Order of Service - February 25th 2007

WELCOME, ANNOUNCEMENTS

MINUTE FOR MISSION

CALL TO WORSHIP:
One:
Holy is the time,
Holy is the place,
Holy are the things to be done.
All: Forty days stretch before us.
Forty days of hungering for faithfulness.
Forty days of trying to understand the story.
One: These forty days stretch before us.
All: We who believe,
Yearn to feel Your presence,
Yearn to be Your People …

HYMN # 105 Dust and Ashes

PRAYER OF APPROACH:
One: Glorious God,
your thoughts are not our thoughts,
neither are your ways our ways.
You look at the ugliest soul and see, still unstirred,
the wings of an angel.
All: We scan the finest of our neighbours,
anxious to find the flaw.
One: You view time in the context of eternity,
and so find a place for waiting, for yearning,
even for suffering, even for dying.
All: We demand instant results;
and look for tomorrow before savouring today.
One: You know that only one who suffers
can ultimately save,
that is why you walk the way of the cross.
All: We fear that vulnerability
which defies our power;
and so we cry for crucifixion.
One: Your thoughts are not our thoughts,
All: neither are your ways our ways.

One: And yet we know
that your way is the ladder to heaven,
while, left to our own devices,
our ways slope downwards to hell.
But we are here,
not to have our worst confirmed,
but to have our best liberated.
So we pray,
All: Forgive in us what has gone wrong,
repair in us what is wasted; reveal in us what is good.

One: And nourish us with better food
than we could ever purchase:
your word,
your love,
your inspiration,
your daily bread for our life’s journey,
in the company of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
All: Amen.

HYMN # 120 O Jesus, I Have Promised

THE STORY STOOL

HYMN: (see insert) Magic Penny

SCRIPTURE READING: Deuteronomy 26: 1 – 11 & Romans 10: 8 – 13

CHOIR ANTHEM:

SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 4: 1 – 13

HYMN # 808 On Eagle’s Wings (Psalm 91)

SERMON: “A Wandering Aramean … Daring to Journey …”

There were two stories in our news this week that caught my attention because they managed to show us the distinctiveness of a Stage Six faith – that of Universalizing faith …
One story was that of the death at the tender age of 107, of one of Canada’s last three surviving World War One veterans. The gentleman who died dismissed the honours that people were willing to bestow upon him. Honours that he as a non-combatant veteran was reluctant to accept, but more than that, he made it clear his Fame was due entirely to his longevity, not any thing he did during his three years of service from the ages of 16 to 19 in World War One.

The other story was that of Britanny Spear having a major melt down and ending up in Rehab.
One story absorbed hours and hours of time in our media outlet, an made headlines all over the world. The other story was to be found buried somewhere in the depths of our daily newspapers. I’ll leave it to you to guess which story was which …

We have a tendancy to yearn for information that allows us to pick fault with those in leadership positions around us. There have been books written trying to discredit Martin Luther King, and point out the sordid details of his life, rather than casting the light on his achievements. Anyone who has stepped into a position of leadership finds his or herself facing a barrage of criticism and muck raking … It is simply salacious gossip on a grand scale …

The challenge is to stop trying to bring down our leaders, and to let them guide, challenge and cajole us to a place where we a no longer down in the muck, but are able to rise above it … Such is the transition of Fowler’s stages of faith … We move from a simple, childlike faith to a place where we can see the dichotomy in the world and find constructive and creative ways to live within it … Then in Stage six, we move above the dichotomy and the muck, and we begin to live as what we would loosely say are “enlightened” individuals, who can see the universal truths and live by them …

Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa, Jean Vanier, - those are people who have achieved stage six faith. But they are no imbued with anything that you and I don’t have … They are ordinary people who have allowed the living presence of God to take hold of them, and who have been able to live their faith on profound levels, that ALL of us are capable of living.

Our Gospel reading today lays some of the ground work necessary to make that transition (transformation). Jesus starts by withdrawing to the wilderness to pray and fast – to draw into the presence of God. Then as he readies himself to return to the world, he is tempted. First the Devil offers him food. Food is our great weakness – if not for ourselves, then for our families – we want food, we need food, we crave food. If you threaten the food supply, the outcome will be riots and violence.

Next the devil offers him prestige, power and pride. CS Lewis in The Screwtape Letters notes that for most people of faith, the easiest temptation for a demon is to whisper in our ears “Good Job, Look at how faithful you are …” and we’ll head down the road of pride. All of us want to do a good job. All of us what to be recognized. All of us want to be thanked and appreciated for our hard work, especially when we go above and beyond, and it is devastating, absolutely devastating when it fails to happen, or it becomes political and only the chosen few are thanked and we who have worked hard are overlooked and forgotten …

Then the devil offers Jesus safety if he were to fling himself from the precipice of the temple and trust in God to send angels to rescue and save him. This is a pressing topic in a post 9/11 world, where safety and security are front and centre in the sites of governments everywhere.

To each of the temptations before him, Jesus responds with short pithy quotations from the scriptures. To each he emphasizes the need to remain faithful to God.

Jesus’ replies are succinct and to the point ... We need to place our value in things that are important … we need balance in our life … enough bread, but not too much … enough praise and appreciation, but not too much … enough power and prestige, but not too much … enough safety, but not too much. And ultimately, we need to remember who it is that bestows all of this upon us …

And so, we turn to Deuteronomy where we find the instructions on how to present our offerings before God … we are to begin – “A Wandering Aramean is my ancestor …” and then you are offer a wonderful recounting of the history that has brought you and the people to this point … It is a recounting of the Exodus, and the arrival in the promised land, and a deep, deep appreciation of all that God has bestowed upon the people …

Now aside, from the length of time it would take to have an entire congregation step forward and individually read the words we’ve just heard from our Old Testament reading … the positive value of this reading is the reminder of where we’ve come from, who we are, and what we’ve experienced. And deeper still is the reminder of God’s role in our lives and in our world …

We are to bring our offerings – our time, our talent, our treasures – all of it, with a heart filled with appreciation, and a sure and certain knowledge that we can bring real change to the world …

One basket, one animal, one offering, one simple action at a time, we will bring change to the world … because we are people who have journeyed with God since the very beginning …

Our food is a gift from God … we should be thankful enough to share.

Our ability and prestige are gifts from God … we should be thankful enough to express our appreciation and to acknowledge the talents of all, not just some …

Our safety and security are a gift from God … we should be thankful enough to share this gift, not protect it so severely that we destroy it …

The experience of Stage Six faith is the moment of time when we are able to simply live our lives trusting in God and each other … It is like the little girl who walks down the beach after a vicious storm and begins picking up the star fish she finds scattered across the sand … She picks up a star fish, or maybe two, and carries them down to the tide line and tosses them back in the water. Then returns and picks up another starfish and carries it down the beach.

Her father looks around and sees thousands upon thousands of star fish and says to his daughter, “Why bother? There are so many start fish, you are just one little girl. It won’t make any difference.”

The little girl quietly picks up a starfish and carries it down the beach and tosses it in the water – “It makes a difference to that one …” she says as she lets it go …

If Dad were to embrace a life of Stage Six faith he would begin to pick up starfish too … and then, others seeing the daughter and father, would join them … and even if not every starfish scattered across the beach was saved, enough would be saved to make a difference …

Mother Theresa started her movement when she found a single lonely beggar lying in the gutter dying, and she tended him … her action made a difference to one man ... the change to the world came much later.

One small gesture … a cup of coffee with a friend … a kind word … one dollar dropped on the collection plate … saying “thanks” are the right time … one loving gesture … Individually they don’t seem like much. But if all of us each make one small gesture everyday … the world around us will slowly begin to change …

Stage Six faith is not about muck raking and seeking out the sordid and the salacious, but rather simply living our lives …

The World War One vet who died this week asked for only a simple family service, not anything grand because he was simply a soldier who lived a long time …

The other media darling has a long history of antics and foolishness that keeps her in the headlines …

One of these is worthy of honour and our appreciation. The other is worthy of our pity and our concern for a human soul that has clearly lost her way …

We are people preparing for the coming of Easter … it is tempting to jump to the glory and the praise, but around us is a season of preparation and a season of repentance. In the Church, Lent is a time to give up things that hinder us in our faith, and to focus courageously on what is important …

The three temptations facing Jesus are universal … Our challenge is to find ways to share our bread, even when we might think ourselves hungry … Our challenge is not to grow too proud of our accomplishments, but to honour those who have helped US along the way, and to give thanks where thanks are due … and our final challenge is to trust in God and God alone …

They are easy words to speak … Easy words to preach … they are also easy words to live if we are willing to try … if we are willing …

May we have the courage, the boldness and the faith to live our lives knowing that we can, and will change the world, one little action at a time …

May it be so – thanks be to God – Let us pray …


OFFERING, OFFERTORY AND PRAYER OF DEDICATION

HYMN # 375 Spirit, Spirit of Gentleness

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
THE LORD’S PRAYER (# 959 VU)

HYMN # 647 Travel On, Travel On

COMMISSIONING

BENEDICTION – CHOIR - Now Unto Him

The worship has ended….
…the work of God’s people has just begun.
Go in peace.