WELCOME OF NEW MEMBER:
One: On behalf of Minnedosa United Church congregation,
I present Terry McLenehan, whom we welcome into the
membership of this community of faith:
Terry, will you join with us as together we celebrate God’s presence,
live with respect in creation, love and serve others, seek justice and resist evil?
Terry: I will, with God’s help.
CONGREGATIONAL COMMITMENT:
One: Dear friends in Christ,
let us pledge to Terry McLenehan our support and care.
All: As your brothers and sisters in Christ,
we rejoice in the gifts you bring to us.
We pledge to you our love and our support.
With God’s help, we will together live out
the mission and ministry of Christ’s church.
HYMN # 232 Joyful, Joyful
CALL TO WORSHIP:
One: Jesus said: Love one another.
All: We come to worship God who is love,
that we may learn to love one another.
One: Jesus said: No longer do I call you servants;
now I call you my friends.
All: We come to worship God,
whose friends we are in Christ.
One: Let us sing praise to God,
and live in love and friendship;
through Jesus Christ.
All: Amen.
PRAYER OF APPROACH:
One: Lord Jesus, when you took a child
and told adults to become like her
if they wanted to enter your kingdom,
what did you mean?
All: Are we to be naïve or to ask questions?
To be innocent or to be trusting?
To be shy or to sing?
To be docile or to be open-eyed?
One: Show us how to become
not the ideal child we imagine
but the real child you blessed.
All: Teach us,
if we have done too much growing up,
how to grow down. Amen.
HYMN # 357 Tell Me the Stories of Jesus
PRAYER FOR WHOLENESS
One: We pray for children …
who sneak popsicles before supper,
who erase holes in math workbooks,
who can never find their shoes.
And we pray for those
who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
who can’t bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers,
who are born in places we wouldn’t be caught dead,
who never go to the circus,
who live in an X-rated world.
We pray for children
who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money.
And we pray for those
who never get dessert,
who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,
who watch their parents watch them die,
who can’t find any bread to steal,
who don’t have any rooms to clean up,
whose pictures aren’t on anybody’s dresser,
whose monsters are real.
We pray for children
who spend all their allowance before Tuesday,
who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food,
who like ghost stories,
who shove dirty clothes under the bed
and never rinse out the tub,
who get visits from the tooth fairy,
who don’t like to be kissed in front of the carpool,
who squirm in church or temple and scream in the phone,
whose tears we sometimes laugh at
and whose smiles can make us cry.
And we pray for those
whose nightmares come in the daytime,
who have never seen a dentist,
who aren’t spoiled by anybody,
who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
who live and move, but have no being.
We pray for children who want to be carried
and for those who must be,
for those we never give up on,
and for those who don’t get a second chance.
For those we smother with attention
and for those who will grab the hand of anybody
kind enough to offer it.O God, we pray for all your children
Creator God, you have made each of us in your image,
and yet we fail to reflect your love and justice.
who sneak popsicles before supper,
who erase holes in math workbooks,
who can never find their shoes.
And we pray for those
who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
who can’t bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers,
who are born in places we wouldn’t be caught dead,
who never go to the circus,
who live in an X-rated world.
We pray for children
who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money.
And we pray for those
who never get dessert,
who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,
who watch their parents watch them die,
who can’t find any bread to steal,
who don’t have any rooms to clean up,
whose pictures aren’t on anybody’s dresser,
whose monsters are real.
We pray for children
who spend all their allowance before Tuesday,
who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food,
who like ghost stories,
who shove dirty clothes under the bed
and never rinse out the tub,
who get visits from the tooth fairy,
who don’t like to be kissed in front of the carpool,
who squirm in church or temple and scream in the phone,
whose tears we sometimes laugh at
and whose smiles can make us cry.
And we pray for those
whose nightmares come in the daytime,
who have never seen a dentist,
who aren’t spoiled by anybody,
who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
who live and move, but have no being.
We pray for children who want to be carried
and for those who must be,
for those we never give up on,
and for those who don’t get a second chance.
For those we smother with attention
and for those who will grab the hand of anybody
kind enough to offer it.O God, we pray for all your children
Creator God, you have made each of us in your image,
and yet we fail to reflect your love and justice.
All: You have created every child in your image, and
yet we don’t treat every child as a precious reflection of you.
We see some children as valued treasures,
and others as lost causes.
We invest our time, money, and hopes in some children,
while we squander the great potential of others.
Open our eyes, we pray, to see that every child
is made in your image and belongs to you.
Help us to love, protect, and nurture all children.
We pray these things
in the name of the One who came to us as a child. Amen.
HYMN # 365 Jesus Loves Me
STORY STOOL:
HYMN # Insert Jesus Loves the Little Children
SCRIPTURE READING: Proverbs 31: 10 –31 / Psalm 1 (# 724 VU)
CHOIR ANTHEM: “As the Deer”
SCRIPTURE READING: James 3: 13 – 4: 3 – 7,8 / Mark 9: 30 – 37
HYMN # 589 Lord Speak to Me
SERMON: “How Shall We Speak of Our Faith”
I have to begin by confessing that I’ve struggled this week with the readings … When I first read the readings – particularly the one from Proverbs 31 I thought – “Hmmm, I could offer a mediation on a good wife …” but then I remembered a comment by a class mate of mine back in theology college when we discussed this reading in the coffee room one afternoon – I can still hear Dave saying to someone – “You’re gonna preach on THAT – you wanna get killed?”
Then as I dug through the commentaries I thought – “prayer … that’s a good place to start …” and I was looking at from the point of view of – “ask and you will receive.” Not a divine Santa Claus who will give us WHATEVER we ask, but rather, a presence that is there even in those momnent we may forget … I found a powerful quotation from Rabbi Heschel who said of God:
God is not a hypothesis derived from logical assumptions, but an immediate insight, self-evident as light. God is not something to be sough in the darkness with the light of reason. GOD IS THE LIGHT ! I thought, and I still do – that there is great potential in this to speak of prayer as more than just a case of Divine Give me’s …
God is not a hypothesis derived from logical assumptions, but an immediate insight, self-evident as light. God is not something to be sough in the darkness with the light of reason. GOD IS THE LIGHT ! I thought, and I still do – that there is great potential in this to speak of prayer as more than just a case of Divine Give me’s …
But then the events in Afghanistan broke across our community, and we learned that one of the wounded is one of ours … a neighbour, a friend, a member of a large extended family, and a father who proudly stood here in front of us a few short months ago while we rejoiced at the baptism of his daughter … I heard the news, talked with his family, offered prayers on his behalf and on behalf of the dead and the wounded … and realized that I couldn’t approach prayer in quite the same way …
So, last night, I went back to the texts … I re-read them for the umpteenth time this week and I searched them for something … anything …
Then in the silence came the words of James: “Draw near to God, and God will draw near to you …”
Draw near to God … in prayer … in meditation … when news breaks of tragedies, when we stand and remember the fallen, and those who have gone before us … draw near to God in all the dark moments of life, the moments of sorrow and those moments when we want to simply celebrate … DRAW near to God … and GOD will draw near to you …
As I let those simple words roll through me, the words of the Creed we share as a United Church came to me as:
We are not alone, we live in God's world.
We believe in God:
who has created and is creating,
We believe in God:
who has created and is creating,
who has come in Jesus,
the Word made flesh,
to reconcile and make new,
to reconcile and make new,
who works in us and others
by the Spirit.
We trust in God.
We are called to be the Church:
to celebrate God's presence,
We trust in God.
We are called to be the Church:
to celebrate God's presence,
to live with respect in Creation,
to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil,
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,
our judge and our hope.
In life, in death, in life beyond death,
God is with us.
We are not alone.
Thanks be to God.
In life, in death, in life beyond death,
God is with us.
We are not alone.
Thanks be to God.
We are not alone … draw near to God … they begin and end in the same place … GOD is with us … if we open ourselves to God we will find God’s strength and presence and Grace in abundance. They are easy words to say - But sometimes they are very hard words to live and harder words to believe as we seek that place where we JUST KNOW God is with us, and we are in God’s care …
This week we have heard repeated invocations of God’s name, yesterday on the tarmac of a Canadian Forces Base, today at Memorials across our nation, and even from the lips of our leaders - but I have had to wonder if we’ve been able to stand in the place where we can just trust and believe and KNOW that God is with us – the place where we’ve drawn near to God and we simply know God is there …
That is perhaps the point Jesus was aiming for when he confronted the arguments his disciples were having over who was the greatest. They were competing for positions – they were jockeying for the prestige of being able to say – “I’m the first disciple, I’m the greatest disciple, I’m the most important, I’m the smartest, I’m the best …”
They were being very childish, not child-like, they were concerned with things that were simply UNIMPORTANT and Jesus turned the tables on them. He took a child, some commentators insist it was a little girl – because if Jesus was about to make a point, he was really going to make a point. And for what followed a little girl would not only underscore his message, it would also smack the disciples across the face … “Whoever welcomes a little child – a little girl in my name welcomes me, and not only me, but the one who sent me …”
A little girl in Jesus’ world was about as low on the social ladder as you could go … girls were irrelevant and unimportant, a place that I weep to admit is still true in much of the world … So as Jesus lifted the child – a girl child into his arms and spoke those words his disciples were given a teachable moment and also given a rebuke simultaneously … Jesus was not only challenging the status quo, he was turning it on its ear.
If you can welcome in one who has no status AT ALL, then you can welcome in me …
If you can see as valuable this beautiful child, then you can see me and what I stand for as valuable too …
Jesus was pushing the envelope … his disciples needed to see the world through new eyes – the old way of understanding and experiencing the world didn’t wash any more …
No longer would the positions of status and prestige hold true … no longer would connections and knowledge guarantee you a place … no longer was it about the money and influence you think you have … no longer would the stuff of life do anything for you except make you anxious … God’s Kingdom was about to break over us and now all bets were off … it was new game with new rules … and it was a child – a girl no less who was showing the disciples, and us what was important.
Be childlike – is the message … not only welcome in the children, but have the courage and the boldness and the wisdom to become like a child yourself … If you ask a child about God they will tell you … they have an understanding that is free of dogmas and misconceptions … Children see the world as it is – full of awe and wonder … a wondrous and splendid place.
Jesus knew the potential and possibility of Children that day in Galilee. His disciples were hung up on the positions and prestige that comes with the pecking order that is so much a part of life, and he wanted none of it. It wasn’t and isn’t about titles and the positions we occupy – it’s about how we dare to live our lives …
Not only, do we dare to welcome in the children – that is easy, the deeper and more significant question is - do we dare to be child like in our lives and in our faith?
Do we dare see the world in such a radical way, as that of a child? Not a childish way of seeing the world – but child-like … with wonder and awe and openness to all the world has to offer us …
Being child-like is opening ourselves up to seeing the world as a holy place full of sacredness and God’s presence …
Being child-like is being willing and able and open to God’s presence and daring to draw near to God, not on our conditions and terms, but on the neutral terms and conditions that step beyond the shallowness of our culture and society … Being child-like is to stand in the Light of God, and to know – to simply know in the core of our being, that we are never alone …
In the coming days, may we have the courage to simply stand and bask in the light that IS God … may we let it warm our hearts and souls … may we let it comfort us … and may we never doubt it’s presence, even in the cloudy moments when the light is blocked …
God is with us … with each step forward, may we remember and celebrate that profound truth … and may we have the courage and faith in all things to draw near to God …
May it be so … thanks be to God …
If you can see as valuable this beautiful child, then you can see me and what I stand for as valuable too …
Jesus was pushing the envelope … his disciples needed to see the world through new eyes – the old way of understanding and experiencing the world didn’t wash any more …
No longer would the positions of status and prestige hold true … no longer would connections and knowledge guarantee you a place … no longer was it about the money and influence you think you have … no longer would the stuff of life do anything for you except make you anxious … God’s Kingdom was about to break over us and now all bets were off … it was new game with new rules … and it was a child – a girl no less who was showing the disciples, and us what was important.
Be childlike – is the message … not only welcome in the children, but have the courage and the boldness and the wisdom to become like a child yourself … If you ask a child about God they will tell you … they have an understanding that is free of dogmas and misconceptions … Children see the world as it is – full of awe and wonder … a wondrous and splendid place.
Jesus knew the potential and possibility of Children that day in Galilee. His disciples were hung up on the positions and prestige that comes with the pecking order that is so much a part of life, and he wanted none of it. It wasn’t and isn’t about titles and the positions we occupy – it’s about how we dare to live our lives …
Not only, do we dare to welcome in the children – that is easy, the deeper and more significant question is - do we dare to be child like in our lives and in our faith?
Do we dare see the world in such a radical way, as that of a child? Not a childish way of seeing the world – but child-like … with wonder and awe and openness to all the world has to offer us …
Being child-like is opening ourselves up to seeing the world as a holy place full of sacredness and God’s presence …
Being child-like is being willing and able and open to God’s presence and daring to draw near to God, not on our conditions and terms, but on the neutral terms and conditions that step beyond the shallowness of our culture and society … Being child-like is to stand in the Light of God, and to know – to simply know in the core of our being, that we are never alone …
In the coming days, may we have the courage to simply stand and bask in the light that IS God … may we let it warm our hearts and souls … may we let it comfort us … and may we never doubt it’s presence, even in the cloudy moments when the light is blocked …
God is with us … with each step forward, may we remember and celebrate that profound truth … and may we have the courage and faith in all things to draw near to God …
May it be so … thanks be to God …
OFFERING
OFFERTORY AND PRAYER OF DEDICATION
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE / THE LORD’S PRAYER (HYMN # 959)
HYMN # 268 Bring Many Names
COMMISSIONING AND BENEDICTION:
One: Go into the world:
dance, laugh, sing, and create.
All: We go with the assurance of your blessing, O God.
One: Go into the world:
risk, explore, discover, and love.
All: We go with the assurance of your grace, O God.
One: Go into the world:
believe, hope, struggle, and remember.
All: We go with the assurance of your love, O God.
Thanks be to God!
SUNG RESPONSE: # 299 Teach Me, God, to Wonder
Vs 1: Teach me, God, to wonder, teach me, God, to see;
Let your world of beauty capture me.
Praise to you be given, lov for you be lived,
Life be celebrated, joy you give.
Vs 4: Teach me , God, to know you, hear you when you speak,
see you in my neighbour when we meet.
Praise to you be given, lov for you be lived,
Life be celebrated, joy you give.
The worship has ended…
…the work of God’s people has just begun.
Go in peace.
OFFERTORY AND PRAYER OF DEDICATION
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE / THE LORD’S PRAYER (HYMN # 959)
HYMN # 268 Bring Many Names
COMMISSIONING AND BENEDICTION:
One: Go into the world:
dance, laugh, sing, and create.
All: We go with the assurance of your blessing, O God.
One: Go into the world:
risk, explore, discover, and love.
All: We go with the assurance of your grace, O God.
One: Go into the world:
believe, hope, struggle, and remember.
All: We go with the assurance of your love, O God.
Thanks be to God!
SUNG RESPONSE: # 299 Teach Me, God, to Wonder
Vs 1: Teach me, God, to wonder, teach me, God, to see;
Let your world of beauty capture me.
Praise to you be given, lov for you be lived,
Life be celebrated, joy you give.
Vs 4: Teach me , God, to know you, hear you when you speak,
see you in my neighbour when we meet.
Praise to you be given, lov for you be lived,
Life be celebrated, joy you give.
The worship has ended…
…the work of God’s people has just begun.
Go in peace.
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