June 29, 2025
THIRD SUNDAY in PENTECOST!
A Service of Prayer, of Song, of Celebration, of Experiencing the Risen Christ and, of Being Together in Worship.
Lead Minister: The Rev. Jope Langejans
Music Director: Cody Obst
Minister Emeritus: Rev. Gerry Scharff
Honorary Associate Ministers: Rev. Clint Mooney & Rev. Kelley Warner
Chair of Council: Vacant
Reader: Gerry Scharff
Two quotes for today: “Go ahead and ask for God’s gifts, but you need to trust God to send you the right size and colour” and this one, “Prayer is wireless access to God – no matter where you are!”
PRELUDE
Gathering
INTROIT MV # 28 “God of the Bible”
WELCOMING & ANNOUNCEMENTS
LIGHTING of THE CHRIST CANDLE (During Pride Month)
Leader: Light should be understood as more than simply a generic light. Light can be opened into the entire spectrum of colours.
ALL: Light can overcome fear and shadows and guide us on our way.
Leader: Light may reveal a particular vision, an insight, an inspiration that opens the door to understanding life and relationships in new ways.
ALL: This morning, we light this Christ candle, naming Jesus in our lives as life-giving in a full spectrum of dimensions.
(The Christ candle is now lit…)
(Bill Perry, Belleville, Ont., Gathering Magazine, Pentecost 1, pg. 29.)
ACKNOWLEDGING THE TERRITORY (Unison)
(Words taken from the 1986 Apology to First Nations Peoples & words from 1998)
Long before my people journeyed to this land your people were here and you received from your Elders an understanding of creation and of the Mystery that surrounds us all that was deep, rich, and to be treasured.
We tried to make you like us and in so doing we helped to destroy the vision that made you what you were. As a result, you, and we, are poorer and the image of the Creator is twisted, blurred, and we are not what we are meant by God to be.
We ask you to forgive us and to walk together with us in the Spirit of Christ so that our peoples may be blessed and God’s creation healed.
We pray that you will hear the sincerity of our words today and that you will witness the living out of our apology in our actions in the future.
*HYMN MV # 79 “Spirit, Open My Heart”
PASSING of the PEACE of CHRIST
Leader: “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you,” (John 14:27) Jesus said to his disciples. Let us treat this gift of Christ preciously and share it abundantly. Let us greet one another with the peace of Christ
(verbally or with gestures)
CALL TO WORSHIP:
Leader: This is our time of worship – our time to connect ourselves to that which is Holy, to that which lives deep inside ourselves and deep inside our hearts.
ALL: May each of us sense the living God moving within us – through our bloodstream, through our breathing, through our thoughts and our hopes and our dreams.
Leader: It is now summer, and we see God in the leafy trees and in our beautiful gardens and flowerbeds. God is all around us – everywhere – that is, if we open our eyes and drink in the beauty of all our surroundings.
ALL: This is the beautiful day which God has made for us to enjoy, especially as we begin to look ahead to the special Tuesday of Canada Day and all of its festivities.
Leader: It is a day for assessing our lives and our attitudes and for considering the possibility that they could both be changed!
ALL: Today is the day that God has made and it is a day for singing, for celebration, and – for worship!
Leader: Let us now open our hearts to God in prayer:
OPENING PRAYER (Unison)
God of reconciling love, whose covenant with us is an everlasting covenant, and whose peace passes all of our understanding, release, we pray, the dove of peace in our hearts and lives; pour out your love upon our warring children and those who deal in hatred; touch with your healing Spirit the violent places of our world; enable us to link our hands in your service, and lead us in the ways of true and lasting reconciliation. if there is a divine spark that is in us, let it flame; that we might be consumed for peace. If there is anything holy that is in us, let it be as breath; that we might carry it lightly. If there is any wisdom that is in us, let it cry out; that justice be heard in our speaking. If there is any love that is in us, let it sing; that love might be the song of our hearts. If any one of these gifts be found in us, let them bring life; fill all of us, and become our offering. Let us take care of this world for it is a gift to us…may we find love in all people for they share it with us… may we make peace unconditionally, for all life depends on it… and…may we always be a blessing…always…Amen!
AFFIRMATION of OUR FAITH (Unison)
We dare to believe these things:
that God is the God of all the earth, both the living and the
dead;
that God has revealed the divine nature in the man Jesus
Christ, in order that we may follow his teachings and
come to eternal life;
that the Spirit of Christ is in this place today, inviting us to a
greater commitment of our lives and bestowing the
power to live in that commitment;
that the Church, for all its shortcomings, is still called to
love those who are loved by God and to call to
fellowship and forgiveness those who walk in wayward
lives and darkness;
that the world of our immediate vision is but a poor shadow
of the world that is to be, where Christ reigns as Lord
of Lords and God is All in All…Amen.
*HYMN VU # 367 “Come Down, O Love Divine”
Engaging the Sacred Text
(Reader: Gerry Scharff)
OLDER TESTAMENT:
2 KINGS 2:1-2, 6-14 (290) (Elisha sees Elijah ascend to heaven…)
NEWER TESTAMENT:
GALATIANS 5:1, 13-25 (948) (Called to freedom; the fruit of the Spirit…)
HYMN OF ILLUMINATION
MV # 172 “God Says”
GOSPEL PASSAGE:
LUKE 9: 51-62 (843) (Rev. Jope) (Foxes have holes, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head…)
MESSAGE “Declaring the Depth of Our Faith Commitment”
Responding
Leader: In gratitude for the love that we have received, we offer our lives and our living to carry God’s message of love into the world and into the communities in which we live, including this faith community. Our offerings will now be taken up and may we take a moment, following the offertory selection, to have them blessed…
A SPECIAL OFFERTORY SELECTION (Cody Obst)
PRAYER of DEDICATION: (Rev. Jope)
Blessing
SUNDAY’S REFLECTION of the HEART (Leader)
(Breath of God, breathe on us…)
LORD’S PRAYER (sung) Traditional Caribbean song
(Leader) (ALL)
Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, Hallowed be thy name.
On the earth as it is in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Give us this day our daily bread. Hallowed be thy name.
And forgive us all our trespasses, Hallowed be thy name.
As we forgive those who trespass against us, Hallowed be they name.
And lead us not into temptation, Hallowed be thy name.
But deliver us from all that is evil, Hallowed be thy name.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory,
Hallowed be thy name.
Forever and for ever and ever, Hallowed be thy name.
Amen, amen, it shall be so! Hallowed be thy name.
Amen, amen, it shall be so! Hallowed be thy name.
*HYMN VU # 647 ”Travel On, Travel On”
*COMMISIONING (unison):
The earth is God’s and the fullness thereof;
the world and all that dwell therein.
We are servants of Christ, the Son of God.
We accept the mission of Christ:
to be God’s people in the world;
to be sowers, and the soil, and the seed.
Our worship ends;
our work begins.
Let us bear fruit.
May the blessing of God nurture us all.
(General Council Worship Committee, 2001)
BENEDICTION
POSTLUDE
HAVE A SPIRITED PENTECOST SEASON!
SCRIPTURE READINGS: SUNDAY, JULY 6th, 2025
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
2 KINGS 5:1-14 (Older Testament)
PSALM 30 (Psalm passage)
LUKE 10:1-11, 16-20 (Gospel passage)