The Church of the Epiphany
The Little Church that cares
Epiphany Service For June 19, 2022
The silhouette of a large red deer stag walking in the golden morning mist one autumn day
The flowers in the sanctuary today are to the Glory of God and in loving memory of my husband Robert, granddaughter Lindsay, sisters Linda and Dianne, parents Les & Ethel Whittington and in-laws Marjory & Robert Williams given by Sharon Williams and family
*Thank you Rev. Peter for Preaching, June 26.
**Crafts Third Saturday 10 till 12.
*Rinsed Aluminum Cans for Keanna
*Weekly service on website.
*Church services at 9:15 and 11 am.
No services in August. Start after Labour Day.
*Altar Flower, Dan & Sue (shrimpforbait@rogers.com). A donation of $20
*Tues June 21. 7 p.m. Calendar Planning meeting.
*Food Cupboard. Thank you everyone! Butch. 519-615-9106.
*Mint smoothies Sandra $3.
*Bible Study Tuesday at 10 a.m Rev. Peter.
*Cancelled stamps. Gloria Thompson.
*The Church Website http://www.thechurchofepiphany.com/
*Please Like Our PAGE on Facebook.
*If you wish, our regular weekly donations or special donations may be sent to our Envelope Secretary:
Barb Smallman
4860 Whiteoak Road
London, Ontario
N6E 3Y8
519-680-0649
*Thank you. Ron Adam Anusha Stephen. Dan D for helping with this weekly on line service.
Audio for Jun 19 Service 2022
Bible readings for Jun 12 2022
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1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a and Psalm 42 and 43
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Isaiah 65:1-9 and Psalm 22:19-28
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Galatians 3:23-29
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Luke 8:26-39
Opening:
Officiant Lord, open our lips,
People And our mouth shall proclaim your praise
.
Officiant O God, make speed to save us.
People O Lord, make haste to help us.
All Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the
Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now,
and will be for ever. Amen.
Invitory:
Alleluia! The Spirit of the Lord renews the face of the earth:
O come, let us worship
Almighty God,
to you all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from you no secrets are hidden.
Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
that we may perfectly love you,
and worthily magnify your holy name;
through Christ our Lord. Amen
Prayer:
God of delight,
your Wisdom sings your Word
at the crossroads where humanity and divinity meet.
Invite us into your joyful being
where you know and are known
in each beginning,
in all sustenance,
in every redemption,
that we may manifest your unity
in the diverse ministries you entrust to us,
truly reflecting your triune majesty
in the faith that acts,
in the hope that does not disappoint,
and in the love that endures. Amen.
Reading Psalm 42
42:1 As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.
42:2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?
42:3 My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, “Where is your God?”
42:4 These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.
42:5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help
42:6 and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
42:7 Deep calls to deep at the thunder of your cataracts; all your waves and your billows have gone over me.
42:8 By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.
42:9 I say to God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk about mournfully because the enemy oppresses me?”
42:10 As with a deadly wound in my body, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me continually, “Where is your God?”
42:11 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.
Prayer
Psalm 42:1-11
We know eating and drinking is natural and necessary.
Our psalm today says::
Like eating and drinking,
prayer is natural and necessary.
Prayer is at the centre of the Christian life.
Prayer, however practiced,
is an from of our hunger for God.
==
Augustine’said
: “For thee were we made, O God,
and our hearts are restless
until they find their rest in thee
==
.” So, that is where we begin
as we talk about prayer .
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Prayer Is a Hunger
We have a hunger to experience meaning,
to know that life has purpose.
It is a hunger
to know life is cradled in a bigger Is.
Augustine’s word is still true:
“For thee were we made, O God,
and our hearts are restless till they rest in you.”
===
The first beatitude of Jesus (Matthew 5:3)
in the Sermon on the Mount speaks to this issue.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit”
is the traditional translation of this passsage.
But it can read:
How blest are those who know
their need of God”
==
The psalmist spoke this truth
“As a hart longs for flowing streams,
so longs,
my soul for thee, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and behold the face of God?”
===
So, prayer is a hunger.
It is also a trust rooted
in the belief that we are not alone in the world,
that there is help
-
Prayer Is Companionship with God
Here and now,
we are God’s friends..
John had been with Jesus in the upper room.
He had heard Jesus say,
“Greater love has no one than this,
that a person lay down their life for his friends.
You are my friends…
No longer do I call you servants,
for the servant does not know
what his master is doing;
but I have called you friends,
for all that I have heard from my Father
I have made known to you”
Here at church,
We have this in common…
We are persons in relationship.
with God.
We share that understanding.
The surest sign of relationship is conversation –
talking and listening to another.
So since we are friends of Christ,
As he said,
Of course we talk and listen…
That is we pray.
====
But let us make some more general observations about prayer.
One, prayer is not easy.
There is a difference between the tendency to pray
and the practice of prayer.
We have the tendency to pray –
Pray as in
the sudden crying out in the face of pain or trouble;
the spontaneous shout of joy in the presence of beauty,
We give expression toprayer
With the moods and circumstances of our life.
Crying out is prayer,
But the practice of prayer is more disciplined.
To live a life of prayer is something else.
Don’t condemn yourself if you find praying difficult.
Most of us do.
Even those whom we call saints found or find praying difficult.
Read their journals and confessions,
and you will find them struggling.
The disciples didn’t find it easy.
But to deliberately set aside time to pray
Is good.
===
A second assumption is that communication with God is possible.
Someone says:
This has been one of the greatest difficulties in my life
– to believe that I could actually talk with God,
that God would hear and listen and respond to me.
What it means is that I,
among all the millions of people in the world,
can have personal communication with the Father.
Of course we know,
God is like a shepherd
who misses even one lost sheep from the flock,
That said,
Let us know that Prayer Is a Privilege
not a duty.
Sometimes we can see prayer as a discipline,
as a duty,
something we must do.
We’ve been taught that we ought to pray,
when we don’t,
we feel guilty.
We will take a giant step forward
in our adventure with our Lord
when we stop seeing prayer as a duty
when we begin to look upon it as a privilege.
As a privilege,
the discipline of praying becomes a creative freedom,
not a bondage of duty.
Consider this testimony of Sir Wilfred Grenfell:
“The privilege of prayer to me
is one of the most cherished possessions,
because faith and experience alike
convince me
that God sees and answers
It is only my part to ask.
It is entirely His to give or withhold,
as He knows best.
If it were otherwise,
I would not dare to pray at all.
In the quiet of home
in the heat of life and strife,
in the face of death,
the privilege of speech with God is inestimable.
I value it more
because it calls for nothing
that a person cannot give –
that is,
the simplest expression to his simplest thought.
When I can neither see, nor hear, nor speak,
still I can pray
so that God can hear.
When I finally pass through
the valley of the shadow of death,
I expect to pass through it
in conversation with Him.”
One last thing:
We Pray to Experience God
We pray to experience God as real.
Sometimes
People say that they do not pray
because God is not real to them.
A truer statement might be
that God is not real to them
because they do not pray.
Harry Emerson Fosdick puts this graphically:
The practice of prayer is necessary to make God
not merely an idea held in the mind
but a Presence recognized in the life.
=
Likewise
From the heart
the psalmist cried,
“O God, thou art my God” (Psalm 63:1).
To stand afar off and say “O God”
is neither difficult nor searching…
but it is an inward and searching matter to say,
“O God, though art my God.”
The first is theology,
the second is religion;
the first involves only opinion,
the second involves experience;
the first can be reached by thought,
the second must be reached by prayer;
the first leaves God afar off,
the second alone draws near God..
Is this a new thought to you?
What an insight:
God does not seem real because we do not pray.
If we want to be close with God,
we must pray.
However prayer is for you?
However inadequate we may feel,
The important thing is to reach out,
To seek like the deer for water
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Hymn: What a Beautiful Day
As I wake up with the morning, of each day that passes by,
and I listen to the sounds upon my ear,
I can’t help but keep a watch toward the eastern sky,
and I wonder if the trumpet will be the next sound that I hear.
What a beautiful day for the Lord to come again,
what a beautiful day for him to take his children home,
how I long to see his face and to touch his nail scared hand,
what a beautiful day for the Lord to come again.
All my earthly disappointments and my trials here below,
fade away when I remember his last words,
he said he’d return and receive his children unto him
and I’m longing to look upon the face of my dear Lord.
The Apostles’ Creed
I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again
to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
Prayers:
Holy, holy, holy God,
in calling forth creation from the void,
revealing yourself in human flesh,
and pouring forth your wisdom to guide us,
you manifest your concern for your whole universe.
You invite us, as your people,
to gather the world’s needs into our hearts
and bring them before you.
Prayers: Brooks (Kim); Linda; Allan; (Brian G.); Brian; Dorothy; Mary; Marcel D.; Tara; Jeff B.; Nicole; Shelley (Sandra); Colleen; Jean N.; Marilyn B.; Connie C.; Jack B.; Jack and Julie. Keanna, Ella D.; Evelyn Mc; (Church) Norma A,;Dave F.; Peter T.; Dan B.;. (Garfield & Diane); Merico (Darlene); Debbie H (Lorenz); Donna Mc.; John (Ron and Jan); Val ; Karen T.;Bill, Sheila, Jessica, Sonya, Jamie (Peter); Jade (Carol R.); Dori; Belinda,; Kim; Ross B., Francis & Bill W.; Jeff G. (Dori & Jack); Michelle P.;(Jim P.) Pat P; Grant K; Kathy W. (Jack & Julie);Melanie; Marlene H. Pam B. (Barb & George); Lynda D . (Mary Beth & Paul); Jean (Bruce J.); Brian (Jeanne); Joyce and Jim W.; Sharon D.; Philip D; Jacquie and Cam D.; Diana, Ian, Edna, Mathew & Annika; Janice L & Darrin R; Roland; Pansy V; Clark & Helene.(Suzie D.)
Holy, holy, holy God,
fill us with strength and courage,
with discernment and compassion,
that we may be your instruments of justice and love in this world, that it may be on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
As our Savior taught us, let us pray,
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
Glory to God,
whose power, working in us,
can do infinitely more
than we can ask or imagine.
Glory to God from generation to generation,
in the Church and in Christ Jesus,
for ever and ever. Amen.
Prayer:
God of heaven and earth,
before the foundation of the universe and the beginning of time
you are the triune God:
the Author of creation,
the eternal Word of salvation,
and the life-giving Spirit of wisdom.
Guide us to all truth by your Spirit,
that we may proclaim all that Christ revealed
and rejoice in the glory he shared with us.
Glory and praise to you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
now and for ever. Amen.