Service Sunday May 25th, 2025
All are Welcome!
Worship Leader: Rev. Max Ward
Music Director: Melissa Stephens
(For a Printer Friendly PDF version click this link)
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: Let us gather to praise God,
ALL: our God who is great in wonder and majesty.
One: Let us praise our God for God’s graciousness and compassion,
ALL: our God who is full of mercy and forgiveness.
One: Let us praise our God for God’s everlasting trust and faithfulness,
ALL: our God who is just and good.
One: Come, let us worship and praise God.
Written by Marie Slivocka, Trinity U.C., New Glasgow, N.S.
Gathering, Easter*Lent 2025, p.45. Used with permission.
HYMN: “Joyful, Joyful We Adore You” VU #232
1 Joyful, joyful we adore you,
God of glory, life and love;
hearts unfold like flowers before you,
opening to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness,
drive the gloom of doubt away;
giver of immortal gladness,
fill us with the light of day.
2 All your works with joy surround you,
earth and heaven reflect your rays,
stars and angels sing around you,
centre of unbroken praise.
Field and forest, vale and mountain,
flowery meadow, flashing sea,
chanting bird and flowing fountain,
sound their praise eternally.
3 You are giving and forgiving,
ever blessing, ever blest,
wellspring of the joy of living,
ocean depth of happy rest!
Source of grace and fount of blessing,
let your light upon us shine;
teach us how to love each other,
lift us to the joy divine.
4 Mortals join the mighty chorus
which the morning stars began;
God's own love is reigning o'er us,
joining people hand in hand.
Ever singing, march we onward,
victors in the midst of strife;
joyful music leads us sunward
in the triumph song of life.
A SONG OF FAITH: Read In Unison
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.
Because his witness to love was threatening,
those exercising power sought to silence Jesus.
He suffered abandonment and betrayal,
state-sanctioned torture and execution.
He was crucified.
But death was not the last word.
God raised Jesus from death, turning sorrow into joy,
despair into hope. We sing of Jesus raised from the dead.
We sing hallelujah.
MINISTRY OF MUSIC:
LEARNING TOGETHER:
HYMN: “Like a Rock” MV #92 sung 3 times
Like a rock, like a rock, God is under our feet.
Like the starry night sky God is over our head.
Like the sun on the horizon God is ever before.
Like the river runs to ocean, our home is in God evermore.
THE WORD
Scripture: Acts 16 : 9 - 15
Scripture: John 13:31-35
Leader: Hear and listen to what the Spirit is saying to the church.
ALL: Thanks be to God.
MESSAGE:
“If We are Faithful in Small Ways”
listen to an audio recording of the service 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:
Loving parent of all life, present throughout the cosmos,
The mere mention of your name calls us to love, respect, and care for each other. May justice for all, be imbedded in the hearts of all people.
Today may we accept only what we need, respecting creation, doing our part in sustaining the delicate balance of the natural world. Renew us with your grace, as we stumble through this world and help us to share the spirit of forgiveness, with those who have hurt us. Guide us with your spirit of love when we are tempted to be of this world. May evil be removed and replaced with your love. For by living with your love written on our hearts, we may rise above injustice and share the glory of equality, and peace with all of creation. All the days of our lives and into eternity. Amen
By Rev. Stephanie Richmond Seagrave/ Greenbank UC
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:
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
PRESENTATION OF OUR OFFERINGS
OFFERTORY PRAYER
Living God, use this money to overturn some common attitudes about what is wasteful and unnecessary. Use this money to bring a different perspective. Use this money to upend some common practices that are rooted in systemic injustice and ingrained prejudice. Living God, use this money to help in practical ways, and use it to build up the global faith community, as we take our lead from Jesus. Amen
Written by David Sparks, Summerland, B.C.
Gathering, Easter*Lent 2025, p.49. Used with permission.
SUNG BLESSING: VU #574 vs 4
4 Come to my heart, O thou wonderful love!
Come and abide, come and abide,
lifting my life till it rises above
envy and falsehood and pride:
seeking to be, seeking to be
lowly and humble, a learner of thee. ©
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 05 25
“If We are Faithful in Small Ways”
Acts 16:9-15
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.
Parenthood is no bed of roses.
As rewarding and fulfilling as it can be, it is also difficult.
When Lily was a baby, I thought
“When she starts sleeping through the night that will be the day.”
Well, she sleeps through the night, but I have found she has other ways of keeping her old man awake at night.
And there is Emily and Thomas too.
There is so much to worry about: who are their friends, what are they doing, what will happen each day at school, what is really going on inside those cute little heads of theirs?
Being a parent is a huge responsibility.
When they are little they depend on us for everything.
At the beginning all they can do is cry.
And it doesn’t get any better.
Parents are also responsible for making sure they have the education they need; that they have values that will serve them well in their lives.
Parenthood is such a huge responsibility, what can we do?
I imagine that Lydia and Paul in our Lesson today had the same feeling of being overburdened with responsibility.
Both Paul and Lydia were called by God to witness to Christ in some very unfavorable and burdensome circumstances.
Paul’s calling was to be an Apostle and eyewitness of the gospel to the Gentiles.
On his journeys he came to the city of Philippi.
Philippi wasn’t the kind of place where people would want to hear about Christ.
The people of Philippi had made themselves the leading city in the district by hard work.
Philippi had started off as a little town.
But it had allied itself with kings and emperors and the powers of this world and made itself the leading city in its district.
They had no need for a Saviour who dies on a cross.
Their saviour was Rome.
They had no need of the Jew’s God.
They had plenty of gods of their own.
So when Paul came to this city I imagine he threw his arms up and said,
“What can I do?!”
Usually, Paul got around these problems by going to the synagogue in town first.
There he could speak to people who honoured the same Scriptures.
And he could announce to them that the Messiah had come.
From the converts he found there he would have a base of operations to reach out to the rest of the city.
But there wasn’t even a Synagogue in Philippi.
Under such circumstances many people would just give up.
Why waste time on a lost cause.
Sometimes it seems better to engage in a strategic retreat.
Many people would have spent one night and been on their way to the next city where the prospects were more rosy.
Many people would have given up in desperation, but not Paul.
No, Paul, despite the odds, went about his business.
Paul couldn’t find a Synagogue but it says, “On the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.”
He couldn’t find a synagogue but he could find a few God fearing women who would listen to the good news he had for them.
He did what he could: He sat down and taught the women.
One of the women, Lydia, is said to be a worshiper of God.
These women were Jews or they at least sought to worship the one true God which the Jews worshipped.
It would have taken twelve Jewish men to found a synagogue.
These women were not allowed to start-up one and call a rabbi on their own.
So they faithfully gathered by the river and worshipped as best they could.
When Paul came to speak to their gathering Lydia’s heart was touched by what he had said:
As folk used to say, God “laid a burden on her heart.”
She heard the Good News that the Messiah had come to save, and she felt the Spirit urging her to tell the world about it.
God opened her heart and called her to the ministry of spreading the Gospel.
But what could she do?
In her day and time women did not have many freedoms or much power.
As in many churches today, she probably would not have been allowed to preach.
There were few, like Paul, who would sit down and teach her about God.
In a town like Philippi she had the right to run her own business, but not much else.
She wouldn’t have been allowed to be the formal leader of a religious community.
But in a colony of Rome she did have the right to own property.
There were a lot of things that Lydia couldn’t do because she was a woman and the people of her time didn’t allow women to do such things.
But she and her household were baptized.
And she urged Paul to stay with them for a while so that he could teach them.
So Paul stayed, and people began meeting in Lydia’s house to hear the Good News that Paul had brought them.
Lydia’s house became the meeting place for the newly founded church in Philippi.
In many ways the church in Philippi was born in Lydia’s home.
Before two weeks were up the authorities in Philippi required Paul to leave town.
It seemed he was causing too much trouble.
Despite these humble beginnings, the Church at Philippi became one of the greatest churches of the first century.
It is one of the few churches to which Paul never had to write an angry word.
Despite all its troubles, all the strikes it had against it, it grew to be a great church and an example of what Christ can do in people’s lives.
Paul didn’t make the church at Philippi great.
He had been there less than two week.
He didn’t baptize many people and did not have much of a chance to teach anyone.
The only leadership he left that church with was a woman who owned a cloth shop.
And the sanctuary was Lydia’s house.
As far as we know Paul never returned to Philippi.
But he had told some women by the river about Jesus.
Lydia didn’t make the church at Philippi great either.
It is true that God utilized her as an instrument of spreading the Good News.
But she wouldn’t have been allowed by law or custom to take the leadership role which would have been needed.
All she did was have her household baptized, and open her home to be used as a place where Paul could stay and the new believers could meet.
Paul didn’t make the church at Philippi great.
Lydia, bless her, didn’t make the church at Philippi great.
God made that church great.
God took those actions of faith of Lydia and Paul and used them as a starting point.
Both Paul and Lydia did what little they could do in the face of circumstances which were against them.
They did what little they could do and trusted that God would do the rest.
I believe the story of the founding of the Church at Philippi has a message of hope for us all and for the church as a whole.
Yesterday’s Regional Council Annual Meeting in Bowmanville had some very discouraging projections for the state of the United Church of Canada in 2035.
This is not a surprise to us who have been successfully managing decline and amalgamations over the last decade.
Today, we are between Mother’s Day and Father’s day.
Being a mother, or a father for that matter, is a calling just like the calling God gave to Lydia and Paul.
It is true that parents are not called to help lay the foundation of a Christian Church.
But Christian parents and grandparents are called to help lay the foundation of a Christian—and in many ways that can be much harder.
Where do we even begin to lay the spiritual foundation for our children and grandchildren?
We need to have that foundation for ourselves.
We have to be grounded in Christ.
We have to sit at the feet of a teacher like Lydia did and as Paul had done before he began his mission.
It is true that each person has to make a decision for Christ for themselves, but our children learn by watching us.
If we want them to pray, they need to see us praying.
Yet that seems like so little in the face of such a huge task.
Glory be to God, we don’t have to do it alone.
While God calls us to do the little things that we can, God is there to help us do the rest.
Ultimately what it comes down to is trusting God.
Let us respond to God and trust that we can do the best we can.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
