Service Sunday September 27, 2026
HIGHLAND HILLS UNITED CHURCH
Minden, Ontario
SUNDAY, September 27, 2026
All are Welcome!
Worship Leader: Rev. Max Ward
Music Director: Melissa Stephens
Watch a video recording of the whole service below using YouTube
(For a Printer Friendly PDF version click this link)
(For Rev. Peter’s Musings PDF version click this link)
THE GATHERING
WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS
FOCUSING ON THE LIGHT OF CHRIST
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF TERRITORY In Unison
Let us, in this place, remember, acknowledge, and give thanks for the Indigenous Peoples, who have had ties to this territory from time beyond memory. We honour and acknowledge Treaty 20, which was signed in Port Hope 200 years ago, with the Curve Lake First Nation, the Hiawatha First Nation, the Mississaugas of Scugog Island, and the Chippewas of Rama First Nation. We acknowledge their stewardship and commit to join with them to care for the territory and the waters.
THE APPROACH
CALL TO WORSHIP:
One: Joining with light and shade, we will praise our God.
All: The blue of the sky, the glow of the beckoning dawn, sing God’s praises.
One: With flowing water and pounding seas, we will praise our God.
All: The mighty ocean, the trickling stream, proclaim their Creator’s marvellous power.
One: With hills and valleys, we will praise our God.
All: With the dazzling heights, the lowest valleys,
One: with soaring eagle and busy ants, we will praise our God.
All: Each bird, each animal, each tiny insect, and each person of humankind makes clear God’s creative presence, and so we praise our God.
Written by David Sparks, Rossland, B.C.
Gathering, Pentecost 2 2026, p.25. Used with permission.
* HYMN: “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name” VU#334
1 All hail the power of Jesus' name!
Let angels prostrate fall;
bring forth the royal diadem,
Refrain and crown him, crown him, crown him,
crown him Lord of all.
2 O seed of Israel's chosen race
now ransomed from the fall,
hail him who saves you by his grace Refrain
Refrain and crown him, crown him, crown him,
crown him Lord of all.
3 Crown him, you martyrs of your God,
who from his altar call;
praise him whose way of pain you trod, Refrain
4 Let every tongue and every tribe,
responsive to the call,
to him all majesty ascribe Refrain
5 O that, with all the sacred throng,
we at his feet may fall,
join in the everlasting song, Refrain
A SONG OF FAITH: Spoken in Unison
We find God made known in Jesus of Nazareth,
and so we sing of God the Christ, the Holy One embodied.
We sing of Jesus,
a Jew,
born to a woman in poverty
in a time of social upheaval
and political oppression.
He knew human joy and sorrow.
So filled with the Holy Spirit was he
that in him people experienced the presence of God among them.
We sing praise to God incarnate.
Jesus announced the coming of God’s reign—
a commonwealth not of domination
but of peace, justice, and reconciliation.
He healed the sick and fed the hungry.
He forgave sins and freed those held captive
by all manner of demonic powers.
He crossed barriers of race, class, culture, and gender.
He preached and practised unconditional love—
love of God, love of neighbour,
love of friend, love of enemy—
and he commanded his followers to love one another
as he had loved them.
MINISTRY OF MUSIC
LEARNING TOGETHER
* NEW HYMN: “ALL Who Are Thirsty” MV #4
1 All who are thirsty, all who are weak,
come to the fountain.
Dip your heart in the stream of life.
Let the pain and the sorrow be washed away
in the waves of his mercy as deep cries out to deep. We sing…
Refrain Come, Lord Jesus, come. Come, Lord Jesus, come.
Come, Lord Jesus, come. Come, Lord Jesus, come.
2 All who are thirsty, all who are weak,
come to the fountain.
Dip your heart in the stream of life.
Let the pain and the sorrow be washed away
in the waves of his mercy as deep cries out to deep. We sing… Refrain
3. Holy Spirit, come. Holy Spirit, come.
Holy Spirit, come. Holy Spirit, come.
As deep cries out to deep. We sing… Refrain
THE WORD
Scripture: Exodus 17:1-7 & Matthew 21: 23-32
Leader: Hear and listen to what the Spirit is saying to the church.
ALL: Thanks be to God.
MESSAGE
“God’s Love for Our World”
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:
Creation is holy. Life is mystery.
The kin-dom is the world we live; the earth and the heavens.
May we this day have bread to eat.
May we plant seeds of grace.
May we forgive those who grieve us dearly.
May we be spared life’s trials.
May evil be vanquished.
With our lives, may we strive to be love and light,
now and forever. Amen.
Written by Diane Robinson, St. James U.C., Regina SK
Gathering, Pentecost 2, 2018. Used with permission.
* HYMN: “Come, O Fount of Every Blessing” VU #559
1 Come, O Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing your grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing
call for songs of endless praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount; I'm fixed upon it,
mount of God's unfailing love.
2 Here I pause in my sojourning, giving thanks for having come,
come to trust, at every turning,
God will guide me safely home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God,
came to rescue me from danger,
precious presence, precious blood.
3 O, to grace how great a debtor daily I am drawn anew!
Let that grace now, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to you.
Prone to wander, I can feel it,
wander from the love I've known:
here's my heart, O, take and seal it,
seal it for your very own.
PRESENTATION OF OUR OFFERINGS
Collection Plate is located on the back table
OFFERTORY HYMN: VU #543 vs 1
We give thee but thine own, what e’er the gift may be; All that we have is thine alone, a trust, O God, from thee.
OFFERTORY PRAYER: In Unison
Your gifts have been showered upon us but your gifts are not for ourselves alone. Your gifts are meant to be shared, a response of love, joy, and generosity. Bless these gifts, and bless the givers and the recipients so that we may all know your love and grace. Amen.
Written by Beth W Johnston, Collaborative Ministry, River Philip and Springhill, N.S.
Gathering, Pentecost 2 2026, p.37 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 27 September 2026
“God’s Love for Our World”
Exodus 17:1-7 & Matthew 21: 23-32
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.
In the wilderness the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed, as the LORD commanded.
They tried to make camp, but there was no water for the people to drink.
They were getting restless and began taking it out on Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.”
Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me?
Why do you test the LORD?”
But the people were thirsty; and the people complained against Moses and said,
“Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?”
Sounds familiar doesn’t it.
Babies and elderly people dying of thirst.
Others crying out with pure frustration for help to come alleviate the hardship, the hunger and the thirst.
What we have read in the papers and seen on TV is not people crying in a desert.
The people of Nepal are crying out in the midst of the flash flooding; perhaps worse than being in the desert.
I’m sure we all are still a little sensitive to flooding after the floods we have had in Minden in April 2013 and 2017 even this past Spring but nothing like they have had in Nepal!
All things are connected.
The earth is rich with the lives of our kin.
Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons of earth.
All things are connected.
These are the words of Chief Seattle, translated from his famous speech given 150 years ago.
This was part of a reply to the settler’s request to buy land from the Indigenous Americans.
These words resonate with me as I listen to the news of the past month.
Rising flood waters and flash floods, damage to personal property, on top of the inflated costs of living these days and many people crying out.
I once read a commentary in the Toronto Star.
A man had made a statement to the effect that the flooding was God’s punishment to the people.
I am sure that there are many others who believe that these (and other) disasters are God’s way of somehow getting back at us, for one of our many wrongdoings.
I cannot believe in that kind of God.
What I do believe though, is that what we do has an impact on the Earth.
Our actions affect how we and others live.
There are consequences, good and bad, to everything we do.
And if we continue to harm the earth, eventually we will be harming ourselves.
All things are connected.
Today we read a story, a parable about a father’s request to two sons.
The first son was told to go and work.
He refused, but later changed his mind and went to work.
The second son was told to work and he said he would.
But he didn’t.
I think that sometimes we are like that second son.
We say that we will do something, but think of many reasons not to.
With respect to how we treat the environment, this is a very serious matter.
Christians have been known to mistreat the Earth.
We justify it by saying that God had given the command to “Go forth and multiply, and subdue the Earth.”
Now we are seeing some of the effects of this attitude, as global warming affects us and natural disasters increase in frequency and severity.
The Christian’s attitude towards the Earth may have also begun when our ancestors were entering the land of Canaan.
The Canaanites worshipped a fertility Goddess named Astarte and her male consort Baal.
As the Jews conquered Caanan, they interpreted their victory as Yahweh conquering the Earth Goddess, and so developed a disdain for the Earth.
This disdain for the Earth was further increased by the Christian belief that since Heaven is our real home, we need not be concerned about “Earthly things”.
Now we are realizing the harm that has been done.
And some of us are trying to make amends.
Environment Haliburton has a list of things you can do to help reduce your carbon footprint.
Many of the ideas are easy, like hanging your clothes to dry rather than use the dryer.
Some of them take more of a lifestyle change and more planning like reducing traveling by plane or cars, cycling or walking more often to even having fewer children!
I can say that the having any more children ship has sailed so I can check that box!
One of the projects that our Outreach Committee has been promoting for a number of years is HAVE, Help A Village Effort.
The purpose of HAVE is to raise money to build wells in places such as India.
Many of us in Canada take fresh water for granted, but people in other countries do not always have access to fresh water.
It takes about $2,000 to build a well.
Once built, each well sustains an entire village.
There are other ways which we can help the Earth, and help all those who inhabit the Earth.
We can use energy-saving appliances, recycle and reuse items.
A few years ago, we noticed, on a global scale, the benefits that the COVID-19 restrictions on human activity have had for the Earth when we were nearly all taking a pause.
We have seen how the Earth can heal and it is an inspiration to us all.
I challenge every one of you today to think of three other ways we can help the environment.
As I was travelling, I saw a sign along highway 35 which read “Live simply, so that others can simply live.”
That is great advice!
God help us to remember those words by Chief Seattle, and all indigenous peoples especially on Orange Shirt Day, “All things are connected.”
Holy One help us to be like the first son of the Gospel story, who, after initially refusing to do his work, changed his mind, and worked for the good of God.
Jesus, help us to show God’s grace to the world by acting out our own faith.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
