Service Sunday October 12, 2025
HIGHLAND HILLS UNITED CHURCH
Minden, Ontario
All are Welcome!
Happy Thanksgiving 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:
As we gather here on the ancestral territory of the Nishnaabeg, let us be thankful that God/Creator is with us, calling us to be ministers of reconciliation as light for all God’s people.
THE APPROACH
A MUSICAL CALL TO WORSHIP: by the Choir “Thanksgiving Song”
HYMN: “Come, You Thankful People, Come” VU #516
1 Come, you thankful people, come,
raise the song of harvest home!
All is safely gathered in,
safe before the storms begin;
God, our maker, does provide
for our needs to be supplied:
come to God's own temple, come,
raise the song of harvest home!
2 All the world is God's own field,
harvests for God's praise to yield;
wheat and weeds together sown,
here for joy or sorrow grown;
first the blade, and then the ear,
then the full corn shall appear:
Harvest-giver, grant that we
wholesome grain and pure may be.
3 For our God, one day, shall come,
and shall take this harvest home;
from the field shall in that day
all offences purge away;
giving angels charge at last
in the fire the weeds to cast;
but the fruitful ears to store
in the garner evermore.
4 Even so, God, quickly come
to your final harvest home!
Gather all your people in,
free from sorrow, free from sin;
there for ever purified,
in your presence to abide:
come, with all your angels, come,
raise the glorious harvest home.
OPENING PRAYER: Spoken in Unison
Creator God, provider of seed, water, and sun, we give you thanks! For the health and energy of bodies to complete the harvest, we give you thanks! For the support of families as we labour, we give you thanks! For neighbours who pool resources to bring in the harvest, we give you thanks! For your amazing love and grace, we give you thanks!
Written by Anne Mathewson, St. David’s Trinity U.C., Saskatoon, Sask.
Gathering, Pentecost 2 2025, p.43. Used with permission
NEW HYMN: “We Give Our Thanks” MV #187
1. We give our thanks to God, (4X)
2. We give our hands to you, (3X)
because you reached for us.
3. Re - a - mo le - bo - ga, (3X) (Tswana)
Mo - di – mo ro – na.
4. We give our eyes to you, (3X)
because you looked for us.
5. We give our feet to you, (3X)
because you walk with us.
6. Nous ren – dons grâce à Dieu. (4X) (French)
7. We give our hearts to you, (3X)
because you first loved us.
MINISTRY OF MUSIC:
THE WORD
Scripture: John 6:25-35
Leader: Hear and listen to what the Spirit is saying to the church.
ALL: Thanks be to God.
MESSAGE:
“Like a Tim Horton’s on the Highway”
Listen to an audio recording of the message below or read about 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: “We Plough The Fields” VU #520
1 We plough the fields and scatter
the good seed on the land,
but it is fed and watered
by your almighty hand;
you send the snow in winter,
the warmth to swell the grain,
the breezes and the sunshine,
and soft refreshing rain.
Refrain All good gifts around us
are sent from heaven above;
we thank you, God, O holy God,
for all your love.
2 You only are the maker
of all things near and far;
you paint the wayside flower,
you light the evening star;
the winds and waves obey you,
by you the birds are fed;
much more to us, your children,
you give us daily bread. Refrain
3 We thank you then, O Maker,
for all things bright and good,
the seed-time and the harvest,
our life, our health, our food;
accept the gifts we offer
for all your love imparts,
and, what from us you long for,
our humble, thankful hearts. Refrain
PRESENTATION OF OUR OFFERINGS
OFFERTORY PRAYER: In Unison
Great Giver, God of the Harvest, Creator of All—miigwech for this day. Miigwech for the harvest. Miigwech for each other. Thank you very much, chi miigwech, for your love. Let our commitments be blessed by you and let all we give and receive be in love. Amen.
Written by Whitney Bruno, Little Curent & Sheguiandah U.C., Little Current, Ont.
Gathering, Pentecost 2 2025, p.44. Used with permission
SUNG BLESSING “God Be with You till We Meet Again” VU #422 v3
God be with you till we meet again;
when life's perils thick confound you,
put unfailing arms around you;
God be with you till we meet again.
Till we meet, till we meet,
till we meet at Jesus' feet;
till we meet, till we meet,
God be with you till we meet again.
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 12 October 2025
“Like a Tim Horton’s on the Highway”
John 6:25-35
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.
Last night the phone rang at 3 a.m. at the minister’s house.
On the other end was a dear elderly woman, who will remain nameless, who said,
“Rev. Max, I can’t sleep.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that,” I comforted her.
“But what can I do about it?” I said.
She sweetly replied, “Preach to me a while, reverend.”
I couldn’t resist that joke this morning.
Now let us begin with the message and I don’t want to see anyone nodding off!
Our God is a generous God.
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life”.
Jesus invites us to share in the bread of life with others.
The Kingdom of heaven can be compared to a Tim Horton’s on the Highway.
Every day people searching for a drink and food zoom by.
Every day people dying of thirst and hunger pass the Tim Horton’s.
Some even died within a few meters of its brightly lit sign.
Inside Tim Horton’s were shelves filled with more than enough to eat & drink to save those dying.
Large signs pointed the way to Tim Horton’s, but people still perished.
Despite flashing lights proclaiming: “Coffee”, “Sandwiches” & “donuts,” people still died of thirst and hunger within the glow of the lights.
So the owner of the Tim Horton’s went out to tell the people that there was food and drink there.
He went out and shouted, “I know where you can find food and drink.”
Some scoffed, “Who are you to tell us where there is food and drink?”
“You are on this endless highway just like us.”
“You thirst and hunger just as we do.”
But a few followed the owner and found coffee and sandwiches to live.
God’s presence with the children of Israel was much like a Tim Horton’s on the highway.
When God led Israel out of slavery he led them through a desert; a place free of fresh food and water.
There was no food and water but God provided food daily.
Each morning, manna came from heaven to feed them.
And God provided water from a rock.
But there was more to it than bread and water to keep the physical body alive.
The manna and water in the wilderness were like bright signs pointing to God.
God gave them just enough for each day for a reason.
God wanted to show them who was the source of their food and water.
God wanted the truth firmly ingrained in their soul that each second of life was a gift from God.
But that wasn’t all!
God also wanted them to realize that the more important things in life, not just food and water, come from God.
God can fill the hungry soul with peace.
God can quench the heart’s thirst for love.
God can take a dull and meaningless existence and turn it into a life of joy.
But some didn’t learn.
Even with the law and the prophets to point them to God, they perished.
Despite those signs of faith they died of spiritual hunger and thirst.
So God came in Jesus to tell the people personally.
God came in Christ to point the way to living water and bread.
And today’s lesson tells us what happened.
Jesus had recently fed 5,000 hungry people.
But like so many of their ancestors they could not see the deeper meaning.
They sought only bread to fill their bellies instead of spiritual bread to fill their hearts.
Then Jesus made it as plain as he could.
He said, “I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”
He had come into the world and was telling them that if they came to him and believed, then they would find the living food they needed.
Some believed and some didn’t.
Those who believed Jesus, followed him.
A few fishermen, a couple of tax collectors and even a thief on a cross all found energy and life on the highway.
The others were consumed by their own hatred and had Jesus killed only to hear that he had risen again!
The kingdom of heaven is still like a Tim Horton’s on the highway.
The world that we live in seems like a spiritual wasteland.
That is why many people are so desperately thirsty.
Some become plagued with addictions.
They want something to fill the emptiness.
All addictive things pretend to offer meaning in life.
But they are not the way to find meaning.
Yet within the Kingdom of God is the bread and water people need to survive.
In the Kingdom of God is the presence of God that can fill the emptiness.
In God’s Kingdom is the peace and meaning that we hunger for.
In God’s kingdom is the love and acceptance that we thirst.
Jesus is that bread of life and the living water given for the world to find new life.
It is true that we have signs and steeples pointing the way to Christ.
But many don’t see them.
We need to go to others where they are and bring them a taste of the love and peace of God.
Then we need to lead them back to this place where they can find living water and bread from heaven.
That is what this scripture passage means to me.
That is what Holy Communion, is all about.
That is what Thanksgiving, is all about.
Jesus is the bread of life and people need to know that.
Every Sunday, we come to eat, to be filled by the love of God.
Then we go to bring the hungering and thirsting souls to eat and drink with us around God’s table.
Our God is a generous God.
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life”.
Jesus invites us to share in the bread of life with others this Thanksgiving.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
