BEYOND
Ahead of me,
Branching from the path,
A new one begins,
Slender thread climbing steep to curve off among trees.
Everything in me cautions:
Keep straight to the well-worn trail
Which can’t lead you too far wrong.
But I find myself shedding all doubts
In the way my back bends
To take the rough tilt
Of the hill, by the way
My muscles strain near the top –
All of me
So eager
For what lies beyond.
- Raymond Souster
Hope United Church
Sunday, January 2, 2022
11:00am
Worship Leader- Cheryl Bill Stenson
Interim Music Director – Mikey Zahorak
Prelude – Mikey Zahorak
Intro
Territorial Acknowledgment
Call to Worship:
One: God of Promise, you have brought us into a new year.
All: Keep us open to your guidance.
One: God of Compassion, this year has begun with overtones of fear.
All: Keep us peaceful in hope.
One: God of Blessings, your gifts surround us.
All: Keep us mindful in gratitude.
One: Eternal Power, lead us beyond –
All: Beyond our sorrows,
One: Beyond our fears,
All: Beyond ourselves.
One: Let us courageously follow the paths before us
All: With the strength we find in You.
Hymn: Healer of Our Every Ill - VU 619
Refrain:
Healer of our every ill,
light of each tomorrow,
give us peace beyond our fear,
and hope beyond our sorrow.
You who know our fears and sadness,
grace us with your peace and gladness.
Spirit of all comfort, fill our hearts.
Refrain
In the pain and joy beholding
how your grace is still unfolding.
Give us all your vision, God of love.
Refrain
Give us strength to love each other,
every sister, every brother.
Spirit of all kindness, be our guide.
Refrain
You who know each thought and feeling,
teach us all your way of healing.
Spirit of compassion, fill each heart.
Refrain
Story
Hymn: Be Still, My Soul - VU 652
Be still, my soul, for God is on thy side;
bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
Trust in your God, your saviour and your guide,
who through all changes faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul, your best, your heavenly friend
through stormy ways leads to a joyful end.
Be still, my soul, your God will undertake
to guide the future surely as the past.
Your hope, your confidence let nothing shake;
all now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul, life’s tempests still obey
the voice that once the waves’ wild fury stayed.
Be still, my soul, the hour is hastening on
when we shall be forever in God’s peace;
when disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
love’s joys restored, our strivings all shall cease.
Be still, my soul, when change and tears are past,
all safe and blessed we shall meet at last.
Lighting of the Christ Candle
HYMN: “Touch Us with your Light” by Brian Stevens (X2)
Light from this candle burning bright,
Guide us through the dark of night.
Help us find our way to you…
Guide us, touch us with Your light, O Lord.
Prayer of Acknowledgment/Confession:
One: Creator God, we can’t see beyond the bend in the road
All: and we fear horizons are an end,
One: Trusting only what we can see,
All: When our trust belongs in You.
One: God, you are Perfect Vision.
All: You are Complete Understanding.
One: Fear and ego freeze us
All: When faith could move us to action.
One: We look to build our trust in you
All: so that change can be seen
One: as opportunity.
All: and new roads as leading us home.
Assurance of God’s grace
Scripture Readings:
Isaiah 40: 27-31
Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
and strengthens the powerless.
Even youths will faint and be weary,
and the young will fall exhausted;
but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.
Revelation 21: 1-7
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.
Hymn: I See a New Heaven- VU 713
Refrain:
I see a new heaven, I see a new earth
as the old one will pass away,
where the fountain of life flows
and without price goes
to all people who abide in the land.
There, there on the banks of a river bright and free,
yielding her fruit, firm in her root,
the Tree of Life will be.
Refrain
There, there where death dies and our lives are born again,
body and soul, struggling but whole
like flowers after the rain.
Refrain
There, there where the darkness brings visions from above.
There where the night, bearing new light,
reveals the promise of love.
Refrain
There, there where we work with the love of healing hands.
Labour we must, true to our trust
to build a promised new land.
Refrain
Reflection: Beyond
Hymn: I Feel the Winds of God - VU 625
I feel the winds of God today;
today my sail I lift,
though heavy oft with drenching spray
and torn with many a rift;
if hope but light the water’s crest,
and Christ my bark will use,
I’ll seek the seas at His behest,
and brave another cruise.
It is the wind of God that dries
my vain, regretful tears,
until with braver thoughts shall rise
the purer brighter years.
If cast on shores of selfish ease
or pleasure I should be,
O let me feel Your freshening breeze,
and I’ll set back to sea.
If ever I forget your love
and how that love was shown,
lift high the blood-red flag above;
it bears Thy name alone.
Great Pilot of my onward way,
you will not let me drift.
I feel the winds of God today;
today my sail I lift.
Offering/Dedication of the Offering
DOXOLOGY: Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow, VU # 541
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heav'nly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Prayers of the People
Announcements
Lord’s Prayer
Hymn: Morning Has Broken - VU 409
Morning has broken like the first morning,
blackbird has spoken like the first bird.
Praise for the singing! Praise for the morning!
Praise for them springing fresh from the Word!
Sweet the rain’s new fall, sunlit from heaven,
like the first dewfall on the first grass.
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden,
sprung in completeness where God’s feet pass.
Ours is the sunlight! Ours is the morning
born of the one light Eden saw play!
Praise with elation, praise every morning,
God's recreation of the new day!
Commissioning:
Leader: May the Universal Creator renew our vision
All: and strengthen our faith.
Leader: May Jesus Christ light the paths to which we are led
All: by inspiring us to follow his.
Leader: And may the Holy Spirit invigorate us
All: To take the rough tilt of a new road,
One: Not resisting in fear,
All: But eager, in faith, for what lies beyond.
Benediction
Hymn: May God’s Sheltering Wings, MV 214
May God’s sheltering wings,
God’s gathering wings protect you.
May God’s nurturing arms,
God’s cradling arms sustain you,
and hold you in God’s love, and hold you in God’s love.
POSTLUDE Mikey Zahorak