Prayers: All Saints Day (Nov 3, 2013) & Children's Time (Who are God's Saints?)

Call to Worship & Opening Prayer

 

O God of this present moment and all of Eternity,

You call us again and again; you love us

As your dearest children.

Today as we remember those who have gone before us,

Transform our prayer and sorrow into praise and singing

Of your steadfast love for all the saints in the past and today.

Let your steadfast love, O God, extend to the heavens

And to us and to the next generation among us, 

our angels and small saints. Amen. 

 

Prayer of Confession

O God, the Life and Resurrection,

We confess that we forget the assurance of your resurrection is here,

from the moment of our gathering in the sanctuary,

… At the foot of the empty cross…


Forgive us when we do not celebrate each given day as a fresh new day,

When we diminish our blessings,

When our pain and the pain of others are not held in our prayers

When our wounds aren’t stretched out to the balm of your love. Amen.

 

Assurance of God’s Grace

Hear what the scripture says to us (Psalm 36): “Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens. … How precious is your steadfast love, O God! … O Continue your steadfast love.”

 

Our delight comes from beyond ourselves, from a love beyond our comprehension, greater than us in every way.

 

May you be filled with joy and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

May your spirit be renewed to sing anew of God’s love and glory


and of the happiness of living in God’s world. Amen. 



Children's Time (Who are God's Saints?)





Good morning, my friends!

I heard that you had a great time last week, showing your Super Selves and how you use your powers to do good for yourself and others! That’s great!




Each Sunday is special, because we celebrate our new life in Jesus. Some Sundays even have special names because they mark special times in the life of the church. This Sunday’s name is All Saints Sunday. 




Today, we remember those people in our church family who died in the past year. We are sad that they have died, but we rejoice that we had the blessing of knowing them and receiving God’s love from them.




Do you have anyone in your hearts and prayers that you remember and want us to remember now with you? What do you like to remember most about them?




Today I would like to ask us to remember Agnes Turner, Fran Darling, John Usher, Doug Ormond who is the grandfather of Hannah and Ruby, Gordon Humphries, and John Irving of our church family.




(As I show the power point picture slides of them....)




God calls them all “God’s saints.” As God’s family, we believe that God is with us in our friendship with all of the saints. Who are God’s saints?




(As I show the power point picture slides of our church members having happy time with one another, our children, etc.)




God calls everyone who spends their lives doing good for God ‘saints’. So we can be and we ARE God’s saints. All who live in God’s love are God’s saints.




Will you pray with me?

Dear God, thank you for loving us as your little saints. We are happy when you call us your children, your students, your saints. Let us always remember who we are and whose we are. Amen. 








Tips for writing Prayers from my editor

I would like you to try an experiment - after you've written the prayers, read them out loud. Don't listen to the words, but the shapes the words make in the air around you. Maybe pretend that they're not words, but music. 

One thing about poetry is that the way the words sound is just as important as the way the words look - while you're reading, the words convert to sounds in your head - when you're reading out loud, the shape of the words, their roundness or sharpness, their length and brevity, become really important. 

When I edit your prayers, I'm not just looking at the words - I'm listening to them in my head, trying to balance out the short spiky words with round rolling ones. Also, I'm trying to arrange the words in a way that helps both the flow of ideas and the verbal flow - that people can apprehend the meaning  easily and speak the words easily, as well. 

At the Prayer Writing Workshop (Oct 28, 2013)

Notes from Prayer Writing Workshop & my prayer that I wrote at the workshop

To contemplate life: (To be with..... the temple, as if the one enters the sanctuary.)

What God would want me to say. ...

What would God's thoughts be in this moment. To be mindful of God. 

There is a vulnerability to prayer. 

Oct 28, 2013 

(this prayer was written at the prayer workshop and not given English editing)

I sing a song for my older son’s torn pants

Bought in Wal Mart

Loved until it was ripped in half.

I can give thanks, for he is a healthy, wild boy.

I sing a song for the cups

That are never used properly by my younger son

Who always wants to dump water inside them,

And EVERYWHERE GETS WET!

I can give thanks, for he is a curious, little scientist

of almost everything in the world.

I sing a song for my little toe

That was stubbed one month ago

And still made me limping.

I can give thanks, for I have learned that

How much this small part of my body

Has sustained me through the 34 years.

I sing a song for my mother.

I sing a song for my father.

I sing a song for my husband.

Without their loves, how I could possibly be happy

As I am now.

I sing a song for my God.

I sing a song for the other’s God.

I sing a song for the mystery of God

That never has been known fully.

Without that blessed part of the silence of God,

How would I ever long for those unsaid words

That are kept only in God’s heart.

Prayers: World Food Sunday (Oct 20, 2013)

Opening Prayer 

God who is Life, the Point of our being,

the Ground for the whole creation,

You rise and rise again among us,

as the power of creation,

the power of salvation,

the power of wholeness.  

You heal us, nurture us, and foster sureness in our steps.

This morning as we worship you,

let us be persistent in our prayers,

with all that is in us,

all that we are hoping,

all that for which we are grateful.    Amen 

* Hymn: God Who Is Life  music by Ron Klusmeir, words by Shirley Erena Murray

Prayer of Confession:

O God, whose heart and ears are inclined to the cries of the hungry

            and the poor, 

we confess that we have not changed our attitude

and behaviours about throwing out food. 

We think food is cheap because we can simply buy more food

            when we want to. 

In our abundance, we overlook the fact that many children and

            youth go hungry and are major recipients of food banks

in our own country. 

God of Love, forgive our waste and insensitivity. 

Turn our hearts to the way of mindfulness and compassion, 

            help us to remember your own words, “Feed my lambs”. 

Keep us always aware of our opportunities to give to others 

even when we are shopping for ourselves. 

Give us eyes to see all the ways we can help our whole human

            family and the web of life.       Amen

Assurance of God’s Grace: Hallelujah, Amen! 

Greetings

Good morning! Welcome to everyone gathered here today in the house of God.

Today is World Food Day, when we raise our awareness of the problem of hunger throughout the world and in our own country. As we worship today, let us remember that God has revealed God’s love fully in Christ Jesus, the Christ who came to us as bread, living bread to be broken and shared among us so that we may be reconciled with one another and with God, becoming one family in God’s love.

Let us welcome N as our guest preacher and storyteller for our children.

Call to Worship

We are deeply concerned for our friend, N. We have brought with us other concerns that deeply trouble us. Let us hear what today’s Scripture says to us: “Whether the time is favourable or unfavourable, be persistent in your praying and teaching. Always be awake, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.” (2 Timothy 3:14-4:5) May the love of God and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit surround us, comfort us and gently lead us into the path of trust and hope.

Opening Prayer

Prayer of Confession

Assurance of God’s Grace

Hear what the Gospel says to us: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” May God forgive us our sins, Christ renew our lives, and the Holy Spirit enable us to grow in love. Amen.

Prayers of the People

Creator God, we pray at the crossroads of life and death, joy and sorrow, anxiety and hope.

You are the ground of our being, sustaining us with your energy and spirit.

Help us to center ourselves and be connected in your presence.

Lead us into the presence of the Holy Spirit and the path of joy and hope.

Let us know the sureness of your steadfast love for the world and for us, that we may trust your Word and your actions.

We pray for all the grieving families and friends in our midst and beyond. We hold up N, N, and their families and friends. Elevate them with your Spirit and  your comforting love. Be a light to guide them in the darkness around them; become a seed of joy in their hearts where hope can grow once again. Make a steady path for their feet as they walk through their journey of grief. As for the rest of us, grant us tender hearts, so that we become a circle of love and support for them, and for all those who mourn.

We also pray for N and N and their anxious families and friends. Let them receive the best medication and care; surround N with the warmth of loving spirits, lay your healing touch on his heart. Keep his body and spirit whole, let him be the inspiring, loving and caring person his family and friends know and love.

Creator God, thank you that you never let us be alone. You are a companion we can talk to, pray to, and walk with. We thank you for the life of Christ Jesus – who reconciled us and all of creation to Yourself. We thank you for your presence, gloriously and beautifully revealed in the beauty of creation; and for giving us the privilege of caring for it. Give us courage and persistence to work for justice, especially for those most affected by environmental degradation and climate change. Give us your Spirit to work together to restore your creation and to pass on a healthy environment and climate to our children and grandchildren. Jesus says to us, “Feed my lambs.” Turn our hearts to care for those who are most vulnerable among us; we  especially remember the children and youth whose lives are affected by the reality of hunger, throughout the world and in our local communities. Let us never give up praying for justice, fairness and an equitable society for all. Amen.

Sermon: Living Gratitude (Oct 13, 2013)

Sermon: Living Gratitude

In his letter to the Philippians, the apostle Paul tells us “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” What could we possibly say in addition to this glorious hymn of rejoicing?

I believe that ‘rejoice’ is a state of being that is possible only when a person keeps a fundamental and particular attitude toward life – no matter the circumstances – GRATITUDE.

Mary Jo Leddy, the author of Radical Gratitude, describes it in the following way:

“I believe that each one of us has at least one significant word to say with our lives.

This word is who we really are, who we are meant to become, our calling in this world.

Within this word lies the secret of our happiness,

The source of power,

And the mysterious point of our being.

Through this particular word of our lives we bring the one thing still wanted and awaited in the world,

The one thing necessary that no other can give.

GRATITUDE

It is a particular grace. It is not easy to identify the word, which both concentrates and extends one’s life.

More obvious to a few, it is usually a long process of discovery for most.

Like Jacob we each have an angel to wrestle with,

The messenger who reveals our true name which is both wound and blessing.”

Gratitude is a basic attitude to life; when we keep it in our lives we need no other bulwark, no daily tribute to our self-esteem or our ego. Gratitude is a central practice of our faith, an all-encompassing attitude to life. We know when we miss it in our lives, because we soon learn and discover that we are missing the whole point of our being: not to constantly strive and pine for more, but to be grateful for  this, now.

I see ourselves, the human family, as the co-creator with God, our Creator. We, beloved and being made in God’s image, participate in creating not only human communities but also a community of the earth where whole living beings find their home in the complexity and the delicate interconnections of life. Our earth is continuously evolving with human consciousness and God’s spirit. But we also see the damage and violence we are inflicting on the natural world and the rest of the human community. In our consumerist society, it seems that our intelligent, dreaming, unique and individual selves are being whittled down into streamlined, ravenous consumers, with a narrow existence of pursuing, consuming, and discarding. We pursue happiness but are chronically dissatisfied; our consumerist culture limits our sight to what we don’t have rather than to see what we really possess.

Our aging selves and the passage of years can erode our gratitude - it’s hard to be grateful for our present bodies when joints ache in the morning chill. We have known suffering, we have known loss. Dear friends and family members die, and watching their decline is very tough and heavy, especially contrasted with the memories of joyful moments when they were in their prime. Someone shared with me their recollections of the days when they and their friends did fun, crazy stuff together like square dancing, and how happy they were for the bonds of friendship and fun. It’s easy to be grateful for those times in retrospect, hard to let go of the longing to still be there.

When we are lost in ingratitude, we lose the whole point of our being – our calling in this world. We lose the secret of our happiness. We lose the source of power that grants us a sense of trust, as well - the trust that we are in the merciful hands of God, the radical gratitude that we can trust our Creator. The radical trust, confidence and gratitude that God intends to give blessings and love and we are meant to receive them.

I have always believed that God’s power is the power of creation – the creative work similar to that shown in the creative hands of an artist, the words of a poet, the tunes of a singer, the cries of a baby as well as their laughter (the natural response to the joy of life they live now). Gratitude begins as something as small and as real as a child and the hands of an artist – it enters the world with wonder as simple as a flower.

Gratitude is really an attitude and persistent act of faith, with which we can face the world and our life without fear. I believe that gratitude can grow with a simple change such as how we begin a day, how we wake each morning, how we open up to the beauty and the glory and the freshness of each new gifted sunrise. It is a commitment to an exploration of life as a gift, as a thing of not just promise but fulfillment.

Our hope is not receding when we can keep gratitude, when we can keep ‘rejoice’ as the seed for our life. Every moment is imbued with meaning and purpose and the colours and the strokes of a painter who is our Creator. One Jesuit professor liked to remind people of the beauty of now  with the following words: “The present moment is pregnant with God.”

(In today’s scripture reading, the apostle Paul urges us to ‘rejoice.’ Here was a man who had lived through some tough times, who had been jailed, who had been seriously ill, who had been shipwrecked after enduring a fourteen-day storm. The man who says, “Rejoice in the Lord always.” isn’t just throwing us largesse from a blessed, comfortable life - he’s a man who thanked God from the heaving deck of a small boat while he was a prisoner under transport facing what seemed to be certain death.)

Gratitude is the small and basic seed of spirituality; we need to nurture it to live with the Spirit. Anger, resentment, despair, helplessness, a sense of powerlessness do very little to help make a difference in our lives and in our world. On Thanksgiving Day, today, practice gratitude. Show that you care for one another and for yourself; trust that God is merciful. Show your compassion to those around you who cannot let themselves believe that our world is evolving to a more compassionate way of being. Remember that gratitude is more than a feeling, it is an attitude, an act of faith. Begin each day with gratitude - even before you think you are ready. As written in today’s letter to the Philippians, be assured that the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. May it be so. Amen.

Children's Time: Dancing Like Leaves / What do you give thanks for to God, today? (Oct 13, 2013)

Children’s Time: What do you give thanks for to God, today?

Good morning.

Today is Thanksgiving Sunday. I remember one chilly afternoon around Thanksgiving two years ago when I went to pick up my son in kindergarten. The children’s paintings were stuck up on the windows with scotch tape, along with the children’s answers to the teacher’s question, “What do you give thanks for?” I bet that some of us may have done that activity in school this year, thinking about what we give thanks for. But I would still love to hear it from you now. Let me change the question little bit. “What do you give thanks for to God, today?”

(Receive the answers.)

Would anyone like to ask me the same question?

I give thanks for the fall leaves all around us, on the street, in the yard, on the church stairs, in the forest, on the road, everywhere. They did their best when they were on their trees through the spring and the summer; they helped the trees to grow by receiving the sunshine with their whole selves. Trees can grow only when they get enough sunshine, and they have to have enough leaves to turn the sunshine into enough food to keep them alive and growing. Only then can the trees produce the oxygen that we need to breathe. The faithful, hardworking leaves were joyful through the spring and summer, and now they’re adding their beauty and their strength to our earth.

Last Tuesday when I was driving my car to church, the wind blew the leaves all over the place; some of them even hit hard on my car’s windshield – Tah, Tah, Tah! I didn’t complain, but rather, I gave thanks to them, and to our God for having created all of the leaves and us, and having made our every moment special. We live in God’s world; we all are in God’s hands, supported by God’s love. We can trust God’s world, do our best like the leaves do, and give thanks for every moment. Will you pray with me?

Dear God, thank you for the (children’s answers) and the leaves. Thank you that we can trust you and love you. Amen.

Children's Time: All the Bread in the World (Oct, 6, 2013)

Good morning.

Today, I have brought a bag. Let’s see what I have got here.

Whole wheat flour.  

Salt.

Honey.

Yeast.

Warm water.

What can we make with these?  

(Bread. Brown Bread. Whole wheat bread. ….)

Ah, I see one more thing left inside the bag.

Sweet Rice. Can you imagine what we can make with sweet rice and water?

When you grind it into rice powder, and mix it with warm water until it’s the same texture as play-doh, and steam it,

You can make a rice cake.  

Today is Worldwide Communion Sunday.

This means that many, many churches around the world are sharing in communion together. 

It happens on a lot of Sundays by coincidence, but today we’re doing it together on purpose. So, the churches in Asia actually had their communion maybe eighteen hours ago, and the churches in Europe had their communion about eight hours ago, but the churches in Los Angeles and Seattle and Mazatlan are having their communion at just the same time as us, and we’re all thinking about all the other churches around the globe, sharing our communion and our love of God with each other. 

Many Protestant churches, like the United Church, usually have communion with regular bread. The Roman Catholic Church has communion wafers that melt on your tongue. Some Korean churches I know celebrate communion with rice cakes, because they want to honour the fact that Koreans eat cooked rice every day; Koreans believe that rice is a gift given from heaven.

Can you name some different kinds of of bread?

When we have communion, it doesn’t matter whether we have it with brown bread, white bread, pita bread, naan bread, (the names of breads the children mention) or even with rice cakes. What is important is that each time we take communion, whatever the bread’s shape and flavour is, we remember that God loves us. The most important thing is that the bread is broken and shared and by sharing it, we become one family in God’s love. Will you pray with me?

Dear God, Thank you for bread. Thank you for rice cakes. Thank you for loving us all the same, all around the world. Amen.