Muskoka Lakes Ministry of Knox, Port Carling & Zion, Torrance
Sunday June 6, 2021
Message: Forgetful Foolish People and our Faithful God
Reverend Glynis Faith
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Announcements
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* Monday 7pm Bible Study via Zoom
* Thursday 7:30pm Lectio Divina via Zoom
* The 2021 General Assembly meets via Zoom from June 6-9. Please keep the work of our denominations highest court in your prayers.
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Prayer of Adoration & Confession
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God of the morning – God of newness and life we lift our hearts to You in humble praise and adoration. We praise you for the songs of the blackbirds, the sparrows, the finches and the wrens. We praise You for the empty nests of early summer, as the young birds of spring take flight from the safety of their home to venture out and sing Your praises.
Nature does indeed reflect Your glory and sing Your praises. From dusk to dawn, through spring, summer, fall and winter, from generation to generation You are God – unchanging and perfect. God of all, we bow before You, our Creator, our Redeemer and our Sustainer. We bow before You with humble hearts and praise on our lips.
With our praise also comes confession, O Lord. You have indeed given us everything, yet we often strive for more. In our efforts to have things our way, we overlook or ignore Your call for us to love our neighbour as ourselves. When we ignore Your Laws, we sin and cause others to do the same. Our sins are like dominos falling over and causing others to fall. Our sins cause pain to our brothers and sisters and to You, O Lord.
Help us to see our sins, to name them and place them before You – help us to confess our sins Lord, and when we do, enable us to feel the cleansing power of Your forgiveness in our soul. In the Name of Jesus, through Whom we are redeemed, we pray. AMEN
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Prayer of Intercession
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You are truth, O Lord, and Your promises are sure. You hear our prayers and You reach into our brokenness. Hear our prayers O Lord.
We pray for the 2021 General Assembly – for the work of the church – for technology with minimal disruptions – for the patience of Your people. Let each of the commissioners show and be shown grace in these difficult times.
We pray for the work of Knox and Zion. We lift one another up to You Lord. Bless Your faithful servants. Bless the ministries we do in Your Holy Name and bless the communities we have been called to shine Your light into.
Loving God we lift up our prayers for the sick. We pray for individuals awaiting important tests and those awaiting the results of tests. We pray for everyone who has had surgeries postponed and we pray for those who are recovering from surgery. We pray for Your children who have received less than desirable news, for those who are preparing to step into Your glory. Fill them with the assurances of Your promises, giving them strength and hope in each day.
Compassionate God we hold up to You all who mourn, thinking especially of the Boyce Family and the Brown family as they reflect on the anniversaries of Sandy and Dunc’s deaths. Wrap them in Your comforting presence.
We pray for level heads as economies begin to reopen. Help us to be patient and thoughtful. Remind us to love our neighbours (even the ones we don’t agree with) as ourselves.
We lift these prayers to You in the name of Jesus. AME
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“ Forgetful Foolish People & our Faithful God ”
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If you read through chapter 8 of The Story this week, you may have noticed a cyclical movement. If you are not following along with The Story, then I encourage you to read the book of Judges in the Old Testament. It does not take long before the pattern is revealed.
It starts with a blessed people living in a Promised Land. What more could one ask for. Yet they do ask for more. God’s people want what the other nations have and they begin to worship the gods of the other nations. They sin, willfully breaking their covenant with God. God removes his provision and protection, letting the people have what they want. The people become oppressed by the neighbouring nations they so longed to be like, and after a time of oppression they realize their sins, repent and call out to God. God is faithful, and when the people call out, He sends them someone to guide them back into a righteous relationship with Him, thus freeing them from oppression.
All is good – the people willfully sin – they suffer oppression – they repent – God delivers them and all is good.
What is the definition of insanity??? Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting there to be a different result!!!
If we think back to the start of our journey through The Story, we have encounter Adam and Eve who have no worry in the world and only 1 rule – ‘don’t eat from that one tree,’ and what do they do? They eat from that tree! What does God do? He covers their shame (their nakedness).
Cain kills his brother Abel, and what does God do? The Lord put a mark on him to give him protection in his banishment.
Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, and what did God do? God brought Joseph up into a position to save the lives of the very brothers who betrayed him.
Moses is denied access into the Promised Land when he does not follow God’s instructions, but God brought him up into a high place and let Moses look out over the land He had led the people to.
The people complained against Moses and against God, and what does God do? The Lord God provided them with food and with water.
Are we beginning to see a central theme in Scripture? We mess up – God covers us, shelters us, blesses us and provides for us. A central Biblical these is this: in the face of human faithlessness, God remains true to His Word.
We keep doing the same thing over and over again – we sin – sin causes suffering for ourselves and for others – in our suffering we call out to God in repentance and we are delivered into a time of peace, till eventually we start the cycle again. Fortunately for us God remains consistent and true in the face of our faithlessness.
The story of Judges begins in the Promised Land with ‘the wrong crowd,’ and it ends with “everyone doing as they saw fit.”
Did your parents ever ask you not to hang out with anyone because they would be a bad influence on you? There was a young boy that lived down the road from us when my son, David, was about 7. David wanted to ask him over to play, but I did not extend the invitation. The young boy was known for telling his parents to shut up and on occasion would slap his grandmother when she did not give him what he wanted. He had a colourful vocabulary, which my boy was mighty impressed with, so I did not want such a negative influence around.
People can influence us both positively and negatively. Now the communal identity of Israel was to be a people of the Law, a place where God’s presence could reside. They were to be unique, set apart, counter cultural. So when God brought them into the Promised Land, He instructed them to drive out ALL of the people Chapter 1 of Judges tells us not all were driven out, thus several groups remained in the land with the Israelites. Does God take the land back from Israel? No! Let’s read what happened:
The angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land I swore to give to your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.’ Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? And I have also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; they will become traps for you, and their gods will become snares to you.’”
When the angel of the LORD had spoken these things to all the Israelites, the people wept aloud, and they called that place Bokim. There they offered sacrifices to the LORD.
After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land, each to their own inheritance. The people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel.
Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten. And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals. They forsook the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. Joshua 2:1-12a
The people of God did not drive out the people God instructed them to, so they were influence by the practices, belief and gods of the Canaanites. Did you notice something else they failed to do?
They failed to teach the next generation about God. This had been another of God’s instructions,
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit and home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
Retelling the stories is how we pass down our history and our faith. It is what we are called to do, because retelling the stories helps our children learn that God loves them and will always be there for them.
By failing to drive out the ‘bad kids on the block’ and not teaching the next generation about God, the people drifted into sinful living and God stepped away to let them have what they wanted, allowing them to be oppressed by the same people they were supposed to have driven out.
Now lets stop and consider the central theme again. in the face of human faithlessness, God remains true to His Word.
The people had not remained faithful to God. They did not do as they had been instructed. Yet God remains true to His Word. But how is that? Did God not remove His protection? Did God not allow the people to be oppressed by their neighbours? Yes and Yes. But think back to the conclusion of the book of Joshua when the people are instructed to choose for themselves – blessings or curses – serve the one true God or forsake the Lord and serve other gods. God did not forsake His covenant with His people, they did.
Yet God remains true to His Word. He doesn’t take them into court and demand they keep up their end of the bargain. No, God waits until they realize that it is their sin that got them into this mess, and they cry out to God. God remains true to His Word by sending Judges, people like Moses to lead the people back into covenant with God and restore peace in the land.
There is a 300 year period covered by the judges. The text introduces our need for a leader with these words: “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, now that (the previous judge) was dead.” Thus the people sin – they become oppressed – they call out to God – and God, who is faithful to His Word sends them another judge to lead them out of bondage and into covenant living - - and there is peace in the land. At least until the judge dies and then “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, now that (the previous judge) was dead.”
SIGH!
So what do the judges teach us? How do these stories of old apply in our lives today? What does this mean for the church? If you remember only one thing from the stories of the judges, remember this: ‘despite our faithlessness, God is always true to His Word – God is faithful.’ Always.
* You can trust in God to be there to pick you up – whatever your sin.
* You can trust God to bring others into your life to help pick you up and guide you when you call out to Him in sincere repentance.
* When you slip up a 2nd time and a 3rd time and a 4th time and again and again and again – don’t give up on yourself, because God will never give up on you. Repent, accept forgiveness, stand firm in God’s promises and try again.
As God’s children, and as His church lets remember the two key factors for Israel’s fall during the time of the judges:
* they did not follow God’s instructions, staying from their covenant and they failed to teach the next generation the stories to remind them that ‘despite our faithlessness, God is always true to His Word – God is faithful.’ Always.
Friends, live in the truth of God’s Word, be quick to confess your sins, accept God’s forgiveness, forgiving others by the same measure God forgives you. Live in peace with God and with one another. That is what Your God wants for you – peace!
Grace and peace to you on this day and each day here after. AMEN
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Hymn #202 We Lay our Broken World in Sorrow at Your Feet
Words: Anna Briggs (1947-) Music: Kenneth G. Finlay (1882-1974)
Words: copyright © Iona Community (Scotland), Used by permission of G.I.A Publications Inc. Music: copyright © Broomhill Church of Scotland, Glasgow________________________________________
We lay our broken world in sorrow at your feet,
haunted by hunger, war and fear, oppressed by power and hate.

Here human life seems less than profit, might and pride,
though to unite us all in you, you lived and loved and died.

We bring our broken towns, our neighbours hurt and bruised;
you show us how old pain and wounds for new life can be used.

We bring our broken loves, friends parted, families torn;
then in your life and death we see that love must be reborn.
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Commission & Benediction
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Go forth into this day and the next knowing that God hears the truly repentant cries of His people – God is faithful, always there to forgive and restore. Trust in His Promises, and as you do…..
May the love, grace and peace of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit go with you. AMEN
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Support the Work of Knox and Zion in 2021
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DONATIONS TO KNOX, PORT CARLING
Mail cheques to Knox Presbyterian Church Box 283, Port Carling, ON,
P0B 1J0
E-Transfers to KnoxChurchPC@gmail.com No security question required
Pick up ~ Please call the office (705) 765-3797 to arrange pick up

DONATIONS TO ZION, TORRANCE
Mail cheques to Zion Presbyterian Church 1046 Torrance Rd, Torrance, ON, P0C 1M0
E-Transfers to zionchurchpc@gmail.com No security question required
Pick up ~ Please call the office (705) 765 3797 to arrange pick up
OFFERING
At this time of offering, I would like to thank the many volunteers who have blessed the congregations of Knox and Zion with beautiful music over the years. Margo Murley, Edie Bard, Stan Hunter, John-Peter Murley, Ken Shortt, Jane Haapiseva, and Jack Hutton. God bless you for sharing your gifts. A year ago this past week long-time organist and beloved friend of all, Sandy Boyce, passed away. She is missed, but her memory lives on in the hearts of these congregations.

OFFERTORY PRAYER
Creator God, you have given each of us gifts to share. Bless all we do in Your Name. May our sharing of our gifts be a blessing to others.
All we have is a gift from You. We give You thanks as we return a portion back to the work of Your church. Bless all we give in Your name. AMEN