Bulletin – Sunday, November 6, 2022 – Remembrance Sunday

Sunday, November 6, 2022
Remembrance Sunday

Approach

Lighting the Christ Candle

As we light this candle this day we remember. We remember the one who came speaking words of love, peace, and hope. We remember who the powers of the day refused to listen to those words and instead responded with violence and anger. We remember all who have died because of violence, anger, greed, and oppression in our own world. As we light this candle we remember.

Call to Worship

One:   On this Remembrance Sunday we gather to pray
All:      for a world where no one will learn war anymore.

One:   On this day when we remember that day when the guns once fell silent,
All:      we gather to pray for peace to reign in every heart, home, and nation.

One:   On this day of hope,
All:      we come before you, God, to remember all those who gave their lives so we could be free.

One:   in this time of story, songs, and prayers, help us to catch a vision of how the world could live together.
All:      And so, let us echo the old prayers—make us channels of your peace.

One:   In that spirit, let us join our hearts in song.

Hymn – “Make Me a Channel of Your Peace”

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 to all that we receive,
And in dying that we’re born to eternal life.

Prayer of Approach and Confession

Let us pray…God of our past, present, and future, we have come to this place as a people of hope. We hope for a future without war and a world that lives together in peace.

In years past, and in the present day, members of our armed forces have put their lives at risk for this hope, with some paying the ultimate cost. May what we do here today strengthen our resolve to work together so that this hope may be fulfilled. It is easy to forget that what we enjoy todays has come at a great cost. For some, the price was their last breath. For others, it was wounds to body, mind, or spirit.

On days like this, we remember those who defend our freedoms and we say “Lest we forget.” Yet, too often we forget that the wounds to mind and spirit can last a lifetime. Forgive us for not remembering once the poppies have been put away. Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” but we have often focused on what divides us rather than on what can bring us together. Forgive us for our reluctance to do the hard work of peacemaking. For all these things, and for those which we name before you now in the silence of our hearts, forgive us…

Response – “Come and Fill Our Hearts

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

Words of Assurance

Response – “Come and Fill Our Hearts

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

The Word

Scripture Reading:           Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

¹ For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: ² a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; ³ a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; ⁴ a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; ⁵ a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; ⁶ a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; ⁷ a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; ⁸ a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

Scripture Reading:           John 15:9-17

⁹ As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. ¹¹ I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

¹² “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³ No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵ I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. ¹⁶ You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. ¹⁷ I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

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

Meditation – “Hope”

(Source: Jeannie Kendall, Godspace)

Anthem – “Peace for the Children”

The Response

Offering

Communion

One:   “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” As the Spirit hovered over the face of the waters at the very moment of creation, and declared everything created as good. As the Spirit, like a wind swirled around the Disciples at Pentecost, and helped them find a common purpose and language. Your spirit continues to swirl around all gathered here and all of creation. Yet we wander away from your Spirit. We become deaf to your Spirit’s call. We believe that we know a better way. We become angry and war-like, families, communities, and countries are torn apart by our anger and resentment. You call us back to a way of peace and justice, but we struggle to hear your call. So, you sent your son, Jesus, to be a channel of your peace, in a world of violence.

One:   Loving God, the hills resound with Your beauty, the birds sing of Your glory, the seas roar with Your grandeur. May our frail lives reflect the vulnerability and beauty of Your Son, Jesus Christ who lived to bring everyone to wholeness. May we show in our words and actions the hope and reality of new life, lived fully. Let us pray for families, who live in the aftermath of war in the space between remembering and bitter loss. Let us ask for God’s blessings, what we might work for peace, pray in hope and be a reconciling presence, which this world and every home and community desperately needs. We lift up to you those in this community whom we hope feel the peace of your Spirit with them today…

One:   On the night before we was given up to the violence of the world, Jesus gathered with his friends. Humbling himself to be their servant. At that table Jesus took the bread, he broke it and gave it to his friends saying; “This is the bread of new life, each time you eat this bread, remember me.”

One:   After supper he poured out the wine. He took that cup and shared it with his friends saying; “This is the new covenant, each time you drink from this cup, remember me.”

One:   We offer to you, God of all creation, the gift of this bread and drink. We pray you, gracious God, to send your Holy Spirit upon these gifts so that we might be renewed in spirit and truly become bearers of your peace in this world. Through Christ, with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honour are yours, almighty God, now and forever. Amen.

One:   “The bread of life.”

One:   “The cup of the new covenant.”

Prayer after Sharing

We give thanks, almighty God, that you have refreshed us at your table by granting us the presence of Jesus Christ. Strengthen our faith, increase our love for one another, and send us forth into the world united in courage and peace, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.

Hymn – “Put Peace into Each Other’s Hands”

Put peace into each other’s hands and like a treasure hold it,
Protect it like a candle flame, with tenderness enfold it.

Put peace into each other’s hands with loving expectation;
Be gentle in your words and ways, in touch with God’s creation.

Put peace into each other’s hands like bread we break for sharing;
Look people warmly in the eye; our life is meant for caring.

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.

Benediction

Having gathered, remembered, heard, given, and prayed, we ask, Gracious and Loving God, for your blessing, and for your continual presence in our lives. Remind us that no matter where we go, you are there. No matter how bleak the world becomes, all it takes is one ray of light for a new day to be upon us once again. Amen.

Response – “May the God of Peace”

May the God of peace and of all good,
May the God of peace and of all good
Be always with you. Amen!
May God’s peace be with you. Amen!