The Twenty-first Sunday of Pentecost
**Please note this service is based on the format of the Anglican Church of Canada. Unless otherwise indicated, all prayers come from the Book of Alternative Services (BAS) and the hymns from the Book of Common Praise (BCP). Other hymns and prayers have been sourced to give appropriate credit.
**NRSV translation used for the readings, unless otherwise stated.
**This is for personal use at home as the church is unable to gather in our houses of worship but together we can worship in our own homes.
Opening Prayer
Let us pray.
Holy One, you planted us by living water, that we might be rooted in righteousness. You call us to be holy as you are holy. Assured of your love, help us to cast aside all fear, that we may love our neighbours as ourselves. Amen. (Revised Common Lectionary Prayers)
Opening Hymn – When I Needed a Neighbour
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
And also with you.
Collect for Purity
The Gloria
Collect of the Day
Let us pray.
Lord God our redeemer, who heard the cry of your people and sent your servant Moses to lead them out of slavery, free us from the tyranny of sin and death, and by the leading of your spirit bring us to our promised land; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Children's Message
(This blog does not endorse Samaritan's Purse. Video used simply for the cuteness factor.)
The Readings
A reading from the Book of Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho, and the Lord showed him the whole land: Gilead as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, the Negeb, and the Plain—that is, the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees—as far as Zoar. The Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants’; I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.” Then Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, at the Lord’s command. He was buried in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor, but no one knows his burial place to this day. Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died; his sight was unimpaired and his vigor had not abated. The Israelites wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; then the period of mourning for Moses was ended.
Joshua son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, because Moses had laid his hands on him; and the Israelites obeyed him, doing as the Lord had commanded Moses.
Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. He was unequaled for all the signs and wonders that the Lord sent him to perform in the land of Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants and his entire land, and for all the mighty deeds and all the terrifying displays of power that Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.
The word of the Lord.
Thanks be the God.
Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17
A reading from the First Letter of Paul to the Thessalonians 2:1-8
You yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our coming to you was not in vain, but though we had already suffered and been shamefully mistreated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition. For our appeal does not spring from deceit or impure motives or trickery, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts. As you know and as God is our witness, we never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed; nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you or from others, though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.
The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Gradual Hymn – Spirit Song
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew. 22:34-46
Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: “What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying,
‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet”’?
If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?” No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
The Gospel of Christ.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Sermon
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable and pleasing in your sight O Lord, for you are our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Yet again, Jesus is being asked a question that is meant to trap him, a question with apparently no good answer. He is asked which of the 613 commandments of law is the most important.
Scholars of the Torah have debated how they would rank the laws according to relative importance. This is what Jesus was being asked to do, as a way of testing his position.
Jesus draws upon his knowledge of the Torah, the Law and wisdom of Israel, to answer the question, quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18: to love God and to love the neighbour.
The first is a commandment so heavy in Jewish tradition that it is recited at evening and morning prayer each day: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
These words are the heart of a thanksgiving for creation, revelation, and redemption.
How could Jesus NOT make “Love your God” the greatest commandment.
The second, Jesus tells us, are the hooks on which the rest of the laws are hung.
Jesus gives two answers that are intimately connected: love God with all you've got inside and love your neighbor, outside of you, as yourself.
The commandments to love God and neighbour are the basis of both Christian ethic and Christian response to God.
Jesus didn’t come up with these laws, they already existed in the Torah, but what he did was unite them as opposite sides of a single coin: they are complimentary, they are interdependent, and they are the key to each other.
Christian teaching is built on this principle as we see in John: “Those who do not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.”
It is a traditional answer to a traditional question. It is the historic wisdom of the faith that one cannot place anything more important above the commands to love God and neighbor. It is truth that is already known, but we choose to keep it on the mental shelf of our lives rather than put it into action through our lives.
The idea seems simple: “Love God, love neighbor.” The difficulties arise in the execution. Everyone who has made a serious, lifelong effort to live out these simple precepts has struggled with one or both of them. Who is God, and who is my neighbor? What does it mean to love them? Wrestling with these questions is at the heart of discipleship.
Jesus shares the two commandments to encourage us to move from our armchair awareness to a personal practice of loving God, by loving others they might not otherwise love. If one loves God with a great and sure intensity, that intensity should not lighten up by the time it reaches others.
But our love for God is tested by the reality of the demands of our neighbour.
Consider our baptismal covenant that says: “Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbour as yourself?”
Or in our confession: “We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbours as ourselves.”
We make a commitment to God in the first, and in the second, these are words we say each week as a commitment to each other.
Are they just empty promises, said by rote because that’s what we’ve always done and what we’re meant to say as part of the program?
When was the last time you said these words and really meant them?
What good are our creeds if those beliefs don't make any difference in the way we live, in the ways we act? It is not enough to believe something; we must live it as well.
When Sunday turns to Monday, we need to consider who our neighbour is and not just forget about the words we spoke. I am not talking about your physically next door neighbour. I am talking about everyone, and how our neighbours are not being treated with the decency that is owed to every human being.
Take, for example, the dispute over fishing rights in southwestern Nova Scotia that escalated this past week into violence, destruction, and eventually an angry mob attack on Indigenous-used fishing pounds. Several hundred lobster traps have either been destroyed or seized by non-Indigenous commercial fishermen in the past month, and two Mi’kmaw fishing boats were alleged to have been set on fire by the same group.
Or how about the death of Joyce Echaquan, a 37-year-old Indigenous woman who died on September 28 in a hospital in Joliette, Quebec. Before her death, she recorded a Facebook Live video that showed her screaming in distress and healthcare workers abusing her.
In Nigeria, at least 56 people have died during two weeks of widespread demonstrations against police violence, including 38 this past Tuesday.
A transgender man in Vancouver was refused his food from a delivery service, and transphobic slurs thrown at him, because the gender marker on his ID still said female.
People are choosing not to wear masks while in public because they just don’t want to.
We are not loving our neighbours and God cries each time one of God’s creations are hurt or killed, which means we are also not loving God.
We need to do better as a whole.
Every human being on this planet deserves to live without fear of their lives – whether from lack of food, lack of healthcare, violence due to the color of their skin, harassment because of who they love or who they are, or any other inhumane act that one human is doing against another.
As Christians, we need to be the example.
We need to show others that when we say “love your neighbor as yourself”, it is not just empty words.
We need to take action when we see injustice by stepping up, writing letters, or being otherwise vocal about the treatment of our fellow children of God.
Love God and Love your neighbour.
That’s all Jesus is asking us to do.
Amen.
Affirmation of Faith
The Prayers of the People
(From Intercessions for the Christian People)
Pondering the two great commandments of the law, let us pray together, saying: O Lord of love, hear our prayer.
That the church throughout the world may love you with all its heart and soul and mind, and may exemplify your love in all its life, I Lord of love,
Hear our prayer.
That our country, in all its foreign and domestic policies, may care for aliens and immigrants, the indigent and the oppressed, all victims of economic exploitation, and all poorer and smaller nations, O Lord of love,
Hear our prayer.
That the leaders of the churches, with insight and fidelity, may practice love and compassion for all in need, for all who live in misery, and for all outcasts of society, O Lord of love,
Hear our prayer.
That our community may live in the faith and joy of the Holy Spirit, O Lord of love,
Hear our prayer.
That the wealth of our land may enable us to live in just stewardship of the earth’s goods, in care for our natural resources, and in compassion for the needy, o Lord of love,
Hear our prayer.
Please take time to offer your own intercessions or to pray in silence.
O God, you care for the widow and the orphan, and you hear the cry of the poor, Listen also to our cry; change our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh with which to love you in truth and for your sake to show compassion on all your creatures. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Confession and Absolution
Dear friends in Christ,
God is steadfast in love and infinite in mercy; God welcomes sinners and invites them to the table. Let us confess our sins, confident in God’s forgiveness.
(Silence)
Song of Confession - words and music by Gord Johnson, used with permission from st benedict's table
Almighty God, have mercy upon you, pardon and deliver you from all your sins, confirm and strengthen you in all goodness, and keep you in eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The peace of the Lord be always with you.
And also with you.
Offertory Hymn – Walk With You
Prayer over the Gifts
**Although not physically at our church buildings to share our offering together I would encourage you to set your offering of money aside so that it can be dropped off or placed in the church once services resume, to mail your offering to the church, or to make donations online. Please remember ministry is still taking place.
Let us pray.
God of constant love, you have guided your people in all times and ages. May we who offer you our praise today always be ready to follow where you lead; we ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
And now, as our Saviour Christ has taught us, we are bold to pray,
Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
Save us from the time of trial,
And deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
The power, and the glory,
For ever and ever. Amen.
Doxology
Glory to God,
Whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Glory to God from generation to generation, in the Church and in Christ Jesus, for ever and ever. Amen.
Blessing
The blessing of almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be upon you now and always. Amen.
Closing Hymn – Great is Thy Faithfulness
Dismissal
Go forth into the world, rejoicing in the power of the Spirit.
Thanks be to God.
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