saskatoon, Sask.

Gathering, Pentecost 2, 2024, p.31. 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 looks upon Creation and says it is good. You are not a being that exists outside of Creation; you are a part of God’s creation, made from the soil of the good earth.

God looks upon you and says you are good. Go from this place, knowing you have found favour in God’s eyes.

Return to God’s world to live in harmony and balance within the web of life the Creator has placed us in.

ALL: Amen!

Written by Taylor Croissant, South minster U.C., Lethbridge, Alta.

Gathering, Pentecost 2, 2024, p.32. Used with permission.

A Time of Fellowship

Sermon 8th September 2024

“We are the Dogs!”

Mark 7: 24 - 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.

Jesus was a Jew.

We need to get that fact firmly in our minds before we go any further.

We often subconsciously assume that Jesus was like us; a modern Christian.

But Jesus was a Jew by birth.

Both his parents were Jewish.

He even died a Jew.

The inscription on his cross said, “The King of the Jews.”

Jesus was Jewish, and one thing that was true about Jews; they didn’t mix with Gentiles.

God had chosen the descendants of Abraham to be a Holy nation.

Holy means set apart for God’s use.

God had set them apart and so they felt they were meant to be separated.

They ate, dressed, and lived differently as a testimony to God choosing them.

An unfortunate result of this status as a chosen nation was that some Jews often looked down upon others.

They only associated with Gentiles when they had to do so.

Gentiles were considered spiritually, religiously, morally, and racially inferior.

They were dogs.

Jesus was a Jew, yet curiously we find him in Gentile territory in this part of Mark’s Gospel.

For some reason Jesus has gone out of his way to pass through Gentile territory to get where he was going.

Perhaps he wanted to get away from the crowds and find some time to rest and pray.

Mark tells us that he didn’t want anyone to know he was there.

I’m sure the disciples thought that just as they were uninterested in the Gentiles, the Gentiles would be uninterested in them, and they would get some rest.

But at least one Gentile was interested.

She recognized that Jesus was more than just the King of the Jews.

She probably wouldn’t have used the word “Messiah” but she knew that Jesus was Lord of something much greater than just the kingdom of Israel.

So she went to Jesus, this Messiah of the Jews.

She went seeking healing for a daughter that was tormented mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

When she came to Jesus she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

Jesus replied, “Stand in line and take your turn.

The children get fed first.

If there’s any left over, the dogs get it.”

Then the woman, who had a quick wit, replied, “Of course, Master.

But don’t dogs under the table get scraps dropped by the children?”

Jesus said, “You’re right!

On your way!

Your daughter is no longer disturbed.

The demonic affliction is gone.”

And she went home and found it was true - her daughter was healed.

We expected Jesus to heal the girl, but why did Jesus respond at first to the woman the way he did?

It seems un-Jesus like to refer to this woman and her entire race as dogs.

But that’s essentially what he did?

I don’t know about you but I was shocked and disturbed by reading it the first time.

How do we reconcile this with the love Jesus showed the whole world?

The other day, a friend gave me a puzzle.

The puzzle was a few sticks, and he told me to make a square out of them.

I thought to myself, “How hard can that be?”

However, no matter how hard I tried to arrange the sticks into a square, there was always one stick that stuck out of the box.

I couldn’t make a perfect square out of those sticks.

Finally I threw up my hands and explained to my friend that it was impossible.

That’s when he took the sticks and arranged them into a square with the one stick jutting out—not a perfect square!

He said to me, “See, this is a square.

I have made a square out of the sticks.”

I protested, “but it is not a perfect square!”

My friend said, “Sure it is.

You just have to be willing to recognize that there are things outside the box.”

He went on, “you were just operating with your own logic box.

That means you have one concept of a square and believe that there’s no other way.

What I have just shown you is that there is another way to make a square, but in order for you to accept that, you will have to allow yourself to think outside your logic box.”

I wonder if the same thing happened to Jesus.

When he looked at the Syrophoenician woman, he saw a woman on par with the dogs.

That was Jesus’ human prejudice coming through.

That was his logic box given to him by his culture and faith traditions.

The woman helped Jesus to see outside of his logic box and to see a child of God with great faith.

I can also imagine a scene years down the road after Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Paul has been running about baptizing uncircumcised Gentiles and there is an uproar in Jerusalem.

Followers of The Way of Jesus are saying,

“Who does he think he is?

Jesus came to save the children of God.

Not these uncircumcised Gentile dogs.”

And Peter and the other apostles look at each other knowingly and reply,

“But don’t dogs under the table get scraps dropped by the children?”

Let me put this nice little story in perspective.

We are the dogs!

When Jesus said,

“If there’s any left over, the dogs get it.” he was referring to us.

When we read the Bible we tend to associate with Jesus’ disciples.

But in reality we are mostly Gentiles.

Some of us may have some Jewish blood in our lineage, but for the most part we were raised as Gentiles.

And those first twelve disciples would have seen us as dogs.

They would have refused us entrance into the church unless we jumped through a lot of hoops implemented so as to make joining difficult.

Judaism in Jesus’ day had become a restricted club with limited membership.

Only those who were “good Gentiles” were allowed to even look in the windows.

But Jesus changed all that.

Perhaps, like Jesus and the disciples, we need to have our perspective widened; our logic box opened up.

Perhaps we need to see that the Gospel message is meant to reach all.

You know the most effective strategy of evangelism is to have the members of a church invite people they know to church.

Statistical studies have shown that it is more effective than visitation campaigns, revivals, or even neighborhood canvases.

It is effective because it is a one on one witness with people we know and respect.

But who would we think of inviting to our church?

Too often the church becomes like a restricted club, like it was in Jesus’ day.

The church members often only invite “good Christian folk” to church and fail to reach the ones who are searching for the Gospel the most.

Perhaps we need to remind ourselves who we are.

We are the dogs who have eaten the crumbs of the bread of life discarded by others.

If we can then remember God’ grace in loving us, we can be gracious to others and our perspective will be broadened.

Then, maybe we can consider all the outsiders who need an invitation to God’s house.

Perhaps we will invite people with no Christian upbringing, or people of different skin colours, or people with non-traditional lifestyles.

You know what would happen then?

Searching people might find peace.

Emotional turmoil might be stilled.

Lives might be healed.

Logic boxes will be opened.

We are the dogs, and there are a lot of others like us hungering for the bread of life.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Highland Hills