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my i once was lost in savior but jesus took me i'm just a little love with jesus you you so to foreign you you two welcome everyone to worship with altona united church it is good to be here we hope that wherever you are you are finding some hope some laughter and some healing in your life as our world continues to go along the path that seems to be set before us it is a frosty week in manitoba we hope that wherever you are you are finding warmth in friends in conversation in a cup of coffee a cup of tea and in words of kindness we gather acknowledging that we are on treaty one territory the homeland and traditional lands of the ancient the cree the ogi cree the dakota and the dene people and it is the homeland of the metis so let us live into those words that were written on a paper and signed so many years ago let us live into the power of those words to live with respect with one another and let us live and be the light that christ has called us to be let us light our christ light i always have lots of words written down on the pages when i come to worship on whatever day of the week it is it used to be sunday mornings now it's thursday afternoons that we gather to lead worship and i print all the words out because i'll forget what it is i want to say or i'll think of something else and we'll go off on 22 other different tangents and be nowhere near what it was i was hoping and wanting to save but words have a power to them that can come to life for us if they are spoken with love and with justice and with truth and words will give shape to our service today those who are sharing in worship today are betty lowan who brings the gift of music fagerski will be sharing the words from the psalms and the gospel jerry is bringing things to life by recording eileen will help bring things to life by posting it on facebook and all of you bring this to life when you live out the words and the callings that jesus has called us to to be part of seeking justice loving kindness and walking humbly in this world we are in the ordinary season of the church year and the call stories are now moving into stories of healing and hope for ourselves and our world with words and deeds we say thank you to those who support the mission and service fund to the united church of canada those who support local and global initiatives like food banks women's shelters places of healing and wellness for body mind and spirit places we support where there is welcome to the newcomer everything done with love and justice the month of january on our church calendar it's something we put together every year that has pictures and dates for birthdays anniversaries and in memoriams and so for all of those for this month of january which is almost done now for whatever you have celebrated or marked in any way we offer our blessings to you the opening song that you heard the music that you heard is a song from a songwriter called lauren daigle and the song that he played for us is called you say and it's that idea of words and i just want to read a first couple of the lines for you to maybe get a sense of where the service might go today just a hint and it might go there it might go wherever else it wants to go but she opens with these lines that say i keep fighting voices in my mind that say i'm not enough and every single lie that tells me that i will never measure up and she continues to question who it is and then she speaks she's speaking to god and she reiterates what god has said to her and that says you say i am loved when i can't feel a thing you say i am strong when i think i am weak and you say i am held when i am falling short and when i don't belong you say i am yours may you feel that sense of belonging today and may there be in the word shared this day love and healing and hope so let us worship in a spirit of truth and love let us pray god of power and might you send prophets to your people them speaking words of calling us back to your covenant back to your heart words that invite us to pick up again the teachings of your ways in the fullness of time o god you sent us your son jesus who taught with such authority who healed with compassion who spoke with gentleness so much so that our eyes were open to see your kingdom here and now we pray that you o god would open our hearts and minds once again that we may understand and proclaim your teachings for all to hear so that we may lift up empower and encourage one another as we build a world full of love and kindness and compassion this we pray in the strong name of jesus the christ amen our readings today the one from the psalm is full of praise for god and so i've asked betty to play a beloved hymn that we quite like here at altona united and i'm sure many of you do as well it is the hymn how great thou art foreign so oh to i think i have almost reached the end of how much i am missing everybody and you know convincing myself that yes we can do this and i speak those words to myself every day hoping that they will be real and we will continue to work our way through and so because i am missing everybody and missing voices and that of the congregation that we're not always able to hear because we're not in place uh together i have asked those that are here for worship today to help out uh betty and teresa jeri and mary she might be my artist for me today mary helps with the audio visual and the sound and turns off jerry's phone when it needs to happen um so words and the power of words and so some of you know the story of malala uh the young girl who lived in a country where the words spoken from authority said that girls can't go to school and she wanted to go to school her dad was a teacher and the words in that country and the government said no girls can't go to school and there was lots of punishment there was lots of harshness for that and the girls began to stop going to school malala refused and she wrote a book called the magic pencil so we're going to have magic markers today so here's where mary's hand comes in come on up mary i need you to print some words she's going to find her mask and she's got markers and she's going to be my hands and it won't be hard mary we'll pick simple words but maybe we'll ask you to draw us the tree of life or something or not so in malala's book that she writes she writes down in a book on a piece of paper so maybe i'll encourage you at home if you've got a scribbler a piece of paper a napkin and a pen and pencil or crayons find something that you can write on in her book malala talks about all her thoughts her hopes and her dreams for what she wanted her world and her life and for the education of girls to be like so she began writing down her hopes and her dreams and so one of those words was education so i'm going to ask mary to write the word education on our board here today and another young woman who put pen to paper or pencil to scribbler was amanda gorman we heard of her work and we've been watching the internet light up with her poetry the young woman raised in la who overcame an auditory disability as well as speech impediment put her words her hopes and her dreams for a healed word and then she got to speak them into reality and she spoke about the hill we have to climb and about being the light and living into the light so i want to ask my folks here today to give me a word a word of hope a dream you might have for how you want our world to be and i'll start with betty betty what is a word you have in your heart that you'd like to come to life in this world right now they always have to think hard respect okay teresa do you have a word that you'd like to come real from your heart into our world equality now i'm going to hear jerry jerry is there a word or a dream for something you'd like in our world i always put pressure on everybody and they always know there's really no pressure to answer but i do stare them down hope hope mary not only is very good at printing mary is also a very good artist so i'll ask mary if she either has a word or a picture what is something you want to come real in our world right now mary that's in your heart and on your mind okay because we don't know what that looks like yet um i'd say more light more life yes fullness of life more life i think thanks marian if you want to think of other words to write or if you want to think of something you want to draw you just come up and do it later or she's going to play with the crayons now it's this power we have to believe that the words inside of our heart the dreams we have for a better world like malala who against all other authority and all other words believed in her dream and her vision and even though they tried to silence malala she still pushed forward and education is becoming real and like young amanda gorman who wanted to speak to the powers that were destroying life her dream of being a young woman who one day might be president may come true but she was speaking in front of an inauguration and her words came out of her heart onto paper and were spoken into the world i think and i hope have become real so find your word find your picture put it down on paper because that's the beginning of making a dream and a hope become reality one of the songs i've asked betty to play is a newer song for us and maybe it's newer for you it's in our more voices book and it's a song called oh a song must rise and we could say a word must rise a dream must rise and it says a song must rise for the spirit to descend a song must rise once again singing out god's praise and glory the faithful voices blend and then there's lines from the mountains in the valley from the desert to the sea a song must rise and it speaks about from every place that's full of acre uncertainty if we sing something into reality it will become life-giving and hopeful and it's got a fun peppy beat so i'll ask betty to play that for us now um um you um first reading is from the book of psalms praise the lord i thank the lord with all my heart and the company of those who do right in the congregation the works of the lord are magnificent they are treasured by all who desire them god's deeds are majestic and glorious god's righteousness stands forever god is famous for his wondrous works the lord is full of mercy and compassion god gives food to those who honor him god remembers his covenant forever god proclaimed his powerful deeds to his people and gave them what had belonged to other nations god's handiwork is honesty and justice all god's rules are trustworthy they are established always and forever they are fulfilled with truth and right doing god sent redemption for his people god commanded that his covenant last forever holy and awesome is god's name fear of the lord is where wisdom begins sure knowledge is for all who keep god's laws god's praise lasts forever and the gospel reading is from the book of mark they went to capernaum and when the sabbath came he entered the synagogue and taught they were astounded at his teaching for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit and he cried out what have you to do with us jesus of nazareth have you come to destroy us i know who you are the holy one of god but jesus rebuked him saying be silent and come out of him and the unclean spirit convulsing him and crying with a loud voice came out of him they were all amazed and they kept on asking one another what is this a new teaching with authority he commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him at once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of galilee thanks teresa let us take a moment of silence to allow the spirit to speak to our hearts as we take in those words that were read for us and allow them to move within our hearts made the meditations of my heart and the words of my mouth be a gift of praise and thanksgiving unto you oh god amen words indeed have great power how many of you grew up hearing the saying or being told sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me we were supposed to let them roll off our backs right like water off a duck how well did that work for us yeah not so much how many of us were left in tears broken-hearted believing the harsh words that a supposed friend had spoken to us or something our parents had said to us and we believe that we've held on to it i'll confess there's got to be others out there in the world words have an incredible power to shape and influence who we are and how we believe ourselves to be in this world there's another set of words that come to my heart in these readings today and it's a story conversation of a sentence that goes like this you can't tell me what to do because you are not the boss of me anybody ever uttered those words in their life this is a conversation loop that has played out in my life in an almost constant repetitive tape i am sure i spoke those words to my older siblings when they were babysitting me when my parents were at the curling rink and i'm sure i spoke those words to my parents by the time i was five pretty sure that no one was going to be the boss of me parent or not i recall having those words sung to me by my beloved niece april when she was about four or five and i was babysitting her and her siblings you're not the boss of me and you're not my cousin was actually what she said and i said no you're right i'm so not your cousin and in many conversations in my parenting years those words have been repeated back to me mostly by my darling daughter on what seems to be a daily basis since she first began speaking and i'm pretty sure it happened in a conversation already this week and we are what four days in oh authority power and words they go together definitely we humans i think resist authority there's a certain part of us that wants to resist being told what to do or how to live at least i do maybe that's part of my genetics i don't know but i really resist when someone tells me what it is i have to do what i'm supposed to do because i like to believe i'll figure it out on my own even though a lot of times those speaking with authority and power have wisdom and experience that have led them to utter those words but i resist almost at every step of the way and it can sometimes make life really difficult and i'm aware of that in today's social and political context it is a daily occurrence with authority and power speaking words to us to shape how we live and some of us i'm sure feel extremely frustrated right we can own it and name it to say we're frustrated and we're tired of all these health measures and the lockdowns and who gets to decide what is really essential and what isn't but we take a breath and we take a step back and before we have a hissy fit or stamp our feet too loud we go okay where is this coming from why is it being said and sometimes when we give ourselves that measure of space we can say okay i think these words this authority is being offered to us for what is good for all of us and once we can take that step back and take our ourselves out of that equation maybe we can see things differently but we know that throughout history there has been a tension in human evolution that exists between all of creation regard regarding power and authority the readings teresa shared for us today speak of power glory and authority which comes from god and the spirit of god which dwells in jesus of nazareth or as mark's opening words begin in his gospel the son of god the issue of power authority and who gets glory is a massive one in our world today maybe it's always been because if we think about who has power we realize that often it's power over someone it's the capacity to conquer coerce or humiliate and authority is the ability to command and direct others and not to be under the command of others see where that tension begins we want especially as young people our children to do things on their own right we want them to tie their put their shoes on tie their shoes make their lunch make their bed but the minute they start doing something the way we don't want them to do we say no you can't do it like that or i told you not to do that so we sometimes create our own conflicts right yeah for sure in service for people who live in that kind of power who want to have power over other people to coerce to conquer and humiliate them has been at the destruction at the very fabric of our human lives there are dictators throughout history and now who bring suffering on their own people corrupt politicians police organizations and business leaders that band together it seems to perpetuate the ongoing use of power over people especially people who are marginalized by their skin color their race their creed their orientation or their gender identity we have heard in our canadian news this week and we're always quick to uh you know point out the log in someone else's eyes and we can't see the spec in our own but in canadian news this week we have heard of the abuse of power and authority words used to humiliate to condemn those from our governor general's office and it takes us a moment and we must take a breath to wonder who what would that workplace have been like and sometimes it hurts to imagine that we as canadians who are generally thought of as so nice kind and respectful have people in positions of authority and power who create a toxic workplace it breaks our heart in the environments created by those who seek to have power over others and use their words to hurt and to harm and to control they are not allowing people to be free and they become banned just like the man in our gospel today when we hear words that hurt us and it's not a sticker stone that leaves bruises on the skin but those words that change the very fabric of who we think we are who those words that allow us to believe that we don't belong and we don't have a say they bind us just like the unclean man now we could debate that for hours exactly what that was meant by but we know that those words that are used to control and coerce and humiliate us bind us so powerfully that it can take a lifetime and even not even then to get over what those words have hurt us those who have had power over others to humiliate and control and condemn and kill have created a world where their nations are destroyed when there is power used like that we know that women and children and the vulnerable are abused sold or killed by the very people who speak words of love to them on a daily basis we know the power of words and yet we have this story where jesus is in the synagogue in the temple nothing new this is going to be something that will happen for him and with him throughout his life he's in the temple and it's not the miracle i don't think that the people are astounded by it's not the fact that someone who seems to be caught up in a place that is not necessarily life-giving hollers out in the middle of the temple in the middle of service and i know if that were to happen here we'd all go like somebody get him out of here where's the ushers right i mean that is our response because we don't want it disrupted but instead of jesus asking the ushers to take this person out who was uttered words of confrontation jesus says silence come out of that man and we hear that whatever it was that was holding the man has been released we never hear about this man in this story of mark's gospel again i often wonder what became of his life when he was freed from whatever it was that was binding him to not be able to live into the fullness of his life my guess is going to be he would have been accepted better into his community jesus's words and his authority to command that spirit were done to bring life to create welcome and to bring healing and everybody was amazed by that maybe they were wanting jesus words to be and these are words i tried to tell my kids not to use but they would be words that would say shut up and sit down let's get this over and done with you know or go have a coffee i mean maybe they were expecting him to say something like that but instead he took the time to hear what was being spoken his heart was moved by love and compassion for this person he spoke words that brought life i think that's how we're supposed to balance authority power and those words that are used in our own life in our daily life and when we hear words from authority people that have authority because of education or experience or position we need to stop and say okay why are those words being said are they to heal and to lift up or are they to harm and to condemn and then we decide who we're gonna listen to there is always a struggle be it in our own life be it in our governments even in the churches where we have to discern whose words have the power to shape our lives so perhaps if we long for the words to be used that bring liberation and freedom healing and wholeness if those are the words we want and need then we need to speak those words back into the world speak words where there is education for everyone where there is equality across the scope and beautiful panorama that is humanity there is words that we need to speak of hope that there's an end to this pandemic and that the vaccines will come out and they'll be effective words of life and words of respect if those are the words we use then i think we embrace the authority and power just as god did in jesus of nazareth i would close today by saying when we embody christ's liberating words then it will be seen and become real in the world in this season of epiphany we are called to move into the light to hear god calling us to bring life with authority bring life bring words bring hope and bring healing that is our call so i will close not with jesus words but with amanda gorman's words out of her poem the hill we climb when the day comes we ask ourselves where can we find light in this never-ending shade for there is always light if only we are brave enough to see it if only we're brave enough to be it let those words and the words of christ build in us a bravery to be the light in our world and in our place may it be so amen uh the hymn for today is that him that may also be familiar and known to people it's a hymn called oh for a thousand tongues to sing my great redeemer's praise and there's a line in there about jesus speaks and listening to him the broken heart are healed the lame are lifted up may you hear in the words of the music the healing that you may need in your life today betty so me oh how i miss singing those words out loud let us pray holy and gracious god we give thanks for all the blessings of this life help us to hear when you call see where you lead may we respond to your prophets from scripture and in our world this day when they appear and speak their words of healing and hope and renewal loving god fill those who suffer or struggle or live in fear with your peace through words that come with welcome comfort those who weep o god the broken the shattered the lost the hungry and the alone may they know your presence through words of here's a meal i have a coat for you may there be those words of peace and hope and may they come from us o god god of our desire bless us that we may be a blessing to everyone we meet for those who grieve may our words and our hands be those of support and comfort this prayer in the prayers of our hearts we offer humbly to you o great and loving god may you hear our collective prayer in the ancient words spoken together our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom 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 kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen well i think my words have almost come to an end which means that we'll be closing the service a couple of songs and a blessing and a hymn that i would like you to take into your heart today and most of these you can find online if you search them up and it's a cuban song called sent out in jesus name and i'll quickly read you the words sent out in jesus name our hands are ready now to make the world the place in which the kingdom comes the angels cannot change a world of hurt and pain into a world of love and of justice the task is ours to do to set it really free oh help us to obey and carry out your will let us listen to this song so uh the mighty work of god sustain us and bless us with life the teachings of god guide us and bless us with wisdom the words of jesus transform us and bless us with healing the presence of god empowers us and blesses us with energy so let us go forth let us be sent in jesus name sustained by the grace and mercy of god blessed by the healing love of jesus energized by the power of the holy spirit let us go in love and peace using words to serve and build up this world let us go with a worship song called rain down betty chose this today so may the words rain down upon you what you need in your heart justice and mercy peace and healing love and acceptance let it rain down upon us all see you next week foreign now so you