Worship Leader:  Josh Bennett                                       Music Director:  Tim Hallman, B.Mus.,B.Ed.
October 20, 2024

Welcome / Announcements / Celebrations

Land Acknowledgement
We are blessed to live where we live. The river, the thousand islands, the lakes and rivers, the farmland that surrounds us, the nature around us, this is God’s creation. And we give thanks to those who tended this land before us. We acknowledge that our church community is located on the traditional land of the Algonquin Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee and Wendat peoples.

Lighting of Christ Candle
We are all on a journey. Sometimes the journey is fun and easy going, and other times it’s tough. Wherever you are on your journey, take a moment now and sit comfortably. Take a deep breath. Be present here in this moment. As I light the Christ candle, allow the Holy Spirit to fill you and guide you on your journey.

Call to Worship
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
Give thanks to the God of gods,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
Give thanks to the King of kings,
for his steadfast love endures forever.

Opening Prayer
O Lord our God, eternal, wonderful, ever to be trusted – you give life to us all. You give comfort in our sorrow, hope when we get discouraged, and joy when we feel downcast. Set our minds at peace we pray, that your Holy Spirit may lift our hearts, and bless our souls. May our worship be acceptable in your sight and bring us ever closer to your loving power. In Jesus Holy name we pray. Amen.

Hymn: VU 614 “In Suffering Love”

Scripture: 
Job 38:1–7, 34–41
Mark 5: 21-34

 Choir Anthem

Sermon: “The Problem of Pain”
The problem of pain in the world is an age-old question, and one that strikes at our very souls. Questions such as, “if there’s a God, why does he let bad things happen?” and of course, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” When tragedy strikes, when evil wins, that’s when faith is tested and sometimes lost.

This is not a new problem or topic. The book of Job in the Old Testament deals with this issue directly. Job is one of the oldest books in the Bible, written somewhere between 800 and 400 AD, but likely stems from a much older story. It reads like a play. It’s a simple premise: It starts with God and Satan talking about Job, who is the most faithful person in the world. Job loves God, is completely devoted to God, and follows all of God’s commandments: Job is kind, gentle, fare, and is a loving person. Job is also very wealthy. Satan says to God, yeah but … if you take away all his riches, his children, and his health, he’ll curse you. Let’s strip of everything and we’ll see if he still loves you. So, Job loses all his wealth, his children, and the final punishment is that Job’s body is covered with boils.

Then the curtain closes. A few minutes later the curtain opens again for the next act, and you see Job sitting on the ash heap of what was his home, covered in ashes himself, completely destitute. A broken man. Three of his friends are with him, and for most of the play they have a dialogue, discussing and debating why God has allowed calamity to fall onto Job, who has been a good and pious man all his life. His friends suggest different ways in which Job must have sinned and angered God, to which Job answers, “no,” he’s always lived a life following the laws of God. Then Job has a long and angry monologue, his anger focused God. It’s as if Job puts God on the stand as he prosecutes charges against him. Job outlines how faithful he’s always been, how he’s always followed and obeyed God’s decrees, and yet here he is in complete ruin, while evil men elsewhere are rewarded with riches.

Then the scene shifts again, this time with God answering Job. And it’s almost as if God steps down from the stand, and puts Job onto the stand, and then starts questioning him. This is the point at which we heard the scriptures today. God is thundering back at Job:

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone – while the morning stars sang together, and all the angels shouted for joy?”

 God has a long speech that goes along in a similar path, asking Job where he was when he was creating the world, or of his knowledge on the deep complexities of creation.
Not exactly an answer, but it’s an answer. In this book God is basically saying, “there are things you just don’t understand.”

I remember driving home from a camping trip with my sister’s family years ago, and there was a chocolate store that made amazing homemade chocolates where we’d always stop at on the way home, but on this occasion the chocolate store was closed. Well, my niece Petra, who was ten years old at the time, just couldn’t accept this. When we explained to her that there would be no chocolate this trip, she burst into angry tears, and yelled, “this is the worst day ever!”

And what do you say to that ten-year-old throwing a temper tantrum? “When you’re older, you’ll understand. But for now, the answer is no.” That’s God’s response to Job. It’s a frustrating response! Just as frustrating as it was for my niece on that horrible horrible day when the chocolate store was closed.

As frustrating as that is, that’s the first lesson on this topic – there are things we just don’t understand because when it comes to understanding the God’s ways, we are children.

Let’s look at another take on this difficult topic.

Let me share a personal story. From 2004 to 2008 I was a youth group leader at Mayfield United Church, just north of Brampton. It was small country church with a lot of farming families.

The youth group had about 20 youth, but there was a core of 10 to 12 of them. Six of them were cousins who all lived and worked on the same farm, and they were all about 2-3 years apart in age, all going to the same high school. It was a highlight of my life in many ways, being the youth group leader for this amazing group of kids in that time of their lives. Games of capture the flag at one of the farms; organizing murder mystery dinner theatres at the church; Bible studies around a camp fire in Algonquin park while on a canoe trip … it was an amazing youth group, and I was helping them to grow their faith.

About two years after my tenure as Youth Group Leader, when most of the kids were in their first or second year of college or university, tragedy struck: Bryan Armstrong, one of the six cousins, died in a housefire. He was alone in the house. He’d turned down going to a party with his housemates that night because he needed to study for an exam. He made himself a pot of craft dinner and went up to his room to study, but he accidently left an element on, and a plastic bowl sitting on the stovetop melted and caught fire. His body was found badly burned, face down on his bedroom floor.

We were all grief stricken. And I was worried that many of the youth group would turn their back on God because of this tragedy. And what do you say at a time like this? 

The minister who led the funeral addressed this directly: His message was that God loves us. But God loves us so much that he gave us free will. We are free to love, free to be angry, free to make our own decisions in this world. But that freedom comes with consequence and responsibility. And that freedom means accidents happen. But let us never forget that God loves us, and Christ himself is here grieving with us.

The minister touched on a deeper philosophical idea, the concept of free will. God created us and put us on this planet and gave us free will. We are not robots. We are not controlled. What kind of life would we have if we weren’t in charge of our own decisions? In a perfect world where there are no accidents, no tragic fires, no floods, no wrong doings, no hatred and no evil … such a world would require us to be programed robots who are not in control of our own actions.

Was Bryan preordained to die in that fire? Does everything happen for a reason? No, I don’t believe that. I think that line, “everything happens for a reason” is something we say to comfort ourselves when we can’t explain pain and suffering we experience in the world. Bryan died because of an accident. And accidents, as tragic as they are, happen.

Does God care? Does God love us? The answer the scriptures give over and over again is a resounding “yes, God loves us”. This is a constant theme throughout the Bible. Yes, God loves us. But yes, bad things happen; accidents happen; strangers do things that hurt us; loved ones do things to us that hurt us … and because God gave us free will, he doesn’t stop those things from happening. But he’s there with us when we fall. He helps us to get back up. He helps us to heal. He doesn’t stop the suffering, but he helps us get through it, and he helps us to heal and move on.

In the scripture reading we heard this morning, Jesus is traveling around with his entourage, and the crowds are really getting big. Everywhere Jesus goes, there’s a press of people all wanting to touch him, speak to him, and hear his words. There’s a woman in the crown who has been bleeding for 12 years. She’s tried everything, seen all sorts of doctors, spent all of her money, and nothing worked. Her bleeding meant she was a social outcast. In ancient Israel, women who were menstruating were deemed “unclean” and were not allowed to touch anything or anyone. If they were in the countryside, they were not allowed to enter a town or village. All women in ancient Judea were ostracized and social outcasts for 2-7 days a month. But this woman was a complete outcast because she was always bleeding.

I’m sure she was suffering from both her physical affliction, and also the emotional affliction of being a social outcast. But she had faith in Christ. She knew that if she could just touch the hem of his cloak, she would be healed. But it was a huge risk because it meant breaking the law: It meant entering the town; mingling with and therefore touching hundreds of people who crowded around Jesus. And touching Jesus’ cloak was a crime, because it would have made Jesus unclean, forcing him to leave the town and do a whole bunch of ceremonial washings.

But it worked. When she reached out and touched the hem of Jesus’ cloak she was healed. Christ knew instantly that power had left him and demanded to know who had touched him. His disciples were confused, the crowd was pressing up against them as they were trying to make their way to the home of a synagogue leader. The woman came forward and confessed what she’d done. The crowd would have been irate, as would the Disciples. This unclean woman was amongst them! Touching them! Touching Christ himself! Now everyone she had touched would have to leave the town and bathe in the river. But how did Jesus react? As he always did, with love and kindness. He bent down took her by the hands and said, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

When you have faith in Christ, he heals you. Sometimes the healing is physical, but more often than not the healing is emotional. There’s an old saying I like to use, “it’s not that we fall down in life, because we all fall down in life. It’s how we pick ourselves up from a fall that counts.” We all experience suffering in one way or another. But when we reach out for Christ, he helps us to get back up. He helps us to heal, and he helps us to move on.

There’s one more thing to remember. God loves us so much that he came down to earth in human form and experienced everything in this world including great suffering. Christ suffered. The shortest verse in the Bible is two words: “Jesus wept”. It’s from John 11:35, when Jesus learned of the death of a dear friend Lazarus he’d known from childhood. Jesus was betrayed by Judas, someone he loved and trusted and was close with. Jesus was arrested, falsely accused, had a sham trial, and suffered the most brutal form of capital punishment ever invented by humans. The torture, the torment, the public humiliation, and the slow and painful death of hanging on a cross. But three days later he rose from the dead, replacing death with life, replacing despair with hope, and replacing anger with love, and teaching us that when we have faith in him, there is life after death. With Christ, there is life after trauma. There is love after suffering.

God understands suffering, and he understands human suffering, because he’s been here. But he is a God of love. And he teaches us that yes bad things will happen, but if you follow him, you will heal and you will love again. Let me close with one of the most famous verses in the Bible, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Thanks be to God,
Amen

Hymn:   VU 670 “Precious Lord, Take My Hand”

Offering
And now let us reflect upon what we can do for this church. How can we help this church and this community to grow and flourish. We give our time, our money, and our resources. But in so doing, we are assured by God that we will be blessed.

Let us stand and sing the doxology, as our offering is received.

Offering Hymn:  VU 541 “Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow”

Offering Prayer
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, we know that everything in this world is a gift from you. So, we humbly return a generous portion of these gifts to you. We pray that these gifts may help this church to change people's lives and to spread your message of salvation. Bless our givings and our offerings oh Lord our God. Amen.

Prayers of the People
World
Lord, we pray for the people of the world. We pray Lord for peace in the Holy Land, and for peace in Ukraine. We pray for the women, men, and children who are displaced, fighting every day to survive.
People who are cold, give them warmth.
People who are hungry, give them food.
People who are lonely, give them community.
People who are desperate, give them hope.

 We pray Lord for the rescue operations and front-line workers in Ukraine and in Gaza who are working day and night digging survivors out of buildings destroyed by missiles. We pray for the victims of trauma and those who have survived atrocities. Those who have survived being held hostage by Hamas, who were tortured both physically and psychologically. Help them to heal, Lord God. We also pray for those who are still being held hostage. We pray that they will be released or freed and reunited with family.

We pray for the world leaders who are dealing with this crisis. Give them the wisdom of Solomon. Give them peace in their hearts and minds so that they can make the best decisions that will lead to peace.

Country
Lord God, we pray for our neighbors the United States who are weeks away from the most consequential, the most divisive and the most important election in their history with their very democracy under threat. Be with the people of America. Help them to see and to understand the truth. Awaken them, Lord God, especially those who follow you. Help them to hold onto truth, to hold onto democracy, to set aside divisions, and keep the very freedom that their country proclaims.

Community
Lord, we pray for the community of Lyn and the Brockville area. Bless this community. Let this community be one filled with your love, a front porch community, supporting one another, celebrating differences, and being there for one another in hard times.

Be with this church community and let this church continue to be a presence in this community, a safe place for all to come and find peace and meaning.

Ourselves
And finally, Lord God, we pray for ourselves. Fill us with your Holy Spirit.
And now Lord, we bring to you the personal prayers of our hearts.

 I encourage everyone to take a minute to bring forth your personal prayers to God. …..

The Lord’s Prayer
And now Lord God, we pray the prayer that you taught us to pray:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hollowed by 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, forever and ever, amen.

Closing Hymn: VU 697 O For a World

 Commissioning and Benediction
The Lord bless you and keep you;
May the Lord make his face shine upon you
and be gracious unto you;
May the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.
Amen.

Choral Blessing: “Go Now in Peace”

Postlude

 

Today’s bulletin has been sponsored by the Bee’s Knees Prayer Quilt Ministry at Christ United in recognition of the generous support from our church family and community.

 

         "A Village Church With A Heart For The World"

Christ United Church

12 Perth St., Lyn, ON, K0E 1M0
(613)498-0281 (Phone)   (613)498-2589 (Fax)

 lynunitedchurch@cogeco.net               www.lynunitedchurch.com               Follow on Twitter:  @Ch1United