ST ANDREW’S  CHURCH

August 18th, 2024

 

LIGHTING OF THE CHRIST CANDLE

ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

CALL TO WORSHIP

Praise God! Give thanks to God from your heart!

Great are the works of our God and we delight in them.

Yes, the works of God’s hands are faithful and just;

Holy and awesome is God’s name.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.

We honour God’s name, so that God’s praise may

endure forever.

 

HYMN                 410 Joyful, joyful we adore you

 

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee,
God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flow’rs before Thee,
Op’ning to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness;
Drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness,
Fill us with the light of day!
All Thy works with joy surround Thee,
Earth and heav’n reflect Thy rays,
Stars and angels sing around Thee,
Center of unbroken praise.
Field and forest, vale and mountain,
Flow’ry meadow, flashing sea,
Singing bird and flowing fountain
Call us to rejoice in Thee.
Thou art giving and forgiving,
Ever blessing, ever blest,
Wellspring of the joy of living,
Ocean depth of happy rest!
Thou our Father, Christ our Brother,
All who live in love are Thine;
Teach us how to love each other,
Lift us to the joy divine.
Mortals, join the happy chorus,
Which the morning stars began;
Father love is reigning o’er us,
Brother love binds man to man.
Ever singing, march we onward,
Victors in the midst of strife,
Joyful music leads us Sunward
In the triumph song of life.

OPENING PRAYER

At the beginning of the day we seek your countenance among us, O God, in the countless forms of creation all around us in the sun’s rising glory – in the face of friend and stranger. Your Presence within every presence -your Light within all light-

your Heart at the heart of this moment. May the fresh light of morning wash our sight that we may see your Life in every life this day.  Hear us as we confess together …

-from Praying with the Earth: A Prayerbook for Peace;JPN

 

UNISON PRAYER OF CONFESSION

God of all that matters,

Forgive us when we forget what matters to you.

Forgive the sins we have tried to hide,

and those we were once proud to commit.

Forgive the sins we have done to please ourselves,

and the sins we have done to please others.

By your grace, forgive us, and bless what we can become through your faithfulness to us. In Jesus name  Amen

 

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

In Christ, all things are made new.  Know that you are forgiven by his great mercy. Trust in God’s mercy and have the courage to forgive each other in Jesus’ name.

 

THE PEACE

 

HYMN                 57   You who dwell in the shelter

 

You who dwell in the shelter of our God,
who abide in this shadow for life,
say to the Lord: ‘My refuge, my Rock in whom I trust!’
Refrain:
‘And I will raise you up on eagle’s wings,
bear you on the breath of dawn,
make you to shine like the sun,
and hold you in the palm of my hand.’2. The snare of the fowler will never capture you,
and famine will bring you no fear:
under God’s wings your refuge, God’s faithfulness your shield.
Refrain3. You need not fear the terror of the night,
nor the arrow that flies by day;
though thousands fall about you, near you it shall not come.
Refrain

4. For to God’s angels is given a command
to guard you in all of your ways,
upon their hands they will bear you up,

lest you dash your foot against a stone.
Refrain

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Matthew  16:  13 – 20

Psalm  90:1-6 & 14-17

 

SERMON  Listening for the Heartbeat of God

Part 2 : Two ways of listening

 

I speak to you in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit .

 

Most cultures and religions have their important symbols and signs.  Sik gentlemen wear turbans. Muslin women wear a Hijab. The swastika became a well known [ and feared] emblem for the Nazi regime. Christians  display  and wear  a cross – with or without a crucified Jesus upon it These serve as a personal talisman or a reminder of one’s faith, heritage, or spirituality.

 

The Celtic Cross is a profound symbol that embodies a convergence of traditions reflecting spiritual and earthly interconnectedness. For many who chose to wear it – it symbolizes their faith. For others it is a nod to their Irish  heritage.  Whether as a powerful Christian symbol or a representation of cultural heritage, it captivates and inspires globally. Many people are drawn to its intricate design, spiritual depth, and connection to nature. The earliest forms of the cross were not carved out of rock, but were carved into the rock.

 

There is a legend of how St. Patrick. when preaching to some soon-to-be converted Irish “heathens” was shown a sacred standing stone, marked with a circle that was symbolic of the moon goddess. Patrick made the mark of a Latin cross through the circle and blessed the stone making the first Celtic Cross. Importantly, the circle represents eternity, unity, and the eternal love of God. Additionally, it signifies the unending cycle of life, death, and rebirth, reflecting the Celtic belief in the interconnectedness of all things and the continuity of existence

 

Over time, the crosses began to be decorated with panels depicting biblical scenes which were used by the monks for religious instruction. The visual presentation of biblical stories was a useful tool to communicate the teachings of Christ to an illiterate population.  During the 9th and 10th century, the crosses developed both structural and artistic complexity representing an important Irish contribution to European art in the Middle Ages.

 

I have two Celtic crosses I regularly wear. The one I have on today was a gift from my sons best friend Matt. He went home to the UK to see grandparents one summer.  Upon his return  he excitedly said  “ Nawnee– I brought you the biggest Celtic cross I could find.” Tragically he was killed in an MVA a week before Christmas that same year. My silver one was crafted  by a Haida carver my late husband knew and which  Jim gave to me upon my ordination as a minister .

 

Crosses of course, are not the only symbols of Christianity. Iona is a holy isle and has been described as the birthplace of Christianity in Scotland. St Columba and 12 companions came from Ireland in AD 563. The monastery they founded was one of the most important and influential in the British Isles, although little remains of the monastic buildings of this period. The Columban community survived several Viking attacks but around 1200 a community of Benedictine monks was founded on the site by Reginald, son of Somerled, the self-styled ‘king of the Isles’. The abbey remained an important place of worship and pilgrimage until the Reformation in 1560, after which monastic life came to an end and it largely fell into disuse. The abbey experienced a short-lived resurgence when Charles I reintroduced bishops to the Scottish Church and made Iona the seat of the Bishop of the Isles. However, by the end of the 17th century bishops had once again been abolished and the abbey continued to decline once more. New life was given to the abbey buildings when the process of restoration was begun in the early 20th century under the Iona Cathedral Trust.

 

The Iona Community, known internationally today, was  founded in 1938 by Reverend George MacLeod. a minister of the Church of Scotland in Glasgow,  It is an  ecumenical Christian community of men and women from different walks of life and different traditions within Christianity. This began as a project to close the gap which he perceived between the church and working people. He took a group of ministers and working men together to Iona to rebuild the ruined medieval Iona Abbey .

 

The Iona Community is a dispersed community. It has members who work and live throughout the world. There are 270 Full Members, around 1,800 Associate Members and 1,600 Friends of the Community. Among them are Presbyterians, Anglicans, Lutherans, Quakers, Roman Catholics and people of no denominational allegiance. The community has a strong commitment to ecumenism and to peace and justice issues with its own ecumenical liturgy which is used daily in the abbey and elsewhere.

 

Last week I spoke a brief history of the establishment of the Celtic Church. Dating back to the 5th century AD, Celtic Christianity was a unique amalgam of ancient indigenous customs, rituals, and beliefs intertwined with traditional Roman Catholicism. However, the Celtic Church was never a unified religion, as it consisted of significant variations in worship liturgies and organizational structures across Britain.  Still it has given an important contribution to the development of spirituality in the Christian tradition

 

The earliest certain historical evidence of Christianity among the Britons is found in the writings of such early Christian Fathers in the first years of the 3rd century, although the first Christian communities probably were established at least some decades earlier. They maintained rich spiritual practices such as prayer, meditation, communing with Nature, care for those in need, hospitality, and poetic use of the imagination and art. They saw, in all experiences, the presence of the Spirit, and were very skilled at seeking encounter with God in all of life.

 

Because the Celtic people of Northwestern Europe were a bit out of the reach of the Roman Empire and the Roman Church, they were far less influenced by those political and religious systems. This isolation allowed them to maintain their ancient and time-honored practices regarding the dignity of nature and community, the equality of men and women, and their vibrant and poetic imaginations as portals to understanding human beings as well as God relationships A term I especially like in their personal relationships is “Anam cara” an old Gaelic term, meaning ‘soul friend’, or ‘Soulmate’.’ The phrase comes from the Celtic belief that souls can be connected spiritually, and can create a strong bond. Anam cara can be used to describe a friendship and a love between family, friends and partners It is the belief that when two souls join they form a special bond, and are stronger together than they are apart. Each soul friend has a different quality to add to the bond, and it is about recognizing that and sharing it with each other so that you can bring out the best in one other.

 

Although no culture contains truth completely or perfectly, the early Christian Celts were able to see the beautiful presence of the Divine in a relationship with Nature that stressed humility, dignity of all things, and God’s presence in and through all of Creation.   They maintained rich spiritual practices such as prayer, meditation, communing with Nature, care for those in need, hospitality, and poetic use of the imagination and art. They saw, in all experiences, the presence of the Spirit, and were very skilled at seeking encounter with God in all of life. The Celts believed men and women are equally able to inspire, lead, and participate in all aspects of community and spiritual practice. And they had a wonderful tradition of cultivating soul-friends who took caring responsibility for assisting in the development of and sustained journey of a spiritual life well lived.

 

Then in 664, at the Synod of Whitby, the Roman mission and the Celtic mission clashed over several theological points. One was the dating of Easter plus several other superficial debates. One of the common misconceptions is that there was  Roman Church to which the Celtic Church was nationally opposed

 

The Catholic Mission argued for the authority of St Peter –  to whom Jesus  had declared “Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build mt Church”  .The Celts appealed to the authority of St John the Evangelist – the beloved disciple who  leaned against Jesus at the Last supper –  listening to the Lord’s heartbeat. Each tradition was firmly rooted in the Gospels. However the final decision of the Synod was a fundamental rejection of the Celtic perspective of looking for God within and beyond creation. The worst outcome of this meeting was not so much that it blessed the Roman tradition but that it could not make room for both gospel traditions. Christianity is not confined to a single perspective but interweaves a rich emergence of many, many approaches to God. The creative tension between these two traditions is symbolized at Iona. Outside the Abby stands the great stone crosses of St John and St Martin.

 

John and Peter re solidly depicted as the closest disciples to Jesus and to each other. When Mary told them of the empty tomb, both ran to look for themselves.  Both witnessed the resurrection.  In the book of Acts there are many accounts of them travelling together throughout the Middle East and Asia sharing the gospel story –often from the same jail cell.  Perhaps one of the most important shared experiences was when, on the mountain, they both see Jesus’ transfiguration and hear the voice of God saying  “This is my beloved Son whom I  love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him” ( Matt 17:5)

 

John’s way of seeing produces spirituality which regards all things as inter-related. The sanctuary of God is contained in the whole world. The strength of Peter’s tradition is that it has four walls which enshrines the truth of the gospels in security, sacraments and shelter. We – and perhaps the church as a whole need to ask ourselves how we can celebrate and merge both into  our spirituality today.

 

Listening to the heartbeat of God did not begin with the Celtic church – but was a part of contemplative spiritualty stretching back to the disciple John the evangelist and wisdom tradition of the OT.

 

To Listen to God is to listen deep within ourselves – including  deep within  the collective life and consciousness of the world – to accept them as  expressions of God’s grace and goodness  – to see God in the ordinary everyday  instead of exclusively in the church.

 

So many of these practices were lost in Western Cultures over the centuries and millennia, but it is quite easy to see how profoundly important these ways of engaging life, one another, earth, and God are to our modern times where community is so dangerously divided, the earth is disastrously damaged in so many ways, and the search for ultimate meaning is loud and strong around the globe. The Celtic Christian way offers a way to reacquaint ourselves with who we really are and who we can always become.

 

So in the long run, it is not a matter of choosing between  John’s look at  life being  with all creation versus Peter’s life being found in the established Church.  An important saying of Jesus comes to us in John’s gospel when we read and hear “I have come that you may have life and you may have it in abundance “ ( John 10:10)  God’s heartbeat can be heard in the whole  of life

and in our own hearts — if we only listen  AMEN

 

HYMN                 574 – With the Lord as my guide

 

With the Lord as my guide
I will walk through the desert,
rest by the water, run in the wind.
With the Lord by my side
I will stand on the mountain,
drink from the fountain of love deep within.2. With the Lord as my guide
I will see all the talents,
accept the balance of who I am.
With the Lord by my side
say yes to the calling,
fear not the falling, trust in God’s plan.3. With the Lord as my guide
I will work with my sister,
care for my brother, bend with their pain.
With the Lord by my side
we will rise up together,
strengthen each other, courage regain.

4. With the Lord as my guide
I will rise in the morning,
praise for the dawning beauty of day.
With the Lord by my side
I will sing, sing forever,
always a lover, seeking God’s way.

 

OFFERING

The Psalms urge us to give thanks to God at all times, for everything God has provided. In gratitude, we offer God a portion of what God has given us. Trust that God will bless and multiply our gifts to serve God’s good purposes here and in places of deepest need.

 

DOXOLOGY

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;

Praise him all creatures here below

Praise him above ye heavenly host.

Praise Father Son and Holy Ghost

 

OFFERTORY PRAYER

Loving God, we offer you our gifts with thanksgiving, grateful for all we have received in Christ and in creation. Bless our gifts and our lives, so that we may live to bring you glory, and share your love with the world. Amen.

 

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

Gracious God, we are grateful for your presence with us in all things, especially in times of challenge and change. We thank you for times of rest and reunion this summer, for opportunities to see people we miss and places that inspire us with wonder.

Yet we know this summer holds deep challenges for many, and so we bring before you people and places on our minds and hearts.

We thank you for the rain  on Friday – for cooling temperatures

………………………………

In silence we hold before you those near and dear to us

 

We pray for the families and communities facing fire, flood or storms, worrying about what will remain of their homes and hometowns. Protect those who fight fires and those who conduct rescues in dangerous circumstances. Open our hearts in generosity to do what we can to assist recovery.

 

We pray for the earth, for the land and the seas suffering as the climate warms, and for the creatures being displaced by disaster and disruption. Protect all that is precious to you in creation, and open our hearts to live more responsibly  within the balance of life you created.

 

We pray for people facing hatred and discrimination, and those coming to terms with historic injustice and injury. Guide the relations between indigenous peoples, those who have chosen to emigrate and other people in Canada to correct misunderstandings,  and create justice for all communities.  Open our hearts to discover what we share as your peoples, and appreciate the gifts we have to offer to each other.

 

Dear Lord, help us to find apt words to say to all those with whom we cross paths in our daily lives. You know how hard it is for us to show constant love — particularly in these troublesome times when there is fear, conflict, and a general decline of civility in our society. Guide us to discover new opportunities to show loving-kindness and a deeper understanding of how we can connect with each person we meet in a loving and meaningful way We pray for all those who are suffering this summer: those who face pain or illness, those who are dying or who know bereavement, all who are anxious about what lies ahead, and any who do not have enough to make ends meet. Bring courage and comfort to those who are struggling, and open our hearts to offer companionship to ease their journey.

 

Our Father in heaven, forgive us for allowing the life that You gave us to lead us to forgetting You. We know that spiritual amnesia can set in quickly, covering the eyes of our hearts. We come to You now with gratitude and thanksgiving as we remember all that You have done for us. Help us never to forget Your Word, that we might not sin against You. Speak to us the truth we need to hear and guide us in our relationships:

(Silence for 30 seconds)

Receive our prayers, spoken and unspoken, O God,  as we offer the words Jesus taught us:

 

THE  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.  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                 569   O Jesus I have promised

 

Oh Jesus I have promised to serve thee to the end

Be thou forever near me my Saviour and my friend

I shall not fear the struggle if thou art by my side

Nor wander from the pathway if thou wilt be my guide.

 

Oh let me feel thee near me: the world is ever near;

I see the sights that dazzle, the tempting sounds I hear

My foes are ever near me around me and within,

But Jesus draw thou nearer and shield my soul from sin

 

Oh let me hear thee speaking in accents clear and still,

above the storms of passion, the murmurs of selfwill;
oh speak to reassure me, to hasten or control;

oh speak, and make me listen, thou guardian of my soul.

4. O Jesus, thou hast promised to all who follow thee,

that where thou art in glory there shall thy servant be,
and, Jesus, I have promised to serve thee to the end;

oh give me grace to follow my Saviour and my friend.

Public domain

 

BENEDICTION

Go in gratitude, relying on the presence of Christ as bread for your journey. And may the God who made us, the Christ who mends us, and the Spirit who gives us life bless you with peace and purpose every day. Amen.

 

CLOSING SONG

Open my eyes that I may see glimpses of truth thou hast for me

place in my hands the wonderful key that shall unclasp and set me free

Silently now, I wait for thee,  ready my Lord, thy will to see open my eyes, illumine me Spirit Divine
Public Domain