Trinity-St. Andrew’s United Church
Order of Worship
Sunday, June 1 2025 – Ascension Sunday
Prelude
Words of welcome, announcements
Lighting the Christ Candle
We light this candle as a symbol of the light of Christ, which shines in each one of us, and the darkness cannot overcome it. May the light of resurrection fill our lives with hope.
Introit
Call To worship
Today is Ascension Sunday, the day when Jesus is taken up into heaven. Because Jesus ascended and sits at the right hand of God, a new world is possible. For God seeks to create a world in which justice does come for the poor, freedom comes for the prisoners, and healing for the sick.
Because Jesus ascended and sits at the right hand of God, a new community has been formed— a community that loves and cares for all members, a family that welcomes all who are abandoned and rejected, a place where all find a place of belonging.
Because Jesus ascended and sits at the right hand of God, a new creation has begun— all that was distorted is being restored, all that is corrupted is being renewed, all that was broken is being made whole.
For this reason we gather to celebrate the lifting up of Jesus, For God’s new world begins right here, right now.
Hymn Worship the Lord VU 401
Refrain: Worship the Lord (worship the Lord)
worship the Father, the Spirit, the Son,
raising our hands (raising our hands)
in devotion to God who is one!
- Raising our hands as a sign of rejoicing,
and with our lips our togetherness voicing,
giving ourselves to a life of creativeness,
worship and work must be one! Refrain
- Praying and training that we be a blessing,
and by our handiwork daily confessing:
we are committed to serving humanity,
worship and work must be one! Refrain
- Called to be partners with God in creation,
honouring Christ as the Lord of the nation,
we must be ready for risk and for sacrifice,
worship and work must be one! Refrain
- Bringing the bread and the wine to the table,
asking that we may be led and enabled,
truly united to build new communities,
worship and work must be one! Refrain
- Now in response to the life you are giving,
help us, O Father, to offer our living,
seeking a just and a healing society,
worship and work must be one! Refrain
Prayer of Approach
Holy God, you are the creator of this world. You love this world and have never forsaken us. You are the mother who cradles her children. You are the patient teacher showing us how to live well. Compassionate Jesus, you are the Christ. By your life, death and resurrection you have shown us the depth of God’s love for us. By your example we are formed into a new people. With you, we serve those the world has forgotten and excluded.
Holy Spirit, you are the breath of life. You are the power that gives us peace. You are the wisdom that reveals the deeper understanding of how this world works. You break down the barriers we have erected between us. You welcome us all in to be part of God’s beloved community.
Open our hearts to this gift of divine love we pray. Open our minds to the new possibilities that are always in the process of becoming. Open our doors to welcome everyone in, so we might embrace one another, and this world that you love so much. Amen.
Scripture Reader: Leslee Gervais
Scripture: Acts 1:1-11
Special Music
Gospel Reading: Luke 24:44-53
Hymn Draw the Circle Wide MV 145
Refrain: Draw the circle wide. Draw it wider still.
Let this be our song, no one stands alone,
standing side by side, draw the circle wide.
- God the still point of the circle,
‘round whom all creation turns;
nothing lost, but held forever,
in God’s gracious arms. Refrain
- Let our hearts touch far horizons,
so encompass great and small;
let our loving know no borders,
faithful to God’s call. Refrain
- Let the dreams we dream be larger,
than we’ve ever dreamed before;
let the dream of Christ be in us,
open every door. Refrain
Homily “When Love Is Lifted Up”
Special Music
The offering
We give thanks for everyone who continues to support TSA and our many ministries. Your gifts of support and encouragement mean a lot to us. You can get more information about making a donation by contacting the church office or by visiting our website. There are also many opportunities to volunteer in our different ministries. For all the gifts you share, for all the people you bless by your serving and giving as a disciple of Jesus, we give thanks.
Offering Song Your Work, O God, Needs Many Hands VU 537
- Your work, O God, needs many hands
to help you everywhere,
and some there are who cannot serve
unless our gifts we share.
- Because we love you and your work,
our offering now we make:
be pleased to use it as your own,
we ask for Jesus’ sake.
Offering Prayer
Pour your Spirit upon these gifts we are sharing today, O God. We offer our hands, our hearts, our songs and our treasures. Send these gifts into the world as a sign of your joyous work of love. May they help to welcome into your house of love all who are your friends. May all our relations find their home in your love. Amen.
Hymn I Am a Child of God MV 157
- I am a child of God,
I am a glimpse of God’s new creation.
I am a child of God,
I am a child of God.
- I am an endless prayer,
I am a yearning for contemplation,
I am an endless prayer,
I am an endless prayer.
- I am an angry voice,
I am compassion and consternation,
I am an angry voice,
I am an angry voice.
- I am a cry for peace,
I am commitment and dedication,
I am an angry voice,
I am an angry voice.
- I am a song of joy,
I am the moment of jubilation,
I am a song of joy,
I am a song of joy.Pastoral Prayer,
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn Blessed Assurance VU 337
- Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
O what a foretastes of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
born of the spirit, washed in Christ’s blood.
Refrain: This is my story, this is my song,
praising my Saviour all the day long;
this is my story, this is my song,
praising my Saviour all the day long.
- Perfect submission, perfect delight!
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
angels descending, bring from above
echoes of mercy, whispers of love. Refrain
- Perfect submission, all is at rest,
I in my Saviour am happy and blessed;
watching and waiting, looking above,
filled with God’s goodness, lost in Christ’s love. Refrain
Benediction
Brothers and sisters, we are all siblings in Christ. We share in the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honour at God’s right hand. This same power is at work in every one of us who believe!
We leave this time of worship to face the week that is just beginning. We Go out to share the story of faith, the story of life, with the world we meet. We share our faith in word and in deed, with our voices and our hands working as one to share the gift of compassion. So go from here with confidence knowing that God’s presence and power go with you. Go now in peace. Amen.
Choral Amen Amen, Amen, Hallelujah, Amen! VU 974
Postlude
When Love is Lifted Up. Ascension Sunday, Text: Luke 24:44-53
Preached by Rev. James Murray at Trinity-St. Andrew’s United Church, Renfrew. June 1, 2025
When I was a student attending seminary, I did a field placement at a large church in downtown Kingston. The minister assigned me to preach on Ascension Sunday. Apparently, he made a point of taking Ascension Sunday off every single year. He just couldn’t believe that Jesus was literally lifted up into space and from there into heaven. He didn’t want to upset his congregation by challenging what the Bible said, and so he did everything in his power to avoid this Sunday.
It is hard to admit we don’t always have all the answers. We all have the desire to be right. And we don’t always know what to do when we know we don’t know all the answers. We talk about the Bible being the authoritative word of God, but we often have very different ideas as to what the Bible is saying to us. The Bible is a very complex book. It describes many historically verified events. It also contains many myths that contain a deeper truth than any historic account will ever be able to communicate. Some people do read the Bible literally, and they find the simple straightforward interpretation to be the best. But there are some verses we cannot take literally. When Psalm 18 says God is my rock, that God is my fortress, that God is my shield, we have to understand that these are metaphors. Because we all know God is not a rock. The Bible uses these metaphors to help us understand God better. The Bible also uses allegories. The Bible also uses some very elaborate poetry. It is not afraid to even use some really corny puns. The book of Jonah is full of puns. You cannot prove a pun is true. The wordplay used in puns and poems and allegories can reveal something you weren’t expecting, and that’s why we laugh and go “aha” all at the same time.
When we read the bible, the goal is not for us to prove that our way of understanding is right. The Bible doesn’t care if you read it literally or figuratively or symbolically. The Biblical Scholar Marcus Borg once said that he doesn’t take the bible literally, but he does take it very seriously. The goal is to get the big picture it is giving us about God. It is asking us to trust this message. And the way we show that we take the Bible seriously is to live the message we find there in our lives every day. Since your life is a little different than mine, there will be some variations in how each of us do that. Depending upon your gifts, and the circumstances you find yourself in, some people will live their faith by focusing on things like healing and reconciliation. Others will focus on justice and peace. Still others will focus on healing the world and the environment. Others will focus on evangelism and inviting people in. Others will focus on feeding the poor or visiting the sick. Others will go into the prisons to make a difference there. Still others will make space to include members of the LGBTQ+ community. There are many ways to live out the Christian message, and they all come from the one message that inspires us all.
The message of Jesus’ life, his teaching, his suffering, his death and resurrection provides the foundation for us to understand who God is and what God is seeking to accomplish with us here on earth. When the risen Christ appears to his disciples, each of these appearances confirms his earlier teaching to us. When Jesus returns, there is no talk of guilt or blame or violent revenge for what happened. Instead, he quietly demonstrates one more time the love and forgiveness that is the cornerstone of his teachings and his miracles.
Now the story of Jesus’ teachings and his miracles as they appear in Luke’s gospel was such a big hit that he wrote a sequel. The sequel is called the Book of Acts. And this morning we should have given you a spoiler alert because we read from the opening lines of Acts first because it gives away the ending of Luke’s Gospel. Jesus’ ascending into heaven brings to a close the earthly ministry of Jesus and it inaugurates the ministry of his followers. A lot of churches skip over the ascension because it is so hard to understand. There aren’t a lot of good scientific explanations as to how a physical body could suddenly levitate and float off into outer space. If we get bogged down into an argument about whether this really happened or not we will have missed the point. This point is so important that Luke ends his gospel with it, and it is the only detail of Jesus’ life that he mentions in the opening of the sequel.
The message of the ascension is simply this. Jesus reveals the love of God to us in powerful ways. He demonstrates what the love of God can do in our daily lives. He uses his abilities to forgive people and to set them free from guilt and shame. He heals people of the problems that are holding them back. He feeds people who are hungry. He shows respect to people that society treats as invisible. He shows people who are important how to live with a healthy sense of humility. He challenges the coercive power people use to control others. He demonstrates how the uncontroling love of God has the power to set us all free. When the powers and principalities of this world are threatened by his teachings, they put Jesus to death in an effort to stop the spread of his ideas. That should have been the end of the story. But it isn’t. It isn’t the end because his followers realize that what he has shown them about God is just as alive in them as it was in Jesus. Even though they saw Jesus die on the cross, they experience Jesus as continuing to be alive in them. His message of love and compassion still rings true after his death. This means even death on a cross cannot destroy God’s love for us. The ascension of Jesus is the affirmation that the love that Jesus shows in life, in death, and even after death, is God’s love. On Ascension Day, who Jesus is, is taken into the heart of God. Who Jesus is, is the heart of God. This is the message we are called to take to heart today. We are called to live our lives as if the humble servant Jesus is the heart of who God is.
And the amazing thing is, we can see this message being lived out in our congregation every week.
We just held a plant sale that raised money for Camp Lau-Ren. This event does much more than help children go to summer camp for a week. This plant sale has become a community event with people who are not part of TSA sharing their plants and seeds and expertise with others. It has become an event that encourages people to become more rooted in the goodness of God’s good creation.
Every week our Thrift Shop sorts through the bins of donations to find items that people can make use of. It helps people stretch their budget during a time when the cost of living keeps skyrocketing. It also diverts tons of clothing each year from ending up in the landfill.
On Tuesday our Community Friendship Lunch served 55 people. Some of the people who attend are on ODSP and some rely on Old Age Pensions to get by. There are people who live alone and this is a rare chance for them to share a meal with someone else. Our team of volunteers provide a joyful meal that feeds both the body and the soul.
On Wednesday our weekly Bible Study met to talk about the Bible and take a deeper dive into its meaning. It’s a place where they can ask the hard questions about life. They share their faith stories with each other. They also take the time to listen how each person there is doing, so they can support each other through all the ups and down life throws at us.
Every month our Pastoral Care team leads worship service at the seniors’ residences in Renfrew. We visit Quail Creek, Groves Park Lode and the Bonnechere Manor. Those services lift up the spirits of the residents and offer them great comfort.
And tonight we will gather for our monthly Rainbow service. The Rainbow service provides a safe place to worship for the LGBTQ+ community, as well as their family, friends and allies. In a world where hate and misinformation is spreading like wildfire, we dare to light a candle of hope that affirms all people are part of God’s beloved family. This is what a faith in action looks like. We know we do not have all the answers, but by sharing in these different activities, we do show that we trust God to show us a better way to live. In your own imperfect way, you are living out this core belief, that who Jesus is, is the heart of God. And that’s a blessing we want to share with the whole world.
