CLERGY: REV. SHAWN ANKENMANN
MINISTER EMERITUS: ELGIN HALL
ORGANIST/CHOIR DIRECTOR: ELEANOR TAYLOR
MINISTRY: THE PEOPLE OF GOD GATHERED HERE
April 9th 2006
DEDICATION OF ‘VOICES UNITED’ HYMN BOOKS
IN MEMORY OF PAT & PAULINE BAKER
HYMN # 126 Ride On, Ride On, the Time is Right
SCRIPTURE READING: Mark 11:1-10
HYMN # 127 Ride On, Ride On in Majesty!
CALL TO WORSHIP
One: Humble and riding on a donkey,
ALL: WE GREET YOU.
One: Acclaimed by crowds and caroled by children,
ALL: WE CHEER YOU.
One: Moving from peace of the countryside to the corridors of power,
ALL: WE SALUTE YOU, CHRIST OUR LORD.
One: You are giving the beasts of burden a new dignity;
you are giving majesty a new face;
you are giving those who long for redemption a new song to sing.
ALL: WITH THEM, WITH HEART AND VOICE,
WE SHOUT “HOSANNA!”
HYMN # 124 He Came Riding on a Donkey
PRAYER OF APPROACH/PRAYER FOR WHOLENESS:
One: Lord Jesus Christ,
… over the broken glass of our world, the rumors meant to hurt,
the prejudice meant to wound, the weapons meant to kill, ride on …
trampling our attenpts at disaster into dust.
ride on,
ALL: RIDE ON IN MAJESTY
One: … over the distance which separates us from you,
and it is such a distance, measurable in half truths,
in unkept promises, in second-best obedience, ride on …
until you touch and heal us, who feel for no one but ourselves.
ride on,
ALL: RIDE ON IN MAJESTY
One: … through the back streets and the sin bins
and the sniggered-at corners of the city,
where human life festers and love runs cold, ride on …
bringing hope and dignity where most send scorn and silence.
ride on,
ALL: RIDE ON IN MAJESTY
One: For you, O Christ, do care and must show us how.
On our own, our ambitions rival your summons
and thus threaten good faith and neglect God’s people.
In your company and at your side,
we might yet help to bandage and heal the wounds of the world.
ride on,
ALL: RIDE ON IN MAJESTY AND TAKE US WITH YOU.
AMEN.
PRESENTATION FROM WESTWORTH UNITED CHURCH
We were presented with two beautiful banners from the folks at Westworth United Church. One banner was a representation of children and the animals of God’s creation. The animals were ones you would find around Minnedosa. It is beautiful. Then the Sunday School children of Westworth, not to be left out, sent us a beautiful banner or hand coloured butterflies … Both banners were received with joy and will be cherished in the coming days. Thanks to our family and friends at Westworth – the banners are lovely.
CHOIR ANTHEM: Hosanna, Hosanna We Sing
ANNOUNCEMENTS: MINUTE FOR MISSION
SCRIPTURE READINGS: Mark 14:1-10
Psalm 31 (part 2- pg 758 V U)
HYMN: (insert) You Are Salt For the Earth
STORY STOOL:
Raise your hand if …
you’ve ever been to a wedding in our old church
you’ve ever been to a funeral in our old church
you’ve ever been to a shower or a social event in our old church
you’ve ever had anything to do with nursery school
you’ve ever been to a dinner at the old church
you’ve ever been to a UCW tea at the old church
you’ve ever sung in one of Jean Stephenson’s choirs
you’ve ever listened to one of Jean Stephenson’s choirs
you’ve ever listened to a special choral event by the senior choir
you’ve ever contemplated the stain glass windows rather then listening to the sermon (be honest)
you’ve ever sat in the sanctuary alone
you’ve ever prepared food for a congregational event
you’ve ever helped on a work bee at the church
you’ve ever helped with one of the many renovation projects
you’ve ever been involved with Sunday School
you’ve ever been to Lee’s for fries and coke as a Sunday School class
you’ve shed a tear or three at the loss of the building …
you miss our old building
When I came in 2000, I was in a team ministry with Kathy Platt, who has gone on to ministry in McCreary-Kelwood and Alonsa Pastoral Charge. During her time here, Kathy periodically used a “stand up if …” time during worship. I opted for that today. My intent was, as I stated by way of introduction, not to lament what we’ve lost, something we’ve been doing since the fire, but to step back and celebrate the 105 years of memories like those listed above, that we still carry with us …
I ended my reflection talking about the Fries and Coke at Lee’s by noting that now both Lee’s and the Church are gone, but for the generations who have missed out the opportunity to have their Sunday School Classes troop across the street, they will have the opportunity in the new building to create new memories … the number of people who raised their hands was startling … especially for the question about the stained glass windows … we all carry many memories of our old sanctuary ad we all miss it … but today we celebrated what it meant to us.
HYMN: # 120 (vs 1 & 2) O Jesus I Have Promised
SCRIPTURE READING: Mark 14:12-20, 22-26
HYMN: # 120 (vs 3 & 4) O Jesus I Have Promised
REFLECTION: “The Journey Ahead … “
Today we begin our Easter Journey … today we would have waved our palms and cried out our hosannas … (if the palms had survived the fire …) … but figuratively we have done this.
In the coming days we will move into the events of Holy Week. The days ahead are not comfortable, or warm and fuzzy – they are difficult days that remind us that life is filled with challenges and that sometimes life is harsh and unfair. The message they bring is strangely familiar to us as a community of faith … there are parallels in the events we will be reading about, in the events we’ve been living in the last few weeks …
In a few moments, we will turn our face from the celebrations in the streets of Jerusalem as we begin to read farther in the Gospel of Mark, and begin to hear the story of what lies between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. The tendency in the Church regrettably is to jump from the Hosannas of Palm Sunday to the Hallelujahs of Easter, and to leave the darkness and the discomfort behind.
But, as community of faith, we can’t merely make that jump … next week we will be celebrating our Easter rites in a School meeting space … not in our beloved sanctuary that for 105 years has been home … our experience as a pilgrim people takes on added poignancy next week as we will gather in the pit of the elementary school to proclaim the coming of Easter.
We are an Easter people who will speak the words, but who will experience a very real disconnect within our souls … it won’t feel like Easter. For us the Resurrection is still a distant goal …
So, how do we journey into the darkness that lies ahead ??
Today and not only in the week ahead, but in the weeks ahead we need to remember, we need to name and we need to own the simple reality that we are all experiencing this journey in vastly and very different ways. Some weeks ago I spoke of our journey as a journey from the ashes of what once was out along a road that stretches off to the horizon. Some of us are up over the next hill, some have moved way out in front and are scoping out the distant horizon – but many of us are straggling along in various places along the way … Some of us have grown tired and have stopped to rest … some have stumbled and need a hand to get up … some of us are still back in the ashes of what once was and aren’t ready to move.
Our challenge as a Church – as an Easter people moving to the Resurrection that we know WILL come, is to remember that we are each where we need to be right now. The hurts, the burdens, the sorrows and the joys that roll within us, perhaps even occurring simultaneously – all of it that we are experiencing is a perfectly normal responses to a very abnormal set of circumstances. As individuals and as people we are journeying through the various stages and manifestations of grief …
We are in a parade – some are waving their palm branches, knowing that we will in time rebuild and some have been able to come to terms with the fire and its consequences … while others are standing on the side lines watching, but not wanting to part take … and still others are off somewhere else wishing it would all go away …
In Jesus’ day, when he entered Jerusalem at the head of the parade, he also invoked a lot of anger … Anger among the priests and authorities … anger among his followers who felt he hadn’t gone far enough … anger among his followers who felt he had gone too far … and even anger within himself, as he realized that not everyone was in the same place as he was …
On the heels of the triumphant entry into Jerusalem we find Jesus cursing a fig tree that had no fruit (it was the wrong season) – then Jesus rolls into the temple and begins tossing over tables and baskets of coins as he drives the merchants and money changers from the temple …
We tend to jump from the image of Jesus riding on a donkey coming into Jerusalem to the idealized imagery of Jesus rising from the tomb clothed in dazzling white, having vanquished death and offering the resurrection to one and all … We don’t like the darkness … we don’t like the sorrow … we don’t like the anger … we don’t like the thought that frailties and failings could play a part in Jesus death.
We don’t like an angry Jesus … it isn’t what we’ve learned in Sunday School, but it is what we read in our texts … What do we do with the anger that comes in the face of loss and grief?? Do we dismiss it and say words of platitude and comfort? Or do we name our own frustrations, madness, and anger and realize that this journey we make figuratively in our texts and worship is the same journey we make in reality in our lives?
In the coming week, we confront our own frailties and our failings and we move not deeper into the darkness but to the glorious dawn of Easter morning … The darkness may be all around us – but our eyes as a people and as a community of faith are focused on events beyond the moment. We are an Easter People - in our case, the fullness of Easter is some months away, but we are an Easter People.
We will say the words, we will proclaim our faith – but until we gather in a sanctuary that is our own, we will only partially experience the resurrection …
So the challenge we face today together, and alone – is to know that wherever we are on this journey – whether we’re over the next hill, or whether we’re sitting to catch our breath, or whether we’re still back weeping over the ashes – wherever we are, it’s okay – and we are still part of the same community. We’re all moving forward at different speeds, having different experiences, and feeling different emotions.
The lesson of Holy Week for us this year is to name the vast array of emotions that come with startling and traumatic events, and to help one another as we move through them and experience them for ourselves.
I would venture to say that the most powerful and meaningful text for us this morning in the readings we will share comes in the deep darkness of Maundy Thursday when following the meal, Jesus and his disciples venture across the city of Jerusalem to the Garden of Gethsemene. There Jesus retreats to a place where he prays alone … He begs God to relieve him of what lies ahead … his disciples sleep … and across the valley from the temple come the authorities to arrest him …
Our readings today end with the simple painful truth of verse 50 in the 14th Chapter of Mark where it says simply: “all of them deserted him and fled …”
What must if have been like for the disciples to have abandoned Jesus and each other and to have fled into the night??
How lonely that must have felt?? How utterly abandoned did they feel in that moment?
(pause)
And yet, we have been living that moment … we’ve spoken and sung and proclaimed the words – “the church didn’t burn down, because the church is not the building – the church is the people” But it has been a lonely experience to live that truth …
This Holy Week – in the hours and days and even weeks ahead, we are the disciples who have deserted Him and fled into the night … We are the ones living out that moment and those feelings of loneliness and abandonment… The challenge is to remember, to proclaim and to live the very concept that God is with us … it begins by remembering that the person sitting in the pew next to you is hurting too … they are having similar feelings to you … they are on this journey too … We are NOT alone – we live in God’s world, with each other …
This week we will move from Hosannas to Hallelujahs, but we WILL carry in our hearts sadness, anger, and a variety of emotions … but with every step of the journey we will know that even when we feel utterly alone – God is still with us … and we are with each other. We must never forget that … even in the darkness and despair – the light will come …
May it be so … thanks be to God … let us pray …
OFFERING:
OFFERTORY:
PRAYER OF DEDICATION:
HYMN: # 132 (vs 1-3) Bitter Was the Night
SCRIPTURE READING: Mark 14:26-32
HYMN: # 137 Love That Clothes Itself in Light
SCRIPTURE READING: Mark 14:33-50
HYMN: # 105 Dust and Ashes Touch Our Face
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE THE LORD’S PRAYER
HYMN: # 152 There Is a Green Hill Far Away
COMMISSIONING/BENEDICTION:
One: Jesus, Prince of Peace, humble and riding on a donkey.
ALL: JESUS, DISTURBER OF THE PEACE, YOU UPSET BAD RELIGION WHEN IT GETS IN THE WAY OF GOD.
One: Jesus, upsetter of the self-righteous, you turn questions on their head, offering no instant answers, but showing the way.
ALL: JESUS, LOVER OF THE LOST,
YOU SAY “FORGIVE”
WHEN WE WANT TO SHOUT “CONDEMN!”
One: Jesus, host at the table,
you share your best even in the face of our worst.
ALL: JESUS, SAVIOR OF THE WORLD
… YES, EVEN THE WORLD
WHICH WANTS YOU UNTIL IT MEETS YOU.
SUNG RESPONSE:# 134 Shadows Gather Deep and Cold
The worship has ended…
…the work of God’s people has just begun
Go in peace
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
A THANKS AND WELCOME TO OUR GUESTS FROM WESTWORTH UNITED IN WINNIPEG FOR THEIR GIFT OF THE BANNER.
Thanks to the MINNEDOSA GRAIN GROWING PROJECT on the banquet last week. A good time was had by all, and the food was wonderful.
BUILDING COMMITTEE: Members are: Jean Garbolinsky, Elgin Hall, Charlie Kingdon, Bill Jury, Ron Kingdon, Barry McNabb, Edith Parsons,
Beth McNabb, Wilf Taylor and Shawn Ankenmann. Thanks again to all
who filled out surveys and helped in this important piece of work.
(there will be no Building Committee Meeting on Monday night …)
BOARD MEETING: Wednesday, April 19, 7:00 pm, at Minnedosa Adult Learning Centre
UCW MEETING: Wednesday, April 19, 2:00 pm, at Amy Kozak’s
CHOIR PRACTICE: this Tuesday, April 18, at 7:30 pm at the Covenant Church. New members are ALWAYS welcome …
… practice for the Community Choir, for the Good Friday Service, will be at 8:00 pm in conjunction with regular Choir practice.
NEW MEMBERS ARE DEFINITELY WELCOME TO JOIN IN.
BIBLE STUDY – meets again April 21st in the Meeting Room of the Library.
HOLY WEEK: Easter Services:
Maundy Thursday – April 13th – 7:30 pm at Minnedosa Funeral Services
(by the arena). Service of Communion
Good Friday – April 14th – 11:00 am at MCCC (Community Choir)
We will be joining the Community Good Friday Service
Easter Sunday – April 16th – 9 am service at Tanner’s Crossing School Pit
- Brunch provided by AOTS Mens Club
- 11 am service – Tanner’s Crossing School Pit
Anyone requiring or willing to offer a ride to Church on Sundays, please call the office. 867-2674
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