Service Sunday November 9, 2025
HIGHLAND HILLS UNITED CHURCH
Minden, Ontario
Remembrance Sunday
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 LAND:
As we gather to worship, let us pause to remember that in this region we live and work and worship on territories that are, by law, the unceded territories of the Nishnaabeg people. May we live with respect on this territory, and live in peace and friendship with its people.
THE APPROACH
NATIONAL ANTHEM: “O Canada” VU #524 plus three additional verses!
1 O Canada! Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all of us command.
With glowing hearts, we see thee rise,
the True North strong and free!
From far and wide, O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
Refrain:
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
2 O Canada! Where pines and maples grow.
Great prairies spread and lordly rivers flow.
How dear to us thy broad domain,
From East to Western Sea,
Though land of hope for all who toil!
Thou True North, strong and free! Refrain:
3 O Canada! Beneath thy shining skies
May stalwart sons and gentle maidens rise,
To keep thee steadfast through the years
From East to Western sea,
Our own beloved native land!
Our True North, strong and free! Refrain:
Refrain:
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
4 Ruler Supreme, who hearest humble prayer,
Hold our dominion within thy loving care;
Help us to find, O God, in thee
A lasting, rich reward,
As waiting for the Better Day,
We ever stand on guard. Refrain:
CALL TO WORSHIP:
One: In times of war, in times of peace --
ALL: the Creator is present.
One: On the battlefield, at the peace table --
ALL: the Christ is present.
One: With the wounded and the dying, and with those who wait --
ALL: the Spirit is present.
One: And what is God doing?
ALL: Grieving over the injustice.
Grieving over the brokenness.
Grieving over the loss.
One: And?
ALL: And calling us back to repentance, to renewal, to life abundant, to peace.
One: So today, in our remembrance, in our songs, in our prayers…
ALL: let us worship the One who is with All, no matter what. Let us worship God as we remember.
Written by Richard Bott, Grace U.C., Burlington, Ont.
Gathering, Pentecost 2 2025, p.47. Used with permission
OPENING PRAYER: Spoken in Unison
In a world lost in unrest, we pray for your peace, O God. In a world lost in mistrust, we pray for your peace, O God. In a world in which wars and violence continue, we pray for your peace, O God. In a climate of fear and frustration, we pray for your peace, O God. When we want to draw inward, may your peace, O God, help us to keep our spirits open to opportunities to share your compassion and care. In this world, O God, may we be a beacon of peace. Amen
Written by Richard Bott, Grace U.C., Burlington, Ont.
Gathering, Pentecost 2 2025, p.47-48. Used with permission
MINISTRY OF MUSIC
SERVICE OF REMEMBRANCE:
‘In Flanders Fields’
(Lt Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) Canadian Army)
- Last Post
- Two Minutes Silence
- Reveille
Act of Remembrance:
“They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
we will remember them.”
ALL: We will remember them.
Presentation of Remembrance Wreath
THE WORD
Scripture: 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17
Leader: Hear and listen to what the Spirit is saying to the church.
ALL: Thanks be to God.
MESSAGE:
“Put a Fresh Heart in You”
Listen to an audio recording of the message below or read it at the bottom of this page.
OUR RESPONSE
CANDLE LIGHTING LITURGY:
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE and
THE LORD’S PRAYER: spoken VU#921
HYMN: “God! As With Silent Hearts” VU #527
1 God! As with silent hearts we bring to mind
how hate and war diminish humankind,
we pause, and seek in worship to increase
our knowledge of the things that make for peace.
2 Hallow our will as humbly we recall
the lives of those who gave and give their all.
We thank you, God, for women, children, men
who seek to serve in love, today as then.
3 Give us deep faith to comfort those who mourn,
high hope to share with all the newly born,
strong love in our pursuit of human worth:
'lest we forget' the future of this earth.
4 So, Prince of Peace, disarm our trust in power,
teach us to coax the plant of peace to flower.
May we, impassioned by your living Word,
remember forward to a world restored.
PRESENTATION OF OUR OFFERINGS
OFFERTORY PRAYER: In Unison
Abundant God, bless our commitments. Let our gifts of love multiply and shower the world with love. Let us be each other’s encouragement and building up. Amen.
Written by Whitney Bruno, Little Current and Sheguiandah U.C., Little Current, Ont.
Gathering, Pentecost 2 2025, p.38. Used with permission
SUNG BLESSING (MV #173 vs 5)
Reach out in friendship,
stay with faith in touch with those around you.
Put peace into each other’s hands;
the Peace that sought and found you. ©
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 2025 11 09
“Put a Fresh Heart in You”
2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17
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.
Today’s reading from the second letter that Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica, starts off with some pretty interesting ideas about when Jesus will return in the future.
I don’t want to get into that discussion today.
It is the second half of the reading that I want to focus on.
Even still, the way we think about the future impacts every decision and thought we have in the present.
If we foresee a hopeless future, it is really hard to motivate ourselves in the present to work hard or save or plan ahead or any number of important daily tasks.
Yet, if we believe in a better world and hopeful future, we are motivated to make that a reality.
The Apostle Paul is addressing this hopelessness in the people of the newly formed church despite the struggles of their daily lives.
We all struggle in our daily lives too even though we hold out hope in Jesus.
Remembrance Day and Remembrance Sunday hold for me that hope of peace even as we acknowledge the pain of past wars and the violence of war in the present in many places around the world.
This story reminds me that all hope is not lost.
UNKNOWN SOLDIER
By Deirdre Reilly
Although it is Autumn now, one way to keep Christmas in your heart all year long is to remember the lessons of Christmas throughout the year.
This brings me to recall something very special that happened to two men and three children, and bears repeating.
Very early in the morning last December, my husband and my eight-year-old son happened across a Canadian Forces soldier on an exit ramp near the town where we live.
It was a very cold Sunday morning, when frost lay on the ground and tree limbs were stark and twisted against a thick gray sky.
Not too many other cars were out, and those who were out were hurrying to get somewhere, exhaust coming from each car in warm-looking puffs as they glided down the highway, frost still on the windshields.
My husband and son were coming home from my son’s 6 AM hockey game, and looking forward to getting breakfast out together and then returning home, where the rest of us lay dreaming.
As my husband approached the end of the ramp the soldier got out of his car, a grey Maxima that had broken down.
The soldier was in full dress uniform, and was cold, and very young; early twenties, my husband guessed.
My husband pulled over to see what he could do to help.
The soldier needed a cell phone, he said – he was going to call his girlfriend to see if she could come and get him and his two daughters – his daughters were bundled into the cold car – and bring them back home to Petawawa, where they lived.
My husband looked into the car and saw the soldier’s four-year-old, dressed in her best party dress, and a baby, zipped up to her chin into her thick snuggly.
The three of them had been on their way to a Christmas party at the CFB Kingston barracks when the car had chosen that time to die.
At this point, the soldier was just trying to get home; the party had been given up on.
The little girl grinned at my husband from the back seat, and I know he must have grinned back at her, too.
My husband moved the little girls into our car, where the four-year-old proceeded to become very interested in my eight-year-old –
“she was patting me,” he reported in a resigned way to me later, upon the re-telling of their memorable morning –
and the men talked about the young soldier’s options.
My husband told me that this young man was, to him, a soldier first – someone who already, with his young life, done much for us just by his service – but he was also a young man who still didn’t have all the answers.
We have a son of our own who is just a few years younger than this soldier who was sitting beside him.
The soldier didn’t have CAA, and he had no one to call for help.
As the baby stared, round-eyed, at them all, my husband offered his CAA for a tow, and then offered to take the soldier and the children into Kingston for the party.
The soldier had decided to just try to get back home, and so they called for the tow and my husband offered to drive the three of them back to Petawawa.
They chatted as they waited; my husband commented that the Christmas party sure was early, if they had been on the road at six in the morning, and the soldier commented that
“the Army does everything early.”
They all sat together, my family and his, and then headed up north after the tow truck came, the soldier’s broken-down car following behind them.
There is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, guarded during the day in Ottawa, but there is also the living Unknown Soldier, among us every day.
Crippled by war, perhaps, or mentally ravaged by what he or she has seen in a country far away, or maybe just young, and needing a hand with the stuff of everyday life – they are here, with us right now.
We are sometimes stymied by the Canadian soldier –
how do you begin to thank people who pick up a gun and say good-bye to everyone who matters and fly far away because they believe in protecting the country we all live in?
Sometimes, you give them a cell phone and your CAA, and make sure their children are warm.
My husband watched the uniformed soldier and his dressed-up little girls climb the steps of their big old three-family house, where toys dotted the yard and the frost was beginning to thaw and show the green underneath.
My husband was reluctant to talk about this to me, downplaying the aid he had offered.
But eight year-olds sing like canaries.
I think my husband feels that at the end of the day, it was just one dad helping another dad get his children home.
And one man helping another, too, trying, through his actions to say thank you very much, Unknown Soldier, for all you have given up and gone through and laid down for all of us, even though to you, we are Unknown Canadians.
Our Scripture says that the Apostle Paul is thanking God for the good friends of the church - so loved by God!
He didn’t yet know them personally, but he encourage them all the same with these words,
“So, friends, take a firm stand, feet on the ground and head high.
Keep a tight grip on what you were taught, whether in personal conversation or by our letter.
May Jesus himself and God our Father, who reached out in love and surprised you with gifts of unending help and confidence, put a fresh heart in you, invigorate your work, enliven your speech.”
Even though the people were still unknown to Paul, he offered his words of support and the love of Christ.
Let us offer our support to our friends and neighbours.
Let us encourage each other; those known to us and even those unknown.
Let us share the love and hope of Jesus.
For we create a better world in Jesus’ name when we uphold each other.
We create the peace we yearn to find in the small actions of knowing one another.
May this Remembrance message put a “fresh heart in you” this day as we look forward to Christ’s peace yet to come.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
