It has been ONE Year ... Service for February 11th 2007

February 11th 2007 - Order of Worship and Sermon

(One year ago today we awoke to the news that our much beloved sanctuary was aflame. By 11 am (our regular worship time) when we gathered in the basement of the Catholic Church, we knew the building was gone, we knew we might salvage some materials from the Centre and the Offices, we knew it was arson, we knew three suspects were in custody, and we knew no one had been killed or injured ... At 11 am, we prayed, we wept, we shook our heads in disbelief, then we broke the bread and shared the cup and set our faces firmly to the future ... It was a hard day ... but it was an incredible day ... We were to have celebrated two baptism that day ... Today we celebrated two baptisms (a mother and daughter), and in many ways we closed a circle ... we marked the anniversary of the fire, but we also marked the anniversary of the new potential that the folks at Minnedosa United Church have before them ... potential that one step at a time, we are living and realizing.)

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Words of welcome, announcements,
& minute for mission

Call to Worship:
One: It has been a year …
All: We are a pilgrim people, journeying through the unknown.
One: The fire is a memory, the site is empty and barren.
All: We have set our faces to the future,
We have begun to dream and plan for tomorrow.
One: There have been many tears, many memories.
All: Together we have repaired relationships,
Together we have begun the rebuilding.
One: The journey has been long,
The journey has been mere moments
in the face of eternity.
All: We have lamented what we have lost,
We have celebrated what remains,
We have rejoiced over what we may gain.
One: Guided by the Spirit of Love and Care,
We have boldly journeyed forward from what was,
All: and we have embraced what will be as
Together we’ve dreamt our dreams,
Shared our visions and cleared our eyes.
One: It has been a year …
(lighting a candle at the front of the sanctuary)
All: We are a pilgrim people, journeying together
in the Love of God.


Hymn: 166 Joy Comes with The Dawn
Chorus:
Joy comes with the dawn,
joy comes with the morning sun,
joy spring from the tomb
and scatters the night with her song,
joy comes with the dawn.

Weeping may come, weeping may come,
in the night when dark shadows cloud our sight.

(chorus)

Sorrow will turn, sorrow will turn,
in to song, and God's laughter makes us strong.

(chorus)

We will rejoice, we will rejoice
and give praise to the One who bring us grace.

(chorus)

Prayer of Approach / Prayer for Wholeness:
One: Holy God, The words faith Echo within us:
Men: A wandering Aramean is my ancestor,
Women: By the waters of Babylon we sat and wept.
ALL: BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO ARE POOR,
AND WHO HUNGER AND WHO WEEP.
One: Holy God the invitation to follow washes over us:
Men: Tending their nets, they were called to follow,
Women: In the early morning a woman came searching,
ALL: GOD’S WAYS ARE NOT OUR WAYS,
GOD’S THOUGHTS ARE NOT OUR THOUGHTS.
WHEN WE BEGIN TO GIVE UP HOPE,
THE RESURRECTION BREAKS THROUGH,
AND THE WORLD IT FOREVER CHANGED.
One: From the ruins of the temple, the prophets spoke:
Men: Dare to follow me, the voices called.
Women: Put justice, compassion and care before all.
ALL: WITH VISION AND FAITH,
THE WORLD WILL BE FOREVER CHANGED,
GOD’S PEOPLE – YOU AND I TOGETHER –
WILL BRING THE KINGDOM INTO BEING …
(PAUSE)
One: Telling our story, sharing our faith, opening our arms,
ALL: WE JOURNEY INTO THE WORLD OFFERING
OUR COMPASSION, AND OUR CARING,
AS A PILGRIM PEOPLE,
WE TRAVEL KNOWING THAT GOD’S LOVE
IS WITH US, EACH STEP OF THE WAY,
AND TRUSTING THAT WE ARE NEVER ALONE …

Hymn: 395 Come In Come In and Sit down.

The Story Stool:
The children's story for today was the story of the young man seeking to learn the whole of the Torah while standing before his Rabbi on one foot ... The young man is rejected and abused by many rabbis until he meet the great Rabbi Hillel, who smiles and says to the young man: "The whole of the Torah is this, and nothing more - "that which is hurtful to another, you never do ... all the rest is commentary."
As I shared this story with the children I talked about how Jesus likely heard the story in church (synagogue) and altered it into the Golden Rule that we know in the church. I then asked them about how we live out that teaching and what is kind and unkind and how we make that call ...

Hymn: Magic Penny

Service of Baptism:

Hymn: 444 Child of Promise, Child of Blessing

Scripture Readings: Jeremiah 17: 5-10
Psalm 1 Page 724 Voices

Choir Anthem:

Scripture Reading: I Corinthains 15:12-20
Luke 6:17-26

Hymn: 348 O Love How Deep

Sermon: Looking Back, Looking Forward …
by streams of living water …

I would like to take a moment to describe my morning a year ago today … On Saturday February 11th, I hadn’t been able to connect with the text for the week. There was no sermon coming. I was troubled and something was eating at me … without giving away any trade secrets – I went to be that night, setting my alarm clock for the morning, so I could get up and work on my sermon before Sunday Service.

I had a fitful sleep that night. I was awake through the night and wasn’t sleeping well … then our phone began to ring between 4:45 and 6 am … I finally got to the phone and found a person there … it was 5:58 am … the person was Bob Mummery. He said simply – “Shawn. Bob Mummery. You’re church is on fire. You better get down here …” I felt like the ground was shifting under my feet … “What? Tell me you’re kidding Bob?”

He wasn’t … and we know what followed … and what we’ve been living …

That morning though, The 12th of February, the Sunday closest to Valentine’s Day, we had two baptism scheduled … both were delayed …

Now a year later, we stand in a borrowed sanctuary, surrounded by the few surviving relics from our old building … we are in many ways a pilgrim people … We are on many levels a people who can connect deeply with the story that comes to us from this morning texts … We continue to sing our songs, offer our prayers, celebrate our baptisms, break our bread and gather as God’s people in the face of all that has happened in the last 12 months … We are a people who are not just living in and with hope – we are a people who are simply LIVING HOPE.

Our hope is the active blessing that Jesus speaks of in the Lukan version of the beatitudes – the blessing here is active. I wish for you to be blessed by God and the cosmos, and in the process you will pass that blessing on to others, and in turn those blessings will wash back over you and as your blessings wash back over you, they will also wash back over me, as they have washed over each recipient in turn … It’s a very involved and very active process. You can not be passive in this idea of blessing. You are involved and active.

Today our readings offer both blessings and curses. Today in our midst we are affirming the greatest blessing we have – that of the very act of Baptism that says boldly – we are much loved by God and we are loved by the community around us. Today is a day of affirming our faith and our belief in God and God’s boundless love.

But, within that moment we also invite each other to continue on the journey of faith that moves from the simple affirmation that “Jesus Loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so …” through the crises we face both as individuals and as a community. The fire, deaths, illness, bickering and conflicts – around us we can see, identify, and we experienced a breadth of crises that have brought us to the place of transition where we are – not forced, but invited to reflect on our experiences within these crises, and to reflect on our faith stance within these crises.

This takes us from Stage Two to Stage Three and on to Stage Four of James Fowler’s Stages of faith. Stage two is the faith of our childhood that believes because we are told what to believe. Stage Three is the creation of our personal stories and ethos. Stage three is seeing the world and beginning to test our faith against what we’ve seen and experienced. Stage three is the teenager faith – “I’ll do it myself …” It is transitional and it is laden with clashes and contradictions and is most often the stage we revert back to when crises hit.

But then just as Stage Three is about simple, easy almost childish answers – “By the waters of Baptism we are blessed and God loves us …” and nothing more. Stage Four is about beginning to formulate a mature faith of critical reflection based on life experience … The crisis and tension and clashes open our eyes to how the world REALLY is, and we begin to ask the BIG questions like – WHY ?? Why are things this way? In my life I remember when as teens we asked – “why do you have to wear suits to church on Sunday?” The answer was – “because, that’s what WE do …”

In time we lost the vests with our three piece suits … then the dress shoes … then jeans slipped in under the dress jackets … then the ties disappeared … and then sweaters replaced the jackets and soon not only were the teens dressing more casual, so were the adults … We asked the question, didn’t care for the answer and began to alter the way things ARE to the way things COULD be …

We as a community are in that transition point between stage three and stage four … We know what we had and how things were – but the page is blank. There is only potential and possibility. We have before us the limitless possibility of doing things in new ways … What an opportunity??!!

We are NOW, like no time in our history as a community or a congregation, able to do things in new ways and become a BLESSING in the fullest sense, to the people around us …

Life is complex, and too often it is filled with conflict and crises … we can close our eyes like the cowardly lion in The Wizard in those moments and simply chant – “I do believe … I do believe …” as we twist our tail and hope the ghosts and flying monkeys will go away … Or we can find within ourselves the courage, the heart and the brains that have always been there …

We’re NOT following the yellow brick road … we’re creating it one precious brick at a time … we are living the Blessings offered by Jesus in our Gospel Reading … we are being the trees planted by streams of living water … we are the people of God resident in this place …

But we are being mindful that even the blessings have obligations to share them and live them and embody them as more than just lovely words on a page – otherwise, we will find ourselves under the cruses … We must be mindful that even the trees with their deep strong roots standing by streams of living water need a pruning periodically to check our growth and to guide us and enhance the harvest … we, as the people of God have a responsibility to constantly rebuild – our faith … our attitudes … our approaches … our relationships … our way of being Church … otherwise we will find ourselves moving from blessings to curses …

It has been a year … Today as a community we’ve in many respects closed a circle … one year ago this morning where we were to gather to pour out the abundant waters of baptism in celebration of God’s love, we instead watched as other waters were poured out in abundance on what was hours before our much loved sanctuary … Today as we celebrate the extravagant love of God as expressed through Baptism, we can look back over the last year at the extravagant love we have experienced and shared from our community, our Church and each other … Today as we mark the anniversary of what we lost, we are able to mark the potential of what we can and will gain …

We can never go back …we can never replace what was and is now lost … but in moments of crisis, a mature faith carries us to the place of reflection where the crisis becomes a means of transformation and resurrection … and that IS perhaps the greatest blessing of all …

That in those moments of doubt and darkness and struggle – God is with us and will help to carry us forward to the place where we can look back and see how that moment of crisis became a moment of new life – new potential – new possibilities …

Blessed be you … the community of faith … as we move forward today, tomorrow and always … It’s been a year … but in the eyes of God it has been but a blink of eternity … God is, has been and always will be – with us …

Our challenge is not only to believe that – but to live that – and to share that … The fire one year ago today took from us many things, and it lead us down many paths … but one simple truth remains – and today by the waters of baptism we remembered and celebrated and affirmed that … we are loved by God and God is with us always … The rest is simply commentary …

May it be so … Thanks be to God … Let us pray.

Offering:
Offertory:
Prayer of Dedication:

Prayers of the People – The Lord’s Prayer (sung)

Hymn: 649 Walk With Me

Commissioning/Benediction:

Sung Response: 427 To Show By Touch and Word (vs 1&3)