The Story of Life Worship
Feb 25, 2018
Welcome
Acknowledgement of the Land
As we gather to worship, we acknowledge with respect that we live and work and worship on Treaty One Land, in the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, and Dakota peoples, and in the heart of the Metis Nation. May we live in peace and friendship with the peoples of this land, honouring their relationship with the land and water, the plants and animals through the many generations.
Since the British Methodist tradition, many of us have called Lent for a time to let go of one thing. It could be a cup of coffee a day, Facebook, etc. Why don’t we consider Lent for a time to take down the fence to have important, painful conversations? (Stan McKay’s invitation. Stan will be our guest speaker on next Sunday.)
This Sunday, our member, Lorraine Kakegamic, will share the story of her husband Solly’s experiences in the Residential School system. We invite you for her story, lamentations, singing and candle-lighting, especially in the light as a not-guilty verdict aches our hearts. Pray for kindness and justice.
As the spirit moves you, you are welcome to light a tea candle at any point of time during worship.
Prelude
Choral Introit: MV 27 Creator God You Gave Us Life V. 1
Creator God you gave us life,
your image formed within our souls,
yet through the mist of time and space,
we search for that which makes us whole.
Through hands that paint majestic skies,
and voices chanting melody,
with words that reach beyond the page,
we comprehend your mystery.
Theme Conversation with Children
I have brought some blankets I have been keeping at my home. When my younger son was born in Ladysmith, the church family (Ladysmith UC) was joyful. They were ready to love them, welcome them. Some of them took time to make beautiful blankets to show how they are happy to watch them grow. God loves all children, and God loves each one of you so much. And it is our call to love you and see you as God loves you and sees you. In the indigenous ceremonies, blankets show care. When we walk with others, we wrap one another in blankets (“blankets of love”) to show the care we must give to all children. At church, we also make prayer shawls. (Show Prayer shawls) When children are baptized, some churches wrap them with the newly quilted prayer shawl and say to them, “You are precious, you are loved. You are our family. May you who receive this shawl be cradled in hope, kept in joy, graced with peace, wrapped in love.”
Call to Worship:
Before anything was,
God dreamed of me.
God searched for me,
God finds me.
Before I speak,
God hears me.
Before I move,
God is before me.
Before I was born,
God knew me.
Before I was seen,
God saw me.
Before I was named,
God called me.
Before I give praise,
God calls me here.
Opening Prayer
To You, God, we open our whole self,
to sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
to the Great Spirit, one whole voice that is you.
We see you, see ourselves, and know
that we must take the utmost care
and kindness in all things.
We breathe in, knowing we are made of All this,
and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we are born and die
within a True circle of motion
like eagle rounding out the morning
inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty. Ha Na Lights a tea candle
Hymn: VU 619 Healer of Our Every Ill
Scripture: Psalm 25:4-7, Mark 10:13-16
Hymn: MV 149 Peace for the Children
Peace for the children, peace peace.
Peace for the children we pray.
Following the path of One of peace,
we work for healing, we work for peace;
peace for the children today. (x 2)
Reflection: The story of life Lorraine Kakegamic
Lorraine lights a tea candle
The Choir Anthem: God is In This Room
Prayer
What is lamentation?
Amy Jill-Levine: It is a very Jewish thing to do: you say what you think and when you are talking to God, you still say what you think. Abraham, Job challenges God; Book of Lamentation, lamentations in Psalms, they wail, they complain, they argue, and they express raw emotion. It is not the sign of the lack of faith. To the contrary, to lament, to mourn, to demand justice, ... that is the sign of on going relationship.”
Stan McKay: Lamentation has to do with realizing the context of where we live, recognizing the sign around us: the darkness, shadow and struggle.
Reconciliation is to engage conversation. However, Stan told me that he had a friend who is also a scholar and good speaker. After the court system at Saskatchewan, he couldn’t speak for days. He didn’t know what to say. It took days for him to come out of the trauma. Sometimes Lamentation is expressing what is unspeakable grief.
Lamentation as unfamiliar language: Worship resources tend to be through the eyes of white, middle class Canada.
We so desperately failed a precious child, Tina Fontaine, and that devastating failure continues even in her death. O God, we ask your presence as we hold her family and the community in the light as a not-guilty verdict comes down in Winnipeg. Hear our prayers for all in deep pain, prayers for hope that is hard to find. Prayers for kindness and justice. May all who rest in our hearts rest in the heart of the Creator. May all family who suffer from loss and grief and trauma be held in love.
God, may we choose life. May we live in harmony and peace in relationship bound in trust and strong relationship based on Treaty on this land, not with the mind of aggressive, individualistic survival, but with respect, acknowledgement and celebration of diversity and responsibility of the well-being of the others, the whole people of God, including our own lives.
Reconciliation read by Norah McMurtry
We are waking up to our history
from a forced slumber
We are breathing it into our lungs
so it will be part of us again
It will make us angry at first
because we will see how much you stole from us
and for how long you watched us suffer
we will see how you see us
and how when we copied your ways
it killed our own.
We will cry and cry and cry
because we can never be the same again
But we will go home to cry
and we will see ourselves in this huge mess
and we will gently whisper the circle back
and it will be old and it will be new.
Then we will breathe our history back to you
you will feel how strong and alive it is
and you will feel yourself become a part of it
And it will shock you at first
because it is too big to see all at once
and you won’t want to believe it
you will see how you see us
and all the disaster in your ways
how much we lost.
And you will cry and cry and cry
because we can never be the same again
But we will cry with you
and we will see ourselves in this huge mess
and we will gently whisper the circle back
and it will be old and it will be new.
by Rebeka Tabobondung, a member of the Waskauksing First Nation
Norah lights a tea candle
Hymn: The Old Rugged Cross
The Old Rugged Cross was the Solly’s favourite hymn. As we sing this beautiful, devotional hymn, I hope that we may be able to see how Solly might have connected himself, his image and the shame he experienced to the shame and suffering of Jesus, and searched and found the salvation through the grace of the Cross.
On a hill far away, stood an old rugged Cross
The emblem of suff'ring and shame
And I love that old Cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain
So I'll cherish the old rugged Cross
Till my trophies at last I lay down
I will cling to the old rugged Cross
And exchange it some day for a crown
Oh, that old rugged Cross so despised by the world
Has a wondrous attraction for me
For the dear Lamb of God, left his Glory above
To bear it to dark Calvary
So I'll cherish the old rugged Cross
Till my trophies at last I lay down
I will cling to the old rugged Cross
And exchange it some day for a crown
To the old rugged Cross, I will ever be true
Its shame and reproach gladly bear
Then He'll call me some day to my home far away
Where his glory forever I'll share
So I'll cherish the old rugged Cross
Till my trophies at last I lay down
I will cling to the old rugged Cross
And exchange it some day for a crown
The Lord’s Prayer
Offering:
Sung Dedication VU 540 Grant Us, God, Grace
Grant us God, the grace of giving,
with a spirit large and free,
that ourselves and all our living
we may offer faithfully.
Offering Prayer
Prayer
In our biblical tradition, we are told numerous times to wait and listen for the Spirit to orient and guide us.
If you wish, use this quiet time and candle-lighting for praying for ourselves and the others who are close to our heart now.
After the reading of each passages, you are welcome to come and light one tea candle, in silence.
All are welcome to light one tea candle.
Luke 24:49-53
49And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’
Habakkuk 2:3
3 For there is still a vision for the appointed time;
it speaks of the end, and does not lie.
If it seems to tarry, wait for it;
it will surely come, it will not delay.
Romans 8:19, 25
19For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
1 Corinthians 1:7
7so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Hymn: VU 713 I See a New Heaven
Commissioning and Benediction
As we leave this time and place, go out in good heart to face the needs of this hour and bear the fruit of love in the world.
This is the time to begin anew. May God hold you and sustain you with the blankets of love on your journey.
Choral Extroit: MV 86 Give Peace to Ev’ry Heart (singing a round)
Give peace to ev’ry heart.
Give peace to ev’ry heart.
Give peace, God.
Give peace, God.
Postlude
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