MORRIS-ROSENFELD ECUMENICAL SHARED MINISTRY
ORDER OF SERVICE FOR SUNDAY, MAY 19, 2024
ASIAN HERITAGE MONTH 3
DAY OF PENTECOST
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
Bethlehem was God with us, Calvary was God for us, and Pentecost is God in us.
~Robert Baer
Before we worship, we reflect…
Change is always difficult, even positive change. In the gospel reading for today Jesus notes that though the disciples are full of sorrow at the news of his departure, his leaving makes space for newness in their work together in the form of the Holy Spirit. Change is hard, but it invites newness. What changes in your community have invited newness to spring forward? What upcoming changes, hard as they might seem, have the opportunity to usher in something good and life-giving, even if it is difficult to see right now? Pentecost is a day where we embrace the change that God can do in our lives!
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT – adapted from All Saint’s Church, Minneapolis, MN
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.
Creator God, from you every family in heaven and earth takes its name. You have rooted and grounded us in your covenant love, and empowered us by your Spirit to speak the truth in love, and to walk in your way towards justice and wholeness. Mercifully grant that your people, journeying together in partnership, may be strengthened and guided to help one another to grow into the full stature of Christ, who is our light and our life. Amen.
CONFESSION AND FORGIVENESS
Blessed be the holy Trinity, ☩ one God, the God of manna, the God of miracles, the God of mercy.
Amen.
Drawn to Christ and seeking God’s abundance, let us confess our sin.
God, our provider, help us. It is hard to believe there is enough to share. We question your ways when they differ from the ways of the world in which we live. We turn to our own understanding rather than trusting in you. We take offense at your teachings and your ways. Turn us again to you. Where else can we turn? Share with us the words of eternal life and feed us for life in the world. Amen.
Beloved people of God: in Jesus, the manna from heaven, you are fed and nourished. By Jesus, the worker of miracles, there is always more than enough. Through Jesus, ☩ the bread of life, you are shown God’s mercy: you are forgiven and loved into abundant life.
Amen.
CHILDREN’S SONG: Voices United 639 One More Step Around The World I Go
CENTERING PRAYER
Almighty God, we give thanks for these people today who are affirming their baptism; to proclaim Jesus, to serve all of God’s people, to be able to love and forgive. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
CANADIAN LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF – Refugee resettlement: Walaa’s story
Even during a global pandemic, Lutheran churches across Canada haven’t stopped providing refugees with a new home and caring community through our refugee sponsorship program.
While the pandemic has introduced delays and required all sorts of adaptations to the program, the enthusiasm of churches for this work has been incredible and encouraging!
In October, several congregations in Regina worked together to welcome Walaa with her husband Mohammad and young son Ameer, Syrians who had been living at the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan. Walaa’s need for resettlement was critical, as she lives with Type 1 diabetes and struggled to access medical care at the camp—and was also 24 weeks pregnant at the time of their flight!
The sponsorship group was able to arrange for a doctor via the International Organization for Migration to travel with Walaa, helping ensure a safe arrival for the whole family.
During her first month in Canada, Walaa required hospitalization three times, but improved significantly thanks to a new glucose monitor, antibiotics, and “because our entire Lutheran community prayed for her like crazy!” according to Meredith Cherland, chair of the sponsorship committee.
In the second month after arrival, as she has regained strength, Walaa has had time to add some personal touches to their apartment—with pink paper in the china cabinet and tiny cups for thick Syrian coffee—and little Ameer turned two. And on November 26, Walaa gave birth to beautiful baby Awsam, who is currently still in NICU but they’re optimistic he’ll be home soon.
Thanks doesn’t even begin to cover it—but may God bless each of you across Canada who are part of providing new homes for those who have had to leave everything behind!
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
Holy Spirit, we ask you to bless us with joy as we hear God’s word. As we hear the stories from scripture, help us learn that God is a God that hears us and acts in our lives. Amen.
READINGS AND PSALM
First Reading: Ezekiel 37:1-14
The Hebrew word rendered as ruach means “spirit,” “wind,” or “breath.” This reading plays on the different meanings of the word. Just as the dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision are given new life, flesh, and breath (or spirit), so God will give the exiles God’s own spirit and will bring them home to the land of Israel.
1The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” 4Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
7So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. 9Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” 10I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.
11Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ 12Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 14I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.”
Psalm 104 Voices United page 827, part two, with spoken refrain 1
O God, how manifold are your works!
With Wisdom at your side you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
Refrain: Bless, O my soul, the Almighty, who rules all creation.
There lies the great and mighty Sea, teaming with living things both great and small.
Upon it sail the ships, and there is Leviathan, the monster you made to play in it.
All these look to you, to give them their food in due season.
What you give them they gather up. When you open your hand, you fill them with good things.
But when you hide your face they despair. When you take away their breath, they die, and return to dust.
But when you send out your spirit, they live again, and you renew the face of the earth.
Refrain: Bless, O my soul, the Almighty, who rules all creation.
May your glory, O God, endure forever.
May you rejoice, O God, in your works.
When you look at the earth it trembles,
when you touch the mountains they smoke.
I will sing to God as long as I live.
I will praise my God while I have being.
Refrain: Bless, O my soul, the Almighty, who rules all creation.
Second Reading: Acts 2:1-21
Originally Pentecost was a Jewish thanksgiving-type festival celebrated seven weeks after Passover. On this particular Pentecost, however, the Holy Spirit is poured out upon the entire community of believers just as Jesus had promised and the scriptures had prophesied. Empowered by the Spirit, the entire community bears witness to God’s activity in multiple languages.
1When the day of Pentecost had come, were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
5Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
14But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
17‘In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
18Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
19And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
20The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
21Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ ”
Gospel: John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15
While speaking to his disciples before his death, Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as “the Helper” and describes the difference the Spirit will make in their lives and in the world.
26“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. 27You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.
16:4b“I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. 5But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. 7Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9about sin, because they do not believe in me; 10about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; 11about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.
12“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
HYMN: WOV 684 Spirit, Spirit of Gentleness
SERMON
The year is 2018. Another school shooting, this time in Texas. This makes it the 22nd school shooting for the year, and we are not even half way through the year.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, The number of refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced people around the world has topped 65 million.
Plastic is slowly killing our planet. Pollution is rampant and greed is destroying our drinking water.
Racial tensions are high all over the world and violence is the norm.
World Drug Report 2017: 29.5 million people globally suffer from drug use disorders, opioids the most harmful.
Indeed, our bones are many and, indeed, they are very dry.
The valley of dry bones. We know the story, we know the song. But, do we know why Ezekiel is placed, in Spirit, in this valley, and how these bones got there?
Old Testament Professor, Rolf Jacobson, writes the following:
This vision dates to the period of Israel’s history known as the Babylonian Exile. In 597 BCE, the armies of Babylon forced the surrender of the rebellious city Jerusalem and deported the Judean king and many Judean leaders to Babylon (2 Kings 24:10-16). Ten years later, in 587/6 BCE, after Jerusalem had rebelled again, the Babylonians razed Jerusalem and its temple and deported a second wave of Judean leaders. Among the first wave of the deported was the young Ezekiel, whom God later called in Babylon to the office of prophet. For those deportees forced to live in Babylon, the future seemed a black hole into which the people were destined to disappear. A century-and-a-half previously, many citizens of Judah’s sister kingdom Israel had been similarly deported, had lost their identity, and had faded into the mists of history–the so-called lost tribes of Israel. The exile was more than just a crisis of physical suffering and communal identity. It also necessitated a crisis of faith. The key symbols of Judean faith–Jerusalem, its temple, its people, and the Davidic monarchy–had been destroyed (cf Psalms 89 and 137). According to the theological rationality of the ancient world, many exiled Judeans assumed that their deity had been defeated by a stronger deity from Babylon (cf. Ps 42:3, 10; 79:10; 115:2). The people wondered if the Lord was truly lord and truly faithful.
Over 2,500 years later, have we learned anything? Dry bones, people, very, very, dry.
It’s not rocket science. When 2% of the world’s population owns 90% of the world’s wealth, the scales are going to be very unbalanced. When countries, let alone individuals, choose to be self-focused and not compassionate or generous, the scales are going to be very unbalanced. When we, like the people of Israel, are tempted and choose to follow and trust in human predictions, world market financial stability and ignore the God who created all and who desires abundant life – not abundant STUFF, for all, the scales are going to be very unbalanced. And then we whine.
The Holy Spirit is downright amazing! Without the Spirit we may stand tall in flesh, blood and bone, but we do not have life. Without the breath of God, we are nothing. Not only that, we learn that God desires our help. We are a means for miracles and the in-breaking of the Holy Spirit into the lives of those who have given up hope. We are asked to prophecy, we are asked to proclaim the word of God. And what is that word?
Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 14I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.”
Marjory Stoneman Douglas student, Jaclyn Corin, said in a tweet. “My heart is so heavy for the students of Santa Fe High School. It’s an all too familiar feeling no one should have to experience. I am so sorry this epidemic touched your town — Parkland will stand with you now and forever,” She also directed her frustration at President Donald Trump, writing “Our children are being MURDERED and you’re treating this like a game. This is the 22nd school shooting just this year. DO SOMETHING.”
Do something, indeed.
The Holy Spirit was given to people that some Christians felt should not receive it. Thankfully, God doesn’t care what we think. Christ came and through his ministry made the point very clear that God is ALWAYS on the side of the poor and oppressed, and that if the rest of the world would share and cease in their desire for power over the other and immense wealth, there would be no poor and oppressed.
Do something. That is EXACTLY our calling as Christians – to do and be and think and live contrary to the self-centred norm. It means being prepared to be ridiculed, criticized and rejected for standing up for the underdog, advocating for God’s justice, and challenging one another to put aside learned prejudices, assumptions and old thinking and embrace compassion, factual information, study to overcome ignorance and look for solutions, not succumbing to despair and hopelessness.
We are proclaimers of God’s word, we are doers, we help God to resurrect hope in this world. I may not have money, but when a righteous cause is asking for signatures, I sign. I put my name out there. Why, because that is what I am called to do.
In 2018, the Morris and Area Ministerial came together to start the process of sponsoring a refugee family with the help of congregations and community members. Several of the clergy felt the call from God to assist a family to come to Canada. It may not have seemed like much, compared to the 65 million others who remained in refugee camps, but it was a start.
Do something! With the help of God, we are, and will continue to do so. Amen
HYMN: VU 509 I, The Lord Of Sea And Sky
PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION
I will end each petition with the words, “God of mercy” and I ask you to respond with “hear our prayer”.
Holy Spirit, gather our prayers that we pray this day, and soar with them to the ear of God, that those for whom we pray receive comfort and healing from the source of all life:
Powerful Spirit, please let us acknowledge all those people who do not have a roof over their heads, who don’t have food to eat. Please let us open our eyes to see all of their suffering. God of mercy,
Hear our prayer.
In great sadness our hearts see the great suffering of your beloved children in the world. We bring to mind all those in our locality who find themselves in a hard place. We especially pray for those who suffer physically with illness or mentally with depression and anxiety. God of mercy,
Hear our prayer.
Powerful Spirit, thank you for the life we live. We give thanks for all the things you have done and will do for us. Let us be grateful for all that we take for granted. God of mercy,
Hear our prayer.
In great sadness we see how greed takes from the vulnerable leaving them struggling to survive. Forgive us when we focus only on ourselves and what we want. Help us to be content with what we have so that others will be able to live securely. God of mercy,
Hear our prayer.
God of grace, may your Spirit fill Emma, Nate, Braelyn and Dallas with your compassion, that not only will they see the suffering of others in the world, with your courage and strength, they will be the spark that lights the power that makes a difference. All these things we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
OFFERING
OFFERING PRAYER
Risen One, you call us to believe and bear fruit. May the gifts that we offer here be signs of your abiding love. Form us to be your witnesses in the world, through Jesus Christ, our true vine. Amen.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
SENDING SONG: VU 506 Take My Life And Let It Be
BENEDICTION
May the Christ who walks with wounded feet, walk with you to the end of the road. May the Christ who serves with wounded hands, teach you to serve one another. May the Christ who loves with a wounded heart, be your love forever. And as you go from this place, may you see the face of Jesus in everyone you meet, and everyone you meet see the face of Jesus in you.
Amen.