Bulletin – Sunday, June 23, 2024 – Fifth Sunday after Pentecost / Communion

Sunday, June 23, 2024
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost / Communion

We Gather as People of Faith

Welcome

Announcements

Lighting the Christ Candle

Call to Worship

One:   We gather as companions of Jesus.
All:      We gather as companions of the resurrected Christ.

One:   We are gathered in the creative love of God.
All:      We are gathered in the life-shaping grace of God.

One:   Let us open our hearts to God.
All:      Let us be renewed in our hope and faith. Amen.

Hymn – “Come and Find the Quiet Centre” (VU #374)

Come and find the quiet centre in the crowded life we lead,
Find the room for hope to enter, find the frame where we are freed:
Clear the chaos and the clutter, clear our eyes that we can see
All the things that really matter, be at peace, and simply be.

Silence is a friend who claims us, cools the heat and slows the pace,
God it is who speaks and names us, knows our being, face to face,
Making space within our thinking, lifting shades to show the sun,
Raising courage when we’re shrinking, finding scope for faith begun.

In the Spirit let us travel, open to each other’s pain,
Let our loves and fears unravel, celebrate the space we gain:
There’s a place for deepest dreaming, there’s a time for heart to care,
In the Spirit’s lively scheming there is always room to space!

Prayer of Approach and Confession

God, bless this time of worship. Let us be aware of Your image within us. Let us be aware that we are a community of people befriended by Jesus, invited to be agents of hope and healing in this world.

We confess, God, that we live in anxious times. We confess that too often we fail to see others a people created in Your image, as children of God. We confess that we find it difficult to trust that we live in Your world.

God, deepen our faith, renew our hope, free us from indifference and let us be bearers of the love of Christ. Amen.

Words of Assurance

We are not alone. We live in God’s world. Nothing removes us from God’s love. God will renew our faith and open our hearts so that we may be resurrection people of healing, hope, and love. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Sung Response – “Spirit of Life” (VU #381)

Spirit of Life, come unto me.
Sing in my heart all the stirrings of compassion.
Blow in the wind, rise in the sea; move in the hand, giving life the shape of justice.
Roots hold me close; wings set me free;
Spirit of Life, come to me, come to me.

We Hear God’s Word

Scripture Reading:        Job 38:1-11

¹ Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind: ² “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? ³ Gird up your loins like a man; I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

⁴ “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. ⁵ Who determined its measurements—surely you know!  Or who stretched the line upon it? ⁶ On what were its bases sunk,  or who laid its cornerstone ⁷ when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?

⁸ “Or who shut in the sea with doors  when it burst out from the womb, ⁹ when I made the clouds its garment    and thick darkness its swaddling band, ¹⁰ and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors, ¹¹ and said, ‘Thus far shall you come and no farther,  and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?

Scripture Reading:         Mark 4:35-41

³⁵ On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” ³⁶ And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. ³⁷ A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. ³⁸ But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” ³⁹ And waking up, he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Be silent! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. ⁴⁰ He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” ⁴¹ And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church
Thanks be to God!

Hymn – “Calm Me Lord”

Calm me, Lord, as you calmed the storm;
Still me, Lord, keep me from harm.
Let all the tumult within me cease;
Enfold me, Lord, in your peace.

Calm me, Lord, as you calmed the storm;
Still me, Lord, keep me from harm.
Let all the tumult within me cease;
Enfold me, Lord
Enfold me in your peace.

Meditation

Anthem – “We Do Not Know What Lies Ahead”

We do not know what lies ahead.
Will we meet storms, or sun instead?
Do we hope Christ will calm the waves,
Or is our faith enough to save?

There will be times when we maintain
That all our efforts are in vain.
If we give up, what can we give?
For what we leave is how we’ve lived.

But Christ gives hope which makes us bold;
To take a risk, though trials unfold;
For love is patient, and sustains,
When we are lost, love still remains.

In welcome shared and kindness shown,
The love of God is truly known.
When we attempt to live shalom,
We find the road that leads us home.

We Respond to God’s Word

Invitation to Share

Offering Response – “We Give You but Your Own (VU #542)

We give you but your own, whate’er the gift may be;
All that we have is yours alone, we give it gratefully.

Offering Prayer

Prayers of the People

Service of Communion

Hymn – “I Come with Joy” (VU #477)

I come with joy, a child of God, forgiven, loved and free,
The life of Jesus to recall in love laid down for me,
In love laid down for me.

I come with Christians far and near to find, as all are fed,
The new community of love in Christs’ communion bread,
In Christ’s communion bread.

As Christ breaks bread, and bids us share, each proud division ends.
The love that made us, makes us one, and strangers now are friends,
And strangers now are friends.

The Spirit of the risen Christ, unseen, but ever near,
Is in such friendship better know, alive among us here,
Alive among us here.

Together met, together bound by all that God has done,
We’ll go with joy, to give the world the love that makes us one,
The love that makes us one.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

The Prayer that Jesus Taught

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy 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, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Breaking                   Pouring                     Sharing

Prayer after Communion

We Go Into God’s World

Hymn – “Will Your Anchor Hold” (VU #675)

Will your anchor hold in the storms of life,
When the clouds unfold their wings of strife?
When the strong tides lift, and the cables strain,
Will your anchor drift or firm remain?

We have an anchor that keeps the soul steadfast and sure while the billows roll;
Fastened to the rock which cannot move,
Grounded firm and deep in the Saviour’s love.

Will your anchor hold in the straits of fear,
When the breakers tell that the reef is near?
Though the tempest rave and the wild winds blow, blow,
Not an angry wave shall our bark o’erflow.

We have an anchor that keeps the soul steadfast and sure while the billows roll;
Fastened to the rock which cannot move,
Grounded firm and deep in the Saviour’s love.

When our eyes behold through the gathering night,
The city of gold, our harbour bright?
We shall anchor fast by the heavenly shore,
When the storms all past for evermore.

We have an anchor that keeps the soul steadfast and sure while the billows roll;
Fastened to the rock which cannot move,
Grounded firm and deep in the Saviour’s love.

Benediction

Response

May the grace of Christ attend us,
And the love of God surround us,
And the Holy Spirit keep us,
Now and ever, always.
Amen, amen, forever and ever.
Amen.