Bulletin – Sunday, November 10, 2024 – Remembrance Sunday / Communion / Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Sunday, November 10, 2024
Remembrance Sunday / Communion / Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

We Gather as People of Faith

Welcome

Announcements

Treaty / Land Acknowledgement

We acknowledge with gratitude and respect the Indigenous peoples of this land, on which we share the responsibilities and privileges of being Treaty people. Today, we remember the Indigenous veterans such as Sergeant Tommy Prince who was refused the same benefits as other Canadian veterans and now allowed to vote in federal elections upon return from service.

Lighting the Christ Candle

As we gather together to worship, we light the Christ Candle to remind us of Christ’s presence within and amongst us.

Call to Worship

One:   On this Remembrance Day service, we come to remember those impacted by war.
All:      We come to grieve the death and injury of civilians and soldiers.

One:   We come to grieve the devastation of cities and country side, of the earth and its creatures.
All:      We also come to give thanks for those who risked their lives to bring us peace.

One:   We come to pray for an end to hostilities throughout our wounded world.

Hymn – “When Quiet Peace is Shattered” (VU #615)

When quiet peace is shattered by dreadful noise of war,
And we are bruised and battered by fighting’s constant roar;
Lord, break the silence of your word and let your healing voice be heard.
O let your healing voice be heard.

When troubles still our love song, and fear beats hard within,
When anger drowns the dove’s song, and life’s a noisy din,
Lord, break the silence of your word and let your healing voice be heard.
O let your healing voice be heard.

When clashing wills divide us, and hearts refuse to mend,
When feelings scream inside us, and agonies won’t end,
Lord, break the silence of your word and let your healing voice be heard.
O let your healing voice be heard.

Prayer of Confession

O God, we confess, that e have been afraid. We have been indecisive when other’s lives were threatened, too concerned about politics and precedent. At other times, we have been quick to jump in, assured of our own righteousness and the justness of our cause. We have too often prayed to you to support our own prejudices and goals. Forgive us, and give us courage to seek peace with justice in your world, wherever that may lead us.

When we reflect on our history of the things that make for peace and the things that make for war, we confess that we have resorted to violence instead of the hard work of seeking just and fair solutions. At other times, we have been reluctant to hold others to account, forgive us for our unwise use of our own power.

(written by Rev. Dr. Neil Parker, military chaplain in Meaford, ON)

Words of Assurance

Through Christ’s mercy, we are all forgiven to offer ourselves anew as the hands and feet of Christ, our Prince of Peace. Amen.

Sung Response – “Come and Fill Our Hearts” (MV #16)

Come and fill our hearts with your peace.
You alone, O Lord, are holy.
Come and fill our hearts with your peace,
Alleluia!

Time for All Ages

Time of Remembrance

Words of Remembrance

One:   They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.
All:      Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

One:   At the going down of the sun and in the morning
All:      We will remember them.

Last Post / Moment of Silence

Blessing

One:   Eternal rest grant unto them, O God, and may perpetual light shine upon them.
All:      May the souls of all who have died, through your great mercy, rest in peace. Amen.

Hymn – “God! As with Silent Hearts” (VU #527)

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.

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.

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.

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.

We Hear God’s Word

Scripture Reading: Micah 4:3

The book of Micah features the words of one of Israel’s great eighth-century BCE prophets. The prophet Micah exposed injustice and inequity, offering a vision of a transformed way of life for his community and his world. In this particular verse, he envisions a future bathed in peace.

³ God shall judge between many peoples and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more;

Scripture Reading: Luke 6:27-36

Immediately after Jesus talked about the beatitudes in his Sermon on the Mount, he then urged his audience to love their enemies and to love those who were unjust to them. The Sermon on the Mount offers a brilliant logic that flips the general sensibilities of life upside down, challenging all in positions of power and authority.

²⁷ “But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; ²⁸ bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹ If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks of you, and if anyone takes away what is yours, do not ask for it back again. ³¹ Do to others as you would have them do to you.

³² “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. ³³ If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. ³⁴ If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive payment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. ³⁵ Instead, love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. ³⁶ Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

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

Reflection – “Broken Shards for Peace”

Anthem – “Make Our Lives a Prayer of Peace for the World”

Grant us, O Lord, peace in our days,
Peace in our hearts, peace in our families,
Peace in our country, peace among nations.
Make our lives a prayer of peace for the world.

Help us act in justice and to love tenderly,
And to walk humbly with our God.

Help us to forgive, and to seek forgiveness.
Help us rid ourselves of pride.

Grant us, O Lord, peace in our days,
Peace in our hearts, peace in our families,
Peace in our country, peace among nations.
Make our lives a prayer of peace for the world.

Help us live more simply by accepting what we have.
Give us everything we need.

Help us be content and be faithful to your word;
Guide our journey with your peace.

Grant us, O Lord, peace in our days,
Peace in our hearts, peace in our families,
Peace in our country, peace among nations.
Make our lives a prayer of peace for the world.
Make our lives a prayer of peace for the world.

We Respond to God’s Word

Invitation to Share

There are opportunities to give every day, certainly through gifts of money, but also through courageous action, faithful service, and loving devotion. Thank you for your generosity in your donations. The offering will now be received.

Offering Response – “Doxology” (VU #541)

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise God all creatures high and low;
Give thanks to God in love made know;
Creator, Word, and Spirit, One. Amen.

Offering Prayer

Gracious God, bless these gifts and these givers. May they be used well to foster peace and joy in this world and in the lives of those who cross our paths.

Communion

One:   May God be with you.
All:      And also with you.

One:   Lift up your hearts.
All:      We lift them up to God.

One:   Let us give thanks to God most holy.
All:      It is right to give God thanks and praise.

God of sacrificial love, we remember Jesus’ challenge to love others to the extend that we would lay down our lives for them. We are grateful for soldiers, sailors, and air force crew who offered sacrificial service for us.

We also remember Jesus’ willingness to lay down his life for us. He lived and loved this life in all its fullness—only to be shunned, despised and forsaken.

Yet out of death, you brought life to him and to us. You made the cross of death a tree of life, the empty grave a sign of glorious hope.

So we, with those who have offered sacrificial service from the past into the present, join to sing your praise:

Sung Response:    O holy, holy, holy God, O God of time and space.
                                    All earth and sea and sky above bear witness to your grace.
                                   Hosanna in the highest heav’n, creation sings your praise.
                                   And blessed is the One who comes and bears your name always!

Eternal God, we praise you for our brother Jesus, who before his suffering, earnestly desired to share a meal with his companions. And so, on the night before we died, he took the bread, gave you thanks, broke it and said “Thake and eat. This is my body. Do this in remembrance of me.”

At the end of the meal, he took a cup of wine. Again he thanked you and told them: “Drink this, all of you. This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink this, do it in remembrance of me.”

We delight in remembering Jesus: the faithfulness of his life, the way death on a cross could not quench the fire of his love, his being raised up as firstborn from the dead, his abiding presence in a new community of hope. We delight to proclaim:

Sung Response:    Christ has died and Christ is risen, Christ will come again!
                                    Christ has died and Christ is risen, Christ will come again!

At this time, we also remember all with whom you would have us share your feast…We now continue with the words of Jesus, who taught us to pray to God,
All:      Our Mother and 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.

God of our mothers and father, send your life-giving Spirit on us and on these gifts of bread and wine.

Watch over us that we may be on body in Christ, called to be your people of truth and reconciliation. May we walk in right relations with all your children and seek to be peacemakers where possible. We offer our hands that our actions may be honourable. We offer our hearts, that our intentions may be pure. We offer our feet, that our journeys may be altruistic. We offer our lives, that we may be bearers of your peace so that those who sacrificed their lives for us did no do so in vain.

We offer this act of praise and thanksgiving, Gracious God: through Christ, with Christ, in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory is yours, God most holy, now and forever.

Sung Response:    Amen, amen, O Holy One! Hosanna and Amen.
                                    Amen, amen, O Holy One! Hosanna and Amen.

Sharing the Bread and the Cup

The Bread of Life. The Cup of Communion. The gifts of God for the people of God.

Everyone who follows Jesus Christ, no matter what church you belong to, is welcome to share in the body of Christ.

Prayer after Communion

We give thanks that bread broken, brings wholeness; that wine poured out, replenishes; that sacrificial love mends this wounded world. Through the Risen Christ, we pray, amen.

Prayers of the People

We join in the prayers of our Canadian military chaplains.

We pray for those who are serving in our Armed Forces; soldiers, sailors, air personnel, and those who provide support for them. We pray for clerks and gunners, navigators and parachute packers, infanteers and public affairs officers. We pray for those who care for those who fight: for mental health nurses, doctors, and chaplains. We pray for those who put themselves in harm’s way; for Search and Rescue Technicians, for those engaged in mine-clearing, for those in the air or on the high seas.

We offer to you, O God, our prayers for those who seek justice and resist evil. We pray for those who need your presence and strength to stand firm; for those who oppose the use of violence in any form in faithful response to the Prince of Peace. We pray for those who are prepared to be firm to protect those in danger. We pray for those who walk with others who need strength. We pray for those who protest, those who organize letter campaigns, those who give sacrificially on behalf of others.

We pray for those who speak the unpopular truth; who protect the unpopular victims; who choose the unpopular path of peace.

We pray for those who do not let their desire for peace hinder the requirements of justice, and for those who do not let their zeal for justice override the call for peace.

O God of every human being, forgive when we identify our kin too easily as enemies. Teach us to seek the good of all, and not only our own. When our cousins are acting unjustly or causing harm, help us to constrain them without hatred or evil thoughts, but to seek their good even as we resist the damage that may be caused.

We pray that those to whom we are opposed may be turned from enemy to friend. We pray that in our cause we may not fall into sin, so convinced of our own righteousness that we are unaware of our own sin. We pray that we are not so distracted by another’s sin that we cannot be convinced of their value as children of God. May we always remember your willingness to forgive, and to bless, and to call the most unlikely of saints.

We Go Into God’s World

Hymn – “Make Me a Channel of Your Peace” (VU #684)

Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring your love.
Where there is injury, your healing power,
And where there’s doubt, true faith in you.

O Spirit, grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved, as to love with all my soul.

Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, only light,
And where there’s sadness, ever joy.

O Spirit, grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved, as to love with all my soul.

Make me a channel of your peace.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
In giving of ourselves that we receive,
And in dying that we’re born to eternal life.

Commissioning and Benediction

In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Response – “Let There Be Peace on Earth”

Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me;
Let there be peace on earth, the peace that was meant to be.
With God, our creator, children all are we;
Let us walk with each other in perfect harmony.

Let peace begin with me, let this be the moment now,
With every step I take let this be my solemn vow;
To take each moment and live each moment in peace eternally.
Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.