Grace United Church | United Church in Thornbury, ON

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October 13, 2024 - Thanksgiving Sunday Morning Service

Rev Dr John Smith

Sunday, October 13, 2024

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October 13^th, 2024

Thanksgiving 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: Sandy Eagles

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

We Gather

PRELUDE
A Medley of Thanksgiving Hymn Tunes - C. Burton

A Stewardship Second
Every gift we receive, and every gift we give, comes from God. Let us share both wisely.

WELCOME

LIGHTING the CHRIST CANDLE
With grateful hearts we light this candle,
so that, with our hearts full of love and light
we might enter into the spirit of thanksgiving with joy.
May it be so!

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.

CALL to WORSHIP
“I Thank you God for Most this Amazing!”
(Poem by eecummings)

i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any—lifted from the no
of all nothing—human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

*HYMN: VU #516
“Come You Thankful People Come”

1. Come, you thankful people, come,
raise the song of harvest home!
All is safely gathered in,
safe before the storms begin;
God, our maker, does provide
for our needs to be supplied:
come to God’s own temple, come,
raise the song of harvest home!

2. All the world is God’s own field,
harvests for God’s praise to yield;
wheat and weeds together sown,
here for joy or sorrow grown;
first the blade, and then the ear,
then the full corn shall appear:
Harvest-giver, grant that we
wholesome grain and pure may be.

3. For our God, one day, shall come,
and shall take this harvest home;
from the field shall in that day
all offences purge away;
giving angels charge at last
in the fire the weeds to cast;
but the fruitful ears to store
in the garner evermore.

4. Even so, God, quickly come
to your final harvest home!
Gather all your people in,
free from sorrow, free from sin;
there for ever purified,
in your presence to abide:
come, with all your angels, come,
raise the glorious harvest home.

OPENING PRAYER
Once a year we gather together to give God thanks and praise!
Once a year, we delight in our Life- giver, our Creator,
the Divine Painter, who, every other day, simply delights in the beauty of us!
May we be today like the elegant seahorse, dancing with joy in the oceans!
May we be like the crickets and cicadas, making noise like there’s no tomorrow!
May we be like the water cascading over a fall, tripping and shouting, welcoming new life!
May we be like the chipmunk, our mouths so full, we can’t speak but only nod our praise!
May we be like the bumblebees and the hummingbirds,
persistent promoters of new growth from one to another.
And may we be like a chorus of a thousand voices, gathered together to sing God’s praise, a chorus of joyful noise!
For God’s love surrounds us.
God’s love completes us.
God’s love inspires us to live true to God’s love and light.
May our voices rise like incense and form a wondrous smoky cloud of thanksgiving, permeating our lives, and giving us fresh hope for tomorrow.
May all of this be in our hearts and spirits today,
as we finally give back some praise to our Maker!

PSALM READING: Psalm 67 Responsive
(Revised by Rev. John)

God is gracious to us!
God’s love is eternal, never ending!
The radiance of God’s love and light shine deep within us.
Oh that Love’s way would be lived throughout the earth!
If only Love’s abiding power could be embraced by all the nations!
Oh that people everywhere might rejoice in God’s love,
Singing songs of appreciation and thanks
for all that you have given us so freely, Beloved one.
Let the nations listen and heed:
We are called to live with integrity and justice.
For you, O Blessed Counselor,
Will guide every nation on earth
As the leaders and people open their hearts and respond.
So let us abandon ourselves into the Heart of Love.
We need not worry or fret;
For Love’s grace abides wherever we are.
In Love’s grace, we make our home.
Thanks be to God! AMEN!

Theme Conversation
When you have too much Gratitude….

*Hymn: MV #30
“It’s a Song of Praise to the Maker”

It’s a song of praise to the Maker,
the thrush sings high in the tree.
It’s a song of praise to the Maker,
The gray whale sings in the sea,
Refrain:
And by the Spirit
you and I can join our voice to the holy cry
and sing, sing, sing to the Maker too.

2. It’s a call of life to the Giver
when waves and waterfalls roar.
It’s a call of life to the Giver
when high tides break on the shore,
Refrain:
And by the Spirit
you and I can join our voice to the holy cry
and sing, sing, sing to the Maker too.

3. It’s a hymn of love to the Lover;
the bumblebees hum along.
It’s a hymn of love to the Lover,
the summer breeze joins the song,
Refrain:
And by the Spirit
you and I can join our voice to the holy cry
and sing, sing, sing to the Maker too

4. It’s the chorus of all creation;
it’s sung by all living things.
It’s the chorus of all creation;
a song the universe sings,
Refrain:
And by the Spirit
you and I can join our voice to the holy cry
and sing, sing, sing to the Maker too

We Listen

SCRIPTURE READING

Matthew 6: 25-33 New Century Version
“So I tell you, don’t worry about the food or drink you need to live, or about the clothes you need for your body. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothes.Look at the birds in the air. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, but your heavenly Father feeds them. And you know that you are worth much more than the birds.You cannot add any time to your life by worrying about it.“And why do you worry about clothes? Look at how the lilies in the field grow. They don’t work or make clothes for themselves.But I tell you that even Solomon with his riches was not dressed as beautifully as one of these flowers.God clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today but tomorrow is thrown into the fire. So you can be even more sure that God will clothe you. Don’t have so little faith!Don’t worry and say, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’The people who don’t know God keep trying to get these things, and your Father in heaven knows you need them.Seek first God’s kingdom and what God wants. Then all your other needs will be met as well.

RESPONSE
These words from scripture are meant to guide us, nurture us, and teach us.
Thanks be to God!

ANTHEM
“I Will Give Jubilant Thanks”- Williams/Barrett

SERMON: “That’s Enough!!!”

We Respond

*HYMN: MV # 98
“Like a River of Tears (Renewing our Spirits)”

1. Like a river of tears your love pours upon us;
like a sunshine of blessing your grace will sustain us;
like a star-studded sky your spirit shines o’er us,
renewing our spirits with courage and faith.

2. Like a bird in free flight by windows around us;
like a wind in the forest that breathes life among us;
like a phoenix that’s rising from ashes around us,
renewing our spirits with vision and grace.

3. Like a pillar of cloud you promise to guide us;
like a bright fiery bush you come to speak to us;
like a calm cooling breeze your spirit breathes in us,
renewing our spirits with loving embrace.

4. Like a lover’s caress your spirit revives us;
like a song of the soul you come to be with us;
like a prayer of the hear you heal and restore us,
renewing our spirits, the future to face.

PRAYERS and THE LORD’S PRAYER

PRAYER of DEDICATION for 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.

Tap your debit card at the door of the church, or Donate to Grace United Church through CanadaHelps.org. Our account is set up with them now and it is easy to register. Tax receipts are given automatically at the time of giving.

Care, Prayer, Share

What’s Up at Grace?

We Go Out

*HYMN: VU #236
“Now Thank we all our God”

1. Now thank we all our God, with heart,
and hands, and voices,
who wondrous things has done,
in whom this world rejoices;
who from our mother’s arms has blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

2. O may this bounteous God
through all our life be near us,
with ever joyful hearts
and blessed peace to cheer us,
and keep us strong in grace, and guide us when perplexed,
and free us from all ill in this world and the next.

3. All praise and thanks to God
for all that has been given,
the Son, and Spirit blest
who dwell in highest heaven,
the one eternal God, whom heaven and earth adore;
for thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore

*COMMISSIONING

*SUNG BENEDICTION
“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.