CALVIN UNITED CHURCH



Creation and the Purposes of God – A Call to the Church Week Three: The Messy Life of Disciples TodayEleventh Sunday after Pentecost August 16, 2020Community Worship hosted by Calvin United ChurchGathering and WelcomeLighting the Christ CandleReflection Music Deep River Traditional Spiritual arr. L. ShackleyOpening PrayerJesus Christ, our Saviour, alive and at large in the world; Help us to follow and find you today in the places where we work and meet people, spend leisure time and make plans. Teach us to see through your eyes and to hear the questions you ask,By the power of the Cross and in the freedom of your Spirit, we pray. Amen.Hymn of Praise For The Fruit of All Creation VU 227 Reflection: TAKE OUT JESUS - Hazel Ward-Moreau writes “I've always loved pickles, as they can dress up a boring sandwich, and add some flavour to a bland meal. During this year of the pandemic, I find it calming to see that there's no change in the cucumbers. They sprouted when I planted them, grew in my greenhouse, and grew more when I planted the plants in the garden in June. Now in early August, Jesus is with me again while I make all kinds of pickles and relish to last through the winter. Praise be to God for the abundance of the garden, from seed to jar.”CENTERING ON GODLet us settle into silence and stillness.We are one with the universe and together with the One who is mystery and whose Eternal Word guides us as we listen with our whole being.Scripture ReadingsPsalm 15 Read Responsively Voices United 736Mark 8: 31-38 NRSVThis is the Word of God, Wisdom for all generations,Thanks be to God!Singing our Repentance If I Have Been the Source of PainMore Voices 76Meditation “let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer” Psalm 19:14In an Opinion Letter titled ‘Why we must not look away in the current crisis’ in the Baptist News Global Edition, write this past July, Mark Wingfield shares this story…“Father Michael Renninger was the pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Richmond, Va. While a college student on his way home one weekend, Renninger stopped to visit his grandparents. They lived in the same row house in Philadelphia he had known growing up. His grandfather had a series of strokes that left him paralyzed on one side and unable to talk or swallow. His grandmother determined to take care of him at home, even though he required a feeding tube.On that day, Renninger recalled, he opened the squeaky front door and immediately knew things were not right. The goopy liquid food was splattered all over his grandfather, whose face was red. His grandmother was struggling to care for him when she realized their grandson had entered the house. The college student started to leave, assuming he didn’t need to walk into this embarrassing situation.Then he heard his grandmother’s stern voice: “Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare leave. Sometimes this is what love looks like.” His grandmother taught him an important lesson that day: Love cannot look away when life gets messy. Love cannot look away when the room is smelly, when despair is on display, when things are falling apart. Love does not put up flimsy curtains to hide reality. Love makes us look. And in looking, we are compelled to act.” End of quoteWhen we hear and see all the destruction of our planet with sinking oil ships or burning forests, or the chaos and pain in cities in collapse, confusion and fear as the virus continues to break families by death or loss of income or business – when we see these things portrayed in the news stories how do you and I react? Change the TV channel, scroll to the next Facebook post seeking out the Good News Stories? Do we put up a flimsy curtain to hide the inhumanity in this season of this Great Turning in our present civilization or deny the reality of life because we become sad or angry or hopeless?Sisters and Brothers in Christ, That is not what love does! Love makes us look. And in looking, we are compelled to act.Mark Wingfield goes on to write: “From the earliest accounts of the Judeo-Christian tradition, we hear the denial of Cain, who has slain his brother, Abel. When God comes looking through the front door, Cain tries to pretend nothing is amiss: “Am I my brother’s keeper?”The answer from Genesis is a resounding “yes,” and this is the declaration that echoes throughout holy Scripture like a cry from the grave: Yes, we are our brother’s keeper. Yes, we are our sister’s keeper. Yes, we are responsible before God for the rest of humanity. We cannot turn a blind eye.Jesus didn’t travel from village to village putting up courtesy curtains so the entitled didn’t have to see the village’s problems. Jesus tore down curtains and exposed unjust conditions. Then Jesus stepped in with healing. He healed people when it wasn’t the right day for healings or when those healed weren’t the finest of citizens. Jesus saw and heard and acted – giving his own life away in order to give life to others.”Today as disciples of Jesus we are called to go in the way of the cross in our broken world and follow on the path of God’s love for all Creation. The journey starts with repentance which is more than saying sorry and feeling regret. Operation Noah is a UK Christian Charity working to inspire action for climate change based on faith, science and hope. In their resources which we are using this month, they write "that in our context of human-induced Climate Change, this repentance means “finding creative, constructive and immediate ways of addressing the danger. It happens when God’s Spirit enables a change of mind and a change of heart, prompting a turn from past wrong and a decision to change direction.” End quoteWith that change of mind and heart, we come to learn like Peter in our Gospel story today that God’s ways and God’s will are not necessarily the same as our hopes and our priorities. True discipleship can sometimes make demands to speak out and walk forward in ways that are radical, painful, vulnerable and unexpected to us humans.Today is not the time or place for flimsy curtains to be put up. Our planet home calls us to love like Jesus, to love like a grandson who does not turn his back when he sees his grandparents in distress. As Christians we are being called into a radical and costly discipleship where the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts will be acceptable in God’s sight. Our God …who is our strength and our redeemer”. There we find it possible to step forward in confident trust – a trust not in our own abilities, but in God’s. It is time people of God. Love makes us look. And in looking, we are compelled to act with compassion and justice. Amen. Responsive Song What Does the Lord Require of You Voices United 701 Prayers of the People Let us open ourselves to the grace of God, to the brokenness of our world,and the call to be agents of healing and re-creation.Where human greed has stripped the world of beauty and life,and robbed people of dignity and subsistence,We pray, O God, for a new vision of abundance,and a new commitment to nurture the world that feeds usand share with those who do not have.SilenceWhere human hatred has severed relationships,and broken the connection that unites creation,We pray, O God, for love to be renewed,and compassion to draw us back into union.SilenceWhere human loneliness, weakness, sickness and grief,and the suffering of our planet and its inhabitantshide the signs of your life,We pray, O God, for healing, comfort and strengthand for the courage to keep hoping in the renewed creation to come.SilenceWhere human lust for power and money has prioritized economic growthabove eco-system survival and abundant life for all,We pray, O God, for your Spirit to fill our leaders with wisdom, compassion and courage.Awaken all of us to what this climate emergency means and the moral courage to do what it takes for our country to lead the world away from climate chaos and towards the safe and beautiful future embraced by your love.SilenceWhere those we love and those we know are bearing burdens of ill-health, grief, loneliness, fear or hopelessness, we name them to you in the full assurance that you will remain with them and pour your healing grace upon them in this their time of needSilenceO God, restore our faith, revive our hope, rekindle our love, and hear our prayer;For we offer it in Christ’s name. AmenClosing Hymn You Call Us Out VU 569CommissioningGo forth to share the light of Christ with all of Creation.Go forth to make the earth and all its creations sacred once againGo and fill the voids and cracks with your loveKnowing that the source of Love remains with you always. ?Amen.Sung Benediction May God’s Sheltering Wings More Voices 214Resources for this service unless otherwise noted come from the ministry of Operation Noah, an ecumenical Christian organization supporting multi-faith work on Climate Change since 2004. They are Faith-Motivated, Science-Informed and Hope-Inspired in their ministry. Their website is . Used with permission for purposes of educating more Christians about climate munity Annoucements:For Pastoral Emergencies and Funerals:Thanks go to Neil Lloyd (Calvin) and Catherine Bromell and Peter Rumohr (Wesley) for providing this essential ministry. Neil Lloyd 343-308-5070; Catherine Bromell 613-582-7394; Peter Rumohr 613-735-5627.Thank you for your continued financial support of Calvin United Church. Contributions can be mailed or dropped off in church mailbox. Consider sending in post-dated cheques for the next few months or switch to PAR so that your givings are continuous.Calvin United Church is planning to re-open Sept. 6, 2020.? More information coming soon.Wanted Gardeners! Calvin needs 2 or 3 people to do some cleaning up of the flower and shrub beds around the Renfrew St. entrance. Come on your own schedule, bring your own tools and get a green bin from by the Church St. entrance. We want a welcoming door for our re-opening on Sept. 6. ................
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