A Christian Church, A Family of Faith
The Presbyterian Church in Canada
Saint Mark’s Presbyterian Church; Bass River
Organists: Eileen Beers      Minister: Rev. Alexander [Sandy] D. Sutherland; B.A., B.Th. M.Div
www.pccweb.ca/brpc
July 22nd 2012

Call to Worship
Opening Praise  To God be the glory
To God be the glory! Great things he hath done! 
So loved he the world that he gave us his Son, 
Who yielded his life an atonement for sin, 
And opened the life gate that all may go in. 
Refrain: Praise the Lord, praise the Lord! Let the earth hear his voice!  
	Praise the Lord, praise the Lord! Let the people rejoice!
	O come to the Father thru Jesus the Son; 
	And give him the glory, great things he hath done!
 O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood! 
To every believer the promise of God; 
The vilest offender who truly believes, 
That moment from Jesus a pardon receives. Refrain 
 Great things he hath taught us! Great things he hath done! 
And great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son: 
But purer and higher and greater will be, 
Our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see! Refrain

Prayers of Approach & The Lord’s Prayer

Special Music The Power of Your Love  	by Geoff Bullock
              The Promise 		by The Martins 
						Sung by Sheila Handrahan   
Recalling our Heritage and Memorial
We are thankful for the many people who share their gifts and talents, supporting this church in its missions, its ministry, building upkeep and maintenance. Through contributions to our general, cemetery, and special funds, through contributions of time and effort, and especially those who uphold us in prayer., the life and work of St. Mark’s is sustained and upheld. Thank you & God bless.

Scripture Reading: Psalm 122	 	 Read by Robert Smallwood
1    I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD.”
2    Our feet are standing in your gates, O Jerusalem.
3    Jerusalem is built like a city that is closely compacted together.
4    That is where the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, to praise the name of the LORD
    according to the statute given to Israel.
5    There the thrones for judgment stand, the thrones of the house of David.
6    Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May those who love you be secure.
7    May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels.”
8    For the sake of my brothers and friends, I will say, “Peace be within you.”
9    For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your prosperity.
  			   2 Corinthians 5:1-8    Read by Jean Chilcott
1Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 3because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
6Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7We live by faith, not by sight. 8We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 

Hymn of Illumination Faith of our fathers
 Faith of our Fathers! living still; 
in spite of dungeon, fire and sword, 
O how our hearts beat high with joy, 
whene’er we hear that glorious word! 
Refrain: Faith of our Fathers! holy faith! 
We will be true to thee till death!
 Our fathers, chained in prisons dark, 
were still in heart and conscience free;
 how sweet would be their children’s fate, 
if they, like them, could die for thee! 
Refrain
 Faith of our Fathers! we will love; 
both friend and foe in all our strife; 
and preach thee, too, as love knows how;  
by kindly word and virtuous life! Refrain

Gospel Reading:       John 14:1-6
1“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going.”
5Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Sermon 	House Keeping	
There is more to keeping up a house than knowing where the dustpan is. Housekeeping means attention to detail, awareness of the dangers a dirty or cluttered house can bring; it means looking for the dirt and dust, and keeping up a routine. It can be a full time job, or it can be a shared job of a household. 
Now before you assume that this is a recruitment speech for church janitorial staff, and not a sermon, let’s you and I settle into the setting of today’s gospel reading. 
	Jesus is seeking to comfort his disciples. His disciples were beginning to see where Jesus ministry was going. They were beginning to see that the opposition around Jesus was growing, and that if the authorities had their way they would kill him like John the Baptist had been killed. 
	The disciples became troubled, and they were growing afraid.
	Fear distracts. Fear tears our focus from the goals of our lives, and the purpose of our journey and makes us reel and cringe. Fear begins on the outside, but can quickly sink in, so much so that while we might begin by fearing something or someone specific, troubles can seem to build on troubles, worries upon worries, until we are afraid of seemingly everything. 
	The disciples were going to feel threatened. Were they at some level expecting Jesus to make sure nothing threatened them? We sometimes act like that, as a church, as Christians; we act as though the troubles of the world are beyond our doors, ands that its problems are not our problems. 
	Our reading follows Johns account of Jesus actions before the last supper; when Jesus washed his disciples feet, when they exchanged promises with each other, and when Simon Peter declared his loyalty to Jesus with a promise to never deny him.
	You have also made that sort of promise. Many of you, members of churches – here or in other places – have made promises to do God’s work and service through the fellowship of your home congregation and within the whole work of the church. If you have attended baptisms, you have promised to uphold in prayer, to be concerned with and protect the life of the new pilgrim in Christina faith, whether a child baptized or a grown adult. 
		And what makes us pull away from those promises that are meant to bind the church together? These promises are a formal part of these special events – not just baptisms – but weddings, ordinations, dedications, memorials and the like, but even our weekly worship, our daily devotion, and our mutually seeking direction from God’s Holy Word and our inspiration from God, the Holy Spirit, is meant to bind us, unit us and strengthen us. 
	Yet a world of trouble awaits the faithful, and the trouble with evil in our world and in our lives as Christians is not something that we can avoid. It was not something that the disciples could avoid either. When Jesus washed his disciples feet he was preparing them, when he taught them, when he broken bread with them, performed miracles before them and through them, he was preparing them for the troubles that they would have to face in the new direction of faith they would be taking in their lives because of Christ Jesus. 
	So Christ said: “Do not be troubled, and do not be afraid” and how do we set aside our fears and troubles? We believe in God, we put our faith in the author and maker of all things. Jesus says, “Believe in God, believe also in Me.”
	When we put our faith in the institution and the structure, we are in a poor position when it comes to facing change, and fear and troubles. We can become insular to the point that when troubles assail us, we won’t even stick our heads out our door. Yet, even when we put our faith in each other we need to recognize each other’s limitations; that no one in and of themselves is capable of utterly defeating evil. Save Christ Jesus, who fought all the evil to cross, to the grave and to victory in resurrection.
	In the apostle Peter’s letter to the church he describes Evil, the Devil, as a roaring lion on the prowl. Do we just hide from the world’s evils in this house? Is that why we build these houses, and keep them? When the world troubles of violence, and horrors of wars, and terrible diseases, are we meant to keep our houses strong by hiding away in them? When the lion comes at feeding time to tear down our walls, and evil threatens to devour our children, do we face the foe?
	How do we keep this house?
	Jesus points us to heaven. We keep this house, and our houses, and our families we keep them protected and strong in the promises of faith; and the full revelation of God’s word and its truth is that there is a house we can depend on, a place of perfect security, a house so grand that there is room for all.
	Jesus says; “In my father’s house are many rooms”, and some even translate this passage to say “in my father’s estate are many mansions.” 
	There is room enough for all, and if that was not enough Jesus goes onto say that he goes ahead of us to prepare a place for us. 
	This imagery has been sometimes misused by us, in our grief, when someone dear to us dies we like to think that they have go ahead of us to make things ready, and sometimes we think only of them getting God’s mansions ready for us when we are welcomed home. I tell you that those who have gone before us are not labour for our sakes. That work is done. Those who have served, whom we honour today, and who we seek to resemble as they exemplified Christ in their own lives; their work is complete and they are preoccupied with rejoice, and praise and celebration, and life everlasting in the light of God’s love. 
	What Jesus is saying is that there is room for us, especially for us, made specific for us, made special for perfect joy and comfort
	And the only way to get in their, the only key that opens that door is Christ. Those who follow Christ in love through life, in faith, have that glorious gathering waiting for them. And for that, we have no reason to fear or be troubled, for we know the way, the way through all our fear and doubt and sin and trouble. God is before u, behind, Christ lives in us and the Holy Spirit draws us ever onward to our everlasting home.
	Rejoice in the fellowship God is making you to be; this day, and forever. Amen
	Rejoice now as we sing this hymn, so appropriate for days such as these.
Hymn of Response Blessed Assurance
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! 
O, what a foretaste of glory divine! 
Heir of salvation, purchase of God, 
Born of his Spirit, washed in his blood. 
Refrain: This is my story, this is my song, 
Praising my Saviour all the day long; 
This is my story, this is my song, 
Praising my Saviour all the day long.
 Perfect submission, perfect delight, 
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight; 
Angels descending, bring from above 
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love. Refrain
 Perfect submission, all is at rest, 
I in my Saviour am happy and blest; 
Watching and waiting; looking above, 
Filled with his goodness, lost in his love. Refrain

Offering   

Prayers of Thanksgiving

Commissioning Praise   Rock of Ages
 Rock of ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee; 
Let the water and the blood, from thy riven side which flowed, 
Be of sin the double cure; cleanse me from its guilt and power.
 Not the labours of my hands can fulfill thy law’s demands; 
Could my zeal no respite know, could my tears for ever flow, 
All for sin could not atone; thou must save, and thou alone.
 Nothing in my hand I bring; simply to thy cross I cling; 
Naked, come to thee for dress; helpless, look to thee for grace; 
Foul, I to the fountain fly; wash me, Saviour, or I die.
 While I draw this fleeting breath, when my eyelids close in death, 
When I soar through tracts unknown, see thee on thy judgment throne; 
Rock of ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee.
Blessing and Benediction

Praise will transform the humblest dwelling 
to a hallowed heaven.
Frances J. Roberts
Called Home
I’ve wandered ‘mong the hallowed halls
Where choirs sing and angels call
And Reverends muddle over sermon’s wrought
And doctors of many ‘ology’s have taught.

But I prefer to cross the glade,
Hear songbirds sing of all God’s made;
To stroll to the church at the end of the lane,
And hear the preacher shout, “Jesus saves!” again.

For some find holy in the majestic, and the great.
But I am content on God’s goodness; to wait.
In this humble house, all our troubles seem to cease,
For God here calls us each home, to joy and to peace.

Before the service speak to God. 
During the service let God speak to you. 
After the service speak with your neighbour.