Worth praising God for
May 18, 2025, Easter 5
Candle lighting
Welcome and Announcements
Call to Worship
Speak to us, Giver of Life, and make us new.
We thirst for the waters of eternal life, we yearn to know ourselves as Resurrection People.
Send your Holy Spirit upon us this day, and create in us your new heaven and new earth.
Speak to us words of comfort and hope, words of challenge and courage.
Come among us as we worship you this day.
Come: move among us, we pray.
Hymn: 433 All creatures of our God and King
Prayer of Approach
Eternal God, our Alpha and Omega, our beginning and our end,
we have gathered in this time and at this place to worship You.
In Your time, You created all things, and wove into their fabric a yearning for fulfillment in You. It is this yearning within us which has pulled us here this morning.
Take these moments, O Lord of time and space, and complete them in us, through Your Holy Spirit. May our labor bring forth a new creation in You.
This is Your hour, Christ Jesus, help us to make the most of each precious moment. Hear now our confession that we may live fully for you and in you….
Prayer of Confession:
Gracious and Sovereign God, Our anxious hearts often drive us to seek control over every part of our lives. We confess that we sometimes believe our worry alone can shape our work, our families, our finances and our futures. We try to create a false sense of security. Forgive us, Lord. You alone are in control — the true Author and Orchestrator of our lives.
Remind us that our role to follow faithfully where You lead. Align our hearts with Your Spirit. Teach us to release our fears and anxieties into Your capable hands. Help us trust in Your perfect plan. You are the Author and Perfecter of our faith. In the mighty name of Jesus we pray, Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
God dwells among us, giving to all who believe the repentance that leads to life. Rejoice in the Lord, for we are a forgiven people.
Passing the Peace
Hymn: 438 When morning gilds the skies
Scripture:
Responsive Psalm 148 p 982
Revelation 21: 1-6 p 1937
Sermon: Worth praising God for
When we consider the book of Revelation, we tend to focus primarily on the theology of the last things:
The when, where and how of the return of Jesus.
The four horse-men of the apocalypse riding as if to war.
The last judgement.
The difficulties to come.
A lot of the book of Revelation is given over to the hardship earth and people will endure.
Persecution. Violence. Suffering. Misery. Total destruction.
Yet we never think about or talk about the new creation. In the new creation God, gets the last word. A new heaven and a new earth.
In that new heaven and new earth, we see the glimpses of the new creation and according to the commentator, Bratt, a glimpse into the shape that God longs to give his creation right now.
Even in the here and now, we are called to live in the new creation that God gives us through redemption in Jesus. The glimpses we have of the new creation are the guides to living in a way that declares this new creation in our lives.
Bratt goes on to remind us that the way we live, shapes our care for the creation as we work to bring forth our love for God and showing others the way to this new creation.
When we read the account of the new creation this morning, did we make note of what was missing from it?
Heaven and earth have passed away.
No longer any sea.
No more death: or mourning, or crying, or pain.
Because all of that is gone—forever.
AND—glory be to God—the source of misery and suffering will be banished.
Then there will be a renewal of creation. A new heaven and a new earth, and God will dwell on earth with his people and heaven and earth will be one.
The challenge that Bratt speaks of in response to this new creation is how we will model it in our living now.
He asks the question: How do we live now that reveals the new creation?
to Psalm 148 praise is a part of it.
The psalm calls for universal praise from all of creation. We spoke of what that would look like a few weeks ago. Earth, sky, sea and heaven all praising God is a glorious anthem of praise.
Where does this praise for God come from?
This praise comes from the special relationship we have with God. We are the people of God. The people who are held in God’s heart.
That relationship calls us to remember that we are blessed, in order to be a blessing.
The commentator Mast reminds us that it is the calling of God’s people to bring the world to God and to lead the praises that we collectively give to God.
God is worthy of our praises for giving us creation. The earth, the sea and the sky in all their beauty are ours.
The marvelous diversity of all the creatures on earth, a testimony to God’s incredible mastery of bringing all things to life.
We also see how God wants us to respond joyfully to creation, in the ways that we exclaim in awe at a whale coming alongside our boat, or laugh at the antics of primates playing with one another, or are humbled with awe as we examine the impossibly small and fragile fingers of a baby. We look at all of creation and we wonder how and why God trusts us to care for all of it.
We remember the calling in Revelation, to live now in this creation as if it was the creation that is to come. More so, we are reminded that in Christ we are a new creation.
God is also worthy of praise because of the gifts of redemption. The greatness of God’s majesty in creation is also represented in redemption earned for us and all earth by Jesus.
In redemption our sins are erased. The damage we have done to creation and within our human relationships are forgiven by God. Most importantly we are given a New Spirit which makes living a life that pleases God possible. Which makes living in harmony with all of creation possible.
WE are given the grace to live a life of justice and mercy and humbleness as we walk with God.
Now, in this life, that we are meant to walk with God.
Now is when we are meant to live for God.
Now is when we are meant to show God’s mercy to all.
Now is when we are meant to be justice for those who are in need, in prison and displaced by the pressures of evil, greed and sin of others.
Now is when we are meant to be mercy for those who are sick and suffering.
And now is when we are meant to in humbleness recognize that we are not better than any, merely the means through which God chooses to bless others.
How do we live to reveal the new creation? By walking with God and serving all of creation.
How do we sing God’s praises? By walking with God and serving all of creation.
When discussing Psalm 148 Hoezee points out that when we sing God’s praises in word, or song or deed, that we are living out our calling to be whom we were created to be.
When that happens, Hoezee points out that we and God live on the strength of that service and praise. In that process we gain strength from God and God gains strength from us.
He hastens to add, “not that God needs more strength—he is strong and enthroned and worthy of praises.”
And yet in a convoluted way, when we praise God in our living and our singing, we become the way that God’s presence on earth is strengthened. Hoezee writes, “When we do what we were created to do then everything in heaven and in the cosmos and on earth comes into alignment in a way that leads to glory.” And in a way that increases God’s glory.
Not that he needs it.
But when we increase his strength and glory here on earth, we are living proof that the New Creation has begun.
For that reason, Psalm 148 is called an enthronement psalm. Written for the enthronement of David, but also a foreshadowing of the enthronement of Jesus as the new King at the centre of the new universe.
So how do we live now that reveals the new creation?
By serving and praising God in all that we do. In this way our relationship with God will be stronger and God’s glory will be seen in our living.
Glory be to God. Amen.
Hymn: 307 God of the sparrow, God of the whale
Offering and Doxology 830
Offertory Prayer
O Loving God, you have given us the task to love one another.
May the gifts we offer bring love and life to others.
May the gift of love that we share bring hope to a world where people feel forgotten and unloved. Help us to remember that you call us to live our love for you in the world. May we become the answer to this prayer that we bring. Amen.
Gathering Prayer Requests
Prayer of Thanksgiving and Intercession
We are glad and rejoice forever in you, O God. With joy we draw deeply from your well of salvation, we have feasted on the bounty of your grace. In us and among us you fulfill our story—the story of your love. We praise you for all the signs of your grace and favour among us.
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 the sound of weeping will give way to delight,
a time when all creation will live in peace
and people will long enjoy the fruits of their labours.
In this day and all the days that shake our faith, 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 bring you our prayers of Joys and Concerns, trusting in your mercy….
JOYS
CONCERNS
We pray for those who face difficulty, illness or other concerns in their lives…..
Fires: BC, AB, MB…thinking especially of the family of those in MB who lost their lives in the fire.
Family of Ken Swanson
Shirley as she prepares to conduct a memorial service via Zoom for a longtime friend of hers.
WORLD
We pray those who dwell in places of strife, need, and want….
we pray for today for those of our brothers and sisters who face persecution because of their faith. For those who are deprived of their basic human rights, and those who are deprived of their lives because of their desire to worship and serve you…
On this Victoria Day weekend we pray for our nation. May Prime Minister Carney and the Cabinet work well together as they prepare for the opening of Parliament next week.
We pray for King Charles and Queen Camilla as they celebrate this weekend, and for a safe trip as they come here to open Parliament. May this official visit be an inspiration to all. May their time in Canada be joyous and may they return home, with memories to cherish.
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, for ever. Amen
Hymn: 371 Love divine, all loves excelling
Benediction
Remember always that God is the Alpha and the Omega,the beginning and the end!
Trust that in his mercy God revives us with water from the spring of life.
God makes all things new.
God dwells with us.
Death is no more.
Praise be to God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit now and forever. Amen
Blessing Song: 252 He is Lord v1
He is Lord, he is Lord, he is risen from the dead and he is Lord. Every knee shall bow
every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord
3-Fold Amen