South Stormont Pastoral Charge

# Gathering Hymn This Is God’s Wondrous World (#296 VU) Welcome & Land Acknowledgement Lighting the Christ Candle Call to Worship One: Joining with light and shade, we will praise our God.    All: The blue of the sky, the glow of the beckoning dawn, sing God’s praises. One: With flowing water and pounding seas, we will praise our God.    All: The mighty ocean, the trickling stream, proclaim their Creator’s marvellous power. One: With hills and valleys, we will praise our God. All: With the dazzling heights, the lowest valleys, One: with soaring eagle and busy ant, we will praise our God. All: Each bird, each animal, each tiny insect, and each person of humankind makes clear God’s creative presence, and so we praise our God. *David Sparks. Gathering Pentecost 2 2026. Page 25. Opening Prayer *Opening Hymn All Praise to You (#297 VU) Prayer of Confessional and Renewal (Unison) Loving God, we are gifted to experience this wonderful world. Trees that whisper your nam...

        In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells five parables about the kingdom of heaven: the mustard seed, the yeast, the treasure hidden in a field, the pearl of great value, and the fishing net.           Jesus uses parables because the kingdom of heaven cannot be fully captured in words or ideas. No language can completely explain the mystery of God. A parable does not give us a perfect definition. Instead, it points us toward the truth through familiar images drawn from everyday life. In this regard, Christian faith is not about having a perfect theory or complete knowledge. It is about bearing witness. It is about sharing how we have experienced God’s presence and how God’s love has touched our lives. The five parables in today’s Gospel reading are all different, but they share one important truth. The kingdom of heaven is not far away. It is among us. It is the reality of God’s love, justice, and life at work here an...

# Gathering Hymn For the Beauty of the Earth (#226 VU) Welcome & Land Acknowledgement Lighting the Christ Candle Call to Worship One: The realm of God begins like a tiny seed and works like yeast hidden in the dough.    All: We celebrate God’s presence, bringing life and transforming the world beyond what we can imagine. One: We gather to notice the gifts of life growing around us.    All: We open our hearts to recognize God’s grace. One: Come, let us worship the One who is at work among us. All: We come with attentive hearts, wonder, and hope. Opening Prayer *Opening Hymn Open My Eyes, That I May See (#371 VU) Prayer of Confessional and Renewal (Unison) Faithful God, you place signs of your realm all around us, yet we often overlook what seems small or ordinary. We become distracted by quick results, easy answers, and things that cannot give true life. Forgive us when fear, haste, or habit keeps us from noticing your presence and making life-giving choices. Ren...

Today’s Gospel reading from Matthew begins with someone sowing good seed in a field. This reflects the biblical view of the world. The world did not begin with evil, but with goodness. In Genesis, after God created the world, God declared that it was good. Everything in creation has its beginning in the goodness of God’s love. Human beings, in particular, were created in the image of God. God has planted good seeds within each of us. We were created with the ability to love, to feel compassion for others, to help one another, and to live together in community. But one night, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat. Jesus’ listeners would have recognized this as something that could really happen. Roman law even dealt with cases where someone sowed weeds in another person’s field to ruin the crop and allowed the owner to seek compensation for the loss. Jesus compares the enemy who sowed the weeds to the devil (13:39). In the Bible, the devil or Satan represents the forces that tem...

  # Gathering Hymn Come In, Come In and Sit Down (#395 VU) Welcome & Land Acknowledgement Lighting the Christ Candle Call to Worship One: God plants seeds of hope even in troubled soil.   All: We come to celebrate God’s presence and trust that God is still at work. One: When good and evil seem tangled together,   All: God calls us not to despair or act in haste. One: There is a time for growth, a time for discernment, and a time for harvest. All: We wait with courage and live with hope. One: Come, let us worship the God who is faithful in every season. All: We worship with patient hearts and steadfast faith. Opening Prayer *Opening Hymn God of Grace and God of Glory (#686 VU) Prayer of Confessional and Renewal (Unison) Gracious God, you call us to trust your wisdom and your time, yet we often become discouraged by what we see. When the world does not change quickly, we lose hope. When fear and anger rise within us, we react before we listen, judge before w...

 Today’s Gospel reading comes from Matthew 13. It was a time when Jesus’ ministry was facing growing challenges. At first, many people welcomed him and followed him. Through Jesus, they experienced God’s love and care. But not everyone welcomed Jesus. The religious leaders, in particular, became suspicious of him and began to oppose him. Even some of those who followed Jesus did not fully understand his mission. They expected him to become a political or military leader who would free them from Roman rule. It was in this situation that Jesus told the parable in today’s reading. Many of you already know this story well. We can read it in at least three ways. First, we can focus on the four kinds of soil that receive the seed. Second, we can pay attention to the remarkable harvest at the end. Finally, we can reflect on the sower who goes out into the field and scatters the seed. In fact, this story is usually called the Parable of the Sower. There is certainly value in focusing on th...