November 13, 2022
Lighting the Christ Candle

Welcome and Announcements:

St. Andrew’s Salmon Arm welcomes you to this on-line service of worship. In this hour may you find a refuge for your world-weary soul and a place of comfort and peace that gives you rest as you stand firm in Jesus.
Thank you Rev. Ena vanZoeren, for leading and guiding our worship today.

Called to Worship:
Praise be to God who is unchanging!
Come people of God; come and celebrate
God’s gift of salvation.
We come without fear.
We come trusting in God.
Come people of God; hear God’s promises
and witness God’s mighty deeds.
In hearing the promises,
in witnessing the mighty deeds of God,
we are strengthened for all that lies ahead.
Come, let us worship and praise God
We come shouting aloud and singing for joy,
for God truly is in our midst.

Hymn: 642 O Master let me walk with thee

Prayer of Adoration
Righteous and holy God, to you alone we lift our souls;
in you alone we place our trust; for you alone we wait all day long.
For you are the God of our salvation, abounding in mercy
and steadfast love.
Help us remain alert and watchful for the coming of your promised one—
Help us to stand firm in Jesus, the one who comes with power and glory,
the one drawing near to bring our salvation.
Even so, we acknowledge that rather than standing firm our faith wavers.
Hear our confession:
Unison Prayer of Confession:
O Lord, we are a people of despair, lacking trust in your revelation.
We see wars, hatred, and violence everywhere, yet despair of ever
stopping them. We see oppression and injustice and persecution,
but fail to raise our voices in prophetic protest.
We have become a pessimistic people.
Help us believe—really believe—
in that Jesus truly holds the future and fulfills your promise of a new
heaven and new earth.
Forgive us and help us to place our trust in you and to stand firm with
Jesus. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon
God is our strength and our salvation. In Him we find comfort,
steadfast love, and forgiveness.
With this hope, we can draw water from the wells of salvation
with joy and thanksgiving. Let us stand firm with Jesus, the source of our
hope, joy and salvation

The Peace
May the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Let us share a sign of peace.

Hymn: 677 My faith looks up to thee

Scripture Lessons: Luke 21: 5-19

Sermon: Stand firm with Jesus

Some of you may recall the hit by R E M, It’s the end of the world as we
know it.
The verses are full of almost discordant accounts of all sorts of calamity that
is happening in the world, and it sounds awful, but the real beauty of this
song is the chorus which says:
Its-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-itits-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-knowit-its-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it-and-I-feel-fine.
There is something about this passage in Luke that made me think of the
song. Jesus is busy describing the things that are to come after his death
and resurrection….and yet he is confident.
He outlines a full list of calamaties.
The destruction of the Temple in which not one stone will be left on
another; every one of them will be thrown down.
False Messiahs, who will lead people astray
Wars and Uprisings
Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences
Not to mention fearful events and great signs from heaven.
He urges the disciples to watch for these events when they see the
signs that it is about to come upon them. Those signs:
Being arrested and persecuted.
Handed over to the synagogue for trial.
Put in prison.
Tried before kings and governors.
Betrayed by family and friends.
Hated and put to death.
Certainly, that would be the fate of many of the disciples that stood before
him. And it is the fate of many today who stand up for Jesus in countries
ruled by dictators who will not allow the people to give allegiance to
anyone but them.
In short, the fate of those who follow and serve Jesus will
be what Jesus is about to endure himself.
And yet, there is a sense in what Jesus is saying that persecution, trial,
imprisonment and death is something that will be a cause for rejoicing.
When these things happen, his followers will be given an opportunity to
bear witness to Jesus.
Therefore, says Jesus make up your minds not to worry about what
you will say or do when it happens because the Holy Spirit will give all
followers the words to speak of their faith.
Then, remarkably Jesus says: Stand firm,
and you will win life.
Stand firm when you are persecuted, tried and condemned for your faith.
Stand firm as the wars and conflicts grow around you. Stand firm at the
desctruction of all you hold dear. Stand firm in earthquakes, and
devastating storms. Stand firm when pests destroy your crops. Stand firm
when fires destroy your land.
Stand firm and you will win life.
Stand firm and everything will be fine.
It feels like we can hear Jesus say, it’s the end of the world as we know it
and I feel fine, and you will too. And remarkably he does feel peace, even in
the moments of doubt in the Garden of Gethsemane, as he resolutely
decides to trust and follow God’s plan.
The same holds true for his followers who held on to their faith in spite of
everything that happened to them and around them. Even when they, like
Jesus, were condemned to death.
I remember one of the sayings that was often used in the 70’s. “The worst
they can do is kill you.” That wasn’t always comforting to me as I protested
and marched in those days. The events of Kent State, were for me, the start
of me no longer feeling safe in the world.
And yet, time, and a life of learning that God can be trusted, has changed
my perspective. I do feel safe.
Really, that’s the worst they can do? Kill you?
We are people who live with the promise that to be absent from the body is
to be present with the Lord. That’s the worst they can do?
We are the generation that looks back with fondness on the days of
Christendom. We remember packed churches, and needing to build an
addition for the flourishing Sunday School. We remember everyone going
to worship somewhere every Sunday and the Lord’s Day Act which caused
all businesses to close on Sunday so that all people could honor the
sabbath.
Slowly, but surely the place that the Church has held in the world has
eroded and crumbled.
We see what the Church has lost, and yet, we hold onto faith. We have
faith and we have hope so even though we are starting to see some
evidence of the calamity that is to come, we don’t actively look for the end
of the world as we know it. At least not all the time.
Humans have pondered if the world wars may have been a sign. They
have wondered if the atomic bomb marked the start of the end of the
world. We worried again during the cold war and watched with concern
where the hands were on the doomsday clock. I can recall many times
when they stood at one minute to midnight.
Those are also the days that prompt people to start looking at the end of
time prophecies and to speculate; is this the time. It is a time that has a
marked uptick in preaching from the Book of Revelation and the sale of
books like The Late Great Planet Earth.
We may have noticed during the pandemic that many congregations were
focusing more on Revelation and the end of days again.
I think that every crisis we encounter can be cause for such an outlook on
life and we can begin to worry or even to have despair. We can speculate
about this being the end of the world.
For the disciples the prediction of the destruction of the Temple had a
pronounced effect of worry and despair.
Surely the Roman occupation, the lack of faith and integrity among the
Jewish leadership were some of the other factors that could make the
people think that the end of time was near, and the DAY OF THE LORD was
about to be upon them.
Yet, if the people recalled their history, occupation by a foreign power had
happened frequently; the Temple leadership had often been corrupt and
the Temple itself had been completely destroyed during one of the military
occupations. It wasn’t the end of the world then, and it would not be the
end of the world in the days about to come.
Even for us, the calamities we see are not evidence of the end of the world.
Wars, Earthquakes, Floods, Fires, Pestilence, Pandemics—they come and
they go and the world still stands.
Growing up on Vancouver Island was always a cause for the concern about
the end of the world, or at least the end of the Island. There were always
rumors that the Island, which is on the San Andreas Fault, would have a
huge earthquake and sink into the sea. And the ferry terminals would be
full as people tried to escape.
But if it truly is the end of time—there will be no escape. And, there is
nothing to fear.
Jesus is clear about that. Before that day the followers will be persecuted,
betrayed, attacked, turned over, prosecuted, beaten, and slain.
Even so there is nothing to fear.
Jesus reminds his followers, and us, that no matter what we see with our
eyes, or hear with our ears, that he will always be with us, and that we are
simply to trust and stand firmly with him.
Earthquakes, stand firmly with Jesus.
Floods and Atmospheric Rivers, stand firmly with Jesus.
Speculation that Russia is about to start nuclear war, stand firmly with Jesus.
Stand firmly with Jesus AND trust the wisdom that comes from the Holy
Spirit who fills our spirits with peace and calm and words of faith that will
give us strength and hope.
Standing with Jesus is how we will endure.
We have all known times when the common human problems have
consumed us. We may even have thought they would never end.
A baby that has a “little bit of colic” and screams constantly for 9 months
can seem like the end of the world; it it made me the go to person for all
crying babies, with mad skills for getting them to sleep.
A spouse who suffered a life altering stroke, makes a caregiver that gives
selflessly in giving care and inspires others.
A lengthy illness of our own, teaches us a lot about trust.
The death of a child breaks our hearts and grows our compassion.
Those things can feel like the end of the world as we
know it, and yet, with prayer and trust we come through it
and know the remarkable truth about faith, that it grows
in as we are trusting and standing firmly with Jesus.
So, when we look at the state of our world, the state of the climate crisis,
the doom and gloom of the evening news which points to death and
destruction all around us, we can no longer feel safe, OR we can place our
trust and hope in Jesus.
In the calamities of every age, we are urged to watch and pray. We are
reminded to see the signs and to recognize them for what they are. They
are a reminder to look to Jesus and not to despair.
In all that Jesus is saying to his disciples he is pointing out that when they
look at the problems through the eyes of faith, they will learn to walk with
hope and be given everything they need.
Strength.
Peace.
Calm.
Comfort.
Grace.
All gifts that remind us that we are fine and held firmly in the hand of God.
This discussion with Jesus happens just before the end of the road for
Jesus. He knows that he is headed to the cross and the tomb and yet he
can say that he feels fine. He feels fine, calm, confident and able because
he knows that as long as God is in his heaven, all will be right in the world.
Regardless of what things look like, God has not and will not abandon his
people . What can remove God from heaven? Nothing, he is enthroned
there forever and ever.
So yes, we look at the signs that are present in our day. We see the
unfolding of the loss of Christendom and we recognize that followers of
Jesus are being treated with increasing hostility. We see the signs of
natural disasters. WE see a world on the brink of war.
And yet, we also see signs of hope…this is not the end of the world.
We stand in faith. We place our trust firmly in Jesus and the promises of
the eternal kingdom. And we live with confidence as we continue to share
our faith and engage in mission activities.
We are reminded that the end of the world as we know it, is the beginning
of the world we long for.
Stand firmly with Jesus because that day is coming, maybe even in our
lifetime. Amen.

Hymn: 671 I heard the voice of Jesus say

Offering
Doxology
Offertory Prayer

Gathering Prayer Requests
Prayers of the People and the Lord’s Prayer
We are glad and rejoice forever in you, O God.
With joy we draw deeply from your well of salvation
and pray that you may fulfill our story—the story of your love.
Though the world has been gripped by trouble since early days,
and life has often been short and tormented, you have given us a vision of
a day beyond the terrors: a day when the heavens and earth will be new
again, a day when all creation will live in peace and people will long enjoy
the fruits of their labours.
Help us to hold to that vision when the temples about us are falling, and
our world is shaken.
Strengthen us for the telling of your truth and for keeping to your path,
that we might not weary in doing what is right, but through endurance may
gain our souls, even as you desire for us to do.
As we pray for a new heaven and a new earth this day, we especially are
aware of those among us and those beyond these doors who are in deep
need of your peace, of your healing touch, of your just and bounteous
kingdom.
We pray for those who are in want that you will give to them what they
need.
Lord hear our prayer
We pray those who dwell in places of strife, need, and want….
Lord, hear our prayer….
Gracious God,
we pray to you in the name of the one who came to show us the way,
he who is our Lord and our Redeemer, our brother and our friend.
We pray to you as one family, even as he taught us, saying…
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 and the power
and the glory, forever, Amen.

Hymn: 641 One more step along the world I go

Charge and Benediction
Go forth into a world that needs new visions. Bring the message of hope
and love, of justice and peace, to all you meet.
Go in the grace of Jesus, the love of God and the power of the Holy Spirit
Sung Blessing
457 Now thank we all our God verse 1

Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices, who
wondrous things has done, in whom God’s world rejoices, who from
our mother’s arms has blessed us on our way, with countless gifts of
love and still is ours today.