Thanksgiving Sunday, Oct 13, 2024
Prelude
Words of welcome, announcements
Lighting the Christ Candle
We light this candle as a sign of God’s Spirit that is still at work in the world.
May its light brighten our spirits, and may the light of God shine through us to brighten the world.
Call To worship
Come, you thankful people come,
Raise the song of harvest home:
All is safely gathered in,
Before the winter storms begin.
God, our Maker, does provide
For our wants to be supplied:
Come to God’s own temple, come,
Raise the song of harvest home.
Hymn 520 We plow the fields and scatter
Prayer of Approach
We thank you, God, with all our hearts,
for your goodness throughout time and history.
We thank you for your goodness now,
for your ongoing creation, and for your never-ending love.
We thank you for all your blessings, great and small, which bring us joy.
We thank you that we can know the joy of giving as well as receiving.
We thank you that we can learn and grow from life’s trials and sufferings.
We thank you for Jesus, whose life, death, and resurrection show us
the way to true and abundant life. Amen.
First Scripture: Joel 2:21-27
Responsive Psalm 126
Anthem
Gospel Reading: Matthew 6:25-33
Hymn Bringing in the sheaves
Sermon “Trusting in Providence”
Special Music :John Wilson
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. 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 Know that God is good MV 104
Offering Prayer
Be present at our table, Lord.
Be here and everywhere adored.
Thy creatures bless and grant that we
may feast in paradise with Thee.
Bless these gifts we share,
So you love might shine every where. Amen.
Hymn 226 For the beauty of the earth
Pastoral Prayer,
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn 274 Your hand O God has guided
Benediction
As this time of worship ends, the celebration that is Thanksgiving continues.
As you leave this place, may you continue to give thanks for all we have received.
By God’s grace seek to restore harmony in all of God’s creation.
Go forward in trust, for all life is in God’s hands.
And now may the grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God,
and the nurturing support of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen.
Choral Amen MV 216 Wherever you may go
Postlude
“Trusting in Providence” Text: Matthew 6:25-33
Thanksgiving Sunday, October 13 2024
By Rev. James Murray of Trinity-St. Andrew’s United Church
This is the Icon of San Damiano. It shows the risen Christ, standing triumphant over the cross. It is one of most famous icons in all of Christianity. It is not famous because it is beautiful or because it sat in a big church. It was actually sitting in an abandoned church when it became famous. It is famous because of the person who prayed to it.
The man who prayed to this icon was Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone .With such a long name his father just called him Francesco. Francesco was the son of a wealthy silk merchant in Italy. As a teenager, he liked to party so much that his nickname was the ‘King of Feasts’. As a young man, Francesco went looking for adventure when he went off to war in 1204.In the battle of Perugia he was injured and taken prisoner. During his imprisonment he caught malaria, for which there was no cure. As a POW, he spent a year in a dungeon before his father payed his ransom. During his recovery Francesco had a mystical experience, which changed how he understood God. He saw how God provides for all our needs, and how God provides for all living things. After his recovery he went on a pilgrimage to give thanks to God. So he walked from Assisi down to Rome. There he joined the poor begging in front of St. Peter’s basilica. A year later he had another powerful mystical experience while he was praying in front of the Icon of San Damiano. In that vision the risen Christ told him “Rebuild my church.” Francesco started to follow the instruction given in that vision by rebuilding the abandoned San Damiano stone church building.
The problem was he used his father’s money to pay for it. His father wasn’t happy and took Francis to the bishop. In the public square in front of the cathedral, his Poppa demanded the Bishop stop Francesco of this foolishness. His father demanded that he should be repaid for the work that had been done. Francesco responded by stripping off all his clothes. He handed his clothes to his father, and threw himself naked on the mercy of the church. The bishop gave Francesco his own robe to wear. And Francesco was reborn. As a result we know Francesco better as Saint Francis of Assisi.
Saint Francis is one of the great mystics of the Christian faith. A mystical experience is intensely personal, and it lifts us up out of ourselves. It changes how you look at the world. The result of a mystical moment of communion with God is that you end up having a more intense connection with other people. For Saint Francis the result of his mystical experience is the discovery that the holy is embedded in all of creation. As Psalm 124 states, “Our help is found in God, who made heaven and earth.” When the doors of perception have been opened, you can find God present in every situation that we face.
For Jesus his spiritual journey revealed to him how God does provide for all his needs. This is why he teaches us not to spend too much time worrying about things, because God does provide. He encourages us to be in harmony with God and with the world around us, so we can experience the fullness of life that God is offering us. The spiritual journey which each of us is invited to undertake as we follow Jesus seeks to expand our horizon so we too can learn how to embrace all of God’s good creation. Jesus believes God has already provided for all our needs. That God is the creator of all life.
That God has provided us with this life and this planet which provides for us. Jesus believes God is an active participant in our daily lives. That nothing happens without God. So God is our sustainer and our partner in providing for our daily needs.
Jesus also shows us how God guides and inspires us and directs us. God leads us to new possibilities in each new moment. In this way God is our redeemer and our hope. These are the gifts Jesus shares with us.
And that is very different from how our world often works. We all know people who are motivated by self-interest that comes at the expense of others. If we trust that God has provided everything we need, then we are more open to sharing all of the earth’s rich blessings. Jesus’ style of leadership inspires us to invest ourselves in loving our of neighbour. His example encourages us to seek to care for the earth and to protect all of creation. He also shows us how we can challenge situations when they undermine the flourishing of our neighbours and destroy the goodness of creation. Jesus teaches us how to seek all those things that lead to our mutual inclusive well-being.
Both Jesus and Saint Francis discovered how we all have the ability to learn how to trust in God’s providence. We are all capable of experiencing God in a way that lifts us up out of ourselves. It may happen in a moment of prayer. It can happen when you are looking at a sunset. It can happen when you hold a baby in your arms. It can happen when you give thanks at your dinner table as you gather for your turkey dinner with your friends and family.
Jesus wants each of us to be able to look beyond our own self-interest. He wants us each of us to experience communion. Communion with God and communion with all of suffering humanity.For Saint Francis of Assisi, this mystical insight helped him to quickly learn that his Mission was not to rebuild church buildings but to rebuild the mission of the church through the power of Christ. He developed an attitude of absolute dependence upon God to provide. This was a clear rejection of the church’s infatuation with wealth and power. Francis encouraged a spiritual renewal that embraced the reality of this world. He said we should not turn our back on the world because God is present in every moment and every place. These ‘little brothers of Jesus’ quickly spread this hopeful message across Europe. They cared for the poor. They took care of the lepers that society had turned their backs on.
Even though Saint Francis lived 800 years ago, he is still an important religious figure today. We need his healing wisdom, because we live in a world which has seen half of all the wildlife disappear in just the last forty years. We need to learn how to live with respect in creation before we lose any more. We need his wisdom, because we we still live in a world that fears those who are sick. Given the wealth of this world, we do have the tools we need to offer more humane treatment of the sick today. We need his wisdom because we live in a world which promotes consumerism and conspicuous consumption that goes far beyond our needs. The world which God has made cannot sustain our human capacity for greed.
We need to learn how to humbly rely upon God’s providence and live simply once more. We need to learn how to trust Jesus when he says “Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
For such a love as this, we give our humble thanks. Amen.
Source: Diana Butler Bass “A people’s history of Christianity”
