Sunday, August 31, 2025
Order of Service
We welcome all gathering for worship this morning or later in the week. Whether you attend in-person, worship on ZOOM or YouTube, or are a viewer on Rogers TV20 - please know that we consider everyone to be a part of our worship experience and an integral member of our St. Andrew's Guelph community.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this morning's service, both in-person and virtually.
Join us on our St. Andrew's Guelph YouTube Channel, select the live service, and remember to invite your friends and families. You can also join us via ZOOM by following the link in your Sunday morning email. If you'd like to begin receiving our weekly emails, you can sign up here.
Prelude
Call to Worship
290 Immortal, invisible, God only wise
Prayer of Adoration and Confession
Declaration of Forgiveness
394 Holy Spirit, truth divine
Story: VAL-DERI, VAL-DERA!
Blessing of the Backpacks
God of love, of wisdom and of grace, we come together today to celebrate the privilege and responsibility to grow in grace and knowledge as preparations are underway for another season of learning.
God bless your children and their backpacks. Bless all the teachers, staff and community members who serve those who wear these backpacks. Empower the adults in the lives of your children to make decisions that are truly in their best interest. May each child flourish and participate in the flourishing of all creation.
God bless your children and their backpacks. In a world so often plagued by violence, hatred and fear, may those who carry these backpacks know peace, mercy and friendship. May your children feel safe enough to learn, to take healthy risks that lead to growth, and to extend compassion to others.
God bless your children and their backpacks. Be with those who use these knapsacks to carry home food to hungry families. Be with those who fear the weekend, as it means less security.
God bless your children and their backpacks. We pray for the families who surround, sustain and send your children into the world. Bless the sacrifices these families have made to stock these backpacks. Bless the communities that support these families in times of joy and hardship. May the gifts of these families and communities carry hope and fellowship into schools, offices, and your wide, wonderful world.
God bless your children and their backpacks. Supply each child with the tools to stimulate creativity and wonder rooted in gratitude. Give your children ears to hear, O God. Let them hear the gentle song of their own heart as well as the songs in the hearts of others. Prepare your children to respond to this music with a spirit of collaboration and cooperation so that their collective harmonies might heal your world.
God bless your children and their backpacks. Grant to each rest at the end of the day and the end of the week. Free your children of anxiety and unhealthy stress; lead them to trust that they are beloved no matter their accomplishments or failings. May they know that they are enough, just as they are.
With gratitude at the wonder of being human, of growing, of learning, and of making friends, we give thanks to you for all your children, and pray that all they carry will be full of the joy of life. Through Christ we pray. Amen.
With thanks to The Reverend Jess Rigel
Prayer for Illumination
29 Oh send thy light forth
Psalm 112:1-10 (NRSV)
Blessings of the Righteous
Praise the Lord!
Happy are those who fear the Lord,
who greatly delight in his commandments.
Their descendants will be mighty in the land;
the generation of the upright will be blessed.
Wealth and riches are in their houses,
and their righteousness endures forever.
They rise in the darkness as a light for the upright;
they are gracious, merciful, and righteous.
It is well with those who deal generously and lend,
who conduct their affairs with justice.
For the righteous will never be moved;
they will be remembered forever.
They are not afraid of evil tidings;
their hearts are firm, secure in the Lord.
Their hearts are steady, they will not be afraid;
in the end they will look in triumph on their foes.
They have distributed freely, they have given to the poor;
their righteousness endures forever;
their horn is exalted in honor.
The wicked see it and are angry;
they gnash their teeth and melt away;
the desire of the wicked comes to nothing.
Luke 14:1,7-14 (NRSV)
Jesus Heals the Man with Dropsy
On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely.
When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Sermon: Making Space (Remembering The New Kid In Class)
“[Jesus] noticed how the guests chose the places of honour...” Luke 14:7
730 O for a world where everyone respects each other's ways
Call for the Offering
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Offertory
Doxology
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heav'nly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
(Thomas Ken 1637-1711)
Prayer of Dedication
Announcements
Prayer of Thanksgiving and Intercession
The Lord’s Prayer
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.
587 Called as partners in Christ's service
Benediction
Postlude
We gather on the traditional territory of the Wendat, the Anishnaabeg and the Haudenosaunee Peoples. We are also on lands that are part of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum. We live and work, worship, learn and meet on lands that are the traditional territory of many different Indigenous Peoples who were here before the establishment of European colonies.
