BELLS CORNERS UNITED CHURCH

July 4, 2021

6th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Worship Leader: Rev. Kim Vidal

The video recording of this service can be found here.
You can also dial-in by phone to listen to the audio recording at 613-820-8104.

Gathering Music: Walls Mark Our Bound’ries

1.Walls mark our bound’ries and keep us apart;
walls keep the world from our eyes and our heart.
Tables are round, making room for one more,
welcoming friends, we had not known before.

Refrain
So build us a table and tear down the wall!
Christ is our host.... There is room for us all!

2.Walls make us sure who is in and who’s out;
walls keep us safe from all question and doubt,
but at a table in open exchange
new ties are formed as our lives rearrange.

Refrain

3.Once we were strangers, divided, alone.
hate and distrust built a wall stone by stone.
Now at a table the bread that we share
joins us to Christ in a circle of care. Refrain

Acknowledgement of Territory

As we begin our worship today, we remember that, in this congregation, we live and work on the unceded traditional territory of the Algonquin and Anishinaabe Peoples. We give thanks for their stewardship of the land and the water, the plants and the animals, through many generations. We also acknowledge their story, and our place in it, with sorrow. As we continue to live on this land with respect for it and for its people, may we commit to working toward truth, justice and reconciliation. All my relations.

Welcome & Centering for Worship

Good morning! On behalf of Bells Corners United Church, I welcome and greet you in the name of Jesus Christ on this 6th Sunday after Pentecost. I’m glad that you can join us in our virtual worship time of contemplation, prayers and reflection.

As we continue to be under pandemic restrictions, please be reminded that the work of the church carries on. Please take time to keep in touch with each other through prayers, phone calls, emails or via Zoom. Check also the many announcements on our website at bcuc.org to keep you informed and give you opportunities to respond.

Beginning next Sunday, on July 11th, we are re-opening our sanctuary for in-person worship service at 10 am with a maximum number of 50 people. The Public Health strongly recommends staying at home but if you wish to attend the service, please call the office to register until Friday at 11 am. For the safety of all attendees, the usual health protocols will be in place which include masking, social distancing, hand sanitizing and staying home if you feel unwell. Take note too that our worship service will still be offered via Youtube, by email and by telephone.

Friends, I now invite you to open your hearts to God’s healing love and justice as we gather in worship.

Lighting of the Christ Candle[1] Acolytes: Wendy Morrell & Dan Lanoue

O warm and comforting flame,
sparkle, sparkle now!
Guide us into safe soul refuge.
Though shadows prevail, in mood or mind,
we follow the light in to the calm.
How we long for and look for this light,
and flickering, here it is:
Christ – the light of day – the bright
and comforting twinkling night light,
the infinite and lovely flame of serenity.
We welcome you, light of Christ!

Call to Gather & Prayer of Approach[2] Erin Berard

Come into this electronically connected space-
from couch or office, from comfy recliners
or favourite rocking chairs,
from kitchens or bedrooms. The healing Christ welcomes us all.
We come as we are – unshaven or well coifed,
dressed up or in jammies, eating brunch or brushing teeth.
Though separated by distance, we come as one.
Come to worship across the distance but united in faith.
We come to listen, to pray, to sing, and to rejoice!

Let us pray:

Loving God, as we worship together,
may you forge among us deeper relationships in creative ways,

may you journey with us as we learn to connect through technology,
may you breathe into our souls the hope of your good news,
may you teach us to thrive while staying home.
Show us that your might resides in our all, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hymn: Come Touch Our Hearts - More Voices #12 (verses 1-4) BCUC choir

1.    Come touch our hearts that we may know compassion,
          from failing embers build a blazing fire;
          love strong enough to overturn injustice,
          to seek a world more gracious, come touch and bless our hearts.

2.       Come touch our souls that we may know and love you,
          your quiet presence all our fears dispel;
          create a space for spirit to grow in us,
          let life and beauty fill us, come touch and bless our souls.

3.       Come touch our minds and teach us how to reason,
          set free our thoughts to wonder and to dream;
          help us to open doors of understanding,
          to welcome truth and wisdom, come touch and bless our minds.

4.       Come touch us in the moments we are fragile,
          and in our weakness your great strength reveal;
          that we may rise to follow and to serve,
          steady now our nerve, come touch and bless our wills.

Time for the Young at Heart: Learning a Song with Erin Berard

Jesus made friends and talked to a lot of people that the rules of his time said he shouldn't - women, tax collectors, kids who the disciples were trying to shoo away, and others that people considered outcasts. Jesus healed people even on Sabbath, because he wanted to help and to show that love was more important than the rules.
In today's Bible passage, Jesus noticed one person touching his robe out of all the people in the crowd around him and wanted to immediately find out who it was. He let the woman who reached out to know that she was a daughter - a child of God, even with all the health challenges she was having.

The next hymn, MV186, mentions some of those stories, and has a great refrain thanking God for unconditional love for all of us. I think it's new to us, so I'll introduce the refrain.

Song: Because Jesus Felt - More Voices #186 (verses 1, 2, 4) Erin Berard

1. Because Jesus felt a woman touch his coat,
and said, “Your faith has made you well,”
I know that God takes notice,
and knows my name, and loves us all:

Refrain
So thank you, thank you, God. Thank you, God!
Thank you, thank you, God. Thank you, God!

2. Because Jesus ate with people who’d gone wrong,
and said, “You are forgiven now,”
I know that God forgives me,
and hears my name, and loves us all: R

4. Because Jesus sat with children on his knee,
and said, “I’m glad to meet you all,”
I know God thinks I’m lovely,
and sings my name, and loves us all: R

Prayer for Illumination Reader: Jan Pound

Open our hearts to your Word this day, O God.
Open our minds to the mystery of your truth.
Help us live in such a way that others
may see your power shining in us. Amen.

The Gospel Reading: Mark 5: 25-34 (NRSV) Jesus and the Hemorrhaging Woman

25 Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. 26 She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.” 29 Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” 31 And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, ‘Who touched me?’” 32 He looked all around to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

May God’s wisdom give us understanding as we ponder on this Gospel story. Thanks be to God!

Sermon: “Breaking Barriers”

If I just touch the hem of his garment, I will be healed! That's what she told herself, this nameless, unknown, isolated bleeding woman, driven by nothing but faith. We don’t know her history nor the place where she came from. She’s anonymous; another face in the crowd. What we do know is that she is physically sick, spiritually desperate, and socially in need of acceptance. She has been bleeding for 12 years. Before she met Jesus, no one has been able to help her – not any topnotch physician nor even the village’s shaman. She’s spent all she had: time, money, energy. She even sold her farm and her priceless jewelleries for all I know. Some of us have been there like her, dealing with a prolonged illness or stubborn medical condition. She’s only gotten worse. Day after day, year after year - it’s always the same. No one wants to come close to her. She can’t even lie down on the same bed with her husband. Or worse, perhaps her husband had abandoned her. No one dared to touch her. She was deemed unclean – thanks to a Mosaic law that says: “If a woman has a discharge, and the discharge from her body is blood, she shall be set apart seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening.” (Leviticus 15: 19). For 12 years, this bleeding woman was a pariah to her community. She could not enter the Temple, the heart and soul of her religious community. She was isolated and alone, devoid of human touch from her loved ones and from those who knew her. She was left drained of life and warmth: tired and weak, frustrated and hopeless, angry and resentful, sorrowful and grieving, empty and searching. If you know what that is like, perhaps you know the hemorrhaging woman in today’s gospel. At one level, this is a story of an individual woman. At another level it is the human story - our own story.

If I just touch the hem of his garment, I will be healed! That was her new philosophy – one that will change her life forever. She went through the overcrowded street to find Jesus that day and breaks down barriers that would hamper her from being healed. In a desperate act of social and religious disobedience, she pursues an encounter with Jesus. She knew she should not be mingling with the crowds and was forbidden to touch any man, least of all Jesus. Her heart beats wildly and fast as she plans her actions carefully. She knows she is breaking the purity law. She is aware that she could not touch another human being, much more a male person other than her husband or children and yet here she is – crawling down the dusty ground. Who, in her desperate condition, wouldn’t gather up every bit of spare energy to find him? Just touching the hem of his garment will do it, she tells herself. She crouches low to the ground, and with every inch of her remaining strength, she stretches and makes contact with the hem of Jesus’ garment. As soon as she touches the hem, a burning sensation runs through her body like an electric shock. In that moment she was transfused with and by a power so strong that she could not explain what it was. It was as if a surge of energy was released. The connection was made and a relationship established. Life no longer discharged out of her but flowed into her. Whether we take this as superstition or a healing miracle, Mark tells us that the hemorrhage stopped and healing took place.

What exactly is healing? How is being healed different from being cured? In her book, Absolute Truths, author Susan Howitch clarifies the difference between a cure and a healing. She said: “A cure signified the banishment of physical illness, but a healing could mean not just a physical cure, but a repairing and strengthening of the mind and spirit to improve the quality of life even when no physical cure was possible.” The Rev. Michael Lindvall tells of a story of his friend who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease when the man was still in his fifties. The friend and his wife prayed for healing. Twenty years later, the friend was in the last debilitating stages of the disease. Nevertheless, the friend told Rev. Lindvall that his prayers had been answered. The friend said in all sincerity, “I have been healed not of Parkinson’s disease, but I have been healed of my fear of Parkinson’s disease.”

Mark says that the hemorrhage stopped but the healing continued. “Who touched my clothes?” Jesus asked. Jesus knows that some energy or power was taken from his body and he wants to know who caused it. Theologian Bruce Epperley writes: “When the woman touches Jesus’ garment, the healing energy of the universe is released. A power flows from Jesus that heals her body cells as well as her soul. The power is so great that it unsettles Jesus, the healer, who looks all around for the recipient of his energy…” In that moment, Jesus breaks the barriers of his day. He reached out to a woman who was deemed ritually unclean by her community. Jesus was calling her out – to be made known…to come forward –and tell her story. Jesus knew that she had spent twelve long years having other people impose their assumptions and prejudices on her. She was shamed into silence by her religion. How the woman’s heart must have raced! She was caught of her disgrace. Now she will be ostracized again or worse, might be stoned to death for her crime. But she came out to the open, with trembling and fear as she pours out her sad story. Liz Curtis Higgs calls her a woman who stole a healing miracle! Stolen or freely given, Jesus would not allow her to remain invisible anymore.

To her surprise, Jesus calls her “Daughter.” Jesus said: “Daughter, your faith has made
you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” Jesus reminded her that she is a child of God, deserving of love and grace, as any other human being, and blesses her on the way to wholeness and dignity. She has now gained a new identity- a daughter, a child of God, a member of the human community. She was free at last! Mark did not tell us if she had been cured completely of her disease but for sure, she was completely healed. Healed from her fear, her loneliness, her invisibility. She was made whole again!

This powerful story reminds me of Martin Buber’s “I-Thou” encounter rather than an “I-it” relationship. At one point, Buber writes: “I believe that the key to creating society that is nourishing, empowering and healing for everyone lies in how we relate to one another.” In the I-Thou encounter, Buber explains that we relate to each other as authentic beings, without judgment, qualification, or objectification. It is characterized by mutuality, directness, presence, empathy and respect. You become like the “other”. The I-it, on the other hand relates to the “other” as object – someone or something that we manipulate, use or abuse. I believe that Jesus is a practitioner of the “I-Thou” relationship and teaches us to emulate the same. It is through seeing the other as us that we are able to break down any barriers that deter the other of healing.

The truth of the matter is this: there is enormous brokenness, pain, and suffering in our world today, in our communities, in our families, and in our individual lives. We crave healing and wholeness. We need reconciliation and restoration. On July 1st, we have commemorated Canada Day but for me and perhaps many of us, this year was different and it was difficult to remember this annual historic day. In light of the tragic discovery of unmarked graves of now more than 1000 indigenous children in former Residential Schools in British Columbia & Saskatchewan; add to that the recent killing of a Muslim family in London, Ontario; the unending plight of the black and Asian communities, the LGBTQS and other marginalized sectors in the community, and the ongoing battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, we are hemorrhaging from grief, fear, uncertainty, isolation and loneliness. We are bleeding from divisiveness, indifference, apathy, racism and a host of personal and social inequities that needs attention and healing. Unless we are fully transformed – unless we become advocates of the “I-Thou” encounter, unless we seek God’s grace and treat others as our own mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, daughters, sons – unless we break down barriers that divide and kill, unless we reach out and touch even just the hem of power that is life-giving, the bleeding will continue. The bleeding will not stop.

So what must we do as individuals and as a congregation to stop the bleeding? What barriers must we break in order for others to be set free – to be healed and become whole again? Jesus taught us one important mandate that we should not ignore: “Love your neighbour as you love yourself.” If it doesn’t look like love, it is not life-giving. So, what looks like love? Debie Thomas has this to offer: “Love looks like… the one whose heart melts at the cry of a desperate father. The one who visits the sick child and takes her limp hand in his. The one who risks defilement to touch the bloody and the broken. The one who insists on the whole truth, however falteringly told. The one who listens for as long as it takes. The one who brings life to dead places. The one who restores hope. The one who turns mourning into dancing. The one who renames the outcast, “Daughter,” and bids her go in peace.” So go, my friends, and heal the bleeding, hurting world with love. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Sources that helped me with my sermon:

Liz Curtis Higgs, The Woman Who Touched Jesus, todayschristianwoman.com.
Michael K. Marsh, No Longer Drained of Life, interruptingthesilence.com
Alisa Bair, Lady Liberty and The Hemorrhaging Woman, Alisabair.net.
Michael Lindvall, Feasting on the Word – Year B, Volume 3: Pentecost and Season After Pentecost 1 (Propers 3-16).
Debie Thomas,“When Daughters Go in Peace”, journeywithjesus.net
Bruce Epperley, patheos.org.

Prayers of the People & the Lord’s Prayer

Let us gather our hearts in this prayer:

God of time and seasons, we give you thanks for painting our summer with vibrant colours, warmth and rain. Your abundant love screams from all creation – plants and trees, animals and humans, the vastness of the skies, lakes and rivers teeming with marine life. Your joy fizzles in every moment where love is shown. Your presence moves our hands, our heart and our feet to offer justice and kindness and we become healers and truth-tellers.

Jesus, our brother, friend and empowerer, we come through prayer to pay attention to your teachings – how you included everyone in your circle of love. We recognize the holy in you, in your radical hospitality which breaks down barriers and transforms minds and hearts and lives. We are in awe at your good news of justice and how you have opened yourself to an aching, hurting, struggling world. Empower and implore us to model our loving on yours. And in doing so, may we become barrier-breaking people so that your gifts of light, love and life will flow through each and every member of the human family and the whole of creation.

Spirit of Life, we pray for those celebrating happy news – the birth of a baby, the celebration of birthdays and anniversaries, those who are moving to a new home, those who have completed their vaccinations and those enjoying the gifts of summer. We also pray for healing and wholeness for those who are in need, for those seeking treatments in hospitals and in homes. We lift those who are grieving the loss of loved ones and those who continue to bleed because of fear, anxiety, loneliness or isolation. We continue to pray for the indigenous communities as they grieve the loss of many children who died in residential schools and in their continuing struggles to seek truth and reconciliation. Empower us to journey with them as well as the marginalized communities. In silence we pray for all of those that we name hearts…

Through the teachings of Jesus and the Holy Spirit’s leading, and in grateful thanks of God’s grace we offer you these ancient words in prayer as Jesus taught us:

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kin-dom 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 kin-dom, the power and the glory,
Forever and ever, Amen.

Invitation to Offer

Jesus felt tender compassion for the suffering people he met and taught us to do the same. This day, you and I are called to respond to Jesus’ example to offer healing, love and compassion as the need arises. Let us offer our gifts of time, talents and treasures so that the ministry of this church will be a growing, vibrant witness to God’s healing love. If you are not on PAR and wish to send in your offering and donations, you can drop them in the mailbox by the kitchen door of the church or mail them to BCUC. You can also send in your support through e-transfer. Thank you for your continued love and support to BCUC.

Offertory Prayer

Gracious God, we offer the work of our hands and our hearts, our time and talents, our commitment with joy and generous spirits. Bless these gifts to heal our community and the world of its pain. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Sending Forth

(Inspired by a Blessing of Diversity written by Clare McBeath and Tim Presswood, Xavier. Edu)

May God the Creator who created a world of diversity and vibrancy,
go with us as we embrace life in all its fullness.
May Jesus the Christ who teaches us to care for strangers and foreigners,
go with us as we try to be good neighbours in our communities.
May the Spirit of diversity who breaks down our barriers and celebrates community,
go with us as we find the courage to create a place of welcome for all.
Today and in the days to come. Amen.

Hymn: Though Ancient Walls - Voices United #691 - BCUC Choir

1 Though ancient walls may still stand proud and racial strife be fact,
though boundaries may be lines of hate, proclaim God's saving act!

Refrain:

Walls that divide are broken down;
Christ is our unity!
Chains that enslave are thrown aside;
Christ is our liberty!

2 When vested power stands firm entrenched and breaks another's back,
when waste and want live side by side,
it's Gospel that we lack. R

3 The truth we seek in varied scheme,
the life that we pursue,
unites us in a common quest
for self and world made new. R

4 The church divided seeks that grace,
that newness we proclaim;
a unity of serving love
that lives praise to God's name! R

5 This broken world seeks lasting health and vital unity.
God's people by God's Word renewed,
cast off all slavery! R

Departing Music: America the Beautiful (or O Mother Dear, Jerusalem!)

Zoom Fellowship – 11 am

[1] Jani Francis, Gathering, Pentecost 1 2021 (Year B). Used with permission.

[2] Gord Dunbar, Gathering, Pentecost 1 2021 (Year B). Used with permission.

Sunday Worship Service - July 4, 2021