Service Sunday January 25, 2026
HIGHLAND HILLS UNITED CHURCH
Minden, Ontario
All are Welcome!
Worship Leader: Rev. Max Ward
Music Director: Melissa Stephens
Watch a video recording of the whole service using YouTube below.
(For a Printer Friendly PDF version click this link)
The Gathering
WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF LAND:
Since time immemorial, Indigenous peoples have occupied and cared for this land from coast to coast to coast, this country we call Canada. In naming this land--even more specifically we live in the area of Haliburton Highlands and its environs--we acknowledge this area as the traditional home of the Anishinaabeg. As a community of faith, we seek to rebuild right relations between Settlers and First Nations, Metis, and Inuit peoples, to learn together and to live on the land with respect and gratitude for its creation and Creator. This is our commitment.
Written by Bill Perry, Belleville, Ont.
Gathering, Pentecost 2 2025/26, p.42. Used with permission
THE APPROACH
CALL TO WORSHIP:
One: Good morning and welcome to worship in this season of Epiphany.
ALL: The season of Epiphany is tucked nicely between the Christmas season and Lent.
One: It’s a time where we focus on stories about Jesus.
ALL: Every week we will follow Jesus as he interacts with everyday people in their everyday lives.
One: As he reveals himself bit by bit to the people around him, perhaps we too will begin to understand Jesus with greater clarity.
ALL: Let us join in worship.
Written by Sue Webb, Faith Centennial U.C., Selkirk, Ont.
Gathering, Pentecost 2 2025/26, p.43. Used with permission
HYMN: “Great is Thy Faithfulness” VU #288
1 Great is thy faithfulness, God our Creator;
there is no shadow of turning with thee;
thou changest not, thy compassions, they fail not;
as thou hast been thou forever wilt be. Refrain
Refrain Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
all I have needed thy hand hath provided -
great is thy faithfulness, ever to me!
2 Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
sun, moon, and stars in their courses above
join with all nature in manifold witness
to thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love. Refrain
3 Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide,
strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow -
wondrous the portion thy blessings provide. Refrain
OPENING PRAYER: Spoken in Unison
God of abundance and generosity, you call us to celebrate your love each and every day, so love will overcome divisions and build a bridge to unity. You call us to lift our hearts in prayer and praise and to raise our spirits in holy song. Lift our worship to greater heights this day. Make our prayers deep enough to plumb the depths of our souls and bring us to your throne of overflowing grace. Amen
Written by Beth W Johnston, Bridging Waters P.C., Nipawin, Sask.
Gathering, Pentecost 2 2025, p.44. Used with permission
MINISTRY OF MUSIC
LEARNING TOGETHER
HYMN: “When the Wind of Winter Blows” MV #71
11. When the wind of winter blows,
bringing times of solitude,
fill the silent icy night;
be our hearts’ compassion.
Refrain:
Holy Light, warm our night;
warm the time of winter.
Holy Light, warm our night;
warm the time of winter.
2. When we shiver in despair,
when the chill of death comes near,
hold us, Spirit, calm our fear,
while the evening deepens. Refrain:
3. When in days of fallen snow,
change confounds or love burns low,
from the ashes may there rise
phoenix of our growing. Refrain:
THE WORD
Scripture: Isaiah 9:1-4 & Matthew 4:12-23
Leader: Hear and listen to what the Spirit is saying to the church.
ALL: Thanks be to God.
MESSAGE:
“If the lights are on, why is it so dark?”
Listen to an audio recording of the message below or read it at the bottom of this page.
OUR RESPONSE
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE and A CONTEMPORARY INTERPRETATION OF THE LORD’S PRAYER:
THE ABBA PRAYER: (A Feminine Paraphrase)
God, lover of us all, most holy one. Help us to respond to you To create what you want from us here on earth. Give us today enough for our needs;
Forgive our weak and deliberate offences, Just as we must forgive others when they hurt us. Help us to resist evil and to do what is good:
For we are yours, endowed with your power To make our world whole. Amen
~ Written by Lala Winkley, Celebrating Women
HYMN: We Shall Go Out with Hope of Resurrection” VU #586
1 We shall go out with hope of resurrection;
we shall go out, from strength to strength go on;
we shall go out and tell our stories boldly;
tales of a love that will not let us go.
We'll sing our songs of wrongs that can be righted;
we'll dream our dreams of hurts that can be healed;
we'll weave a cloth of all the world united
within the vision of new life in Christ.
2 We'll give a voice to those who have not spoken;
we'll find the words for those whose lips are sealed;
we'll make the tunes for those who sing no longer,
expressive love alive in every heart.
We'll share our joy with those who still are weeping,
raise hymns of strength for hearts that break in grief,
we'll leap and dance the resurrection story,
including all in circles of our love.
PRESENTATION OF OUR OFFERINGS
OFFERTORY PRAYER: In Unison
Generous God, we give you back a portion of what you have blessed us with. Bless these gifts and use them to further your work in this church, this community, and around the world. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Written by Lynn McCaw, Wall Street U.C., Brockville, Ont.
Gathering, Pentecost 2 2025, p.46. Used with permission
SUNG BLESSING: (VU #87 vs 4)
Refrain 'I am the light of the world!
You people come and follow me!'
If you follow and love you'll learn the mystery
of what you were meant to do and be.
4 To bring hope to every task you do,
to dance at a baby's new birth,
to make music in an old person's heart,
and sing to the colours of the earth! Refrain ©
SENDING FORTH:
A Time of Fellowship
© Music Reproduced with permission under License number A-605748, Valid for: 26/10/2025 - 25/10/2026; One License - Copyright Cleared Music for Churches.
Sermon 25 January 2026
“If the lights are on, why is it so dark?”
Isaiah 9:1-4 & Matthew 4:12-23
Gracious God, be with us today in this place and in our homes, in the Scriptures and in our words.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts praise your Holy name. Amen.
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.”
This past Monday was Blue Monday.
Sometimes we don’t realize the darkness we are in or our neighbours are struggling in.
At the heart of the Christian proclamation is the assertion that God in Christ has shined a heavenly light in the midst of a dark world.
Our Old Testament lesson from Isaiah reflects this belief.
It says, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.”
Israel’s existence was always tenuous.
Throughout most of their history they lived in the shadows of giants like Egypt, Persia and Assyria: the superpowers of their day.
But God shined a light of hope in their darkness and promised them a Messiah.
Jesus was the fulfillment of that promise.
He was the light of God made flesh.
Matthew records how Jesus fulfilled Isaiah’s prophesy.
He came announcing the arrival of the Kingdom of God.
He preached, taught, healed, called people to discipleship and shined the light of God in their dark lives.
So we, the people of God, the Church of Christ, still proclaim the light of Christ.
We celebrate the fact that God has shined heavenly light in the midst of our dark earthly existences.
We affirm that God shines the light of his love and grace upon those who dwelt in darkness.
We proclaim that in Christ God brings joy and peace and forgiveness and grace to those who will believe.
That assertion, that God has shined light on us, is at the heart of all we say and do as Christians.
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.”
You know what?
The world needs the light of Christ.
This world needs it because it dwells in darkness.
If you don’t believe me just open your eyes.
Sometimes the problem with Christians is they don’t open their eyes to see the darkness.
We close our eyes to reality and go around saying,
“all is peace and joy and love,”
and we don’t see the darkness all around us.
We have spent so much time talking about the light that we have forgotten the darkness.
If our eyes are not open to see the darkness, how can we see when the light is shining in it?
Open your eyes!
We live in a dark world!
This is a world filled with injustice.
People kill and are killed for drugs in one country and for bread in another.
People starve to death when there is enough food to go around.
People die of diseases that are preventable and curable only because they can’t afford the medicine.
We may speak of a new world order, but wars persist.
We have only to look at the war happening in the Ukraine to be reminded that war persists.
Civil unrest continues in Eastern Europe.
Tensions rise in the middle and Far East, not to mention Israel and Palestine.
Much of it is fueled by the persistence of racial prejudices.
Jews and Arabs hate each other in the Middle East, Russians hating Ukranians, Moslems and Hindus in India, Catholics and Protestants in Ireland.
Individuals live under the oppression of Alcohol and drugs and domestic violence.
This is a dark world.
There is no denying that.
It is a world filled with the darkness of murder, oppression, and hatred in all its forms.
The world needs the light of Christ!
What I want to know is this: If the lights are on, why is it so dark?
If the light of the world has come, as we Christians claim it has, why is there so much darkness?
There seems to be a basic incongruity between our faith and the reality of the world.
We Christians believe that the light has shined in the darkness.
We say that Christ is the light of the world.
But reality shows us that darkness still appears to be the order of the day in many parts of the world.
This is an important question.
Don’t just dismiss it and refuse to acknowledge the darkness out there.
This is an important question because it recognizes the reality of human life and it seeks to apply the Gospel to it.
We need to begin to understand why the darkness persists even though Christ has come.
Then we can begin to shine God’s light in that darkness.
So I ask: If the lights are on, why is it so dark?
The answer to this question is shown to us in our lesson from Matthew.
It says, “Now when Jesus had heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. ...
From that time Jesus began to proclaim,
“Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”
Jesus had been born about thirty years before.
The light had already come into the world yet the powers of darkness still ruled.
When Herod threw John the Baptist in jail, that was just another example of the pervasiveness of the darkness.
The light had come into the world, but the world still did not see it.
So Jesus began showing it to them.
He taught and preached to help enlighten people’s hearts.
He demonstrated the power of God through healings and miracles.
He showed them that the world was in the hands of a loving and gracious God.
Yet Jesus didn’t do this alone.
As we read in Matthew, he called people to follow him.
The light of God’s Kingdom had come and they were to help him bring the Good News of that light to those still in darkness.
There was still plenty darkness left when these disciples died, but through Christ each of them brought light to someone.
Dark lives were enlightened through their ministry:
The woman at the well, Zaccheus, countless sick, sinners and prostitutes.
That was only the beginning; there have been centuries of light since then.
All these were given new life in Christ through their efforts.
We live in a dark world.
That is the truth.
Yet it is also the truth that God is shining a light in that darkness.
Every single one of us who have experienced that forgiveness and salvation of God, have seen that light.
The light is here and it enlightens and brightens human lives.
Even still, there are so many who miss it.
People have shut their eyes to the darkness and so they fail to see the light too.
Shine that light.
Follow the example of Jesus’ first disciples.
Show God’s love to those around you.
Shine the light of hope in Christ in the midst of someone else’s hopelessness.
Dispel the darkness of prejudice and hatred with the light of love that God has given you.
Christ came into the darkness of our lives and our world to bring light.
He called people, just regular people like us, to call people’s attention to that light.
God is calling you to be a part of Christ’s ministry of shining light in the darkness.
Open your eyes to the darkness around you, then shine the light of Christ in it.
Thanks be to God.
Inspired by Rev. Alex Stevenson
Edited By: Rev. Max Ward
