Sing to the Lord a new song - 911 Litany

O God, our mighty tower, and creator of Heaven and Earth,
Have mercy upon us.

O God, our Redeemer, who died and rose again,
Have mercy upon us.

O God, our comforter, who fell as a dove at the Baptism of Jesus, and strengthens all the faithful,
Have mercy upon us.

Holy Trinity, undivided, One God,
Have mercy upon us.

By the establishment of the firmament, and the speaking of light into the darkness,
Have mercy upon us.

By the blessing and sending of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Rachel,
Have mercy upon us.

By the liberation of the children of Israel from Pharaoh’s hand and the renting of the Sea,
Have mercy upon us.

By the witness and courage of your holy prophets of old,
Have mercy upon us.

By the calling of our sister Mary, and the Incarnation of the Word into the world,
Have mercy upon us.

By the ministry of Christ, the preaching of the Good News, the healing of the sick, the casting out of evil, and the raising of the dead,
Have mercy upon us.

By the agony of the cross, and the victory of the Resurrection,
Have mercy upon us.

From the forces of evil, and from deadly acts of terrorism,
Good Lord, deliver us.

From the fear that grips us as individuals and as a people,
Good Lord, deliver us.

From the senseless hatred that hardens hearts and minds,
Good Lord, deliver us.

From war and violent conflict of all stripes,
Good Lord, deliver us.

We do beseech you to hear us, good Lord, that on this tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on America, that you would rule and govern our hearts, and the powers of this world,
We beseech you to hear us, good Lord.

That it would please you to protect this nation, and the peoples of the whole world,
We beseech you to hear us, good Lord.

That it would please you to uphold the military of this nation, and all nations, who strive to bring peace and freedom to all your children,
We beseech you to hear us, good Lord.

That it would please you to root out the causes of terror and war in all places and among all people,
We beseech you to hear us, good Lord.

That it would please you to look upon those who would seek to do us harm, and turn their hearts from the ways of hatred and violence,
We beseech you to hear us, good Lord.

That it would please you to rain down grace and mercy upon us all, that your peace, which passes all understanding, would overtake us all,
We beseech you to hear us, good Lord.

That it would please you on this day to uphold all those who lost people dear to their hearts during the attacks, and in the conflicts which have followed in their wake,
We beseech you to hear us, good Lord.

That it would please you to surround widows and children, parents and loved ones, the injured and maimed with a hope in your trust, your abiding Presence, and life everlasting,
We beseech you to hear us, good Lord.

That it would please you to uphold all those who maintain peace and safety in our local communities and abroad,
We beseech you to hear us, good Lord.

That it would please you to shine your light into the darkness, that all would see and know you, and your ways.
We beseech you to hear us, good Lord.

Son of God, we beseech you to hear us.
Son of God, we beseech you to hear us.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,
Have mercy upon us.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,
Have mercy upon us.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,
Grant us your peace.

The Lord be with you.
And also with you.

Let us pray.

O God, the author of peace and lover of concord, whose heart is glad when all your children live together in unity; we lift to you the grief of our hearts, hoping that you will not only comfort those hearts, but change them; that we may be the people you have created, and called us to be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Sing to the Lord a new song - Pentecost plus 12

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

Sing to the Lord a new song.  Praise him with dancing, with tambourine and lyre.

Do we have God on our side when we seek vengeance?

When we want those who have hurt us to be hurt worse than we ever were?

Our readings today are all about vengeance.  Our reading from exodus is the lead-up to one of the plagues of Egypt.  It is the basis of the Jewish feast of Passover and thus the basis for the last supper, Easter and our celebration of the Eucharist.  But at the heart of it, it is about God taking vengeance against Pharaoh for his treatment of the Israelites.

Our psalm today is also about vengeance.  It is about praising God for being with us when we punish those who have hurt us.

But do we really have God on our side when we hurt someone else?  Even if our cause is really Good?

Sing to the Lord a new song.  Praise him with dancing, with tambourine and lyre.

Our readings from the New Testament are about vengeance too, but they tell us another side of being hurtful.

In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he tells them that Love is the fulfillment of the Law.  When he tells us to live honourably, not revelling in quarrelling and jealousy; about making no provision for the flesh, he hints at, but doesn’t directly say, that hate is always a sin.

Our reading from the Gospel of Matthew is even more clearly about vengeance.  Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.  When we take vengeance, we bind that hate, not only to whoever or whatever we hate, but to ourselves.  That hate will follow us beyond this life.

Sing to the Lord a new song.  Praise him with dancing, with tambourine and lyre.

So what is our path forward?  Where do we find God in our lives and in these readings?  What is our new song?

I’m going to read an letter to you from the Rev. Canon Rod Gillis about Labour Day.  I believe that it leads us in the right direction.

The Holiday That Dares Not Pray Its Name

Monday is Labour Day. One of the legacies of growing up in the church in a large industrial area is an awareness of just how alienated working people, especially those in unionized jobs, became from the church. Coal miners, for example, had their "check-off" to the denomination, but participation in worship en masse was limited and with a heavy dose of scepticism.

Part of the reason for this is that , (with exceptions at the margins like AFSA, Sammy Prince, COADY and the like), the institutional church made choices--choosing monied interests over labour most times.

As September begins, one considers the focus in churches. Labour Day is mostly a demarcation line for programming. It's all about "after the long weekend" in September. There is an emphasis on the fad of "back to church Sunday" but no overt emphasis on Labour and working people. There are bulletins galore about injustices on the other side of the planet (and very important in the interests of human solidarity that there ought to be) but little emphasis on chronic injustices at home. Where are the statements from Church leaders on the recession and unemployment, and chronic youth unemployment, the silence about our participation in foreign wars?

Last week the mill closure in Port Hawkesbury was announced as a  catastrophic hit to the entire economy of Eastern Nova Scotia. Do we have something to say about that?

Some of the traditional themes that preachers might explore on Labour Day are unemployment, work place justice, war and peace (veterans are often lauded as heroes but treated like redundant labour by government), the environment.

[Today] the Hebrew Scripture reading is the story of the Passover from Exodus. It’s an archetypal story. I'm working on a homiletic angle around the "death of the first born, the sparing of the first born". The story is a classic Hebrew presentation of tangible justice being done by a reversal of roles (see also the Song of Mary). The first born child, first born calf, first cereal harvest are primarily signs of hope for the future. The story seems to convey the notion that the hope of the oppressor is ultimately tied to the hope, or denial of the same, to those who are oppressed.

Perhaps if we focus on why historically we have lost entire sectors of the population to the church by siding with vested interests then we may develop some clues about how to realistically get connected to people and the reality in which they live.

                                                                                                The Reverend Canon Rod Gillis

                                                                                                Rector, St. James’ Armdale

Sing to the Lord a new song.  Praise him with dancing, with tambourine and lyre.

In the Anglican Church, we have become very stiff.  Our worship is rigid and we have established a very set “in group.”  Everyone is welcome as long as they behave just like us, or at least don’t disturb my area of comfort.

Well, sorry to say it, but Christianity was never supposed to be comfortable.  It is about pushing boundaries.  It is about welcoming those who no one else will welcome.  It is about putting ourselves in the line of fire, choosing to be the ones to get hurt instead of the ones doing the hurting.

We are very good at being welcoming according to a schedule.  We welcome children on specific Sundays like the Blessing of the Book Bags, and St. Nicholas’ Day.  We welcome fishermen when we bless the fleet.  Where are those we welcome on other days?

Not here!

What do we need to do to be not only welcoming but truly inviting to those in our community who are not here?  Whatever it is, we need to start doing it soon, and at least in the beginning, it is not going to be comfortable.  Even though we are Anglicans, we need to get up and dance.  We need to make some noise around us.  For too long, we have been wearing Harry’s cloak of invisibility.

What is our new song?  How are we going to praise God?  Will it be with a whimper or with a bang?

Sing to the Lord a new song.  Praise him with dancing, with tambourine and lyre.

The Kingdom of Heaven is like Saffron

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.

Do any of you cook with saffron?  What is saffron?  By weight, saffron is the most expensive spice in the world.  But what is it?

How about a crocus?  We have at least a couple varieties of crocus that grow here.  Saffron comes from a special variety of crocus.  It is the bits of the flower that hold the pollen, the stigmas.

I have a small box of saffron here.  Before it was opened, it held one gram of saffron.  Any guesses about how many flowers it took to fill this box?

There are three stigmas per flower.  One ounce is about 450 stigmas, or around 150 flowers.  To produce 1 kilogram of saffron takes around 150,000 flowers: a farm the size of two football fields.

Can anyone tell me what a gram of saffron is worth?  Any guesses?

One gram in Canada is currently worth about $18.  That’s a little more than $550 per ounce.  Right now, the price of gold is very high, but through most of recorded history, the price per ounce of saffron has been fairly close to the price of gold.

By weight, saffron is the most expensive spice in the world.  But saffron is not very expensive to use.  When this box was fresh one stigma would flavour two cups of rice.  It would change the rice to a bright golden colour, give it a rich flavour and a spicy aroma.  So if you could use this whole box, 450 uses, while it was still fresh, about 3 years, each use would cost about 4 cents.  Suddenly saffron is not so expensive.

He told them another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like saffron.

Have you understood all this?  They answered …?

How do these parables of Jesus’ tell us anything about the kingdom of heaven?  How does mine about saffron?

The kingdom of heaven is very much like saffron.  It is incredibly valuable.  It is worth more than anything else you can compare it to.  At the same time, a tiny piece of the kingdom of heaven can completely change your life and the lives of those around you.  It spreads and brings flavour to the world.

So what does all of this mean for our lives?

I think that Jesus is trying to tell us to stop looking for the big things.  It is not there that we will make a difference.

What we need to do is to look for small things we can change, small places where we can make the world a better place, little glimpses of the kingdom of heaven that we can bring to light.  When we do this, when we make some small thing just a little bit better, we help to create a place for the kingdom of heaven to take root.  We plant a mustard seed that can grow into a small tree.  We add one tiny stigma of saffron to a dish and it spreads to flavour the entire meal.

Saffron is like the kingdom of heaven.

From Synod to Mission

But some believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and said, "It is necessary for them to be circumcised and ordered to keep the law of Moses." The apostles and the elders met together to consider this matter. After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "My brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that I should be the one through whom the Gentiles would hear the message of the good news and become believers. Acts 15:5-7


Just over a week ago, representatives of every parish in our diocese came together in Halifax to meet in synod. The theme of this year’s synod was “Called Into Community.” Over three days, we alternated between the business of synod (the motions that synod had to debate) and presentations around our theme.

The business of synod could be, mostly, divided into two or three categories. First, we passed several motions that change the structure of the administration of the diocese. The largest portion of these changes was to deal with a change of focus in the diocese. The new structure will allow the administration to respond to needs within the parishes of the diocese as they come up between synods, rather than waiting until the next synod.

The second category is justice. There was a motion on anti-racism. There were several anti-poverty motions. There were also several motions which could fit here or be moved into their own category that dealt with issues around human sexuality. All of these motions, any amendments, and the vote results can be found at:
http://www.nspeidiocese.ca/synod/143rdDiocesanSynod.htm. If anyone wants to read these and cannot see them online, let me know and I will print them for you. Many of the presentations to synod can be found here too.

The presentations around our theme were, in my opinion, much more important than the debates around the motions. Being “called into community” is fundamental to our identity as church, as Anglicans, even as Christians. Being called into community is all about mission. The reason that we meet every Sunday is not just to worship. We meet to learn about our mission within our community. We meet so that we can take action. In our councils and in our services we will be talking about mission for a long time. We will be focusing on it until we figure out what our mission work needs to be in our community and around the world.

We will continue with discussion on the nature of mission.

Mother's Day - 2011

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

Since today is Mother's Day, I thought I would begin with a list someone has made which they have called "Murphy's Laws of Parenting." See if you can identify with any of these:
1. The later you stay up, the earlier your child will wake up the next morning.
2. The gooier the food, the more likely it is to end up on the carpet.
3. The longer it takes you to make a meal, the less your child will like it.
4. A sure way to get something done is to tell a child not to do it.
5. For a child to become clean, something else must become dirty.
6. Toys multiply to fill any space available.
7. Yours is always the only child who doesn't behave.
8. If the shoe fits . . . it's expensive.
9. Backing the car out of the driveway causes your child to have to go to the bathroom.
10. Do any of these strike home?
It isn't easy being a Mom. I chuckled when I read about a story by a Mom named Mary Jane Kurtz. Mary Jane says that when she was a young, single mom with four children, it was difficult to get them all ready for church on Sunday. One particular Sunday morning as the children started to complain and squabble, Mary Jane stomped from one room to the other, saying out loud why it was important they go to church as a family and have a good attitude. Suddenly, she noticed all four children huddled together and laughing.
"What's so funny?" Mary Jane asked. "Mom," they said, "every time you slam down your foot, smoke comes out. It must be the wrath of God!"

In reality, it was the powder Mary Jane had sprinkled in her shoes. But it worked. She says they made it to church on time that morning and practically every Sunday thereafter.

What we don't want to do on this Mother's Day, 2011 is take our Moms for granted. The best example I know of that is the Mother's Day card that reads like this: "Forget the housework, Mom. It's your day. Besides, you can always do double duty and catch up on Monday!"
All too often this is exactly what we do. We take for granted the huge amount of work that the women in our lives do every day. At least I know I do. As I’m sure you all know, Victoria has been away at work for more than a month now. Can you guess how often the clothes get washed? How often the floors get swept, let alone mopped? Whatever came to mind, it’s probably close. And I’m used to helping with the housework. When she’s here, we both do our part. Without her here? For my own sake, I’d better get it done before she gets home.
We’ve done exactly the same thing in the church. The Bible is full of examples of women leading God’s people. There are women who are prophets. There are women who contribute their own resources to the early house churches. There is a huge amount of evidence that most of the leaders of the early church were women. And Christianity was made the religion of the state and men took it over. Everything the women had done was swept under the rug (otherwise known as man-cleaning). The women of Christ were forgotten.
Only recently have we been rediscovering the role of women in the early church. Only recently have we been finding out that without women leading us in the church we cannot truly be God’s people. Without women, we are incomplete, or in Biblical terms, imperfect.

Of the women in the Bible, several are very important mothers. Can anyone think of a woman in the Bible who is a mother?
1. Eve (mother of humanity)
2. Mary (mother of Jesus)
3. Bathsheba (mother of ?)
4. Elizabeth (mother of John the Baptist)
5. Others?
Well, today we honour these women. Today we honour all mothers, especially our own. Today we try to remember that we should do this every day, not just today.

Let us pray,
Loving God,
we thank you for the love of the mothers you have given us,
whose love is so precious that it can never be measured,
whose patience seems to have no end.
May we see your loving hand behind them and guiding them.
We pray for those mothers who fear they will run out of love
or time, or patience.
We ask you to bless them with your own special love.
We ask this in the name of Jesus, our brother.
Amen.

Rumours, Doubt, and Facebook

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

What is our Gospel really about today? On the surface it is about belief. It is about believing the Good News that Jesus preached during his life. It is about believing that Jesus was the Son of God. It is about believing that Jesus rose from the grave and walked among the disciples. It is about believing that Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is still among us today.

All of that is true. Our Gospel is about these things, but that is only the surface. Like so many passages in the Bible, the surface meaning is very powerful, but there is much more to learn. The words that contain God’s Word are not so shallow. Words seldom are.

Let’s look at our reading more closely. Jesus and his disciples were Jews. They were an upstart sect of Judaism which did not fit with the most powerful group or groups of Jews. By the time this story was written, they had been thrown out of the Temple. If anyone found out that you were one of Jesus’ followers, it could be very bad for you. They were afraid and they were hiding what they were doing. So our story is about fear.

Jesus came and talked to them. He proved who he was and told them what they were to do. He breathed the Holy Spirit upon them and gave them the power to forgive and retain sins. This is the first ordination in Christ’s church. Our story is about priesthood.

Thomas, who had by now spent years with this small group of friends, wasn’t there when Jesus came. Thomas did not believe them. He had to see for himself. (I can’t imagine that made them feel very good). So our story is about doubt and mistrust and pain.

Then Jesus comes again when Thomas is there. Thomas sees and believes. So our story is about belief again.
Finally, Jesus did many other signs that are not recorded. So our story tells us that we should trust the message of Jesus without knowing the whole story.

So let’s see. Our story is about fear, priesthood, doubt, mistrust, pain, belief, and trust even when we don’t have all of the information.

Words have great power.

Have any of you ever played the rumour game? The game where a group of people sit in a circle – one person whispers something in the ear of the next person – that person whispers in the ear of the next – and so on around the circle?

What happens by the time it gets back to the first person?

How about this? Have any of you heard of facebook?

What happens when something gets posted on facebook?

Does facebook know if it is true?

Things posted on facebook are just like the rumour game. They can take on lives of their own. If the item posted grabs on to peoples’ emotions, such as fear, it spreads faster and quickly becomes exactly what is feared.

A rumour about something that we fear can make us just like Thomas. It can make us doubt a person that we have known for years. A person who has consistently done good things for us. A person that we have no real reason to distrust.

Now to bring it back to today’s Gospel. Jesus died and rose again. After his death, people were spreading rumours about Jesus. They were saying that Jesus was just an ordinary man. They were saying that those who said that they saw Jesus were either having delusions or that they were lying. Those rumours led to Thomas doubting his friends.

Jesus sends us out to spread the Good News. And what is the Good News in our Gospel today? “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Not one of us here today has seen Jesus, the man, in person. None of us have felt the wounds on his hands and feet or in his side. At least I haven’t. Maybe one of you has. But despite this, we believe. We are here because we believe the incomplete, good story rather than the rumours. We are here because we believe that our sins are forgiven and that we have the power to forgive others.
We believe.

I pray that if I fall victim to rumours, and I’m sure I will because words have power – I pray that when I fall victim to rumours, others will forgive me. I also pray that when others hurt me because of rumours, I will be able to forgive them.

This is my prayer for myself. What is yours?

Music for Thought

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.



As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him. (John 9:1-3)


Music has always been an important part of my life. I love all kinds of music, but the music that feeds my soul is the music that we sing about God.

Does anyone know what this is? (Hold up hymnal)


I love hymns. I love to sing them. I love to read them. I suck at writing them. It’s a gift I’ve always wanted and never had. One of my personal sins … envy.


You might be wondering why I’m saying all this about hymns this morning. Don’t worry. I’ll eventually get there. But first I’m going to sing you the first verse of a hymn. If you want to follow along, it is number 371.

(Sing verse 1 of “To God Be the Glory”).

What a great hymn of praise to God. Here is another that has always been a favourite of mine. It’s not in our hymnal, but I have it in another one. I know it from my childhood in the Presbyterian Church: "All the Way My Savior Leads Me." (Tab 2) It tells about how Jesus leads us through the difficult times in our life. I have another one here that you might know: "Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine." (Tab 3)


Now to get to what you’ve all been waiting for. What do hymns have to do with today’s readings. Well, actually nothing.


But these hymns all have something in common. They were all written by the same person. In fact, that person wrote quite a number of hymns. Only one of them is in our hymnal. Her name was Fanny Crosby.

When Fanny was six weeks old, she had an eye infection. Her regular doctor was out of town, and a man posing as a doctor gave her the wrong treatment. Within a few days, she was blind. If that happened to me, I am afraid I would be very bitter and I would probably spend a lifetime feeling sorry for myself. Fanny was never bitter and she never felt sorry for herself. When she was only eight years old, she wrote this poem:

Oh, what a happy child I am,
Although I can not see.
I am resolved that in this world,
Contented I will be.
How many blessings I enjoy
That other people don't.
To weep and sigh because I'm blind,
I cannot and I won't!

Instead of being bitter and feeling sorry for herself, Fanny used the gifts that God had given her to write over 8,000 hymns and poems to praise and glorify God.

One day Jesus was walking with his disciples when they passed by a blind man. When they saw him, the disciples asked Jesus who was to blame for the man's blindness. Was it because of his sin or was it because of his parent's sins? Jesus answered them and told them that no one was to blame, he was blind so that God's works could be shown in him. Then Jesus healed the man and the people praised and glorified God for his goodness.

What about Fanny Crosby? God didn't heal her blindness. Perhaps if God had healed her, she might never have written all of those beautiful hymns -- and the world would never have heard of Fanny Crosby. She used the tragedy of her blindness to glorify God. I pray that tragedy will never come into your life, but if it does, remember that everything that happens can be used to praise and glorify God!

Dear Lord, the difficulties in our life seem small when compared to what others may be facing. Help us not to grumble and complain, but to praise and glorify you in every situation. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.


based on sermons4kids