Opening Prayer

Jesus said, “Anyone who receives you, receives me, and anyone who receives me, receives the One who sent me.”

Siblings in Christ: We gather together in the presence of the God who receives us with open arms, who loves us unconditionally, and who bids us do the same to one another. Let us worship God together!

Children’s Time

Expect hospitality

Confession & Words of Assurance

God of love and acceptance, 

we come before You a people who know all the right words but still have a hard time living the way You have asked us to live. We hear how You expect our hospitality with everyone we meet, seeing them as You in our midst, but we don’t seem up to the task most days.

Forgive us for our failings. Help us remember our gestures don’t have to be huge to matter, that even a cup of water is a sign that your love shines in our hearts.

Help us meet everyone in kindness and consideration. Help us welcome those who are different from us regardless of the colour of their skin, who they have chosen to love, or how the live their lives. Your acceptance is the only example we need. Amen.

Every day we are given a new opportunity to be the people God has called us to be. Our past mistakes and oversights are forgotten the moment we repent and try to do better. Jesus has already shown us how.

Scripture

Rewards

Matthew 10⁴⁰ Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me. And anyone who welcomes me also welcomes the one who sent me. ⁴¹ Anyone who welcomes a prophet, just because that person is a prophet, will be given the same reward as a prophet. Anyone who welcomes a good person, just because that person is good, will be given the same reward as a good person. ⁴² And anyone who gives one of my most humble followers a cup of cool water, just because that person is my follower, will surely be rewarded.

Sermon

Performed by Margaret Whisselle

Prayers of the People

(Please add your prayers aloud and in the comment in section below)

God of love, we know Your children throughout the world are struggling. Our prayers are torn in so many directions, but they join with the disjointed prayers of our siblings around the globe who also offer up their cares and concerns to your great love.

This month of Pride, we pray for those who are still struggling to find themselves and live freely. We pray for those in countries who deny Your queer children their freedom and humanity, and are forced in conversion therapies or surgery. We pray for the queer folk who have been rounded up and put in prisons and camps, tortured and starved, killed when no one is looking. Help us know how to be the allies You have called us to be for all of humanity. Help us trust our siblings in faith and those outside of our faith, with our truths and identities as we emerge from the shadows of fear.

We pray for others who are struggling with the pandemic, particularly those living in places and countries who refuse to take this seriously and deny treatment to those who cannot pay. We are mindful of the sorrows being lived in the United States, Brazil, Russia, and many other places around the world. We raise up our cry for comfort and hope along with those families grieving the loss of their loved ones.

As many of us prepare for our national celebration this coming week, we are more aware than ever that borders are artificial and we are all citizens of the world. Let us also remember the nations who were here long before royal decree established those borders. For them this is not a birthday celebration but a reminder of all they have lost. Help us be sensitive to our neighbours, and honour their lands while we enjoy our identity as Canadians.

Gathering all of these prayers and so many more that are left unspoken, we pray the words that tradition taught us:

Our Father, who art in heave, hallowed be Thy name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Benediction & Commission

As you stay in your space

Jesus said, whoever welcomes you welcomes me.

Quench our thirst for love, satisfy our need to be known, assure us that we are indeed prophets of welcome.

Let us go to proclaim this peace in God’s name. Amen