St. ANDREW’S CHURCH

SEPTEMBER  27   2026

Lighting the Christ Candle

Welcome and Announcements

 

Call to Worship

 

We come to worship because we love God.

All creation praises God’s goodness and love.

We come to worship seeking healing and wholeness.

Through God’s son, compassion, love, and grace flow in abundance.

We come to worship, yearning to be transformed:

Guided by the Spirit of God, we work to build a more peaceful and just world.  Let us worship God together!

 

Hymn    445 - Open our eyes, Lord.

 

Prayer of Adoration and Confession

 

Steadfast God,  as the seasons change, we see that you are still at work in the world, 1transforming hearts and situations.

You have shown us the true face of love in Jesus Christ,

reaching out with healing and hope to those who are hurting, lost or alone.  We praise you for your love that works for respect, connection and peace among neighbours and nations in this divided world.

May we see the face of Jesus in each person we meet.

Renew our hope by the gift of your Spirit at work among us,

so that we can live to praise you

with the whole Church that bears Jesus’ name. Amen.

 

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

All-embracing God,

In recalling all that you are and all that you have done,

we recall who we are and what we have done or failed to do.

We confess that we have

failed to comfort those in pain,

ignored the needs of others

failed to stand with our neighbours in their

struggle for dignity and respect.

We repent of our past sins and pray

for the wisdom to walk in a new way

with you and with one another.

 

Assurance of Pardon

 

The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. By God’s grace we have been saved and this is not our own doing; it is a gift of God. Thanks be to God.

 

HYMN    399 - Spirit, Spirit of gentleness

 

Prayer for Understanding

 

Send us your Spirit of wisdom, O God, that we may hear your Word speaking through the Scriptures and understand what you are saying to the church today. Amen.

 

Scripture Readings

Psalm 25:1-10

Matthew 5:1-11,

 

SERMON

“What is happiness?” and “How can I get happiness?” are two of the most pressing questions facing people in the north American continent  today. Most of us don’t have to worry a great deal about food, clothing and shelter. . . Yes, I know that we are in uncertain and painful economic times. And there are plenty of folks who do not live  with the “ But don’t we feel rich when we look at the people in Haiti? Don’t we feel safe compared to the people in Sudan? When you don’t have physical security, “personal fulfillment” runs a poor last in the race. Happiness and survival are one and the same. But once your physical survival is assured, life gets a whole lot more complicated. Some people think that having the right things guarantees happiness; others that happiness consists of the freedom to make your own choices. But here comes the catch. . . The more time you spend looking for happiness, the less likely you are to find it

 

Now, mind you, it is not wrong to want happiness. Jesus’ most famous teaching, the Sermon on the Mount, starts out by promising happiness. But he goes on to say that there is only one way to be truly, lastingly happy, and that anyone who wants this kind of happiness had better sit up and listen

 

Are you happy? If not, what would it take to make you happy? For most people, happiness seems to have something to do with our circumstances. Actually, the word “blessed” doesn’t exactly mean “happy,” although one modern preacher has suggested that we call this passage of Matthew the “be happy” attitudes. The Greek word “makarios” really means “fortunate” or “prosperous”. . . In other words, the person who is “makarios” has something bigger than a temporary feeling; there’s something going on here that makes a significant long-term favorable impact on the quality of his or her life. This type of person is truly happy, is truly “blessed.”

Jesus’ most famous teaching, starts out by promising happiness. But he goes on to say that there is only one way to be truly, lastingly happy, and that anyone who wants this kind of happiness had better sit up and listen.

The whole world is longing for happiness, and it is tragic to watch the self-destructive, futile ways in which many people are seeking it. Anything which encourages people to opt for short-term happiness and evade the difficulties of life ultimately adds to their problems. This is where the utter deceitfulness of sin comes in: it is always promising happiness, and it always leads - eventually - to unhappiness.

 

The Sermon on the Mount is 3 chapters long. It’s full of short, pointed examples of behavior that Jesus is recommending for his followers. And people often take a single incident, pull it out of context, and try to develop a rule with the illustration as its center. That’s not how this sermon works, though. Sermon illustrations never make sense unattached to the fundamental lessons. There are eight of these lessons, and because each one begins with the word we translate as “blessed”, which in Latin is “Beata,” they are called “the Beatitudes.”

 

Everything in this sermon must be understood in the light of the Beatitudes. They come at the beginning for a reason. Jesus’ sermon is very carefully organized. Verses 3-16 speak in general terms; the remainder applies these generalities to specific situations. Verses 3-12 comprise the Beatitudes, which is what we are looking at this morning. The first 7 verses describe the Christian character, that is, poor in spirit, mournful, meek, hungry for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart and peaceful. The last Beatitude, “Blessed are those who are persecuted,” portrays the reaction of the world to people who conform to this description - and how we should handle it. And the next 4 verses describe the general response of the Christian to the world in turn. The remainder of chapter 5 deals with the relationship of the Christian to the Mosaic law, while chapters 6 and 7 expand to cover a variety of other real-life situations, from the religious to the mundane.

 

The most important thing to remember about the Sermon on the Mount is that it is primarily concerned with character. Jesus makes it very clear that God judges according to the condition of a person’s heart far more than what is visible to the human eye. This sermon teaches his followers how to develop the kind of character God approves of. Now, to be sure, character is played out in action as each person is faced with particular situations, but it is the character that matters. This is not a new code of ethics of morals, a new 10 commandments, but an illustration of a particular kind of person living in the world. The Beatitudes describe the kind of person the Christian is to be, and the rest of the sermon illustrates how that kind of person responds to real life situations.

 

A number of other points need to be kept in mind as we go deeper into the Beatitudes.  First, all Christians are to be like this. It is not a description of some exceptional Christians, like those the Catholic church canonizes. According to the New Testament, all Christians are already saints, have already been canonized. We are all called to the heights.

 

Secondly, all Christians are meant to manifest all of these characteristics. Of course each Christian will find some of these to be easier than others. That’s a matter of temperament. But we are not called to be content with the easy bits. We are called to strive for the whole package. And if you really stop to think about them, you can’t really have one without the other. How can you be merciful, for instance, without mourning the pain that calls forth the response of mercy? And trying to make peace is impossible without meekness.

 

The third point is that none of these descriptions refers to a natural tendency. Each one is produced by grace alone through the operation of the Holy Spirit. There is a sharp distinction between the spiritual qualities Jesus describes and the natural ones which appear to be like them.

 

Of course there are people who appear to be naturally meek, or mournful, or peaceable. But these are not what Jesus is talking about. And just as no one can claim to be Christian just because they are nice people, none of us has the liberty to excuse our lack of mercy or meekness on our natures.

 

Thanks be to God, whatever we are like by birth, we can by grace become what Jesus described. We are all meant to be what Jesus describes. The Holy Spirit can take the proudest person on earth and make them poor in spirit.

 

The Beatitudes point out differences between the Christian and the non-Christian. Some people want to blur the difference between the Church and the world, in order to attract more people to it. I contend that those people have already identified themselves as hostile to Jesus’ message - who because they are not themselves drawn to its life-changing promises, cannot imagine that others might be. But the truth of the matter is that when the Christian Church is absolutely different from the world, people are attracted to it. Even those who hate it have to listen, have to take note.

 

The final lesson is that Christians and non-Christians belong to two entirely different realms. Look at the rewards promised. . . Both the first and the last Beatitudes promise the kingdom of heaven. What on earth would any non-Christian want with that? And yet for us it is the thing most of all to be desired. The kingdom of heaven is Christ’s rule, wherever he is present and exercising authority, where God is honored and praised and obeyed. How can anyone who does not love Christ live for that day, look forward to that day, give up temporary material advantage for the sake of that day? Look at some of the other rewards: the pure in heart will see God; the peacemakers will be called the children of God. It’s a whole different value system. And the currency honored in this world can buy you nothing whatever in God’s kingdom.

 

All Christians are meant to manifest all of these characteristics. Of course each Christian will find some of these to be easier than others. That’s a matter of temperament. But we are not called to be content with the easy bits. We are called to strive for the whole package. And if you really stop to think about them, you can’t really have one without the other. How can you be merciful, for instance, without mourning the pain that calls forth the response of mercy? And trying to make peace is impossible without meekness.

 

Thanks be to God, whatever we are like by birth, we can by grace become what Jesus described. We are all meant to be what Jesus describes. The Holy Spirit can take the proudest person on earth and make them poor in spirit, The poverty of spirit comes first on Jesus’ list.. The reason salvation has to be a free gift is that there is absolutely nothing we can do to earn God’s favor. Everything we have is already a gift from God; how can we possibly presume to suggest that somehow he owes us even more? There is no one in the kingdom of God who is not poor in spirit.

The Beatitudes describe the character of the Christian. It’s the gold standard, the measuring rod, the poverty line. And we’re all below it. Being financially secure, being well educated, having the respect and admiration of your neighbors, none of those get you credit in God’s kingdom. And if you can see that, you’re halfway there. The next step is to sign onto the welfare rolls. . . and start receiving celestial handouts. Because, let’s face it, we’re all charity cases in God’s kingdom.

 

There are not wistful glimpses of some future beauty; they are not even golden promises of some distant glory. They are triumphant shouts of bliss for a permanent joy that nothing in the world can ever take away.

Joy which is serene and untouchable and self-contained. An inner joy that is so great it is unimaginable. Joy which shines through the tears, and which nothing in life or death can take away.

. So just who are these lucky people? They are listed in verses 3 – 11.

1. The destitute / the broken-hearted / those with God-controlled lives / perfect sympathy / clean heart / those who bring people together / those who suffer for Christ / blood-stained.
2. Opposite of poor in spirit are the proud in spirit / mourners are light-headed bent on pleasure / meek vs. aggressive / persecuted vs. those who play it safe or compromise.
3. Summary of the teachings of Jesus regarding a drastic change in attitude needed to be considered a child of God and therefore truly BLESSED!!!!!

Conclu: A blessing is a by-product of a way of life and of worship. As in Micah – Vs. 8 – He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to work humbly with your God.

 

True blessings are not measured by worldly standards, but by the alignment of our lives with God's principles. Showing mercy and compassion, being humble and trusting God, and serving Him and others are key pathways to experiencing God's blessings. These attitudes and actions transform our hearts, attitudes, and relationships.

May we actively pursue these traits in our daily lives, allowing God's Spirit to work within us. As we show mercy, cultivate humility, and work for peace, may we experience the richness of God's blessings that transcend circumstances. Let us be living testimonies of God's transformative power, shining His light in a world hungry for true blessings. May our lives draw others closer to Him.

 

 

HYMN   772  Christ for the world we sing  TUNE  293- Moscow

 

Invitation to the Offering

Let us return to God the offerings of our life and the gifts of the earth, that they may be shared for the healing and wholeness of God’s world.

 Doxology

Prayer of Dedication

 

Generous God, we have received so much from you in Christ and in creation. Bless the gifts we offer so that they will speak of your love for the world in all its detail and diversity. Amen.

 

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Intercession

 

Most holy God We bring you our prayers for the world, for people and communities harmed by conflict and war, discrimination and hate, poverty and injustice. We pray for our loved ones, and for our neighbours, both friend and stranger.

 

Creator God, you created us in your image and set us in the world to live in peace with you and one another. We pray for those facing hunger or housing insecurity. We pray for those who are hurt and hurting because of discrimination related to race, class, or gender. We pray for those facing conflict and war, and those who love and are afraid for their sake.

Bring your comfort and justice.

 

Comforting God, we pray for strength and healing for Survivors, intergenerational Survivors, their families and communities, and all people who were impacted by residential schools. May your loving care bring strength and courage for healing.

 

God of transforming love, the wounds of injustice continue to this day, imbedded in the fabric of our institutions and governments. Let your compassion and wisdom flow through all public policies and practices. Where power is horded, bring your equity and justice. Where racism is resisted, bring your courage and strength to acknowledge and address it. We pray that our communities, churches and country will be places where there is justice and where people protect the dignity of all creation.

 

We pray:

 

…for people whose bodies, minds and souls are in pain and those struggling with physical or mental illness;

 

…for people who experience violence in their relationships, in their home, workplace, community or country, and for those who have been displaced by war, unjust economic systems, the climate crisis, and ongoing impacts of colonization around the world;

 

…for people living with housing insecurity: where home is inadequate for the needs of the people it must shelter, where home  is unsafe, unaffordable, or inaccessible;

 

…for people who are struggling with economic insecurity, barriers to education or employment, unfairness in policies or practices, for those struggling with the cost of food;

 

…for people at the frontlines of social support systems who daily face the evidence of systemic injustice and continue to strive for the safety and dignity of people and creation.

 

…for human rights advocates, land defenders and peacebuilders; strengthen and empower them.

 

We give you much thanks for the rain  which has blessed us his past few days – relief from the drought and promise for renewed and new growth in the surrounding lands, forests and gardens

Hear us now as we pray in silence…

 

And now we join our voices into one prayer and pray as Jesus taught,

 

The Lord’s Prayer

 

HYMN   801  from ocean unto ocean

 

Commissioning and Benediction

 

Go into God’s good creation

praying that the Spirit will open our minds to receive truth,

open our hearts to seek peace,

and strengthen our bodies to work for justice.

Let the Spirit guide you in ways of love and justice,

to walk lightly and humbly and seek truth, reconciliation,

healing, and wholeness. And may the blessing of Creator,

Christ and Spirit rest upon you this day and everyday.

Blessing song