Welcome (2 Corinthians 6:1-10)

As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says, "At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you." See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! We are putting no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see--we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

Jesus is my Lord

Call to Worship

Give thanks to the LORD, for God is good;
God’s steadfast love endures forever.

We see God’s wondrous works all around us,
so we come to praise God’s holy name.

Open wide your hearts in this time of worship!
We lift our hearts to God with thanks and praise.

Awesome God

Prayer

Creator God, 
we gather in wonder this day, 
astonished by the complexity of all you have made,
acknowledging how small each of us is
in the midst of your world.
Yet your love gives us significance.
When we are overcome by forces beyond our control, 
you speak words of peace. 
When trouble or sorrow sets in, 
you give us strength to persevere.
Source, Saviour and Spirit of life, 
we offer you praise and honour, love and loyalty,
with our lips and with our lives, now and always.  Amen.

Scripture: Mark 4:35-41

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, "Let us go across to the other side." And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

Sermon: Facing the future

Our education system taught us that time has three phases: past, present and future. Many languages around the world show this arbitrary division of time. In English, verbs are important to note and demarcate our actions into what took place yesterday, what is happening now and what will happen tomorrow. We teach children to use grammar correctly to indicate various stages of time.

In a highly organized economic system like the one we use in Canada, like everything else, time has been divided into smaller units and are commodified or being traded like a regular product. For example, the minimum wage is set as the money we get in exchange for one hour of labour. Today it is $16.55 at the moment in Ontario and will go up to $17.20 on October 1. Lawyers are now charging based on 6 minutes or 1/10 of an hour unit.

It is difficult to understand the time concept Jesus had because we have this very different way of thinking about time. To give you an example, ancient Hebrew as a language did not have clearly defined time. For example, the very name of God that was mentioned in the Book of Exodus is known as “tetragrammaton” YHWH. This can be translated as “I was who I was,” “I am who I am,” “I will be who I will be,” or in other variations like “I am who I was,” “I am who I will be” etc.

Often many sentences in Old Testament Hebrew did not have clear marks on tenses as other languages do. This fact made it very difficult to translate poems especially and speeches that resemble poetic sentences. There are many sentences that are ambiguous in English translations. Often translators had to do their best from the contexts of each sentence.

Of course, the New Testament writings as we inherited it were mostly in Greek. Yet, there is clear evidence that Jesus probably did not speak in Greek. The current best guess is that Jesus spoke Aramaic or a variation of Aramaic. The scholars opine that the writers of the four Gospels wrote in vernacular Greek for mostly Greek speaking audiences. After all, many Jews for which these books were written lived as part of diaspora communities in Greece as well as other parts of the Roman Empire.

This short introduction has to do with the fact that today’s passage from Mark needs to be heard in ways that our understanding of the past, present and future needs to be transcended. Otherwise, this passage is nothing more than a historic event we may accept or reject based on our scientific knowledge and does not become anything more than a story from which we might draw a lesson about faith. If we allow this to happen, this report is nothing more than a story made up by people who knew nothing about science and gives us very little meaning for today.

After all, here is a story where Jesus is confessed as one who calms the fear of death. In the scientific world, arguments centre primarily on whether Jesus really did have a power to control nature or not. Of course, based on the story, it might have been a sheer coincidence that Jesus happened to utter words when the wind ceased or there might have been other phenomenon these early non-scientific people could not imagine.

For us Christians, however, this is the living account of people who fear for their lives confessing that Jesus' words were sufficient in dispelling their fear.  When we read or hear what happened on the boat that day, we not only see God being with us in the past but also in the present as well as in the future. This simple event assures us of the presence of God’s steadfast love that protects and guides us throughout time.

Faith is all about being able to trust our future in Jesus. To fully commit our future in spite of the threats of death in God’s Son is far more difficult than we might imagine. The disciples saw how close they came to face death. By waking Jesus and appealing to him, they displayed how the fear of death was stronger than their faith in Jesus or the one who sent Jesus. Jesus reminded them how they lacked faith.

Here something crucial is revealed. They lacked faith because they did not know who Jesus was. Though they were following him, they had no idea that Jesus was truly the one sent by God to deliver them from death. Not knowing who Jesus was, they were left to marvel at the way Jesus rescued them from their fear of death. Again, it is important to point out that the power of death or what death was going to do to them was not the main cause. It was their own fear of death that made them wake Jesus up and appealed to him to save them.

Their lack of trust and knowledge caused them to succumb to their fears. Death became far more powerful in their minds than God’s love being present with them in Jesus. They could only marvel at what Jesus did. No love for God was shown for Jesus quelling their fears. Yes, faith was indeed lacking even when they were with Jesus. In their minds they could not overcome the power of death.

By this short passage, we are asked to confront ourselves and examine to see if our faith, too, is lacking when we are in fear. This is not the story solely about the lack of faith displayed by the disciples. It is the story about all Christians who live with fear of death, who are under the death’s grip and who see nothing but death in front of them. Jesus’ question, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” is also for us and generations yet to come.

How do we answer Jesus? Why are we afraid if Jesus is with us? If we have faith, why can we not overcome threats of death and see the possibility of life in God who sent Jesus?

Prayer

God in whom we live and move and have our being:
As we consider the world around us today, 
we are grateful to know you are near.
We thank you that your presence will not fail us, 
no matter the challenges we face.
We are aware of so many challenges – 
in our own lives, the lives of those we care about, and in the world around us.
Help us trust that you never give up on situations
which we find overwhelming.
God, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

In faithful silence, we lay before you the concerns on our hearts this day:
We pray for those people and places who have been in the headlines this week, 
and for all who cry out to you in situations we can’t even imagine:    
(Hold silence for 15 seconds)
God, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

We pray for those who are suffering from illness of any sort, 
coping with pain or ongoing treatment,
for those waiting for or recovering from surgery,
and for those who are bereaved 
or burdened by any deep loss: 
(Hold silence for 15 seconds)
God, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

We pray for those who are waiting for something significant – 
a birth or a death, a trip or a visit, 
a move, a new job or the moment of retirement.
Grant them patience, O God, in times of restless waiting:
(Hold silence for 15 seconds)
God, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

Bless our congregation and its ministries, 
its leaders and volunteers, 
and the faithful work of all churches in our community. 
Unite us in our witness to the love of Jesus. 
Open our eyes to new possibilities to serve together
as we pray the words Christ taught us: 
The Lord’s Prayer

Offering

Offering Prayer

Announcements

Please pray for Henry Wilkie for his baptism. Henry is the grandson of Alison and Bruce MacTavish, great grandson of Donna Ainsle.

Please remember the Wednesday Prayer at 3:30 pm and Music and Praise at 7 pm
on every Wednesday, English at 2 pm on Thursdays, and Exercise, Devotion and Volunteer Work on Saturdays.

Next Sunday is our communion Sunday. It is also the last Sunday that Rev. Wally will officiate as the minister of Drummond Hill.

From July 1st, Drummond Hill becomes the Presbytery’s Missional Congregation. On the first Sunday of July, the Rev. Jared Miller will preach the pulpit vacant. On the second Sunday of July, Rev. Wally will come back as a pulpit supply until the end of August. We start anew as a missional congregation.

The session will meet on Tuesday evening at 6 pm.

Hymn: Simply trusting every day 689

Benediction