June 20, 2021  Ordinary Time

Welcome to Worship with St. Andrew’s Salmon Arm.  We are delighted that you have joined us, and hope that you will find a blessing here.

Announcements:

Happy Fathers Day

Communion Today:  Today as we worship, we will pause to celebrate God’s eternal love for us in the communion Service.  There will be a second video to watch during the communion.  You are invited to have some bread and juice with you, so that as you watch you too, will be able to feast on the bread of life and drink deeply from the cup of salvation.
CONGREGATIONAL MEETING:  The congregation is called to meet on Saturday June 26 at 11:00 am in the Sanctuary to pray and discuss about our future direction in the light of the General Assembly’s decision regarding Remits A and B.  We hope you all will be able to attend.
HOPE GARDEN  Now is the time for those who weed and water.  If you have a few spare minutes stop by the garden and pull weeds, even a row will be a big help.
Scripture Readers sought:  We will record the Scripture as a part of Sunday worship.  Thank you to those who signed up to read.

Special Prayers:

For India and other struggling nations during the pandemic.
For the Indigenous communities mourning after the discovery of buried children at a Residential School
For the Muslim communities grieving following an attack on a family in London ON last week.
Vaccine roll out in our community and others.
The upcoming Presbytery Meeting
The upcoming congregational meeting at St. Andrew’s.

Pre-service sing-a-long  (thank you to Gloria Fitt for providing the music and the inspiration.)

Lighting the Christ Candle 

The light of Christ has come among us.
Thanks be to God 

CALLED TO WORSHIP 

We each are called to be here, with a right and a purpose given by you O God.  Your grace given to us, not based on our righteousness or our goodness, but entirely on your grace freely given in Jesus.

We give thanks to you who are good, whose saving love endures forever.

We have come to declare that we are deemed worthy in your grace

rescued from trouble and gathered from many lands.

From the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, in and through the whole world may you be praised O God for you are always good.

 

HYMN:  Be still my soul

 

PRAYER OF APPROACH 

Lord, we have come this day, seeking your presence and healing love. Be with us as we hear the words of hope and compassion you speak this day. Give us courage to learn and grow that we might serve you faithfully all of our days.  May we always remember that your hand is upon your people, O God, to guide and protect them through the ages.
Keep in your service those you have called and anointed,
that the powers of this world may not overwhelm us,
but that, secure in your love, we may carry out your will
in the face of all adversity. Amen.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION:

God of love and power, we listen to the stories of miracles and doubt that these things can happen today. We look at the waves of misfortune, distress, misery, distrust, and anger and wonder how we can still those waves. We feel the pressures of power and fear flooding into our lives, threatening to drown us and wonder where you are. Forgive us for the littleness of our faith. Forgive us for our doubts. Help us to place out trust in you, Lord Jesus. Help us to fix our eyes on you and on the ministries to which you have called us. For we ask these things in Jesus’ Name. AMEN.

ASSURANCE OF PARDON: 

Fear not! God is with us, stilling the storms and raging fears in our lives. Place your trust in God always. In Jesus Christ you are redeemed and in Jesus Christ you remain.  AMEN.

PASSING THE PEACE  

The peace of our God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, 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. 

In person: musical interlude

HYMN   Eternal Father Strong to Save

 

WE HEAR GOD’S WORD (click here to view the readings, sermon and Communion service)

Listen, hear and remember, these portions of the revelation of God’s word for us. 

Psalm 107: 1-3, 23-32
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures forever.

2 Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—
those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
3 those he gathered from the lands,
from east and west, from north and south.[a]

23 Some went out on the sea in ships;
they were merchants on the mighty waters.
24 They saw the works of the Lord,
his wonderful deeds in the deep.
25 For he spoke and stirred up a tempest
that lifted high the waves.
26 They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths;
in their peril their courage melted away.
27 They reeled and staggered like drunkards;
they were at their wits’ end.
28 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
and he brought them out of their distress.
29 He stilled the storm to a whisper;
the waves of the sea[a] were hushed.
30 They were glad when it grew calm,
and he guided them to their desired haven.
31 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for mankind.
32 Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people
and praise him in the council of the elders.

2 Corinthians 6: 1-13
As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. 2 For he says,

“In the time of my favor I heard you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you.”[a]

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.

3 We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. 4 Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 5 in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; 6 in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; 7 in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; 8 through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9 known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

11 We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. 12 We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. 13 As a fair exchange—I speak as to my children—open wide your hearts also.

 

Sermon:  Now is the time of Salvation

Today we continue the conversation with Paul and the Church in Corinth.  Again, we are eavesdroppers, and yet the message is also meant for us.  That’s the beauty of God’s word.  Always applicable.  Always timely.

Paul is concerned about the salvation of the people.  There are problems that had arisen from the coalition of the Followers of the Way, the Church Council which meets in Jerusalem, where some parts of the Church were saying things like:

You must be circumcised
Then you can be baptised

You must only eat “clean” foods
And:  you must never eat foods previously sacrificed to idols

Those policies were causing a rift in Corinth, and some of the people were beginning to doubt their salvation.

What Paul wants us to know is THAT OUR SALVATION IS NEVER IN QUESTION, despite what we see and hear around us.

The problem with conflict in the congregation and the larger body of the church is that sometimes we forget that we are all sinners, saved by grace.

Our language stops being loving.

People’s motives are being questioned

Insults are exchanged.

People’s commitment to God is questioned.

People’s salvation is questioned.

We see this playing out in our own denomination right now.  It is unkind and unbiblical.

We may wholeheartedly believe that others are wrong and they may believe that we are.  We are angry and discouraged.  We may question God’s calling on our lives.  Yet, we are all of us children of God.  We are all of us walking the road of faith as a work in progress.

So as we take a step back and breathe and maybe quit reading the attacks and counter attacks being played out on the church’s social media, let’s reflect on the words of comfort that Paul speaks.

Now is the acceptable time.  Now is the day of salvation.

And more importantly:  we put no obstacle in your way.

For Paul it was so important that all people hear the message that Jesus died for us, and for our sins and to bring us into a loving relationship with God and one another, that in his view, there is no other message.

How many times do we see him write:  “I was determined know to nothing before you, except Christ, and Christ crucified.”

Regardless of the obstacles in the church in Corinth and regardless of the hurdles in the Presbyterian Church in Canada, we are comforted by the simplicity of Paul’s message.

God loves you.

Jesus died for you.

Believe and be baptized.

The Mennonite Church states that they believe first, in the essential message of Christ, crucified and risen; all the rest, they say, are details.

As much as we would like to shout that good doctrine is important, and it is, we also know that the Church has survived bad doctrine before and can again, but the Church cannot survive when we forget the essential detail of our faith:  Jesus died for you.  Jesus died for me.  Jesus died for those who opposed him, betrayed him and put him to death.

God’s love given to us in Christ Jesus is greater than anything and everything.

For Paul that essential message is so important that he will suffer all things, in order to be able to bring it to the people.   He goes so far as to say that he will endure everything for the privilege of preaching the good news in Jesus Christ.

This is a big deal.

     A very big deal.

For that reason, Paul runs the endurance race of faith in spite of:

Afflictions

Hardships

Calamities

Beatings

Hunger

Imprisonment

Riots

Excruciatingly difficult labours among unbelievers, and heartbreaking labours in the fractious Church.

Now wonder Paul knew sleepless nights.

What keeps Paul up at night?

All the congregations he has helped start.  All the congregations he has visited.  Everyone to whom he has preached.

And especially those whose faith is wavering because of the tensions and difficulty around them or because they are being told they are wrong in what they believe.

And more importantly those members of the congregations that are attacking him.

For Paul all that was needed for salvation was to believe in the essentials.  Jesus.  Crucified for you.  Risen for you.

Everything else is for God and the Holy Spirit to work out in you, in the journey of faith.

Even Paul knows that there are those who oppose him and say all manner of vile things about him.  He knows the words that dishonour him.  He knows there are those who hold him in ill repute and those who threaten him.

Like Jesus assured his believers in the Beatitudes this belittling and reputation destroying speech is a blessing.

Blessings are not magical a showering of good things from Heaven, blessings are the assurance that God is walking with us on every step of our journey.  No matter how bleak or how dark.

For Paul it is enough that he tells the story of salvation purely as he reveals the knowledge give to him by the Holy Spirit.  It is also important to Paul that he responds to everyone with patience and kindness and holiness of spirit and that he be filled with genuine love and truthful speech.

I don’t know if that’s his truth or his prayer. 

But let us never forget that even in the Corinthian congregation over which he loses sleep and who often cause his heart to break when their differences cause them to attack him; he is still able to assure them that he speaks to them with his heart wide open.

Again, I don’t know if that is his reality or his prayer.

Regretfully these are ways I sometimes fall short, and it is surely my prayer that I become more loving, more truthful, kind and patient as I share the glorious news of what Jesus has done for us and continues to do among us.

 

Maybe it’s a prayer we all should take up.  That we speak to one another with our hearts wide open.

How frightening is that thought.

When we speak to one another with our hearts wide open that makes us vulnerable.  Like Paul we can be hurt.  Like Jesus we can be betrayed.  That is reality.

But the bigger reality is that when our hearts are wide open with each other, they are also wide open for God..

THAT IS THE POINT THAT PAUL IS MAKING HERE!

For us to serve Christ is a privilege.

And a joy.

Despite what we see around us, and what people say about us, or how they beat us up, physically, emotionally ,or spiritually; our blessing and our happiness is assured in God.

We find that our joy and our purpose is counterintuitive.  We don’t find it in an easy life; rather we find it in God’s service.

In God’s kingdom we possess everything we need.

When we look around us and all that we see and feel is sorrow and suffering, God reminds us that we are not emotionally dependant on the “things” that the world values.  Like the congregation in Corinth, we are not emotionally dependant on what the The Church Councils say.

Rather, we are emotionally and spiritually dependant on wisdom from on high and the compelling beauty of the love of Christ.

Paul reminds us that the best joy, when we believe in the salvation given to us in Christ, God trusts us with the message of salvation in Christ.

Right now our story still being written….we are in the journey of the unknown that is given to all believers.   

For encouragement in that journey we turn to the Psalm, and especially the Psalms of Lament because these Psalms help us to express our anger with God, our disappointment with the world around us, our frustration at our circumstances…and yet even in the lamenting we know that this present suffering is all that there is.

When we place our trust in God it is our acknowledgement of the journey, with its pain, twists and turns and that all lament leads to praising God for his faithfulness on the journey.

The Psalm we read today is a reminder that in everything God is faithful.

The Psalmist writes: Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures forever.   Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—

they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
and he brought them out of their distress.
29 He stilled the storm to a whisper;
the waves of the sea[a] were hushed.
30 They were glad when it grew calm,
and he guided them to their desired haven.
31 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for mankind.

Paul urges us to put our trust in our salvation, which is our gift from God.  The Psalmist reminds us that in the storms of life our protection happens when we cry out to God and God will bring us out of our distress.

Today, tomorrow and in all the days to come, let us keep our eyes on God, the author of our salvation, the joy of our hearts and the one who fills us with the love and the courage to journey on until he reveals our desired haven.

Amen

 

 

 

HYMN    Great is thy faithfulness

In person: Video medley

OFFERING 

Today we remember the gift of Jesus Christ given to us.  We join together giving thanks to God, by bringing our offering into the storehouse, and together we pray that God will bless all that we bring.  

In person: Doxology

Offering Hymn:  The church is wherever God’s people 

OFFERTORY PRAYER  

O God, we give in grateful thanksgiving for all that you have given us.

In the upside down world of the gospel, we measure our wealth not by what we have, but what we can give away.

Thus, this day we give generously, in this offering, that by sharing our wealth, our gifts and talents and our lives of service we may bless your church, your people, your creation.   In Jesus name.  Amen

GATHERING PRAYER REQUESTS

PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING AND INTERCESSION 

We praise your abiding guidance, O God,
for you sent us Jesus, our Teacher and Messiah,
to model for us the way of love for the whole universe.
We offer these prayers of love
on behalf of ourselves and our neighbors,
on behalf of your creation and our fellow creatures.

Lord of wind and water, of calmness and peace, be with us this day. Calm our fears as we face uncertain futures. Help us to relinquish control and to place our trust totally in you. Remind us to continue to faithfully work for good, with gratitude for the many blessings you have poured upon us. When the waves and torrents threaten us, let us again to turn to you, remembering your saving mercies and love. Give us courage to become disciples who can calm the seas of doubt and anger, bringing hope and peace. As we pause today to bring before you situations that require help and healing mercies, remind us again that you are with each person and situation, offering your love and mercy. We thank you for the many ways in which you have healed us. For all the goodness you have poured on us, we offer prayers of gratitude and love, as we ask for all these things, places and people in Jesus’ Name.

In all that we do may we speak to one another with our hearts wide open.

With open hearts we add our own prayers:

 

We pray for the upcoming congregational meeting

We pray for the ongoing work of our congregation that it may touch hearts

 

We pray for all fathers today, giving thanks for our own, and praying for your guidance on all who are nurturing and guiding children in these times.  We pray for our friends and our families and name them before you now

Hear also our prayers kept in our hearts.

 

God of mercy and healing,
you who hear the cries of those in need,
receive these petitions of your people
that all who are troubled
may know peace, comfort, and courage.

OUR PRAYERS FOR THE COMMUNITY 

We pray with hope for a world in need of love and grace, forgiveness and new life, hope, peace and fellowship, in need of renewal, in need of YOU.  May you bring your renewal to our city, our congregations and our homes.  Hear us as we pray for peace and justice in our city.

We pray for Grocery Stores, Local Markets, Downtown and Mall Businesses, Restaurants, Funeral Homes, and the people they employ.

LORD’S PRAYER 

Hear us now as we pray as Jesus taught us saying, saying silently:  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

In person: musical interlude

HYMN Take my life and let it be

 

The Communion Service

Invitation:

God the giver of all good things, gather us in his presence, where everything is a gift.  He invites us to the Table where he blesses these gifts of bread and wine, fruit of the vine and work of human hands, that they may nourish us for the work of healing his creation.

So, come to the Table to meet with God and one another, to eat of the rich blessing of God, to be given a seat at the Table with Jesus, to be transformed by bread and wine and to be found rejoicing at this feast.

Let us come with full confidence in God.

We pause for silent reflection on our calling in faith as we listen to these words from a statement of faith from the Church in Ireland  Every one seated

A Statement of Faith (adapted from The Presbyterian Church in Ireland)

WE, the members of St. Andrew’s, saved by grace
and called by God to grace-filled relationships,
in the power of the Holy Spirit
as ambassadors of Christ’s Kingdom
in a broken and divided world;

Pause

We BELIEVE that the Good News of Jesus Christ
challenges and equips us
to develop radically new attitudes and relationships
with our neighbours throughout the whole of Canada.

Pause

WE CONFESS our failure
to live as Biblically faithful Christian peacebuilders
and to promote the counter culture of Jesus
in a society where cultures clash.

Pause

ACCORDINGLY, WE AFFIRM Christian peacebuilding
to be part of Christian discipleship
and reassert the Church’s calling
to pursue a peaceful and just society in our day

Pause

WE SEEK a more reconciled community
at peace with each other,
where friend and foe,
working together for the common good,
can experience healing
and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Pause

 

Warrant:

That we may fulfill our Lord’s intention for us, we take these natural elements of bread and wine, setting them apart from all common uses to this Holy Mystery and, as Christ gave thanks, we present to God our prayers and thanksgivings.

The prayer of Thanksgiving

God’s faithful love endures for ever and ever.
Because of God’s everlasting goodness,
we offer God our thanks and praise.

God’s faithful love endures for ever and ever.
Because of God’s care and concern for humanity,
we offer God our thanks and praise.

God’s faithful love endures for ever and ever.
Because of God’s transforming powers and actions,
we gather as a community of faith and trust in God—
and we offer God our thanks and praise.

Creator God,

we give you thanks for the grain farmers, the bread bakers, the grape growers, the juice makers.
Redeemer God,

we give you thanks for all that we remember as we have shared this meal: your birth, your life, your death and resurrection.

Sustaining God,

we give you thanks for the eternal presence of your Spirit with us,

surrounding us and filling us with Divine life.

As we share this meal may your strength renew us and inspire us

to join more joyfully with you as you work for peace and justice in the world. Amen.

Breaking Bread

Removing the seal from the cups and bread

We celebrate this feast in obedience to Christ’s example and mandate

The Lord Jesus Christ, on the night of his arrest, too bread and after giving thanks to God, he broke it and giving it to his disciples saying,

Take, eat this is my body given for you, do this in remembrance of me.

 

And in the same way he took the cup saying,

This cup is the new covenant sealed in my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins, whenever you drink it do this in remembrance of me.

Remember that every time we eat this bread and drink this cup we proclaim the Lord’s death until he returns.

These are the gifts of God for the people of God.

Come for all is ready.

Take, eat, remember and believe that the body of our Lord Jesus Christ was given for the complete forgiveness of all our sins.

Music

 

This is the cup of salvation
Take drink, remember and believe that the precious blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ was shed for the complete forgiveness of our sins.

Music

Prayer after communion:

Your hand is upon your people, O God,
to guide and protect them through the ages.
Keep in your service
those you have called and anointed,
that the powers of this world may not overwhelm us,
but that, secure in your love,
we may carry out your will
in the face of all adversity. Amen.

CHARGE AND BENEDICTION 

Put obstacles in no one’s way, but rejoice in purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God.  Go in peace. May God:  Father, Son and Spirit guide you this day, and all days.  Amen

SUNG BLESSING:  Take O Take me as I am 
 

 

In person: May the peace of Christ