Knox (Westport) Presbyterian Church

Thanksgiving, October 10, 2021

Good morning, happy Thanksgiving, and welcome to Knox (Westport) Presbyterian Church.

Autumn is a wonderful time of year as people harvest the good fruits of our land and witness the abundance of God’s blessing upon His people.  On this Thanksgiving Sunday, we will all have many reasons why we are thankful.  Celebrate with us the joys and blessings of life as we give thanks for the relationships and people, the challenges and opportunities, the dreams and achievements, and the power and presence of God that each of these brings to our lives.

We are glad that you have joined us this morning   As we worship God and share in the fellowship of God’s people, we hope your time with us will inspire and challenge you to embrace the great, good possibilities of life where faith in God can make a significant difference.

We continue the practice of no greeting one another with a hug, no coffee hour, no passing of Offering plates or using hymn books or pew Bibles.  When you join us in singing hymns and praise songs, we encourage you to reduce the volume of your voices or just hum along.   According to current guidelines regarding indoor gatherings, masks or face coverings are still required.

Following our worship service, people can feel free to linger and visit with each other outdoors when the weather is good.  Masks and face coverings are no longer required for outdoor gatherings if you are fully vaccinated.  Please be aware that not everyone may be fully vaccinated and wearing a mask or face covering may still be advisable to protect everyone.  As more and more people receive the two shots of the Covid-19 vaccine and complete their incubation period, we will be able to resume a more friendly approach to each other.

Thank you for being here.  Let’s stay safe and be well.

Announcements

Greeting One Another

We are delighted that you chose to join us this morning as we come together in fellowship to celebrate our shared faith in Jesus, the Messiah.  Let’s stand and greet one another by applause instead of the customary hearty handshake or caring embrace.

A Moment for Reflection

Take a moment now to prepare for worship.

The Order of Service will be a little bit different in our celebration of Thanksgiving as I have arranged the Service into three segments, each one designed to reflect on life and the many reasons why it is good and natural for us to give thanks.

I’m going to ask Barb to play a brief musical selection as we come into the presence of God.

Harvest Thanksgiving

This is the season of harvest where the fruit of our labour and the bounty of our land reflect the goodness of God our Provider.  Let us thank God for the harvest.

Will you join with me as we read Psalm 100 together as our Call to Worship:

Call to Worship - Psalm 100

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship the Lord with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God.

It is he who made us, and we are his;

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Let us worship the Lord God whose faithfulness continues through all generations.

Praise and Worship

Let’s worship God as we come into the presence of God in praise and worship.

How Great is Our God How Great Thou Art Yet Not I but Christ in Me

Don and Barb, come and lead us into the presence of God in praise and thanksgiving.

Prayers of Adoration and Confession

God of all creation,

in this season of thanksgiving for the harvests of the earth, we are struck by the beauties of autumn, leaves in bright colours, birds flying south in formation, fields ripe with produce.

Such beauty speaks of your goodness,

your desire to provide what each beloved creature needs.

As we gather this day, renew our sense of thanksgiving for what you give to us in the fruitfulness of creation, and in Christ Jesus who teaches us how to walk wisely on the earth you made.

For all your good gifts we honour you with thanks and praise, now and always.

God of our lives,

when we give thanks for your good gifts around us, we know that we enjoy an abundance many cannot even imagine.

Yet we confess we do not always see the blessings in which we share.

We worry about the future, if we can recover from the pandemic, whether we will have enough for our families to flourish.

Forgive our fears of going without, and our failure to be grateful for how much goodness is already ours.

AMEN

The Offering

Offering plates have been placed at the entrance into the main auditorium for you to leave your offering as you enter or leave this morning.  Thank you.

Sharing Our Thoughts on Life and Faith

What do you like most about the Autumn season of harvest?

Thanksgiving in Difficult Times

Thanksgiving is as much a mindset or attitude toward life as it is a response to the circumstances in which we find ourselves at any given moment in time.

I want to ask you two questions when it comes to thanksgiving in the difficulties and challenges that we all face in our daily lives:

1. What complaints have you heard from people over the last 10 days?

We all have reasons to complain if we choose to have a negative attitude or mindset toward the circumstances we find ourselves in.

Let me ask a second question:

2. Were you or the other person able to do anything of significance to deal with the complaint?

The fact of the matter is that most of our daily complaints are beyond our control to remedy.  If it’s raining out, we can’t make the sun to shine.  If the traffic is tied up for construction, we can’t make it move faster.  If the aches and pains of growing older make it harder to get going in the morning, we can’t make them disappear.

Not only does the complaining NOT accomplish anything of significance, it, betrays a lack of perspective and understanding about life that should cause us to give thanks.

We are living in difficult circumstances and times today.  There seems to be no end to the list of problems that seem insurmountable: poverty, hunger, systemic racism, violence, corruption, deceit, cruelty, power, sexual, emotional, and physical abuse, and many more examples of human activity that cause great harm.  These problems aren’t solved by complaining or feeling sorry for ourselves or others who are treated in this way.

In fact, the daily litany of human woes paraded on the 24/7 news cycle only makes it worse as people surrender to what is instead of acting to bring about what could be.

We are living in difficult circumstances and times today.  The climate crisis causes increasing numbers of hurricane, wildfires, floods, and droughts that devastate entire communities and leave people’s lives in shambles.  We live in fear of their happening to us and only getting more severe as time goes by.

We have all gone through 15+ months of a worldwide pandemic that has had an enormous impact on all of our lives.  It has kept us separated from those we need and love.  It has killed many people and left everyone else with fear and dread.  It has left everyone frustrated and weary at the prolonged period of sacrifice and isolation.

I have experienced this myself in greater measure myself.  For the most part, I have been fairly optimistic that this would soon pass.  I put in place alternatives to what I have always done.  Ironically, I retired from St. Andrew’s Church in Streetsville because I felt ill-equipped to adopt social media and technology to expand and enhance the ministry of the Church.  The Covid pandemic has taught me how to record and download sermons and messages on You Tube and Facebook.

More recently, the on-again-off-again in person worship services with ever changing restrictions and guidelines have been exhausting.

Over the summer months, this has prompted me to look at my circumstances and consider the future.

Is my fatigue and frustration simply the result of Covid-19 or is there something deeper going on in my life that needs to be addressed?  Could it more accurately be a prompting from God that the ministry that He called me too is coming to an end?

The Apostle Paul urges the followers of Jesus in Philippi to take the following approach:

4 ¹Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!

Final Exhortations

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

In verse 6 there is a note of caution: Do not be anxious about anything.  This implies that there are times and circumstances and experiences that might cause us to NOT be thankful.  Life doesn’t always go smoothly.

Paul urges us to “rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again:  Rejoice!”

It is in the rejoicing that we discover the reasons for thanksgiving - not only for the good things we enjoy, but also for the circumstances and experiences that we sometimes have to face where life is difficult.

It is in the troubling times that we discover and express an attitude of gratitude that recognizes God’s goodness in all of life.

Paul goes on to urge us:

⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things. ⁹ Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me — put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.     (Philippians 4: 1, 4-9)

When faced with difficult times – and we will all face uncertain times – Scripture encourages us to rejoice; to give thanks; and to focus on what is noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable.

And note what the outcome of that attitude will be:

And the God of peace will be with you.

In good times and troubling times, we will know the presence of God that brings peace.  And that’s just one more reason for us to give thanks on this Thanksgiving Sunday.

I have chosen two hymns to capture this mindset or attitude to life.

The first one is a contemporary, Jewish-sounding song: “Jehovah-Jireh”.  It’s the Hebrew word for “provider – God is my Provider”.  We are going to sing this song through several times, each time at a faster paste until we all feel like dancing.

The second hymn is an old hymn from the Book of Praise we used in the Presbyterian Church when I was a boy: “Though Troubles Assail Us”.  The refrain in each verse captures the promise of God when troubles come our way.

Don and Barb, come and lead us in these songs of faith and promise.

“Jehovah Jireh” / “Though Troubles Assail Us”

Let us offer our Thanksgiving to God.

Our Lives of Thanksgiving & Praise

Kind and Generous God,

on this Thanksgiving weekend, we pause to give you thanks for all those things, both great and small,

those moments of wonder and those ordinary exchanges which fill our lives with meaning and offer us a sense of well-being.

Merciful and Generous God,

as we give thanks for the harvests of the earth and its goodness, show us how to live respectfully in creation and protect all that is precious to you.

In a year when harvesting has been disappointing in many places, show us how to share what has been produced so that no one goes hungry:

Just and Generous God,

we pray for the good of your world and the common good in our community.

Where there is hostility between peoples or nations, inspire leaders to show wisdom and courage in decision making.

We pray for areas hard hit by flood, storm, fire or earthquake, and for all those struggling with the impact of the pandemic.

May neighbours with resources maintain generosity and compassion for the long work of reconstructing lives and livelihoods.

Healing and Generous God,

we pray for all those facing health challenges or difficult times for any reason, and we pray for family and friends under stress or in sorrow.

Give us patience and understanding as we draw near to them and help us reach out with compassion.

O God,

in Jesus Christ we have met your generous love and mercy.

Through our lives and by our prayers, reveal his love and mercy in this generation,

for it is in his name we offer the prayer he taught us, saying

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.  Thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we forgive sinners.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.  AMEN.

*Hymn of Thanksgiving — #457 - ”Now Thank We All Our God”

Benediction –

  2 Corinthians 12:14 — The Message

“The amazing grace of Jesus the Messiah, the extravagant love of God the Father, and the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit, be with all of you.

Choral Blessing

Go now in peace. Never be afraid.

God will go with you each hour of every day.

Go now in faith, steadfast, strong and true.

Know He will guide you in all you do.

Go now in love, and show you believe.

Reach out to others so all the world can see.

God will be there watching from above.

Go now in peace, in faith and in love.