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June 2, 2024: Sunday Morning Service

Rev Dr John Smith

Sunday, June 2, 2024

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June 2^nd , 2024

3^rd Sunday of Pentecost

PRIDE SUNDAY

Find this service at www.graceunitedthornbury.ca/live

Leading us today in Worship:
Minister: Rev. Dr. John Greg. Smith
Music Director: Dr. Christopher Burton
Scripture Reader: Mary Lou Gignac

Leader: regular font ~ All: bold font ~ Sung words: bold italics.
Asterisk * Indicates when the congregation may stand if able.

We Gather

PRELUDE
“Little Prelude in D Major” - J. S. Bach

WELCOME

The CHRIST CANDLE
As we come to worship in this Pentecost season
We turn to light the candle which reminds us:
Christ’s Spirit is always with us!
Christ's spirit fills us, heals us, and completes us.
Christ’s light enlivens us, and gives us strength,
for the living of these days.
May it be so! Amen!

OUR COMMITMENT to SAFE SPACE & ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of the LAND
We believe all people are made in the image of God and are entitled to dignity and respect. At Grace United Church we try to offer a safer, inclusive and generous space for all who are seeking a faith community. We offer full participation of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities, all races, ages and abilities in the life and work of the ministry.

Grace United Church is situated on the traditional territories of the Anishinaabek, Petun, Huron-Wendat, and Mississauga peoples, located within the boundary of the region of Treaty 18 of 1818. We humbly acknowledge the First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples of Canada as traditional stewards of the land on which we work and worship and are committed to working actively toward genuine restitution and reconciliation.

OPENING COMMENTS
This Sunday is Pride Sunday across the United Church. We’ve come a long way baby, to get this far, and there are still miles to go before we sleep. We have a lot to learn yet, but God knows we’re worth it!
In a world that seems so bent on hate, so loveless sometimes, so cruel and un-affirming, we know that we have to make a difference. Not for ourselves, but for those coming after us. The difference we make comes from deep within our spiritual DNA: since God is love, so too must we love. Today we are going to celebrate the very fact that we are alive at this time and in this place and celebrate that a message of love and acceptance of every person is taking shape within the body of this church.
We celebrate that here love is not a thing, or a wish or an aspiration, love is alive! It is the active spirit of God alive in us, and there is only one thing that spirit wants from us: love!
Jesus showed us the most important thing: that God is love, and God’s kingdom lives in us.
So welcome friends. If you have been in the position of being harmed and put down for who you are, including by the institutional church: we see you, we uphold you, we acknowledge your sacred worth. On this Pride Sunday we especially lift up members of the LGBTQ+ community who are Black and indigenous and persons of colour, queer and questioning and trans, all of whom need us to join in the fight for justice. We remember that the first Pride was a riot.
If you have struggled to fit in, if you have been bullied for your difference, if you have lived with hurtful messages about your true self: Many of us have been there too. We are with you.
Let today be a joyful day because the “You of You” is allowed to come out and play! Let it out to share with the rest of the world, starting right now, today! Happy Pride!

* HYMN: MV #145
“Draw the Circle Wide”

Refrain:
Draw the circle wide. Draw it wider still.
Let this be our song, no one stands alone,
standing side by side, draw the circle wide.

1. God the still-point of the circle,
‘round whom all creation turns;
nothing lost, but held forever,
in God’s gracious arms.
Refrain:
Draw the circle wide. Draw it wider still.
Let this be our song, no one stands alone,
standing side by side, draw the circle wide.

2. Let our hearts touch far horizons,
so encompass great and small;
let our loving know no borders,
faithful to God’s call.
Refrain:
Draw the circle wide. Draw it wider still.
Let this be our song, no one stands alone,
standing side by side, draw the circle wide.

3. Let the dreams we dream be larger,
than we’ve ever dreamed before;
let the dream of Christ be in us,
open every door.
Refrain:
Draw the circle wide. Draw it wider still.
Let this be our song, no one stands alone,
standing side by side, draw the circle wide.

A POEM
The question is why, why are we here?
To say our hellos and goodbyes, then disappear ---
This beautiful life, what is it for?
To learn how to master peace, or master war?

There's only one answer that matters
Even if your heart has been shattered
Whatever you want, whatever you are after:
Love is still the answer
Love is still the answer

Love, love, love, love
Love, love, love, love
Love is still the answer

We all make mistakes, no, we're not perfect yet!
Maybe God made us all from an accident --
And the question that sits on everyone's lips
Is why should we pick ourselves up and start over again?

There's only one answer that matters
Even if your heart has been shattered
Whatever you want, whatever you are after
Love is still the answer
Love is still the answer

Love, love, love, love
Love, love, love, love
Love is still the answer

AFFIRMATION
Friends, let us lift one another up in love and in God’s spirit in the words of this affirmation:
Let us work together to make things work, my friends!
Let us create a home here; let us find a home here.
Let us live out a dynamic faith here, gather strength here
And make a love-family here.
Let us learn we can be ourselves here, and feel secure here.
Let us celebrate each other here, and be at home here.
Let our doors be open wide to all who happen by
Let us honour every gift, every different kind of way to be.
Let us commit to Love’s command, and let us take a stand
So that everyone belongs, everyone counts
And everyone can trust they are welcome here.
AMEN!

A STORY: “All God’s Critters”

*SONG: “Everything Possible”
Everyone is invited to sing along with the chorus to this bopping song by Unitarian Minister Fred Small. Fred wrote the song for a friend’s kids, over 40 years ago. He wanted to give to kids messages that were not common or mainstream at the time. In the last year or two, he re-wrote one of the verses to make it more gender diverse!

Refrain:
You can be anybody you want to be,
You can love whomever you will
You can travel any country where your heart leads
And know I will love you still
You can live by yourself; you can gather friends around,
You can choose one special one
And the only measure of your words and your deeds
Will be the love you leave behind when you’re done.

SHARING the PEACE of CHRIST
Improvisation on a Hymn - C. Burton

We Listen

SCRIPTURE READING
Luke 4: 14 – 30, (The Message)
To Set the Burdened Free
Jesus returned to Galilee powerful in the Spirit. News that he was back spread through the countryside. He taught in their meeting places to everyone’s acclaim and pleasure.
He came to Nazareth where he had been raised. As he always did on the Sabbath, he went to the meeting place. When he stood up to read, he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written,
God’s Spirit is on me;
    he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor,
Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and
    recovery of sight to the blind,
To set the burdened and battered free,
    to announce, “This is God’s time to shine!”

He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the place was on him, intent. Then he started in, “You’ve just heard Scripture make history. It came true just now in this place.”

All who were there, watching and listening, were surprised at how well he spoke. But they also said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son, the one we’ve known since he was just a kid?”

He answered, “I suppose you’re going to quote the proverb, ‘Doctor, go heal yourself. Do here in your hometown what we heard you did in Capernaum.’ Well, let me tell you something: No prophet is ever welcomed in his hometown. Isn’t it a fact that there were many widows in Israel at the time of Elijah during that three and a half years of drought when famine devastated the land, but the only widow to whom Elijah was sent was in Sarepta in Sidon? And there were many lepers in Israel at the time of the prophet Elisha but the only one cleansed was Naaman the Syrian.”

That set everyone in the meeting place seething with anger. They threw him out, banishing him from the village, then took him to a mountain cliff at the edge of the village to throw him to his doom, but he gave them the slip and was on his way.

ANTHEM
“A Jubilant Song” - Mary Lynn Lightfoot

SERMON; “When Love Rises Up”

We Respond

PRAYERS of the PEOPLE & THE LORD’S PRAYER (VU 921)

RESPONSE
God hear our prayers:
Help us bring love and light to them.

PRAYER of DEDICATION of our OFFERINGS
The work of creating a world that works for all,
Requires many gifts, many talents, many resources.
We bring all that we have, our courage, our strength,
Our prayers and our dreams,
Our gifts of time and treasure,
And all the love and acceptance we embody,
To create God’s world of justice and joy.
Thanks be to God. AMEN

Donate online: www.graceunitedthornbury.ca, select “Give”
or contact the office by email: accounting@graceunitedthornbury.ca
or phone: 519-599-2438 to arrange a cheque pick-up, or an e-transfer
Mail: Grace UC, 140 Bruce St. S. PO Box 219, Thornbury, ON N0H 2P0
or Offering Plate at the back of the sanctuary.

Care, Prayer, Share

What’s Up at Grace?

We Go Out

*HYMN: MV #165
“There is a Time”

1. There is a time that we must rise
There is a time that we must stand
There is a time that we must come (come)
Refrain
together (together)
For blessed are our lives (our lives)
Blessed our love (our love)
and blessed the promise gathered now.

2. There is a time that we must leave
Go from the place where hatreds breed
and, turning, feel the Spirit breathe (breathe) us
Refrain
together (together)
For blessed are our lives (our lives)
Blessed our love (our love)
and blessed the promise gathered now.

3. There is a time we know the way
There is a time we watch and pray
In living faith we make our way (way)
Refrain
together (together)
For blessed are our lives (our lives)
Blessed our love (our love)
and blessed the promise gathered now.

4. Upon the dry a cloud will rise
And truth will shine among the lies
And wisdom sing as we arise (rise)
Refrain
together (together)
For blessed are our lives (our lives)
Blessed our love (our love)
and blessed the promise gathered now.

5. There is a bow within the rain
And it will come and bend again
And colours shine where we have been (been)
Refrain
together (together)
For blessed are our lives (our lives)
Blessed our love (our love)
and blessed the promise gathered now.

*COMMISSIONING

*SUNG BLESSING
“GO NOW IN PEACE”

Go now in peace. Never be afraid.
God will go with you each hour of every day,
Go now in faith, steadfast, strong and true,
Know God will guide you in all you do.
Go now in love, and show you believe.
Reach out to others so all the world can see.
God will be there, *within, around, above.
Go now in peace, in faith and in love.
Amen, amen, amen.