Bulletin – Sunday, February 16, 2025 – Sixth Sunday after Epiphany / Communion
Sunday, February 16, 2025
Sixth Sunday after Epiphany/ Communion
We Gather as People of Faith
Welcome
Announcements
Lighting the Christ Candle
Call to Worship
One: We come today from many places
All: We come from our busy-ness, our stillness, our loneliness,
One: We come together, to be with God’s people, to hear God’s word for our lives
All: We gather to express gratitude, to be nourished and to be challenged to more faithful living.
One: May our time together bring greater light into our lives and the world.
All: Let us worship God.
Hymn – “Jesus Calls Us Here to Meet Him”
Jesus calls us here to meet him, as through word and song and prayer,
We affirm God’s promised presence where his people live and care.
Praise the God who keeps his promise, praise the Son who calls us friends;
Praise the Spirit who, among us, to our hopes and fears attends.
Jesus calls us to confess him, Word of Life and Lord of all,
Sharer of our flesh and frailness, saving all who fail or fall.
Tell his holy human story, tell his tales that all may hear,
Tell the world that Christ in glory, came to earth to meet us here.
Jesus calls us to each other, vastly diff’rent tough we are;
Race and colour, class and gender neither limit nor debar.
Join the hand of friend and stranger; join the hands of age and youth;
Join the faithful and the doubter in their common search for truth.
A Time of Centring
Words of Assurance
Sung Response – “Behold, Behold, I Make All Things New” (MV #115)
Behold, behold,
I make all things new, beginning with you
And starting from today.
Behold, behold,
I make all things new, my promise is true,
For I am Christ the way.
We Hear God’s Word
Scripture Reading: 1 Timothy 6:6-10, 17-19
6 Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it, 8 but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. 9 But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.
17 As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches but rather on God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, 19 thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.
Scripture Reading: Luke 12:16-28
16 Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17 And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ 18 Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ 20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
22 He said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! 25 And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life? 26 If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, you of little faith!
May God speak to us through these readings of scripture.
Thanks be to God!
Hymn – “Bigger Barns”
“Bigger barns are what I need!” So a rich man said one day.
“From my worries I’ll be free when my wealth is stored away.”
“Fool!” God said, “Today you’ll die! Will your wealth mean anything?
All life’s blessings really lie in my life that wealth can’t bring.”
“Bigger barns are what we need for our money, gadgets, more!”
Lord, we’re tempted to believe having wealth, we’ll be secure!
Somewhere children cry for food or to have a doctor’s care.
Can our bigger barns be good when poor neighbours know despair?
God of love, we long to know what will make us truly blest.
Jesus taught us long ago wealth won’t give us peace or rest.
You are our security! Safe in you, we serve, O Lord.
May we find we’re rich indeed when we’re sharing with the poor.
Meditation – “In the World or More, How Much is Enough”
Anthem – “Ka mana’o ‘I’ O”
Kamana’o ‘I’ O
O ko kakou Akua.
Faithful, faithful is our God.
In love there is no one more faithful than our God,
Who brings the light into our darkness.
The God who shares the breath of life with you me,
All living things upon the earth.
Kamana’o ‘I’ O
O ko kakou Akua.
Faithful, faithful is our God.
In quiet moments God whispers tenderly
The mystery of unending love.
For God is good, and holds us as we sleep,
To wake us to the morning light.
Kamana’o ‘I’ O
O ko kakou Akua.
Faithful, faithful is our God.
The mercy of our God we seek to share each day,
To help each other on our way,
To be God’s hands and heart with tenderness and care.
God’s faithfulness is always there.
Kamana’o ‘I’ O
O ko kakou Akua.
Faithful, faithful is our God.
When we share love, we share respect and care,
The gifts and bonds of human kindness.
And in our journey, may love lead the way.
To be God’s living, sing this day.
Kamana’o ‘I’ O
O ko kakou Akua.
Faithful, faithful is our God.
We Respond to God’s Word
An Invitation to Share
Offering Sung Response – “Grant Us, God, the Grace” (VU #540)
Grant us, God, the grace of giving;
With a spirit large and free,
That ourselves and all our living
We may offer faithfully.
Offering Prayer
One: Jesus Said, “Where your treasure is there your heart is also.
All: We offer our treasure to you, gracious God: to your Church, to your world, so that our hearts might find a true home in your. We pray that these gifts and our very lives may be used to bring new life to a hurting world.
Hymn – “As We Gather at Your Table” (VU #457)
As we gather at your table, as we listen to your word,
Help us know, O God, your presence; let our hearts and minds be stirred.
Nourish us with sacred story till we claim it as our own;
Teach us through this holy banquet how to make Love’s victory know.
Turn our worship into witness in the sacrament of life;
Send us forth to love and serve you, bringing peace where there is strife.
Give us, Christ, your great compassion to forgive as you forgave;
May we still behold your image in the world you died to save.
Gracious Spirit, help us summon other guests to share that feast
Where triumphant Love will welcome those who had been last and least.
There no more will envy blind us nor will pride our peace destroy,
As we join with saints and angels to repeat the sounding joy.
Communion
One: May God be with you
All: and also with you.
One: Lift your hearts.
All: We lift them up to God.
One: Let us give thanks to the God we love.
All: We freely give God thanks and praise.
One: It is right and meet, beautiful and holy that we should, in ceaseless joy. Give our thanks and praise to you, holy and merciful God.
One: You who accompanies our people, who lives within our struggles of all the earth and heaven the one and only God. Blessed those who in our God’s name announced the holy Gospel, proclaiming for the good news: our liberation comes.
One: Holy are you, Eternal One. You sit above, through, within the circle of the earth setting light into being casting the stars in the sky founding the evolving earth and all that dwell within it.
One: Limitless is your power, and great is your wisdom. You look upon the lowly as your most cherished creatures. You visit upon the downtrodden with presence, grace, and the promise of eternal justice.
One: You sent your prophets, poets, misfits, and minstrels to proclaim your kingdom of justice and shalom. Yet, we continued to wander away from the light of your love.
One: You sent to us your own child, Jesus, who reached into unexpected places, calling women beyond the limits of their times equipping men from nurturing love welcoming children into your holy embrace.
One: In his coming we found the light of your presence with us we continue to look for your presence with us today. Loving God we are blessed that you continue to reach out to us even in our wandering.
One: And so we recall that on the night of betrayal and desertion, the light of the world took bread, broke, and gave it to the disciples, saying;
One: “This is the bread of life, given for you. Each time you eat this bread, do this for the remembrance of me.”
One: And, in like manner, after supper, Jesus took the cup and after giving thanks give it to them saying,
One: “This is the cup of the new covenant poured out for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink of it, for the remembrance of me.”
One: Life’s greatest feast before us, we excitedly proclaim.
All: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
One: Dear God, you transform. You transform all that is before you so that at the touch of your grace we are never the same.
One: Dear God, you illumine. You bring light to all peoples light to the nations, light into our hearts, light on your Way.
One: Dear God, we pray for your Spirit. Transform, illumine, bless. Make these ordinary gifts of bread and cup into the extraordinary presence for Christ with us. In so doing, hold us as your own renew us as your people for the sake of the world you love.
One: For all honour and glory are yours, O God, through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit in your glorious creation both now and forever. Amen.
One: The Bread of Life.
One: The Cup of the New Covenant.
Prayer after Communion
We have been fed, Holy One, by your presence. We have been led, Eternal One, by your light. May we bask in this glow now and forevermore. Amen.
Prayers of the People
Prayer Jesus Taught Us
All: Our Father, who are in heaven, hallowed by thy name, thy kingdom come, they will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.
We Go Into God’s World
Hymn – “Companions on the Journey”
We are companions on the journey,
Breaking bread and sharing life,
And in the love we bear is the hope we share
For we believe in the love of our God,
We believe in the love of our God.
No longer strangers to each other,
No longer strangers in God’s house;
We are fed and we are nourished by the strength of those who care,
By the strength of those who care.
We are companions on the journey,
Breaking bread and sharing life;
And in the love we bear is the hope we share
For we believe in the love of our God,
We believe in the love of our God.
We have been gifted with each other,
And we are called by the Word of the Lord
To act with justice, to love tenderly,
And to walk humbly with our God,
To walk humbly with our God.
We are companions on the journey,
Breaking bread and sharing life;
And in the love we bear is the hope we share
For we believe in the love of our God,
We believe in the love of our God.
We shall seek and we shall find;
We will knock and the door will be opened;
We will ask and it shall be given,
For we believe in the love of our God,
We believe in the love of our God.
We are companions on the journey,
Breaking bread and sharing life;
And in the love we bear is the hope we share
For we believe in the love of our God,
We believe in the love of our God.
We are made for the glory of our God,
For service in the name of Jesus;
To walk side by side with hope in our hearts.
For we believe in the love of our God,
We believe in the love of our God.
We are companions on the journey,
Breaking bread and sharing life;
And in the love we bear is the hope we share
For we believe in the love of our God,
We believe in the love of our God.
Benediction
One: We have been fed
All: in body, mind and spirit.
One: In gratitude we go out
All: to share the good news, in word and in deed.
One: We are not alone
All: Thanks be to God.
Sung Response – “Lead me Lord, I Will Follow”
Lead me Lord, I will Follow.
Lead me Lord, I will go.
You have called me, I will answer.
Lead me Lord, I will go.
