Order of Worship – August 18, 2024
August 18, 2024, 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Speaker: Dr. Afonso Issa; Liturgist: Kathleen Bolton
10:30 - 11:30 AM at the Chapel
Prelude: "Let us break bread together"
Welcome and Announcements
Land Acknowledgement
We want to acknowledge that we are gathered on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples: Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam Nations.
Lighting of the Christ Candle
Call to Worship - Responsive
(From Psalm 145)
I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever.
Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.
One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.
On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness.
They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD, and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.
Let us worship the Lord!
Hymn: "Joyful, joyful we adore thee"
Prayer of Adoration
Prayer of Confession - Unison
Help us to remember, O Lord, for we seem to practice forgetting. We for- get who made us and why, we forget your daily grace and unremitting love, we forget your forgiveness of ourselves and our neighbours. We forget so much because there are some things we remember too well: perceived injustices done to us, times of betrayal and cowardice we try to keep hidden, moments of envy and pride of which we are ashamed. Forgive our sins, our sins of forgetting and remembering, and help us, we pray, to trust in him who buries all our sins deep in the tomb of his own death and raises us up daily to a life of happy service in Jesus Christ. In his name we pray. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
Passing of the Peace
Catechism for Today (from the Presbyterian Church in Canada)
Question 63. Did the Holy Spirit inspire the Bible?
Yes. The Bible itself testifies to the Spirit’s inspiration of its writings. The Holy Spirit also guided the church in the selection of the canon, and leads us by an inner witness to accept the scriptures as God’s written word to us. Holy Scriptures are necessary, sufficient and reliable for our salvation, revealing Jesus Christ, the living Word.
Question 64. What does it mean to call the Bible the Word of God?
It means that God speaks to us through the Bible and calls us to faith and obedience. At the same time the Bible is also a human word and its writing was conditioned by the language, thought, and setting of its time.
Hymn: "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet"
Prayer for understanding
Scripture reading: John 16 (NRSV)
Sermon: “The joy of understanding God”
Song: "Only a holy God"
Offering and Prayer of Dedication
Prayers of the People
The Apostles' Creed
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
The Communion
Invitation to the Table and Institution
Sursum corda
Great Prayer of Thanksgiving
The Lord’s Prayer
Breaking of the bread; blessing of the cup
Prayer after Communion
Offering
Prayer of Dedication
Song: “Lord, I lift your name on high”
Charge and Benediction
Three-fold Amen
Postlude: “Saviour, like a shepherd lead us”