November 6, 2022: Remembrance Service

Lighting the Christ Candle

Welcome and Announcements:

Welcome to this online service of Remembrance may we come before the Lord with a heart of thankfulness.
November’s Loonie Offering will be going to the Salvation Army Lighthouse to help with the provision of a warm place to shelter for those who are homeless. See the “Recent Posts” for more info and how you can give.

Called to Worship:
On this day of Remembrance we gather
we remember the past and look to the future.
On this day when the guns once fell silent.
We come before you God, seeking Your peace.
On this day of hope in the face of terror,
We come before you God, praying with all our hearts: Help us to find
the path that leads to the Peaceable kingdom. Open our eyes and the
eyes of the nations to find a different path through the disagreements
of life in this world.
In this time of story, song, and prayer,
may we be re-committed to being people of Peace, true peace. May
we catch a vision of how the world could live together.
And so we echo the old prayers,
Make us channels of your peace. Let there be Peace on Earth and let
it begin with us!

Hymn: 765 We’ve a story to tell to the Nations

Prayer of Adoration
We gather together in your name, O Lord, you have bidden us come and to
worship. We gather together in the presence of your holiness to hear the
words of your love, your peace and your justice.
WE gather in commitment to your word as you call us to live with your love,
your peace and your justice in our lives.
We gather together to sing praises of Jesus, without whom, there is no
peace and we pray for peace as we confess our sins, saying.
Unison Prayer of Confession:
God of peace,
Forgive us when we have participated
in that which turns people against each other;
for fueling anger and harbouring vengeance,                                                                 for not heeding your call to love one another.
Inspire us never to give up on the hope
that your life offers us,
and the courage to see past war and desolation
and live for the day when it will be peace.

Assurance of Pardon
God speaks peace to us, reminding us that we are gathered into a
community of love in Christ Jesus. We have the peace of God so, that we
will work together to end violence and bring the life, peace and security that
we have been given to our world.
The Peace
The Peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you

Share a sign of peace

Hymn: 740 Make me a channel of your peace

Remembrance
We are gathered to honour those who gave their lives to serve our country

Hymn: 800 O Canada (all verses)

Litany of Commitment
Let us commit ourselves to responsible living and faithful service.
Will you strive for all that makes for peace?
We will.
Will you seek to heal the wounds of war?
We will.
Will you work for a just future for all humanity?
We will.
Merciful God, we offer to you the fears in us that have not yet been
cast out by love: may we accept the hope you have placed in the
hearts of all people, and live lives of justice, courage and mercy;
through Jesus Christ our risen redeemer. Amen.

The Laying of Wreaths
Silence

Prayer for Peace
God of the impossible,
We pray for justice, peace and reconciliation;
When the challenges seem too many,
Remind us of your resurrection power;
When the task seems overwhelming,
Remind us of the miracle of love;
And when apathy threatens us,
Remind us of your vision of a world made whole.
We pray for a world that continues to know violence, hatred,
We pray for those places that cringe in fear as the bombs explode
We pray for those places where there is oppression
We pray for those who stand and fight for the peace of their nation
We pray that the miracle of your love will bring peace on earth and make all
people whole.
Help us to hope that the impossible can happen
And live as if it might do so today. Amen.

An Act of Remembrance
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
We will remember them
Amen

Scripture Lessons:

Jeremiah 9: 23-24
Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8, 15-17
Psalm 98 (responsive)

Sermon: A time to seek justice
This morning we read from the prophet Jeremiah, where God is speaking
to the people through Jeremiah to call them back into relationship with him.
The thing that we continually learn from the writings of the prophets and the

actions of God is that God wants his people to come back to him. More
than that God will do whatever it takes to make that happen.
In the passage that we just read God is revealing his nature, by reminding
the people what he delights in. God’s nature is about steadfast love, justice
and righteousness.
The important lesson coming out of this is that God wants his people to
know him and identify with him. He wants to see himself in his people who
are called by his name.
Eugene Peterson in the MESSAGE writes:
If you brag, brag of this and this only:
That you understand and know me.
I’m God, and I act in loyal love.
I do what’s right and set things right and fair,
and delight in those who do the same things.
These are my trademarks.”

We are reminded that God’s loyal love is COVENANTAL. It lasts for the life
time of the person to whom it is given, and it has been given to each one
for an eternity. God expects us to love with that same love, first of all him,
returning to him a COVENANTAL love that will last for an eternity. We will
show that love by taking up our calling, as we love one another with that
same love and show one another that same justice.
We note that this justice is expressed in our righteous living, where we take
on God’s character. We follow Jesus, we are filled with the spirit and we
are called the righteousness of God.
That cannot be overstated—WE ARE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD.
Therefore, we are in relationship with God, one another, and the world.
Living in God’s character is relational and social and always involves
JUSTICE.
It seems like we have touched on JUSTICE often this Fall. Sometimes the
Lectionary just leads us into common themes week after week. The
Lectionary takes us through the various books of the Bible, from beginning
to end, week after week. Sometimes we read all 4 passages, sometimes

only 1 or 2, and usually, but not always they cover the same matters that
are crucial for us as we walk in God’s footsteps. When they come up week
after week, we are meant to take notice.
This week we also read Psalm 98, which reminds us again of God’s nature,
saying in the Message:
Sing to God a brand-new song.
He’s made a world of wonders!
He rolled up his sleeves,
He set things right.
2  God made history with salvation,
He showed the world what he could do.
3  He remembered to love us, a bonus
To his dear family, Israel—indefatigable love.
The whole earth comes to attention.
Look—God’s work of salvation!
God is busy putting things right, showing the world what his love can do
with a love that never grows tired. Today’s call to JUSTICE reminds us
that we are called to put things right, to show what we can do in God’s love
and never be tired.
We are reminded of that truth by the prophet Isaiah who wrote:
But those who trust in the Lord
will receive new strength.
They will fly as high as eagles.
Our strength as servants and those who do JUSTICE is renewed daily,
even moment by moment as we need it.
That’s important, because this is the time for JUSTICE.
We read from Ecclesiastes:
There is a time for everything.
There’s a time for everything that is done on earth.

The time for everything includes matters of life and death. There is a time
to kill, but more importantly a time to heal.
If we seek the times of JUSTICE through this passage we will see that
JUSTICE includes the time to HEAL, a time to BUILD UP, a time to LOVE,
and a time to MEND. It includes a time to speak of God’s love and a time
to make PEACE. After all PEACE, God’s deep lasting PEACE for
individual and the world is what JUSTICE is all about.
We are reminded that God has noticed what is going on in the world:
Where people should be treated right,
they are treated wrong.
Where people should be treated fairly,
they are treated unfairly. NIV
This caused Solomon to conclude:
“God will judge
godly and sinful people alike.
He has a time for every act.
He has a time to judge everything that is done. NIV
It seems that we are being urged to understand, that now is the time to
walk, love and act as God would walk, love and act. This is the time for
JUSTICE.
JUSTICE is something that is greater than what we just talk about, it is
something that we make happen. We don’t just seek JUSTICE, WE DO
JUSTICE.
One commentator wrote that we don’t seek justice for ourselves, but rather
for others. I am not sure that I agree, as we noted in the story of the
woman and the unjust judge—she sought justice for herself yes, and I
pondered that it was an empowering moment for her that would cause her
to seek justice for others. It is a matter of giving the gift that God has given
us to others. God’s love, peace, joy, justice are not things to
HOARD—they are things to give away, again and again and again.

Studying the theme of JUSTICE in all of scripture reveals a couple of
important truths:  The commentator Jacobs points out:

1. Biblical justice is not only about retribution for injustices committed. In
its fullness, biblical justice is about the flourishing of all people.
2. Biblical justice is tied to righteousness; much like Amos 5:24, justice
and righteousness go hand in hand, where you find one in scripture,
you will also find the other.
3. Justice and righteousness flow directly from God’s own character.
In its fullness JUSTICE is about the flourishing of all people. The least
of these—the widow, the orphan, the oppressed, the sick, the hungry and
the naked. It is meant to include those caught up in war, those trapped in
an existence in refugee camps, and those who struggle to survive on the
streets. When we seek to make a way for all people to flourish it causes
us to look outside of ourselves.
Jacobs reminded us that JUSTICE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS go hand in
hand. That brings us back to where we started in Jeremiah, where God’s
LOVE AND JUSTICE flow from his RIGHTEOUSNESS. LOVE AND
JUSTICE is who God is and who we are called to be, which is why we are
also reminded that justice and righteousness flow from God’s character
active in us.

The Commentators at Enduring Word remind us justice, judgement and
righteousness come about from an encounter with God’s lovingkindness
and covenantal love for all people.
They also remind us that God delights in the display of His nature, and His
character. When that character is known and understood and lived by
humankind, it gives God joy.
This past week I have pondered what the urgent call to justice means for
us at this time in the world. We are concerned with the state of the world,
with war and injustice in so many places. How can we make a difference?
Or perhaps more importantly how can we make a difference in the call to
bring peace to the people of the Ukraine who know the injustice of war, to
countries like Iran that attack their own people, to countries like Brazil
whose people fight over the outcome of an election. And it is more than the    Ukraine, Brazil or Iran, the list expands to so many countries around the
world. And the list contracts to so many situations in our own corner of the world
as people on the streets struggle with mental illness and those social
workers, police and mission workers who try to bring justice are hurt and
killed.
How can we not feel overwhelmed at the enormity of the task to bring the
justice of peace and wholeness.
I am reminded of the story of a boy on the beach who found numerous
starfish that had been stranded by the tide. As he walked, he started
throwing them back into the ocean one at a time. A man walking on the
beach pointed out the futility of his actions because he couldn’t save them
all. The boy reached down, picked up a starfish, and as he threw it into the
ocean, said, “saved that one.”
We are not called to do it all, we are called to do our part. I think the
definition of calling is important here: “Where the greatest need to the
world, and your passion intersect.”
We all know the truth of that right? Where the things that we are
passionate about have caused us to live justice in a variety of ways, from
building hospitals in Africa, to sponsoring refugees, to feeding children in
schools, to supporting charities that care for the hungry, the homeless and
the victims of crime.
This is the time to seek justice, as your passion, the world’s need and
God’s direction may lead you. This is the time.
Amen

Hymn: 722 Lord whose love

Offering
Doxology
Offertory Prayer

Gathering Prayer Requests
Prayers of the People and the Lord’s Prayer

O Lord, you love justice and you establish peace on earth.
We bring before you the disunity of today’s world;
the absurd violence, and the many wars,
which are breaking the courage of the peoples of the world;
human greed and injustice, which breed hatred and strife.
Send your spirit and renew the face of the earth;
teach us to be compassionate towards the whole human family;
strengthen the will of all those who fight for justice and for peace,
and give us that peace which the world cannot give.
Lord, we pray for peace for those who weep in silence,
peace for those who cannot speak, peace when all hope seems to
disappear.
We pray for the Legion’s Remembrance service that we all will be reminded
that men and women died for the peace we know; but more importantly that
we be reminded that we are all called in the service of peace.
Silence is kept.
Keep your church free,
that it may be the channel through which justice and peace,
integrity and wholeness, harmony and goodwill
may flow to the dispossessed and the desperate,
that your kingdom may come in all its fulfillment of life and health and
peace,
and justice.
Silence
WE pray for the peace and healing of family, friend and stranger:                        We pray for peace and healing in a world that still knows too much
war and injustice:

Ukraine, Russia
Cameroon
Ethiopia, South Sudan, Iretrea
Iran
Brazil
Canada—governments handle the challenges of health care, inflation, and
chronic unemployment
And even in our own country we pray for justice in the face of unjustice,
where the growing intolerance can lead to threats of violence to our public
servants or to those who see a different way out of the current crisis. May
who serve in any capacity, elected, paid or volunteer seek to bring to this
nation confidence and strength, courage and hope as they plan for the
future that you are preparing.
We ask these things in the name of Jesus who taught us to pray saying,
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.                                  For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever. Amen

Hymn: 736 For the healing of the nations

Charge and Benediction
May God grant you the vision, strength, and courage
to proclaim God’s message of peace
whether welcome or unwelcome,
for the sake of God’s beloved children.
May almighty God bless you,
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sung Blessing
457 Now thank we all our God

Now thank we all our God, with
heart and hands and voices, who wondrous things has done, in whom
God’s world rejoices, who from our mother’s arms has blessed us on
our way, with countless gifts of love and still is ours today.