The Eleventh 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, your blessed Son came down from heaven to be the true bread that gives life to the world.  Give us this bread always, that he may live in us and we in him, and that strengthened by this food, we may live as his body in the world, through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen. 

First Reading

2 Samuel 18:5-9,15,31-33

The king gave orders to Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, ‘Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom.’ And all the people heard when the king gave orders to all the commanders concerning Absalom. 

So the army went out into the field against Israel; and the battle was fought in the forest of Ephraim. The men of Israel were defeated there by the servants of David, and the slaughter there was great on that day, twenty thousand men. The battle spread over the face of all the country; and the forest claimed more victims that day than the sword. 

Absalom happened to meet the servants of David. Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great oak. His head caught fast in the oak, and he was left hanging between heaven and earth, while the mule that was under him went on. And ten young men, Joab’s armour-bearers, surrounded Absalom and struck him, and killed him. 

Then the Cushite came; and the Cushite said, ‘Good tidings for my lord the king! For the Lord has vindicated you this day, delivering you from the power of all who rose up against you.’ The king said to the Cushite, ‘Is it well with the young man Absalom?’ The Cushite answered, ‘May the enemies of my lord the king, and all who rise up to do you harm, be like that young man.’ 

The king was deeply moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept; and as he went, he said, ‘O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would that I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!’ 

Second Reading                                                                                              Ephesians 4:25-5:2                                                                                                        

So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbours, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labour and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. 

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. 

Gospel Reading                                                                                                John 6:35,41-51                                                                                                                       Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 

Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ They were saying, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, “I have come down from heaven”?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, “And they shall all be taught by God.” Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’ 

SERMON

[click on the link below]

HYMN OF THE DAY

“Gather Us In”

[click on the link below]

Here in this place, new light is streaming, 

now is the darkness vanished away, 

see, in this space, our fears and our dreamings, 

brought here to you in the light of this day. 

Gather us in the lost and forsaken, 

gather us in the blind and the lame; 

call to us now, and we shall awaken, 

we shall arise at the sound of our name. 

We are the young — our lives are a mystery, 

we are the old — who yearns for your face;

we have been sung throughout all of history, 

called to be light to the whole human race. 

Gather us in the rich and the haughty, 

gather us in the proud and the strong; 

give us a heart so meek and so lowly, 

give us the courage to enter the song. 

Here we will take the wine and the water, 

here we will take the bread of new birth, 

here you shall call your sons and your daughters, 

call us anew to be salt of the earth. 

Give us to drink the wine of compassion, 

give us to eat the bread that is you; 

nourish us well, and teach us to fashion 

lives that are holy and hearts that are true.

Not in the dark of buildings confining,

not in some heaven, light years away–

here in the place the new light is shining,

now is the kingdom, and now is the day.

Gather us in and hold us forever,

gather us in and make us your own;

gather us in, all peoples together,

fire of love in our flesh and our bone.

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, Bev Gregory, Dale Robinson, Bryan Matschke, 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, Myanmar, Belarus, Tunisia, 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, those in the Western United States and Canada, Greece and Turkey suffering from heatwave, draught, and wildfires and those in Lytton devastated by wildfire, the people in Germany, Belgium, western Europe, China, and Bangladesh at risk from floods, those in the United States, Canada, and throughout the world caught up in racism and injustice and the resulting violence, 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

“I Come With Joy”

[click on the link below]

I come with joy, a child of God,

forgiven, loved, and free, 

the life of Jesus to recall, 

in love laid down for me

in love laid down for me. 

I come with Christians far and near 

to find, as all are fed, 

the new community of love 

in Christ’s communion bread,

in Christ’s communion bread. 

As Christ breaks bread, and bids us share, 

each proud division ends. 

The love that made us, makes us one, 

and strangers now are friends,

and strangers now are friends. 

The Spirit of the risen Christ,

unseen, but ever near,

is in such friendship better known,

alive among us here,

alive among us here.

Together met, together bound 

by all that God has done,

we’ll go with joy, to give the world

the love that makes us one,

the love that 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, 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 15]

Disinfect/sanitize worship space and entrance etc before the service

One person preps worship materials [pastor]

Six feet distancing  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