January 15, 2023  Epiphany 2

Lighting the Christ Candle

Welcome and Announcements

Thank you Rev. Ena for leading us in worship today.
January’s Loonie Offering is going to the Shuswap Volunteer Search and Rescue Society. To find out more check the “Recent Posts” to the right of your screen.

Called to Worship:
We sing of God the Spirit, who from the beginning has swept over the face of creation and moving in the human heart.
We sing of the Spirit,  who speaks our prayers of deepest longing and enfolds our concerns and confessions,  transforming us and the world.
We offer worship   as an outpouring of gratitude and awe and a practice of opening ourselves  to God’s still, small voice and to God’s rushing whirlwind of challenge.
Through Jesus, through the Spirit, through the gifts that empower us as a congregation and community, God changes our lives, our relationships, and our world.

Hymn:  477 Your hand O God has guided

Prayer of Adoration

O God our God, You spoke to the prophets, but your message did not end with them.  There is still work to be done, and we pray to hear your call afresh.  Help us joyfully claim our role as your beloved servants, knowing that you provide all that we need to do our work.
You walked with us before we were even born, and you continue to hold us by the hand each and every day of our lives. We pray with the confidence of those who have been filled with your light. We pray with the assurance of those who have been called into fellowship with your Son, Jesus Christ in whom  you forgive our sins as we confess before you….

 

Unison Prayer of Confession:

 We are people chosen from our generations to be Witnesses to the power of God’s creative and renewing Spirit alive in the world.  The Spirit showers upon us the gifts of God’s love— yet we see them as our own gifts and talents.  The Spirit calls forth fruit from our lives; yet we see them as our own achievements and accomplishments.   In claiming them as our own, we forget from whom they come and on whom we depend for these graces—and even for life itself 

God of truth and justice, we have not lived up to the great gifts that you have given to us.  Have mercy on your people gathered before you; strengthen us in the certainty of your forgiveness and enduring love.    Teach us how to respond to this greatest of gifts in lives full of grace,  bearing fruit in our own love and forgiveness, witnessing always to your glory and your graciousness.   We ask this in the name of your son and our Saviour, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Assurance of Pardon

Hear what God says to us:   Even before you were born, I have been with you.  My love for you is beyond time.  I fill you with love.  I equip you for work.
In Jesus, I have forgiven you.  You are my faithful servants.
I offer you all that you need to do the work given you.  I fill you with the Holly Spirit and empower you to share my love with the world.

The Peace

May the Peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Hymn:  491  God bless your church with strength

Scripture Lessons:

Psalm 40: 1-7
1 Corinthians 1: 1-9

Sermon:  Every Spiritual Gift you need

As convenor of the Students for Ministry committee, I was privileged one day to hear a student preacher give examples of the kind of things that congregations had been saying to him in the interview process.

We are a pretty small congregation and there are so few of us to do the work.

We are old and tired and we don’t have the energy to do the work.

We are just a group of farmers, we don’t know how to do a lot of the work in the church.

He commented that none of them was doing a good job of selling themselves as a congregation that he could feel called to work among.

Or perhaps in the case of the Church in Corinth those excuses for not being engaged in ministry could be:

WE are too immoral, there are members who don’t honour the marriage covenant.

We are new Christians, we are too unlearned.

We are not among the ones who were baptized by Paul, so we don’t have status.

There are schisms among us that stop us from reaching out in love—to one another, never mind the community.

To this clamor Paul simply says that he thanks God for the people of the congregation in Corinth.  He is thankful that God has sanctified them in Jesus.  He is thankful for the work of salvation active in them.  He is thankful for the works of glorification.

He knows they have problems yet he points out that they are given the grace of God that makes them people for whom he is thankful and in whom he sees God active.

Even more, Paul points out that in God they have been enriched in every way.   That Christ is among them.  Most of all, they do not lack any spiritual gift for the calling in ministry.

The sad thing is that in congregations even as  among individuals we are only as good as our negative self-talk.   What God says about us defines us, not our defeated thinking.

It is time to ask the questions that we need to resolve before we can move on as a congregation.

Are we defined by the difficulties that we have encountered?  Or as we shaped by the difficulties that God has strengthened us through?

Are we held back by the quarrelling among us?  Or, are we empowered by the reconciliation of the Holy Spirit among us?

Are we old, tired, worn out and uninspired?  Or, are we filled with the Spirit and given every gift we need to be a congregation of Christ’s church on earth?

No doubt the Church in Corinth had a lot of problems, but every church in every age has had problems.  Paul acknowledges the problems in Corinth, and then, points out that they have something more powerful than the problems that they allow to hold them back.

They have the Holy Spirit and they have each other.

We are reminded that in the blessing of the Spirit they have each other AND that ministry is a shared task.  No one carries the burden alone. 

So today we stand in that great unity of the Church in every age as needing encouragement.  In our need we are reminded that in Christ Jesus and each other we have everything we need to fulfil our calling.

Maybe we can’t pray like Peter or preach like Paul, but then again we are not called to live out their calling in the church.  We are responsible only for our calling in the church, the calling for which God has equipped us.

As I read through the commentaries this past week I began to wonder if perhaps a part of the problem that can lead to negative and defeated thinking is because we don’t build one another up enough.  We don’t affirm each other in our calling.

I had the sense that this affirmation of giftedness and calling needed to be public as well as private.  Paul readily called people out for the gifts of the Spirit he saw at work in them.  It made me realize that one of the things that I need to do as a preacher and leader among you is to do the same.  And it made me realize that we all need to be doing so privately and publicly as a part of the way to ensure that what we think about ourselves and who we are as Gods’ people are in alignment.

Since I have come back I have been so grateful for Shirley.  She builds me up.  She is so positive and so welcoming that she serves as an ambassador for the congregation.

And there are so many others for whom I am grateful.  I can’t comment on all of you… but will mention a few…

John is always willing to take on a task, and a constant source of encouragement.

Janet is very organized and manages to bring attention to those things that could be overlooked and makes sure they are attended to in a timely manner.

Lynn shows us all how to give and give some more with God’s leading.

Don has the ability to wisely and calmly assess a situation and help us all to look at things from a different angle.

Maye inspires us all by her determination and strength.

Anita is generous and cheerful.

Reney reminds us that God is always the victor in any situation.

Stuart’s calm and often hidden humor lifts our spirits.

Marlene is an example of how love unites all of us.

Helga shows strength as she faces life circumstances.

Frank is calm and caring and has depths of wisdom.

Clara demonstrates an ability to appreciate a new way of thinking.

Diane embodies grace.

I see in us a depth of the blessings of the Holy Spirit as it works in each of you as needed.  As Paul says in each of his letters, I say to you… I am grateful for each one of you and in each of you I see the person who is sanctified by Christ and called by God.

No community is perfect; but that does not have to hold the congregation back.  Paul reminds us that God works in our weakness and imperfection and is indeed glorified.  When we stop looking at our problems and lack of knowledge, youth, energy, etc., and start looking at what God sees in us as his creation, then nothing can stop us.  Nothing will hold us back. 

We are a work in progress, we are a people through whom God never stops working.

We are not lacking in any spiritual gift.  Each one of us is gifted with what we need to be a part of the ministry and calling of St. Andrews.  How all of those gifts will play out among us remains to be seen as we eagerly await for God’s calling among us to be revealed in Jesus Christ.

Today what we know is…

We are gifted

We are called

We are being called forth.

Amen

Hymn:  470 You that know the Lord is gracious

Offering
Doxology

Offertory Prayer

Generous God,
you have already given us all that we need.
Help us trust your continued care,
that we may share with others
the abundance of your blessings.
Strengthen us for service,
and remind us of the great joy
that awaits those who answer your call.
Accept our gifts and give us new songs of praise
as we celebrate the opportunity to be in ministry,
in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

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

Father God, you listen to us like you listened to the Psalmists when we sing our songs, cry our laments, and put our trust in your gracious mercy. Help us delight in your will. Put your law and your help in our hearts, that we may rejoice in your steadfast love.  Call us forth in your name to be your people and bring your light into the world.

We thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, that you have called us to be saints together. As we grow in our faith in your Body, the church, fill us with your spiritual gifts, that we may not be lacking in zeal or courage.  Show us how to see ourselves as you see us, redeemed, whole, and spirit filled.   Show us how to bring your light into the world.

Open our ears, Holy Spirit, that we may hear your call through the Scriptures, the preaching of your word, the singing of your inspired hymns, and the praying of our prayers. When we hear you call, may we walk with you as readily as Andrew and Peter and as confidently as Paul.   Show us how to bring your light into the world. .

 

We bring before you the joys of our hearts, those whom we know need healing, hope, and heavenly help. As we name them in our hearts or aloud, touch them, and us with your presence.

Joys

Those needing healing, hope encouragement

 

The world in need of healing and direction

 

Make all our petitions selfless, like those you taught us to pray as we say together.  

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.  Thy kingdom come, they 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 and the power and the glory forever.  Amen.

Hymn:  490 God of grace and God of glory

Charge and Benediction

The Spirit’s gifts are here to stay in rich variety—fitting responses to timely needs.  We thankfully see each other as gifted members of the fellowship which delights in the creative Spirit’s work.  He gives more than enough to each believer for God’s praise and our neighbor’s welfare.

May grace, peace and power from God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit be with you forevermore.  Amen

Sung Blessing
Go now in peace