MORRIS-ROSENFELD ECUMENICAL SHARED MINISTRY
ORDER OF SERVICE FOR SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2024
IMPOSITION OF ASHES / 1ST SUNDAY IN LENT
BLACK HISTORY MONTH 3
Due to copyright limitations, we are unable to print the words to many of the songs. However, our musicians have chosen music to fit the scriptures. We invite you to look up the words in your worship book and ponder them. If you do not have a worship book, ponder the words of one of your favourite hymns and listen for God’s voice. Those who have the internet may find the songs on YouTube.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“What is more important than the practices we take on is the heart attitude behind them. If there’s anything we should give up this time of year, it’s our sense of superiority either to those outside the church or those inside the church who do things differently than we do. The cross levels us all. And that’s true whether or not you practice Lent.”
— Trevin Wax
BEFORE WE WORSHIP, WE REFLECT…
As the season of Lent begins each year, God’s people are invited to take on three great disciplines: prayer, fasting, and alms-giving. Our acts of faithfulness always come as a response to God’s gifts. Remembering this gives a note of humility to all we do. Piety is not something to brag about. Piety is not something to be proud of. Piety is but acknowledgment of the one who first gave us everything.
On Ash Wednesday the church began its journey toward baptismal immersion in the death and resurrection of Christ. This year, the Sundays in Lent lead us to focus on five covenants God makes in the Hebrew Scriptures and to use them as lenses through which to view baptism. First Peter connects the way God saved Noah’s family in the flood with the way God saves us through the water of baptism. The baptismal covenant is made with us individually, but the new life we are given in baptism is for the sake of the whole world.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We acknowledge we gather and worship on Treaty 1 Territory, the original lands of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.
Great God, we pause at the beginning of this gathering to praise and acknowledge You as our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. We are grateful for the earth you have created that nourishes us. We are grateful for the responsibility you have given us to tend and care for creation. We acknowledge we are related to the earth and all its many creatures with inseparable lines of connection.
We give thanks to You, God our Creator, for this land, and to those peoples who have stewarded this land for generations. We are grateful for the opportunity to live, work and worship here, as we witness the reconciling movement of the Spirit. We commit to engage in listening, learning and acting to live into right relations with Indigenous peoples and all of creation. Amen.
Bibliography: ‘#878 Land Acknowledgement’. In Voices Together. Harrisonburg, Virginia: MennoMedia, 2020.
INVITATION TO LENT
Friends in Christ, today with the whole church we enter the time of remembering Jesus’ passover from death to life, and our life in Christ is renewed.
We begin this holy season by acknowledging our need for repentance and for God’s mercy. We are created to experience joy in communion with God, to love one another, and to live in harmony with creation. But our sinful rebellion separates us from God, our neighbors, and creation, so that we do not enjoy the life our creator intended.
As disciples of Jesus, we are called to a discipline that contends against evil and resists whatever leads us away from love of God and neighbor. I invite you, therefore, to the discipline of Lent—self-examination and repentance, prayer and fasting, sacrificial giving and works of love—strengthened by the gifts of word and sacrament. Let us continue our journey through these forty days to the great Three Days of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Confession and Forgiveness
Blessed be the holy Trinity, ☩ one God, who writes the law on our hearts, who draws all people together through Jesus.
Amen.
Held in God’s mercy, let us confess our sin in the presence of God and of one another:
Holy God, we confess that we are caught in snares of sin and cannot break free. We hoard resources while our neighbors are hungry and cold. We speak in ways that silence others. We are silent when we should speak up. We keep score in our hearts. We let hurts grow into hatred. For all these things and for sins only you know, forgive us, Lord. Amen.
Here is a flood of grace: Out of love for the whole world, God draws near to us, breaks every snare of sin, washes away our wrongs, and restores the promise of life through ☩ Jesus Christ.
Amen.
CHILDREN’S SONG: With One Voice 660 I Want Jesus To Walk With Me
CENTERING PRAYER
God of the journey, we wander through the wilderness hoping to find what we are searching for. As we search, may we be strengthened by your presence; our water in the desert, our rainbow after the storm.
—a prayer from Why I Believe: Daily Devotions on Faith & Discipleship (UCPH, 2017)
MISSION & SERVICE: LEADING GENERATIONS
Becoming a parent or guardian is a life-changing, complex experience that doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all answer. As kids, we looked to adults for guidance as we navigated the world with fresh eyes. We looked to teachers for help with schoolwork, and parental figures for managing emotions and fears. Now, as adults, we recognize that we’re still figuring things out as we go, and there’s always an opportunity to grow our skills and minds.
In London, Ontario, Mission and Service partners with the London Community Chaplaincy as they respond to parents and guardians who wish to build a network of support, share the parenting journey, and develop new skills as they navigate raising children in a low-income setting. Together, these parents are working hard to build a positive future for their children and families.
Each week London Community Chaplaincy provides a welcoming and safe social setting for adults to connect and grow as parents. Not only for learning how to guide a child through critical stages of development, but also for navigating the complex mental aspects of being a parent or guardian while also managing financial stress, food insecurity, housing complications, and more. Gathering with other adults in a similar situation allows participants to share their struggles and triumphs, further building a sense of community.
Your gifts to Mission and Service support partnerships like the London Community Chaplaincy as they help empower parents along the parenting journey. Thank you.
CHILDREN’S CHAT
After Jesus is baptized, the Holy Spirit SHOVES Jesus out into the desert for 40 days and 40 nights. It’s like someone shoving you off the end of a dock into the cold lake water! Not a nice feeling!
If that isn’t bad enough, then the Tempter comes along and tries to get Jesus to turn away from God! This is tough stuff! Thankfully, Jesus looks deep inside himself until he feels the strong love of God and says NO to the Tempter! To get a feel for what Jesus was going through, try this:
Take a hoola hoop. Stand inside the circle of the hoola hoop. This is where God’s love is. Now, step out of the hoop. As soon as you do that, pretend someone in your life is trying to tempt you with something to turn you away from God! When you feel like you might give in, quickly run back inside the hoop until you feel God’s love flowing through you again and giving you strength.
Of course, what Jesus experienced was a lot stronger than my example. Still, Jesus had to keep holding on to the love of God so that he would not give in to temptation!
Even children face some really hard, scary and tough experiences. Sometimes, children have to face them alone! Even though we are scared, we can still picture ourselves in that circle, being held in God’s love. It may not change the situation; it does give us courage to face what we need to face.
Thank you, Jesus, for showing us it is possible to say NO to temptation and stay strong in God’s love.
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
God who is with us, guide us by your Word. Help us to again receive you in the flesh. May the Promised One lead us in wisdom and truth and may we be sustained by Christ who is the Bread of Life. Amen.
READINGS AND PSALM
First Reading: Genesis 9:8-17
Today’s reading is the conclusion to the flood story. Because of human sin, God destroys the earth by flood, saving only Noah, his family, and the animals on the ark. Yet divine destruction gives way to divine commitment. As in the first creation, God blesses humanity and establishes a covenant with all creatures.
8God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9“As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, 10and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. 11I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
Psalm 25:1-10
Your paths, O Lord, are steadfast love and faithfulness. (Ps. 25:10)
1To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
2My God, I put my trust in you; let me not be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me.
3Let none who look to you be put to shame; rather let those be put to shame who are treacherous.
4Show me your ways, O Lord, and teach me your paths. R
5Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; in you have I trusted all the day long.
6Remember, O Lord, your compassion and love, for they are from everlasting.
7Remember not the sins of my youth and my transgressions; remember me according to your steadfast
love and for the sake of your goodness, O Lord.
8You are gracious and upright, O Lord; therefore you teach sinners in your way. R
9You lead the lowly in justice and teach the lowly your way.
10All your paths, O Lord, are steadfast love and faithfulness to those who keep your covenant
and your testimonies. R
Second Reading: 1 Peter 3:18-22
As God acted through Christ’s suffering and death to bring us to God, so God acts through baptism to save us from a sinful existence. This spiritual cleansing marks our new life in Christ.
18Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, 19in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, 20who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. 21And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.
Gospel: Mark 1:9-15
The Spirit that comes upon Jesus at his baptism sustains him when he is tested by Satan so that he might proclaim the good news of God’s reign.
9In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
12And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.
14Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
HYMN: Voices United 664 What A Friend We Have In Jesus
SERMON
The community of Carman, MB, is grieving, struggling with the shock of 5 murders by one of their own community members, of whom three of the victims were the perpetrator’s own children. What happened?! The community of Carman has entered the wilderness, a place of harsh realities, pain and suffering. Where are you God?!
Where indeed.
Mark’s gospel is short, powerful and to the point. What is important to note is what takes place before Jesus is thrust into the wilderness. This would be his baptism, where the sky was ripped apart and the Holy Spirit entered into Jesus. The sky ripping apart and the Spirit coming down would indicate that what had separated the people from God in the past has been opened up. God’s power enters Jesus, and it is that same power that drives, shoves – virtually catapults – Jesus into the wilderness! Why?
Unlike the other gospels, Mark does not give us any clue as to the temptations Jesus faced in the wilderness, just that after 40 days Jesus was with the wild animals, unharmed, and was being attended to by angels. It would seem that the point of the story is not the list of temptations but that Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, overcame temptation and with the power of the creator, connected with the creatures created by God. Where Jesus is, peace and harmony reign. That same Spirit will be the force with which the powers of the world will have to contend during Jesus’ ministry. Now that Jesus has overcome the wilderness, sickness, demons – even death, will no longer have power over God’s people.
I have had the privilege of hearing many life stories during my ministry. I have come to understand the many faces of the wilderness, temptation and the power of the Holy Spirit, and indeed, they are many. I have also heard how self-examination of the soul, community, prayer and opening oneself to the Spirit has helped many to resist temptation and ultimately exit the wilderness. Being human, I too have had to walk through own wilderness and learned the power of self-examination of the soul, community, prayer and opening myself to the Spirit.
Perhaps some of you remember this episode from M.A.S.H.:
Fr. Mulcahy, tried to talk with a wounded soldier who had been severely traumatized by what he witnessed on the front lines of the war. But when this soldier discovers that the good Father had never been anywhere close to where the fighting of the war was taking place, he concludes they just cannot talk. The soldier had no interest in hearing the pious platitudes of one who had no idea what he was talking about. Later in the episode, after Mulcahy does come under enemy fire and is forced to perform an emergency medical procedure on a soldier even as shells are exploding all around him, the soldier welcomes the Father after all. Now they have a common frame of reference, now they can talk. Now Mulcahy gets it.[1]
Perhaps this answers the “why” of Jesus’ experience of the wilderness. Being fully human as well as fully divine, Jesus needed to understand the human experience of the wilderness. I am in no way suggesting that God causes suffering, nor uses suffering to “teach us a lesson”. I do not believe God is cruel. I do believe in freedom of choice and I have experienced the curveballs of life. Some things just are, and we have to learn to cope with the situation presented to us. For Jesus to have “street cred”, as it were, his experience in the wilderness would root him in the power of God and help him experience the struggle and vulnerability of being human. I realize this is speculation. However, it fits with the rest of Mark’s gospel. Where Jesus is present, where Jesus has walked, healing, wholeness, forgiveness, acceptance and love flow from him and leave God’s power to embrace the people.
So where does that leave the community of Carmen?
What is our greatest temptation? As human beings, as people of faith, our greatest temptation is to think that God is not present. As we journey through our own wilderness, as we are camped out at the bottom of the great abyss, as the community grieves for the murder victims and their families, the greatest temptation is to think that God has left the building; to think that God does not care, or worse, that somehow this is all in God’s plan for our lives and that we are to learn something from this. That is our greatest temptation.
Notice that the same Spirit that descends upon Jesus at his baptism is the same spirit that enters into him and shoves him into the desert. Notice that same Spirit remains with Jesus throughout his wilderness experience. Most importantly, notice it is the same Spirit that is with Jesus as he exits his wilderness experience and begins his public ministry. Did you notice? GOD NEVER LEFT! God never leaves. We have been given freedom of choice, and, tragically, some people choose to take out their pain by hurting or murdering others or themselves. The reality of God is that God was with the perpetrator just as much as God was with every victim, just as God is with every person who lives, breathes and has being. The Spirit calls and guides. Some people choose to follow, others choose to ignore the voice; some even believe that they are so bad that even God can’t help them. Bottom line, no matter what happens, God is present through others to remind us God is present. Wilderness or no wilderness, God never leaves.
Our calling as a Christian community is to live our faith so that those struggling through their own wilderness know that God is present because we are present, filled with the Holy Spirit walking beside and offering support.
Lent has begun. Perhaps Trevin Wax, in our quote for this week, offers a Lenten practice to help stave off temptation:
“What is more important than the practices we take on is the heart attitude behind them. If there’s anything we should give up this time of year, it’s our sense of superiority either to those outside the church or those inside the church who do things differently than we do. The cross levels us all. And that’s true whether or not you practice Lent.” [2]
Amen.
Hymn Of The Month: More Voices 71 When The Wind of Winter Blows
IMPOSITION OF ASHES
Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the earth. May these ashes be a sign of our mortality and penitence, reminding us that only by the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ are we given eternal life; through the same Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
Ministers mark the forehead of each person with a cross of ashes, saying:
Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
Accomplish in us, O God, the work of your salvation,
that we may show forth your glory in the world.
By the cross and passion of your Son, our Savior,
bring us with all your saints to the joy of his resurrection.
Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us all our sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen us in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep us in eternal life.
Amen.
PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION
Trusting in God’s promise to reconcile all things, let us pray for the church, the well-being of creation, and a world in need.
God our truth, the ark of your church has room for many expressions of faith. We give thanks for voices that challenge and awaken your people. Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
God our maker, you remember your covenant with the earth and its inhabitants. Rescue communities and creatures hurting from natural disasters. Preserve species and habitats endangered by human carelessness and disregard. Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
God our light, you know our weakness. Free all who govern from the temptations of power. Sustain all who work for human rights in every nation. Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
God our help, you care for your beloved children. Comfort all who are grieving, ill, afraid, in pain, or in despair. Feed hungry people living in food deserts. Protect any at risk from exploitation and abuse. Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
God our home, you gather your people. Grant us health and safety as we assemble. Keep us mindful of any who are homebound, hospitalized, convalescing, or traveling. Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
God our hope, you promise eternal life to your beloved children. We remember with gratitude those who have lived and died in faith. Grant that we may also dwell with you in everlasting peace. Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
Accompany us on our journey, God of grace, and receive the prayers of our hearts, through Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Amen.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
SENDING SONG: Voices United 747 The Lord’s My Shepherd
BENEDICTION
Beloved, we are God’s own people, holy, washed, renewed. God bless you and keep you, shower you with mercy, fill you with courage, and ☩ give you peace. Amen.
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© 2011 The United Church of Canada/L’Église Unie du Canada. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike Licence. To view a copy of this licence, visit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/byncsa/2.5/ca.
[1] https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2018-02-12/mark-19-15/
[2] https://parade.com/1154225/kelseypelzer/lent-quotes/