BELLS CORNERS UNITED CHURCH
FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT
March 27, 2022
Lenten 2022 Theme: “The Way of Being”
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: Prayer for Today
BCUC Choir 2022, flute: Erin Berard
A choir anthem for Joan & Geoff Gale in memory of loved ones
God in heaven, I make my prayer for all the people everywhere
who live in fear or pain or doubt; Whose homes are gone, and hopes run out.
God in heaven, I make my prayer for all the children everywhere
Who live in terrible, warring places; Who live with hunger and strange sad faces.
God in heaven, I make my prayer for all good people everywhere
who live in comfort, love and peace; And pray sincerely for strife to cease;
But who do not always hear the call of those who live with nothing at all.
God in heaven, hear my prayer! Help all people everywhere
To come closer together in plenty and need,
And to make our world your home, indeed.
Text, Tune & Accompaniment: 1988 Mary Coulson, Margaret Tucker, Choral arr. Michael Kemp
Song #CGA855 Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE #A-733214. All rights reserved
Welcome
Rev. Kim Vidal
Good day everyone! My name is Rev. Kim Vidal and on behalf of BCUC, I welcome and greet you in the name of Jesus Christ on this Fourth Sunday in Lent with the theme of “Being Prodigal”. We are glad that you have joined us today.
We have reopened the sanctuary for in-person worship service at 10 am. If you wish to attend the service, you are more than welcome. As a faith community called to love and serve others, we highly recommend getting fully vaccinated and still being mindful of the health protocols like masking, social distancing, hand sanitizing and staying home if you feel unwell. Please take note that our Sunday worship service continues to be offered via Youtube, by email and by telephone.
A friendly reminder to 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 including Sunday School resources for your children at bcuc.org. Please take note of the many opportunities to participate and offer your support to the various Lenten initiatives: the Lenten SOSA appeal to support FAMSAC; Hymn-Sing and Memorial Flowers to remember your loved ones. Details are posted in the announcements.
Minute for Social Action
Ellie & Clarke Topp
A Guaranteed Livable Income is Society Expressing Unconditional Love
Guaranteed Livable Income:
– recovers and secures human dignity
all are valued - no ‘undeserving poor’
– unleashes human potential
allows life changes with education and retraining
– improves health and well-being
better food and housing reduce stress on healthcare
encourages better communal participation and relationships
– supports those who lose jobs
from technology, climate change and outsourcing
Support Guaranteed Livable Income for All!
Centering for Worship
Rev. Kim
Friends, in this season of Lent, we know what God desires for us:
To remind ourselves that the message of Jesus is all about unconditional love.
To remember that now is the right time to put this kind of love into action.
With grateful hearts, let us gather in worship.
Lighting of the Christ Candle
Acolytes: Peck-Jones Family
As we journey through Lent,
as we move towards Holy Week,
we light this candle as a symbol of our trust in Jesus Christ.
May its light remind us that God is with us and we are not alone.
Sung Response: Don’t Be Afraid - More Voices #90
Susan Feb 2021
Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger, my love is stronger than your fear.
Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger and I have promised, promised to be always near.
Words © 1995 John Bell & Graham Maule; Music © 1995 John Bell, IONA GIA Pub
Song # 98424 Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE #A-733214. All rights reserved
*Call to Gather (Responsively) (www.ministrymatters.com)
Erin Berard
From darkness and despair, from being lost and lonely, God calls us home.
Even though we have been selfish and let God down, we are still called beloved.
Remember the welcoming love of God which has been poured out for us.
Our hearts rejoice at the wondrous ways in which God loves and forgives us.
Remember that in all your ways you can trust in God’s compassion. Welcome home!
Prayer of Confession (In Unison)
Erin
In this season of Lent when we contemplate the path Jesus walked,
let us seek God in this prayer of confession. Together, let us pray.
God, sometimes we wander into far countries of the soul without ever thinking where we are going. We take your love for granted; we presume that we can always find our way back to you, when we’re not busy, when it’s more convenient. And then we find ourselves in places where we do not want to be, and we wonder how we got there. Lonely and afraid, we do not know where to turn. Speak to us, O God, help us find the way to the place where we always belonged. Welcome us back home with your love. Amen.
Moment of Silence
As we walk with God, we are transformed day by day.
God’s never-ending love journeys with us,
making us new, again and again. Thanks be to God!
Hymn: Come Touch Our Hearts - More Voices #12 (verses 1-4)
BCUC choir June 2020
1. Come touch our hearts that we may know compassion,
from failing embers build a blazing fire;
love strong enough to overturn injustice,
to seek a world more gracious, come touch and bless our hearts.
2. Come touch our souls that we may know and love you,
your quiet presence all our fears dispel;
create a space for spirit to grow in us,
let life and beauty fill us, come touch and bless our souls.
3. Come touch our minds and teach us how to reason,
set free our thoughts to wonder and to dream;
help us to open doors of understanding,
to welcome truth and wisdom, come touch and bless our minds.
4. Come touch us in the moments we are fragile,
and in our weakness your great strength reveal;
that we may rise to follow and to serve,
steady now our nerve, come touch and bless our wills.
5. Come touch us now, this people who are gathered,
To break the bread and share the cup of peace;
That we may love you with our heart, our soul, our mind, our strength, our all,
Come touch us with your grace.
Words Music © 2002 Gordon Light, arr © 2002 Andrew Donaldson Common Cup Co.
Song #118062 Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE #A-733214. All rights reserved
Storytime
Erin Berard
My kids let me borrow their crayons so I could colour this page from my Lenten Journal.
(Erin colours then drops and breaks several crayons). Oops… Well maybe I can borrow a gel pen… Can I use your gel pens? Thanks! (Erin colours then snaps the pen). Uhh.. Could I use your markers now? "NO!" Hmm… I guess it was "Wreck this Journal" not "Wreck your pens"... I guess I'm not really taking care of their things….
Jesus tells a parable to his followers about a son who is given a lot of money from his father, and goes off on his own. The son is careless and wastes all the money, just like I was careless with the kids' crayons and pens. The son has nothing left, but feels too embarrassed to go back home to his family - he really messed up. He's scared about how much trouble he'll get into and how angry his parents will be. But really, he hasn't got a lot of choice, because he has nothing at all, so he goes home hoping his parents could maybe pay him to do chores and stuff.
But as the son is walking up the lane, and before the son can even apologize, the father is running out, cheering at the sight of him, and calling people up to throw a huge party!
(Music) "Let's have a party! Let's make a racket! I'm as happy, I'm as joyful as ever I can be! Let's have a party! Let's make a racket, 'cause the lost has returned to me!"
Whoa! That was unexpected! The son couldn't believe that his dad could still love him after all he had done. (Maybe the dad did sit down later with the son and talk about money management and responsibility, but the most important thing was that the son was home and wanted to make amends and try again!) Having his son back and having a good relationship with him again was more important than the money.
We can look at things like that in our own lives, too. Maybe a fight or argument over something somebody broke or took isn't really worth it anymore - maybe it's time to move on and try to have the friendship, the person, back again. (I think my kids will forgive me and still love me even though I broke some of their stuff… ) We can remember that God loves us, and is happy to forgive us when we mess up, and have us try again to make kind, loving choices.
In today's Sunday School materials, we hear about how we are God's masterpiece, and that God is delighted by us, just like the Father in the parable rejoiced when the son came back. Doesn't that give you a great feeling to be called delightful, and that someone thinks we're a masterpiece?
Let's have a prayer:
Loving God, thank you for welcoming us and loving us with your arms wide open.
Help us to forgive those around us who have made mistakes,
and to celebrate the people we love. Amen
Hymn: O God, Send Out Your Spirit - More Voices #25
Erin & Abe March 202
Refrain: O God, send out your Spirit; renew the face of the earth. (2x)
1. We bless you, O God, for you are so great.
Your Spirit uncovers hidden beauty and grace.
Though times we deny all the pain and the tears,
Your Spirit empowers us and soon we face our fears. Refrain:
2. Ev’ry prayer we pray, sacred word, sacred rite,
is for the ones who are left waiting outside.
Ev’ry sermon we preach, ev’ry Spirit-filled tune;
Love says, “Remember why we do the things we do.” Refrain:
3. Ev’ry time a person reaching out is turned away
by the racist prejudicial attitudes of hate,
We are called to break the silence, sanctioning the shame,
stepping cross the lines of this sometimes unholy game. Refrain:
4. Sources of oppression that we haven’t really faced;
Human inhumanity upon the human race.
Spirit ever faithful, Spirit ever true,
Rain down all around, and ev’ry heart renew. Refrain
Words & Music © 1996 Jesse Manibusan; Ref: The International Commission on English in the Liturgy
Song # 83176 Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE #A-733214. All rights reserved
Prayer for Illumination (In Unison)
Reader: David Stafford
Wise and forgiving God,
we pray that our speaking and living will reach out to others
and bring your Word honour and gratitude. Amen.
The Reading: Luke 15: 11-32 (NRSV)
The Parable of the Prodigals
11 Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. 14 When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16 He would gladly have filled himself with[b] the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 17 But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’ 20 So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. 21 Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’[c] 22 But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24 for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.
25 “Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27 He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ 28 Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ 31 Then the father[d] said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’”
May God’s Love and Wisdom dwell where the Word is spoken. Thanks be to God!
Sermon: “Being Prodigal”
Rev. Kim
Prayer: Holy God, may we welcome your holy presence
among us and within us as we listen and reflect on your Word today. Amen.
“…he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.”
I remember quite well that day when Justin was in Grade 1. Because we live less than one kilometer from the school, we did not have the option of having him being picked up by the school bus and bringing him home. I have to drop him off and pick him up from school. On that particular day, I went to school to pick Justin up but he was not there. I went to check with his classroom teacher but I was told that he had already left. I checked the playground and no sign of him. I went around the school building – still no sign of him. I started to panic. Where could he be? I drove around the street and he was not in sight. My body, at that point, started to shake. What happened to Justin? Where was he?
Thinking of the worst-case scenario, I decided to go home and planned to call the police. To my relief, Justin was not lost or had been kidnapped or was in danger. He was already home. He told me that he walked with his friend, took the longer way, and was so proud that he was able to find his way home with his beaming expression “I did it, Mom!”. Instead of getting upset at him, I just gave him a big hug with tears flowing from my eyes.
It must have been soul-crushing for a parent when a child is really gone. But the half an hour I experienced losing Justin - an experience shared by many parents when they cannot find their child at an amusement park or a shopping mall or when they can’t find their child in school, were some of the most frightening moments of my life.
Because, when it comes down to it, losing a child makes one vulnerable and heartbroken. This might be the reason why today’s parable speaks to most of us, because we know how it would feel when someone we love is lost. But it will also cause us to celebrate in joy when what we have lost is found!
“…he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.”
Teachings from Sunday School and traditional preachers taught us that the word prodigal is associated with a wayward son who has left his family and community to reckless living, squanders his inheritance but returns home to find that his father welcomes him with love and forgiveness. But the word “prodigal” really means “extravagant, wasteful, reckless and lavishly abundant.” To call this story the parable of the prodigal son is a misnomer. I would rather call it the parable of the prodigals. The three major characters in this parable were all prodigals.
Come to think of it - the younger son wasted his resources on reckless living; the older son abundantly used his time and energy to get himself upright with comfortable living; and the father extravagantly poured out his love to both of his children. This parable is rich and best captures all the important elements of life in relationships--grief, betrayal, trust, forgiveness, compassion, loneliness, jealousy, generosity, pride, and best of all, a welcoming love. It's the kind of story that goes deep and wide all at once and it should be revisited throughout life, since it has a tremendous capacity to look at relationships from different angles and heal our wounds over and over again. Susan Young offered the word inter-dependency. These three characters are interdependent with each other. Without one character, this parable would not have the same message we would like it to have.
Let’s admit it – family issues of sibling rivalry, favouritism, “I’m in-you’re out” dynamics – all play a part in this rich parable. The younger son is driven by curiosity and a desire for independence to undertake a quest in a faraway country. He is anxious, impulsive and precocious, wanting to leave home early even though he risks his father's life and health in order to taste that glorious freedom. No doubt, his decision profoundly disturbs his father and his community. In those days, for a younger son to leave home and demand his inheritance upon leaving was as if he was wishing his father dead. The ancient readers would have seen this as a violation of the commandment to honour their mother and father. What we are dealing with here is something more than an adolescent rebellion, or defiant behavior, or rejection and betrayal of all that has been freely given--family, parenthood, community, life. So he took off with a fat sum of money, but when he squandered all of his inheritance, the younger son lived and fed the pigs. NT Scholar Bernard Brandon Scott calls this “apostasy” – the abandonment or renunciation of his religion. Pigs were deemed unclean in the Jewish law and to eat with them meant the younger son drifted away from Torah and religious traditions. He became the lowest of the lowest.
Think, for a moment, about the dutiful older son who stayed at home. He did everything his father told him to do, was probably a little glad to see his annoying brother leave in the first place, and was more than upset to see him come back. We know that he was resentful when his younger brother returned home. Is it possible that he remained home not out of duty but because he was afraid of risks? And that he envied and resented his more adventurous and freedom-loving brother? Could some of us be like the older son – always doing the “dutiful” thing but scared of what’s out there, therefore putting on a persona of resentment and pride? I can see myself in the older brother. Not because I resent my siblings and wish they would go away. But I am not a big fan of high life – the adventurous, frivolous life out there. I don’t want to hurt the feelings of my parents. I love being home.
Accept it or not, we have been like all three prodigals in the story. We are like the younger son in so many ways – we have run away from various issues in life – we have tarnished our relationships with people we love; we have wasted our resources and talents on reckless living.
At times, we could be like the older son. We put our time and effort in being perfect but also erecting walls of indifference and callousness; we have given ourselves into unwanted pride and we cannot even make ourselves “forgive and forget”. The question now is, how do we go home again?
And here is where some of us resonate with the father. I like Bernard Brandon Scott's interpretation of the father. In Jesus’ time, fathers were authoritative figures who were distant and remote from their children. To wait for a wayward child means that this father, in the eyes of the audience, is a fool and has little honour. When he saw the son coming home, the father ran to meet him. Scott says that this action is so unorthodox for the ancient people, especially for fathers. To run means to hike up his robe to knee length, showing his legs, which is an act of disgrace. To make matters worse, the father kisses his son – again another act that is so not fatherlike. Scott concludes: “this father behaves in ways that are typical of a mother who has to maintain close ties with her sons…This image of the father in the role of the mother challenges the fundamental male hierarchy as the model for understanding the sacred.”
Which character are you in this parable? Have you left home? Or your comfortable life because of family differences or because you just want independence and want to experience some adventure out there? What would it mean for you to return, to come home again, to love, forgiveness, acceptance? A return to home is a return to love and a state of being loved. We come home, by first returning to ourselves and then returning to a life filled with compassion even as we recognize the compassionate embrace of God.
What about our church family here at BCUC? Where are we in the parable? Have we got that sense of welcoming love here at BCUC? What would it mean for us here to take this risky, boundary-less love into our lives? What grudges would we feel compelled to give up? What prejudices and biases would start to melt? What healing of relationships might be born? What self-hatred could be disarmed and forgiven?
Did you notice too that the parable is open-ended? The parable abruptly ends, leaving the conflict between the brothers unresolved. How would you write its ending? For me, I always like a happy ending where the main characters will find a way to sort their conflicts and differences and then live happily ever after. I would like the sons to follow the father’s script. I would like the older son to be moved by his father’s compassion and forgiveness and, in return, his bitterness and anger towards his younger brother will be replaced with acceptance and he will become buddies with his brother, even though it’s a hard choice to make. I would like the younger son to truly repent, to be accountable for his wayward actions and humbly admit to his older brother and his father that he committed mistakes and that he will promise to be more responsible, to change into a better person. I would like the father to continue to love both sons unconditionally as if they were his best friends, to have open communication with them, to listen to them, to guide them to the right direction and to teach them to surrender their male honour.
Phillip Yancey, author of What’s So Amazing About Grace? concludes in his book that Jesus’ parables of extravagant grace include no catch, no loophole disqualifying us from God’s love. Yancey declares that when we decide to “come home” to God it feels like the discovery of a lifetime. We were lost and we were found! And God rejoices of our return! Now it’s time to celebrate! Amen.
Sources: Inspired by the Sermon of Nadia Bolz-Weber, Re-Imagine the World, a book written by Bernard Brandon Scott, and the BCUC Lectionary Group
Prayers of the People and the Lord’s Prayer
Rev. Kim
Open our hearts...Open our minds... Open our lives to you, O loving God... Hear our prayer.
Holy and Gracious One, the one of prodigal grace, we give you thanks for the gift of life and for the blessings of this life, for family and friends and love abundant. In this season of Lent, lead us through the challenges and struggles, the tired times, moments of despair and bleak places. Be with those who weep or cannot sleep, those who have no peace or those who seek release and comfort them with your welcoming, unconditional love.
The parable today talks about the love shown to us in the teachings of Jesus. God is like a waiting parent for prodigal children ready to welcome and restore them to life. God is like the host of the lost, the least, and all who long for home, those who wander from life-giving ways and waste the gifts they have been blessed with. Welcome us back, we pray, so that we may celebrate and rejoice in your presence forever;
Let our hearts, our homes and BCUC be welcoming places - places of return built by a love that bends towards those who return here. Let us be a place where the only appropriate response to love that has come to the end of its longing, is to serve the fatted calf, feast and celebrate, send up balloons, and prepare the party for that which has been lost and has returned to be among us. We pray for all those from whom we are estranged. Bring healing to strained or broken relationships. Forgive us for the times we have wronged others, whether by ignorance, neglect, or intention. We pray for those who are sick, the lonely, the grieving and the people of Ukraine in the midst of war.
Fill the world with hope and peace, sustained by God’s mercy. Let us be transformed in all our broken ways so that we can be made whole. And in wholeness, may we be the hands and heart of Christ. We ask these in the Spirit of Jesus Christ who gathers us in this prayer:
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
Rev. Kim
God’s love has always been abundant, in every time and place. We are grateful to a generous and loving God for every sign of new life.
I now invite you to offer your gifts of time, talents and resources as expressions of your gratitude to God’s blessings. If you are not on PAR and wish to send in your offering and donations, you can drop them in the slot 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 (In Unison)
God of great wonders, we join with you in the joy of giving.
You give us life and breath, you fill the world with beauty,
our hands with bounty, and our hearts with the desire to give.
Accept these gifts, and ourselves in your service. Amen.
Sending Forth
Rev. Kim
Time and time again,
God waits for us with a welcoming love.
With open arms we return to God.
Go out into the world to be God’s loving embrace for others.
We will go with God’s blessings. Amen.
Hymn: O God, How We Have Wandered - Voices United #112
BCUC Choir 2022
1 O God, how we have wandered and hidden from your face;
In foolishness have squandered your legacy of grace.
But how, in exile dwelling, we turn with fear and shame,
As distant but compelling you call us each by name.
2 And now at length discerning the evil that we do,
By faith we are returning with hope and trust in you.
In haste you come to meet us, and home rejoicing bring,
In gladness there to greet us with calf and robe and ring.
3 O God of all the living, both banished and restored,
Compassionate, forgiving, our peace and hope assured.
Grant now that our transgressing, our faithlessness may cease.
Stretch out your hand in blessing, in pardon and in peace.
Words © 1980 Kevin Nichols, Music 1836 Henry Smart
Song reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE #A-733214. All rights reserved
Departing Music: Bring Him Home
Men’s Chorus March 6, 2016
© Schönberg/Boublil/Natel lyrics: Kretzmer arr.Brymer (from Les Misérables) All rights reserved