Sunday Gathering - March 13

Trinity United Church
March 13, 2022
Lent 2
Worship

Worship Leader: Rev David Cathcart
Music Leader: David Rogers
Scripture Reader: Jennifer Marshall
Zoom Hosts: Brian and Josee Wheatley, and Ross Dunning

WELCOME

May the Peace of Christ be with you. And also with you.

Welcome to Trinity United Church in Port Coquitlam. We are grateful you have joined us for worship this morning. 
Trinity United Church in Port Coquitlam resides on the unceded traditional territory of the Coast Salish People the Kwikwetlem First Nations. Our acknowledgement of unceded traditional territory is a first step in reconciliation between settler cultures and indigenous peoples and the decolonization of western systems that continue to oppress and exploit indigenous peoples and land.
If you are joining us on YouTube, please check out our website at ucpoco.ca. We would also appreciate it if you would subscribe to our channel and like and share our services, those buttons are just below the video. It does help our reach when you do so.
    I invite you to take a deep breath, and let it go. I invite you to take another breath, and let it go. And one more time, take a deep breath and let it go. Let us prepare our hearts and minds for worship.

Prelude: David Rogers

Tenebrae Candles

Following Jesus into self-awareness and trusting in God’s provision is not an easy journey. There are obstacles, within and around us. The values of the world, and the values of God are not the same. We pray for patience and gentleness on the journey, with ourselves and with each other. 

We extinguish this candle, remembering that God disrupts our ambitions, delivering us from haste to patience.

[extinguish a candle]

Response: “The Light Still shines” WorshipCollective    CLICK HERE

The light still shines the light is still there
Disrupted but delivered, it’s there
The light still shines the light is still there
We tread this lonely landscape
Following, transforming, surrendering 
we are yours we are yours
The light still shines

You just cannot hide 
violence and defiance 
holy goodness rises 
graceful beauty dance

The light still shines the light is still there
Disrupted but delivered, it’s there
The light still shines the light is still there
We tread this lonely landscape
Following, transforming, surrendering 
we are yours we are yours
The light still shines

* WorshipCollective

Call to Worship and Opening Prayer:

God is our light and our salvation
Whom then shall we fear?
Come, be strong and take courage,
Yes, we will wait for God!

Let us pray together:
Holy One, teach us patience.
Help us to hold the space between 
where we were and where we are going.
Help us to resist quick fixes.
Help us maintain room for the whispering of the spirit
in the here and now.
In the name of the one who leads us,
we pray, Amen.

Hymn: “If You Will Trust in God to Guide You” VU 286    CLICK HERE

Reconciliation Meditation:

I invite you to become aware of your breath. You don’t need to control it, just become aware of it. As you exhale, let your body feel heavy. Trust the pew to hold your weight. With each exhalation, let your body feel a little heavier.

I invite you to imagine a mirror. Don’t look into the image in the mirror, yet, but focus on imagining the mirror itself. What shape is the mirror? How is it mounted? Are you holding it in your hand? Is it hung on a wall? Does it stand independently? Does it have a frame? Is it a mirror that is familiar to you from home? Is it a mirror you remember from your past? A mirror you’ve seen in public? Or is it a new to you mirror? Imagine, as specifically as you can any mirror.

Now as you look at the image in the mirror, you do not only see your own reflection, but the living image of Jesus Christ looking back at you. Imagine his facial features, his hair, maybe his clothes, his mouth, his ears, if you can see them… now look in his eyes. What do his eyes say to you?

I will read a few words from scripture then we will hold several minutes of silence as you behold Christ in the mirror and he beholds you. If your thoughts become distracted or busy, repeat the words of scripture silently to yourself and return to beholding Christ beholding you.

Philippians 4:1, “my joy, my crown… my beloved.”

[90 sec silence]

“Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord… my beloved.”

Reading:

Philippians 3:17-4:1

Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. 18For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. 19Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21He will transform the body of our humiliation so that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself. 41Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

Psalm 27 VU 753 (sung)

Reading: “Lent Two Luke 13 31-35.mov” 

The scripture videos for the rest of Lent will come from a new translation of the New Testament called the “First Nations Version.” The videos are provided by WorshipCollective.

Hymn: “God Weeps” MV 78  CLICK HERE

Message: Rev David

Holy One,
in a time of war, climate disaster,
famine and pestilence,
send us strength, courage, faith and trust
that you are indeed our refuge,
our light and our salvation.
Deliver us we pray. Amen.

We sang the 27th Psalm today to a different paraphrase, but it opens with these verses: "God is my light and my salvation, whom then shall I fear?
 God is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?"

It is an affirmation of God's presence and action in the psalmist's daily life. It is a great articulation of what we believe, on the good days.

But in the second half of the psalm, the psalmist has a series of petitions that demonstrate doubt and fear:

"Hear my voice; be merciful; answer me; do not hide your face from me; do not reject or forsake me; teach me; lead me; do not turn me over to my foes."

Throughout this psalm faith and fear, trust and doubt are navigated. The psalm is both and affirmation and a lament.

It ends with the command, "Wait for God; be strong, and take courage; yes, wait for God!"

At the end of the psalm, with pain and doubt left unresolved, we are called to patience.

Patience helps us navigate grief; patience gives us time to learn; patience gives us perspective and distance; patience gives us time to experience deliverance.

In Wednesday Coffee, Syd, who is taking the Decision Making to Discernment course, mentioned "Liminality."

In our material for the course "liminality" is described as "a quality of ambiguity and disorientation that occurs in transitory situations and spaces, when a person or group of people is betwixt and between something that has ended, and a new situation not yet begun."

Syd mentioned it as how we are feeling as a church right now. We know that the way we've done things in the past no longer work for us, but we don't yet know how to do things differently. This could be said about the whole Untied Church as we continue to cope with a new structure across the country.

But it is also how we feel as we come out of Covid Lockdowns and restrictions: how are we going to be with each other now?

It describes the time between when the Israelites left Egypt and arrived in the Promised Land. Do we remember how long it took for the Israelites to make that transition through liminal space? 40 years.

I think Psalm 27 is a perfect prayer for liminality. It begins by stating who we are and whose we are (We belong to God who is our strength and refuge), it takes us to through doubt and fear, then it restates that we believe in God's goodness and we should "wait for God, be strong, take courage, yes, wait for God!"

During Liminality, we are particularly vulnerable because our old ways of coping no longer work, we have very little control because our environment has changed and we no longer know how to respond, and we become particularly aware of our dependence on God. Which isn't the worst thing in the world to be aware of our dependence on God.

Over and over again, we need this reminder. Wait for God. Yes, wait for God.

I believe we are actually experiencing liminality on a global scale: climate crisis, covid, disparity between the ultra rich and the chronically poor, the war in Ukraine, are all symptoms of the liminal space between the modern age of capitalism, communism, and colonialism and tomorrow. Whatever that will be.

We are increasingly aware that the way human beings have organized ourselves aren't working. We settle conflict with violence. that isn't going to work when both sides can destroy all life on earth multiple times over, everybody loses. We've exploited natural resources making a very small number of people ridiculously wealthy while the vast majority of the worlds population is ridiculously poor, and ecosystems that support us are collapsing. We make decisions based the economy, rather than what is in the best interests of the most people and the earth itself.

The Very Reverend Bill Phipps died last week. Bill Phipps was the moderator of the United Church from 1997 to 2000. I met Bill Phipps at an environmental conference in 2010. When I went to the conference, I considered myself a relatively well informed North American when it came to climate change. The conference shattered that belief. I had no idea just how bad the climate situation was. And while general knowledge on the climate crisis has increased in the last 12 years, most people have no idea just how bad it is. It was a really hard conference.

Bill Phipps would argue that all the issues we've seen in recent years: covid, racial conflict, the war in Ukraine, the me too movement, climate fires, flooding, the real estate crisis, the opioid crisis, the Indian Residential Schools are all connected.

I would suggest that all of these crisis are building evidence of our failure to care for one another; our failure to love one another; our failure to care for the Earth; our failure to recognize the sacred divine's face and fingerprints on absolutely everything; our failure to live in profound gratitude.

I got two really important tools from the environmental conference.

One: put your own mask on first. That's what the flight attendant tells us. Put on our own oxygen mask first because if you pass out while trying to put on your child's mask, you are a risk to everyone.

I learned just how vitally important it is for me to meditate, and pray, and journal daily. We have to take care of our own spiritual well being first.

Next, we do what Jesus calls us to do. We build community and take care of anyone who can't take care of themselves.

If we build systems that take care of the most marginalized among us all the rest of us will be cared for too.

Rev Dr Carmen Lansdown would say we need to make our resources accessible to the single mother of colour who has a disability, mental health issues and addiction. If the resources are accessible to her, then the rest of us should have access as well.

Saying, "the Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear," does not dismiss the very real crises we are facing. It means that if we hold fast to our faith and follow Christ, by serving the most vulnerable among us, we will find a way.

May we trust that God is our light and our salvation;
may we seek God's help;
may we follow Christ, and serve the vulnerable;
And may we wait, patiently, for God. Amen.

Anthem: Trinity's Choir, “Sing a Song of Faith” Tom Mitchell

Offering:

We are grateful for the many ways people choose to serve and give at Trinity United Church. Our ministry is only possible thanks to your gifts of money, time and service. If you would like to make a financial contribution, please send a check to the church office, leave a check or envelope in the plate at the door, or click on the “Donate Now” button on our website.

Let us pray,
May we be imitators of the One who gave all for all.
May we stand firm in our faith 
and become a joy and crown to our deliverer.
May we be honest, humble citizens of the city of peace.
May our gifts bring glory to God.
Amen.

The Great Thanksgiving/Disciples’ Prayer:

God be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to God.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give God our thanks and our praise.

God created us all as children full of promise.  
Our created promise is lived out in becoming.  
Our created promise is fulfilled in lives of loving.

God, our Ultimate Reality, is worthy of wonder and praise.
And so we sing with all the heavens:

Sanctus: “Holy, holy, holy…” VU 932ff

We remember God’s children of ages past:  
Adam and Eve in a time of beginning, 
Sarah and Abraham in a time of pilgrimage, 
Moses and Miriam in a time of wandering, 
Ruth and Naomi in a time of belonging, 
Jonathan and David in a time of war, 
Esther and Mordecai in a time of persecution, 
Mary Magdalene and Simon Peter in a time of fear.

God provided for each one of these children, fulfilling the promise from one generation to the next, but not without pain and suffering, doubt and despair.  

When we turn away from God, we turn away from the promise we carry within.

We have turned away from God, failing to hear the faithful wisdom of those before us.

Even when rejected, God sent us Good News: Jesus the Christ.

Jesus reminds us of our noble beginnings as children created in the image and likeness of God.  Jesus calls us to live into that likeness.  Jesus calls us back to the promise.

In Jesus we remember who we are and whose we are.  As children of promise we can live in hope.

Memorial Acclamation: “Christ has died…” VU 932ff

As a community at table, we remember…

Let us pray together:
Take this grape and this bread broken, 
making of them powerful symbols of promise, 
blessing them to create within us abiding love.  
Send your Spirit upon what we do, filling us with your purpose to fulfill your kingdom, in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

We pray for the world…

The Disciples’ Prayer: “Our Father…” [traditional, spoken]

The Bread of New Life.
    Thanks be to God!
[we share the bread]

The Cup of Promise.
    Praise be to Jesus Christ!
[we share the grape]

Prayer after Communion:

What was broken is now whole.  
What was spilled is now restored.  
What was lost is now found.  
Thank you, O God, for your gift in Jesus that we, at table, have shared in memory and in wonder resurrected as the body of Christ.  Amen.*

*Written by Gord Dunbar (adapted)
Gathering, Summer/Autumn 2004, page 75.
Used with permission.

Hymn: “Be Thou My Vision” VU 642    CLICK HERE

Blessing:

Hold your hands out in a sign of blessing:
Imagine the love of God entering through the top of your head, mingling with your heart, going out through your fingers into your device and out to all the people out there:

May the God beyond us, 
the Christ beside us, 
the spirit within us, 
the three all around us 
be with you now and always. Amen.

Postlude: David Rogers