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 Twenty-Second Sunday of Pentecost

November 6^th 2011

Welcome & Announcements

Congratulations to George and Shirley Ryan

George & Shirley were married on October 27^th 2011.

 

Act of Remembrance –

Act of Remembrance –

 

The goal of our faith is everlasting peace, and we are called to seek it in this life as we look forward to its perfection in the life we approach in Christ’s perfection. The cost of that journey is often great, and so much of it is unseen, and too often taken for granted. Yet you – O Lord – have placed a special crest upon all who would give all for neighbour, friend and even stranger and we do not forget your words: “That no man has greater love than this, to lay down his life for his friends.”

Lord, help us to remember well the sacrifices being made. Lord, help us to find meaning in the calm that comes after war, and the still the coarse anger that feeds new conflict.

And Lord, we give thanks for every life laid down for our safety, and we honour those who would serve a stranger as a friend, and know that you created all the world, and throughout all this world we are called to care for the neighbours you have given us, the least of these in every land on this globe.

The Lord sets his mercy upon his faithful servants

Yet we servants tremble at the Lord’s demands

God calls through the ages telling us to show our faith.

Yet, faith comes at a cost to us, for our world is corrupted by sin, and we cling to our lives while we can have them.

To know peace, we must face its enemy, and set to rest all that bar God’s people from knowing peace and truth.

We stand in hope that we might serve the Lord, and to honour and remember all who have offered their service to the Lord with their strength, their weakness, their very lives. In Christ’s name. Amen.

Words of Remembrance

We remember and honour those who gave their lives in the service of freedom. Those who have honoured this nation with their blood, with their suffering, with the immense cost of their lives; today we honour them. We remember all who have given of themselves in service in the wars and conflicts of this nation has committed itself in theatres of war; remembering service men and women of the First World war, the Second world war, the Korean conflict, Peace Keepers who have served in many volatile national and international struggles, and those who even today are working, struggling, serving and dying in Afghanistan. May what they have given never be forgotten.

 

We do not grow old, as we that are left grow old. The sun does not rise or set for them, but they are assured of your victory because of their faith. Yet in the rising and the setting of the sun, we shall remember them.

Last Post

Moment Silence

596 O Canada

597 God save the Queen

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

Opening Praise: BoP 87 O God our help in ages past

Responsive Reading  – Psalm 67 [BoP 641]

Children’s story –

Children’s Hymn: BoP 414 O safe the Rock

Scripture Readings:

OT – Joshua 24:1-13

P____p_____

¹Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God.

²Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River^£ and worshiped other gods. ³But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the River and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac, ⁴and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau, but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.

⁵“‘Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and I brought you out. ⁶When I brought your fathers out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen^£ as far as the Red Sea.^{£ 7}But they cried to the LORD for help, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians; he brought the sea over them and covered them. You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the desert for a long time.

⁸“‘I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I gave them into your hands. I destroyed them from before you, and you took possession of their land. ⁹When Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, prepared to fight against Israel, he sent for Balaam son of Beor to put a curse on you. ¹⁰But I would not listen to Balaam, so he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you out of his hand.

¹¹“‘Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hands. ¹²I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you—also the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow. ¹³So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’

Epistle – 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

P____p_____

¹³Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. ¹⁴We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. ¹⁵According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸Therefore encourage each other with these words.

Hymn of Illumination: BoP 259 Breathe on me breath of God

Scripture Readings:

Gospel – Matthew 25:1-13

¹“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. ²Five of them were foolish and five were wise. ³The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. ⁴The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. ⁵The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

⁶“At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’

⁷“Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. ⁸The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’

⁹“‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’

¹⁰“But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

¹¹“Later the others also came. ‘Sir! Sir!’ they said. ‘Open the door for us!’

¹²“But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.’

¹³“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

 

Sermon: The new dawn

Jesus told a story of ten little girls. Some of these girls were foolish, the others were wise. And all of these little women, these ten virgins are supposed to teach us something about ourselves.

The scene looks like this: it is in the preparation for a great wedding, and this party of young girls go out to the edge of the village territory to meet the groom and escort him to the place of marriage and the feast. The girls would all have been excited because, outside of the noted holidays, a marriage feast was the only other celebration that would grace the lives of the average person. Whole villages would be decorated and gathered in to join with the feast of some noted offical, and on the day of a wedding of prince or princess the entire region would gather for feasts.

There would be rich foods, there would be performers of acrobatic and other amazing attractions, and sometimes special live animal shows might come to the village arena on that day. So it would be quite normal for a group of young girls who been especially chosen to escort the groom to the marriage place to be excited, even giddy.

So when our bibles translate the description of the ten young women – or virgins – and its says that only five were foolish, let’s not be mistaken to think that only five were excited, and only five were singing perhaps or dancing. No, it is better to look at this scene and see ten girls all in their best clothes, singing about the wonderful event, all think forward to their own wedding days perhaps, or thinking of other weddings they had seen, and wondering what this one would be like.

But of the ten young women, there were five who thought for a moment about something more then their own excitement, and about how special it was being chosen to escort the groom to the wedding, they though about their duty, and about their responsibility, about the night ahead, and about the unknown hour of the groom’s arrival.

When Jesus spoke to the crowds he taught using parables like this because it came from their own experience. It set their teachings in the middle of their experience, because we learn from experience. And with these lessons in their context we begin to find our place in them.

I think any of us would look at this scene and we would like to name ourselves as one of the wise women who brought the extra oil for the night. Their wisdom comes from being willing to look ahead to the possible needs of tomorrow, and recognizing the responsibilities that are in front of them right now. Their wisdom is shown in being prepared, but their wisdom is also shown in not wasting their provisions on those who were too foolish to bring enough to last through the night.

I am going to unpack some of the imagery of this parable for you. This is a very rich scene that Jesus presents, but as is often true with the parables, certain subtleties can be easily overlooked as wee look for the overriding moral message.

First, the oil for the lamps. The song, ‘give me oil for my lamp’ is a popular VBS song, is song around campfires at Christian camps and youth groups. It is a fun son with really accessible language for children to understand Jesus teachings. The oil in the parable and in the song represents our faith. And so I ask you, have you checked to see the level of your storehouse of faith?

Second, these flames in the lamps are to burn not simply into the night but all the way through it. The time that passes in this parable is our lives, and our lives can be a dark time. The only way to see our way through that dark time is to keep our lives lit with the light of faith.

Thirdly, when it comes to the oil that lights our own lamp, we cannot transfer our faith to someone else. I can tell you again and again to do something, to grow in faith, but I cannot fill your lamp, I cannot fill your storehouse, we each have been given the task of working that part of things out for ourselves. We need to be careful not to let the people around think that the faith the we have is going to get them through the hardness of life. Do your children, or grand children rely on you to be their source of faith. Have you become their guide, have I become your guide, because this is not as it should be. We can only be filled in faith by the source of faith. We can only have the will and strength to see it through the dark nights of our souls by the faith that is God’s gift to us, that comes from having a close personal relationship with God.

I want you to take a close look at this imagery as it plays out in the parable. Ten young women, girls perhaps, set out from their village to welcome the bride-groom. They all have burning lamps, all of them are burning with the light of faith, all of them have their lives lit up for Christ, but look – the night goes long. It grows dark and their faith runs out, and while they turn to their left and right their isn’t anyone who is able to fill up their faith. In the dark of night they have to look again for their source of faith.

In places where the church is persecuted, where Christians are jailed or marginalized, the church is thriving. These are those who have the deep reserves of faith for the darkness of the day. But, you, if your freedom to worship was taken away, if this building and all its materials was torn down and the yard about leveled, and if your family was broken and torn by poverty, famine plague and war, could your faith hold on till the coming groom of the church brought rest in the new dawn.

The nation of God’s chosen people had walked through the dark wilderness for two generations. They had grown bright in faith as a people and unified in purpose through law and heritage. With their torches and lamps bright they crossed the river Jordan into a land that was not their own, but would be theirs by God’s promise, and they crossed into that new day for their people in the faith on all God’s promises, for them and for their children and all of their descendants.

Yet in our new day, and in the new dawn before you, will you be found welcome into the joy of God’s promises fulfilled, or are you set to come up short. Have you the oil to see your way through the dark times, have you the faith to see the new dawn before you. I pray you do. I pray that if you do not that you will seek after faith, to row and deepen your reserve, that in the assurance of all God’s promises you will see the new dawn with Christ, in joy, forever and ever. Amen.

 

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Intercession

God’s Tithes and our gifts

Doxology (NBoP 830; BoP 603)

Offertory Prayer

Commissioning Hymn: BoP 480 Who is on the Lord’s side

 

Benediction

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

 

Next Week’s Services:

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

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

Mission Moment CANADA: Growing a congregation

Parkland First Presbyterian in Spruce Grove, Alberta began as a Bible Study group in the mid-1990′s and officially became a congregation in 1997. In 2005, with support from Presbyterians Sharing, they called their first minister, Mark Chiang, a recent graduate from Knox College. The seeds from this church plant have grown!  Parkland received a grant from Presbyterians Sharing to purchase land and a building in a rapidly growing area. They took possession April 1, 2011 and are beginning renovations and looking forward to continued growth. Through Presbyterians Sharing we are helping to plant congregations like Parkland, and to spread the gospel message.