MORRIS-ROSENFELD ECUMENICAL SHARED MINISTRY
ORDER OF SERVICE FOR SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2023
REFORMATION 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 Protestant Reformation had a lot to do with the printing press, where Martin Luther’s theses were reproduced about 250,000 times, and so you had widespread dissemination of ideas that hadn’t circulated in the mainstream before.
~Nate Silver
BEFORE WE WORSHIP, WE REFLECT…
Reformation Day is often a time when congregations celebrate their Lutheran heritage. But what is that heritage, exactly? What are the aspects of Luther’s contributions (as well as those of his colleagues like Philipp Melanchthon) to theology and the church that are worth holding on to? Where is there room for us to be critical? What would your community find problematic today about Luther’s message? One aspect of Luther’s perspective that requires such reconciling is his and our church’s historic relationship to Jewish people and Judaism. One helpful resource if one wants to dive a little deeper into this topic is Martin Luther, the Bible, and the Jewish People: A Reader, by Brooks Schramm and Kirsi Stjerna (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2012).
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.
Gracious God, we pray for the courage to be our best selves and to give of our best selves. Help us to heal each other, to be allies to those who most need allies. We pray for the health and well-being of all people and of this place. Guide us, Heavenly Spirit, on new and different paths, paths of love, understanding, compassion, and commitment to serving others, loving all those known to us, and known only to you, your children in whom your Spirit resides. Amen.
CONFESSION & FORGIVENESS
Blessed be God, the one who forms us, ☩ Jesus who bears the cross, the Spirit who makes our joy complete.
Amen.
Let us bow before God in humility, confessing our sin.
Steadfast and faithful God, you have revealed the ways of justice, yet we fail to follow you. We are overwhelmed by the world’s violence and suffering. We are afraid to risk what we have for the sake of others. For the harm we have caused, known and unknown, forgive us. For the unjust demands we place on others and your creation, forgive us. For the ways we turn away from you and our neighbor, forgive us. Lead us back to you and set us on the right path; in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.
Beloved in Christ, God’s justice stretches beyond all understanding. God’s compassion is beyond compare. In Jesus, God is always making a new way for us. In ☩ Christ, you are already and always forgiven.
Amen.
CHILDREN’S SONG: I Have Decided To Follow Jesus
CENTERING PRAYER
Gracious God, we pray for your holy catholic church. Fill it with all truth and peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in anything it is amiss, reform it; where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in need, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
CLWR – BURUNDI
Following on a successful short-term intervention in 2021, CLWR and Canadian Foodgrains Bank launched a new multi-year project focused on bridging the gap between emergency support and addressing the long term barriers that families face in restarting their lives. Together with Canadian Foodgrains Bank, CLWR began an emergency response both to address immediate food shortages and hunger, and to help communities build longer-term food security.
CHILDREN’S CHAT
Pastor John Stevens tells the story better than I can describe it. I hope you can view it.
https://youtu.be/rUzZmz8lvVk
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
Gracious God, we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from your mouth. Make us hungry for this heavenly food, that it may nourish us today in the ways of eternal life; through Jesus Christ, the bread of heaven. Amen.
READINGS AND PSALM
First Reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34
The renewed covenant will not be breakable, but like the old covenant it will expect the people to live upright lives. To know the Lord means that one will defend the cause of the poor and needy (Jer. 22:16). The renewed covenant is possible only because the Lord will forgive iniquity and not remember sin. Our hope lies in a God who forgets.
31The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 32It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. 33But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.
Psalm 46
1God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
2Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be moved,
and though the mountains shake in the depths of the sea;
3though its waters rage and foam, and though the mountains tremble with its tumult.
4There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.
5God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be shaken; God shall help it at the break of day.
6The nations rage, and the kingdoms shake; God speaks, and the earth melts away.
7The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold.
8Come now, regard the works of the Lord, what desolations God has brought upon the earth;
9behold the one who makes war to cease in all the world;
who breaks the bow, and shatters the spear, and burns the shields with fire.
10“Be still, then, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth.”
11The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold.
Second Reading: Romans 3:19-28
Paul’s words stand at the heart of the preaching of Martin Luther and other Reformation leaders. No human beings make themselves right with God through works of the law. We are brought into a right relationship with God through the divine activity centered in Christ’s death. This act is a gift of grace that liberates us from sin and empowers our faith in Jesus Christ.
19Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20For “no human being will be justified in his sight” by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
21But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, 22the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, 23since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; 26it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus.
27Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By that of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.
Gospel: John 8:31-36
Jesus speaks of truth and freedom as spiritual realities known through his word. He reveals the truth that sets people free from sin.
31Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” 33They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”
34Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. 35The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. 36So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”
HYMN: VU 262 A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
SERMON
In 2017, the world took note of an important anniversary. That 500th anniversary marked an event that shook the Christian world. In 1517 Martin Luther challenged the church, the papal authorities, in order to explore the truth and the freedom of the Christian life. Were people saved by paying the indulgences offered by the church, or were they saved by the grace of God alone?
As we mark year 506, many of Luther’s questions are asked anew. Like those in today’s gospel text, we are challenged to reflect upon who we are to follow and in what we are to believe. What will make us free?
In order to more fully understand our calling as followers of Christ, it is important to study the context in which this text was written. It is a text about truth, about freedom and about the source of that freedom. Whenever we dive into a text it is crucial that we read “backwards.” In this text Jesus is engaging the “Jews who believed in him.” At the time this gospel was written there were Gentile Christians, but most scholars maintain that the author is a Jewish Christian writing to Jewish Christians.
It is clear that Jesus is being opposed by the Jewish authorities. By this point in the gospel we see that the Pharisees and chief priests are arguing about who Jesus is and what they should do with him. Some were beginning to believe that this man may be the Messiah. But others argued he could not be. Jesus was not a descendant of David, “no prophet is to arise from Galilee”. Jesus is seeking to challenge those who would dismiss or arrest him. What is important is that, even those who believed that Jesus might in fact be the Messiah, they continued to ground their identity in their Jewish heritage, “We are descendants of Abraham”.
It is this moment that is crucial for the gospel writer. At the heart of this controversy is one’s identity. Is one a follower of Jesus? Is one to find freedom in Jesus or in Abraham? Is one to know that Jesus spoke the truth, or rather the teachings of the Scribes and Pharisees?
As we read this debate it is important that we realize that Jesus is a Jew speaking to Jews who are in conflict with other Jews. In reflecting on this exchange, the context of the gospel writer and his readers is central. John’s community believed in Jesus, believed that he spoke the truth, and believed that their freedom lay in walking the way of Jesus. But for that they had been cast out of the synagogue. They no longer had their “place in the household.” Their freedom, their new life was to be found in “the Son,” even if that meant disagreeing with the Scribes and Pharisees. They were experiencing freedom, but it came at a cost, a profound loss for many.
Freedom was crucial for Luther. Where was the truth, freedom, new life to be found? Luther argued that it was not to be found in the medieval pietistic climb to God, the indulgences, that marked the Christians life at that time. Rather it was found only in belief in Jesus Christ. The challenge with reading this text on Reformation Day is that we must confront and admit Luther’s anti-Semitism.
When John wrote this gospel text, he still considered himself a Jew, as did those in his community. They were wrestling how to remain faithful to the teachings of Abraham and Moses while, at the same time, following Jesus. Luther, on the other hand, while reading the law and the prophets understood that his freedom lay in the grace of God found in Jesus. He also understood that Jews, who did not come to accept Jesus, were slaves to sin and were to be rejected. They were descendants of Abraham, but they were not free because they would not accept Jesus’ word.
As we observe Reformation Day, we must be careful not to read an anti-Jewish approach into this text. The gospel writer is seeking to help a displaced community find a home. Luther was also seeking to find a true home for he, too, was soon displaced from his home when Pope Leo X excommunicated him on January 3, 1521. John and his community were cast out for what they believed. Luther was cast out for what he believed.
How is Jesus challenging us today? Where do we find our truth, our freedom? What is our place in the household of God? Do we find our freedom in the grace and love of God or do we cling to our worldly identity? These are crucial questions when we live in a sharply divided world. How are we to read this text in our world?
Jesus asks those of us who consider ourselves to be his disciples, to continue in his word. What word is that? The Son makes us free, and that Son challenges us to love our neighbor. He asks us to see all persons as beloved children of God. We are free when we recognize that we live in a household in which all are welcome.
In one of his first treatise, “The Freedom of a Christian” Luther observed that as Christians we are totally free and are not to bow down to anyone but God. He then went on to write that to be a Christian also means that one is to be a servant to all. We are challenged to live out this contradiction of servant-hood and freedom. Only then, as Jesus tells us, will we truly be free. Amen.
~Lucy Lind Hogan/Leslie Poulin
HOM: MV 173 Put Peace Into Each Other’s Hand
PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION
Trusting in the transformative power of God’s loving Spirit, let us pray for the church, the world, and all in need.
God our parent, you call us your children and have made us siblings through your son Jesus. Heal the church’s many divisions, bring understanding and peace where there has been contention and strife, and unite us in one body through the love of Christ. God of grace,
hear our prayer.
God our creator, your hands have made the heights of the mountains, the depths of the sea, and the life that animates all creation. Bring relief to areas harmed by wildfires, floods, storms, and human carelessness. Renew the face of the earth. God of grace,
hear our prayer.
God our ruler, the nations rage and the kingdoms shake, but your word stands fast forever. Let your justice and peace roll down like waters wherever there is strife, injustice, war, or religious conflict. God of grace,
hear our prayer.
God our champion, you are our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble. Draw near to all who suffer. Be their rest and comfort. God of grace,
hear our prayer.
God our reformer, you make all things new. Free us from complacency, open us to unexpected ways, and kindle zeal in us for the future. We pray for young people affirming their baptism. With them, stir in us a desire for your wisdom. God of grace,
hear our prayer.
God our savior, you made yourself known in the lives of all who have died in the hope of your grace. We give thanks for the witness of reformers like Martin Luther and for all whose example has brought us closer to you. God of grace,
hear our prayer.
Gracious God, into your hands we commend all for whom we pray, trusting in your unending love and amazing grace; through Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Amen.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
SENDING SONG: VU 686 God Of Grace And God Of Glory (tune: VU 651)
BENEDICTION
May the strength of God sustain us; may the power of God preserve us; may the hands of God protect us; may the way of God direct us; may the love of God go with us this day and forever. Amen.