McPhail Baptist Church

Sunday June 7, 2020

"O Master,Let Me Walk With Thee"

Sue Sparks

O Master, let me walk with thee,

In lowly paths of service free;

Tell me thy secret: help me bear,

The strains of toil, the fret of care.

In hope that sends a shining ray,

Far down the future’s broadening way,

In peace that only thou canst give,

With thee, O Master, let me live.

"Lavish Love, Abundant Beauty"

Sue Sparks

Lavish love, abundant beauty, gracious gifts for heart and hand,

Life that fills the soul and senses—all burst forth at your command.

Lord, our Lord, Eternal Father, great Creator, God and Friend:

Boundless power gave full expression to your love which knows no end.

Who am I that you should love me, meet my every need from birth?

Why invest yourself so fully in a creature made of earth?

In your loving heart you planned me, fashioned me with greatest care;

Through my soul you breathed your Spirit, planted your own image there.

I am yours, Eternal Father, all my body, mind and heart.

Take and use me to your glory, form yourself in every part.

Lord, your love brings joy and gladness flowing forth within my soul,

May my very breath and being rise to you, their source and goal.

Favourite Hymns 

Ernie and Lynda Cox 

And Can It Be That I Should Gain?

And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Saviour’s blood?

Died he for me, who caused his pain? For me, who him to death pursued?

Amazing love! how can it be,

That thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

Refrain:

Amazing love! how can it be, 

That thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in him, is mine!

Alive in him, my living head, and clothed in righteousness divine,

Bold I approach the eternal throne, 

And claim the crown, through Christ my own. 

Morning Has Broken

Morning has broken like the first morning,

Blackbird has spoken like the first bird.

Praise for the singing! Praise for the morning!

Praise for them, springing fresh from the Word!

Sweet the rain’s new fall sunlit from heaven,

Like the first dew fall on the first grass.

Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden,

Sprung in completeness where his feet pass.

Mine is the sunlight! Mine is the morning

Born of the one light Eden saw play!

Praise with elation, praise every morning,

God’s recreation of the new day!

All the Way My Saviour Leads Me

All the way my Saviour leads me: what have I to ask beside?

Can I doubt his tender mercy, who through life has been my guide?

Heavenly peace, divinest comfort, here by faith in him to dwell,

For I know, whate’er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well.

For I know, whate’er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well.

All the way my Saviour leads me, cheers each winding path I tread,
Gives me grace for every trial, feeds me with the living bread;
Though my weary steps may falter, and my soul athirst may be,
Gushing from the rock before me, lo! a spring of joy I see;

Gushing from the rock before me, lo! a spring of joy I see.

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Colossians 1:1-6 
Good News Translation (GNT)

1 From Paul, who by God's will is an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy—
2 To God's people in Colossae, who are our faithful friends in union with Christ:
May God our Father give you grace and peace.
Prayer of Thanksgiving

3 We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you. 4 For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all God's people. 5 When the true message, the Good News, first came to you, you heard about the hope it offers. So your faith and love are based on what you hope for, which is kept safe for you in heaven. 6 The gospel keeps bringing blessings and is spreading throughout the world, just as it has among you ever since the day you first heard about the grace of God and came to know it as it really is.

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Sermon: "A Word to Lift Your Hat To" 

Rev. Ernie Cox

(Print version of sermon)

Announcements

-Bursary(Scholarship) Fund: We will be asking for post-secondary students from our congregation to submit applications to the McPhail Bursary Fund for the upcoming fall school term. Students who want to submit an application can do so by email or mail to Lynda Cox. lyndagracecox@gmail.com

-We’re happy to announce the birth of a son to Jimmy Cox and Kate Morrison. Spencer Morrison Cox, came into the world this past Tuesday, June 2nd, at 8.9 lbs.  Kate and baby Spencer are doing very well. Charlie has taken to calling his new brother, “wee Spencer.”  Lynda and Ernie are over the moon with a third grandchild. 

-We are excited to now offer an e-transfer option for McPhail offerings. If you would like to make use of this option, offerings can be sent via online banking to offerings@mcphailbaptist.ca If possible, please include your envelope number in the memo line. A special thanks to Steve Sparks and Samantha Helman for setting this up for us! For those who would prefer mailing in their offering, funds can be sent via post to: McPhail Baptist Church, 249 Bronson Ave, Ottawa, ON. K1R 6H6 We are deeply thankful for your ongoing support of this ministry! 

Hope: The Church's Secret Weapon 

Rev. Steve Zink

“God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven….there is no longer Greek and Jew, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free” 

(Col 1:20; 3:11)

This past week has seen the foundations of the world shake afresh. We have already been affected by the widespread pandemic that has prematurely taken the lives of hundreds of thousands. To this has been added further distress in the brimming over of longstanding racial tensions. Though this has occurred in the United States, the ripples of this tumultuous issue have reached many shores and borders besides. People in many different countries are demanding that long residency of the demons of inequity receive full exposure and exorcism. 

How much can be achieved by the well-meaning slogans, social media campaigns, protests, and political statements that these troubles have now inspired? A person I know suggested this week that this is all that can be done. Perhaps these things can make a difference. But I feel uneasy about the depth of change they can awaken.

I am reminded of the Apostle Paul’s contention that it is possible to be deeply involved in a worthy social cause while love is completely absent (1Cor 13:3). But love is precisely what is needed for the transformation the world requires! It must be remembered, though, that in Paul’s thought love is inextricably linked to faith and hope (1Cor 13:13). Faith, hope, and love are the three cords that together make the redemptive rope. Is any of this evident in the responses to the recent turbulence in the United States? 

Another way of putting it is this: We can think of human change as something that occurs at the level of the branch or leaf. But it is the roots and the soil that determines everything. There is only as much flowering in the branch as there is rooting into nutrient rich soil and the water that softens it. The roots and soil are one’s view of the world, a person’s philosophy or outlook. Insofar as we have a higher vision of life can we navigate the immediate questions of the present. Here lies the essential need for something more than an ethic. Here lies the need for a higher philosophy, a spiritual outlook. 

I would say that one can only love another to the degree to which one can hope for that other. The arms of our affection extend only as far as the breadth of our faith and our hope. We cannot truly love anyone our horizon of hope disallows or our philosophy excludes. This is where the church has a decisive advantage over the secular responses we have seen. It possesses a unique treasure, a leaven with the power to transform the entire world scene. It can awaken the greatest love by offering to human faith the greatest message of divine hope. 

The letter of Paul to the Colossians opens with a hint that something is working its way through the whole of the human community: “it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world” (1:6). What is this vast, spreading thing that respects no border? The author speaks of a divine reality from which “all things have been created” and in which “all things hold together” (1:16-17). What is to spread through the world is the glad tidings that that this all inclusive reality will one day redeem every living being: “God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross” (Col 1:20). Here we see that the mystery of suffering ends in a final reconciliation and an everlasting peace among the entire community of living things.

 This inclusive vision is painted in a memorable way by the author of Revelation: 

“Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing, “To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” (Rev 5:13)

Here we see that the liturgical pattern of our Sunday worship is an anticipatory hint, the earnest of something unthinkably vast that will sweep everywhere and exclude none. All created life joins in happy accord in a sublime hymn of gratitude. 

Returning to Colossians, after our writer speaks of this outspreading universal hope, he draws out practical applications of this vision for our life here and now: “there is no longer Greek and Jew, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free” (Col 3:11). In this statement, so remarkable given the narrow times in which its light first shone, one sees a logical deduction from the hope already laid out. If all people have an equal share in the glories to come, the present demands an outright rejection of all division and privilege based on ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or any other barrier people have erected (the similar text in Galatians 3:24 also includes a rejection of any hierarchy of gender). 

As the church, we must realize that we possess a great treasure. As a family of people from different backgrounds, incomes, ethnicities, as well as personal identities and orientations, we are a pledge and foretaste of reconciliation of all humanity. Paul taught that as a community of hope, we do not mourn as others do (1Thess 4:13). But it is not just mourning. Hope also enables us to fight inequality in a totally unique and effective way. Hope is the Church’s secret weapon. 

Special Music: "If I can Help Somebody" 

Ernie and Lynda Cox 

Coping with the Corona Crisis

(A series of responses from our McPhail congregants)

Eglan Grant

All of us are confined to our homes. How are you spending your time?

I walk a few laps around the blocks, in the area where I live. Sometimes crossword puzzles, and work on my volunteering that I have committed to.

How are you staying connected?

I stay in contact with my families and friends by phone and using WhatsApp. I phone people from my volunteer group that are either not well or shut in.

Some people have stopped following the Corona virus news, suffering from an overload of information, much of it not encouraging. How are you handling all the news?

I have programmed myself to listen to the radio rather than watch the tv, and I read the news  from my tablet. Talking to people sometimes, they may have a comment or two but that doesn’t happen too often.

Have you been able to find a silver lining in the current situation?

I find myself cooking more. Making more real home-made meals. I have not been doing that for quite a while. So I am back in focus and doing a little baking as well. My daughter that stays with me 4 to 5 nights per week after work got me going.

What things do you especially miss?

I miss socializing with my friends and families. And of course, I really miss church.

Benediction

Ernie and Lynda Cox 

 

Postlude: "I know Whom I Have Believed"

Sue Sparks