Welcome
God is good.
God is love.
God is our only hope.
Thank you for joining us for this worship. We are grateful to God that we are here to worship God together.
Announcements
As usual, our Cinnamon Bun Tuesdays will continue at 10 am. Tea Tasting will be taking place on Thursday, May 26 at 1:30 pm. Please come and join us. On Cinnamon Bun Tuesday, there is a short time of stretching exercise after the end of the cafe time.
In the past two years of COVID lockdown, a few of our members have passed away and are now waiting for the resurrection life. To give God thanks for them and their faith journey with us, we will have a memorial time during our service of worship on Sunday, June 12. Please let others know. Let us come together and give God thanks for God’s gifts to us through their services.
On Sunday, June 19, to celebrate Father’s Day, we will begin our activities at 9:30 am. It is our hope that we will begin gathering at 9:30 am and will start our worship, followed by BBQ brunch. Weather permitting, the activities will take place in our church yard on the East side of the sanctuary. Please, mark the time and date and join us.
Preparation: Glorious things of thee are spoken
Call to Worship (Psalm 67)
May God be gracious to us and bless us
praise and make his face to shine upon us,
that your way may be known upon earth,
your saving power among all nations.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you.
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you judge the peoples with equity
and guide the nations upon earth.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you.
The earth has yielded its increase;
God, our God, has blessed us.
May God continue to bless us;
let all the ends of the earth revere him.
Hymn: Come, Thou almighty kingg>
Prayer
From beyond this world, O God, you created the world into being. Then, you created human beings in your image. You entrusted your people to be stewards of your creation. As your stewards, we come.
Yet, we come, confessing our failures as stewards of all your creation. We have plundered, watched others pillage, and participated in destroying your creation in order to create the world in our own images. We confess our sins of selfishness, greed, gluttony, and destruction. In our sins we come, only because in your Son our Lord, you have called us to repent and be forgiven as we confess our sins, so that we may be reconciled to yourself through your Son’s death and resurrection.
By your Spirit, may we truly repent. In repentance, in Christ alone, may we worship you in ways that our worship may glorify you. Receive this worship as our repentance, as our confession, as our offering, and as our thanksgiving for your love, shown in Christ our Lord your Son.
In his name we pray. Amen.
Scripture: Luke 24:50-53
Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.
Scripture: Acts 1:6-11
So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up towards heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’
Sermon: Starting anew
Until Easter we read Gospel Luke as if we were reading a story. We discussed plots, characters, and how the story of Jesus’ ministry was advanced. In the past few weeks we have looked at main themes like hospitality and love. It is time for us to bring to close this way of looking at Gospel Luke. As we have mentioned at the very beginning of this project when we began reading Luke we noted that the author intended to tell the story of Jesus and his Church in two parts. The Book of Luke was all about Jesus. The Acts of the Apostles was the second part, explaining how Jesus’ disciples carried on..
Today’s passages use the same ending for two different purposes. The one from Luke 24 is intended to close the book. The Acts 1 passage is the bridge between the two books and offers a continuity between Jesus’ ministry and the ministry of his disciples. We will discuss the differences between these two passages to learn how the way Luke used this singular event can be helpful to us in time of our transition. We are looking at the way the author handles the event because it helps us to find God’s way of transitioning our ministry as we close the current way of being and start into a new way of being a church.
Starting a new chapter in life is always difficult. We have questions about when to end the current chapter so that we begin a new chapter. The closure permits us to start a new phase in life. For the author of Luke the ending of one book came with the ascension of Jesus. He took his disciples as far as Bethany. It is important to note that in a prior section the disciples, though they were joy filled, were disbelieving. As they witnessed Jesus’ departure, they joyfully returned to Jerusalem. They were continually in the Temple, blessing God. Of course, this would be a wonderful ending to the ministry of Jesus. Even if nothing else was to be written after Jesus’ ascension, we would be glad to have read this book.
The sequel, however, needed a connection to this first book. The author used the same ascension event for a different effect. Here, it was not used to end the story, but to start a new one as a segway. The event, in this case, contained the details that the one from Luke was missing. While the disciples were gazing up as Jesus rose, two men in white robes stood beside them. This was to remind the listeners that there were two men in dazzling clothes at the tomb. These two men assured them of Jesus’ return. In other words, they were there to remind them that the disciples were to wait for his return. In the meantime, in both Luke and Acts, they were told to be the witnesses to all that happened to Jesus.
In other words, what was written in Luke would be the content the disciples would witness to the world. They were given this new task. The author connected the two books by putting the ascension scene in which Jesus’ final instructions were included. This way of connecting two different books helps us to see how God’s history continues through us here at Drummond Hill. Instead of worrying about how we are going to figure out what we will have to do in starting our new chapter in history, we can look at and see how God is letting us move into the new part of God’s salvation history. Just like the disciples, in this new phase we will witness to the world what Jesus as the risen Lord did among us. Also through us God will continue to unfold God’s salvation history without any interruptions through our new way of being.
I wonder if any of those disciples knew the power of Jesus’ instructions. Did they have any inkling of what Jesus meant by “the ends of the earth?” Certainly, they knew Judea and Samaria, but the ends of the earth as we know the earth today? Could they have imagined the possibility of the Gospel spreading to more than a billion people? Would they have guessed that persecution would mean the killings of millions of Christians for simply believing in Jesus? In the same way, do we not know what future lies for us as Christians and what future will be like for Christianity that we live out today. It is impossible to imagine what God has in store for those of us who are starting a new phase of God’s salvation history.
How, then, do we figure out that one part of God’s salvation history is coming to an end and when or where the new part can begin?
Some of you may remember back when we were searching for a new minister, who turned out to be me. You waited long enough. You had a specific type of minister in mind. The hope at the time was that a minister would come and make the church grow, perhaps not to the size in the 1960s and 1970s, but at least big enough for us to have all age groups. We as the church wanted to keep all the old ways and recover the losses. If we had more people coming, we would be better. That was the thought.
In these past 15 years or so, as Anglicans on Robinson Street, and Lundy’s Lane United closed, we did Christ’s ministry in many different forms. We had children’s summer programs, all kinds of welcoming neighbours activities, were involved with the city in doing many things, and partnered with community groups to witness the Gospel. Yes, as we did more and more, we found ourselves to be fewer and fewer. As many of our members were unable due to illnesses, old age, or death, we continued on while getting smaller and smaller. For a size of church with primarily elderly congregation, we have done far more in carrying out ministries of Christ. God’s salvation history was unfolding, but not the way we thought.
We found that God’s ways were not our ways. We were either excited or were dreading new changes that were to come with my arrival. I still have sermons from those days. In them are various ways for us to please and glorify God. Though we thought we wanted to change, once we began our best to change, we met all kinds of resistances. Every time something new was tried, someone complained or some simply left the church. For the first 7 years, I wondered a lot about what these complaints and resistances meant. There were many times I thought I was not the right minister to be here helping us move forward.
As we continued to figure out how God was directing us, slowly I could see a chapter of our history closing. As more and more subtle changes began taking shape, it became clear that one phase of our faith history is coming to an end and a new one is being prepared for. It became clear that we had come to an end of a historical chapter as a congregation. There were many signs indicating that our way of being the church needed to have its death and resurrection in Christ. With the pressures of the Pandemic lockdowns, it became clear that a new beginning is waiting for us if we are willing to take it. The phase of Drummond Hill as we have been in the past 50 years is at an end.
In the past few months, as we discussed downsizing, we have been able to see a new start in our near future. Like the disciples standing at Bethany looking up, still not quite fully believing, even though they were joyful at seeing the resurrected Jesus, we could close our faith journey with rejoicing. But today, we are more like the disciples looking up in Acts 1 and suddenly discovering the presence of two men in white robes. Without the reminder given to the disciples by these two strangers, they would not have gathered in anticipation of Jesus’ return. They would have forgotten Jesus’ instruction to witness to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. That is why the author needed a way to remind the reader(s) that the story of Jesus did not stop but continued as they began waiting for Jesus’ return.
The story of the disciples watching Jesus ascend means little to anyone until we combine both passages together and study the way Luke has weaved Jesus’ instruction to his disciples as something they would do until the return of Jesus. Witnessing is their task now. No longer following, but witnessing. They are to go to the ends of the earth. Yet, it is obvious that the disciples had no idea what these two men were saying and what Jesus told them to do. It is on Pentecost with the coming of the Spirit they actually became true witnesses as Jesus instructed them to do. In other words, God’s salvation history was not at all clear to the disciples. That was probably why when the risen Jesus was instructing the disciples they were not able to fully believe that Jesus was truly alive. Just read Luke 24:42 and see that Jesus was eating fish in their presence to show that he was truly the living and risen one.
We are in the similar situation as the disciples in Luke 24. We are totally clueless about how God is going to reveal God’s salvation history through us. We need help to see what we are to do. No, not about what we will do. We, like the disciples, will witness, but the content of our witnesses will be different from the disciples. In this transition time, the question of the two men in white robes is very instructive to us, too. Jesus will come, but he left us with an instruction for us to carry out until his return.
Our task is to continue this witnessing. Like the disciples, we witness what we saw, experienced, and lived while following Jesus. It is important for us to know that all we have experienced in the past becomes the very way we witness God’s salvation history in Jesus Christ our Lord. That means it is now the time for us to have our eyes opened so that God’s salvation history continues through us.
With the arrival of Pentecost, the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit. Then, they began witnessing Jesus as they knew, experienced, as well as the fulfilment of God’s salvation history. In our case the Jesus we came to know, experience, guided by, and loved by is found in our immediate past. His presence with us is what we witness to our neighbours around us. When we begin to witness Christ with us, it is Christ who fills our mouths with words that interprets the salvation history as was revealed to us by God in Christ’s presence among us. Like the disciples after Pentecost, the content of our witness is clear and powerful, telling the story of how Christ came to us, spent time with us as God’s Son, brought God’s kingdom, suffered, died, and rose as the fulfilment of God’s promise of salvation. It is our task to witness. To witness, we need to open ourselves to the Spirit so that we may see the way Christ was with us and became our Saviour.
Prayer
O Lord our God,
In our weakness we come. In your strength, receive us as your people and hear our prayer.
Last week we witnessed another carnage of senseless killing in our neighbouring city Buffalo. A hate-filled young man killed 11 and hurt two just because he did not see those whom he killed as people worth loving and caring for. Then, we heard of another shooting in California where elderly Christians were shot in a Presbyterian church by another hate-filled person who did not care for life. As we continually hear and witness killing in our neighbouring country, our hearts ache as your heart aches for those whom you created and gave life to flourish in this world. We ask you to hear our prayers for families of all those who lost their loved ones. We also pray for these perpetrators and their families. Be with those who are hurting and are fear filled. With love embrace them. We also pray for these people who are filled with sin and rage. May your love soften their hearts so that they may see their wrongs and repent their ways.
We pray for those who are suffering because of wars all over the world. So many politicians, soldiers and people are focused on gaining more power, control, and wealth for themselves. Innocent civilians are needlessly being killed and subjected to incredible pains and sufferings. Yet, our leaders are mindlessly pushing everyone into deeper conflicts and wars without any regard to how their actions are destroying the lives of many. We ask you to open their hearts, minds, and souls to see their evil ways. We ask you to put in their hearts and minds ways for peace. May you replace their determinations for wars with ways of peace. Soften their hearts with ways of peace.
We pray for the sick among us. Many are suffering. Diseases of many different kinds are attacking the frail bodies of your people. With COVID pandemic continually threatening our hospital systems, so many patients are left untreated. In the meantime, so many staff members are suffering not only of fatigue, but also of mental exhaustion as they look after those who are suffering including their own colleagues and often themselves as well. Be with all who are suffering. Help us to continue to serve those who are weak and in suffering. Give us eyes to see how difficult it has been for so many in this difficult time.
On this long weekend, we ask you to be with those who belong to this congregation. Many are here worshipping. Many are trying to enjoy this long weekend with family members. Be with us all wherever we are. Know that our hearts are set on you. Continue to be with us as the very God whose steadfast love never leaves any of us.
In your Son’s name we pray. Amen.
Offering
Please do not forget to give generously so that we may continue to carry out Christ’s ministry here in this part of God’s vineyard.
Offering Prayer
Because you are our life, our sustainer, and our all, we bring the tokens of our love for you. Through these small tokens, we worship, thank and bless you. Be pleased. In turn, provide for all your ministries in this place. Give us faith, courage, and wisdom to be your witnesses in this part of your vineyard. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Hymn: He has made me glad
Benediction
