Service Sunday August 2, 2026
HIGHLAND HILLS UNITED CHURCH
Minden, Ontario
SUNDAY, August 2, 2026
All are Welcome!
(For a Printer Friendly PDF version click this link)
(For Rev. Peter’s Musings PDF version click this link)
Worship Leader: Rev. Max Ward
Music Director: Melissa Stephens
Watch a video recording of the whole service using YouTube below.
THE GATHERING
WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS
FOCUSING ON THE LIGHT OF CHRIST
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF TERRITORY In Unison
For thousands of years, Indigenous people have walked this territory.
We acknowledge the traditional territory of the Mississauga and the Ojibwe Anishnabek peoples and their stewardship of this territory throughout the ages. May we also walk here with respect.
THE APPROACH
CALL TO WORSHIP:
One: May God’s love and acceptance fall upon us today.
ALL: May it fill our hearts with joy.
One: We gather together now to praise the One who designed and created us.
ALL: How can our hearts stop from singing!
One: They can’t and they shouldn’t! This time together as a community of song, Word, and prayer will strengthen us for the week ahead.
ALL: We are children of the God of kindness – each one of us inside and outside these walls. May the love of God shine through us so all may experience the loving-kindness of God.
One: This is the day the Lord has made. This is the day the Lord has given us. Come, let us worship God.
Written by Rosemary Godin, Sydney, N.S.
Gathering, Pentecost 1 2026, p.40. Used with permission.
HYMN: “This Is the Day” VU# 412
1,4 This is the day, this is the day
that our God has made, that our God has made;
we will rejoice, we will rejoice,
and be glad in it, and be glad in it.
This is the day that our God has made,
we will rejoice and be glad in it.
This is the day, this is the day
that our God has made.
2 Open to us, open to us
your gates, O God, your gates, O God;
we will go in, we will go in,
to your holy place, to your holy place.
Open to us your gates, O God,
we will go in to your holy place.
Open to us, open to us
your gates, O God.
3 You are our God, you are our God,
we will praise your name, we will praise your name;
we will give thanks, we will give thanks,
for your faithfulness, for your faithfulness.
You are our God, we will praise your name,
we will give thanks for your faithfulness.
You are our God, you are our God,
we will praise your name.
A NEW CREED: Spoken in Unison
We are not alone; we live in God’s world.
We believe in God: who has created and is creating,
who has come in Jesus, the Word made flesh,
to reconcile and make new, who works in us and others by the Spirit.
We trust in God.
We are called to be the church: to celebrate God’s presence,
to live with respect in Creation, to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,
our judge and our hope. In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. We are not alone. Thanks be to God.
MINISTRY OF MUSIC
LEARNING TOGETHER
HYMN: “Lord, Prepare Me to Be a Sanctuary” MV #18 – Three times
Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary,
pure and holy tried and true;
with thanksgiving,
I’ll be a living sanctuary for you.
THE WORD
Scripture: Matthew 14: 13 - 21
Leader: Hear and listen to what the Spirit is saying to the church.
ALL: Thanks be to God.
MESSAGE
“Being Blessed, Broken, and Given”
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
THE LORD’S PRAYER: sung VU#960
HYMN: “There’s Enough for All” TLUS #60 Repeat 4 times
There’s enough for all if we learn to share it,
there’s enough for all, oh, help us to believe.
There’s enough for all. Let’s bring our loaves and fishes, and offer them to Jesus.
There’s more than enough for you and me.
PRESENTATION OF OUR OFFERINGS
AFFIRMING MOMENT
OFFERTORY PRAYER: In Unison
Jesus, once, in a lonely place, you offered the compelling vision of what it is like when God shows up in the neighbourhood and all are fed with your goodness.
Holy One, sometimes we feel inadequate in what we have to share. Take now our hesitancy. Take our fear at our insufficiencies.
And by the Spirit, invest what we offer, creating a community that is healthier and a congregation that contributes to a shared experience of well-being.
Take our humble offerings, bless them, and accomplish your will. Amen.
Written by Jeff Werner, Trinity U.C., Acton, Ont. and Ebenezer U.C., Milton, Ont.
Gathering, Pentecost 1 2026, p.48. Used with permission.
SUNG BLESSING Christ Has No Body Now but Yours
MV #171 vs 4
Refrain
Christ has no body now but yours, no hands but yours.
Here on this earth, yours is the work,
to serve with the joy of compassion.
Through ev’ry gift, give back to those in need;
as Christ has blessed, so now be his blessing,
with ev’ry gift a benediction, be to the people of God. 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 2 August 2026
“Being Blessed, Broken, and Given”
Matthew 14: 13-21
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.
Jesus fed over 5,000 hungry people with five loaves and two fish.
This is one of the most important miracles stories of Jesus.
This is obvious from the fact that this story is recorded in all four gospels.
This miracle played an important role in the early Christians’ understanding of communion.
There is a lot to be learned from this story.
There is the attitude of the disciples in the face of the people’s needs.
There is the role of the small boy who gives what little he has.
There is the ability of Christ to supply the needs of the hungry masses with plenty left over.
There are a lot of ways to understand this miracle.
Some people say that we are like the disciples who are concerned for the peoples’ hunger and yet feel helpless.
Some say we are like the crowds fed by Christ the bread of life.
Some say we are like the little boy who gives all he has even though it is so small.
But today I want to say that we are like the bread.
Like those 5 barley loaves, we who have given our lives to Christ are accepted, blessed, broken, and given.
When the boy gave those loaves and fish to Jesus, Jesus accepted them and then blessed them.
Jesus broke them and gave them to feed the hungry people.
Like those loaves we are accepted.
Like that small boy, we who have given our lives to Christ have given all we have.
Jesus accepts that gift.
Someone lesser than the Son of God may have had disdain for such a small gift.
That someone might sneer at the offering and say,
“Don’t you have anything more?”
“How do you expect to heal the suffering of the masses with only this?”
Yet Jesus just smiles and accepts the gift.
Once we have been accepted, Jesus blesses us.
Before we come to Christ many of us were more self-centered.
We thought primarily of our own wants & needs.
We may have lacked sympathy and understanding for those around us.
Yet Jesus blesses us with love and forgiveness.
Like a potter he remolds our distorted wills into a usable shape.
He gives us the Holy Spirit, God’s living presence with us, as a counselor and provider.
Then Jesus breaks us.
Christians used to talk about being broken, but we don’t do that much anymore.
Many people already feel broken so they don’t want to hear that God will break us too.
Yet this is an important part of the process of being useful as part of Jesus’ ministry.
If Jesus had not broken the loaves, they could not have been distributed to the hungry people.
In order to be useful instruments for God’s kingdom we must be broken.
Our pride must be broken and set aside.
We must be humble, down on our knees so to speak.
The truth is that we can’t minister by ourselves.
Like the Disciples, we don’t have the resources all on our own.
It is only when we humble ourselves, looking to Christ, that we can be useful to God.
Once we are broken or humble, Jesus gives us.
He gives us in service.
Some people have the mistaken conception that just being a Christian and believing in God is the sum total of the Christian life.
It is a very important part, it is the beginning of the Christian life.
Jesus teaches us so we could follow him.
Jesus is always going out to minister to the sick, the needy, the lost and the oppressed.
We are not what we once were.
By accepting Christ and being accepted by Christ, Jesus has drastically altered us by blessing us and breaking us.
We are ready to be useful for bringing about the Kingdom of God.
Just take a look at the media these days.
People facing evictions.
People out of work.
This ultimately leads to hunger.
People are hungry for basic needs like food & shelter.
We are also surrounded by hungry people of a different kind: people starving for love and companionship.
We all need the love of God.
People are hungry for forgiveness, acceptance and companionship.
There are so many in need and their suffering is so great; physically, emotionally, spiritually and mentally.
Jesus invites us to help.
We begin by giving ourselves to Christ.
We might say to ourselves,
“How can someone like me make a difference?
Jesus can’t do much with little old me.
I barely have enough to live on myself.”
Just come as you are to Jesus.
A few years ago, in our book study, Radical Amazement, we read some amazing things.
One thing I remember clearly is the theory of Holons is fascinating.
A Holon is a whole/part.
All beings are holons, distinct modes of being (wholes) that are part of a more complex mode of being.
For example we are made of many cells.
One human; many cells.
One whole; many parts.
Another example, the Earth.
One Earth; many humans.
One whole; many parts.
The four characteristics of holons are self-preservation, self-adaptation, self-transcendence and self-dissolution.
Much more can be said about this but what I would like to say is that in the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000, Jesus helps us see how much potential we all have.
But not just that, Jesus helps us see how we are all parts of a larger whole, the human race or the Kingdom of God.
Jesus challenges us all to transcend what we thought were our own limits or what we thought was practical or even possible.
We are the lucky ones.
Even though we were not there at the feeding of the 5,000, we have these accounts of the story.
We all can be inspired today, over and over again, to challenge our understanding and love one another.
Yesterday, August 1st, marked the 192nd anniversary of the Slavery Abolition Act in the British Empire.
That is a day to celebrate and a day to remember.
It is also a day to remember that even though we have come a long way in loving one another from Jesus time, we still have inequality among us.
Allow Jesus to accept and bless you, allow Jesus to break you and allow Jesus to give you in service to others.
Give Jesus what little you may have: your whole self.
Let him transform you and then God can make a difference through you.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Inspired by: Rev. Alex Stevenson
Edited by: Rev. Max Ward
