Welcome to worship at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Salmon Arm.  We are delighted that you have joined us online.

Announcements:

• Happy New Year to each and every one of you. Our prayer is that God will bless this year with much joy and renewed fellowship in Christ. May the weary find rest; the grieving find comfort; the despondent find hope and may the peace of God rule in the hearts of all.
• January's Loonie Offering is going to go to the Shuswap Volunteer Search and Rescue. With all the snow they will be busy in the back country so please help by donating either through the church or directly. For more info check the "Recent Posts" to the right of your screen.
• We shout out a huge thank you to Rev. Ena Van Zoeren, Rev. Shirley Cochrane and all the helpers who provided the Advent, Christmas Eve, New Years Eve and Holiday Services. What a blessing they were! Thank you Rev. Ena for leading us in worship today.
• Thank you to all who contributed to the annual Christmas Card Project. A total of $1785 was raised for PWS&D and will provide clean water, sanitation and hygiene for an African community in need.

CALL TO WORSHIP

Come and see!

The light of God has come into our world

to proclaim God’s justice and love;

It has overcome the darkness and brought new life.

Come and follow!

Christ our companion has redeemed our world

He draws us into a loving family

From every tribe and family and culture.

Go and tell!

The Spirit has equipped us for service

To love our neighbours as we do ourselves

To bring God’s salvation to the ends of the earth.

Come and see, come and follow, go and tell!

In God’s Love the nations of the earth will put their hope.

 

Hymn  153 Joy to the World

 

PRAYER OF INVOCATION

Creative God, you make all things new in heaven and on earth.
We come to you in a new year with new desires and old fears,
new decisions and old controversies,
new dreams and old weaknesses.
Creator God
swirling, formless one,
hovering over creation and bringing new things to life
you speak new worlds into being with language that creates and liberates

Eternal God
living, limitless one
inhabiting the vast universe with the rich complexity of your being
you reveal yourself to your creatures and invite us to know you

Friendly God
nurturing, welcoming one
opening yourself wide to the joy and pain of loving your people
you place us in communities and families that echo your true nature

Holy God
We thank you for the ways in which

we have known and understood you;
We thank you for the stories of Jesus

that have opened our eyes to more of who you are;
We thank you for the language that has brought

the transcendent, timeless, mysterious of you within our grasp.

Holy God
We are hungry for more of you
We ask you to reveal more of yourself to us
to take us beyond the confines of familiar habits
to free us from the restrictions and distortions of our language
to expand our understanding of you
so that we can love you whole heartedly
we can communicate you faithfully
and we can reflect your full image to a world that needs you
Amen.

UNISON PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Gracious God,

we thank you for the light that shone in Jesus,

revealing unto us your holiness and our righteousness.

We deplore this gap, yet we rejoice

that you chased the darkness that kept it hidden from our eyes.

By your light we are both encouraged and condemned.

We are reassured to see your face turned in our direction,

bidding us to come unto you.

But we shudder at the sight of us turning our backs on you,

resisting the light that could mirror your glory.

 

We thank you, O God, for leaving your light in the world

even though we have not always heeded your summons

to become the light of the world.

 

Instead of illuminating your character, we have blurred it.

 

You have commanded us to love you with all our being,

but we have consigned our love to the pigeonhole of religion.

 

You have commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves,

but we have been too preoccupied with ourselves to find them.

 

You have called us to be peacemakers,

yet we have encouraged the arms makers

with our fears and our fortunes.

 

You have summoned us to be wall breakers,

yet we have supported the wall makers

with our silence and our sympathy.

 

We have seen the light, but we have refused to walk in it.

 

Yet we long, O Lord, to keep your law and do your will.

We ask forgiveness for our rebellion,

not merely for the sake of the joy we have denied ourselves,

but also for the joy we have denied others.

 

Keep ever before us the needs of the world into which you sent Jesus

and for whose sake he gave himself to the uttermost.

Let us feel its pain as our own,

seek its good as our own,

and work for its transformation

in the name and spirit of him who came into the world

not to condemn but to redeem it.

 

We listen now, O God, for your word.

Let its message illumine our minds

that we may will as Jesus willed.

Let its spirit quicken our hearts that we may love as Jesus loved.

Let its power speed our steps that we may do as Jesus did.

We pray in Jesus name.  Amen

 

Assurance of Pardon

God to enfold you, Christ to uphold you, Spirit to keep you in heaven’s sight.

So may God grace you, heal you, and embrace you; lead you through the darkness into the light.

 

PASSING THE PEACE

 

The peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.  And also with you.

Share a sign of peace with those nearby, or ask the Spirit to bring his peace to another you may know, or to a world situation.

HYMN 165 O little town of Bethlehem

 

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Psalm 147: 12-20

12 Extol the Lord, Jerusalem;
praise your God, Zion.

13 He strengthens the bars of your gates
and blesses your people within you.
14 He grants peace to your borders
and satisfies you with the finest of wheat.

15 He sends his command to the earth;
his word runs swiftly.
16 He spreads the snow like wool
and scatters the frost like ashes.
17 He hurls down his hail like pebbles.
Who can withstand his icy blast?
18 He sends his word and melts them;
he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow.

19 He has revealed his word to Jacob,
his laws and decrees to Israel.
20 He has done this for no other nation;
they do not know his laws.[a]

Praise the Lord.  (NIV)

John 1: 1-18

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.

6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and[b] is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.  (NIV)

 

SERMON   Light and Salvation

On New Year’s Eve, I attended a “Watch Night Service”, the preacher started the sermon by referring to the year past and the year to come as something akin to standing on the edge of a cliff.

Hmm, I thought, It could go any number of ways.

We could pull back from the edge.

Our foot could slip on a stone and we fall off the cliff.

Or we play it safe and journey along the edge until we find a safe place to step down into what waits for us.

He also spoke of this as being a time when we evaluate our gains and losses; our disappointments and our sorrows, but that ultimately, we are urged to embrace an eagerness to respond to God and hear the good news.

Yet it can seem as if the good news is hard to find.  Yes. there are vaccines, but it could be summer or even the fall before it has been given to all the people.  It will be years before it has been given in many developing countries.  What really is going to change?

For us in the short term ….nothing.  And yet—there is hope.

Standing at the edge of a cliff requires a leap of faith.   Dwelling in the darkness means trusting that we are coming into the light.

The Poet Minnie Louise Hoskins writes:  AND I SAID TO THE MAN WHO STOOD AT THE GATE OF THE YEAR.  “GIVE ME A LIGHT THAT I MAY TREAD SAFELY INTO THE UNKNOWN. “

AND HE REPLIED, “GO OUT INTO THE DARKNESS AND PUT YOUR HAND INTO THE HAND OF GOD.”  THAT SHOULD BE TO YOU, BETTER THAN LIGHT AND SAFER THAN A KNOWN WAY.”

A leap of faith can only be taken when we put our hand in the hand of God.  Walking toward the light with confidence also works only when we clasp the hand of God and walk with him.

This is where today’s reading from John leads us.  To make the choice to walk with God.  Despite the delays with the vaccine.  Despite the new rapidly spreading version of the virus, we choose to walk with God

Every generation has been given the choice to be swallowed in the darkness of their age, or to walk with God.

I am reminded of the song, first made known by Anne Murray.  The chorus pointed out that all of life is a trust walk.

Put your hand in the hand of the man
Who stilled the water
Put your hand in the hand of the man
Who calmed the sea
Take a look at yourself
And you can look at others differently
Put your hand in the hand of the man
From Galilee

Right now, we, like countless generations before, walk in the darkness.  For some it has been the darkness of war.  For others the darkness of occupation.  For some the darkness of depression, or illness.  For so many, far too often, it has been the darkness of a pandemic.

John was writing for a people who had known the darkness of occupation and were experiencing the darkness of oppression for the message they brought.  But the words he brings are an encouragement.

He writes:   In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.

We look around us and all that we see was created by God’s word.  We look at Jesus and we see God’s word.  We look at the darkness and we see the light of God’s word.  We look at the word and we see the promise—the darkness has not, and will not, overcome it.

We all share a common burden.  We are anxious, or depressed in isolation.  WE are discouraged and disappointed over many things.   We are discouraged or disappointed by people around us.  We are discouraged and disappointed by ourselves.

Human nature is what it is, and that often can make our situation worse.  None of this is new.  It has come and gone, and come and gone throughout all of time.

This time is merely one of the seasons of our lives.

“Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”

3 What do people gain from all their labors
at which they toil under the sun?
4 Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.  (Ecclesiastes 1 NIV)

These are the truths that bolster our faith:

Generations come and go but God’s creation remains forever.

Dark days come and go, but the light remains forever.

We are reminded that there is a time for everything:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3     a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6     a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7     a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8     a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.  (Eccl 3, NIV)

Where are we?

We are not yet at the end of the journey; but we do see the beginning of the time of healing.  We are perhaps ready to come out of mourning and hearing the song to which we will dance; and finding the joy with which we will laugh.

We are in the time of mending and speaking and loving.

And when we put our hand in God’s hand we are in the time of peace, regardless of the darkness and turmoil that still swirls around us.

One of the best things about John’s message is that we are in a time of salvation.  He writes:   Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

Getting to this place is the culmination of a journey.  At times in the journey we did not recognize Jesus or who he is.  But when the time was right, we beheld him in his full glory, the glory of the light of God, and we beheld our salvation.

This discovery is the ground beneath our feet, the air beneath our wings, the song that we cannot help but sing.

The Psalmist reminds us:

He sends his command to the earth;
his word runs swiftly.
16 He spreads the snow like wool
and scatters the frost like ashes.
17 He hurls down his hail like pebbles.
Who can withstand his icy blast?
18 He sends his word and melts them;
he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow.

When we walk with our hand in God’s hand, we see the changes that God brings all around us.  We know that truth.  We have all known the struggle that drains our energy and that makes us vulnerable to everything that destroys us.  At those times we look around us and all we see is the darkness.

But we also know the victory of those days when we walk with our hand in God’s.  We look into the darkness and we see the changes that God brings.  We see God’s strength and his power.  Even better we see God’s mercy and his grace.  Best of all we see his Word and we embrace his salvation.

5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.

When we walk with our hand in God’s hand, this is the promise we see all around us.

We look around us, and all that we see was created by God’s word.  We look at Jesus and we see God’s word.  We look at the darkness and we see the light of God’s word.  We look at the word and we see the promise—the darkness has not, and will not, overcome it.

God remains constant and nothing can destroy his love for us.

So take his hand and leap off the cliff.  Take his hand and step out into the darkness.  Put your hand in the hand of God with hope, and confidence and God will not disappoint.  Amen.

 

 

 

HYMN:  166 Once in Royal David’s City

 

OFFERING

Today we remember the gift of Jesus Christ given to us giving thanks to God, for the many ways in which we to can bring our offering into the storehouse. Please check the front page of the website for ways in which you can contribute.  Thank you.

OFFERTORY PRAYER (responsive)

Holy Father,

open our hearts to what you reveal and give us the courage to follow.

By Your Spirit aid us in our journey,

so that like John, our words and deeds point to the Lamb of God.

For those who are suffering, let us point to Christ through comfort.

For those who are hungry, let us point to Christ through bread.

For those in the grip of despair, let us point to Christ through hope.

And now O God, through the offering brought to you this day, may our prayer be fulfilled.  Amen

 

 

PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING AND INTERCESSION

Heavenly Father, we are not altogether convinced that darkness is a thing of the past. Many people in this world of ours feel their world is one of darkness and gloom. Pressures crowd in upon us and get us down.

Yet we see the signs of your Son all around us, from Creation to Eternity he is here among us.  Help us to focus on the light.

 

The causes are varied: bereavement, illness, money, worries about family, trouble at work or not having work, drugs, drink, boredom, doubt, weariness, futility.

Help us to focus on Jesus and his light.

Then there are the world issues: war, poverty, climate change, disease, unfair trade and so on. It does not help when we feel that as Christians we should be doing so much better than we are. Gracious and loving God, we rejoice that you are with us in our troubles, you know us and you love us – always.

When we are exhausted with the effort, shine the light of Jesus, and prompt us to lay our burdens on his shoulders.

Even though we have made a mess of things personally and collectively you remain faithful. We rejoice that your Son came not to a perfect world, but to a broken world, our world. To bring light to the darkness, our darkness.

Show us once again that each person is made in your image, and remind us that they are people loved and cherished by you.

We pray for our dark and dreary world, a world in need – in need not just of a technical fix, but in need of love and grace, forgiveness and new life, hope, peace and fellowship, in need of renewal, in need of YOU.

 

We pray that you would come alongside us and all those for whom we pray, that you would show us Jesus, the light of the world, the one who came (and who comes) to rid us of sin, to give us life and health and peace, peace that passes all understanding – not a temporary respite from trouble but the strength to overcome it and ultimately to receive life eternal.

We name them before you now:

You don’t wave a magic wand for everything to sorted instantly – you require us to exercise our faith and to respond to your call to preach the gospel and to seek to live it out, to look to you for the strength that we need to share your love and grace. Help us to share the good news in word and action – the same good news that the fishermen were called to proclaim that there is a Saviour, a merciful king who loves us and whom we can love and adore.

 

We have been set free.  Enable us to use our freedom to share in bringing in the kingdom. In the light of this we have something to celebrate, something to shout about – for even in our trouble and pain, even in our loss, we know that Jesus is with us.

Hear us as in a moment of silence we pray for those in darkness (of whatever kind) – let us pray that they may see and know the light of Christ:

Silence

The Lord is my light and my salvation. Hear our prayers, Lord, spoken and unspoken and answer them for Jesus’ sake. Amen

 

OUR PRAYERS FOR THE COMMUNITY

We pray for our dark and dreary world, a world in need – in need not just of a technical fix, but in need of love and grace, forgiveness and new life, hope, peace and fellowship, in need of renewal, in need of YOU.

This week we pray for:   The Mayor, City Hall, Town Works, Chamber of Commerce, & all their employees, CSRD staff and employees

LORD’S PRAYER

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 for ever.  Amen

 

HYMN  168  See amid the winter’s snow

 

CHARGE AND BENEDICTION

Almighty God,

whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world:

Grant that your people, illumined by your Word,

may shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory,

that he may be known, worshiped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth.

We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God now and forever,

The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us forevermore.

SUNG BLESSING:  Teach me God to wonder