Gathered through the power of the Holy Spirit, we worship God with gladness. We encourage you to pray over the words that follow, and follow the links within the liturgy. Prayers in this service are adapted from Celebrate God’s Presence (UCPH). Thanks this week to Jenny, Cor, and Heather!

PRELUDE: “Lo, How a Rose e’er Blooming”

LIGHTING THE FIRST ADVENT CANDLE

The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness shall never overcome it.
The darkness of doubt and fear has entered our lives
and we turn to God.
Send us HOPE, and light our way,
that we may bring hope to others.
Amen.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel
that mourns in lowly exile here
until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
shall come to thee, O Israel.

OPENING PRAYER

Gracious God,
your vision of peace and wholeness
comes to us in sweeping revelations
and in tiny signs of hope.
Kindle our hearts that we might be a hopeful people.
Keep us from growing weary of waiting,
lest we miss the glory of your appearing.
Even so, come quickly, O God. Amen.

HYMN OF PRAISE: “Come, thou long-expected Jesus”

Come, thou long-expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free:
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.

Israel’s strength and consolation,
hope of all the earth thou art,
dear desire of every nation,
joy of every longing heart.

Born thy people to deliver;
born a child and yet a king;
born to reign in us for ever;
now thy gracious kingdom bring.

By thine own eternal Spirit
rule in all our hearts alone;
by thine all-sufficient merit
raise us to thy glorious throne.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

God of unending mercy,
we are a people of abundance.
Your never-ceasing love surrounds us;
your great compassion embraces us;
but we take these gifts for granted.
Open our eyes to the wonders of creation.
Tune our ears to the cries for love in a lonely world.
Fill our hearts with a faith that is revealed in action.
This we pray in the name of the One
who never ceases to come. Amen.

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

The Good News of this Advent season
is forgiveness of sin and new life.
Let us commit our lives
to Christ’s way of hope and peace.

SPECIAL MUSIC: “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”

FIRST READING: Psalm 80

Shepherd of Israel, hear us,
you who lead Joseph like a flock,
you who are enthroned amidst the cherubim.
Shine forth before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh;
stir up your might, come and save us.

God of hosts,
how long will you be angry with your people’s prayer?
You have fed us with the bread of weeping,
and given us tears in plenty to drink.
You have made a mockery of us to our neighbours,
and our enemies laugh us to scorn.
Let your hand rest on the one at your right hand,
on the one you have made strong for yourself.
Then we will never forsake you;
give us life, and we will call on your name.

SECOND READING: Mark 13.24-37

24 “But in those days, following that distress,

“‘the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
25 the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’[a]

26 “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.

28 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 29 Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it[b] is near, right at the door. 30 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

32 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard! Be alert[c]! You do not know when that time will come. 34 It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.

35 “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. 36 If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. 37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”

HYMN: “All earth is waiting”

All earth is waiting to see the Promised One,
and open furrows await the seed of God.
All the world, bound and struggling, seeks true liberty;
it cries out for justice and searches for the truth.

Thus says the prophet to those of Israel,
‘A virgin mother will bear Emmanuel.’
One whose name is ‘God with us’, our Saviour shall be,
through whom hope will blossom once more within our hearts.

Mountains and valleys will have to be made plain,
open new highways, new highways for our God,
who is now coming closer, so come all and see,
and open the doorways as wide as wide can be.

In lowly stable the Promised One appeared.
Yet, feel that presence throughout the earth today,
for Christ lives in all Christians and is with us now;
again, on arriving, Christ brings us liberty.

REFLECTION

Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans…

2020 has been remarkable for a number of reasons, with one of the primary reasons filed under “a change of plans.” If we start with churchworld, you need look no further than the service we’re sharing at this moment. Moving online for much of the year has forced us to find creative ways to celebrate God’s presence without the direct presence of one another.

Likewise, the rhythm of regular plans, from travel to time spent with others was disrupted. The people and places we planned to see, around the corner or around the world, were set aside in the hope that next year will be better. And there were larger life changes, retirements delayed or moves postponed, projects shelved or plans curtained. COVID-19 left few stones unturned, and the turning continues.

Having reminded you of all this dislocation and loss, I should point to a couple of positives. People have been more intentional about making the most of the times they did see others. We learned to treasure what we may have formerly taken for granted. Also, there was a lot of reassessing going on, people asking “why did we always do it that way?” The pandemic gave us the opportunity to step away from old habits and patterns. And then there is the need to be creative. Finding new ways to meet, create, and manage—in all sorts of situations—has forced us to be creative.

For the grammatically inclined, you will see that much of what I have said so far lives between past and present tense. Changes have happened and changes continue, and we think we see the shape of the future—even as it remains uncertain. This past and present tension is not new, and it finds an important parallel to today’s lesson. The season of Advent, more than the others, lives in the past and in the not yet. We are looking backward and forward all at once.

And our reading, the “little apocalypse” from Mark 13, illustrates this point. Christ has come, and Christ will come again. Advent looks forward to the birth of our Saviour, but Advent also reminds us that Christ will return in glory. The form of this return is the subject of our reading, but the details are less important than the lesson to prepare. More on that in a moment.

If we had to create a summary, we might say that we are somewhere between First Advent and Second Advent.* We know that Christ was born in Bethlehem, but we’re not planning a birthday party. Advent rules are that we play it straight, preparing for the birth of Jesus like it has yet to happen. We are called to prepare in our hearts some room for the incarnation of God. First Advent is angels choirs, shepherd voices, and a poor couple looking for room at the inn.

Second Advent takes the real-time preparation we are engaged in and says “now plan for him to come again.” Take everything you know about his life, his message, his decision to reunite us with the Most High, and apply that to your season of preparation. Take everything you know about love and mercy, forgiveness and reconciliation, and make that part of your Advent plan. He will come again, either all at once or in eternity, so prepare.

There are a lot of things going on in our passage: quotes and references, predictions, and a sense of urgency. One thing that is missing is certainty, the day and the hour unknown—even the angels don’t know! Spare a thought for the angels, always visually appealing, always heralding something important, but on the matter of the Second Advent, completely in the dark. So if the son doesn’t know, and the angels don’t know, who can fault us for making plans yet never knowing the hour or the day. Hence the need to keep watch.

I’m going to take a big step back for a moment and talk about crisis and opportunity. It is one of the primary tensions in this and every time. Calamity comes, and some cannot see beyond the events themselves. For them, a crisis is a crisis. For others, every crisis is some sort of opportunity, if you can only see it. Some are adept at making the most of a situation, and others see real opportunity.

Having said all that, consider the reverse as well. In every opportunity lies a potential crisis, things we may not see until we’re in the thick of it. For Advent, consider that the birth of Jesus was always going to be a crisis for someone. The man in Rome who enjoyed the title “Son of God” is one example. Anyone who enjoyed the status quo is another example, anyone who wanted God to remain distant from us, or unattainable. Anyone who seeks to control others by making God vengeful or unyielding will find a crisis in the incarnation, God’s desire to be with us in a new way.

There’s an old Yiddish adage that says, “Man plans, and God laughs” (Mann tracht, un Gott lacht). It’s a wonderful expression that we take to mean that God is busy undoing our plans, or making other plans for us. Instead, I think it fits in the existential file, meaning God finding humour in our earnest desire to control outcomes, organize everything, and set the plan we want. But life doesn’t work that way, doesn’t conform to our agenda, as well-meaning as it may be.

Rather, God is busy creating opportunities for some and crises for others. God gives us ample opportunities to love and serve others, as an example. Meanwhile, God finds humour in those who seek to control the world around them, or those who imagine they are completely self-made. The future God is designing for us, in whatever form it comes, will be a future based on new beginnings, and a new way of being. It will take all that we know and join it to all that we long for, the Advent of hope, peace, joy and love. Amen.

*Beverly Gaventa

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

You keep us waiting.
You, the God of all time,
want us to wait
for the right time in which to discover
who we are, where we must go,
who will be with us, and what we must do.
Thank you…for the waiting time.

You keep us looking.
You, the God of all space,
want us to look in all the right and wrong places
for signs of hope,
for people who are hopeless,
for visions of a better world which will appear
among the disappointments of the world we know.
Thank you…for the looking time.

You keep us loving.
You, the God whose name is love,
want us to be like you—
to love the loveless and the unlovely and the unloveable;
to love without jealousy or design or threat;
and, most difficult of all,
to love ourselves.
Thank you…for the loving time.

And in all this, you keep us.
Through hard questions with no easy answers;
through failing where we hoped to succeed
and making an impact when we felt we were useless;
through the patience and the dreams and the love of others;
and through Jesus Christ and his spirit,
you keep us.
Thank you…for the keeping time,
and for now, and for ever.
Amen.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father who 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 trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.

HYMN: “Lo, he comes with clouds descending”

Lo, he comes with clouds descending,
see the Lamb for sinners slain!
Thousand, thousand saints attending
join to sing the glad refrain:
hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah!
God appears on earth to reign.

Every eye shall then behold you,
robed in awesome majesty;
all who jeered, and mocked, and sold you,
pierced, and nailed you to the tree,
deeply grieving, deeply grieving, deeply grieving,
shall the true Messiah see.

Now redemption, long expected
see in solemn pomp appear;
all the saints, by us rejected,
thrill the trumpet sound to hear:
hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah!
See the day of God appear!

Yea! Amen! Let all adore you,
high on your eternal throne;
crowns and empires fall before you,
claim the kingdom for your own:
O come quickly! O come quickly! O come quickly!
Everlasting Christ, come down.

BLESSING

Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way,
and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless
until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. Amen.
—1 Thessalonians 5:23

God be with you till we meet again;
loving counsels guide, uphold you,
with a shepherd’s care enfold you;
God be with you till we meet again.

Gathered through the power of the Holy Spirit, we worship God with gladness. We encourage you to pray over the words that follow, and follow the links within the liturgy. Prayers in this service are adapted from Celebrate God’s Presence (UCPH). Thanks this week to Dave, Cor, and Heather!

PRELUDE: “Walk in the Spirit of Love” (Seabough/Blankenship)

OPENING PRAYER

May your Reign begin, Lord:
And then all that has divided us will merge
And then compassion will be wedded to power
And then softness will come to a world that is harsh and unkind
And then both men and women will be gentle
And then both women and men will be strong
And then no person will be subject to another’s will
And then all will be rich and free and varied
And then the greed of some will give way to the needs of many
And then all will share equally in the Earth’s abundance
And then all will care for the sick and the weak and the old
And then all will nourish the young
And then all will cherish life’s creatures
And then all will live in harmony with each other and the Earth
And then everywhere will be called Eden once again. Amen.

HYMN OF PRAISE: “Crown him with many crowns”

Crown him with many crowns,
the Lamb upon his throne:
hark, how the heavenly anthem drowns
all music but its own!
Awake, my soul, and sing
of him who died for thee,
and hail him as thy matchless King
through all eternity.

Crown him the Lord of life,
who triumphed o’er the grave,
and rose victorious in the strife
for those he came to save.
His glories now we sing
who died and rose on high,
who died eternal life to bring,
and lives that death may die.

Crown him the Lord of peace,
whose power a sceptre sways
from pole to pole, that wars may cease,
absorbed in prayer and praise.
His reign shall know no end;
and round his pierced feet
fair flowers of Paradise extend
their fragrance ever sweet.

Crown him the Lord of love;
behold his hands and side,
rich wounds yet visible above,
in beauty glorified.
All hail, Redeemer, hail!
for thou hast died for me;
thy praise shall never, never fail
throughout eternity.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

God of power and love,
you raised Jesus from death to life,
resplendent in glory to rule over all creation.
Free us from sin,
and free the world to rejoice in his peace,
to glory in his mercy,
and to live in his love.
Unite all humankind in Jesus Christ your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.
Amen.

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

God will give us what we need:
strength for today,
hope for tomorrow,
and forgiveness
for all that is past.
Amen.

SPECIAL MUSIC: “We meet you, O Christ” (Kaan)

FIRST READING: Psalm 100

Shout to God, all the earth:
worship with gladness and joy.
Come before God with laughter,
our maker to whom we belong.
To the Shepherd who tends us like sheep,
let us raise our voices in song.

Come to God’s gates with thanks;
come to God’s courts with praise.
Praise and bless God’s name.
‘Truly you are good:
you are always gracious,
and faithful age after age.’  

SECOND READING: Ephesians 1.15-23

15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit[f] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

HYMN: “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun”

Jesus shall reign where’er the sun
does its successive journeys run;
his kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
till moons shall wax and wane no more.

People and realms of every tongue
dwell on his love with sweetest song,
and infant voices shall proclaim
their early blessings on his name.

Blessings abound where’er he reigns;
and prisoners leap to lose their chains;
the weary find eternal rest,
and all who suffer want are blest.

Let every creature rise and bring
peculiar honours to our King,
angels descend with songs again,
and earth repeat the loud Amen!

REFLECTION

If you know me, you know I like a good metaphor.

A good metaphor can change the way we think, it can alter our sense of the world around us, and it can even direct what we do. A good metaphor can reveal hard truths, it can mobilize people into action, and it can sometimes lead us in the wrong direction. In other words, a good metaphor may not be good at all—but it can be extremely effective.

Case in point: In 1964, Lyndon Johnson announced the War on Poverty, a comprehensive response to the poverty rate in the US approaching twenty percent. Now, to our war-weary ears—having lived through “wars” on drugs, cancer, and terror—calling to mind the War on Poverty doesn’t have the same impact as it had in 1964. Back then, just nineteen years after the Second World War, using the war metaphor was highly effective.

You see, the war metaphor creates a mindset. Nations at war must band together, confront a common enemy, and make sacrifices. The appeal is obvious, and in 1964 it led to the creation of numerous social programs as well as a general sense of concern for something that was often hidden. The shadow side, of course, can be seen in the War on Drugs, an effort that took hold in several countries and led to criminalization of addiction, militarization of the police, and the disproportional targeting of racialized communities.

Most recently, we have witnessed the use of the war metaphor in relation to the pandemic. It is perhaps the closest parallel to an actual wartime situation, where the public is urged to make sacrifices for the sake of safety, warned against hoarding, and generally urged to “do our part.” One foolish man in Washington even declared himself a “wartime president,” before losing interest in the whole thing.

Again, there is a shadow side to the use of the war metaphor in the context of disease. There is no “front” in this war, with the virus lurking everywhere. It has led some to cast blame on the people and places the disease began. And it can lead us to celebrate sacrifice, especially among frontline heroes, without always asking what they truly need, like better hours, paid sick leave, or greater access to PPE. And then there is the question about disease generally: is it something you conquer or something you learn to live with? We need to handle our metaphors with great care.

Along with great care, we also need to lend metaphor great respect. In the realm of scripture, we know that when seeking to describe the sublime, we often reach for metaphor. The Good Shepherd, the Lamb of God, the Light of the World, the Bread of Life, the Alpha and Omega. These are things we can see and touch, used to describe that which we struggle to comprehend. We try them on, we adopt a favourite, and it transforms our understanding.

St. Paul, master of words, is also busy giving us figurative language to try on. And he’s pretty transparent about it, famously admitting “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.” (1 Cor 9) Some have cast “all things to all people” in a negative light, but for Paul it points to his concern—bordering on desperation—about the state of our soul. And so we read these words today:

18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

Again, metaphor. Having eyes on your heart would be awkward—but in the poetic realm, it’s magic. He could have simply said “open your eyes to the hope he has given you” but he chose to add another image instead. And before we really dig into this image, I want to point out one more thing. Metaphor is a literal “rabbit hole” when you consider these two short verses.

You can’t see hope, unless you use imagination.
The riches of this glorious inheritance can’t be taken to the bank, they live inside us.
There is no outward sign that we are holy people, but God can see it.
We are given “incomparably great power,” but it’s not the power that the world would recognize.

The richness of symbolic language only works if you set aside the literal meaning of these words and enter the world that God has made, the “realm of God” where these words have power. And with Paul as our guide, we can truly appreciate what the eyes our heart might see. To do this, he might have us open our Bibles and go back, way back, to see where all this began.

An early version of the “eyes of the heart” might be found in Genesis 6, where God is confounded by the creature God has made, and tries to understand. The author reaches for the word yetser, meaning “thoughts of the heart” (Gen 6.5) or “what is framed in the mind” (BDB, 428a). In a word, this is imagination. And in Genesis it’s generally about the mischief we can get into when we really put our minds to it. Still, it frames this idea of imagination, and it begins in the heart.

Likewise, the Greeks, when pondering imagination (what could be more Greek than pondering imagination?) gave us the word phantasia—literally things that appear. Obviously, we don’t have to go too far out on a limb to see what Paul is conflating for us: thoughts of the heart and things that appear come together to give us the “eyes of the heart.” Here is Paul, all things to all people, bringing together his Jewish self and his Greek thought to help us see God. You need the eyes of our heart to see the glorious inheritance God has given us through Jesus Christ. Full stop.

To conclude, we need a final metaphor, and that would be Christ the King, or the Reign of Christ, whichever you prefer. It takes considerable imagination to make Christ the king of your heart— with all your mind, and all your soul—but once you do, the riches of God dwell in you. Put another way, we can “put on Christ,” (Rom 13) and be transformed. Whatever metaphor you choose, Christ becomes the Lord of your life, and the eyes of your heart will open.

I want to give the last word to Charles Wesley, words from a hymn that first appeared in the wonderfully named collection Hymns for those that Seek, and those that Have Redemption (Bristol, 1747) I think that describes all of us! And I think his words best describe the Christian hope, when the eyes of your heart are open:

Jesus, thou art all compassion,
pure, unbounded love thou art;
visit us with thy salvation,
enter ev’ry trembling heart.

Amen.

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

We thank you, compassionate God,
that you hear the prayers of our hearts:
all who have found new life in Christ,
all who are seeking, dreaming, asking,
all who find comfort in their daily walk with you,
all who are grateful for opportunities to serve,
all who are surrounded by the love of family and friends,
All who find hope in you.

We thank you, compassionate God,
that you hear the prayers of our hearts:
all who are vulnerable,
all who are tired of being tired,
all who are lonely,
all who struggle to get through each day,
all who are ill, or fear they may get ill,
all who grieve the loss of a loved one.

We thank you, compassionate God,
that you hear the prayers of our hearts:
all who seek justice, for a world made new,
all who cry for creation at risk,
all who advocate others, or for themselves,
all who assume risks for the sake of others,
all who wait for your reign to begin.

Thank you, God, for hearing us in every situation of life.
Help us to support one another always:
rejoicing with those who rejoice,
and weeping with those who weep.
We want to be joined together
as members of the body of Christ,
loving one another and serving the world,
seeking your Kingdom.
Like Jesus, we want to respond
to each human being who crosses our path
with sensitivity and compassion.
This we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father who 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 trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.

HYMN: “Eternal, Unchanging, we sing to your praise”

Eternal, Unchanging, we sing to your praise:
your mercies are endless, and righteous your ways;
your servants proclaim the renown of your name
who rules over all and is ever the same.

Again we rejoice in the world you have made,
your mighty creation in beauty arrayed,
we thank you for life, and we praise you for joy,
for love and for hope that no power can destroy.

We praise you for Jesus, our Master and Lord,
the might of his Spirit, the truth of his word,
his comfort in sorrow, his patience in pain,
the faith sure and steadfast that Jesus shall reign.

BLESSING

Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way,
and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless
until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. Amen.
—1 Thessalonians 5:23

God be with you till we meet again;
loving counsels guide, uphold you,
with a shepherd’s care enfold you;
God be with you till we meet again.

Gathered through the power of the Holy Spirit, we worship God with gladness. We encourage you to pray over the words that follow, and follow the links within the liturgy. Prayers in this service are adapted from Celebrate God’s Presence (UCPH). Thanks this week to Jenny, Cor, and Heather!

PRELUDE: “I Will Trust in You, Lord” (Bailey)

OPENING PRAYER

We praise and thank you, O God,
for you are without beginning and without end.
Through Christ, you created the whole world;
and through Christ you preserve it.
You make the day for the works of light
and the night for the refreshment of our minds and bodies.
Keep us now in Christ so that we may truly
worship and adore you. Amen.

HYMN OF PRAISE: “Come and find the quiet centre”

Come and find the quiet centre
in the crowded life we lead,
find the room for hope to enter,
find the frame where we are freed:
clear the chaos and the clutter,
clear our eyes, that we can see 
all the things that really matter,
be at peace, and simply be.

Silence is a friend who claims us,
cools the heat and slows the pace,
God it is who speaks and names us,
knows our being, face to face,
making space within our thinking,
lifting shades to show the sun,
raising courage when we’re shrinking,
finding scope for faith begun.

In the Spirit let us travel,
open to each other’s pain,
let our loves and fears unravel,
celebrate the space we gain:
there’s a place for deepest dreaming,
there’s a time for heart to care,
in the Spirit’s lively scheming
there is always room to spare!

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Help us, O God,
to open our minds;
even when we are given to easy answers.
to open our hearts;
even when we are inclined to keep them closed.
to open our spirits
even when the world is pressing down.
to open ourselves to the bright potential you give us
in each moment of life. Amen.

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

God will give us what we need:
strength for today,
hope for tomorrow,
and forgiveness
for all that is past.
Amen.

SPECIAL MUSIC: “Oh, sing to our God” (Brazilian folk song)

FIRST READING: Psalm 123

To you I lift up my eyes,
to you who are enthroned in the heavens.
As the eyes of servants look to their master’s hands,
as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to you, O God,
as we wait till you show us your favour.  

We have had more than enough of contempt.
Too long we have suffered the scorn of the wealthy,
and the contempt of the arrogant.  

SECOND READING: Judges 4.1-7

Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, now that Ehud was dead. 2 So the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. Sisera, the commander of his army, was based in Harosheth Haggoyim. 3 Because he had nine hundred chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the Lord for help.

4 Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading[a] Israel at that time. 5 She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided. 6 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor. 7 I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.’”

HYMN: “Be still, my soul”

Be still, my soul, for God is on your side;
bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
Trust in your God, your saviour and your guide,
who through all changes faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul, your best, your heavenly friend
through stormy ways leads to a peaceful end.

Be still, my soul, your God will undertake
to guide the future surely as the past.
Your hope, your confidence let nothing shake;
all now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul, life’s tempests still obey
the voice that once the waves’ wild fury stayed.

Be still, my soul, the hour is hastening on 
when we shall be forever in God’s peace;
when disappointment, grief and fear are gone,
love’s joys restored, our strivings all shall cease.
Be still, my soul, when change and tears are past,
all safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

REFLECTION

Again the people did an evil and wrongheaded thing in the sight of the Lord. So they were placed in the hands of the apprentice king, who reigned first from somewhere on 5th Avenue. Mitch, the commander of the hundred, was based on swampy ground near the Potomac River. Together, they oppressed the people for four long years, and the people cried out for help.

Nancy, a prophet, held court near the same swampy ground as Mitch, in a place that was supposed to settle disputes for the benefit of the people. An election was called, and she sent for Barak, and said, “Go to the tens and the hundreds, socially-distant in their cars, and remind them of the ways of hope and change. And the people were led to the polls, and reversed the wrongheaded thing they did four years earlier.

This is not the New American Standard Bible, though a translation by that name does exist. I’ve given you an attempt at dynamic equivalence (Nida), a contemporary rendering that gives you a sense of the text without the avalanche of impossible-to-pronounce names. It’s also meant to underline the main theme of the Book of Judges: the endless cycle of obedience and disobedience that defines the relationship between Israel and her God.

Any historian will tell that history is a loop rather than a line, and that the seeming progress we experience will soon loop around to the past we thought we had left behind. And the cycle we see in the Book of Judges provides a perfect illustration. Overall it’s obedience and disobedience, but in text we find a more elaborate pattern:

The people do evil in the eyes of the Lord (v. 1)
The people are sold or given into the hands of their enemies (v. 2, 3)
The Lord lifts up a prophet or leader (v. 4, 5)
The Spirit of the Lord rests on the leader (v. 9)
The enemy is defeated (v. 7, 15, 22)
The people live in peace once more (5.31)*

Until the cycle begins again. A quick Bible search of the words “cried out” will reveal all the moments this movement is underway. The people forget the Lord their God. The people turn away, the people are disobedient, the people adopt idols, the people take foreign wives, the people fall in love with Baal once more. They cry out, and the Lord sends them a Moses, or an Elijah, or a Deborah. And the Lord saves them once more.

But Deborah is unique here. Not only is she the only woman named a judge of Israel, but she joins the war party in their battle with the Canaanites. And she goes further: “Certainly I will go with you,” she says. “But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.” Like Elizabeth I at Tilbury, Deborah transforms supposed weakness into strength, and underlines God’s desire to save.

And, of course, it’s the end of the story, the part we did not read, that becomes the most memorable. The Canaanite general, Sisera, is defeated, but manages to escape the battlefield. He wanders into the tent of an ally, Heber the Kenite, and finds himself alone with Heber’s wife Jael. He demands water, and Jael gives him some warm milk instead, and a cuddly blanket, and soon Sisera is sound asleep. At this moment Jael takes a hammer, and a tent peg, and…well, you can guess the rest. The Canaanite defeat, at the hands of Deborah and Jael is complete, and peace returns.

Maybe we need a moment, after all that excitement, to ponder Western art in the High Renaissance. There seems to be a bit of debate about the preponderance of religious art: was it some sort of custom or decree, the fact that most of the art is religious, or was it simply that the church was the wealthiest patron of the arts? We’ll let the scholars argue over that one, but we should note that even the preponderance fell into predictable categories. Madonna and child, important saints, and predictably, women bathing, such as Susanna or Bathsheba. And then there is Jael, hammer in one hand, tent peg in the other, and…well, you know the rest. (In most paintings she looks really mad, but in Salomon de Bray’s remarkable painting [top of the page] we see the psychological complexity of this character).

In a Christian framework, we see the very same pattern. John the Baptist cries out “who told you to flee from the wrath to come?’ and then Jesus appears. The lost and the disobedient are found and forgiven, and the daily walk begins. Disciples are called, lives transformed, and moments later they are arguing about which one gets to sit at the right hand in glory. Jesus forgives their foolish ways, and the walk continues, up to a lonely hill where pieces of silver are exchanged and denials are made. Even the soldiers that mock and flog will recognize that this is the Son of the Most High—a day later, but never too late.

Failure and misfortune, faith and forgiveness, and the path continues until it loops around once more. It describes a life of faith, and it describes life on earth—the alternating times of promise and peril, progress and failure. Last Saturday, we celebrated the end of an era, the first major defeat in the battle against extremism and populism. By midweek the celebration was over, with numerous elected officials pointing to some sort of fantasy outcome—the rest of us mistaken. Who knows what the mood will be next week, or what brand of crazy we will endure, but the pattern is familiar.

And while we can’t necessarily end the pattern in our time, we should be able to disrupt it, or diminish it in some way. So this might be the moment to revisit something that we talked about last fall, some research on recent trends, from an article with the uncomfortable title “Populism is growing because more people than you think want chaos.” In the article, we learn that a close study of attitudes and activities across several Western countries highlights the real divide of our time. It’s less the division between left and right, even though those old lines remain clear—and more between those who would maintain the existing order and those who would tear it all down.

And these researchers have made the alarming discovery that nearly 40 percent of the population across these countries fall into the ‘tear it all down’ category. These people have lost faith in the existing order, including governments and the leading voices in society, and are seeking alternatives. They come from both the left and right, they tend to be disadvantaged in some way, or have simply lost faith in the idea that the future will be better than the past. They are particularly open to voices that cast blame or propose simple solutions to complex problems. And they are easy to reach—social media amplifies alternate voices and allows people to find each other—for good or for ill.

And on one level they have a point. Wealth inequality, a changing economy, the environmental crisis—none of these problems have been adequately addressed by the people who lead us. But the alternative—‘tear it all down’—is too frightening to contemplate. So the authors of this study make a simple suggestion: that moderates on both sides of the political divide work together to solve the problems that lead to hopelessness and despair. Begin to address the complex problems we face, and over time fewer and fewer people will be drawn to chaos. It’s the hardest simple solution in the world, or the simplest hard solution, take your pick.**

Whenever It’s time to conclude a sermon like this, there’s usually a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to help us make sense of the situation we find ourselves in—and he never disappoints. This quote was shared in an address to the Montgomery Improvement Association’s first mass meeting at Holt Street Baptist Church.

I want to tell you this evening that it is not enough for us to talk about love, love is one of the pivotal points of the Christian…faith. There is another side called justice. And justice is really love in calculation. Justice is love correcting that which revolts against love.

When Dr. King shared these words, he was just 26 years old. So he underlines a couple of things. The first is that young people will inevitably lead us forward, since they seek to create the world they will inhabit the longest. And the second is that whenever we ponder love correcting that which revolts against love, we’re talking about God. God is love. And God’s love is always “love in calculation,” seeking ways to lead us home.

Meeting this moment may not require the drama of Deborah or Jael, but it will require the same trust in the power of God to transform lives. In our work, and in our prayer, we turn to God to calculate the love needed to build the kingdom, to make it known, now and always, Amen.

*Guest, 2003
**https://www.thersa.org/blog/matthew-taylor/2019/09/chaos

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

This prayer comes from the worship resource page of the Presbyterian Church in Canada.

We thank you, God of all life and each life,
that you are with us every day, in each challenge and opportunity.
In our weakness, you are strength.
In our darkness, you are light on the journey.
In our questions, you are wisdom for our choices.
Stay with us in these days when so much seems uncertain,
and help us to serve you faithfully, when and as we are able.

God of loving kindness:
we give you thanks for moments of joy and celebration in our lives
even amidst the ongoing pandemic,
for love given and received,
for friendships which bring us meaning and happiness, even at a distance,
and for family members who show us glimpses of unconditional love.
In all our relationships and interactions,
keep us mindful of your call to see you in one another.

God of the nations,
we pray for our country and the countries of this world,
as we all struggle to face the choices COVID-19 sets before us.
Guide those who frame laws and shape policy,
and those who keep the peace and administer justice.
There are so many new challenges to consider
and we pray your wisdom will open our leaders’ minds and hearts
to develop more equitable ways of ordering our communities.

God of peace,
we remember with sadness the dangerous divisions between nations
and the games leaders play to get the better of each other.
By your Holy Spirit, move in places torn by war and violence,
to protect the vulnerable and those who advocate for justice to prevail.
Show us how to be peacemakers in troubled times.

God of healing:
we pray for those who are suffering in these difficult days of pandemic,
for those who mourn the loss of someone or something dear.
Draw close to all who fear the future.
Surround each one with your love
and show us how to bring comfort and support into situations of hurt and pain.

God of life:
you hold all souls in your loving care, the dead as well as the living.
We thank you for your saints of every age who continue to inspire us,
and for all who have meant the world to us and now live with you.
Keep us in communion with them
and, at the last, bring us all to dwell together in your light.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father who 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 trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.

HYMN: “God of grace and God of glory”

God of grace and God of glory,
on your people pour your power;
now fulfil your church’s story;
bring its bud to glorious flower.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
for the facing of this hour.

Lo, the hosts of evil round us
scorn your Christ, assail your ways;
fears and doubts too long have bound us;
free our hearts to work and praise.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
for the living of these days.

Cure your children’s warring madness,
bend our pride to your control;
shame our wanton selfish gladness,
rich in goods and poor in soul.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
lest we miss your kingdom’s goal.

Set our feet on lofty places,
gird our lives that they may be
armoured with all Christlike graces,
pledged to set all captives free.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
that we fail not them nor thee.

BLESSING

Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way,
and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless
until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. Amen.
—1 Thessalonians 5:23

God be with you till we meet again;
loving counsels guide, uphold you,
with a shepherd’s care enfold you;
God be with you till we meet again.

Gathered through the power of the Holy Spirit, we worship God with gladness. We encourage you to pray over the words that follow, and follow the links within the liturgy. Prayers in this service are adapted from Celebrate God’s Presence (UCPH). Thanks this week to Jenny, Cor, and Heather!

PRELUDE: “Where Have all the Flowers Gone” (Seeger)

LAST POST

SILENCE

REVEILLE

WORDS OF REMEMBRANCE

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: 
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

HYMN OF PRAISE: “Weep for the dead”

Weep for the dead. Let tears and silence tell
of blood and battle, horror and renown.
The years diminish, but do not dispel
the pain of lives destroyed, and life laid down.

Silent the dead. Remembering we stand
silent as they, for words cannot esteem
causes of war, the love of native land,
all that they were, and all they might have been.

Raising our flag, we stand with muffled drum,
judged by the colours of God’s love and loss,
recalling as we pray, ‘Your kingdom come,’
a purple robe, and blood upon a cross.

Summoned by love that leaves no room for pride,
we pray that every continent and isle,
wounded by war, war’s hate may lay aside,
and find a way to heal and reconcile.

Weep for the dead, from all the ills of earth.
Stand by the cross that bids all hatred cease.
March to the drums of dignity and worth.
Salute the King of Love, the Prince of Peace.

IN MEMORY OF PRIVATE ELI SOUTHORN

Today we pause to remember the service and sacrifice of Private Eli Southorn.

Eli Southorn was born in Mount Dennis on December 9, 1913 to Alfred Southorn and Amelia Smithson. Eli was born at home, at 26 Lambton Avenue. Eli was one of seven children, with siblings Alfred, Alice, Clarence, Frances, Ivy, and Roy.

According to the Occupational History Form completed at the time of his enlistment, Eli left school at age 13 and ended up working at his father’s company, A.G. Southorn. The A.G. Southorn company was engaged in the manufacture and repair of automotive bearings, and Eli’s occupation was listed on the occupational form as a machinist. At the tender age of 20, Eli married Mary Ann Bell, daughter of James Bell and Elizabeth Coburn. They were married at St. Hilda’s Anglican Church, at Vaughan and Dufferin. On the marriage licence, Eli is listed as Anglican and Mary as United Church.

The arrival of three children soon followed: Audrey, Jack and Linda. They were living just up the street from Eli’s parents—at 239 Lambton Avenue—at the time Eli enlisted. From basic training in Brantford, to vocational training in Toronto, Eli was recognized for his technical skill and prepared for the job of “fitter.” In the Commonwealth armies, the role of fitter described someone tasked with repairing vehicles and equipment. His background with bearings, and knowledge of automobile repair would be fine preparation for the role.

Over the next year or so, Eli spent much of his time between Barriefield (outside Kingston) and the army camp at Petawawa. He also trained as an armourer, a job that involved maintaining and repairing weapons, as well as ensuring the safe storage of these weapons. Fully trained, Eli finally departed for England in July of 1944. He went where he was needed: first transferred to the Winnipeg Grenadiers, and finally to the Highland Light Infantry of Canada.

On December 15, 1944, he arrived in Europe to help prepare for the next phase of the Allied effort. The regiment spent the next two months in an area known as the Waal Flats, rotating between dugouts in the damp Dutch earth, and occasional time spent in relative comfort of the town of Nijmegen. Complains from the soldiers of the Highland Brigade were few, however, when they considered the suffering of the Dutch people. In the midst of a blockade on food and fuel—retaliation for Dutch resistance—the brigade did what little they could do to help. Children who made their way into the camp were given any food that could be spared.

On February 8, 1945, Operation VERITABLE began: an Allied effort to breach the westernmost defences, cross the Rhine, and advance into Germany. In the area between Nijmegen and the ancient city of Cleve, the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division fought along the flooded flats near the Rhine, while the British fought in the Reichswald forest and the notorious Sigfried Line. Between February 10 and 11, the Highland Brigade fought through Duffelward and into Wardhausen. Sometime during the fighting on the 11th, Eli was killed in action.

Private Eli Southorn is buried in the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery, within perhaps a dozen kilometers of where he fell. The cemetery is the final resting place for 2,338 Canadians who were killed in the Rhineland battles of 1945. Private Southorn is also remembered on page 556 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance in Ottawa.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Clouds gather, O God, and we often lose hope.
We give voice to our fears and struggles,
and forget that you are ever near.
Too often we trust in ourselves
before we trust in you.
We ignore your promise to be with us,
and neglect to share the Good News of your love.
Help us, O God, to keep you in our hearts.
Amen.

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

God will give us what we need:
strength for today,
hope for tomorrow,
and forgiveness
for all that is past.
Amen.

SPECIAL MUSIC: “O God our help in ages past”

FIRST READING: Psalm 78

Give heed to my teaching, O my people,
turn your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will reveal the hidden meaning of things in the past.
What we have heard and known,
what our parents have told us,
we will not hide from their grandchildren,
but declare to the next generation
the testimony that you gave to Jacob
and the law you appointed in Israel,
which you commanded them to teach their children,
that the next generation might know them,
children yet unborn,
and these in turn should arise, and tell their children,
that they should put their trust in you,
and not forget your great deeds,
but keep all your commandments.

SECOND READING: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For 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. 17 After 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. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

HYMN: “O Christian, love”

O Christian, love your sister and your brother!
Where pity dwells, the peace of God is there;
to worship rightly is to love each other,
each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer.

Follow with reverent steps the great example:
Jesus whose holy work was doing good;
so shall the wide earth seem a hallowed temple,
each loving life a psalm of gratitude.

Then shall all shackles fall; the stormy clangour
of wild war-music o’er the earth shall cease;
love shall tread out the baleful fire of anger,
and in its ashes plant the tree of peace.

REFLECTION

The idea began by chance.

Padre David Railton, British army chaplain in the First World War, happened upon a recent grave marked by a rough cross. This, in and of itself, was not unusual, but written on the cross, in pencil, were the words “An Unknown British Soldier.” From that moment, and the impression it made, came the idea of gathering the remains of an unknown soldier from a battlefield in France and burying that soldier “amongst the kings” in Westminster Abbey.*

In 1920, the Dean of Westminster and the Prime Minister agreed that this would be an ideal way to honour those lost in the Great War. Remains were exhumed on the 7th of November for transfer to London, resting first within the ancient citadel at Boulogne. On the morning of the 10th, the casket was led in procession to the harbour, accompanied by a thousand schoolchildren and a division of French troops.

At noon, the casket was carried aboard the HMS Verdun, and departed Boulogne with a flotilla of six destroyers. Arriving at Dover, the unknown soldier was transferred by rail to Victoria Station, platform 8, and remained overnight. A small plaque between platforms 8 and 9 continues to mark the spot, and a service is held there each year on the 10th of November.

“Immense and silent crowds” met the procession as the casket moved through London to the Abbey. When entering the Abbey, the casket was flanked by an honour guard of one hundred recipients of the Victoria Cross. The guests of honour for the ceremony were nearly one hundred women, “chosen because they had each lost their husband and all their sons in the war.”

Soil was brought from each of the main battlefields, and covered with a silk pall, with the casket atop. When finally lowered beneath the floor of the Abbey, a large slab of black Belgian marble was laid, with the inscription, “Beneath this stone rests the body of a British warrior, unknown by name or rank, brought from France to lie among the most illustrious of the land.” It remains the only marker on which visitors are forbidden to walk.

The idea that began at Westminster Abbey was mirrored in France and other Commonwealth countries. It signaled that commemoration was no longer for the great and the good alone, but for ordinary citizen soldiers, working men and women who gave the most in war. It was an attempt to honour loss on an unimaginable scale, and it remains the most stirring monument in the great Abbey.

Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.

Like those who mourned the missing from France and Belgium, believers in the early church were confronted by uncertainty in the midst of grief. They believed that death would not visit them before Christ returned, leaving them with a vexing problem. The march of mortality returned, and trumpet blast had not sounded. What will happen to the dead, they asked, if Jesus returns for the living? Will the dead be overlooked on that great and glorious day? St. Paul said “no.”

…we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For 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.

Only then, Paul insists, will the living be “caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” We hear these words—remarkable words—yet our modern minds push back. Less than a generation passed from Jesus’ promise to the letter Paul wrote, and two thousand years on, the question only grows. Is it a reasonable hope, this promised return and the consummation of all things? Is it even desirable, when so many believers have used the endtimes as an excuse to ignore problems here on earth?

This last suggestion, a longing for escape, ignores the primary desire found in Jesus’ own words: “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We cannot know if this long-imagined terminal point will come to pass, we can only surrender to the mystery—and trust the promise of a new heaven and a new earth. We may or may not be the generation that meets the Lord in the air, but we can rest in the knowledge that “in Christ all will be made alive.” (1 Cor 15)**

Much of what we do in this place becomes a mirror on our lives. We are encouraged to remember our baptism and give thanks. We witness vows that loving couples make and we recommit to our own vows. We listen to the words of the eulogist and wonder what will be said of us, at our own service of thanksgiving. We hear stories of sacrifice in war and we wonder what we would have done—or what we will still do—to safeguard the freedoms we enjoy. The dead in Christ surround us, calling us forward, encouraging us to be agents of mercy and peace. We give thanks for the foundation they laid, the service they rendered, and the love they shared. And we give thanks that those who are unknown, are always known to God. Amen.

*The Unknown Warrior, Wikipedia
**This quote is also inscribed on the Abbey maker

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

This prayer was written by the Rev. Dr. Neil Parker, military chaplain at the 4th Canadian Division Training Centre in Meaford, ON

O God of hosts, God who calls us to be engaged in the world; we pray for those who are serving in our Armed Forces; soldiers, sailors, air personnel, and those who provide support for them. We pray for clerks and gunners, navigators and parachute packers, infanteers and public affairs officers. We pray for those who care for those who fight: for mental health nurses, doctors, and chaplains. We pray for those who put themselves in harm’s way; for Search and Rescue Technicians, for those engaged in mine-clearing, for those in the air or on the high seas. Keep them safe in their tasks; keep them virtuous in their calling; preserve them from danger, and return them to those who love them.

We offer to you, O God, our prayers for those who seek justice and resist evil. We pray for those who need your presence and strength to stand firm; for those who are oppose the use of violence in any form in faithful response to the Prince of Peace. We pray for those are prepared to be firm to protect those in danger. We pray for those who walk with others who need strength. We pray for those who protest, those who organize letter campaigns, those who give sacrificially on behalf of others.

We pray for those who speak the unpopular truth; who protect the unpopular victims; who choose the unpopular path of peace.

We pray for those who do not let their desire for peace hinder the requirements of justice, and for those who do not let their zeal for justice override the call for peace.

O God of every human being, forgive when we identify our kin too easily as enemies. Teach us to seek the good of all, and not only our own. When our cousins are acting unjustly or causing harm, help us to constrain them without hatred or evil thoughts, but to seek their good even as we resist the damage that may be caused.

We pray that those to whom we are opposed may be turned from enemy to friend. We pray that in our cause we may not fall into sin, so convinced of our own righteousness that we are unaware of our own sin. We pray that we are not so distracted by another’s sin that we cannot be convinced of their value as children of God. May we always remember your willingness to forgive, and to bless, and to call the most unlikely of saints.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father who 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 trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.

HYMN: “O God beyond all praising”

O God beyond all praising, we worship you today
and sing the love amazing that songs cannot repay;
for we can only wonder at every gift you send,
at blessings without number and mercies without end:
we lift our hearts before you and wait upon your word,
we honour and adore you, our great and mighty Lord.

The flower of earthly splendour in time must surely die,
its fragile bloom surrender to you our God most high;
but hidden from all nature the eternal seed is sown,
though small in mortal stature, to heaven’s garden grown:
for Christ, your gift from heaven, from death has set us free,
and we through him are given the final victory.

Then, hear O gracious Saviour, this song of praise we sing.
May we, who know your favour, our humble service bring;
and whether our tomorrows be filled with good or ill,
we’ll triumph through our sorrows and rise to bless you still:
to marvel at your beauty and glory in your ways,
and make a joyful duty our sacrifice of praise.

BLESSING

Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way,
and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless
until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. Amen.
—1 Thessalonians 5:23

God be with you till we meet again;
loving counsels guide, uphold you,
with a shepherd’s care enfold you;
God be with you till we meet again.