Bulletin – Sunday, October 8, 2023 – Creation 5 / Thanksgiving Sunday
Sunday, October 8, 2023
Creation 5 / Thanksgiving Sunday
Approach
Welcome
Lighting the Christ Candle
Call to Worship
One: Shout to God, all the earth:
All: worship with gladness and joy!
One: Come before God with laughter,
All: our maker to whom we belong.
One: To the Shepherd who tends us like sheep,
All: let us raise our voices in song/
One: Come to God’s gates with thanks;
All: come to God’s courts with praise.
One: Praise and bless God’s holy name.
All: Truly you are good: you are always gracious, and faithful age after age.
(Psalm 100 VU #824)
Hymn – “We Praise You, O God” (VU #218)
We praise you O God, our Redeemer, Creator;
In grateful devotion our tribute we bring.
We lay it before you; we kneel and adore you;
We bless your holy name, glad praises we sing.
We worship you, God of our mothers and fathers,
Through trial and tempest, companion and guide.
When perils o’er take us, you will not forsake us,
But faithful to your promise, you walk by our side.
With voices united our praises we offer
And gladly our songs of thanksgiving we raise.
Our sins now confessing, we pray for your blessing,
To you, our great Redeemer, forever be praise!
Prayer of Approach and Confession
Gracious gift-giving God, you call us to live out our faith in ways which honour you and bless our neighbours, and we recognise that worship is an essential part of our faith journey. We believe that what we do here in worship does shape our daily witness to Jesus whose disciples we profess to be. We know that our faith is most visible when we live by your kingdom of values of love, justice, and peace—yet it is increasingly hard to resist becoming absorbed with the values of the world. Values dominated by money, profit, and production.
Forgive us when we fail to understand that planting seeds of faith and love point to the treasures of your kingdom being found and shared. We pray that our hearts will be shaped and reshaped by the unfailing treasures of your kingdom, O God, and that our accountability as disciples of Christ will be evident in our worship, our witness, and our service. This we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen
Words of Assurance
Creation Connection
One: Today is the fifth Sunday in the season of Creation, a period of the church year when we take the time to think about what it means to be Church against the real, urgent, and increasing threat of climate and other environmental crises. Today, on Thanksgiving Sunday we are asked to acknowledge, in humility and gratitude, all that creation provides us. Today’s video is call “A Prayer for Our Earth.” In 2015, Pope Francis wrote an “encyclical letter”—a short book that popes write—call Laudato Si’ (laow-dah-toe see). It encourages us to see how everything is connected. The way we treat the Earth, our common home, is a reflection of how we treat each other. Caring for each other means caring for the home we share.
One: Let us pray.
All: God, as we enter uncharted territory around global climate change help us to follow the words of Jesus, to love one another. Through our actions, help us to show our love for the whole of Creation, not just our tiny piece of it. On this Thanksgiving Sunday, let us look upon the gifts of Creation with humble gratitude. Help us to learn and work together in your name. Amen.
Hymn – “We are Circling”
We are circling, circling together,
We are singing, singing a heart song.
This is family, this is unity,
This is celebration, this is sacred.
We are spiraling, spiraling together,
Onward, inward, creature to creation.
Holy Mystery, Mother Earth, Child Birth,
This is Mother Nature, this is sacred.
We are circling, circling together,
We are singing, singing a heart song.
This is family, this is unity,
This is celebration, this is sacred.
We are spinning, spinning all together,
We are singing over the rainbow.
This is harmony, this is community,
This is celebration, this is sacred.
We are circling, circling together,
We are singing, singing a heart song.
This is family, this is unity,
This is celebration, this is sacred.
The Word
Scripture Reading: Psalm 95
1 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. 3 For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; 7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if only you would hear his voice, 8 “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 where your ancestors tested me; they tried me, though they had seen what I did. 10 For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.’ 11 So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”
Scripture Reading: Romans 8:26-39
26 Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans.
27 He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. 28 That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
29 God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him.
30 After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.
31 So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? 32 If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? 33 And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? 34 Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. 35 Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:
36 They kill us in cold blood because they hate you. We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.
37 None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. 38 I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, 39 high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.
Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.
Thanks be to God!
Meditation – Prayers: Beautiful and Otherwise
Anthem – “We Come to Say Thank You”
“Thank you, O Lord, we come to say, “Thank You.”
For all You’ve done we say, “Thank You,
Thank You today for all the blessings You send our way.”
For the beauty of the earth,
For the glories of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies.
For the wonder of each hour
Of the day and of the night,
Hill and vale and tree and flower,
Sun and moon and stars of light,
Stars of heavenly light.
For the joy of human love,
Brother, sister, parent, child,
Friends on earth and friends above,
For all gentle thoughts and mild.
For Thyself, best gift divine,
To our race so freely giv’n
For the great, great love of Thine,
Peace on earth and joy in heav’n,
Endless joy in heav’n!
Offering
Offering Prayer
Offering Response – “For the Gift of Creation” (VU #538)
For the gift of creation, the gift of your love,
And the gift of the Spirit by which we live,
We thank you and give you the fruit of our hands.
May your grace be proclaimed by the gifts that we give.
The Response
Prayers of the People
One: When you hear “Lord in your Mercy” please reply with “hear our prayer.”
One: Led by the Holy Spirit, and with the whole people of God in Christ Jesus, let us pray for the church, those in need, and all of God’s creation. Let us pray for people everywhere, that they may work together for good. Help them always to act in accord with God’s purposes. Lord in your mercy,
All: Hear our prayer.
One: Let us pray for the restoration of forests, fields, and prairies that provide homes for birds, wild animals, and livestock. Teach us to respect all land and creatures. Lord in your mercy,
All: Hear our prayer.
One: Let us pray for rulers and people in power, that they act responsibly for the good of all people. Search their hearts, O God, and lead them to work for justice. Lord in your mercy,
All: Hear our prayer.
One: Let us pray for all who are suffering hardship those who are hungry, unemployed, persecuted, naked, or ill. We pray for Marlene, Liam, Rob, Heather, Barb, Angela, Jay, Norm, Kieran, Paul, Haruko, Dollard, Margaret, Judi, Gwen, Scott, Joe, Harvey. Give them assurance that nothing can separate them from your love. Lord in your mercy,
All: Hear our prayer.
One: Let us pray for this gathering that we may diligently seek the treasure of God’s kingdom. Make us rise up like leaven to serve. Lord in your mercy,
All: Hear our prayer.
One: Let us give thanks for the saints before us, who are more than conquerors through Christ and now live in glory. Let their witness teach us how to serve. Lord in your mercy,
All: Hear our prayer.
One: Into your hands, O God, we commend ourselves and all for whom we pray, trusting in your abundant mercy. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray:
All: Our Mother / Father, who are 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, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
Hymn – “Let All Things Now Living” (VU #242”
Let all things now living a song of thanksgiving
To God our Creator triumphantly raise;
Who fashioned and made us, protected and stayed us,
By guiding us on to the end of our days.
God’s banners are o’er us, pure light goes before us,
A pillar of fire shining forth in the night;
Till shadows have vanished and darkness is banished,
As forward we travel from light into Light.
By law God enforces, the stars in their courses
And sun in its orbit obediently shine;
The hills and the mountains, the rivers and fountains,
The depths of the ocean proclaim God divine.
We, too, should be voicing our love and rejoicing
With glad adoration a song let us raise:
Till all things now living unite in thanksgiving,
To God in the highest, hosanna and praise.
Benediction
Response
Jesus, Lord, our true example, you have shown how we must live.
Teach us how to share with others everything we have to give.
Let our days be spent in service: bring us by your grace to know
Healing is the church’s calling, and the path that we must go.
