ST. ANDREW’S CHURCH,

ORDER OF WORSHIP

August 14, 2022

Lighting the Christ Candle

Welcome and Announcements:

• What a joy it is for St. Andrew's to welcome back to the pulpit this morning Rev. Ena van Zoeren. We all pray and praise God with thankful hearts for your recovery and continued healing as you resume your ministry in Salmon Arm. God bless you Ena!
• Just a reminder that August's Loonie Offering will be going to March of Dimes Canada (Community Brain Injury Services) formerly NOSBIS. For more information check out the "Recent Posts" to the right of your screen.

Called to Worship:
Come celebrate in the presence of God
We celebrate with the saints on high
That great cloud of witnesses that help guard our faith
Those witnesses who have shaped our faith
We celebrate with the saints here on earth
All those who walk with us and join us to praise the Holy God
who calls us all forth

Hymn: 475 I am the church

Prayer of Adoration
God of the generations, when we set our hands to labor, we
remember that we do not work alone, we carry on our lips the
words of prophets, in our veins the blood of martyrs, in our eyes
the mystics’ visions, in our hands the strength of thousands.
These and all the great cloud of witnesses have been given to us
by you, to encourage us and to show us the pathway in the
journey of faith.
When we lift our voices in praise we join the voices of the
prophets and the martyrs and the faithful of all ages that you may
be honoured and blessed as you deserve.
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We bring you those praises now, proclaiming that you have
worthily cared for us and faithfully protected us and our faith. We
praise you for your mercy is always present with us.
Even as we lift our voices in faithful praise, we are reminded that
our ways have not always been your ways. Hear us as we confess
before you our unfaithfulness…
Unison Prayer of Confession:
O God of life, of all life, of each life; we lay our lives before
you, from whom nothing is hidden. You, O God, know the
secret thoughts of our hearts, so trusting in your mercy we
bring our thoughts before you; we bring the knowledge that
is in us, and not acted upon; we bring our ignorance that
leads us astray; we bring the despair that blinds us to hope.
We confess our deep need for your presence in our lives and
thus we pray that you renew us with your life, tonight,
tomorrow and always. In Jesus name, Amen.

Assurance of Pardon
• The God of judgment and grace, asks not for sacrifices
but rather gives us lives of trusting faith that acknowledge
his power and mercy.
In Jesus God gives us faith as deep and strong as Abraham's
and Sarah's, as courageous as Peter’s and as deep as David’
that we may follow him through all our days as did Jesus
Christ our Savior. Amen.

The Peace
May the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Hymn: 476 Amigos de Cristo

Scripture Lessons:
Hebrews 11: 29-12:2
John 17: 6-9

Sermon: The Great Cloud of Witnesses
We all have those people in our lives who have played a
particularly influential role in our faith development.
Grandparents, parents, Sunday School teachers, all of whom
taught us about the love of God in Jesus. Then, we add to the list,
friends who have sat up with us and prayed with us on our most
difficult days and all those who have encouraged us to continue
our journey with God when we were tired and discouraged.
These people are among those included in the great cloud of
witnesses.
Think about that for a moment!
Have we ever considered how those people, whom God has given
us, are a part of that great cloud?
Paul here is writing to the Hebrew people, people formerly of
Jewish faith, who have become followers of Jesus. He lists for
them those great examples of faith from Noah to David, to Moses
and Aaron, Rahab and Ruth, Gideon, Samuel and all the prophets
as examples of faith that can encourage their faith, especially as
they face growing opposition and discrimination from the Jewish
authorities.
For all these reasons, Paul writes to encourage the people in the
Hebrew congregation. This letter from him is a part of his
participation in the great cloud of witnesses. We often don’t think
of the great cloud in this way, but many of the commentators
point out that the glory of witnesses is connected to the Church.
Clearly the role of the church is to seek out those who need to
learn of the grace found in Jesus, as well as to encourage, uplift
and hold in prayer all those who labour in the Kingdom.
A. Wade writes: “there is that great cloud of witnesses that
surround us—not only those who have gone before, but
also those who walk with us today, friends, pastors,
authors, activists, etc.
Foremost in that crowd is Jesus, who has walked this earth, lived
among us and gone on to be with his Father and ours. In the
Gospel of John we hear Jesus praying, saying: 6
“I have revealed
you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were
yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your
word.
7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes
from you.
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For I gave them the words you gave me and they
accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from
you, and they believed that you sent me.
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I pray for them. I am
not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for
they are yours.” NIV
We know that Jesus continues to pray for his followers so we
are confident that he is the leader in those heavenly cloud of
witnesses that pray for us. I do believe that those whom we know
who have departed this earth, have joined their voices in
continued prayer, because we learn in Scripture that the heavenly
gathering is the faithful before the throne of the Lord, lifting their
voices in praise and in prayer. It is comforting to know that those
who have loved us, love us still and join their voices in prayer for
us.
So our encouragement comes from the cloud of witnesses,
those in Heaven and those on earth.
Paul in this letter is being an encourager on earth. He knows
the difficulties of persecution and he hopes to encourage the
Hebrews in the face of their persecution. But he also wants them
to know the reality of the extent of persecution that they will yet
endure. Persecution, hardships, violence, even death. Being a
follower of Jesus in his day was not easy.
He writes: Not one of these people, even though their lives of
faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised. God
had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come
together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not
complete apart from ours.
He adds:
12:1-3 Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed
the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better
get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! … Keep
your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re
in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he
was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could
put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And
now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When
you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again,
item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed
through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls! MSG
Adrenaline for our souls!
Some days we need that don’t we?
Where do we find the adrenaline that feeds our souls on the days
of hardship and discouragement? From Scripture where we learn
the story of Jesus and read of how the saints that Paul writes
about learned through hardship to trust in God’s mercy and
grace. We also are given adrenaline from those who teach us,
love us and pray for us whether present on earth or in heaven.
When we consider that Paul wrote many of his letters from
prison and yet see that he is encouraged in his faith, we know
how important it is to have those people who are present on
earth as a part of our great cloud of witness.
Paul is encouraged by letters from the churches. He is also
encouraged by those who visited him and brought news of how
well the churches are faithfully serving God. He is encouraged by
those who brought him his meals. He remembers to mention
those who keep him in prayer.
Paul is inspired by the faith, the love and the prayers of those
whom he knows, and maybe even those whom he does not know
and who yet pray for him.
This past year has not been easy for me, and certainly my
recovery is not yet over. And yet in this past year I have known
peace and encouragement and I understand that adrenaline of
which Paul speaks.
On my worst days I would notice that I felt cradled in peace.
On difficult days I got a burst of energy to keep going. On my
cranky days I was given grace. I have been encouraged by the
cloud of witnesses in my life in so many ways.
Calls Letters and Cards Soup Drives
Facebook messages, visits, zoom chats AND
PRAYER.
SO MUCH PRAYER.
There have been people and congregations praying for me in
Holland, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario,
Manitoba, Alberta, and in the States as well as here in BC. And
that’s just what I know of. Some of them, like you here at St.
Andrew’s I have known, many of them I do not know at all.
We do the same in our prayer chain and in our Sunday
Prayers, as we pray not only for the people we know, but also for
those whom we do not know. Our prayers and our walk of faith is
what sets us apart as members of that great cloud of witnesses.
The commentators point out that our service in the great
cloud does not begin after our death, but here while we are still
on earth.
That is the point of being a follower of Jesus. All of the brothers
and sisters in Christ, are our brothers and sisters. With that
knowledge in our hearts, we know that we are to pray for them
with that same faith and passion with which Jesus prays for them.
Who but God knows how much our prayers have encouraged and
empowered people we have not yet met? Who knows how many
of our sisters and brothers that we don’t know have inspired,
encouraged and uplifted us by their prayers?
As our prayers for others flow heavenward, the prayers of those
who pray for us rain blessings down. Being in that great cloud of
witnesses is to share in the grace and mercy of God in spectacular
ways.
Just as those earthly members of the cloud of witnesses
encouraged Paul when he was in prison by their actions and faith,
we are called to live our actions and faith into the world so that
our role as encouragers and inspirers is fully revealed.
The purpose of the Great Cloud of Witnesses is to inspire our
faith and show us how to run the race with faith, in spite of our
present circumstances. In turn, the way that we run the race
shows how we take up our role as a member of that Great Cloud
of Witnesses. Their lives of faith and our lives of faith make up the
complete whole of the Church where all the brothers and sisters
in Christ are gathered, here on earth and in heaven above.
Amen

Hymn: 317 Colourful Creator

Offering
Doxology
Offertory Prayer
God, whose giving knows no ending, we offer up the treasure that
you have entrusted to us; we offer up the skills and time that you
have graciously given to us; we offer up ourselves in service and
praise.
Receive these gifts by your grace.
Multiply and use them through the power of the Holy Spirit
to accomplish Christ’s work of love in the world. Amen.

Gathering Prayer Requests
Prayers of the People and the Lord’s Prayer
Move us to praise your gracious will,
for in Christ Jesus you have saved us from the deeds of death
and opened for us the hidden ways of your love.
You have called us to be your Church and blessed us without
measure. We praise your name and we sing your praises. Your
mercy is without end.
We thank you for setting us in communities:
for families who nurture our becoming, for friends who love us by
choice, for companions at work, who share our burdens and daily
tasks, for strangers who welcome us into their midst, for people
from other lands who call us to grow in understanding, for
children who lighten our moments with delight, for the unborn,
who offer us hope for the future.
We thank you for this day: for life and one more day to love,
for opportunity and one more day to work for justice and peace,
for neighbors and one more person to love and by whom to be
loved, for your grace and one more experience of your presence,
for your promise: to be with us, to be our God, and to give
salvation.
For these, and all blessings, we give you thanks, eternal, loving
God, through Jesus Christ we pray. God of salvation, who sent
your Son to seek out and save what is lost, hear our prayers on
behalf of those who are lost in our day, receiving these petitions
and thanksgivings with your unending compassion and
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compelling us to labour in the power of these prayers that we
may be a cloud of witnesses to all for whom we pray: .
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God we are surrounded by a cloud
Faithful witnesses who have gone before
Those who have loved where we would have hated
Those who have healed where we would have hurt
Those who have spoken out when we would have remained silent
God may we walk in their footsteps
Learning courage from their sacrifice
May we learn to give so that others may receive
May we learn to love so that others may be set free
May we learn to die so that others might live
God may we join that cloud of faithful witnesses
Treading paths of loving obedience
Leaving footprints that others desire to walk in
God may we too lead kingdom lives
Hear us as we faithfully join our voices with as we pray as Jesus
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 for give 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
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Hymn: 489 Help us help each other Lord

Charge and Benediction
Sung Blessing
Take O take me as I am; Summon out what I shall be;
Set your seal upon my heart and live in me. (2x)