14th Sunday after Pentecost August 29, 2021, Guest Presider, Rev. Dr. Linda St. Clair

14th Sunday after Pentecost August 29, 2021 Guest Presider Rev. Dr. Linda St. Clair

We acknowledge these lands upon which we worship are the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation.

Preparing the Space Around Us

Whoever you are and wherever you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here! Welcome if you are gathering on zoom or if you are worshipping at home with the bulletin. We are one community and all part of the body of Christ. I invite you to prepare the space around you so that for the next hour you can be fully in this worship experience, not to keep out the realities of the world, rather to focus us in the midst of it all on God. If you need to go and get something or shift something around you, feel free.

Welcome

Preparing the Space within Us

Let us prepare now the space within us for a time of worship. I invite you to sit quietly, perhaps with feet on the floor, taking a couple of deep breaths and bring yourself into this moment. Open yourself to the presence of God who is with us and within us . . . as you intentionally open yourself to God, listen to the Taize chant and if you wish,  join in! At the end there will be a moment of silence and the service will begin.

Chant: Ubi Caritas et Amor   - CP #553

Ubi caritas et amor,

ubi caritas, Deus ibi est.

Translation: Where charity and love are found, God is there.

Greeting
One:  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, 

          and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

All:    And also with you.

Call to Worship 

One:  We come in to worship God.

All:    In our need, and bringing with us the needs of the world.

One:  We come to God, who comes to us in Jesus.

All:    And who knows by experience what human life is like.

One:  We come with our faith and with our doubts.

All:    We come with our hopes and with our fears.

One:  We come as we are, because it is God who invites us to come.

All:    And God has promised never to turn us away. *

Collect

One:  Let us pray together.

All:    Eternal One, guide us through all the changes of this life,

          that we may neither complain in adversity nor boast in prosperity; but with faith, follow the path of Jesus to love joyfully with thanksgiving.  Amen     

Hymn: My Life Flows On In Endless Song  -  CP #401

1 My life flows on in endless song,

above earth’s lamentation.

I catch the sweet, though far-off hymn

that hails a new creation. 

Refrain:

No storm can shake my inmost calm

while to that Rock I’m clinging.

Since Love is lord of heav’n and earth,

how can I keep from singing?

2 Through all the tumult and the strife,

I hear that music ringing.

It finds an echo in my soul.

How can I keep from singing? [Refrain]

3 What though my joys and comforts die,

I know my Savior liveth.

What though the darkness gather round?

Songs in the night he giveth. [Refrain]

4 The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart,

a fountain ever springing!

All things are mine since I am his!

How can I keep from singing? [Refrain]

Prayer of Confession  

         One: Knowing Christ’s presence with us, let us join together in naming 

         our brokenness and seeking Gods renewing peace.

All:   God of mercy, God of love,

         In humbleness of heart 

         we confess that we have made mis-takes

         We forget to love and serve you,

         and wander from your ways.

         We are careless of your world,

         and put its life in danger.

         We talk of our concern for others,

         but fail to match our words with action.**   

Silent prayer of confession

Assurance of Grace

One:  Divine one, you seek out the lost and offer us all your

          unconditional love.

All:    You came to be among us to show your love and compassion for all.  Continue to give us the strength and insight to do your will and walk your ways. Amen

Peace

One:    Christ is with us now and always.  So, let us greet one another today with His Peace in our hearts.

All:      Thanks be to God

First Reading: Deuteronomy 4:1-2,6-9  -  Reader: Susan Brockley                               

So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God with which I am charging you. You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!’ For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today? But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children.

 

Psalm 15  A version of Psalm 115 by Rev, Jim Cotter ***  - Reader David Soy

Dear God, who are the honoured guests in your tent?

Who may dwell in your presence upon your holy mountain?

Who may commune with those who are your heart’s desire,

Lovingly embraced in the union of friends?

Those who lead uncorrupted lives,

and do the thing that is right,

who speak the truth from their hearts,

and have not slandered with their tongue.

Those who have not betrayed their friends,

nor rained down abuse on their neighbours,

in whose eyes the shifty have no honor,

but hold in high esteem those who fear God.

Those who give their word to their neighbour,

and do not go back on their promise

who have not grown wealthy at the expense of the poor,

nor grown sleek with flattery and bribes.

Those who recognize the outcast as the one whom they need,

who forgive to seventy times seven,

who depend on the mercy of God,

and live the highest law that is love.

Those who are steadfast and kind,

who are resilient and patient and humble,

who know the cost of a morsel of justice,

a glimpse of compassion in times that are savage.

Their roots are deep in the being of God,

their arms are spread wide in welcome embrace.

They are faithful, joyful and blessed,

God’s sisters and brothers and friends.

All:      Loving God, whose name is Friendship, so guide us in your    Spirit that we may embrace the way that finds joy in giving all for others, so that even our enemies may become our friends,    after the pattern of Jesus of Nazareth who loved his own even to the end.

            Amen

Gospel Reading  -   Reader: David Soy

One:    God be with you

All:      And also with you

One:    The Good News of Jesus Christ according to Mark

All:      Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ He said to them, ‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, “This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.” You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.’ Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’ For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’

One:  This is the Gospel of Christ

All:    Thanks be to Jesus Christ

Reflection:             Faith- Filled Friendship (Anam Cara)

Sermon attached

Silence reflection

A New Creed

Let us affirm our faith…

We are not alone,

    we live in God’s world.

 We believe in God:

    who has created and is creating,

    who has come in Jesus,

       the Word made flesh,

       to reconcile and make new,

    who works in us and others

       by the Spirit.

We trust in God. 

We are called to be the Church:

    to celebrate God’s presence,

    to live with respect in Creation,

    to love and serve others,

    to seek justice and resist evil,

    to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,

       our judge and our hope.

In life, in death, in life beyond death,

    God is with us.

We are not alone.

    Thanks be to God.

Prayers of the People   -    Susan Brockley ( atatched)

One: Loving God. 

All: Hear our Prayers

 The Lord’s Prayer                                                             

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins

as we forgive those who sin against us.

Save us from the time of trial

and deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power, 

and the glory are yours

now and for ever. Amen.

Offering  

Let us pray…

All:      Accept, O Lord

            The offerings we seek to make,

            and may they be hallowed by your blessing

            And used in your service.

            Grant that we may ever work and pray

            to build a world of peace

            and joy and freedom

            through Jesus Christ.  Amen                                                                                                 

Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.  Glory to God from generation to generation, In the Church and in Christ Jesus, for ever and ever. Amen.

Hymn: Now the Green Blade Rises  CP #237

1 Now the green blade riseth, from the buried grain,
Wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

2 In the grave they laid Him, Love who had been slain,
Thinking that He never would awake again,
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen: 
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

3 Forth He came at Easter, like the risen grain,
Jesus who for three days in the grave had lain;
Quick from the dead the risen One is seen:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

4 When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,
Jesus' touch can call us back to life again,
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been: 
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

Blessing

If you are with another person, you’re invited to bless each other taking every other line.

One:  And now, may kindly St. Columba guide you

N-Z:     Deep peace of the funning wave to you,

            Deep peace of the flowing air to you,

A-N:    Deep peace of the quiet earth to you,

         Deep peace of the shining stars to you,

All:      Deep peace of the Son of Peace to you.

         Amen

One:  May God’s goodness be yours

          And well, and seven times well may you live your lives.

          May you be like an isle in the sea

          A hill on the shore,

          A star in the sky and a staff to the week.

          And may the power of the spirit pour over you richly

          Now and in all the days to come.  AMEN****

 

*Pattern of Our Days: Liturgies & Resources for Worship.

   Edited by Kathy Galloway. Iona Community 1996

 

**Book of Common Order of the Church of Scotland. 1994

 

***Jim Cotter, Towards the City, A version of Psalms 1-50. Cairns Publications, 1993. 

 

****Carmina Gadelica, Collected by Alexander Carmichael, 1992