We attended a festival this week!
We attended a festival online, as did everyone else who ‘attended’ this festival.
It was the annual Festival of Homiletics!
‘Homiletics’ is the art of preaching and sermon writing.
We attended a preaching festival! We had a week of listening to sermons and to lectures about sermons! We were in our happy place!
We heard sermons and lectures from a diversity of people, many of whom we did not know or know about!
We heard people speak with differing accents, with differing body language, with differing vocal ebbs and flows.
We heard about of God’s love, God’s justice, God’s presence in Jesus.
We heard about racism, poverty, politics and the events of the past year.
We heard about the gospel of Jesus the Christ.
We heard about the Holy Spirit healing and shaking up our world.
People from different places, from varying cultures gathered to hear the gospel proclaimed and to experience the Holy Spirit in our midst. It was a festival!
Kind of like Pentecost!
This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday. This Sunday we read the story in the book of Acts of Peter proclaiming the gospel of the resurrected Christ; proclaiming the gospel to people who have come from different places and from varying cultures.
This Sunday is Pentecost, the church’s festival of experiencing the Holy Spirit in our midst.
This Sunday we hear the gospel of the resurrected Christ. We hear of the Holy Spirit healing and shaking up our world.
As we continue during this pandemic time, we continue to share worship resources through our weekly emails.
Thanks again to everyone for engaging with us on this COVID-19 journey. We are grateful to share ministry with you and really appreciate your efforts to stay in touch and to continue to care about TMUC with your prayers and your financial support. Donations on PAR, through www.canadahelps.organd in cheques mailed to the church are making a difference. Thank you.
Even though we cannot be together in one place, let’s continue to be a community at prayer together. On Sunday at 10, please think about the gifts we have in our lives, and needs of our world, and then pray the Lord’s prayer (you can pray silently, or out loud).
And, sometime, when you want to have a longer worship time, we are including some words and videos for your use.
The Prayer List is distributed separately and allows us to remember specific people with our prayers. If you want to receive the Prayer List, or add a name (with their permission), please be in touch.
And, speaking of being in touch, the Thursday ZOOM continues (9 to 10 a.m.) each week.
And now…..(drum roll please)…
Knowing that Thursday mornings do not fit everyone’s schedules, as the Worship and Welcome Team has noted, we are delighted to announce…Monday Musings!
Join us for Monday Musings (evening ZOOM for check-in and chat with Carol and Jeff) from 7 to 8 p.m. on May 31 and all Mondays in June! We hope that you will join us!
The Thursday and Monday Zooms can be joined using this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7538449219
Again and again we are called to listen to words of reconciliation:
We are gathered for worship and work in Treaty One territory, which is the traditional land of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dené peoples and the homeland of the Metis Nation. For thousands of years Indigenous Peoples walked this land and knew it to be the centre of their lives and their spirituality. We respect the Treaties that were made on these territories, we acknowledge the harms and mistakes of the past, and we dedicate ourselves to move forward in partnership with Indigenous communities in a spirit of reconciliation and collaboration.
Worship for Sunday, May 23, 2021
Introit: “Come All You People”
Come, Holy Spirit!
Come to awaken our faith,
to inspire our hope
to embolden our love
and to let Christ live in us!
Come, Holy Spirit!
Our opening hymn is “Holy Sacred Spirit”.
Esther and Emmett sing and talk of Pentecost:
Printable Version:
Esther and Emmett_May 21
Acts 2:1-21
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all gathered together in one place.
And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.
And at this sound the crowd gathered and wad bewildered, because each one heard the speaking in the native language of each.
Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?
Parthians, Medes, Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and Proselytes, Cretans and Arabs- in our languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.”
All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”
But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say.
Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning.
No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.
And I will show portents in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
Jeff offers a reflection:
Printable Version:
Reflection_May 23
Let us pray:
God, all life lives within your Life;
all creation is Your Creation,
all that is, is part of Your Is-ness.
We are thankful for the many ways we experience You in our lives, in this world, moving and shaping creation’s ongoing story.
We are thankful that for Your presence in the life of Jesus, for Your healing, reconciling, peace-making, domination-challenging, welcoming, forgiving and loving presence in the life of Jesus.
As we have experienced You in Jesus, may we continue to experience You in the Christ-spirit present in our humanity,
Let us experience Your image, Your sacred reality, Your divine dance within us, amongst us and embracing us,
May we be in this world as heirs of Jesus’ love and messengers and Your grace.
As dwellers on this earth, we pray for this world in which we live and move and have our being.
We pray for all people, for all people are affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. We pray for those who are hospitalized with the virus, for those who carry the virus in their bodies, for those who grieve for loved ones who have died as a result of this pandemic, and we pray for all people to have patience and hope during these challenging times. We pray for vaccinations to be available globally to all people. We pray for the day when we can again gather with family and friends.
We pray for all who have suffered severe economic loss during the pandemic – those who have had to close businesses, those who have lost employment, those who have lost income.
We pray that we will emerge from this time as more compassionate people, as people committed to living together on this planet, stewarding creation, practicing global neighbourliness, and caring for and with one another.
Hear us, O God as we pray for all those who are battling forest and grass fires,and those who are living in fear of the power of nature and the carelessness of humanity. Help us to care for one another and to care for this fragile earth, our home.
We pray for an end to violence. We pray for a world disarmed of guns, of bombs, of weapons that maim and kill. We pray for people to learn the ways of peace. We pray for people to be released from the fears that divide us and from desires to exert control over others.
We pray for peace – in Gaza and in Israel, in Syria, in Iraq, in Afghanistan…in all places.
We pray for people who live with cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, MS or any disease of their body. We pray for relief from pain, for courage, for healing, for the support of loving and understanding communities of family and friends, and for all medical workers and researchers offering care and seeking cures.
We pray for those who have been dislodged from their homes and communities – by fire, storm, war, poverty, prejudice, political threat.
We pray for those who are refugees, those who are migrant workers, we pray for others who have no place to call home. We pray that all people know their home in Your love, and that all people welcome others into their homes and communities in the practice of Your love.
We pray for elected leaders to lead with courage and compassion, with wisdom and wit, and with vision and vitality.
God, may Your life experienced in Christ, live within us.
Inspire us to be healers, prophets and sharers of Your gift of grace.
In Christ’s name we pray. AMEN
Our closing hymn is “She Comes Sailing on the Wind”:
May God bless you and keep you.
May God’s face shine upon you.
May God grant you peace and joy.
Be in the peace of Christ, this day and always. Amen
We keep you in our prayers,
Carol and Jeff