All Saints'

for all ages, for all times, for everyone. See yourself here.

Service for March 7, 2021, Third Sunday in Lent

Your Invitation (10am):
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82864420929

Dial by your location
+1 647 374 4685 Toronto Area (Long distance charges may apply)
+1 647 558 0588 Toronto Area (Long distance charges may apply)

Meeting ID: 828 6442 0929
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcDeO5Wx6v

Services continue exclusively by zoom,
and our church building will be closed to the public.
The Deacon’s Cupboard (food bank) remains open during the lockdown.

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Hymn: Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken  (vs. 1, 2 & 4)  #388
Glorious things of thee are spoken,
Zion, city of our God;
he whose word cannot be broken
formed thee for His own abode.
On the Rock of Ages founded,
what can shake thy sure repose?
With salvation’s walls surrounded,
thou mayest smile at all thy foes.

See! The streams of living waters,
springing from eternal love,
Well supply thy sons and daughters,
and all fear of want remove.
Who can faint, when such a river
ever flows their thirst to assuage?
Grace, which like the Lord, the giver,
never fails from age to age.

Saviour, if of Zion’s city
I through grace a member am,
let the world deride or pity,
I will glory in Thy name.
Fading is the world’s best pleasure,
all its boasted pomp and show;
solid joys and lasting treasure
none but Zion’s members know.

Greeting
Celebrant: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.
People: And also with you.

Celebrant: Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins.
People: His mercy endures forever.

Welcome
Celebrant: Almighty God,
All: 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.

Kyrie Eleison
Celebrant: Lord, have mercy.
People: Christ, have mercy.
Celebrant: Lord, have mercy.

Collect
Celebrant: Father of mercy, alone we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves. When we are discouraged by our weakness, strengthen us to follow Christ, our pattern and our hope; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

A Reading from the Letter of Paul to the Corinthians (Chapter 1: 18-25)
The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Reader:  The Word of the Lord
People: Thanks be to God.

Psalm 19
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork.
One day tells its tale to another, and one night imparts knowledge to another.
Although they have no words or language, and their voices are not heard,
Their sound has gone out into all lands, and their message to the ends of the world.
In the deep has he set a pavilion for the sun; it comes forth like a bridegroom out of his chamber; it rejoices like a champion to run its course.
It goes forth from the uttermost edge of the heavens and runs about to the end of it again; nothing is hidden from its burning heat.
The law of the Lord is perfect and revives the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure and gives wisdom to the innocent.
The statutes of the Lord are just and rejoice the heart; the commandment of the Lord is clear and gives light to the eyes
The fear of the Lord is clean and endures for ever; the judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, more than much fine gold, sweeter far than honey, than honey in the comb.
By them also is your servant enlightened, and in keeping them there is great reward.
Who can tell how often he offends? cleanse me from my secret faults.
Above all, keep your servant from presumptuous sins; let them not get dominion over me; then shall I be whole and sound, and innocent of a great offense.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.

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.

Gradual: Restore in Us, O God (vs. 1) #178
Restore in us, O God,
the splendour of your love;
renew your image in our hearts,
and all our sins remove.

The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ
Reader: The Lord be with you
People: And also with you.
Reader: The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John
People: Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. (John 2: 13-22)

Reader: The Gospel of Christ
People: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Gradual: Restore in Us, O God (vs. 1) #178
Restore in us, O God,
the splendour of your love;
renew your image in our hearts,
and all our sins remove.

 Sermon
Starting in Lent, we are omitting the text of sermon from the published Order of Service.  The first hearing of the sermon will be in the worship service.  After the service, you can find the print sermon under the Wednesday Mid-Day Prayer heading. Read it on your own or attend the Mid-Day Prayer service by zoom for discussion and reflection.

The Apostle’s Creed
Celebrant: Let us confess the faith of our baptism, as we say,
All: 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.

The Prayers of the People
Leader: Loving Heavenly Father;
Response: Hear and have mercy.

Confession and Absolution
Celebrant: If we claim to be without sin,
All: we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

Celebrant: If we confess our sins,
All: God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Celebrant: Let us then confess our sins, confident in God’s forgiveness.

 Silence is kept.

Celebrant: Most merciful God,
All: we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbours as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us, that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your name. Amen.

Celebrant: Almighty God have mercy upon you, pardon and deliver you from all your sins, confirm and strengthen you in all goodness, and keep you in eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
People:  Amen.

Peace
Celebrant: The peace of the Lord be always with you.
People: And also with you.

Announcements (click on underlined items for more details)

 

 

Hymn: Praise the Name of Jesus
Praise the name of Jesus,
praise the name of Jesus:
He’s my rock, He’s my fortress,
He’s my deliverer, in Him will I trust.
Praise the name of Jesus.

Stewardship Moment
Thank you for your continued faithfulness in stewardship.  Continue to drop off or mail your offertory envelopes to the church. Please consider becoming a pre-authorized giver or making a habit of donating online at the end of each Sunday service. Guests and regular worshippers alike are also welcome to TEXT the word “give” to 1-844-416-1270 to contribute to the life of the parish. You will be prompted to give your name and email address (and envelope #). We accept any major credit card.

Prayer
Celebrant: Gracious God, we know your power to triumph over weakness.  May we who ask forgiveness be ready to forgive one another, in the name of Jesus the Lord. Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer
Celebrant: And now, as our Saviour Christ has taught us, we are bold to say,
All:  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.

Prayer
Celebrant: God of mercy and forgiveness, may we who come together in worship, live together in unity and peace, in the name of Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.

The Doxology
Celebrant:  Glory to God,
All: 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.

Hymn: In the Cross of Christ I Glory  (vs. 1, 3 & 4)   #537
In the cross of Christ I glory,
Tow’ring o’er the wrecks of time;
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round its head sublime.

When the sun of bliss is beaming
light and love upon my way,
from the cross the radiance streaming
adds more luster to the day.

Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure,
by the cross are sanctified;
peace is there that knows no measure,
joys that through all time abide.

The Blessing
Celebrant: May Christ grant you grace to grow in holiness, to deny yourselves, to take up your cross, and follow him; and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.

The Dismissal
Celebrant: Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
All: Thanks be to God.

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Those Assisting with Today’s Worship

Celebrant: The Rev. Jennifer Schick
Preacher: Joanne Warman
Voice of the Congregation: Gail Holland
Gospeller: Gary Gannon
Organist: Adriaan Bakker
Cantor: Pauline Reid
Prayers of the People: Jacky Bramma
Reader: Dianne Lloyd
Psalmist: Gail Holland
Digital Vergers: Arleane Ralph,  Tim Ralph

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All Saints acknowledges being on the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island,
the Iroquoian-speaking Wendat, and the 1923 Williams Treaties First Nations.
All Saints’ is a LGBTQ+ affirming parish.

Arleane’s Thought & Prayer for the Day

Thursday, March 4

Time, weariness and self-pity crept up on me this week, and a dozen false starts and failed finishes left me at the deadline without having written a proper Thought & Prayer of the Day.

On Monday, I was stuck in a defeated mood, unproductively ensconced on the living room chesterfield, ignoring my workload and simply watching snow streamers blow past the front windows. When I was a kid, my parents always remarked on the weather on the first day of March– “In like a lamb, out like lion” they’d say, or vice versa. If the weather was wild and ferocious on March 1st, then the month (and winter) would see itself out in a pleasantly meek fashion. If March 1st was meteorologically mild and lamb-like, this meant we could expect one more blast of wintery weather at the end of the month.

These ruminations … “wool-gathering,” if you will … had me thinking about lambs in various other maxims and sayings. The most uncomfortable of these is the expression, “lambs to the slaughter,” a phrase to describe someone entering into a fate in a very innocent way, without knowing that something bad will happen, as in, “She walked into the meeting like a lamb to the slaughter, without realizing the danger.”

My next mental leap was, of course, to the naming of Christ as the Lamb of God. In these terms, we do immediately think of humble servitude and an obedience even unto death. “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.” But of course, Jesus knew his fate and willfully submitted to it. Jesus was like a lamb to the slaughter in a powerfully and sacrificially intentional way.

I know full well we are called to be similarly Christ-like, but it’s not a frame of mind or setting of my heart that comes easily these days. I’m a little weary of being sacrificial. I would much prefer things to be different than they are. My patience and resolve seem insufficient, (twelve months of a pandemic can take it out of you a bit, right?), and I am leaning more towards stumbling than steadfast.

But this is not cause for alarm. The comforting news is that my Redeemer and Advocate, the one I meet afresh each Lent and Easter in the Gospel telling of the Passion, is not an airbrushed, dewy-eyed lamb to the slaughter. Like me, He wasn’t above getting cross with hypocrites and slackers, wasn’t 100% certain all the time, and did notably get frustrated with the way things were going. This Jesus is at once for me a lion of God and a lamb of God, a table flipper and a table setter. Jesus knows what it’s like to be full of courage and purpose, at another moment angry or disappointed, and at yet another moment still, painfully tired and resigned.

What is more, I recall from the Gospel a few Sundays past, that the disciple Peter was himself famously rebuked by Jesus (also in one of Jesus’ short-tempered, wilderness moments) — “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Peter too wasn’t being very Christ-like or faithful, and yet he went from being the “stumbling block” to the rock on which the Church was founded. This is also comforting news.

I haven’t come up with the kind of Thought & Prayer I feel I should have. Instead, I have reminded myself (and perhaps you too, if you need this reminder) that Jesus knows what it’s like to be human, to falter, to be weary, to be resentful, and to get tripped up by human concerns, and yet to still be beloved of God and worthy. There are after all many stations of the cross, and it’s not a straight unfaltering walk.

I don’t have a prayer this week, except maybe to suggest we can thank God for finding and forgiving us when we lose our way or our focus or our confidence.  In place of a prayer, I offer this poem, which for me captures the fragility and ferocity of Jesus and gives me permission and courage to bring my own human weaknesses to God.

It’s by Irish poet, Pádraig Ó Tuama.

Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

You weren’t that perfect, weren’t lamb-pure or cocksure
with certainty. You weren’t as innocent as you’re made
out to be. You knew people, you knew power games,
knew that the main aim of ambition is ambition.

You knew the names of other people’s fears because you
had plenty of your own. You knew the touch of a friend
was not dependent on their cleanliness, and you knew this
because you knew need, knew the way that story bleeds

through actions of a day, and how shame makes us
play parts that are beneath us. You are beneath us, and above us,
in the song we sang as children. You are in the piss and blood;

you are spit mixed with mud, you are the rotting hand of god, waiting
for a hand to hold. You’re not gold, you’re rock; cracked open.

Lenten Observances at All Saints

We have several options available this season that might help you shape your Lenten observance and support your spiritual formation. Choose whichever might best suit your spiritual needs and your schedule.  Don’t feel compelled to join them all (unless you want to!). Click on underlined event titles for more information.

Mid-day Prayers & Reflection – Wednesdays at 12:00-12:45pm, starting February 24 – a short service of mid-day prayers by zoom, followed by  a discussion and reflection on the Sunday texts and sermon, for those that are able to stay. See the Upcoming Services page for links and sermon texts.

Psalms Devotional Guide – a self-directed guide of nine meaningful devotions with illustrations and questions for both children and adults. This is for those who wish to pray and go deep into the Psalms alone at home (but with optional online spiritual colouring session, led by Joanne; see below). To download a printable devotional guide for personal and individual family use only, click on the link above and when prompted enter 4lent21. Or contact the parish office to arrange for a copy.

What Does God Want from Us? Ted Talks meet the Bible – Thursday evenings at 7:30-8:30pm, starting February 25.  Five weekly meetings at which we pair popular Ted talks with passages of scripture to inspire us in fresh new ways to hear how God calls us to lead, love and persevere in faith. Each evening we’ll watch a 10-15 minute Ted talk together and then turn to our scriptures to see how the words of each speaker speaks into the lessons we learn from the words of Jesus. Come prepared to join a conversation about how it is that we are inspired to grow in our own self-understanding and in our relationship with God. A session booklet will be posted on the Resource Page the week prior to the session, with questions to guide our conversations as well as links to all the Ted talks we will be showing. The talks are not necessarily progressive so you can come to one, some, or all!

#ASW40daygiveandpray – a daily prayer/almsgiving discipline to follow at home. Daily prompts direct you to count a particular blessing, pray in a specific way, and tally a small amount of money as alms. The prompts are posted daily on our Prayer Life page. Follow All Saints Twitter or Instagram for daily reminders of this Lenten exercise. All proceeds support All Saints’ Deacon’s Cupboard (food bank). This is the 3rd year for this particular Lenten practice. It runs daily, starting February 17.

Spiritual Colouring –  Sunday, March 7th, 12pm – Join Deacon-Elect Joanne Warman online to explore how colouring can be a meditative and spiritual exercise. Bring the Psalm Daily Devotional, your crayons, and an open mind to the zoom, and be ready for this new type of prayer.

Join the Spiritual Colouring Workshop via Zoom (March 7 at 12pm)

 

Lenten Prayer Discipline (#ASW40daygiveandpray)

In support of our ‘Deacon’s Cupboard’ food bank and its ministry to those experiencing food shortage or food insecurity, we are once again offering a special Lenten discipline that prompts you daily to reflect and pray and give to others in an intentional and focused way. Follow the daily prayer/giving calendar on the All Saints ‘Prayer Life’ page. Each day, you’ll be asked to

  1. count a particular blessing in your life;
  2. pray for an identified need; and
  3. set aside a small amount of money in a specific and fun way to donate the Deacon’s Cupboard (food bank) at the end of Lent

Those three easy things in one daily prompt! Here are some examples:

  • How many cookbooks do you own? Pay 5¢ for each one. Pray for those who struggle to feed themselves and their families.
  • Did you listen to someone else’s problems today? Donate 40¢ because clearly you have a generous of spirit. Pray specifically for that person now.

You will find a new prompt every day on the All Saints ‘Prayer Life’ page. Check there daily or follow @allsaintswhitby on Twitter and Instagram to see each day’s prompt for the 40 days of Lent.

Your donation will be received as part of the offertory on Easter Sunday and blessed to the use of the food bank. To make things a little easier for you, we’ve created a downloadable, printable tally sheet to help you track and total your daily givings.

Visit Us

All Saints' Anglican Church
300 Dundas Street West
Whitby, Ontario
L1N 2M5
Canada

Regular Sunday Services

Sunday service is presently at 11am, exclusively by Zoom. Please see Upcoming Services to learn about options for worship at All Saints.

Office Hours:

Tuesday to Friday:
9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Tel: (905) 668-5101
allsaintswhitby@nullbellnet.ca

All Saints’ is an LGBTQ+ friendly parish.