A Fellowship of the Christian Church

The Bass River Pastoral Charge

The Presbyterian Church in Canada

St. Mark’s, Bass River; St. James, Beersville; St. Andrew’s, Clairville & Zion, West Branch

Organists: Heather Morton, Marly Sutherland, Rodney Girvan, Dolly MacDonald, Shanece Wilson

Minister: Rev. Alexander [Sandy] D. Sutherland; B.A., B.Th. M.Div

Manse #: 506-785-4383 Cell #: 506-521-0705 Email: thebrpc@gmail.com Twitter: thebrpc

Bulletin Announcements:  Cathy Little @ Fillmore Trucking #785-1083

www.pccweb.ca/brpc

ORDER OF SERVICE

The Eighteenth  Sunday of Pentecost- Thanksgiving Sunday

October 9^th 2011

Welcome & Announcements    –

Happy Thanksgiving one and all! May you find this time of worship to be a blessing as you celebrate all that God has given you. Together we are a thankful church family, and from our times of worship and fellowship we look for ways to grow, and to increase the celebration of life and faith you share with us today. If you are visiting, or are new to the community we hope you will get to know us, as we are very glad to have you be a part of this loving community.

Next Week’s Services:

9:30am – Zion Presbyterian Church (West Branch)

11:00am – St. James’ Presbyterian Church (Beersville)

Mission Moment UKRAINE: Equipping children

Our gifts to Presbyterians Sharing support Dr. David Pándy-Szekeres as he serves with the Reformed Church of Sub-Carpathian Ukraine (RCCU). David coordinates four Christian secondary schools and helps to post and supervise RCCU missionaries serving communities in Ukraine. A special class run by RCCU missionaries for Roma children in the village of Nagybereg has been a great success. Nine students who went through the first session passed their final exams and were enrolled in regular classes. A multifunctional building which will serve as a prayer hall and kindergarten is being constructed to serve this Roma community. Let us pray for David and the important work that the RCCU is doing with Hungarians in Ukraine.

Call to Worship – Give Thanks [overhead]

Prayer of Approach & Confession & The Lord’s Prayer (NBoP 831; BoP 605)

Opening Praise: BoP 70 Immortal, Invisible, God only Wise

Responsive Reading  – Psalm 25 [BoP 624]

Children’s story –

Children’s Hymn: BoP 566 Can a little child like me?

Scripture Readings:

OT – Exodus 32:1-14

¹When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods^£ who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”

²Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” ³So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. ⁴He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods,^£ O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

⁵When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD.” ⁶So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings.^£ Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.

⁷Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. ⁸They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’

⁹“I have seen these people,” the LORD said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. ¹⁰Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”

¹¹But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. “O LORD,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? ¹²Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. ¹³Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” ¹⁴Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.

Epistle – 2 Corinthians 9:6-15

⁶Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. ⁷Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. ⁹As it is written:

“He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor;

his righteousness endures forever.”

¹⁰Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. ¹¹You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

¹²This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. ¹³Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. ¹⁴And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. ¹⁵Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

Hymn of Illumination: BoP 563 We plough the fields and scatter

Scripture Readings:

Gospel – Matthew 22:1-14

¹Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: ²“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. ³He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

⁴“Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

⁵“But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. ⁶The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. ⁷The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

⁸“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. ⁹Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ ¹⁰So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

¹¹“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ¹²‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.

¹³“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

¹⁴“For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

 

Sermon: Called to the table

Jesus was making a point, a very clear and a sharpened point, in the parable we read today in the gospel of Matthew. Now this is a parable that certainly describes how we tend to make excuses about coming or not coming to church, being spiritual or not being spiritual. God has heard all the excuses for our lack of faith. I can tell you that every one of those excuses are ones that God has forgiven, all of them are things we still can tend to put between us and God and also between ourselves and others; for the invitation is still there, still being offered. And so when we come to this table I want you to know the invitation is not something that I am offering you, or the session of the church is offering you, but that God is still offering you, to be gathered with Christ as the disciples were gathered with Christ, and to be counted with the disciples in faith, purpose, calling and glory.

But the sharpened point that Jesus makes is this, that God’s invitation has been offered not only today, and not only in our life-time. God has made that invitations to gather at His table through the words of his law, and the messengers that Jesus speaks about in the parable are not only the prophets of the old testament, but it certainly includes them. These prophets were ridiculed, they were abusively treated, they were used up and spit out, these messengers of God were poorly treated, and our loving shepherd Jesus describes the kind of answer God gives to those who poorly treat his messengers.

God sent out an invitation to the world to be gathered, and today we are here to answer that call.

[Pause]

It was an impossible task, and it would cost the lives of many sailors then and in years to come, but the search for the north-west passage is a part of the great legends of the founding of our nation. In the history of our Canadian Thanksgiving holiday the events in 1578 on Baffin Island, in what is today Nunavut, are the equivalent of the pilgrim’s party near ‘Plymouth Rock’.

Recognizing the difficulty they were facing, the losses that had already taken place, and in the face of insurmountable doubt and fear, it was suggested by the missionary and preacher to the expedition that they set ashore, and make camp, and set up a place for worship and there celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Recorded in the ship’s log of one of the surviving vessels in northern explorer, Martin Frobisher’s, fleet of battered and beleaguered vessels are these words: “The celebration of divine mystery was the first signe, scale, and confirmation of Christ’s name, death and passion ever known in all these quarters.”

Among all the events of the history that has come to make up our celebration it is one of the clearest examples of how what we celebrate at our tables at thanksgiving is distinct from many of the world-wide harvest celebrations, and so true to the real purpose in harvest/thanksgiving festivities.

We set our tables of thanksgiving not simply in the midst or the end of our harvest, but we set our tables in the face of the season that is about to fall on us.

The celebration of Thanksgiving comes at the end of certain ‘good times’. We might celebrate over the labour-day weekend an end to summer holidays, but it is really Thanksgiving that marks the real turn in the seasons. We mow our lawns for the last time, exchanging mowers and gardening tools for snow-ploughs and shovels. We rejoice in the end of road construction season, change the tires on our cars and watch the temperatures to make sure we are not surprised by the first deep frost and black ice of the oncoming winter season.

The history of holidays is less about celebrations that mark changes in the cycles of moon, sun and stars, and more about getting together and having good times, and significant times in the face of real need, in the face of perhaps disaster, certainly in the face of our many enemies.

Step back through scripture with me to that ever familiar psalm, Psalm 23, were in verse five it begins by saying “Thou preparest a table in the presence of mine enemies”. This psalm so clearly celebrates all God does for us and the safety and assurance of God’s presence, but it is this line that tells us the context for thanksgiving. In the face of our enemies. That was almost the title for the sermon today [but I did not want to give the theme away too early].

In Jewish tradition the festival celebrations of Sukkot mark not only the time of harvest but it remembers the hardship of two generation as they struggled to survive in the wilderness. Yet the festival beacons to the Jewish people as our thanksgiving festival does for us, to see not only the hardship we have emerged from, but also the one we have been prepared to endure.

To simply celebrate the wealth and provision that God has given us, in the light of the state of the world and the famine and hardship of millions world-wide, would be an arrogant boasting before the world of our advantage over others. Maybe that is the way the world sees us, sees the west, the ‘developed’ nations, and it is not our best light.

But if we get back to the roots of giving thanks, especially as it is expressed in scriptures, we discover the wonderful gift of these celebrations, and in our own remembrance we know their purpose. Even in the memory of giving thanks together we are given power to face so much in our lives and in the struggles of those around us. When we gather at this table [communion table] especially, we gather at the table the Lord has prepared in the face of our enemies; for Christ gathered his disciples – even those would betray him, and run from him, and deny him.

This is the great feast that God offers us, not in food, but in the presence of God’s Holy Spirit. We are here at God’s invitation, for Christ is with us as we gather and we are named as God’s own children through Christ. God is present as we celebrate, and by the Holy Spirit’s power keeps us in the unity of his love as we celebrate and remember with thanks today, tomorrow and forever. Let us rejoice today and always in the great gift of God’s love.

 

 

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Intercession

 

BR – Special Reading – Jean Chilcott

God’s Tithes and our gifts

Doxology (NBoP 830; BoP 603)

Offertory Prayer

The Lord’s Supper [BoP 619; ref NBoP 539]

 

Today we recognize together with the whole of our Church: That we gather at this table in preparation for the journey that lies before us.

 

The Lord Jesus Christ chose to humbly walk with us. To live our life, to suffer as we suffer; to face sin and to be righteous; to face illness and offer healing; to face death, and to offer us eternal life through his sacrifice. In Christ, we come together to give thanks, and in looking forward together to a journey, a potentially hard journey, but one full of hope because of Christ Jesus has done.

 

Through Christ we pray; In faith in Him our lives are healed; and through Him our sins are forgiven.

 

Jesus gave us the witness of his own words and actions, that we might speak and act, seeking understanding and purpose in God.

The only begotten Son of God has come, and facing the curse of our He sin conquered death, that we might know the Full measure of God’s love.

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might; heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest!

The Institution of the Lord’s Supper:

This is the joyful feast of the people of God! Even though it takes place of the shadow of the cross, we celebrate in the light of the resurrection.

We come to this table at Christ’s invitation, given in the grace of the Loving Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. The institution of this sacrament belongs to Jesus the Christ, for it is the memorial of Christ’s life, death, and the new life we share in Him.

In the words of the Apostle Paul, we declare this sacrament of our faith to draw from this truth:

“the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, ²⁴and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁵In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” ²⁶For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

Yet the Apostle Paul also gives us this warning:

He says,

²⁷Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. ²⁸A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. ²⁹For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.

[1 Corinthians 11:23-29]

This holy meal is a gift to all who confess with heart, and mind, and soul, the living and eternal Christ Jesus is Lord; who by God’s grace and the Holy Spirit’s power, gives us the understanding to know God in faith. Let us then, offer God our confession of faith as we together declare . . .

 

Confession of faith: [BoP 619; ref NBoP 539]

I believe in God the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, and suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost; the Holy Catholic Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. AMEN

Communion prayer:

Lord God of all mercy, we bring to this table our souls, humbled by your grace in all its signs. Our spirits are in need of the cleansing that can only come through Christ.

Lord, hear our prayer and set us free.

Hear our cry for mercy, for we lift our eyes to the cross and see the cost of our salvation. Know our cry for peace as we lower our eyes in shame

Lord, hear our prayer and draw us together in peace.

O Lord, this is your table, and we come seeking your presence; let nothing separate the Lord God and His people.

Lift the gifts of your Holy Spirit – humility, goodness, kindness, self control, knowledge, perseverance, and most of all love  – as signs to the world of our faith; as we seek to be more like Christ.

Lord, this bread is made from the grain that you caused to grow and this cup is filled with the fruitfulness of the vine you have sustained. You brought them to this table and now, O Lord, we pray that by your blessing this bread and cup will be renewed as a blessing in their use in the special purpose you have for us in this sacrament.

Help us understand, that in Jesus we must finally see that we are made for more than ordinary purposes.

Let feel the support of the communion of faith in the Church, as we are gathered with all who confess faith in Christ and seek His presence in their life.

O Father in Heaven, by your Holy Spirit, let us be drawn together with you because of Jesus, our Saviour and Lord; who was begotten, who was born, who lived and died, and who is risen, and who is coming again.

In Jesus name we pray, Amen

The Holy Communion of the Lord’s Supper

We are gathered by God to this table with the whole Church. We are gathered with all who proclaim Christ, name Him Lord, and in communion with all who rejoice before God in glory.

In accordance with the teaching and direction of the good news in Jesus Christ, we do this:

The Lord Jesus – on the night he was betrayed – took bread, and after giving thanks to God, he broke it and said: “Take, eat, this is my body that is broken for you. This, you do, in remembrance of me.”

Bread distributed to all

When we break the bread it is the sharing in the body of Christ                                                                                                        1 Corinthians 10:16

We eat the bread together

In the same way also Jesus took the cup, After they had sup, and said: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do so in remembrance of me”

The cup is shared

In remembrance, let us share the cup of the new covenant.

We drink the cup together

This bread and this cup are a proclamation; by them we declare the power and purpose of the Lord’s death until he comes.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Loving God, thank you for the assurance of this sacrament of faith, and all the blessings we have received in Jesus Christ, our Lord. We rejoice that we are renewed in our spiritual bond to the whole of your Church through Christ’s sacrifice, here recalled. O God, give us the grace to carry his words into the world in the way we live our faith, as we are lifted up in all manner of being, because of Christ, through the Holy Spirit in your love:

Jesus, Lamb of God, have mercy on us

Jesus, bearer of our sins, have mercy on us

Jesus, redeemer of the world, grant us your peace.

Amen

Now, go out into the world in peace. Whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God through him

 

Commissioning Hymn: BoP 571 We praise Thee, O God

Benediction

Dismissal: ‘Midst prayers of thanks [back of bulletin]

 

‘Midst prayers of thanks our praises ring,

Before the world we gladly sing,

For we are saved by giving hands

Of Christ who died that we might stand.

Our great thanksgiving is our lives

In daily service lifted high

Souls in devotion testify

We thank you Lord, you paid the price

We thank you Lord, you paid the price