Home Church Season of Creation October 17, 2021 Rev. Karen Hollis

Home Church Season of Creation October 17, 2021  Rev. Karen Hollis

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

Whoever you are and wherever you are on life’s journey,

you are welcome here!

Preparing the Space Around Us

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. This Sunday we are beginning the Season of Creation and will continue for a total of 4 weeks. This year we will be exploring the book of Job and listening for its wisdom on creation. We will journey with Job as he expands his awareness of his identity as a part of God’s creation.

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, open yourself also to what you need from this time of worship.

Prelude     Simon De Voil

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:  The sun and moon praise you, O God.

All:    The wildflowers and morning dew praise you;

One:  The deer and raven praise you;

All:    The waves and branches praise you;

One:  The beetles and Orb-weavers praise you;

All:    We praise you, God of all creation!

Opening Prayer     Earth Prayers

O God, may we today be touched by grace, fascinated and moved by this your creation, calmed by the fresh air and gentle crunch of fall leaves. May we move beyond viewing this life only through a frame, but touch it and be touched by it, know it and be known by it, love it and be loved by it. May our bodies, our minds, our spirits, learn a new rhythm paced by the rhythmic pulse of the whole created order. Through Christ we pray, Amen.

Hymn: We Are One vs 1,2,4       VU #402

1 We are one as we come, as we come, joyful to be here,

in the praise on our lips there's a sense that God is near.

We are one as we sing, as we seek, we are found;

and we come needful of God's grace as we meet, 

together in this place.

2 We are one as we share, as we share brokenness and fear,

in the touch of a hand there's a sense that God is here.

We are one as we care, as we heal, we are healed;

and we share warmth in God's embrace as we pray 

together in this place.

4 We are one as we hear, as we hear, heart and hand unite;

in the word we receive there’s a sense that God is light.

We are one as we leave, as we love, we are loved; and we seek justice in God’s ways as we move together from this place.

Prayer of Confession    Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I

God of all creation, we come before you a repentant people. We acknowledge before you that self-centeredness is the root cause of our environmental sin, and the mistaken order of values that we inherit and accept without any critical evaluation. We need a new way of thinking about our own selves, O God, about our relationship with the world and with You. Without this revolutionary “change of mind,” all our conservation projects, however well-intentioned, will remain ultimately ineffective. Meet us in this place of turning, we pray, and help us.

Silent prayer

Assurance of Grace                                      

Forgiven and set free by the risen Christ, may his life flow through you and bless you this day and in the days to come. May you always know his presence on the journey. Thanks be to God!

Peace of Christ 

Please unmute your microphones so we can pass the peace to one another. Seeing as how we are reconciled with God, let us also be reconciled with one another by passing the peace that surpasses all understanding. Let us say together,

            A-M: The Peace of Christ be with you!

            N-Z: And also with you!

First Reading: Job 14:7-9 and 19:21-27 (Transl. Robert Alter)     Angela Nutter

For a tree has hope:

       though cut down, it can still be removed,

              and its shoots will not cease.

Though its roots grow old in the ground

       and its stock die in the dust,

from the scent of water it flowers,

       and puts forth branches like a sapling.

Mercy, have mercy on me, my companions,

       for God’s hand has blighted me.

Why do you hound me like God,

       and of my flesh are you not sated?

Would, then, that my words were written,

       that they were inscribed in a book,

with an iron pen and lead

       to be hewn in rock forever.

But I know my redeemer lives,

       and in the end he will stand up on earth,

and after they flay my skin,

       from my flesh I shall behold God.

For I myself shall behold,

       my eyes will see – no stranger’s,

              my heart is harried within me.

Second Reading: Job 28:1-12 (Transl. Robert Alter)     Angela Nutter

Yes, there’s a mine for silver

       and a place where gold is refined.

Iron from the dust is taken

       and from stone the copper to smelt.

An end has man set to darkness,

       and each limit he has probed,

              the stone of deep gloom and death’s shadow.

He breaks under a stream without dwellers,

       forgotten by any foot,

              remote and devoid of men.

The earth from which bread comes forth,

       and beneath it a churning like fire.

The source of the sapphire, its stones,

       and gold dust is there.

A path that the vulture knows not

       nor the eye of the falcon beholds.

The proud beasts have never trod on it,

       nor the lion passed over it.

To the flintstone he set his hand,

       upended the mountains from their roots.

Through the rocks he hacked out channels,

       and all precious things his eye has seen.

The wellspring of rivers he blocked.

       What was hidden he brought out to light.

But wisdom, where is it found,

       and where is the place of discernment?

Gospel Reading        Susan Brockley 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 10:35-45 (NRSV) 

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’ And he said to them, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’ And they said to him, ‘Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ They replied, ‘We are able.’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.’

When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. So Jesus called them and said to them, ‘You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’

One: This is the Gospel of Christ; 

All:   Praise be to Jesus Christ

Reflection:   Creation Speaks                 

Silent Reflection

Iona Affirmation of Faith

Let us affirm our faith . . . 

We believe in God above us, Maker and Sustainer of all life, 

of sun and moon, of water and earth, of male and female. 

We believe in God beside us, Jesus Christ, the word made flesh, 

born of a woman, servant to the poor, tortured and nailed to a tree. 

A man of sorrows, he died forsaken. 

He descended into the earth to the place of death. 

On the third day he rose from the tomb. 

He ascended into heaven to be everywhere present, 

and His kingdom will come on earth. 

We believe in God within us, the Holy Spirit of Pentecostal fire, 

life-giving breath of the church, spirit of healing and forgiveness, 

source of resurrection and of eternal life. Amen

Prayers of the People      Susan Brockley

One: Loving God,       

All:    Hear Our Prayer.

Lord’s Prayer     Ecumenical Version

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   Strategic Planning Team

Offering Prayer 

God of all creation, you brought the world into being. You authored the stars and planets, ice-filled comets and oceans of earth. Your work continues, O God; you still attend to every detail of creation, inviting us to collaborate with your work. We hear your invitation in our own community, and we are grateful that we don't vision alone; we don't plan in isolation; we don't live into our call apart from your loving hand opening up possibilities and connections around us. Continue to guide us, we pray, and help us open ourselves to your moving spirit in all seasons of our life together. Amen.

Hymn: Touch the Earth Lightly  VU #307

1 Touch the earth lightly,

use the earth gently,

nourish the life of the world in our care:

gift of great wonder,

ours to surrender,

trust for the children tomorrow will bear.

2 We who endanger,

who create hunger,

agents of death for all creatures that live,

we who would foster

clouds of disaster,

God of our planet, forestall and forgive!

3 Let there be greening,

birth from the burning,

water that blesses and air that is sweet,

health in God's garden,

hope in God's children,

regeneration that peace will complete.

4 God of all living,

God of all loving,

God of the seedling, the snow and the sun,

teach us, deflect us,

Christ reconnect us,

using us gently, and making us one.

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.

Blessing      Iona Community

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

One:      The Creator’s blessing be yours on your road, on your journey,  guiding you, cherishing you.

A-M:      The Son’s blessing be yours, wine and water, bread and stories,  feeding you, challenging you.

N-Z:       The Spirit’s blessing be yours, wind and fire, joy and wisdom, comforting you, disturbing you.

All:        The Angel’s blessing be yours, on your house, on your living, guarding you, encouraging you. Let us walk together, a community on a journey, sustained in God’s blessing. Amen!

One:      Let us go now in peace to love and serve the Lord.

All:        Thanks be to God! Alleluia!

 

 

 

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