September 29, 2002
Through today’s passages, God’s authority and trustworthiness are held up as examples for us. Each person is called by God, and we each respond in different ways – some faithfully and some otherwise. Our genuine response with both words and action honours God and offers a witness that can help others consider their own response to God’s call.
If you would like to stay seated for any or all of the “standing” parts of the service, please feel free to do so.
Hymn Sing
A time of silent preparation—Lighting the Christ Candle
Call to Worship (Responsive)
One: God’s Spirit calls to our spirits,
All: inviting us to worship.
One: God’s Spirit calls to our spirits,
All: inviting us by love.
One: God’s Spirit calls to our spirits,
All: calling us by name, calling us to grow in faith, calling us to be made new.
One: We come to worship in this season of the Spirit.
All: Amen.
One: Let us continue to pray
All Loving God, help us to connect with your Spirit here. Fill us with your love so that our words and actions will match and both will serve you and your people. Help us to see the needs of people around us – both near and far – and to know that, as your people working together, we can make a difference in our world. Amen.
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Hello, Hello; We say, “How do you do?”
Hello, Hello; We come to meet God too.
It’s good to be together,
to sing and learn to pray,
It’s good to be together
with God today.
Time with the Young & the young at heart
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The Sunday School & Youth leave for their classes.
We Remain in God’s Presence Through Confession
Almighty God, we repent of our misdoings; the remembrance of them is grief to us; the burden of them is great. Have mercy upon us, forgive us all that is past; and grant that we may serve and please you in newness of life…(Silent Confession)
Assurance of Pardon (One)
No matter where we are, God is there. No matter what we have done, God forgives. No matter our reluctance to accept God, God has accepted us. With that assurance, receive forgiveness, and live in fullness and in hope.
Biblical Notes
Water from the Rock
Hymn #339 “When Morning Gilds the Skies”
Question about Jesus’ Authority (Read from the New Revised Standard Version)
One: This is the Good News of Jesus Christ
Hymn #271 “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy”
A Birthday Gift for Michaela
Michaela Jessome's birthday is on October 4. She will be six years old. She goes to Sunday School at Wilson United Church in Florence, Nova Scotia. When Michaela was three, the children of Wilson United asked how they could help children who did not have as much as they did. They learned about the Mission and Service Fund.
The Mission and Service Fund is like a huge piggy bank where all the United Churches collect money to help others. The children of Michaela's church decided to save their pennies and send them to the Fund. The children decorated a Pringles can with M&S Fund stickers and used it to collect their money.
Michaela really liked the idea of helping children in Canada and in far away places. She saved her pennies at home to put into the can. When visitors came to her house she asked them for pennies, too. She asked people at church and people outside the church to help her. Before long, she didn't have to ask. People remembered her and brought their coins to her to take to Sunday School.
Michaela was pretty smart for a three-year-old. She knew that you are never too young or too small to help. She knew that when everyone does what they can, we can really make a difference.
For Michael'a birthday, let's find some extra pennies, quarters, loonies, or toonies to give to the Mission and Service Fund. It's the kind of present Michaela would like!
We Respond In Giving And Gratitude
Offertory
God of the hungry, make us hunger and thirst for the right, till our thirst for justice has been satisfied, and hunger has gone from the earth. Amen.
Hymn #376 “Spirit of the Living God”
Commissioning
Be strong and of good courage, do not be afraid: for it is the Lord your God who goes with you, God will not leave you or forsake you.
Choral Amen
#298 “When You Walk From Here”
When you walk from here, when you walk from here.
Walk with justice, walk with mercy, and with God’s humble care.
Postlude
The Life And Work Of The Congregation
Our condolences and prayers go out to the Wally Bergstreser family and the Cody Minor family following the passing of their fathers Walter Bergstreser and Perry “Tony” Minor. We also mourn the loss of one of our church family, Gordon “Pete” Findlay. Dr. Findlay will be dearly missed.
Next Week’s Readings from: Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20; Psalm 19; Philippians 3:4b-14; Matthew 21:33-46
Thought For Today
When you blame others,
you give up your power to change.
by Robert Anthony (educator)
The story is told of a haunted house on the outskirts of the town which was avoided by all the townsfolk - the ghost which `lived' there was feared by all.
However, an enterprising journalist decided to get the scoop of the day by photographing the fearsome phantom. When he entered the house, armed with only his camera, the ghost descended upon him, clanking chains et al.
He told the ghost "I mean no harm - I just want your photograph". The ghost was quite happy at this chance to make the headlines - he posed for a number of ghostly shots.
The happy journalist rushed back to his dark room, and began developing the photos. Unfortunately, they turned out to be black and underexposed.
So what's the moral of the story?
The spirit was willing but the flash was weak.
It’s OK to GROAN!
Well, that pretty much sums up the reflection of the scripture readings for today.
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You are probably not going to let me away with that so, you might as well give me a chance to explain.
Picture this: We’re walking with the Israelites through the desert…where we left off last week we were peeking and freaking because there was nothing to eat and this week we’re even more intense because there is nothing to drink.
It makes sense that we’re upset…in fact, it is right that we are upset…everyone knows that we only have a limited time to live without water and we seem to be right in the middle of that time so why wouldn’t we be excitable? Why wouldn’t we rant and rave? Why wouldn’t we want to blame someone for our plight…after all, we had lots of water to drink in Egypt …sure we had to take it on the chin from time to time but at least our basic needs were being met.
Besides, it’s not as if Moses is some kind of upstanding citizen…he’s a murderer after all…and not a murderer by circumstance but a premeditated murderer…guilty of “murder one” if you like. Exodus 2:12.
Why wouldn’t we wonder if God was with us or not? Why wouldn’t we begin to doubt Moses who says he is God’s messenger?
The spirit is mostly willing to head out on a new venture to a promised land with the promise of the presence of a God of all being as our strength but the flesh is often weak and weary from the need of food and water, from the experience of doubt and worry.
Walking through the wilderness we would like to say that we feel God’s presence, that we trust that God walks with us but it so easy to feel alone, neglected, forgotten even forsaken.
At such times, don’t you think, one could even debate, whether the spirit is willing or not. Not to blame ourselves but rather to understand ourselves.
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Centuries later Jesus would face the same problems …the power brokers of his day wondered about his authority and of course that was part of the trouble with the story about Moses …what authority what power Moses he have …was it sanctioned by God? Was God a part of it at all? Or had God tricked the Israelites into a journey that was going to end in death?
Was God there in the wilderness? Or was this whole thing simply the distorted plot of a murderer?
If we really were there… if we could find ourselves in the middle of that Exodus journey…I think our flesh would be weak too…I suspect that our spirits wouldn’t be that gracious either.
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In parables, Jesus worked to get people to understand themselves. Consider for a minute the parable that he uses to answer the test of his authority…it is one that most of us are familiar with…we are asked to do something and either we say no, have a change of heart and then do it OR we say yes and have a change of heart and don’t do it.
Clergy are famous for it. Requests can happen at any time but they usually happen when you are least equipped to deal with them. When that happens it’s easy to say, “you know I would like to be able to do that but time doesn’t permit it.” Then you find some time or re-evaluate the importance of existing schedules, make adjustments and discover that you can, in fact, find time to honour the request.
So, what began as an attempt to be honest turned out to be just another “say no, act yes” situation.
The reverse is often true as well. When people are asked to do something the sheer hope to be able to honour the request sometimes motivates the response “sure I’ll do that” only to perhaps re-evaluate or to get caught in other situations and eventually not to follow through on the promise.
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I remember once, in Manitoba, being part of a discussion with a presbytery personnel minister who was addressing a conference meeting of new ministers to the conference. The conversation rolled around to scheduling and she asked everyone, “how are you going to feel the first time you hope to visit someone who isn’t well and circumstance mean that the person actually dies before you have a chance to get together with them?”
She said you had better know how you are going to deal with yourself about it because it is going to happen as surely as the sun comes up.
She was right, of course.
The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak…the will is there but the schedule gets distorted…we set our priorities and sometimes they are the right ones and sometimes that doesn’t prove true…its life.
Jesus knew it and he wanted the actions of his hearers to be about attitude. When he asked which of the sons did the will of his father he wasn’t asking as if in a court of law… technically son number one obliged his dad so it makes sense that a legalist would think that son # one had made the honourable choice.
But, from where Jesus was standing, that person was wrong…neither son # 1 nor son #2 had fulfilled the father’s will…if we are to take our own actions as examples of what God would have for us and weigh them against this parable of Jesus ‘then we have to wonder “what is it that is important to God? What ought we to value in our decision making?
Jesus didn’t ask the question as a lawyer, he asked the question as a lover…if we love than we shall respond from a place of love.
That’s the point of Jesus parable…the son was too quick to say no…he may have resented that his brother was not asked, he may have thought he was old enough to be on his own and resented working for his father…he may have had any number of personal reasons why he blurted out a “no” response.
So even though he later did go and work in the vineyard. He had not honoured his father. He openly broke one of the commandments!
Just as Moses had broken the commandment not to kill, this son had broken the command to honour thy mother and father.
In fact Jewish law required that breaking this command would result in death.
Serious stuff…the priests and scribes who tested Jesus knew all too well the penalty for not honouring one’s father or mother.
But in their legalistic approach to life they satisfied themselves by believing that if the deed was done then the law was carried out. If the flesh managed to pull it off the spirit could be considered OK.
Jesus came to say “not so.” “If there is no spirit of love then the end does not justify the means.”
In fact, weak flesh or even weak spirit isn’t the issue, Jesus was asking, “how’s your heart?” Are you living out of a place of the heart or not?
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I want to conclude today with a little story. We have been talking for a few Sundays about our church need for Sunday school teachers. It is a common need shared by most churches. I was thinking about my time as a Sunday school teacher and the gifts I received from young lives only because I gave it a shot.
I share this story with you today in the context of the procrastination and excuses that are a natural part of day to day life and as a pointer to the gifts we sometimes miss just because we aren’t open to receiving them.
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Occasionally, teachers who taught The Whole People of God church school curriculum sent in letters to the publisher describing their experiences. Here’s one, from a teacher in Killam, Alberta.
It wasn’t my turn to teach. But I was asked if I could teach the lesson on Sunday morning. I took the lesson home on Saturday night.
The first activity option was to plant bulbs. I work part-time in a hardware store and happened to be there when the last packages of unsold bulbs were going into the garbage. So I took them home instead and put them in my cold room.
When I read that first option, I began to wonder if somehow I had been meant to teach this lesson!
When it came time to plant, we opened the boxes.
One of the kids shouted, “Hey, there’s some garbage in my box!”
Inside the box was a little piece of cardboard that had something written on it: “I am 15 years old. I packed these bulbs in this box. Please write to me and be my pen pal…” The address was on the other side.
One of the children eagerly took the address home and started writing.
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I keep wondering about all those “coincidences.” Why was I at work that day the bulbs were going in the garbage? Why was that particular box of bulbs not sold? Why did I take them home? Why was I asked to teach Sunday school that day? I believe it was more than just coincidence. God does act when we are willing to respond. I could have said no. The children could have refused to write.”
The teacher didn’t say so, but she probably had dozens of excellent excuses for not teaching that Sunday. No doubt the chief priests and elders also had dozens of excellent excuses for not hearing Jesus’ message.
But Jesus said that God will welcome the people who respond, not those who have good excuses. Amen.