Song and prayer
ST ANDREW’S CHURCH
JUNE 19th 2022
LIGHTING OF THE CHRIST CANDLE
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
- Thank you Rev. Shirley Cochrane for leading us in worship today.
- We welcome you to this on-line service and pray that it will feed your soul and sustain you through the week to come.
- There will be no videos of the Sermons for the summer as our videographer is on an extended vacation.
CALL TO WORSHIP
We come to worship God,
For God is just and compassionate. God is love.
Where will we find God?
God is among the hungry and thirsty,
in the face of a stranger, reaching out to us.
Let us seek God so that we can serve God.
Let us worship God and seek God’s healing, reconciling grace.
HYMN 442 - Speak, Lord, in the stillness
Alternate: Speak O Lord, as we Come to You
PRAYER OF ADORATION
Father God You are the love which calls us your children. Creator God, You have made a world of such amazing diversity – with unique living things we cannot number, in an interdependent pattern on which all life depends. We praise you for such wonder .You have created such amazing diversity in humankind –through culture and language, custom and community ,expressed in creativity and compassion over and over again. We praise you for such wonder. In Jesus Christ, you show us how much you love your creation and how we can live by your love. By the power of your Spirit, give us new eyes to behold the wonders you have made and teach us how to share in the praise your creation offers you day by day. We stand in awe and we stand in repentance saying …
UNISON PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Creator God,
The diversity in your creation amazes us
but we confess we prefer what seems familiar.
We’d like everyone to speak our language.
We wish others held our values and shared our customs.
We don’t understand discrimination that hurts others.
We don’t recognize how our own preferences
affect other people and the earth itself in harmful ways.
Forgive our familiar assumptions,
and open our minds and hearts to the stories of others
and the cries of suffering throughout the earth
in Christs name AMEN
ASSURANCE OF PARDON
The prophet Micah declared that God requires only three things of us:t o do justice, to love kindness, and walk humbly with our God. To all who truly repent, who turn away from arrogance and seek reconciliation with God and neighbour in kindness and humility, God offers forgiveness and peace. The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
THE PEACE
HYMN God who made the earth and heaven
SCRIPTURE READINGS
Psalm 22:19-28 page 861
19 But you, Lord, do not be far off. O my strength; come quickly to help me.20 Deliver my life from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs. 21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions; save me from the horns of the wild oxen. 22 I will declare your name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise you. 23 You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel! 24 For he has not despised or distained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.25 From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly; before those who fear you I will fulfill my vows. 26 The poor will eat and be satisfied; they who seek the Lord will praise him -- your hearts live forever! 27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to he Lord,
and all the families of the nations will bow down before him,
28 for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations.
Isaiah 65:1-9 page 1162
“I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’2 All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations—3 a people who continually provoke me to my very face,
offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of brick;
4 who sit among the graves and spend their nights keeping secret vigil;
who eat the flesh of pigs, and whose pots hold broth of impure meat;
5 who say, ‘Keep away; don’t come near me, for I am too sacred for you!’ such people are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that keeps burning all day. 6 “See, it stands written before me: I will not keep silent but will pay back in full; I will pay it back into their laps—7 both your sins and the sins of your ancestors,” says the Lord. “Because they burned sacrifices on the mountains and defied me on the hills, I will measure into their laps the full payment for their former deeds.” 8 This is what the Lord says: “As when juice is still found in a cluster of grapes and people say, ‘Don’t destroy it, there is still a blessing in it,’so will I do in behalf of my servants; I will not destroy them all.9 I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah those who will possess my mountains; my chosen people will inherit them, and there will my servants live.
Before I begin the sermon I would just like to say a word as this is Fathers Day. Our scriptures often reflect the cultural theme of the day – but not this time. Father's Day can hold many emotions for both men and women -for fathers with us daily , those who had a loving father who has passed away, those who never knew their dad, those expectantly waiting to become a dad, and countless other situations surrounding the father-child relationship. We honour all the fathers in our lives. God can use this special day to draw us closer to Himself - the one true Father who remains faithful and full of unconditional love
SERMON Song and prayer
God of wisdom and hope, your Word has offered guidance and healing throughout many generations. May we may find wisdom and hope, guidance and healing through your Living Word, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.
From the earliest time , the Psalms have been both a hymn book and a prayer book in the Christian church. But it’s history reaches so much farther back than the 2000 plus years “we” have been reading and reciting them.
When I am leading worship I usually include the Psalm which is part of the common Lectionary. However I admit, I have rarely preached a sermon on any of them. They are amazing scripture – authored by mostly unknown folks but they capture a picture of all sides of life. The ancient Hebrew poets aren’t writing theological treatisies or doctrinal sermons. They are pouring out their hearts in most personal revelations of their emotions and life presentations.
No matter what their emotions and attitudes were, they approached their God with their concerns. We see psalms of praise glorifying the Lord for who He is and what He has done for his people, but we also see psalms with emotions and attitudes quite different - we see some of the darkest moments of the psalmists lives, where they were the most troubled; in the most despair.
The focus of psalms is their knowledge of God These writers express praise , joy, wonderment, sorrow and lament , anger and judgement .They have delight in their prayers to God They believe in his providence and grace, trust in his steadfast presence, rejoice in his faithfulness and righteousness, and humble themselves under his mighty hand. This God of Israel revealed himself to his chosen people through people like Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, Elijah and many, many other prophets
Psalms were read – spoken as prayer and sung in the synagogues’ and temple This would be the scriptures Jesus knew .
Before there were books, when literacy and scroll ownership were all but nonexistent, Jewish children learned the Psalms. The child’s mother would recite one Psalm after another from memory, regularly, until the child knew the Psalms, and knew them well.
Some believe that in those days, if you voiced the opening of a Psalm, listeners would rummage ahead in their minds to the whole Psalm. I suspect that is not true for most Christians today . Although I love the psalms and find much joy and comfort in them, there are very few which I could even repeat the first line. I think there are about 15 which begin with Praise the Lord but there are none I could repeat the second line …maybe one exception ; If I say “The Lord is my shepherd,” I suspect many of you could continue with….. “I shall not want, he makes me down to lie ”
Mary taught Jesus the Psalms. Then, during his hour of bitter agony, she watched helplessly as he uttered the very words she’d taught him as a boy, none more harrowing than “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” These are the opening words of todays psalm which we did not read. We began with the words But you O Lord be not far off…”
As Jesus cried did his mother, and Jewish bystanders, hear the whole thing in their minds? Did Mary recollect verse 9, “It was you who took me from the womb; you kept me safe on my mother’s breast … Since my mother bore me you have been my God”?
Salvador Dali’s famous painting of the crucifixion, which hangs in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow, views Jesus’ last moment from above, the way God witnessed God’s hardest, most painful moment in all of created time. God’s heart shattered, the expense of that love beyond any measure
Those opening words of todays Psalm 22 are the most emotionally gripping of the entire psalm. This psalm is ascribed to King David. David begins with crying out in verse 1, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Scholars are not able to pinpoint a time in his life when he experienced the kind of suffering he describes in this psalm. David lived an exceptionally crisis-filled life. There may have been times when felt he abandoned by God., We don’t know when David wrote this psalm. He may have felt abandoned by God when he was on the run from murderous King Saul, or when the promise of God did not come to fulfillment, or when he experienced losses in his life. We don’t know when he experienced abandonment by God.
Whatever deep sense of desolation rocked David into penning these words, his God-inspired prophetic insight reaches far beyond the limits of his own time and experience to the Cross of Jesus – and beyond. In this respect Psalm 22 stands alongside Isaiah 53 as a prophecy of the suffering of Messiah.
There were times in David’s life when he experienced abuse by the people. For example, when David and his soldiers returned to Ziklag, they discovered that their wives and children had been taken by the raiding Amalekites. This led the people to speak of “stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul” (1 Samuel 30:6). So, Psalm 22:6 would have expressed what been keenly felt by David, “But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by abandoned him and the people.”
David saw his need for God. It was God who gave him life, God who created the processes to sustain him as a humble shepherd when a child . He realized that he needed the Lord just as much now as he did then. He saw that there was no one near to help him and that he needed the Lord to be the one who delivered him.
David at this point was in great distress because his enemies were surrounding him and there was not yet any attempt by the Lord as he could see at delivering him. I think it is true to say that suffering is so much harder when you feel that there is no one there to help you through what you are going through. With David, his life at this time is full of distress and gloom; full of darkness, which would give him the feeling that God is not near. He cried by day and by night, continually, without receiving any rest from his sufferings at the hands of his enemies. Yet the Lord always provided friends to help him in his time of need.
I don’t believe that the Lord turned His back to David and was not listening to him. The Lord doesn’t turn His back on a faithful servant, and as far as I can see concerning this psalm, there is nothing within it that would tell us that David had any sin in his life that was hindering his fellowship with God. I believe that David makes it clear that the Lord did not forsake him in verse 24: For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Nor has He hidden His face from him; But when he cried to Him for help, He heard.
David ends this hymn of praise to God with the outcome of those who seek the Lord and receive His deliverance. Those who seek the Lord will be filled and sustained by Him. The rule and the dominion of the Lord will lead the nations of the earth to praise and worship. The salvation that Lord offers will be for not only the Jews, but for all the nations.
The nations will indeed be blessed by our Lord. All have the hope of salvation before them because of Jesus’ redemptive work on the cross and His deliverance from the darkness of His tomb. He has declared the Father to us, and He is not ashamed to call us who have obeyed the gospel “brethren,” which is the point that the Hebrews writer makes in quoting Psalm 22:22: I will tell of Your name to my brothers; In the midst of the assembly I will praise You. We should learn to be encouraged as we contemplate God’s rule among the nations . No matter what happens, this is still our Father’s world!
There is a promise given, not just to ancient Israel, but an invitation for all the nations to come and worship the Lord, to be included among the faithful of God. Herein the psalm written a thousand years before Christ is the prophecy that the Word of God would be given to the Gentiles as well. They shall turn to the Lord also and join the great chorus of praise. This is because the God of Israel is God of all the nations
Jesus’ entire life was leading up to his crucifixion. The Father had never failed him before, and Jesus had full confidence that his Father would not fail him now. Nevertheless, Jesus experienced abuse by the people because he did trust in the Lord.
When Jesus was hanging on the cross, those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.”(Mark 15:29 - 32) So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. This was a direct fulfillment of Psalm 22:8, which undoubtedly went through Jesus’ mind as he was hanging on the cross
Jesus really did experience abandonment by God on the cross. We don’t know how it is possible. But, we believe it to be true because that is what Scripture affirms.
Perhaps one aspect of ‘taking up our Cross daily and following Jesus’ (Luke 9:23) is that we should do so, not just with a cheerful countenance, but also with praise upon our lips. How do we relate to setbacks in our lives? Do we stop praising because of them?
Psalm 22 is classified as a psalm of lament, and it follows a common structure of this genre. It begins with a cry to the Lord, followed by a lament over whatever the psalmist is battling, followed by a confession of trust and a petition for the Lord’s help, and finishing with an exclamation of praise.
The lament is part of the Good News. Not the prelude to the Good News, or the foil for the Good News. It is Good News that we have a God who abandons us, but not so radically as not to be able to hear our cries, or to be with us even though unseen, unfelt, not intervening. This is the appeal of our faith: God isn’t freaked out by suffering.
Can you hear and feel the Psalmist’s calmest assurance? “He has not despised the afflicted;…He has listened to his cry for help
Our sliver of Psalm 22 has its resounding notes of praise.. The God-forsaken Psalmist can praise because of something deeper, a humbled awareness that life is short and cruel, and the God who made the sun that just hid its face,
Our Psalm does not end with Jesus still on the Cross. The turning point is "Thou hast heard Me" (Psalm 22:22b). Christ has died. Christ is risen. There is a resurrection to follow for all the people of God. "He has done this " declares Psalm 22:31.
Psalm 22 is an amazing piece of literature. The way David writes this, you’d almost think he was standing at the cross however these events never took place in David's life, but instead were written 1,000 years before Christ's birth. Praise God!
What a Savior. What a God of Deliverance! Knowing what we know of this great God, we need to stand in awe of Him and to give Him the honor that He is due, We need to sing praise and declare the name of Christ to all the nations. AMEN
HYMN 328 - This is my Father’s world
- This is my Father’s world, And to my list’ning ears
All nature sings, and round me rings The music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world: I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas—His hand the wonders wrought. - This is my Father’s world: The birds their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white, Declare their Maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world: He shines in all that’s fair;
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass, He speaks to me everywhere. - This is my Father’s world: Oh, let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world, The battle is not done:
Jesus who died shall be satisfied, And earth and Heav’n be one.
OFFERING
God’s Spirit equips Jesus’ followers to bring healing and hope to the world God loves. The gifts we offer God are tangible signs of that healing and hope at work in us and through us, for the sake of Christ our Lord.
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, accept the gifts we offer you, today and every day. Put our time, our talents and our treasure to good use wherever they are needed, for the sake of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
Heavenly Father, you entrusted your Son Jesus, the child of Mary,
to the care of Joseph, an earthly father. We give our thanks for the fathers, grandfathers and those who have the role of father in our lives. Fatherhood does not come with a manual, and reality teaches us that some fathers excel while others fail. We ask for Your blessings for them all and forgiveness where it is needed. Bless all fathers as they care for their families. Give them strength and wisdom, tenderness and patience. Support them in the work they have to do, protecting those who look to them, as we look to you for love and salvation, through Jesus Christ our rock and defender.
God of the earth and all its peoples, in Jesus Christ, you proclaimed the good news that true life and peace are found in you. Guide your church to proclaim this good news, not in ways that merely please people or don’t ruffle feathers, but in ways that bring Christ’s reconciling love to divided communities and lives out of joint with each other. Shine your light into the world’s hidden corners, exposing violence, exploitation, bigotry. Reveal what dehumanizes the vulnerable and degrades your creation
God of healing and hope, We pray for all those who are ill or in pain, for the anxious and discouraged, for those facing death or the loss of someone dearly beloved, and for those struggling to make ends meet in these uncertain times. We pray for families who have been forced from their homelands because of war and persecution. May God encourage and comfort the hearts of refugees on their journey to find stability and peace.
We pray for P W S & D and its partners as they work to bring healing and hope to places of strife and deprivation. May the mission we share in Jesus’ name shine the light of your love into desperate lives.
Holy Father we lift to you ….
-The young fire fighter and his mom who were seriously injured in an MVA this week …
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And in the silence of our hearts and in this blessed place we lift to you ..
God of the faithful future, bless this community of faith and guide us as we plan for the future in changing times. In this commumity there are so many folks who are gifted with the gift of music. As opportunities for recitals, concerts and public presentations are becoming more frequent ,bless them in their talents and voices as they share these special gifts in the coming months. Bless students and teachers as another challenging school years ends and lift the stress from their lives this summer . Give us a time of rest and enjoyment in the summer months
and restore our hope and our energy to serve in your world.
We offer all our prayers, spoken and unspoken, through Jesus Christ our Lord who taught us to say together:
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 641 One more step along the world I go
- One more step along the world I go.
One more step along the world I go.
From the old things to the new
keep me traveling along with you.
And it's from the old I travel to the new.
Keep me traveling along with you. - Round the corners of the world I turn.
More and more about the world I learn.
All the new things that I see
you'll be looking at along with me.
And it's from the old I travel to the new.
Keep me traveling along with you. - As I travel through the bad and good
keep me traveling the way I should.
Where I see no way to go,
you'll be telling me the way, I know.
And it's from the old I travel to the new.
Keep me traveling along with you. - Give me courage when the world is rough.
Keep me loving though the world is tough.
Leap and sing in all I do.
Keep me traveling along with you.
And it's from the old I travel to the new.
Keep me traveling along with you.5. You are older than the world can be.
You are younger than the life in me.
Ever old and ever new,
keep me traveling along with you.
And it's from the old I travel to the new.
Keep me traveling along with you.
BENEDICTION
The Lord our God will be with us, as he was with our ancestors; may he not leave us or abandon us, but we are toincline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments. May the grace of God, the love of Christ and the leading of the Holy Spirit be with you now and always
CLOSING SONG
Take O take me as I am; summon out what I shall be
set your seal upon my heart and live in me