Fourth of Easter, Year A “Virtual Worship Service” – Picton United Church
Music as We Prepare for Worship
Words of Welcome
The Lighting of the Christ Candle
Invitation to Worship
Rev. Phil: This is the season of Easter:
All: the celebration of resurrection,
Rev. Phil: the festival of hope,
All: the promise of new beginnings,
Rev. Phil: the dance of faith,
All: the song of joy,
Rev. Phil: the music of gladness,
All: the hymn of love.
Rev. Phil: Let us worship our life-giving God – known to us as Kind Creator, Compassionate Friend, Ever-Present Spirit;
All: We worship God – Creator, Christ & Spirit, One!
And so, we sing: VU#333 vs.1 & 2 “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling”
1. Love divine, all loves excelling, joy of heaven to earth come down, fix in us thy humble dwelling, all thy faithful mercies crown. Jesus, thou art all compassion, pure, unbounded love thou art; visit us with thy salvation, enter every trembling heart.
2. Come, almighty to deliver; let us all thy grace receive; suddenly return, and never, never-more thy temples leave. Thee we would be always blessing, serve thee as thy hosts above, pray, and praise thee, without ceasing, glory in thy perfect love.
Opening Prayer
Servant Christ, help us to follow you out of the dark tomb, to share daily your resurrection life, to be renewed daily in your image of love, to be used daily as your new Body in your service to the world.
Servant Christ, help us to follow you, that we might love the world in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Opening Hymn VU#405 “New Every Morning is the Love”
1. New every morning is the love our wakening and uprising prove; through sleep and darkness safely brought, restored to life, and power and thought.
2. New mercies each returning day hover around us while we pray; new perils past, new sins forgiven, new thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven.
3. If on our daily course our mind be set to hallow all we find, new treasures still of countless price God will provide for sacrifice.
4. The trivial round, the common task, will furnish all we ought to ask, room to deny ourselves, a road to bring us daily nearer God.
5. Only, O God, in your dear love fit us for perfect rest above; and help us, this and every day, to live more nearly as we pray.
Prayer for Reconciliation
Rev. Phil: God forgives and heals us.
All: We need your healing, merciful God: give us true repentance. Some sins are plain to us; some escape us, some we cannot face. Forgive us; set us free to hear your Word to us; set us free to serve you – embodied in all our sisters and brothers, and in the whole of creation.
Rev. Phil: In the quietness of our worship space and in the silence of our own hearts we offer to God our personal prayers.
Silence for Personal Reflection & Prayer
Kyrie Eleison VU#946 “Lord, Have Mercy”
Assurance of God’s Unfailing Love
Rev. Phil: God is the Love that over and around us lies; the grace that we do not need to earn; and the healing that makes the earth whole.
All: We give thanks to God! We are forgiven and empowered to be our best selves – the people had from the beginning in mind!
Hymn of Praise VU#227 “For the Fruit of All Creation”
1. For the fruit of all creation, thanks be to God. For the gifts to every nation, thanks be to God. For the ploughing, sowing, reaping, silent growth while we are sleeping, future needs in earth’s safe-keeping, thanks be to God.
2. In the just reward of labour, God’s will is done. In the help we give our neighbour, God’s will is done. In our world-wide task of caring for the hungry and despairing, in the harvests we are sharing, God’s will is done.
3. For the harvests of the Spirit, thanks be to God. For the good we all inherit, thanks be to God. For the wonders that astound us, for the truths that still confound us, most of all that love has found us, thanks be to God!
Bible Readings
This morning we are using two of the readings assigned for this Fourth Sunday in the Season of Easter, Year A, by the Revised Common Lectionary. The use of the Lectionary is a reminder to us that we are part of a world-wide community of those seeking to follow Jesus in the Way. All over the world sisters and brothers are hearing these same verses and pondering their meaning for the life of faith. In both of our readings this morning, listen for the word of God.
Acts 2.42-47
The Acts of the Apostles, the fifth book in our New Testament is part of a two-volume set by the same author – the first is the Gospel of Luke. This set comprise more than 27% of the New Testament. The author, a well-educated person whose mother-tongue was Greek – was writing in the last decades of the First Century of the first decade of the Second Century of the Common Era. In our reading today, from the second chapter of Acts, we read of the experience of the first Christian community which was situated in Jerusalem – after the Day of Pentecost.
2.42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44 All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45 they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts,47 praising God and having the good will of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Psalm 23 (Paraphrased by Jim Taylor in “Everyday Psalms”
The Book of Psalms is the oldest Hymn Book in continuous use by Jews and Christians for better than 2500 years. Originally written in Hebrew, the Psalms have been translated into virtually every human language. Doubtless the most well-loved Psalm is Psalm 23. Today we will be reading a paraphrase of that Psalm, written and published by Jim Taylor, a United Church author and publisher. Later in the Service, we will sing the 23rd Psalm using the traditional Scottish tune “Crimond”. God has walked with me; I could ask nothing more. God has given me green meadows to laugh in, clear streams to think besides, untrodden paths to explore.
When I thought the world rested on my shoulders, God put things into perspective.
When I lashed out at an unfair world, God calmed me down. When I drifted into harmful ways, God straightened me our. God was with me all the way. I do not know what lies ahead, but I am not afraid. I know you will be with me. Even in death, I will not despair. You will comfort and support me. Though my eye dims and my mind dulls, you will continue to care about me. Your touch will soothe the tension in my temples; my fears will fade away. I am content.
In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with me. All through life I have found goodness in people. When life ends, I expect to be gathered into the ultimate goodness of God.
“The Lord is my Shepherd”
Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
I suspect that many thousands of sermons have been preached over the millennium on this most famous Psalm.
“The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life – and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord, forever.”
It was composed about 3,000 years ago. For several centuries it was sung in the worship life of the Hebrew people – before it was written down, about the time of the Babylonian exile in the sixth century Before the Common Era. Even now, in this 21st century of the Common Era this brief poem continues to be deeply meaningful in both Judaism and Christianity.
It is repeated by Rabbi’s, Ministers and Priests at the bedsides of those who are suffering. It is sung by cantors and choirs and congregations. It is often the last piece of scripture to be recited at graveside as beloved ones are laid to rest. There are few pieces of biblical writing that offer a better of clearer manifesto of our faith. This fourth Sunday in the Easter Season has traditionally been called Good Shepherd Sunday.
For ancient Israel, there was a clear understanding of the role of the Shepherd. Even after they became a settled people in their Promised Land, they remembered their roots. It was after their defeat by the Babylonian Empire and the destruction of Solomon’s Temple that the ancient oral traditions came to be written down. In captivity and exile in Babylon, the Rabbi’s wisely realized the importance of the Torah as – known as the five Book of Moses – in helping the people to understand their identity as God’s People.
Their patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph were remembered as shepherds tending their flocks. Moses, who was to lead the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt, encountered God on the holy mountain as he was tending his father-in-law’s sheep. King David, their greatest monarch, was called from his work of tending the flock of his father Jessie, to be anointed as King by Samuel the prophet.
In the Gospel of Matthew and Luke we have Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep. The shepherd in that story, leaves ninety-nine sheep in the wilderness and goes in search of the one who was lost – bringing the lost sheep home with rejoicing.
In the 10th Chapter of The Gospel of John, Jesus identifies himself to the disciples, as the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. That image of course came from this 23rd Psalm. The important message at the heart of the Psalm is that there is One who cares deeply for every one of us. Though the world is a place of difficulty and suffering, the Good Shepherd promises to always accompany, protect and care for us as a shepherd cares for their flock.
Robert Browning, an English poet in the Victorian Era, concluded one of his most well-loved poems with the words:
“God is in his heaven – All’s right with the world!”
With due respect to Browning and his poetic gifts, as we look around at the world in which we live, we might best respond: “Really?” Nothing seems clearer as we look around at the world – that all is definitely not right. All around us we see, and we experience, brokenness. Hunger, homelessness, accidents, wars, and currently COVID-19 – a deadly viral pandemic are reality for our world.
The message of the Twenty-third Psalm is that even in such a world – we can be confident that we are not alone – we are cared for by a Good Shepherd.
The second phrase of the Psalm is the assertion: “I shall not want.”
There are those who have given to this phrase the theological assumption that if we are right with God, the skies the limit! We can have anything we want! Janis Joplin, the rock and roll diva of the last century, parodied this theology is one of her songs:
“My friends all drive Porsches, I must made amends, O Lord won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz!”
Rabbi Harold Kushner, in his book on the Psalm, points out that people have confused God with Santa Claus – the old jolly paternal figure to which we can bring our shopping list of wants. He goes on to say that faithful prayer begins with “Thank you.”, with focus on gratitude for what we have, rather than with “Please give me.”
The images in the next phrases of the Psalm are profoundly pastoral.
“He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters.”
We are about to move into the full unfolding of the spring season. In the next few weeks our world will be clothed again in a seemingly infinite variety of greens – as the trees put out their foliage – and the crops in the fields germinate and grow. Already we enjoy the bright green of the fall wheat and barley springing up. Science has demonstrated that the colour green is soothing to both eye and spirit. The sheep in green pastures are calm and relaxed, their physical needs met.
We begin our lives in the still waters of the womb. Surrounded and protected and close to our mother’s heart beat. Perhaps that is part of the reason why we find sitting by the lake so good for our soul?
In the Bible we have the story of Moses, leading the people of Israel toward the Promised Land, and how God provided water for them in the parched wilderness. We remember also two stories in the Gospels of Jesus bringing calm to the angry waves that threatened to swamp the boat of the Galilean fishermen.
“He restoreth my soul.”
When we find ourselves at the end of our resources – overwhelmed by the circumstances of life – the promise is that our souls can be, will be, are restored. In the last verses of the 40th Chapter of Isaiah we read:
“Even youths will faint and grow weary, and young people will fall exhausted, but they that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not grow weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
In our current trying experience of isolating at home, we need to have our souls restored. What is it that can restore your soul? What is it that can renew your energy? What is that can replenish the wells of compassion within you, so that you can continue to reach out and be the hands and feet of Christ in our community?
For some it may be getting out to work in the garden.
Perhaps for you it is:
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Reading,
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Bird Watching from your deck,
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Walking
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Watching a nature programme,
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Just sitting quietly,
Daily prayer and meditation are keys to restoring our souls – with gratitude at the centre.
Time will not permit me this morning to speak about each phrase of the Psalm or to fully mine the depths of its wisdom. But to us in our current circumstances there is one line that we cannot miss:
“Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.”
We know the reality of suffering. We are treated to a steady diet of news that is almost never good. Our world walks through the valley of the shadow of death. We each as individuals have to walk this way – in the loss of beloved family members and friends – and in the reality that not one of us is going to get out of this world alive. We will all have to cross over that river someday.
The promise of the Psalm is not that we can escape the dark valley – but that as we do so we are not alone. God is with us.
I leave you this morning with the words of Rabbi Kushner who concludes his book The Lord is My Shepherd by writing:
“There will be dark days, days of loss and days of failure, but they will not last forever. The light always returns to chase away the darkness, the sun always comes out after the rain, and the human spirit will always rise above failure. Fear will assault us, but we will not be afraid, “for Thou art with me.”
As our Creed proclaims: God is with us. We are not alone! Thanks be to God.
Amen.
Hymn of Reflection VU#747 Psalm 23
1. The Lord’s my Shepherd, I’ll not want; he makes me down to lie in pastures green; he leadeth me, the quiet waters by.
2. My soul he doth restore again; and me to walk doth make within the paths of righteousness, even for his own name’s sake.
3. Yea, though I walk in death’s dark vale, yet will I fear no ill; for thou art with me; and thy rod and staff me comfort still.
4. My table thou hast furnished in presence of my foes; my head thou dost with oil anoint, and my cup overflows.
5. Goodness and mercy all my life shall surely follow me, and in God’s house for ever-more my dwelling place shall be.
Presentation of Gifts & Offerings
When we are worshipping together, this is the time in the Service where we present our gifts and offerings. Today is the 9th Sunday since we were last able to worship together – on March 8th. During these months, the ministry and mission of the Church has continued. This work of the Church needs the regular gifts and offerings from you who are part of the community. At South Bay United Church, many people give through the PAR Program. Others have chosen to mail their cheques to the Church Treasurer. At Picton United Church you can contribute by mailing your donation to the Church Office at 12 Chapel St., or you can give by visiting the Church website www.pictonunitedchurch.ca. Thank you for your faithful contributions.
Doxology – Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow
Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise God all creatures high and low. Give thanks to God in love made known: Creator, Word and Spirit, One.
Amen. (VU#541)
Prayers of Gratitude & Concern
The Lord’s Prayer VU#959
Parting Hymn VU#210 – tune Regent Square #36
1. You, Lord, are both lamb and shepherd. You, Lord, are both prince and slave. You peacemaker and sword bringer of the way you took and gave. You, the ever-lasting instant; you, whom we both scorn and crave.
2. Clothed in light upon the mountain, stripped of might upon the cross, shining in eternal glory, beggared by a soldier’s toss. You, the ever-lasting instant; you who are both gift and cost.
3. You, who walk each day beside us, sit in power at God’s side. You, who preach a way that narrow, have a love that reaches wide. You, the ever-lasting instant; you, who are our pilgrim guide.
4. Worthy is our earthly Jesus! Worthy is our cosmic Christ! Worthy your defeat and victory. Worthy still your peace and strife. You, the ever-lasting instant; you, who are our death and life.
Commissioning & Blessing
Sung Response MV#209 “Go Make a Difference”
Refrain: Go make a diff’rence, we can make a diff’rence, Go make a diff’rence in the world. Go make a diff’rence, we can make a diff’rence. Go make a diff’rence in the world.
1. We are the salt of the earth, called to let the people see the love of God for you and me. We are the light of the world, not to be hidden but be seen. Go make a diff’rence in the world
Refrain:
2. We are the hands of Christ reaching out to those in need, the face of God for all to see. We are the spirit of hope; we are the voice of peace. Go make a diff’rence in the world.
Refrain:
3. So let your love shine on, let it shine for all to see. Go make a diff’rence in the world. And the spirit of Christ will be with us as we go. Go make a diff’rence in the world.
Refrain:
Extinguishing the Candle(s)
Music as We Return to Our Daily Living
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