Bulletin – Sunday, October 3, 2021

Sunday, October 3, 2021
World Wide Communion Sunday

Approach

Lighting the Candle

As we light this candle today we are reminded of all the other Christians, in all places around the world, who are gathering this day within the light of Christ. We remember our call to be members of the world-wide body of Christ, living as Christ lived, loving as Christ loved, and including as Christ included. May this candle remind us always of our call to follow Christ out into the world.

Call to Worship

One:   Around the world people gather to break bread and pour wine.
All:      We gather with them in heart and mind.

One:   Around the world the broken body is made whole.
All:      As part of that body we join in its unity.

One:   Around the world the Banquet of God is prepared for the table.
All:      We, who share in the banquet, come eagerly to be fed.

One:   Let us worship together, let us share God’s bounty.
All:      Let us worship together in word and song.

(adapted from Rev. Gord on Worship Offerings)

Hymn – “All Who Hunger”

All who hunger, gather gladly, holy manna is our bread.
Come from wilderness and wandering. Here, in truth, we will be fed.
You that yearn for days of fullness, all around us is our food.
Taste and see the grace eternal. Taste and see that God is good.

All who hunger, never strangers; seeker, be a welcome guest.
Come from restlessness and roaming. Here, in joy, we keep the feast.
We that once were lost and scattered in communion’s love have stood.
Taste and see the grace eternal. Taste and see that God is good.

All who hunger, sing together, Jesus Christ is living bread.
Come from loneliness and longing. Here, in peace, we have been led.
Blest are those who from this table live their lives in gratitude.
Taste and see the grace eternal. Taste and see that God is good.

Prayer of Approach

Welcoming God, we gather together today knowing that the table will be wide. And the welcome will be wide. And the arms will open wide to gather us in. And our hearts will open wide to receive all the gifts that you offer.

But we also know we will not find that needed justice in our apathy; we will not find that elusive wholeness with our quarreling; we will not find our hoped for unity with our doctrines; we will not find our misplaced love with our hating; we will not find that rest we crave in our overflowing calendars; we will not find the peace you offer in our well nursed grudges.

Yet you challenge us to remember that we will find you in the brokenness of the Bread and in the breaking of our hearts; we will find you when we drain the Cup, refill it with our gifts, and offer it to a little child; we will find you when we squeeze closer together, making room at the Table for all your people. Help us to find this day, God in Community, Holy in One, as we pray together in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Words of Assurance

Hymn – “Who is My Mother”

Who is my mother, who is my brother?
All those who gather round Jesus Christ:
Spirit blown people born from the Gospel
Sit at the table, round Jesus Christ.

Love will relate us colour or status
Can’t segregate us round Jesus Christ:
Family failings, human derailings
All are accepted round Jesus Christ.

Bound by one vision, met for one mission
We claim each other, round Jesus Christ:
Here is my mother, here is my brother,
Kindred in Spirit, through Jesus Christ. Amen!

Time for All Ages

The Word

Scripture Reading:           Job 1:1; 2:1-10

¹ Job was a man who lived in Uz. He was honest inside and out, a man of his word, who was totally devoted to God and hated evil with a passion.

One day when the angels came to report to God, Satan also showed up. ² God singled out Satan, saying, “And what have you been up to?” Satan answered God, “Oh, going here and there, checking things out.” ³ Then God said to Satan, “Have you noticed my friend Job? There’s no one quite like him, is there—honest and true to his word, totally devoted to God and hating evil? He still has a firm grip on his integrity! You tried to trick me into destroying him, but it didn’t work.”

⁴ Satan answered, “A human would do anything to save his life. ⁵ But what do you think would happen if you reached down and took away his health? He’d curse you to your face, that’s what.”

⁶ God said, “All right. Go ahead—you can do what you like with him. But mind you, don’t kill him.”

⁷ Satan left God and struck Job with terrible sores. Job was ulcers and scabs from head to foot. ⁸ They itched and oozed so badly that he took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself, then went and sat on a trash heap, among the ashes.

⁹ His wife said, “Still holding on to your precious integrity, are you? Curse God and be done with it!”

¹⁰ He told her, “You’re talking like an empty-headed fool. We take the good days from God—why not also the bad days?” Not once through all this did Job sin. He said nothing against God.

Scripture Reading:           Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12

¹ Going through a long line of prophets, God has been addressing our ancestors in different ways for centuries. ² Recently he spoke to us directly through his Son. By his Son, God created the world in the beginning, and it will all belong to the Son at the end. ³ This Son perfectly mirrors God, and is stamped with God’s nature. He holds everything together by what he says—powerful words! After he finished the sacrifice for sins, the Son took his honored place high in the heavens right alongside God, ⁴ far higher than any angel in rank and rule.

⁵ God didn’t put angels in charge of this business of salvation that we’re dealing with here. ⁶ It says in Scripture, What is man and woman that you bother with them; why take a second look their way?

⁷ You made them not quite as high as angels, bright with Eden’s dawn light;

⁸ Then you put them in charge of your entire handcrafted world. When God put them in charge of everything, nothing was excluded. But we don’t see it yet, don’t see everything under human jurisdiction. ⁹ What we do see is Jesus, made “not quite as high as angels,” and then, through the experience of death, crowned so much higher than any angel, with a glory “bright with Eden’s dawn light.” In that death, by God’s grace, he fully experienced death in every person’s place.

¹⁰ It makes good sense that the God who got everything started and keeps everything going now completes the work by making the Salvation Pioneer perfect through suffering as he leads all these people to glory. ¹¹ Since the One who saves and those who are saved have a common origin, Jesus doesn’t hesitate to treat them as family, ¹² saying, I’ll tell my good friends, my brothers and sisters, all I know about you; I’ll join them in worship and praise to you.

Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.
Thanks be to God!

Meditation – “One World Community”

Anthem – “Sanctify This Place”

The Response

Communion

One:   And so, we gather at the table. We come from many places, differing in age, differing in race, differing in orientation, politics and even religion. As we come together around the table we discover that our differences are not something we tolerate but that our differences are indeed a blessing, the more difference we bring, the more fully we experience the presence of the sacred in our midst. So come, children of God, just as you are. Wherever you are on this journey of life, you are welcome here, here in this place, here in this community, here at this table. We come today and as we do we lift up to you those in this community whom we hope remember that you are with them this day and every day…Come, children of God, come and remember with us.

One:   We remember that from the time of creation you have provided for us, Gracious God, calling us to come to join in the banquet of your love. We remember the garden that you created abundant with plants to nourish our bodies. We remember the manna given to a hungry people wandering in the desert. Through mystics and minstrels, prophets and poets you call us to come to your table, but we turn away thinking that we know better. But you continued to call and sent your son to show us the depth and breadth of your love. We remember the stories that Jesus’ friends tell, stories of bread broken and shared, feeding a multitude, stories of being gathered together, enemy and friend, around tables, stories of unlikely guests revealing the face of the sacred.

One:   They say that it was on a night of both celebration and betrayal that he took the bread leftover on the table, blessed it and broke it: reminding them that it is in the breaking that we become whole, in losing our lives that we find them, in serving that we are served. As the grain scattered becomes one in the loaf, when we eat this bread, we become one with one another.

One:   They say that he took the cup also leftover on the table, poured out and sharing, remembering with them, the life-giving breath even now pounding a rhythm through our veins, the breath of life from whence we come, the breath that precedes and follows all that we can see. As the grapes find life in the vine, when we drink this cup, we become at one with the source of life itself.

One:   And so, we pray: come, Holy Spirit, come. Bless this bread and bless this fruit of the vine. Bless all of us in our eating and drinking that our eyes might be open, that we might recognize the risen Christ in our midst, indeed in one another. Come, Holy Spirit, come.

(adapted from Katherine Hawker)

Hymn – “One Bread, One Body”

One bread, one body, one Lord of all,
One cup of blessing which we bless;
And we, though many throughout the earth,
We are one body in this Lord.

Prayer after Sharing

Loving God, grain which once was scattered over the fields was brought together to feed us today. Grapes pulled from the vine squeezed to give us drink today. As our time of worship and feasting draws to a close may we now be dispersed like that grain, off to give the food of life to a hungry world. Now we who have shared the Banquet of Hope, we who have been fed, go now to feed the world. Now we who have been given hope in the sharing of this meal together, may we bring hope to the world in place of despair. Amen.

Hymn – “For the Fruit of All Creation”

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 safekeeping, thanks be to God.

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.

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.

Benediction

As we go into this week remember that the Bread of Life has sustained you. Remember that the Cup of Community enlivens you and that we don’t go alone. As we go into this coming week we go with Christians around the world, filled with the Holy Spirit, encouraged by the love of God, walking in the footsteps of Jesus. We go into the world in community. Amen.

Response

Amen, amen, amen.