Bulletin – Sunday, August 30, 2026 – 14th Sunday after Pentecost

Windsor Park United Church
Sunday August 30, 2026
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

We Gather as People of Faith

Welcome (Minister Candidate)

Lighting the Christ Candle (Minister Candidate and Liturgist)

The light of the risen Christ brings hope to the world. Let us light these candles to open our hearts and minds, to the transformative love of God in our midst. Amen.

Minute Person(s)

Announcements (Liturgist)

Please join in the singing of the hymn – “Will You Come and Follow Me” (Voices United #567)

Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown, Will you let my name be known,
Will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?

Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me?

Will you let the blinded see if I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free and never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean, and do such as this unseen,
And admit to what I mean in you and you in me?

Will you love the “you” you hide if I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same?
Will you use the faith you’ve found to reshape the world around,
Through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me?

Christ, your summons echoes true when you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you and never be the same.
In your company I’ll go where your love and footsteps show.
Thus I’ll move and live and grow in you and you in me.

Call to Worship (Liturgist)

This is a holy place. We come to meet our God and our Maker. The one who sustains us. Before, now, and always throughout, all times and all places. God speaks to each of our hearts. I am who I am, says God. Come and be bathed in the love of God.

Prayer of Approach and Confession (Minister Candidate and All)

Listen carefully says God, I am who I am, I am here to guide and protect you. But we falter and fail. And too often, we do not hear the tenderness of God’s voice. We miss the power of God’s touch. Mercy and forgiveness is ours. God is love. Our maker says: Reach out and know that I am.

Words of Assurance (Minister Candidate)

God’s wisdom is like an angel dancing in the flames of life. Living fully, she warms our hearts and keeps us safe on our way. God’s compassionate care is like a seed manifesting the kingdom of heaven. Here on earth for all. He calls us to follow Jesus, the risen Christ, to become co-creators of God’s great banquet, offering a feast for all.

Sung Response – “Amen” (Voices United #967)

Amen, Amen, Amen
Amen, Amen, Amen

We Hear God’s Word

Scripture Readings (Liturgist)

The first scripture reading is from the book of Exodus 3:1-15

¹ Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. ³ Then Moses said, ‘I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.’ ⁴ When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ ⁵ Then he said, ‘Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ ⁶ He said further, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

⁷ Then the Lord said, ‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, ⁸ and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ⁹ The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. ¹⁰ So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.’ ¹¹ But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’ ¹² He said, ‘I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.’

¹³ But Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your ancestors has sent me to you”, and they ask me, “What is his name?” what shall I say to them?’ ¹⁴ God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am.’ He said further, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, “I am has sent me to you.”’ ¹⁵ God also said to Moses, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, “The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you”:

This is my name for ever, and this my title for all generations.

The second reading is from the Gospel of Matthew 16:21-28

²¹ From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. ²² And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.’ ²³ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’

²⁴ Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ²⁵ For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. ²⁶ For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

²⁷ ‘For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. ²⁸ Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.’

May God speak to us through these readings of scripture.
Thanks be to God!

Reflection – “Times have changed” (Minister Candidate)

Please join in the singing of the hymn – “Today We All Are Called to Be Disciples” (Voices United #507)

Today we all are called to be disciples of the Lord,
To help to set the captive free,
Make ploughshare out of sword,
To feed the hungry, quench their thirst,
Make love and peace our fast,
To serve the poor and homeless first,
Our ease and comfort last.

God made the world and at its birth
Ordained our human race
To live as stewards of the earth,
Responding to God’s grace.
But we are vain and sadly proud,
We sow not peace but strife,
Our discord spreads a deadly cloud
That threatens all of life.

Pray justice may come rolling down
As in a mighty stream,
With righteousness in field and town
To cleanse us and redeem.
For God is longing to restore
An earth where conflicts cease,
A world that was created for
A harmony of peace.

May we in service to our God
Act out the living word,
And walk the road the saints have trod
Till all have seen and heard.
As stewards of the earth may we
Give thanks in one accord
To God who calls us all to be
Disciples of the Lord.

We Respond to God’s Word

Invitation to Share (Minister Candidate)

Offering Sung Response “We Give You But Your Own” (Voices United #542)

We give you but your own,
What e’er the gift may be;
All that we have is yours alone,
We give it gratefully.

Offering Prayer (Minister Candidate)

We respond to God’s call with generosity. Gifts to serve God’s people, with the heart and grace of God’s very self. Amen

Prayers of the People (Minister Candidate)

Invitation to the Passing of the Peace (Minister Candidate)

Please offer one another the peace of Christ in a way that you feel comfortable and respects others’ space.

The Prayer that Jesus Taught (Minister Candidate)

One: Please join me in praying the prayer Jesus taught us to pray: Our Creator who is like Our Mother and…
All:    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 them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil; for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

We Go Into God’s World

Please join in the singing of the hymn – “We Are Called” (Onelicence.net by D. Haas)

Come, live in the light
Shine with the joy and the love of the Lord
We are called to be light for the kingdom
To live in the freedom of the city of God.

We are called to act with justice
We are called to love tenderly
We are called to serve one another
To walk humbly with God.

Come, open your heart
Show your mercy to all those in fear
We are called to be hope for the hopeless
So all hatred and blindness will be no more.

We are called to act with justice
We are called to love tenderly
We are called to serve one another
To walk humbly with God.

Sing, sing a new song
Sing of that great day when all will be one
God will reign and we’ll walk with each other
As sisters and brothers united in love.

We are called to act with justice
We are called to love tenderly
We are called to serve one another
To walk humbly with God.

Commissioning (Liturgist)

Let us go out into the world attentive to God’s call. Open to the Spirit’s prodding. Following the path of Jesus, that we might be a source of life, love, mercy, and justice-seeking for others.

Extinguish Candle (Liturgist)

Benediction (Minister Candidate)

God, source of life, be our voice and our song. Spirit, wisdom incarnate, be our guide and our inspiration. Jesus, the risen one, have mercy on us and lead us to the fullness of life. Within our own hearts and with all those we meet. God now with the blessings of the Holy Three. Amen.

Sung Response – “Halle, Halle, Halle” (Voices United #958)

Halle, Halle, Hallelujah!
Halle, Halle, Hallelujah!
Halle, Halle, Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Halle, Halle, Hallelujah!
Halle, Halle, Hallelujah!
Halle, Halle, Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Halle, Halle, Hallelujah!
Halle, Halle, Hallelujah!
Halle, Halle, Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!