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, Faith, Olivia, and Heather!
PRELUDE: “Jesus’ Hands were Kind Hands” (Traditional French Melody)
OPENING PRAYER:
You, O God,
are the light of the minds that know you,
the life of the hearts that love you,
and the strength of the spirits that seek you;
Help us so to know you that we may truly worship you,
so to love you that we may turn to you,
in whose presence is perfect peace.
Amen.
HYMN OF PRAISE: “Take my life, and let it be”
Take my life, and let it be
consecrated, all for thee;
take my moments and my days;
let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move
at the impulse of thy love;
take my feet, and let them be
swift and purposeful for thee.
Take my lips, and let them be
filled with messages from thee;
take my intellect, and use
every power as thou shalt choose.
Take my will, and make it thine;
it shall be no longer mine;
take my heart, it is thine own;
it shall be thy royal throne.
Take my love: and I will pour
at thy feet its treasure store;
take myself, and I will be
ever, only, all for thee.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Eternal Light
shine in our hearts;
Eternal Goodness,
deliver us from evil;
Eternal Power,
be our support;
Eternal Wisdom,
scatter the shadows of our ignorance;
Eternal Compassion,
have mercy on us;
that with heart and mind
and soul and strength
we may seek your face,
and be brought by your infinite mercy
to the Holy Presence;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour. 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: “On The Willows” (Schwartz)
FIRST READING: 1 Samuel 3.1-10
The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.
2 One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was. 4 Then the Lord called Samuel.
Samuel answered, “Here I am.” 5 And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”
But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.
6 Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”
“My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.”
7 Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.
8 A third time the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”
Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. 9 So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
10 The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”
Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
SECOND READING: Psalm 139
O God, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You discern my path and the places I rest;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue,
you know it, O God, completely.
You guard me from behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
It is beyond my knowledge; it is a mystery;
I cannot fathom it.
Where can I escape from your spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I lie down in the grave, you are even there.
If I take wing with the dawn
and alight at the sea’s farthest limits,
there also your hand will be guiding me
your powerful hand holding me fast.
If I say, ‘Let the darkness cover me
and my day be turned to night,’
even darkness is not dark to you:
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
It was you who formed my inward parts;
you fashioned me in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully, wonderfully made.
Wondrous are your works; that I know very well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was being fashioned in secret,
intricately woven in the mystery of clay.
Your eyes saw my substance taking shape;
in your book my every day was recorded;
all my days were fashioned,
even before they came to be.
How deep your designs are to me, O God!
How great their number!
I try to count them but they are more than the sand.
I come to the end – I am still with you.
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my thoughts.
Watch closely, lest I follow a path of error
and guide me in the everlasting way.
THIRD READING: John 1.43-46
43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” 46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
HYMN: “Thuma mina”
Send me, Lord.
Thuma mina, thuma mina,
thuma mina, Somandla.
Send me, Lord.
Send me, Jesus, send me, Jesus,
send me, Jesus, send me, Lord.
Send me, Lord.
Lead me Jesus, lead me, Jesus,
lead me, Jesus, lead me, Lord.
Send me, Lord.
I will go, Lord, I will go, Lord,
in your name, Lord, I will go.
Send me, Lord.
Thuma mina, thuma mina,
thuma mina, Somandla.
REFLECTION
The first rule of comedy is repetition. The second rule of comedy is repetition. The third rule of comedy is, you guessed it…
Perhaps the real second rule of comedy is don’t analyse comedy, but we’re going to do it anyway. Repetition, stating the same turn of phrase over and over, is funny because it does the unexpected. In my example, it was funny the moment I repeated repetition, and then it’s up to the audience to decide when it’s no longer funny.
Another version of repetition is in the set-up. “Two guys walk into a bar” is an example, where we’re anticipating something funny because we know a joke is coming. Likewise with “Knock knock,” which we might describe as training wheels for the aspiring comic. Again, the repetition of the frame tells us that something funny (may) be coming.
Back to the first example, repeating a phrase or situation over and over tends to trigger a delight response, especially when it involves children. Bil Keane’s iconic joke that begins with some variation of “What did you do today, Billy?” (followed by a look at his route around the neighbourhood) is just one example. Another, of course, is the call of Samuel. The author’s triple-telling is a signal that this is meant to delight us:
Samuel: “Here I am, you called me.”
Old Eli: “I didn’t call, go back and lie down.” (x3)
Parents and babysitters will also recognise another bit of humour here: the kid who keeps getting up. And like my first joke, it’s cute for a time, until it stops being cute altogether. Back to Samuel and old Eli, the key to the passage is hiding in plain sight, right at the beginning: “In those days the word of the Lord was rare.” It takes Eli two or three goes to recognize what’s really happening here. After all, the word of the Lord was rare.
But with recognition, and a skilled teacher, Samuel learns that the Lord is speaking and learns an appropriate response: “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.” The word that follows—what will become his first prophetic utterance—isn’t an easy message to hear. The Lord reveals to the boy that his mentor Eli will fall from grace, owing to the misbehavior of his sons and his inability to restrain them. What began as a playful exchange becomes a hard word for Eli and his family. No one said being a prophet would be easy.
Jump to our gospel lesson, and we see a strange parallel. It begins like the old shampoo commercial, when you tell two friends, and they tell two friends. Jesus calls Philip, and Philip calls Nathanael saying ‘come and see the one foretold in the law and the prophets…Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph.’ And without missing a beat, Nathanael says “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Again, we tend to be entirely too serious when we approach scripture, since Nathanael has just used another comedic device: hyperbole. Hyperbole exaggerates or overstates something that may or may not be true, but it’s fun to say. There’s nothing wrong with people from Nazareth—per se—but saying it makes it funny.
And there’s another comedic device here too, that of the stereotype. We recognize that this is one of the more dangerous types of humour (often misused) but when used with good intention it can be very funny. Think small town rivalries, or Leafs versus Habs, or whatever people in the Galilee thought about people from Nazareth, and you get the humour.
And like our introduction to Samuel, there is a similar movement that will follow. Jesus’ call to the disciples is largely playful—’come and I’ll make you fishers of people’—but the outcome will be anything but. And maybe that’s intentional. A teasing quip about Nazareth or a clever turn on fishing is the lightness needed when the outcome for most of these disciples will be suffering and martyrdom.
I think the closest parallel here would be a film where you already know the ending. If it’s a film about a beloved person who dies at the end, we enter the theatre ready to be sad. But that’s not how storytelling works. The film may open with a reminder that this beloved person is gone, but we are soon lost in the story from the beginning. Whatever humour or lightness found at the beginning is even more pointed in light of the end. Our delight is increased because we get to love and laugh once more—even knowing the end of the story.
So, two lessons here. The first is to delight in each moment you can, knowing the end of the story. It’s not an easy lesson to hear or an easy lesson to apply to our lives. But we know that God gives us delight in the form of humour, tenderness, absurdity, playfulness, and a countless other small things that we can only see if we truly look. Life is serious enough that we shouldn’t take it entirely seriously. Life is hard enough, and short enough, that we need to delight in what we can. That’s the first lesson.
The second lesson is the cost of being a disciple, or in Samuel’s case, a prophet. Once you accept the call, everything becomes more complicated, more perilous, and more demanding. We can delight in the relationship between Samuel and his mentor, but we also know that Samuel’s first task as prophet was the beginning of a very hard life. Likewise, the joy of walking with Jesus each day, the gift of his teaching, a window on eternity—all these things live under the shadow of the cross. And even knowing the end of that particular story—new life in Christ—doesn’t diminish the pain of being a witness to his passion.
Just like Samuel’s time, the word of the Lord is rare in our day. But just because God is the strong silent-type, doesn’t mean God is absent. God is in the delightful, in the touching, and in the moving. Christ is in others, and the people who minister to us. And the Spirit is all around us, and in us too, now and always, Amen.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
God eternal, our times are held within your hands,
our lives are shaped by your design from before our birth.
You take hold of what has happened
and nurture within it what you wish to be.
Like a wise mother, you give us both freedom and guidance.
How wise and caring you are, most blessed God;
we praise you and thank you.
God eternal, our times are open to your Spirit,
our lives await your touch.
God of mercy, fountain of loving care,
wellspring of blessing and source of our hope:
help us to break through the dry surface of our parched lives
to find the life that flows beneath, quietly, deeply,
cool with refreshment—
that living water for our souls
which is the Spirit of Christ your Son.
We ask for these your gifts:
for all in hospital or nursing home,
healing and encouragement;
for all living with long-term threats
to their health or well-being, patience and endurance;
for all who are worried, ease of heart;
for all who are lonely, some human contact;
for all who are anxious about their job,
or who are looking for work, fortitude;
for all who are wondering what path in life to take,
a sense of being able to trust that you, God, will guide them.
Finally we think of our own individual lives.
We take some moments of silence
to give you our thanks for the blessing you have given us,
and to ask for the needs that weigh most upon us…
God of mercy, eternal source of life renewed and abundant,
rise up and flood with loving care every withered life
and every heart that thirsts for you.
We pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. 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: “Lord, speak to me that I may speak”
Lord, speak to me that I may speak
in living echoes of your tone;
as you have sought, so let me seek
your straying children lost and lone.
O lead me, so that I may lead
the wandering and the wavering feet;
O feed me, so that I may feed
your hungering ones with manna sweet.
O teach me, so that I may teach
the precious truths which you impart;
and wing my words, that they may reach
the hidden depths of many a heart.
O fill me with your fullness, Lord,
until my very heart o’erflows
in kindling thought and glowing word,
your love to tell, your praise to show.
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.
Thank you for the lovely service today Michael and the reminder that, even when silent, God is always with us. I also really enjoyed the photos you attached — the paintings are lovely. Thank you Dave and Heather for the lovely music today. Have a great week everyone!