Trinity St. Andrew’s United Church
Order of Worship
NL 104 Rescue at Sea 19th Sunday after Pentecost
Prelude
Welcome & Telling Our Story
GATHERING
Introit
Call to Worship
Our God, as gentle rain soaks the earth, may your peace and love fall upon us, bringing growth and life. Soak into our innermost being. Quiet all that makes us anxious. Help us to linger in your presence, and send us out refreshed, to carry your peace to others. Come, let us worship God together.
Hymn Make a Joyful Noise VU 820
Refrain: Make a joyful noise all the earth!
Worship your God with gladness.
Make a joyful noise all the earth!
Come to the place with a song!
1. Know that your God has made you.
Know it’s to God we belong.
And come to this place with joyfulness and praise.
Worship your God with a song! Refrain
2. Enter these gates, thanks giving.
Enter these courts with praise.
Sing thanks to your God and bless the holy Name.
Worship your God with a song! Refrain
3. Ages through endless ages,
seasons of endless years,
the love of our Maker shall ever endure.
Worship your God with a song! Refrain
Gathering Prayer & Assurance of Grace
God of the road and the wilderness, who meets your people when the way ahead is uncertain, we come to you this morning with all that we carry.
Some of us arrive with grateful hearts, brimming with excitement. Some of us arrive exhausted by the demands of the week or even of this morning. Some are carrying questions, some are carrying fear, and some are simply wondering how we are going to get from here to there.
Meet us here, O God. When we are tempted to turn back because the familiar feels safer than the unknown, give us courage to trust you. When we cannot yet see a way forward, remind us that our vision is not the measure of what is possible with you. And when fear speaks loudly, help us listen for your quieter voice: the voice that says, Do not be afraid. Stand firm. There is a way through. Make this a place where we can breathe deeply, lay down what we have been carrying, and remember that we do not walk alone. Open our hearts to your presence, our ears to your wisdom, and our lives to your transforming love.
And so, trusting that God meets us exactly where we are, let us hear again the good news of grace: God meets us in our fear, our uncertainty, and all the places where we cannot yet see the way forward. We do not have to be fearless to be faithful. We do not have to know the way to be held by God. So receive this grace: you are forgiven, you are loved, and you are not alone. Thanks be to God. Amen
Time for All Ages
*The kids are invited to remain in the sanctuary today for communion.
COMMUNION
Invitation
As we come to this table, we are reminded that this is not the table of Trinity St Andrews United Church; nor is it the table of the United Church of Canada, or any particular denomination. It is the table of Jesus Christ, the family feast of the whole people of God. All who seek to be nourished and sustained in the journey of faith and long to live justly and in peace with their neighbour, are welcome here. Let us eat and drink together for our strengthening in the faith, and for the sake of the world.
Call to Give Thanks
God is with us.
We are not alone.
Christ is present here.
The Spirit is among us.
Let us give thanks to God,
In memory and in hope. Amen,
Thanksgiving
Eternal God, maker of heaven and earth, we join with all your people to give you thanks and praise. You formed the universe in your wisdom and created all things by your grace. We praise you for all your good gifts: the witness of daints and prophets, the work of faithful folks; this earth in all its blessing and promise; and this bread, once scattered, now brought together and made one. In the hope that your people may be brought together from the ends of the earth into your reign of justice and compassion, we gather with those of every time and every place to give you praise sand glory through our Song of Creation:
Song of Creation
Holy, holy, holy. Lord God of hosts!
Heaven and earth are full of your glory!
Heaven and earth praise you, O God Most high!
Remembering Jesus at the Table
On the eve of his betrayal, Jesus renewed God's covenant promise. He took bread, offered the blessing, broke it, and gave it to those who sat at the table with him. Then, at the close of the meal, he poured the cup of blessing, raised it in thanks to God, and passed it among them.
Prayer of Self-Giving & Affirmation of Memory and Hope
Remembering your boundless love for us in Jesus Christ, we offer you our praise, as we proclaim the mystery of faith through the affirmation of memory and hope:
Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
Prayer for Transformation
We pray to you, God of Love, send your Hoy Spirit upon us and what we do here, that we, and these gifts, touched by your Spirit, may be signs of life and love to each other, and to all the world. Amen.
Remembering the Community & The Prayer of Jesus
God, help us to love as Christ loved. Knowing our own struggles, may we stand with all who struggle. Sharing in his suffering, may we remember all who suffer. Held in his love, may we embrace all whom the world denies. Rejoicing in his forgiveness, may we forgive all who sin against us. We pray with your people of every time and place as we pray together the prayer you taught us to pray by saying…Our Father…
Breaking the Bread and Filling the Cup
The bread of tomorrow. The cup of new life.
Sharing the Bread and the Cup
The gifts of God for the people of God. Come, for all things are now ready.
*When receiving the elements you may respond with “amen" or “thanks be to God".
Prayer after Communion
Keep us firm in the hope you have set before us, so that we and all your children shall be free, and all creation will live to praise your name. Amen.
Hymn Make Me a Channel of Your Peace VU 684
1. Make me a channel of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me bring your love;
where there is injury, your healing power,
and where there’s doubt, true faith in you:
2. Make me a channel of your peace:
where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope;
where there is darkness, only light;
and where there’s sadness, ever joy.
O Spirit, grant that I may never seek
so much to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love with all my soul.
3. Make me a channel of your peace.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
in giving to all that we receive,
and in dying that we’re born to eternal life.
WORD
Prayer for Illumination
Eternal God, in the reading of Scripture, may your Word be heard; in the meditation of our hearts, may your Word be known; and in the faithfulness of our lives, may your Word be shown. Amen.
Scripture: Exodus 14:5-7, 10-14 , 21-29 John Wilson
Sermon “The Way Through"
Anthem
Hymn: Spirit of Life (sung twice) VU 381
Spirit of life, come unto me.
Sing in my heart all the stirrings of compassion.
Blow in the wind, rise in the sea;
move in the hand, giving life the shape of justice.
Roots hold me close; wings set me free;
Spirit of Life, come to me, come to me.
RESPONSE
Thanksgiving & Offering
God has entrusted each of us with gifts. Our time, our abilities, our resources, and our capacity to care for one another. We give as an act of trust. May what we offer become part of God's work among us. Let us offer what we can, with grateful hearts and open hands.
Offertory Hymn For the Gift of Creation VU 538
For the gift of creation, the gift of your love,
and the gift of the Spirit by which we live,
we thank you and give you the fruit of our hands.
May your grace be proclaimed by the gifts that we give.
Offertory Prayer
Ever-present God, with this offering we present also ourselves: all that we have been, all that we are, nd all that we shall become, and our resolve to walk in your way. Accept us and our offering, we pray for Jesus' sake. Amen.
SENDING
Hymn Come to My Heart VU 661
1. Come to my heart, Lord Jesus;
teach me to walk in your way.
Come to my heart, Lord Jesus;
come to my heart today.
Give me the peace and joy
that only you can bring.
Come to my heart, Lord Jesus;
give me a song to sing.
2. Fill me with love, Lord Jesus;
teach me to walk in your way.
Fill me with love, Lord Jesus;
fill me with love today.
Give me the peace and joy
that only you can bring.
Fill me with love, Lord Jesus;
give me a song to sing.
3. Answer my prayer, Lord Jesus;
teach me to walk in your way.
Answer my prayer, Lord Jesus;
Answer my prayer today.
Give me the peace and joy
that only you can bring.
Answer my prayer, Lord Jesus;
give me a song to sing.
Sending Forth
Go now with courage for the road ahead. When you cannot see the way trust that God is already there. And wherever you find yourself this week, may you notice the places where God is making a way; and may you have the courage to take the next step. Amen.
Sung Blessing Go Now in Peace VU 964
Go now in peace, go now in peace.
May the love of God surround you everywhere,
everywhere you may go.
Postlude
The Way Through
Exodus 14:5-7, 10-14, 21-29 Rev. Eric Pagé
Most cities, towns or suburbs you drive in today look radically different than they did 20 or even 5years ago. There are new apartment complexes being built, townhomes and single family homes. There's new roads, sidewalks and community mailboxes springing up all the time. One of the growing pains with these new developments has to do with their synergy with Google Maps (or iMaps if you're part of Apple's ecosystem). When I was living in Airdrie Alberta a number of years ago, there were new areas being built all the time. Which was great, don't get me wrong. However, when I was attempting to visit a congregation member I would plug their address into my phone and a few different things would happen. 1) Google would say that the address did not exist. 2) The GPS would bring me to the side entrance of a cattle farm. Or 3) it would bring me to the entrance of a townhouse block where everything looked the same and there was almost no way of knowing where each individual entrance to the townhomes were. Any time that I had budgeted for being there on time quickly evaporated. And as you pull off to the side to try and get your bearings, you hear the dreaded AI voice saying “recalculating route".
Now, I know Jack doesn't have any issues with this given his sense of direction as a driver, but I'm not Jack. When you're already stressed that weirdly neutral yet somehow condescending voice saying “recalculating route” causes immense panic. You don’t know whether to turn left or right, and whenever you choose one you're more than likely to hear once again “recalculating route”. You think you're in the right area but cannot really see the destination. And then you have that moment of: “OK so what do I do next…?” Sometimes the hardest part isn't knowing that there is somewhere we need to go. It's not being able to see the route clearly, if at all. So, what do we do when we cannot see a way through?
In the reading from Exodus this morning, the tribes of Israel know where they're coming from and they know where they're destined to go. But, behind them thunders Pharaoh's army and in front of them lies the sea… They can't see a way forward and they are afraid. They're panicking. They don't need Google Maps’ AI voice telling them that their route is being recalculated. Their fear makes sense. Behind them are those that held their shackles, brandishing steel and riding chariots and in front of them lies a sea that is too wide to swim across and to deep to wade across. Those folks were seeing something real and no one can fault anyone for being afraid in the midst of all of that. Unfortunately, fear has a way of making what is immediately visible, what is right in front of us, feel like the whole truth and nothing but the truth… In the story, Israel can see the danger. What they cannot see yet is what God is doing.
In Exodus 14:10-12 Israel sees Pharaoh, soldiers, chariots, the dark waters of the sea and no apparent escape. They see what they feel is inevitable, a return to Egypt for more suffering, right? In the midst of this flight they begin to interpret their entire existence through what they can see. They even imagine and say out loud that returning to Egypt would be better. Their circumstances appear to contradict God's promise to them through Moses. Sandwiched between a vengeful Pharaoh and merciless waters they are wondering where is this promised land, safety and blessings that God has promised? Now friends, their circumstances have changed but God's commitment has not. God said God would deliver them and They will. But the Israelites cannot yet see how- it’s too difficult to see from their vantage point on the shoreline. They can see the problem. They cannot yet see the promise being fulfilled. And this is where Moses speaks, not by denying what the people can see, but by reminding them that what they can see is not all there is to the story.
Moses tells them: “Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance of the Lord…” Moses tells them God is at work but the details are a little sparse. Moses does not give them the blueprint for how God's going to flex. He does not explain how the sea will happen, and what latitude and longitude the path will appear or what will happen afterwards. He gives them a promise. He’s asking them to have faith and to trust in God's promise. And we remember that faith isn't knowing exactly what God will do or how. Faith is not controlling the outcome; nor is it pretending danger isn't real and fear is imaginary. Faith is trusting the God who has promised. We don't have to know how God will be faithful in order to trust that God is faithful. But there is something almost unbearable about being told to trust when you cannot yet see what you are trusting for…
Moses tells them that the Lord will fight for you; you only have to keep still. Why was keeping still so difficult? Why is it so difficult for us in the midst of fear? Well, no matter our age, we know that feeling of being afraid, don't we? Fear makes us want to do something. To run, fight, fix or scape. In the story from Exodus Israel has no means to solve this situation. They cannot defeat the armies of Egypt. They cannot move the terraform the sea or build a bridge in minutes. They cannot manufacture salvation. But I want to highlight something, that the request to “keep still" is not passive resignation. Rather, I think it is an invitation to stop panicking and to witness to the work of God. Pharaoh is still behind them. The sea is still in front of them. Nothing visible has changed yet. But God is already at work. Sometimes the hardest thing about trusting God is not believing that God can act. It is remaining still long enough to notice that God is already acting.
Following Moses' words, we get to read how God is continuing to act. The waters part and Israel is able to cross. The walls of water on either side collapse in on themselves securing the way for the group so the Egyptians can no longer pursue them. In this moment Israel is delivered from the present danger. All of this happens through the God's actions. And friends, God's action comes from God's faithfulness. Their faith is their response to that faithfulness. And because the people have been told to “see" what God will do, they don't simply walk out of the sea. They walk out as witnesses to God's steadfast commitment and love for His people. Israel does not simply escape. But they experience all of what had happened there. They see, they remember, they give thanks and they carry the story forward millennia after it happened. The story could have been “Pharaoh almost destroyed us" or “We somehow found a way out.” Instead, it's God saved us. If we remember from the beginning of the story, their story is defined by what they can see, but by the end of the story it is defined by what God has done. It is important to remember that the sea was real. Pharaoh was real and the fear arising from those were real. But none of those things got to be the final word about Israel's story. And perhaps that is one of the gifts of this story; it teaches us to distinguish between what is true in front of us and what is true about God.
So, what happens when what we can see (today) becomes the whole story? When fear, uncertainty or disappointment become the lens in which we view the world? I believe that hope gives us another way of seeing the world. Hope can be the lens through which we interpret the present. We can trust the God who saves. We may now know when, where or how, but we know something about the God who has already acted decisively in the world. Christian hope does not begin with our ability to see the way through. It begins with remembering what God has already done. As you know, the Exodus is Israel's foundational testimony to God's saving action. For Christians, it belongs within the larger story of God's saving work. This story tells us something about God. That God remains faithful and saves His people. God calls people out of one existence and into another. Therefore, our hope is not merely “Maybe God will fix my circumstances”. Instead, it is God is faithful, and my circumstances do not get to decide whether that is true. We don't know what God will do next. But we do know who God is.
As TSA or as individuals, if we cannot always see the way through, what does faithfulness look like now? It's not controlling or pretending or demanding certainty. It IS remembering what God has already done. It’s standing fast and not letting fear make every decision. It's paying attention to where God's redemptive work is happening around us. It is trusting that God's faithfulness does not depend on our ability to see the whole picture. It is continuing to live faithfully in the life and calling God has given you. Let's recap quickly: At the beginning Pharaoh was behind the group and in front of them was the sea. Israel says there is no way through and Moses says to stand firm and see. Then God acts and Israel discovers that the way through was never something they could see from where they were standing. For all of us there will be times when we cannot see the way through the circumstances we find ourselves in. We may not know how, when or what comes next. BUT, we can remember. We can watch and we can trust. Because the story is ultimately not about whether we can see the way; It is about the God makes a way. And the God who makes a way is the God who saves. Let us trust the God who saves. Amen.