Call To worship

 One This is a day of remembrance

All reembrace and more

One this is a day of tears

All tears and more

This is a day for our Country

All our country and more

One This is a day for all of those that served and serve in our Military

All: And more

One This is a day to remember and cry, for our country and all countries for our people and all people for our soldiers and all soldiers.

All This is a day for us to recommit ourselves to Justice, to recommit ourselves to peace

One This is a day as is every day—

All that we must never forget

One in our remembering and in our living Let us worship God. 

One there is a time for remembrance.

All There is a time for vision

One there is a time for Peace

All there is a time for allegiance

One there is a time for pride

All there is a time for hope

REMEBRANCE

One: They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them. 

All: At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them. 

We remember for somewhere a bell will toll eleven times marking the day   

We Remember in haunting sounds of  a lone trumpet's  Last Post 

We remember in the long Minute of Silence

We remember in the mournful Lament of the pipes

We remember as the trumpeter sounds the hope in Reveille

We remember in the poets battle field words.

In Flanders Fields  

In Flanders Fields.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
   That mark our place; and in the sky
   The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
 
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
   Loved and were loved, and now we lie
       In Flanders fields.
 
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
   The torch; be yours to hold it high.
   If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
       In Flanders fields.

John McCrea 

One Eternal rest grant unto them, O God, and may perpetual light shine down upon them.

All: May their souls through your mercy rest in peace

 Prayer  

God of many names, we pray for peace with ourselves in our relationships , in our communities in our world.  May we be empowered to do the work of peace wherever we may find ourselves so that you may work through us.  We pray for all those that have served and all those that are serving.  We honour the memory of those that so willingly said yes when called by there country and never came home.  We honour those that so willing said yes and came home broken souls. Grant us your presence in this time of remembrance, give us courage to seek peace, to speak of justice and willingness to work towards healing a broken world.  Through Jesus Christ we pray.  Amen

Aftermath

With Desolation and the Stars
I lonely vigil keep,
Over the garner'd fields of Mars,
Watching the dead men sleep —
Huddled together, so silent there.
With bloodless faces and clotted hair,
Wrapped in their long, long sleep!

By uptorn trees and crater rims
Along the Ridge they lie,
Sprawled in the mud, with out-spread limbs,
Wide staring at the sky.
Why to the sky do they always stare,
Questioning heaven in dumb despair?
Why don't they moan, or sigh?

Why do I rave, ‘neath the callous stars,
At their upturned faces white?
I, surely I, with my crimson scars
Slumber with them this night!
Death, with shadowy finger bare,
Beckons me on to — I know not where;
But, huddled together, and freed from care
We'll watch till the dawn of Light.

From the Somme, 1916 Pte Frank 



One Let us listen to the word of God.

All our ears are open

One Our Epistle for the morning is taken from Hebrews 9:24-28

One This is the word of the Lord

All Thanks be to God

One: Let us listen to the good news of the gospel our Gospel  is taken from Mark 12:38-44

One: This is the Gospel of our Lord

All  Thanks be to God

I have a medicine bottle in my collection that still has it’s boxing. I had to do some restoration on the packaging and took the bottle out.  I finished my work and do you think I could find the bottle? I stood in front of the collection looking. I went through my doctor’s bag. I looked in my “I plan to sell” collection.  The dinning room table. I spent like an hour searching.  I came back to the collection and it was in the middle of the shelf.  My response.  “really, you have to be kidding me”

I know we all have stories like this. 

I suspect that we by nature come with filters that filter out a lot of what is around us.  I suspect it is a means of our mind keeping us on task.  Mine don’t always work. I do have squirrel moments through out the day.   The Brain will fill in the blanks. It is called perceptual completion is the brain’s knack for filling in missing information based on context, expectations, and prior knowledge.  We see what we want to see.  The brain looks for patterns and anticipates what is next. 

Seeing but not seeing. What is truly there. 

We often take the Gospel stories at face value and rarely ask could there be another meaning. 

Jesus is criticizing the Scribes. Sure it is common. The story of widow’s might we know it. Kind of moralistic.  Echoes thoughts of story of getting the camel through the eye of the needle.   

Jesus I think sees things without the filters.  He sees the Scribes for who they are.   Where no one else would see the widow, no one else cares Jesus sees her.   He does not just see her he sees what she has given. 

Jesus sees that regardless of the amount,  what the Scribes give vs the widow doesn’t matter.  The amount does not matter it is spirit in which it is given. That is what matters.   

The act of giving one would think is just a simple thing.  Studies have shown that giving or helping out or volunteering  can stimulate your brain’s mesolimbic pathway, or reward center, while releasing endorphins. That can lead to a “helper’s high” that boosts self-esteem, elevates happiness and combats feelings of depression.

With this in mind one could beg the question are we giving from a place of generosity or because it makes us feel good?   The condition in which the widow gives verses the condition in which the Scribes give.  The Scribes give to bolster their own self esteem.  Their own standing in the community. 

Yet another school of thought would state that Integrating giving into our spiritual practices deepens our connection to the divine and expands our capacity for compassion. It becomes a way of worshiping or expressing devotion to a higher power. Giving can be seen as an act of stewardship, recognizing that the resources we possess are entrusted to us to be shared for the greater good.

 How then do we give?  The thought that tickles my though is we give from a place of caring. From a place that sees what is there and needed.  Not from obligation or guilt. 

I like the idea that we give out our capacity for compassion that we are striving for the greater good.  That we are living into the great commandment. 

As a people of faith we are called to not just follow or hear what Jesus is teaching but to live into those teachings.  To translate the teaching into real world actions. 

When we support the food bank, Wesley the Stove project we are living into the gospel message.   

I spoke last week that congregations have a choice they can participate or parish or worse exist

I am coming to understand that it is not the size of the community of faith that makes it viable but how they use what has been given them.  How our spiritual practices deepens our connection to the divine and expands our capacity for compassion. How we let that divine light in us break into the world. 

In all that we do as a community of faith may we do it from a place of genuine faith and compassion knowing that we do not work alone. That God in Christ through the Holy Spirit works with us and with in us.  For truly we are not alone thanks be to God.  Amen

Sending Forth and Blessing

One: From our history we have come to our present with hope for tomorrow.

All: We have found Hope renewed to be the disciples of Christ in the world

One Go now once more into the world to be those disciples called to plant the seeds of love, hope, and future of this congregation of God. 

Blessing

One: Now may you know Peace and  May God the one who brings us comfort surround you, May Christ our Joy walk with you. May the Continued presence of The Holy Spirit illuminate our path and keep us safe until we can gather again in community. Amen 

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