The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

JESUS, LIVING BREAD, RENEWING OUR HUNGRY WORLD

Pentecost begins with a rush–the rushing, life-giving wind of God’s Spirit. We also remember that Sunday is  a day of rest. Rest is not meant to emphasize relaxation as much as it does renewal. The Church year season of Pentecost recognizes that God’s Spirit breathes into us life-giving re-creation. The readings for these months of Summer worship focus on who we are in Christ, what is the nature of faith, what is  the living out of this faith, what the life of following Jesus is all  about.  The Bread of Life, like the manna in the wilderness, and like the bread on the Lord’s table, declares how near and involved our God actually is in our daily lives.  Through Christ’s word and Spirit we have refreshment and renewal.

CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION

WE REMEMBER OUR BAPTISMS, CONFESS OUR FAITHLESSNESS, 

AND HEAR GOD’S FAITHFUL PROMISE OF FORGIVENESS

Pastor:  Blessed be the holy Trinity:

the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,

who forgives all our sin,

whose mercy endures forever.

People:  Amen. 

Pastor: God of all mercy and consolation,

come to the aid of your people,

turning us from sin

to live for you alone.

Give us the power of your Holy Spirit

that, attentive to your Word,

we may confess our sins,

receive your forgiveness,

bear with one another in love,

maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,

and grow into the fullness of your Son,

Jesus Christ our Lord. 

People: Amen. 

Pastor: Let us confess our sin in the

presence of God and of one another.  Reconciling God,                                                                                    People: you seek peace and unity among us,                                                           but too often we choose walls of isolation.                                     You seek to be one with your creation,                                             but we turn away your loving Spirit.                                                  In your forgiving love,                                                                         break down the barriers we create,                                                    that we might see more clearly your love for us,                                         be reconciled with our neighbour,                                                      and trust more deeply your promise of eternal life.  Amen.

Pastor: We who once were far off

have been brought near to God

through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,

and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

May our all-loving God through the Holy Spirit

grant you grace to forgive one another

as God in Christ has forgiven you.  

People: Amen.

HOLDEN EVENING PRAYER

[click on the link below]

Listen through the Magnificat.  It ends at 10:40

PRAYER OF THE DAY        

Gracious God, you have placed within the hearts of all your children a longing for your word and a hunger for your truth.  Grant that we may know your Son to be the true bread of heaven and share this bread with all the world, through  Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen. 

First Reading

2 Samuel 11:1-15

In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. 

It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, ‘This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.’ So David sent messengers to fetch her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she returned to her house. The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, ‘I am pregnant.’ 

So David sent word to Joab, ‘Send me Uriah the Hittite.’ And Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the people fared, and how the war was going. Then David said to Uriah, ‘Go down to your house, and wash your feet.’ Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. When they told David, ‘Uriah did not go down to his house’, David said to Uriah, ‘You have just come from a journey. Why did you not go down to your house?’ Uriah said to David, ‘The ark and Israel and Judah remain in booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing.’ Then David said to Uriah, ‘Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.’ So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day. On the next day, David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house. 

In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter he wrote, ‘Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die.’ 

Second Reading                                                                                              Ephesians 3:14-21                                                                                                        

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen. 

Gospel Reading                                                                                                John 6:1-21                                                                                                                            

After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias.  A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming towards him, Jesus said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?’ He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, ‘Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.’ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, ‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?’ Jesus said, ‘Make the people sit down.’ Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.’ So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.’ 

When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself. 

When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, got into a boat, and started across the lake to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The lake became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the lake and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, ‘It is I; do not be afraid.’ Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land towards which they were going. 

SERMON

[click on the link below]

HYMN OF THE DAY

“Break Now the Bread of Life”

[click on the link below]

Break now the bread of life, dear Lord, to me, 

as once you broke the loaves beside the sea. 

Beyond the sacred page, I seek you, Lord. 

My spirit waits for you, O living Word. 

Bless your own word of truth, dear Lord, to me, 

as when you blessed the bread by Galilee. 

Then shall all bondage cease, all fetters fall, 

and I shall find my peace, my all in all. 

You are the bread of life, dear Lord, to me. 

Your holy Word the truth that rescues me. 

Give me to eat and live with you above. 

Teach me to love your truth, for you are love.

TODAY IN OUR PRAYERS

Bill, Carol, Curtis, and Christine Buchkowsky, Teri Peterson and baby Maverick Gallant, Wayne Turner, Janet Gregory, Jody Giesbrecht, Marge McMillan, Kyrie Parimi, John Beaven, Doris Turner, Hilda Anderson, Linda Wolfe, Naomi, Joan Schock, Bev Gregory, Dale Robinson, Bryan Matschke, Ursula Coakwell, Evelyn Robson, Audrey Hedlin, Liz Sand, Robin Stamm and baby Constantine, Mona Neher, Carl Rausch, Joanne, Bill, and Jocelyn Adams, Oma Ywo, the family of Lyle Sand, the family of Marguerite Sanders (Don Sander’s sister), the family of Norm Gregory, the family of Sophie Kobrynsky (Paul Slusar’s sister), the family of Mary Anderson (Evelyn Robson’s mother), the family of Steve Slusar (Paul Slusar’s brother), the family of Joel Zimmerman.

We remember the missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada, the 215 children buried at the Kamloops residential school, the 751 unmarked graves on Cowessess First Nation, the 182 unmarked graves at the Cranbrook residential school, the more than 160 unmarked graves at Kuper (Penelakut) Island Residential School, and all those who have suffered the trauma of residential schools, the people of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Ukraine, Sudan, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Venezuela, Somalia, Libya, Hong Kong, the Palestinians and Israelis, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Belarus, South Africa, the Rohingya Muslim refugees and the ethnic Karen of Myanmar, all at the Mexico/United States border seeking refuge, the people of Haiti suffering from natural and political disasters, the people recovering from tropical storm Elsa, those in the Western United States and Canada suffering from heatwave, draught, and wildfires and those in Lytton devastated by wildfire, the people in Germany, Belgium, western Europe and China at risk from floods, the people of Barrie, ON devastated by a tornado, the families and victims of the condo collapse in Florida, those in the United States, Canada, and throughout the world caught up in racism and injustice and the resulting violence and especially the Muslim family in London ON, and those throughout the world, in Canada, in our province, and in our community still threatened by the coronavirus.

Petitioner:  God of hope, we remember the 215 children buried at the Kamloops residential school, the 751 unmarked graves on Cowessess First Nation, the 182 unmarked graves at the Cranbrook residential school, the more than 160 unmarked graves at Kuper (Penelakut) Island Residential School, and all First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people who desire peace, wholeness, dignity, and justice but experience conflict, abuse, injustice, loss, and grief.  Send your Creator Spirit of comfort and hope in the midst of fear, anxiety, and sorrow.  Be with all who feel despised and vulnerable and live daily with harm and injustice.  Help us to face the truth with repentance and work for reconciliation with grace.  Come, Holy Spirit… Hear us, O God of life…

HOLDEN EVENING PRAYER

[click on the link below]

Begin listening at 10:40, The Prayers

CLOSING HYMN

“Praise the One Who Breaks the Darkness”

[click on the link below]

Praise the One who breaks the darkness 

With a liberating light; 

Praise the One who frees the pris’ners 

Turning blindness into sight. 

Praise the One who preached the Gospel, 

Healing ev’ry dread disease, 

Calming storms, and feeding thousands 

With the very Bread of peace. 

Praise the One who blessed the children 

With a strong, yet gentle word; 

Praise the One who drove out demons 

With the piercing two-edged sword. 

Praise the one who brings cool water 

To the desert’s burning sand; 

From this Well comes living water 

Quenching thirst in ev’ry land. 

Praise the one true love Word incarnate, 

Christ, who suffered in our place. 

Jesus died and rose for many 

That we may know God by grace. 

Let us sing for joy and gladness, 

Seeing what our God has done; 

Praise the one redeeming glory, 

Praise the One who makes us one.

DISMISSAL

Pastor: Go in peace, renewed with Christ’s Spirit to love and to serve.

People: Thanks be to God.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Because COVID cases as well as the distribution of vaccinations continues throughout Saskatoon and the province, King of Glory’s Church Council at its June meeting unanimously passed a motion that we hold in-person worship services—following the provincial protocols recommended—on the first and third Sundays in July and August at our regular time 6:30 p.m.  All Sunday  services through August will be on-line and posted on our website.  Of course, should there be any significant changes with regard to the pandemic situation the Church Council will revisit the issue.

COMING UP AT KOG   

Sunday, July 25, King of Glory online Worship service.

Sunday, August 1 , King of Glory in person Worship service, 6:30 p.m.

Sunday, August 8, King of Glory online Worship service.

Sunday, August 15, King of Glory in person Worship service, 6:30 p.m.

Sunday,August 15, King of Glory Annual General Meeting after the service.

Sunday, August 22, King of Glory online Worship service.

Sunday, August 29, King of Glory online Worship service.

June, July, and Year-to-Date Budget and Contribution Report for KOG

2021 Budget:  $49,536       Monthly Budget:  $4,180.50     Weekly Budget:  $964.73

2021income/expenses: $1,753.09

May income/expenses: $3,111.76

Contributions from July 4 through July 18: $1,690

Offerings.  

Even though we are not meeting together we still have expenses and need your offerings so that we can pay them.  Church Council has decided that best way to receive your offerings is that you mail a cheque (Please no cash for mail security reasons) to the church and we can process them from there.

Send your contributions to:  King of Glory Lutheran Church

    3318 Merritt Street

    Saskatoon, SK  S7M 3P6

Thank you for your generosity.

King of Glory is once again supporting On Eagle’s Wings and their Summer Bible Camps in the North with monies for supplies for the program. A collection basket for free will offerings to buy supplies will be on the back table. We will gather all monies during the in person worship services on July 4 and 18 and August 1 and 15. So far $1010 has been contributed.  Thank you for your generosity.

The website  for all seven ELCIC congregations in Saskatoon is now up and the address is https://saskatoonelcic.com/   It will be used now mainly for sharing information during the pandemic and posting services from the various churches.

Co-Treasurer position for King of Glory 

King of Glory is looking for a co-treasurer primarily responsible for documenting and filling out the forms for the province, the Canada Revenue Agency and the ELCiC.  They will work with Pat Sarich whose primary responsibility is oversight of the budget and the bookkeeping with respect of receipts and expenditures.  Please contact Pastor Michael about this position.

Checklist and Guidelines for Re-opening Worship Services

[For August 1]

Disinfect/sanitize worship space and entrance etc before the service

One person preps worship materials and conducts seating [pastor]

Pre-screening and Registration of attendees (if tracing is necessary)

Seating with six feet distancing (if tracing is necessary) recommended

No sharing of pencils, pens, etc.

No serving of food or beverages

Try not to use the washrooms

Open doors and windows if possible

Use/wear face masks, but you may sing quietly recommended

Hand sanitizer available

No physical contact (e.g. sharing of the peace, no passing of offering plate)

Communion procedure: distribution in a way that maintains physical distancing

Disinfect/sanitize worship space and entrance etc after the service