BELLS CORNERS UNITED CHURCH

11th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

August 8, 2021

Worship Leader: Rev. Kim Vidal
Music: Abe TeGrotenhuis, Erin Berard & Choir/Band Members

Summer Sermon Series: “VOICES OF LAMENT”
Theme: Great is God’s Faithfulness

The video recording of this service can be found here.
You can also dial-in by phone to listen to the audio recording at 613-820-8104.

Gathering Music: Sicilienne – Faure arr. McLean 1997 (first section)

Strings: Leslie Wade & Sarah Parker

Welcome & Centering for Worship

Good day everyone! On behalf of BCUC, I welcome you to our worship service in the name of Jesus Christ on this 11th Sunday after Pentecost. I’m so glad that you can join us in our virtual worship service. Today is our final Sunday in our sermon series on the book of Lamentations and today’s theme focuses on “God’s faithfulness.” I encourage you to reflect on this theme as we work together for the healing of the world.

As we continue to be under pandemic restrictions, please be reminded that the work of the church carries on. Please take time to keep in touch with each other through prayers, phone calls, emails or via Zoom. Check also the many announcements on our website at bcuc.org to keep you informed and give you opportunities to respond.

Our sanctuary has re-opened for in-person worship service on Sunday at 10 am with a maximum number of 50 people. The Public Health recommends staying at home but if you wish to attend the service, please do so. For the safety of all attendees, the usual health protocols will be in place which include masking, social distancing, hand sanitizing and staying home if you feel unwell. Take note too that our worship service will still be offered via Youtube, by email and by telephone.

Friends, God calls us as living witnesses to our world. With our gift of presence, let us come as faithful people and centre ourselves in God as we worship together.

Lighting of the Christ Candle Acolytes: Berard Family

Friends, as we light this Christ candle, remember the promise expressed by Jesus Christ to the church: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am in their midst.” (Matthew 18:20). Let this light remind us that God is here in this time and in this place.

Call to Gather & Opening Prayer Erin Berard

(Susan Lukey, Gathering Pentecost 1 Year C, 2019. Used with permission.)

Come everyone, all ages and stages. Come worship together!
We are here to show our love to God.
Come worship, everyone, you who are made in God’s image,
An image reflected in all shapes and sizes and colours.
We are here to share our joys and our sorrows,
our hopes and our dreams.
Come, let us worship our faithful God!

Let us pray:
From the top of our heads to the tips of our toes,
we are your beloved children, O God.
You know our joys, frustrations, triumphs and tragedies.
You know where we feel weak and where we feel strong.
We are your beloved children, O God.
You hold us. You help us. You comfort us.
You keep our hearts soft with compassion,
so that we may share your love in this world.
For this, we give you thanks in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Gathering Music: Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah - Voices United #651 – BCUC choir & verse 2 by Valleymen 2002

1. Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,
pilgrim through this barren land;
I am weak, but thou art mighty,
Hold me with thy powerful hand.
Bread of heaven, bread of heaven,
feed me till I want no more;
feed me till I want no more.

2. Open now the crystal fountain,
whence the healing stream doth flow;
let the fire and cloudy pillar
lead me all my journey through.
Strong deliverer, strong deliverer,
be thou still my strength and shield;
be thou still my strength and shield.

3. When I tread the verge of Jordan,
bid my anxious fears subside;
death of death and hell’s Destruction,
land me safe on Canaan’s side.
songs of praises, songs of praises,
I will ever give to Thee;
I will ever give to Thee.

Welsh: 1745 William Williams; trans. Peter & William Williams; Music: 1905 John Hughes,
Song # 97969 Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE #A-733214. All rights reserved

Storytime Erin Berard

(Nicholas is at home plate getting ready to hit)

It's the bottom of the 9th, bases loaded. Nicholas is up to bat, with 2 outs, 2 strikes. This is the team's last chance if they're going to make it to the playoffs this year. It's all down to Nicholas - Can he come up big for the team?

There's the pitch.. Strike 3! You're out. That's it, it's over for this team.

It's hard when we run out of chances in a game. 3 strikes and you're out! There's rules like that in soccer where you can get a yellow warning card, then a red card kicking you out for unsportsmanlike conduct on the field. I’m sure you can think of examples in the Olympics too - high jumpers only getting a certain number of chances to clear the bar at a height before they're out of the running.

Maybe at home or school you've had situations like that - where there's warnings issued before you get served a consequence for doing, or not doing something.

But…it's a little different at home, or school, or church than it is in sports - the grown-ups around us still love us when we mess up - consequences are there to help people learn or keep people safe. And it's not quite the same with God, either.

Part of today's passage from Lamentations says "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning…"

With God, there isn't a built-in limit of chances like in games and sports. Gods' love has no limits. When we make mistakes, God forgives us. We are blessed to be able to wake up to a new day with a fresh start with God to be kind, make good choices, be a helper, friend, and neighbour. We're going to mess up sometimes, but God doesn't give up on us; the game isn't over - we get to come up to bat again to try again to do God's work in the world. And, in that way, God asks us to do the same for others - to be kind and understanding and forgiving when our friends and family are not at their best.

It's like having unlimited innings in the ball game!

(Nicholas hits the ball 'out of the park'!)

Hymn: This is the Day – Voices United #412 Erin & Kim

1. This is the day, this is the day
That our God has made, that our God has made,
We will rejoice, we will rejoice,
And be glad in it, and be glad in it.

This is the day that our God has made, We will rejoice and be glad in it.
This is the day, this is the day that our God has made.

2. Open to us, open to us
Your gates, O God, your gates, O God;
We will go in, we will go in,
To your holy place, to your holy place.

Open to us your gates, O God, We will go in to your holy place.
Open to us, open to us your gates, O God.

3. You are our God, you are our God,
we will praise your name, we will praise your name;
we will give thanks, we will give thanks,
for your faithfulness, for your faithfulness.

You are our God, we will praise your name,
We will give thanks for your faithfulness.
You are our God, you are our God, We will praise your name.

Repeat verse 1.

Prayer for Illumination Reader: Monica Peck

(Beth Johnson, Gathering Pentecost 1 Year C, 2019. Used with permission.)

Ever-revealing God, when we receive the familiar words of scripture, we might stop paying attention, thinking we know what they mean. Open us, heart, soul and mind, to the new in what seems old: ready us for surprise, as we encounter the scriptures this day. Amen.

Reading from the Hebrew Scripture: Lamentations 3: 22-33 (NRSV)

God’s Faithfulness

22The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end;
23they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
25The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
26It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
27It is good for one to bear the yoke in youth,
28to sit alone in silence when the Lord has imposed it,
29to put one’s mouth to the dust (there may yet be hope),
30to give one’s cheek to the smiter, and be filled with insults.
31For the Lord will not reject forever.
32Although he causes grief, he will have compassion according
to the abundance of his steadfast love;
33for he does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone.

May God’s wisdom give us understanding as we ponder on this passage. Thanks be to God!

Sermon: “Steadfast Love, Mercy, Faithfulness”

(one verse of Come and Find the Quiet Centre VU 374) – BCUC choir

In 1989, New Zealander Presbyterian composer Shirley Erena Murray wrote the lyrics of this popular hymn that we love to sing that talk about finding our quiet centre. She writes:

“Come and find the quiet center 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.”

The centre is the heart of every matter – of every relationship – of every phenomenon.
The earth has a center called the core that attracts gravitational force.

Earthquakes have hypocenters and epicenters. Every storm has a centre called the “eye”.

A labyrinth has a centre where the walker meets God’s spirit in prayer.

The sanctuary is the centre of this building. The heart is the centre of human body.

Today, we are at the centre in the book of Lamentations. Chapter 3 is the longest chapter in the book with 66 verses in acronym style. It is the only chapter that contains words of hope and assurance for the people of Jerusalem who witnessed and experienced political, religious, social and cultural traumas brought about by the evils of colonization and war in the 6th century before common era. Kathleen O’ Connor comments: “Like a lull during a violent storm, poems of desolation and doubt surround the chapter on both sides. The sudden appearance of hope in the centre of the book both startles and reassures, even as it creates one of Lamentations’ interpretive challenges.” Will the centre hold the other chapters? Will the centre move us to faith and action?

In today’s centre stage is another voice of lament referred by O’Connor as “the strongman.” He is the only speaker in this chapter and the only articulator of hope in the entire book. The poem refers to him in Hebrew as a “geber” meaning a hypermasculine figure charged with the defense of women, children and other non-combatant civilians. But he is also a captive warrior which means that he was not able to fulfill his responsibility to protect and defend the people. He was powerless and he himself as a protector needs protection. The strongman was an advocate of the reward-punishment theology who experienced first-hand the sufferings believed by him to have been caused by God’s anger. Robert Williamson Jr. describes him as one who submits to God’s authority, believing that God never gives people anything they can’t handle. Like Daughter Zion, the Strong Man identifies God as his attacker and describes in vivid terms the pain that God inflicted on him. He sees God as an attacking animal like a bear or a lion and God as an archer who uses him for target practice.

Although the strongman depicts God in stark, violent imagery, he did not give up on God and believes that all will be well in the end. The strongman accepts that the suffering was the people’s fault because they have angered God. He exempts God of all wrongdoing but also reasserts his belief in God’s unending steadfast love, mercy and faithfulness. Rather than protest, the strongman urges the people to repent, to transform from their wicked ways and to receive their punishment in silence because they deserved to be punished. Rather than crying out in protest, he calls for submission.

I don’t know about you but I feel very uncomfortable with the Strong Man’s theology particularly about receiving punishment in silence. Susan Young says that we need to have a time of reflection – a self-examination – to discern what went wrong. I totally agree with Susan. We need to look at all possible causes of the situation. As a loving parent, I do not reprimand my children without talking to them first and listening to what they have to say. Yes – they need to be accountable with their wrongdoings but they are allowed to voice out what made them do the deed. Communication is essential from both parties.
          Let me tell you a story about Larry Hanratty, who was named by the Los Angeles Times in 2007 as the unluckiest man in California. Larry nearly died in a construction site accident. For weeks he was in a coma with his lawyers fighting for his liability claim -- until one of his lawyers was disbarred, two of them died suddenly and his last lawyer ran off with his wife! Then after his recovery in June, he was in a terrible car accident and before the police arrived on the scene, he was robbed of the cash in his wallet of $55.00. On July 4th, his insurance company tried to stop his worker’s compensation claim; he came within 2 days of being evicted from his home. By the end of July of 2007, he was suffering from lupus and the start of a lung condition that required him to carry a canister of oxygen with him; he was taking so many pills a day for his heart condition and his liver ailments.
       Because he was not well-off, the City Council came to his aid and then his friends rallied around him. After all that had happened to Larry that year, he said to the Mayor, "There’s always hope! This I believe in the center of my being!” Even though he experienced very bad circumstances, that never stopped Larry from doing what he did best. Larry was a deacon in his church and was constantly helping others in their time of need. His faith grounded him in the hope that things will be well in the end just like Job in the Bible. Everywhere he went in his town he was known as "Mr. HOPE" because he told everyone... "There’s always hope".
          There’s always hope! That’s what the strongman said too! Despite the fact that I do not fully accept all of the strongman’s convictions, I cannot but agree to his optimism that calls everyone including you and I to centre on hope. Listen again to these 2 verses: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lam 3: 22-23) And this is the good news of chapter 3. There are three words that formulate the belief statement of the strongman about God: steadfast love, mercy and faithfulness. The Hebrew word for steadfast love chesed, might be translated as the “unbreakable devotion or unending love of God.” The strongman poured out his heart to proclaim that the steadfast love (chesed) of God never ceases. It is always there. God will never abandon the people.
           The next word is mercy. And it is not just plain mercy – but one that never comes to an end and comes new and fresh every morning. Remarkably, the word “mercy” is based on the Hebrew word, “raham” meaning “womb.” This is the same Hebrew word for compassion. Mercy is defined as compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm. When the strongman looked for a word to best describe the mercy of God, he imagined God’s love like a mother’s unconditional love for her child. In the midst of life’s pains, the strongman says, we must centre on the womb of God’s love. Only in that love will we find hope in our hopelessness, the promise of joy in our sorrows.

The third word is faithfulness from the Hebrew root word “emun” or “emunah” meaning “to believe”, “to confirm” or “to support”. The strongman believes that God of the Exodus who liberated them from slavery in Egypt is the same God who will liberate the people from their suffering under Babylon because God is forever faithful. The 1923 hymn, “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” written by an American poet, Thomas Obediah Chisholm beautifully captures the wonder of these convictions about God in moving lyrics and tune. Chisholm suffered health challenges most of his adult life and therefore had a smaller than average income. Of this lived experience he said, “God has given me many wonderful displays of his providing care, which have filled me with astonishing gratefulness.” Chisholm sent the lyrics to his friend, American composer William Runyan, who in turn, composed a beautiful musical setting.

Steadfast love, mercy, faithfulness – three words of hope – three words that grounded the strongman. Friends, we may or may not share the same conviction as the strongman. We may or may not appreciate his way of thinking and fully embrace his theology. But deep inside me, the strongman is calling us to centre our hope in God. The writer’s history with God has convinced the strongman that God is in fact fully present and is crying with the people. That even in the deepest despair, God’s steadfast love, mercy and faithfulness is justified. Theologian John Holbert writes: “However dark the night, however deep the fear, however hopeless the situation, we rely on the steadfast love of God and give ourselves over to the One who is always the centre of our hope.”

Finally, as we wrap up this sermon series in the book of Lamentations, let me share Kathleen O’ Connor’s closing words: “Even when uttered in the most spiteful, angry and bitter tone, Lamentations urges us to present to God all that prevents full human flourishing – the wounds, despair, hatred, anger and injustices of the world. Lamentations is a prayer that is born in the deepest secrets of abandonment and loss. It expresses hungry, passionate yearning for God’s presence. It is therefore, enabling prayer that leaves no barriers between us and God…It is prayer for the in-between times of our relationship, and it will carry us through terror and despair to comfort, life and wholeness.” Thanks be to God. Amen.

Sources:
BCUC Lectionary Group
Kathleen O’Connor, Lamentations & the Tears of the World.
Robert Williamson Jr., The Forgotten Books of the Bible.
John C. Holbert, Commentary on Lam 3: 21-33, patheos.org.
Story of Larry Hanratty, sermonillustrations.com

Prayers of the People & the Lord’s Prayer

Like gentle rain from above that blesses us each day,
so are your gifts of life to us, Creator God.
In your love, you move our hearts from anxiety to an act of gratitude.
Like the sun that rises in the morning so is the steadfastness of your love that provides for us.
In your grace, you move us from trust in things we’ve made, to trust in your mercy and faithfulness. Like a surprise gift, you offer us possibilities and a chance to breathe again.
In your presence, you move us from fear to courage in your ways.

Creator God, in your wisdom,
we give you thanks for the care that we can give and receive as your creatures.

We thank you for the land upon which we dwell, land that nourishes body, mind and soul.
We thank you for fresh water to drink and water that flows in rivers and lakes.
We thank you for the air which gives life to all.
We thank you for seeds and crops, plants and trees, for birds and animals.
As earth’s vegetation and creatures care for us, may we care for them in return.
We acknowledge the fragility of all life and pray for ourselves as your people.
Free us from harmful attitudes towards the land, crops, animals and human beings.
Free us from despair in times of calamities, famine, drought or flood.
Free us from wastefulness and greed in times of plenty.
May our lives reflect awareness of our bonds with the earth and with all of creation.

We pause at this time to remember those who need our presence and our care. As we centre our hope in you, O God, we ask for your blessings and love to heal their broken hearts and spirits as they go through challenging times of illness, death and isolation. We pray for healing and comfort to those who are injured in body, mind and spirit. May they find healing, comfort and full recovery knowing that we are praying for them in this time of need.

We continue to pray for safety and good health, wisdom and courage as we go through the challenges of this pandemic. We pray for ourselves. Listen to the longings of our hearts.

Faithful God, may your Spirit bless us with wisdom and help us to change.
To change ourselves and to change our world.
To know the need for it.
To deal with the challenges of it.
To feel the joy of service.
To undertake the journey knowing that you will journey with us. All these we ask in the name of Jesus Christ who offered this ancient prayer to his friends:

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kin-dom 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 kin-dom, the power and the glory,
Forever and ever, Amen.

Invitation to Offer

Even in difficult times we remember that God has done great things for us. We choose to live our lives in faithfulness, counting on the goodness of God in every way. As a sign of our gratitude to God, we share our gifts of time, talents and treasures this morning, strengthening the ministry of this church. If you are not on PAR and wish to send in your offering and donations, you can drop them in the mailbox by the kitchen door of the church or mail them to BCUC. You can also send in your support through e-transfer. Thank you for your continued love and support to BCUC.

Offertory Prayer

Creator God, we hear and we respond to your faithfulness.
May these gifts, not only of our time, talents and treasures, but of our very selves
be acceptable to you and help spread your justice and love on earth. Amen.

Sending Forth

Go now, and embrace God’s gift of mercies every morning.
Live each moment with love and justice in your heart
and recognize the presence of Christ in friend and stranger.
May God’s faithfulness dwell in you.
May Christ be your guiding light.
And may the Holy Spirit be your beginning and end
and hold all your times as you journey in life. Amen.

Hymn: “Great is Thy Faithfulness” - Voices United #288 Denis, Ellen & Chris

1 Great is thy faithfulness, God our Creator,
there is no shadow of turning with thee;
thou changest not, thy compassions, they fail not;
as thou has been thou forever wilt be.

Refrain:

Great is thy faithfulness!
Great is thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
all I have needed thy hand hath provided --
great is thy faithfulness, ever to me!

2 Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
sun, moon, and stars in their courses above
join with all nature in manifold witness
to thy great faithfulness, mercy and love. R

3 Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide,
strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow --
wondrous the portion thy blessings provide.

Departing Music: Sicilienne – Faure arr. McLean 1997 (full song) Strings:Leslie Wade & Sarah Parker

Zoom Fellowship – 11 am

Sunday Worship Service - August 8, 2021