Service Sunday June 22, 2025
HIGHLAND HILLS UNITED CHURCH
Minden, Ontario
SUNDAY, June 22, 2025
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:
FOCUSING ON THE LIGHT OF CHRIST:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF TERRITORY: In Unison
Since time immemorial, Indigenous peoples have occupied and cared for this territory, the country we call Canada, from coast to coast to coast. In naming this land mass, even more specifically Haliburton Highlands, and environs, we acknowledge this place as the Traditional home of the Anishinaabe peoples. As a community of faith, we seek to rebuild right relations with the First Nations, Metis, and Inuit peoples, to learn from and with each other, and to live on the territory with respect and gratitude for its creation and Creator. This is our commitment. Amen.
Written by Bill Perry, Consecon P.C., Carying Place, Ont.
Gathering, Lent-Easter 2024, p.30. Used with permission.
THE APPROACH
CALL TO WORSHIP:
One: In worship, we are invited to call upon the name of the Lord,
ALL: to call on God’s presence for all we need.
One: We call upon God in hope and prayer,
ALL: bringing before God our dreams and our fears, trusting God with our desires and our disappointments.
One: We call upon God in joy and music,
ALL: bringing to God our laughter and delight, honouring God in our friendships and communities.
One: We call upon God craving mercy and care
ALL: to be comforted by God’s love, forgiven by God’s grace, and strengthened through faith in God’s eternal power.
One: Come, call upon God as we worship today.
Written by Gill Le Fevre, Walton Memorial U.C., Oakville, Ont.
Gathering, Pentecost 1 2025, p.36. Used with permission.
HYMN: “Come and Find the Quiet Centre” VU #374
1 Come and find the quiet centre
in the crowded life we lead,
find the room for hope to enter,
find the frame where we are freed:
clear the chaos and the clutter,
clear our eyes, that we can see
all the things that really matter,
be at peace, and simply be.
2 Silence is a friend who claims us,
cools the heat and slows the pace,
God it is who speaks and names us,
knows our being, face to face,
making space within our thinking,
lifting shades to show the sun,
raising courage when we're shrinking,
finding scope for faith begun.
3 In the Spirit let us travel,
open to each other's pain,
let our loves and fears unravel,
celebrate the space we gain:
there's a place for deepest dreaming,
there's a time for heart to care,
in the Spirit's lively scheming
there is always room to spare!
A SONG OF FAITH: Read In Unison
We sing of God the Spirit, faithful and untameable,
who is creatively and redemptively active in the world.
The Spirit challenges us to celebrate the holy
not only in what is familiar, but also in that which seems foreign.
We sing of the Spirit, who speaks our prayers of deepest longing
and enfolds our concerns and confessions,
transforming us and the world.
MINISTRY OF MUSIC:
LEARNING TOGETHER:
HYMN: “Jesus Calls Us” VU #562
1 Jesus calls us; o'er the tumult
of our life's wild restless sea,
day by day his clear voice sounding,
saying, 'Christian, follow me.'
2 Long ago apostles heard it
by the Galilean lake,
turned from home and toil and kindred,
leaving all for Jesus' sake.
3 Jesus calls us from the worship
of the vain world's golden store,
from each idol that would keep us,
saying, 'Christian, love me more.'
4 In our joys and in our sorrows,
days of toil and hours of ease,
still he calls, in cares and pleasures,
'Christian, love me more than these.'
5 Jesus calls us: by your mercies,
Saviour, may we hear your call,
give our hearts to your obedience,
serve and love you best of all.
THE WORD
Scripture: Luke 8 : 26 - 39
Leader: Hear and listen to what the Spirit is saying to the church.
ALL: Thanks be to God.
MESSAGE:
“What’s In A Name”
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:
Eternal Spirit,
Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be.
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:
The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope
and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,
now and forever. Amen.
Written by Jim Cotter, 1988. Used by permission.
HYMN “O Jesus, I Have Promised” VU #120
1 O Jesus, I have promised to serve you to the end;
remain for ever near me, my Saviour and my friend:
I shall not fear the journey if you are by my side,
nor wander from the pathway if you will be my guide.
2 O let me feel you near me: the world is ever near;
I see the sights that dazzle, the tempting sounds I hear;
my foes are ever near me, around me and within;
but, Jesus, then draw nearer and shield my soul from sin.
3 O let me hear you speaking in accents clear and still,
above the storms of passion, the murmurs of self-will;
O speak to reassure me, to hasten or control;
now speak, and make me listen, O guardian of my soul.
4 O Jesus, you have promised to all who follow you,
that where you are in glory your servant shall be too.
And Jesus, I have promised to serve you to the end;
O give me grace to follow, my Saviour and my friend.
PRESENTATION OF OUR OFFERINGS
OFFERTORY PRAYER
We lift these gifts of our hands and hearts to the glory that is in you, O Christ. We offer our gifts of talents and time that each of us bring to this community of faith. Receive these gifts, given freely for the greater good of the world. Amen
Written by Jim McKean, while at Severn Shores U.C., Severn, Ont.
Gathering, Pentecost 1 2025, p.46. Used with permission.
SUNG BLESSING MV #150 vs 4
4 Spirit God: be our breath, be our song.
Blow through us, bringing strength to move on.
Through change, through challenge, we’ll greet the new dawn…
Spirit God, be our song. ©
SENDING FORTH:
A Time of Fellowship
© Music Reproduced with permission under License number A-605748, Valid for: 26/10/2024 - 25/10/2025; One License - Copyright Cleared Music for Churches
Sermon 2025 06 22
“What’s In A Name”
Luke 8:26-39
Gracious God, be with us today in this place, in the Scriptures and in our words.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts praise your Holy name. Amen.
What’s in a name?
Apparently not much, because the Bible doesn’t even tell us what the man’s name who was in today’s Bible story.
I’m sure the Gerasenes had some names for him.
Like “that Waco who lives in the graveyard,”
or “that guy who is a few figs short of a bushel,”
or “the one whose sail doesn’t go all the way up his mast.”
The Jews had a few names for him too.
At the top of the list was “Demon Possessed” but “Unclean” was among them.
His was an extreme but classic case of demon possession.
The demon was unclean, so it drove him to live in one of the most unclean places.
It would cause him to live in the wilderness without any clothes on.
Of course, we have a few names for this unnamed man.
Names like “Paranoid Schizophrenic with Delusions of Grandeur and Persecution,”
“Dangerous to Himself and Others,”
“Homeless,” or just plain “Crazy.”
Last month was Mental Health Awareness month.
I remember hearing Rev. Alan Boyd use this passage in his Theological Reflection to drive home the point that mental illness has always been with us.
We all shared an awareness of mental illness and strategies for helping others and ourselves, a very timely discussion.
We have people in our lives that struggle with mental health, whether it be Schizophrenia or the more subtle Dementia or Depression.
Our mental health impacts us and those around us just as much or even more so than other physical health concerns.
What’s in a name?
Well, apparently quite a bit because Jesus asks for a name.
Instead of calling this poor man names like the Gerasenes, Jews and us, Jesus cuts to the chase.
He asks the demon, “What is your name?”
In fact, if you have a red-letter edition of the Bible, you will notice that this is the only thing Jesus says in this passage except for “Go home and tell what God has done” at the end.
Even the demon seems to feel that names are important.
It may seem strange to us, but the demon knows who Jesus is!
And right away it addresses Jesus.
But he doesn’t call him “Jesus of Nazareth,”
but “Jesus, Son of the Most High.”
And recognizing who Jesus is, it pleads with him for mercy.
Ancient Hebrew belief considered names important.
Knowing a demon’s name gave you power over it.
That is why Jesus asked for the demon’s name.
That name is revealing for when the name is told the magnitude of his problem becomes apparent.
The man doesn’t have “a” demon but a mob or legion of demons in him.
What’s in a name?
Obviously, everything!
Once Jesus has the name, he has the power to command the demons to leave.
In an ironic act of mercy, he allows the demons to enter a herd of pigs.
The demons seem to like the arrangement even if the pigs didn’t.
The result of naming the demons is that the man, whatever his name is, was returned to his senses.
The people found him sitting at Jesus’ feet clothed and in his right mind.
What would they call him now?
“The guy who used to be a few figs short of a bushel?”
It was a little disconcerting for the people.
It is unclear whether it was the loss of the pigs, or the spiritual power demonstrated by Jesus, but for one or the other reason, they all asked Jesus to leave.
What about “What’s His Name?”
He asked to follow Jesus and presumably become one of his disciples.
If he had, we might be naming John Doe of the Gerasenes in the same breath with Mary Magdaleen and Joseph of Aremathea.
Yet Jesus sent him away with the command to tell others how much God had done.
What’s in a name?
A lot, if you name the right thing.
Everyone was spending a lot of time calling the man in this story names.
Yet they didn’t bother trying to name his problem.
Instead of labeling this poor guy they should have asked what his problem was.
Jesus was able to see past the labels and name the real problem then deal with it and help the man.
We spend a lot of time labeling people instead of getting to know them.
Who here remembers Simone?
She regularly liked to talk to me and encouraged me.
I remember bumping into her in Phamasave.
Part of me felt embarrassed to be around her in public because she talked so loudly.
She was convinced that I could be a famous preacher.
She felt that if I were to become famous, I could help the community more effectively.
She had such faith in me and God that she thought I could cure everyone in town if I would simply offer a healing service and anoint the people with oil.
We could all save so much money on health care if I were to become famous!
I enjoyed talking to Simone; she lifted my spirits.
And yet I knew what many people said about her.
The names people called her.
Most people would look at Simone and call her “crazy” or “hopeless.”
They might have even labeled her with some mental and emotional troubles.
I knew her as an intelligent woman even if what she was saying didn’t always make sense to me.
And I also realized that along with other problems she needed someone to listen to her and be a friend.
What’s in a name?
When dealing with demons it’s everything.
Those who have dealt with the demons of alcoholism and other addictions will tell you that admitting and naming the problem is half the solution.
Naming the demon is the first step in casting it out.
Too often we cannot name our own demons.
Yet for Christ, naming the demons is easy.
The one who calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee can calm the storms in our lives.
He knows us by name, and he knows our problems.
He can also help us to name our demons.
Then, by the power of the Son of God Most High, he can cast them out.
Yet that can be scary.
Maybe that is why the people asked that Jesus leave town.
They were afraid he would start naming their demons too.
What’s in a name?
The world, if the name is “Jesus.”
In the name of Jesus there is healing and hope.
He can calm the storm.
He can offer healing.
He can give us hope.
He can name our demons and cast them out.
Sometimes that can be scary.
Who will we be when he does that?
We might even need to change our name or at least the one that everyone calls us by.
But Jesus knows our true name - “Child of God.”
Our job in life is to love others knowing that we are all God’s children.
Love the child of God, especially those who struggle with mental health concerns.
Then, recognize Jesus as the Son of God Most High, and allow him to heal and calm the storms of life!
Thanks be to God. Amen.
