Order of Service / Creation Time 2 / September 21, 2025

*Gathering Hymn This Is God’s Wondrous World (#296 VU)

Welcome & Land Acknowledgement

Lighting the Christ Candle

Call to Worship

One: Oxygen. Carbon dioxide. Traces of other gases.

All: All around us.

One: The air we breathe.

  All: Deep within us.

One: The ancients believed…

  All: that the air was divine breath. Holy Spirit.

One: And when it moved, we would be “in-Spirited.” Inspired.

All: Given Life!

One: Let us breathe deep into our bodies, filling our lungs with the air that gives life!

All: Let us breathe deep into our souls, filling ourselves with the Spirit that gives life!

*Richard Bott, Gathering Pentecost 2 2016.

Opening Prayer

*Opening Hymn All Things Bright and Beautiful (#291 VU)

Prayer of Confessional and Renewal (Unison)

God of All, in the beginning, you created. In the beginning, you created all things. In the beginning, you looked at everything and you said, “This is good.” How do you feel about it now? How do you feel about what we have done, in our desire to grow, to constantly move forward? How do you feel about the damage we do—the damage we can’t seem to keep ourselves from doing—to this small part of your creation? To the land, the earth, the air, the water—and all the life it sustains? Declare your word into our hearts, our minds— our lives— so that we might feel it, so that we might live it, and so that your creation might be good once again. (a time of silent confession) Amen.

*Richard Bott, Gathering Pentecost 2 2022. Page 28.

Words of Assurance

One: God’s mercy is greater than our mistakes.

  All: We are forgiven and given a fresh start.

One: God invites us to care for the earth together.

All: We will live with hope and gentleness. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Announcements and Minute for Mission

Time for God’s Children (Hymn – Like a Rock, #92 MV)

Like a rock, like a rock, God is under our feet

Like the starry night sky, God is over our head

Like the sun on the horizon, God is ever before

Like the river runs to ocean, our home is in God evermore.

Prayer for Illumination

Proclaiming the Scriptures

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1 Is there no balm in Gilead? No physician there?

Psalm 79:1-9 (VU p. 793) We are mocked by our neighbours.

Luke 16:1-13 The parable of the dishonest manager.

Anthem

Sermon

*Hymn For Beauty of Prairies (#303 VU)

*Offering

*Offertory Hymn (#542 VU, We Give You But Your Own)

We give you but your own, whate’er the gift may be,

all that we have is yours alone, we give it gratefully.

*Offertory Prayer (Unison)

Holy One, you have called us friends and named us partners in your work of Creation. Accept the gifts we bring and bless them for your use, that they may reveal to others the depth of your love for all people and for Creation itself. Amen.

*Karen MacNeill. Gathering Pentecost 2 2025, page 29.

Prayers of the People and Lord’s Prayer

*Closing Hymn Praise with Joy the World’s Creator (VU 312)

*Commissioning

One: The covenant of God is with you and with all creation.

All: The covenant is for life, for peace, for joy abounding for all God’s creatures, for earth, ocean, and sky.

One: We will go to proclaim God’s renewing power for all of creation.

All: We will go to be God’s renewing power for all of creation.

* Robin Wardlaw. Gathering Pentecost 2 2021, page 30.

*Commissioning Song Peace Be With You (#215 MV)

Peace be with you, peace forever, peace be with you my friends.

Till we meet again, may God be with you. Peace, peace, peace.

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