MORRIS-ROSENFELD ECUMENICAL SHARED MINISTRY
ORDER OF SERVICE FOR SUNDAY, MARCH 10, 2024
FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT
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
I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.
~C. S. Lewis
BEFORE WE WORSHIP, WE REFLECT…
The fourth of the Old Testament promises providing a baptismal lens this Lent is the promise God makes to Moses: those who look on the bronze serpent will live. In today’s gospel Jesus says he will be lifted up on the cross like the serpent, so that those who look to him in faith will live. When we receive the sign of the cross in baptism, that cross becomes the sign we can look to in faith for healing, for restored relationship to God, for hope when we are dying.
Though written about spiritual suffering, this Sunday’s psalm is also a good depiction of the profound struggles of addicts. The affliction of drug dependency makes addicts “ all manner of food” (Ps. 107:18) and drags them along “rebellious paths” (v. 17) as they draw nearer and nearer to “death’s door” (v. 18). Only “ to the Lord“ (v. 19) saves them, whether their help comes directly from God or from the hands of loved ones. So how do we love our self-destructive neighbor? When do we intervene or await God’s own intervention?
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.
God of Love, you are the Creator of this land and of all good things. Give us the courage to accept the realities of our history so that we may build a better future for our nation. Teach us to respect all cultures. Teach us to care for our land and waters. Help us to share justly the resources of this land. Help us to bring about spiritual and social change to improve the quality of life for all groups in our communities, especially the disadvantaged. Help young people to find true dignity and self esteem by your Spirit. May your power and love be the foundations on which we build our families, our communities and our nation, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
CALL TO WORSHIP
We seek salvation through our power
Yet you hang your useless bow in the clouds.
We seek salvation through our progeny
Yet your lineage follows lines of faithfulness.
We seek salvation through our independence
Yet your commandments plead for accountability.
We seek salvation through our denial
Yet you hold forth the serpent and beckon us to look.
We seek salvation through our intellect
Yet your wisdom is written on our hearts.
We seek salvation through our heritage
Yet you invite us to make a journey of faith.
May your invitation to journey
overcome our comfort with the familiar. Amen.[1]
GATHERING SONG: VU 642 Be Thou My Vision
CENTERING PRAYER
O God, rich in mercy, by the humiliation of your Son you lifted up this fallen world and rescued us from the hopelessness of death. Lead us into your light, that all our deeds may reflect your love, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
CANADIAN LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF: Ethiopia | Initiating an integrated approach
The impact of drought in the Horn of Africa has been severe on vulnerable populations already struggling as a result of poverty, insecurity, and the COVID-19 pandemic. The humanitarian crisis caused by this historic drought is compounded by disruptions in food supply chains resulting from the crisis in Ukraine.
In Ethiopia – one of the countries impacted by the drought – your donations over the past few years have enabled us to provide emergency support to thousands of families displaced by conflict.
Previously, our focus was on improving food security for vulnerable farmers and providing basic necessities and clean water to displaced families in Ethiopia.
This year, we are expanding our efforts in the country in order to address both immediate as well as longer-term needs. Our new project will adopt a “nexus” approach that integrates humanitarian and development solutions.
With your continued support, as well as the support of the Canadian government, our partner Lutheran World Federation – Ethiopia will not only provide vulnerable refugee families access to clean water, shelter, and basic supplies to get through the immediate crisis, but also help get them on the path to sustainability by supporting livelihoods and providing farming inputs and protection for women and girls at risk of gender-based violence.
CHILDREN’S CHAT
Have you ever seen those wash clothes at the dollar store that are the size of coins? They have been squished by a machine at the factory to be the size of a loonie. BUT…when you drop that loonie-sized cloth into a bowl of water – POOF! It sucks up the water and opens up to the size of a regular wash cloth! Very cool!
Baptism is like that cloth in the water. God comes to us in baptism. There we are; a baby, toddler, youth or adult, leaning over the baptismal font as the words of God and blessing are said over that ordinary water. THEN…that water is washed over our heads and we soak up the love and grace of God in that water like that tiny wash cloth! Suddenly, even though we can’t see it, our lives have become that much bigger because of the love of God that has been given to us in baptism!
I have been aware of God, and God’s love in my life since my earliest memory. That love has helped me get through some tough times. I know I am loved with the deepest and most wonderful love. My life has been amazing and enormous, surrounded by, and absorbing, all that love, that I have been able to share it with others. Like that tiny wash cloth, the love of God has been soaked up by my friends, family and strangers because God’s love is in me, and I share that love with the world. Now THAT is cool!
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
O God, your Word is more precious than fine gold, and sweeter than purest honey. As we turn to your Scripture, send your Holy Spirit to infuse your Word with truth and grace — so that the good news of your love would shine before our eyes and delight our senses so that we cannot help but respond with wonder, faith and trust. Amen.
READINGS AND PSALM
First Reading: Numbers 21:4-9
Though God provides food and water for the Israelites in the wilderness, they whine and grumble. They forget about the salvation they experienced in the exodus. God punishes them for their sin, but when they repent God also provides a means of healing: a bronze serpent lifted up on a pole.
4From Mount Hor set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. 5The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” 6Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. 7The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 8And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” 9So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.
Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
You deliver your people from their distress. (Ps. 107:19)
1Give thanks to the Lord, for the Lord is good, for God’s mercy endures forever.
2Let the redeemed of the Lord proclaim
that God redeemed them from the hand of the foe,
3gathering them in from the lands;
from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.
17Some were fools and took rebellious paths; through their sins they were afflicted.
18They loathed all manner of food and drew near to death’s door.
19Then in their trouble they cried to the Lord and you delivered them from their distress. R
20You sent forth your word and healed them and rescued them from the grave.
21Let them give thanks to you, Lord, for your steadfast love
and your wonderful works for all people.
22Let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and tell of your deeds with shouts of joy. R
Second Reading: Ephesians 2:1-10
While we were dead in our sinfulness, God acted to make us alive as a gift of grace in Christ Jesus. We are saved not by what we do but by grace through faith. Thus our good works are really a reflection of God’s grace at work in our lives.
1You were dead through the trespasses and sins 2in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. 3All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. 4But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—9not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
Gospel: John 3:14-21
To explain the salvation of God to the religious leader, Nicodemus, Jesus refers to the scripture passage quoted in today’s first reading. Just as those who looked upon the bronze serpent were healed, so people will be saved when they behold Christ lifted up on the cross.
14“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
17“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”
HYMN: VU 112 O God, How We Have Wandered
SERMON
Hilda Doherty was a senior citizen who decided to attend university to achieve her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Her husband, being of Irish descent, had planned a summer trip to Ireland. When classes resumed in the fall, I asked Hilda about their time away.
“Oh, it was awful! The weather was horrible! It just kept raining and being cloudy and cold. It was a real downer!” And then, to fully condemn the experience she delivered the death blow, “And the food was terrible!”
The Israelites have met opposition in their attempt to enter the land of Canaan and so they set out to go around the land of Edom, a longer way to their goal. The people “become impatient.” The word literally means “their spirit became short.” They were at the end of their rope. They were discouraged. They protested against God and against Moses. In typical human fashion they also blamed the food. It was “worthless.” The food, which was the gift of God, did not seem sufficient to the Israelites to sustain them. The sin of the Israelites then was their despair, their refusal to trust in the power of God to take them forward, and their desire to turn back to Egypt.
I realize this is gross generalization, yet from what I have experienced I am aware that people want instant fixes; we don’t want to suffer in any way, we don’t want to have to know what the other person is experiencing, we just don’t want to hear about it. We’re bored, and yet there are so many in our world needing our help that we really have no reason to be bored.
One Saturday, years ago, I was listening to Paul Harvey and his “page 1…” He closed his program with a “page” to his grandson. Maybe some of you heard it. Paul’s words of wisdom to his grandson included the following:
“I hope no one buys you a brand-new car on your sixteenth birthday. I hope that if you ever talk back to your mother that you will learn what a bar of Lux soap tastes like. I hope that if someone gives you a computer that you will still do math in your head. I hope you grow up with scrapes on your knees, having learned that when you fall down, you can also get back up. I hope that you will cheat at something, and get caught, and reap the consequences of your actions. I hope that someone will betray you so that you will learn how important trustworthiness is and respect it in your relationships. I hope that when you go camping that there is nothing but outhouses with Eaton’s catalogues.” Paul Harvey, it appears, understood the loss of patience in our youth. Perhaps there is something to the reality of having oppression in our lives. At least oppression increases our awareness of, and need for, God.
As humans we, too, often find fault with the “food” which the Lord offers us in life. We complain to God that life has become too complex. If only we could go back to a simpler time when morals, ethics, and just choices in general were clearer. Is it really possible to endure the pain, suffering and confusion which seem to be our lot?
The judgment of God came upon the Israelites in the form of “fiery serpents.” The Hebrew word for “fiery” is seraphim and presumably refers to the inflammation caused by the serpent’s bite. The serpents bit the people, causing the death of many. The good news is that this judgment produced a change in the people. I don’t know about you but being chased by poisonous snakes across the desert would certainly cause me to repent, let alone stop whining!! The Israelites recognized their sin in that they had “spoken against God” and against Moses, and they ask Moses to pray that God would take away the serpents.
Their prayer was answered, but not exactly in the way that they had asked. The serpents were not removed, rather Moses was instructed to make an image of a serpent out of bronze and place it on a pole. Whenever anyone was bitten, that person was to look at the serpent and “they shall live.” The judgment was not removed, yet a means of redemption was offered. The serpent no longer had the power to kill, and while still being the vehicle of God’s judgment, it also becomes a means of freedom and life. This scripture reading gives us an opportunity to reflect on the cross as the vehicle of God’s judgment, which is also the means of redemption and life. The cross does not remove human pain and suffering but it allows us to see them in a new way. In the light of the cross we see that pain and suffering cannot destroy life ultimately.
Let us sign ourselves with the cross that we might learn more deeply the commitments it invites us to make; vertically to God, horizontally to our neighbour. A colleague of mine says the following every time he crosses himself: “Baptized, loved, forgiven, accepted child of God.” In the sacrament of Baptism, the cross was traced over us as a sign of our being claimed for Christ. To be marked with the sign of the cross is to be marked not for death but for everlasting life. Our Christian life starts with our being introduced to the cross, a sign of life. The cross is traced over us in other ritual anointings and with ashes at the beginning of Lent. Most especially the cross is traced over us in times of crisis or spiritual need. It is these times that shape us and mould us to Christ. Through those many experiences of the cross we too are lifted up and become like Jesus who draws us to himself.
It is the cross that sets us apart and sets us free. May it continue to triumph in our world and in our lives. Amen.
Hymn Of The Month: WOV 658 The Word Of God Is Source And Seed
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.
Gracious God, your love unites. Give vision to the global church and foster cooperation in mission. Increase inter-religious understanding and ecumenical dialog. Make your church a sanctuary for all fleeing persecution, disaster, and war. Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
Creating God, your love enlivens. Restore balance to the earth’s fragile habitats. Preserve wilderness lands, rainforests, and wildlife. Cleanse oceans and rivers. Make us good stewards of the earth. Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
Righteous God, your love liberates. We give thanks for those who courageously witness to your liberating love. Free all people from the evils of racism, religious strife, and hatred. Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
Merciful God, your love heals. Care tendy for all whose loved ones perished from pandemic disease in every nation. Strengthen health care workers, first responders, and caregivers. Relieve all who live with chronic illness and pain. Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
Incarnate God, your love enlightens. Open our hearts and minds to fresh understandings of our faith. Deepen our love for you and for one another. Teach us to pray for our enemies. Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
Abiding God, your love saves. Those who died in the faith are made alive in Christ. We give thanks for your promise that we also will be raised to newness of life. 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: VU 266 Amazing Grace
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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[1] Written by Katherine Hawker, and posted on her Liturgies Outside website. http://liturgyoutside.net/