CANDLE LITURGY
We light this candle as a sign of the Spirit at work in the world.
Here is a strengthening light in the neighbourhood.   (Light the Christ candle.)
     Adapted/Used with permission Pentecost 1 Gathering 2025; Jeff Werner

Sung Response: “Spirit of Life”  381 VU
Spirit of Life, come unto me.
Sing in my heart all the stirrings of compassion.
Blow in the wind, rise in the sea;
move in the hand, giving life the shape of justice.
Roots hold me close; wings set me free;
Spirit of Life, come to me, come to me.

1. CALL TO WORSHIP:
Sing in exaltation, people of God.
The Lord fills us with good things.
Shout for joy, children of the Holy One.
God feeds us with the finest wheat.
God satisfies us with the sweetest honey.
The Lord sustains us with living water.
     From the Abingdon Worship Annual 2025.
     Copyright @2024 by Abingdon Press. Used by permission

2. OPENING PRAYER:
Help us show hospitality to strangers, Merciful One, for many have entertained angels unaware while doing so. Move us to treat one another as we would have others treat us, lest we find ourselves tortured or imprisoned with no one to come to our aid. May we always seek to do good and share from our abundance, for these things are pleasing in your sight. In your holy name, we pray.  Amen.
     From the Abingdon Worship Annual 2025.
     Copyright @2024 by Abingdon Press. Used by permission

3. LEARNING TIME:

4.  HYMN: VU 255 “The Living God Be Praised”
1.  The living God be praised, who reigns enthroned above,
ancient of everlasting days, and God of love.
Jehovah, great I Am!
By earth and heaven confessed,
we bow before your holy name, forever blest.

2.  Your spirit still flows free,
high surging where it will;
in prophet's words you spoke of old and you speak still.
Established is your law, and changeless it shall stand,
inscribed upon the human heart, on sea, or land.

3.  You have eternal life implanted in the soul;
your love shall be our strength and stay, while ages roll.
We praise you, living God!
We praise your holy name;
the first, the last, beyond all thought, and still the same.

5. PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION
Author of all life, we ask you to write your words upon our hearts and upon our minds, that they may guide us and comfort us all the days of our lives.  Amen.
     Used with permission from Gathering: Pentecost 1: Susan Girard

6. SCRIPTURE LESSON
Jeremiah 2: 4 - 13
Listen, people of Israel,5and I, the LORD, will speak. I was never unfair to your ancestors, but they left me and became worthless by following worthless idols. 6 Your ancestors refused to ask for my help, though I had rescued them from Egypt and led them through a treacherous, barren desert, where no one lives or dares to travel. 7 I brought you here to my land, where food is abundant, but you made my land filthy with your sins. 8 The priests who teach my laws don't care to know me. Your leaders rebel against me; your prophets give messages from Baal and worship false gods. 9 I will take you to court and accuse you and your descendants * 10 of a crime that no nation has ever committed before. Just ask anyone, anywhere, from the eastern deserts to the islands in the west. 11 You will find that no nation has ever abandoned its gods even though they were false. I am the true and glorious God, but you have rejected me to worship idols. 12 Tell the heavens to tremble with fear! 13 You, my people, have sinned in two ways- you have rejected me, the source of life-giving water, and you've tried to collect water in cracked and leaking pits dug in the ground.

Responsive Reading Psalm 81: 1, 10 - 16 VU  page 796/97 part two
Refrain: “Sing out with joy to God our strength”

'It is I who am God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
Open wide your mouth, and I will fill it.
But my people would not hear my voice, Israel would not obey me.
So I left them in their stubbornness of heart to follow their own devices.
O that my people would listen to me, that Israel would follow my paths.
I would soon put down their enemies, and turn a hand against their foes.
Those who hate me would cringe before me, their fate would be sealed forever.
But you I would feed with the finest of wheat, you I would satisfy with honey from the rock.'  Refrain

7. REFLECTION:

8. HYMN: VU 660 “How Firm a Foundation”
1.  How firm a foundation, you servants of God,
is laid for your faith in God's excellent word!
What more can be said than to you has been said,
to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

2.  'Fear not, I am with you; O be not dismayed!
For I am your God and will still give you aid;
I'll strengthen and help you, and cause you to stand,
upheld by my righteous omnipotent hand.

3.  'When through the deep waters I call you to go,
the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
for I will be with you, your troubles to bless,
and sanctify to you your deepest distress.

4.  'When through fiery trials your pathway shall lie,
my grace, all-sufficient, shall be your supply:
the flame shall not hurt you; I only design
your dross to consume, and your gold to refine.

5.  'The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose
I will not - I will not desert to his foes; that soul,
though all hell should endeavour to shake,
I'll never - no, never - no, never forsake!'

9. SCRIPTURE LESSONS
Hebrews 14: 1 - 8, 15 - 16
Service That Pleases God
13 Keep being concerned about each other as the Lord's followers should. 2 Be sure to welcome strangers into your home. By doing this, some people have welcomed angels as guests, without even knowing it. 3 Remember the Lord's people who are in jail and be concerned for them. Don't forget those who are suffering, but imagine you are there with them. 4 Have respect for marriage. Always be faithful to your partner, because God will punish anyone who is immoral or unfaithful in marriage. 5 Don't fall in love with money. Be satisfied with what you have. The Lord has promised that he will not leave us or desert us. 6 This should make you feel like saying, "The Lord helps me! Why should I be afraid of what people can do to me?" 7 Don't forget about your leaders who taught you God's message. Remember what kind of lives they lived and try to have faith like theirs. 8 Jesus Christ never changes! He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 15 Our sacrifice is to keep offering praise to God in the name of Jesus. 16 But don't forget to help others and to share your possessions with them. This too is like offering a sacrifice that pleases God.

Luke 14: 1, 7 - 14
Jesus Heals a Sick Man
14 One Sabbath, Jesus was having dinner in the home of an important Pharisee, and everyone 7 Jesus saw how the guests had tried to take the best seats. So he told them:
8 When you are invited to a wedding feast, don't sit in the best place. Someone more important may have been invited. 9 Then the one who invited you will come and say,“ Give your place to this other guest!” You will be embarrassed and will have to sit in the worst place. 10 When you are invited to be a guest, go and sit in the worst place. Then the one who invited you may come and say, “My friend, take a better seat!” You will then be honored in front of all the other guests. 11 If you put yourself above others, you will be put down. But if you humble yourself, you will be honored. 12 Then Jesus said to the man who had invited him:
When you give a dinner or a banquet, don't invite your friends and family and relatives and rich neighbors. If you do, they will invite you in return, and you will be paid back. 13 When you give a feast, invite the poor, the paralyzed, the lame, and the blind. 14 They cannot pay you back. But God will bless you and reward you when his people rise from death.

11. HYMN VU #593  “Yesu, Jesu, Fill Us with Your Love”
Refrain: Jesu,* Jesu, fill us with your love,
show us how to serve the neighbours we have from you.

1.  Kneels at the feet of his friends,
silently washes their feet,
master who acts as a slave to them. ’Refrain

2.  Neighbours are rich and poor,
varied in colour and race,
neighbours are near and far away. ’Refrain

3.  These are the ones we should serve,
these are the ones we should love,
all are neighbours to us and you. ’Refrain

4.  Kneel at the feet of our friends,
silently washing their feet,
this is the way we should live with you. ’Refrain

12.  PRAYER OF CONFESSION:
Gracious God, too often we forget that it is you who abundantly supplies our needs. Thinking we have done it ourselves, we hoard our resources and gifts, or share them only with others in similar circumstances. We love to compare and feel that we are blessed and worthy. But you show us a different way. You invite us to share not only with those we deem worthy but with everyone. You urge us to count not the cost but rather the blessings. You promise an everlasting abundance when we open our hearts and embody true hospitality. Forgive our smallness, Gracious God, and help us to embrace the kingdom values of humility and generosity. Amen.
     Used with permission Pentecost 1 Gathering 2025; Catherine Tovell

13.  WORDS OF ASSURANCE:
We are human. We forget. We hoard. We hold on. We make unfair comparisons.
The God of creation knows our human failings and loves us in spite of them.
God not only loves us, God also forgives us, always.
Thanks be to God for such undeserved grace.
     Used with permission Pentecost 1 Gathering 2025; Catherine Tovell

14.  SUNG RESPONSE: 589 VU “Lord, Speak to Me”
1.  Lord, speak to me that I may speak in living echoes of your tone;
as you have sought, so let me seek your straying children lost and lone.

2.  O lead me, so that I may lead the wandering and the wavering feet;
O feed me, so that I may feed your hungering ones with manna sweet.

3.  O teach me, so that I may teach the precious truths which you impart;
and wing my words, that they may reach the hidden depths of many a heart.

4.  O fill me with your fullness, Lord, until my very heart o'erflows
in kindling thought and glowing word, your love to tell, your praise to show.

15.  PASSING OF THE PEACE:
WE worship the One who brings us living water when we look to cracked cisterns. In gratitude and joy for God's gracious gifts, let us share signs of the blessed peace we find in Christ, our Lord.
     From the Abingdon Worship Annual 2025.
     Copyright @2024 by Abingdon Press. Used by permission.

16.  INVITATION TO OFFERING:
Beloved people of God, let us give to the work of God's kingdom today. May we take this opportunity to work for the common good, and especially for the family of faith. Let us present our offering.
     From the Abingdon Worship Annual 2025.
     Copyright @2024 by Abingdon Press. Used by permission.

17. OFFERTORY VU 540 “Grant Us, God the Grace”
Grant us, God, the grace of giving, with a spirit large and free, that ourselves and all our living we may offer faithfully.

18.  OFFERING PRAYER:
You free us, O God, from self-interest and folly. You bring us into a land of choicest wheat and sweetest honey. AS we return a portion of these gifts to you, may we extend the banquet of your love to all - especially the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and all who suffer. May our offering bring healing and light to a world filled with anguish and despair.  Amen.
     From the Abingdon Worship Annual 2025.
     Copyright @2024 by Abingdon Press. Used by permission.

19. PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE AND LORD'S PRAYER:

20. HYMN 372 VU “Though I May Speak”
1.  Though I may speak with bravest fire,
and have the gift to all inspire,
and have not love, my words are vain,
as sounding brass, and hopeless gain.

2.  Though I may give all I possess,
and striving so my love profess,
but not be given by love within,
the profit soon turns strangely thin.

3.  Come, Spirit, come, our hearts control,
our spirits long to be made whole.
Let inward love guide every deed;
by this we worship, and are freed.

21.  BLESSING:
Let us go out in love and service.
Let us go out ready to give all that we are and have as disciples of Jesus.
Let us go, committed to persistent love and service.
Let us go, knowing that God is with us.  Amen.
     Used with permission Pentecost 1 Gathering 2025; Beth W Johnston.

Next Sunday:  Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
        September 7, 2025:
         Jeremiah 18:1-11;  Jeremiah 18:1-11 Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17;
         Philemon 1-21;  Luke 14:25-33.

1. SUNDAY, August 31, 2025  “Twelth Sunday after Pentecost”   10:45 AM   Rev. Jo-Ann Hills  “RECOLLECTIONS”   ALL ARE WELCOME!


2. SUNDAY, September 7, 2025  “Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost”   10:45 AM   Rev. Jo-Ann Hills  “RECOLLECTIONS”   ALL ARE WELCOME!