Service Sunday November 23, 2025
HIGHLAND HILLS UNITED CHURCH
Minden, Ontario
All are Welcome!
Reign of Christ Sunday
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:
We respectfully acknowledge that we are participating in this worship on the traditional territories of many different indigenous peoples. With gratitude to all of our First Nations, Metis, Inuit and all First Peoples across Canada, may we remember that we are not separate from the earth which sustains us. We respect the history, languages and cultures of the first peoples of Treaty 20, whose traditional territories we now share. We are grateful and open to the wisdom of the Elders and the teachings of those who are Two Spirit. May their wisdom inspire our actions in today’s world.
THE APPROACH
CALL TO WORSHIP:
One: Another year passes.
ALL: Things end and things begin.
One: Birth. Life. Death. Life beyond death.
ALL: Nothing is constant!
One: Everything changes. Everything except this:
ALL: God’s love is with me. God’s love is with you. God’s love is with all creation.
One: Today?
ALL: Yesterday. Today. Forever.
One: And all creation is held safe in that love.
ALL: And all creation is transformed in that love.
One: Let us worship the God who loves us, yesterday, today, and forever.
Written by Richard Bott, Grace U.C., Burlington, Ont.
Gathering, Pentecost 2 2025, p.49. Used with permission
HYMN: “Christ Is Made the Sure Foundation” VU #325
1 Christ is made the sure foundation,
Christ the head and cornerstone,
chosen of the Lord, and precious,
binding all the church in one,
holy Zion's help for ever,
and its confidence alone.
2 To this temple where we call you,
come, O Lord of hosts, today;
with your faithful loving-kindness
hear your servants as they pray,
and your fullest benediction
shed within its walls alway.
3 Here bestow on all your servants
what they ask of you to gain,
what they gain from you for ever
with the blessed to retain,
and hereafter in your glory
evermore with you to reign.
4 Laud and honour to the Father,
laud and honour to the Son,
laud and honour to the Spirit,
ever three and ever one,
one in might, and one in glory,
while unending ages run.
OPENING PRAYER: Spoken in Unison
We praise you and thank you, transforming and reassuring God, in whom exist all things! Creator God, who birthed this marvellous earth on which we live, you exist in all things! Holy Spirit, who breathed over the waters of creation to give it life, you exist in all things! Holy Spirit, who breathed over the waters of creation to give it life, you exist in all things! Child of God, Firstborn of Creation, through you, God became visible and lived among us. You exist in all things, the visible and the invisible! On this Reign of Christ Sunday, we acknowledge that Christ’s realm of hope and love dwells in each of us. Transforming God, embolden us with an urgency to further Christ’s kin-dom in all communities, far and wide. We thank you Holy One, that you have made us fit to live and serve in the Beloved Son’s kin-dom. Let our aimless wanderings be things of the past. All grace and peace and mercy exist in you, Gracious God for ever and ever! Amen.
Written by Anne Mathewson, St. David’s Trinity U.C., Saskatoon, Sask.
Gathering, Pentecost 2 2025, p.49. Used with permission
MINISTRY OF MUSIC
LEARNING TOGETHER:
HYMN: “Christ Has No Body Now but Yours” MV #171
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.
1. No hands but yours to heal the wounded world,
no hands but yours to soothe all its suffering,
no touch but yours to bind the broken hope
of the people of God. Refrain
2. No eyes but yours to see as Christ would see,
to find the lost, to gaze with compassion;
no eyes but yours to glimpse the holy joy
of the city of God. Refrain
3. No feet but yours to journey with the poor,
to walk this world with mercy and justice.
Yours are the steps to build a lasting peace
for the children of God. Refrain
4. 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
THE WORD
Scripture: Colossians 1:11-20
Leader: Hear and listen to what the Spirit is saying to the church.
ALL: Thanks be to God.
MESSAGE:
“Christ Our King”
Listen to an audio recording of the message or read it below at the bottom of this page. (I forgot to plug in my microphone so I’ll have to try recording again after church!)
OUR RESPONSE
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE and
A CONTEMPORARY INTERPRETATION OF THE LORD’S PRAYER: (paraphrase) VU #916
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.
HYMN: “We Are Pilgrims” VU #595
1 We are pilgrims on a journey,
fellow travellers on the road;
we are here to help each other
walk the mile and bear the load.
2 Sister, let me be your servant,
let me be as Christ to you;
pray that I may have the grace to
let you be my servant too.
3 I will hold the Christ-light for you
in the night-time of your fear;
I will hold my hand out to you,
speak the peace you long to hear.
4 I will weep when you are weeping,
when you laugh I'll laugh with you;
I will share your joy and sorrow,
till we've seen this journey through.
5 When we sing to God in heaven,
we shall find such harmony,
born of all we've known together
of Christ's love and agony.
6 Brother, let me be your servant,
let me be as Christ to you;
pray that I may have the grace to
let you be my servant too.
PRESENTATION OF OUR OFFERINGS
OFFERTORY PRAYER: In Unison
Loving God, these offerings are part of our response to your call. We also respond with other ways of supporting our church and community through visits and phone calls made, notes written, food delivered, and prayers on behalf of others. We ask that you bless theses offerings and multiply them by your grace so that the work of this congregation may be accomplished to your glory. Amen.
Written by Beth W Johnston, Bridging Waters P.C., Nipawin, Sask.
Gathering, Pentecost 2 2025, p.50. 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 23
“Christ Our King”
Colossians 1:11-20
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.
We don’t personally know much about kings.
We know the definition but have little experience of them.
We have all grown up in a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarchy.
To us, kings are the characters in fairy tales or stories from long ago and far away.
When we think of a monarch, we think of King Charles the III or Queen Elizabeth the II, living in England.
A noble man, and before him, his mother, a noble woman to be admired, but both are hardly an example of what monarchs historically have been.
A genuine monarchy is something we have no firsthand experience of.
As a result, we modern people don’t really know what we mean when we call Christ our King.
To understand what “Christ the King” means we need to understand what a monarchy is.
Let me contrast it with the form of government we know, parliamentary democracy.
The way that a parliamentary democracy works is rather plain to us.
In a parliamentary democracy power is distributed evenly among the people.
In a parliamentary democracy, the people tell the leaders what to do.
If they don’t do what we say, we vote them out of office.
In an absolute monarchy, things work the other way around.
All the power belongs to the King or Queen.
The monarch tells the people what to do and the people obey.
If they don’t, the Monarch has the authority to punish them for it.
Now hold on to your socks.
I have some news for you that might be shocking for some.
The Kingdom of God is not a parliamentary democracy, thank goodness!
It is a monarchy.
You may say, “But our founding Fathers and Mothers set forth on this continent a new nation founded on the ideals of democracy.”
Yet in the beginning, God set forth in the midst of nothing a universe and said I am King here.
In the Kingdom of Heaven, God is the source of all authority.
God tells us what to do, not the other way around.
As Christians, we are citizens or subjects of the Kingdom of God.
In Colossians, the Bible tells us that we have been transferred into that kingdom.
Before we gave our lives to Christ, we were slaves to the powers of evil.
Yet when we were accepted by Christ, he delivered us from that domain.
Christ made us citizens of his kingdom.
Just as immigrants become Canadians, Jesus swore us into become citizens of the Kingdom of God.
We are like foreign nationals in this world.
We reside here, but this is not our home.
We are settlers whose homeland is faraway.
We are merely passing through on our way home.
Yet because we are foreign nationals, our allegiance is to our king and not only to this land.
We do not answer primarily to the authorities of this world.
The authority that we ultimately follow and answer to is our King in heaven.
If this world says, “hate your enemies,” and our King says, “love your enemies.”
Then it is our duty to love those who hate us.
If this world says, “the one who dies with the most toys wins,” but our King says, “lay up treasures in heaven.”
Then it is our duty to forsake the material to treasure the eternal in sharing with one another.
Christ is our King, but Christ is different from other rulers.
In this world, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
History has shown us that monarchs can be corrupt.
They can oppress their subjects by laying heavy burdens on them and making unreasonable demands upon them.
Monarchs in this world often distance themselves from their subjects and leave them powerless.
By contrast, Christ loves and cares for his subjects.
Christ’s power is absolute, but it remains pure in its desire to nurture and love.
Christ doesn’t push us down; he lifts us up.
He frees people from oppression and takes the heavy burdens from them.
Jesus empowers his people instead of depriving them.
Unlike the rulers of this world, Christ’s authority is made perfect in his servitude.
Christ’s power is made manifest through his weakness.
Instead of maintaining a distance from his subjects, Jesus became one of us.
He experienced our pain and he even died our death.
Therefore, Christ is uniquely qualified to be our King, because he knows us intimately and can care for us infinitely.
After pointing out that Christ is a loving servant King, Paul goes on.
He says, “We pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives.
It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.”(Col. 1:11-12)
This is at the beginning of the letter, and he is wishing them well.
Paul is saying, “May you be strong and may you be able to face life with patient endurance.”
But that is not all, Paul is wishing them the kind of endurance that finds joy and a reason to give thanks in the midst of the trials of this life.
What is the source of this great power that enables one to face life with that kind of patient joy?
Christ is the source!
Through Jesus Christ our God has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints.
Christ has transferred us from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of light.
We live in this world, but we are citizens of Heaven.
Christ is our source of strength, but who is Christ?
Paul writes, “We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen.
We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created.
For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.
He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment.
And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.
He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end.
From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone.
So spacious is he, so expansive, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding.
Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.”(Col. 1:15-20)
Christ Our King.
Christ: The only begotten Son of God, God in the flesh, light from light, True God from true God.
Our King: The one we answer to, the one who protects us, the one who is our authority.
He is the one who frees us and empowers us.
Is Christ your King?
If not, then make him your King today!
If he is your King, then be strong.
Be strong in the kind of strength that lets you face the troubles of life with calm assurance.
Be strong because your King and protector is the image of the invisible God.
Be strong in the face of this world’s demands because you answer to a higher authority.
Be strong in the face of darkness because you are a child and subject of the power of eternal light.
Be strong in the face of death because you have an eternal home in the heavens.
Be strong because Christ is your King.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
