Respect for Seniors Sunday
Helen
welcomed us all and notices were given out, which included an invitation to
stay back after church on June 23 to
join the Friendship Circles at morning tea, after
which the
Call to
Worship took the form of a blessing, offering us the gift that worship with God and with each other can
bring.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
The love of God,and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
be with you all.
And also with you.
Poem "When I am Old" a poem by
Jenny Joseph was read by Ruth.
A poem
about the freedom of old age - a time when we have no longer have any need to
prove anything to anybody or obey all the little rules in case someone won't
like us or let us join.
"When
I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a
red hat that doesn't go...I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired...I
shall go in my slippers in the rain...wear terrible shirts...and eat three
pounds of sausages at a go...or only bread and pickles for a week...But maybe I
ought to practise a little now...so people...are not too shocked and surprised,
When suddenly I am old and start to wear purple.”
Helen
spoke to us of the great blessing aging can be - extra years to grow spiritually and a time when we can look back
at how God has been with us in the past, sometimes without our knowing. We can
learn lessons from our past and mentor younger people as long as we listen to
and respect each other.
Hymn TIS 467 "I am the church" I
am; you are; we are; all who follow Jesus are: the church. The church is not a
building. It's made from different people; different races; different ages.
Sometimes it's a place of singing, sometimes praying, sometimes laughing and
sometimes crying...but always it's made of people.
Kid's Time Out
Back to Helen: The bible tells us to be kind,
to respect older people (Sirach 3:12-14a)
Helen
said what we all know - that
older people can look a bit scary and sometimes they do things we just have to
put up with and then told her about her old aunts who did stuff she didn't like
but how she knew that they loved her.
One thing
we do know is that is that old people like to share stories, remember things
that have happened.
Delma
then shared her reasons for
coming to church each week. Delma told us that when she misses church, she
misses something special. Delma told us that she has attended many different
types of churches, some lively, some quiet and even one outdoors- but all are
special places. They are places where Delma learns to love God more and learns
to understand Him better- one thing she knows is that God loves her!
It was
then Margaret's turn to
explain why she believes God is real. She said that she was made aware of God
through the beauty of the universe and through the way it all works together so
smoothly. She then spoke about how she knew God was real because He has kept
drawing her back each time she has strayed away and finally, she knew God was
real because He is able to mend all that hurt we suffer in life.
We are
only one person but if we "shine" out God's love, we make a
difference.
Chorus "Jesus bids us
shine" No practice needed here for the older members of the congregation.
A simple but true message - we are here so the world will experience God
through us.
Prayer Helen prayed for us, our fear
that longer days on this earth are not the answer for the hunger of our souls -
do we have any meaning to live for? Yet God surprises us, with the knowledge of
those who love us, a word of how we can help others. As our abilities lessen, God keeps surprising us.
Hymn TIS 129 "Amazing Grace"
----how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me...(from anything that may
come my way)
Back to Helen This was a time for the
congregation to share. Do we ever feel invisible?
People
gave examples of being passed by, but God sees us differently. God has a
purpose for us - in God's service we do not retire - we may do different things
in His service as we grow older but we never pass a "use by" date.
Helen
then spoke of the Incarnation and the part played in that drama by older
people.. First we were told of Zechariah and Elizabeth, parents of John the
Baptist, the one who was to announce Jesus to the world. Then we heard about
Simeon and Anna, two elderly but faithful people whose lives had been spent
waiting on the coming of the Messiah.
"God
certainly includes older people in his plans. God knows and hears the longing
of our hearts. These are unspoken longing and prayers held in God's hand.
Prayer Helen prayed to our loving
God, saying that she had been taught to dread getting older but now accepted
her limitations, cherish her white hair and actually enjoy being older.
Poem. "Lament to
The Lord " by Mavis Clark.
Stephen read this poem, which expressed regret at all the changes that have
taken place in worship in an attempt to make it more relevant to younger
people. The speaker expressed resignation at having to put up with the changes
but said she would keep to the expression of her faith with which she feels
more comfortable.
Hymn TIS 569 "Guide me O my great
Redeemer" A case of the sentiment expressed in the poem above, evidenced
by the number of people who kept to "great Jehovah" for their
expression of their faith. It is how we best worship a God that matters.
Scripture Reading Luke 7: 11-17 Because of the length of the
service, I will leave this to your own thoughts.
Reflection Helen returned to the theme
of Jesus crossing boundaries which she had explored in the previous week. We
were directed to focus on the story from Luke, where Jesus was approaching Nain
and came upon a funeral procession. A widow was burying her son. This woman had
been the daughter of her father, then the wife of her husband and finally the
mother of her son. Now they were all dead and so, for all purposes, so was she.
She had lost all sense of identity- she had lost all hope for the future. But
what did that matter- she was just one widow. It did for her. It meant that any
sort of dignified or meaningful life was over. And nobody cared. Except Jesus.
He saw her plight and had compassion on her and, breaking every rule, touched
her dead son, bringing him back to life. "And Jesus gave him to his
mother". Jesus had given back life to both of them.
In just
the same way, because Jesus has compassion on us, He can give us a new future.
Prayer Helen prayed to God, the
Alpha and Omega, saying that we would like to think that we can ignore death.
However the reality is there. Helen continued " I take comfort that Jesus
himself faced death with anguish and pain in the Garden. I can never fully
grasp that struggle, and yet it brings peace that Christ knew my human
fear."..."Death one day will be swallowed up in victory. Hallelujah!
Amen."
Hymn TIS 232
"O the deep, deep love
of Jesus" - unmeasured, boundless,
free...underneath...all around...changes
never...my everlasting glory.
After the
Freewill Offering, Helen led
the prayer for others, that they should live peacefully in the present, knowing
that their real treasure is
in Heaven. Then after
Hymn TIS 594. " Fight the Good
fight", Helen blessed us: "May God go before to lead you and follow
after you and give you strength"
We left,
blessing each other "May the
feet of God walk with you."
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