MORRIS-ROSENFELD ECUMENICAL SHARED MINISTRY
ORDER OF SERVICE FOR SUNDAY, JUNE 9, 2024
THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
UNION SUNDAY
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
“The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life.”
Richard Bach, writer
Before we worship, we reflect…
A group of high school students arrived at a school-sponsored dance with several of their number demonstrably drunk. The administration separated and questioned the kids and learned they had been drinking at a house and in the parking lot. Their fault ranged from providing the alcohol, to taking just a sip, to simply being present. The school’s zero-tolerance policy called for ten-day suspensions from school and a prohibition from extracurricular activities, punishments that carried potentially serious long-term impacts for these students. When the serpent led the people to eat from the forbidden tree, the consequences were permanent. How are we like those first people? Today’s psalm speaks of God’s forgiveness; how do we balance consequences and forgiveness? How is accountability gathered up in grace, especially for young people who are still growing and developing?
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We acknowledge we gather and worship on Treaty 1 Territory, the original lands of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Anishininew, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.
Dear Loving Lord, Creator of all, you created us all in your own image, one image – many colours, one image – many cultures. You made us come together like a rainbow, separate parts but coming together in one creation. Help us to see the beauty you have created in each and every one of us.
Dear Loving Lord, we are your creation, hear the cries of your people. You gave us ears to hear and eyes to see, open our eyes to what you want us to see, help us always to look to you to see the wisdom of your ways. In the name of your dear son, Jesus Christ. Amen.[1]
CALL TO WORSHIP
From deep soil comes bold and daring growth. From the seeds of our past will come fresh new growth.
We come today to marvel at what has been harvested and prepare for what will come.
We come to celebrate where we are and where we have been. We come rejoicing with our ancestors in faith a#145cross generations:
The Methodists, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians, the Evangelical United Brethren, and Local Union Churches, and our full communion partners across this world:
The Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea, The United Church of Christ, The United Church of Christ in the Philippines, and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
We give thanks to God for the blessings of past, present, and future, and dare to plant these seeds of faith anew!
GATHERING SONG: More Voices #145 Draw The Circle Wide
CENTERING PRAYER
Again and again, God, we come to this time and place with a song! Each day you give us a chance to begin anew: to drink deeply of your Spirit, to boldly follow in the Way of Jesus, and to dare to seek justice as we seek relationship with our neighbours and you. Again and again, God, you call us out of our old lives and into your new day.
And so, as we celebrate the 99th anniversary of this United Church of yours, help us to reflect back with clarity upon all that deserves to be celebrated, all that deserves to be lamented, and all that deserves to be let go. We are not perfect, God, but we are yours, and we trust that you are with us every day. This day, and always, help us to be good grain that is planted and tended by your love, so that in the year to come we may flourish in this time and place. Amen.[2]
MISSON AND SERIVICE: Advocating for Sexual and Gender Minorities in Other Countries
We are blessed to live in Canada, a country that recognizes the right to love whoever you want, regardless of their gender or sex. And while we haven’t always done what is right, The United Church of Canada now recognizes that all love―including Two Spirit or LGBTQIA+ relationships―is holy and blessed by God. But those rights do not exist in many parts of the world today.
“One of our partners in Kenya has advocated strongly for the human rights of sexual minorities, and that has caused him to be in jail, caused him to risk his life to be able to do that,” says the Rev. Michael Blair. The church’s first openly gay General Secretary is now helping to advocate for sexual and gender minorities in foreign countries.
“When we hear these stories, we can see that this is a life and death matter.”
Your gifts for Mission and Service help shelter refugees as they escape repressive governments. As of May 2024, 64 jurisdictions criminalize private, consensual, same-sex sexual activity, and 12 countries have jurisdictions in which the death penalty is imposed or at least a possibility for private, consensual, same-sex sexual activity.
Mission and Service also holds consultations in other countries to discover how we can best work with our partners to protect sexual and gender minorities. “A few years ago, we hosted a consultation here in Canada with several partners and asked how we can be supportive of their work,” Blair says. “They told us we needed to come and help in their context.”
To date, Mission and Service has supported consultations in Latin America and the Philippines.
“We are bringing together leaders to explore how the church can be a place of liberation and life for sexual and gender minorities in those communities. That is happening because of the folks who contribute to Mission and Service,” says Blair.
Thank you for helping to protect sexual and gender minorities. You are saving lives and changing views around the world!
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
Holy One, we believe you speak to us through the songs of birds and the wind in the trees, through the wisdom of living elders and our spiritual ancestors in faith. As we share these words of scripture today, God, may we receive what your Spirit is saying to the church. All of this we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.[3]
READINGS AND PSALM
First Reading: Genesis 3:8-15
Immediately after Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit, they hide from God. Neither takes responsibility for their sin, instead blaming each other, the snake, and even God. The curse on the snake was understood as a messianic prophecy by the early church, who associated Eve’s “offspring” with Christ.
8 heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.9But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” 11He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” 13Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.” 14The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you among all animals
and among all wild creatures;
upon your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers
he will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
Psalm 130
Wait for the Lord, for with the Lord there is steadfast love. (Ps. 130:7)
1Out | of the depths I cry to | you, O Lord;
2O Lord, | hear my voice Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my | supplication.
3If you were to keep watch over sins, O Lord, who could stand
4Yet with you is forgiveness, in order that you | may be feared. R
5I wait for you, O Lord; my soul waits; in your word is my hope.
6My soul waits for the Lord more than those who keep watch for the morning, more than those who keep watch for the morning.
7O Israel, wait for the Lord, for with the Lordthere is steadfast love; with the Lord there is plenteous redemption.
8For the Lord shall Israel from all their sins. R
Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 4:13—5:1
Life in the present is transitory and cannot compare with the eternal home God has prepared for us. So we do not despair no matter what life might bring because we know that as God raised Jesus from the dead, God promises to bring us into eternal life.
13Just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture—“I believed, and so I spoke”—we also believe, and so we speak, 14because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. 15Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
16So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 17For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, 18because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.
5:1For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
Gospel: Mark 3:20-35
In response to charges that he is possessed, Jesus wonders aloud how anyone who is demon-possessed can cast out demons. Those who do the will of God are possessed by the Holy Spirit, siblings of Christ.
20and the crowd came together again, so that could not even eat. 21When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” 22And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” 23And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. 27But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.
“Truly I tell you people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin”—for they had said “He has an unclean spirit.”
Then his mother and his brothers came and standing outside they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him and they said to him “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside asking for you.” And he replied “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said “Here are my mother and my brothers Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
HYMN: More Voices #135 Called By Earth And Sky
SERMON – from: Seeds for Our Future – A Service in Celebration of the 99th Anniversary of The United Church of Canada as We Prepare to Turn 100
Sermon Thoughts
Penny Nelson, one of the co-writers for this service, comes from a small family farm in Alberta. When she asked her dad, a third-generation wheat farmer, what he thought about Jesus saying: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24), his response was:
Farmers know that seeds are only viable for so long. If you don’t plant those seeds within a certain time frame, the seeds actually die and you won’t get any crop from them. So, there’s no point in trying to save your seeds for posterity. If you hoard your seeds and never, ever plant them, they’re worthless.
And the same is true with our churches. I see people in pews who are so afraid of the church dying that they can’t see how their fear is actually killing the church. They aren’t willing to take their money and try planting something new; they just hold onto their money, and their congregation dies because they didn’t even try to plant hope with the resources they have. They aren’t willing to try new things because they feel the life of their congregation is so frail, but if they aren’t willing to let go of their fear of dying, they are just going to die anyway. And Jesus doesn’t call his followers to die for the sake of dying. He calls his followers to let go of our resources for the sake of growing hope and life all around us.
On June 10, 1925, the Rev. Samuel Rose of Wesleyan Methodist College in Montreal preached on this text from John 12 for the inaugural worship service of The United Church of Canada. It may have seemed strange for the Rev. Rose to choose this text at the birth of the United Church, but he was prophetic in warning the new denomination that we are not called to live for the sake of our own gain, or even for the sake of perpetuating our own existence. Instead, the church is called to use our resources—our time, our talents, and our treasures of money and property—towards furthering the spread of God’s love, hope, peace, and joy in this world.
As a denomination, we have been letting go and being reborn for a long time. This process of death and resurrection has been part of us from our beginnings. As we approach our 100th anniversary, it is a good time to reflect on what is being transformed in this moment and for this coming age. We trust that God is with us, even in the terrifying, life-changing moments of death and rebirth.
Questions to Ponder
What do we (as a congregation, as a region, as a denomination) need to celebrate and then let go of? What needs to die? What are the resources we have been given that we are hoarding?
What hopes and joys are we called to plant in this world today? How are we called to plant the seeds of the gospel in our time and place?
HYMN: More Voices #1 Let Us Build A House
PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION
We come before the triune God to pray for our communities, ourselves, and our world.
You reawaken our hearts to your mercy. We give you thanks for renewers of the church in every age. Enliven the creativity and persistence of all seeking to transform the church into a closer vision of your beloved community. Merciful God,
receive our prayer.
Your presence is revealed in the shade of trees, the growth of seeds into flowers, and in the blessing of plants granting food in their right season. Heal lands scarred by deforestation, pollution, or infestation. Teach us to cultivate the earth with respect and reverence. Merciful God,
receive our prayer.
Our nations and communities are divided, O God. Teach us again to listen with curiosity and mercy, even in disagreement. Grant us the humility to acknowledge our hardness of heart and make us bold in modeling cooperation for the sake of the common good. Merciful God,
receive our prayer.
Hear the prayers of all who cry out to you from the depths of fear, despair, or hopelessness. With haste, rescue victims of trafficking, exploitation, and abuse, and bless organizations and individuals who work on their behalf. Merciful God,
receive our prayer.
Grant wisdom and clarity to all who are in seasons of discernment and transition: high school graduates preparing for first jobs or new educational journeys, those who are shifting careers, and those who are navigating changes in their relationships. Accompany them with your peace. Merciful God,
receive our prayer.
Praise to you for our ancestors in faith who believed, spoke, and lived in you (especially). Give us confidence that as Jesus was raised, so we too will be raised, with all the saints, into your everlasting presence. Merciful God,
receive our prayer.
Receive our prayers, O God, and come quickly to our aid, through the power of the Spirit and the love of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
SENDING SONG: More Voices #209 Go, Make A Diff’rence
BENEDICTION
The blessing of God, who provides for us, feeds us, and journeys with us, ☩ be upon you now and forever. 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] Rev’d Robyn Davis, NATSIAC Life Member, Diocese of Bendigo, https://www.abmission.org/resources/prayers-for-reconciliation/
[2] https://united-church.ca/worship-special-days/union-sunday
[3] https://united-church.ca/worship-special-days/union-sunday