Worship Leader: Paul Whiteley Music Director: Tim Hallman, B.Mus., B.Ed.
THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, JUNE 14, 2026
“Miracles, Large and Small”
Welcome / Announcements / Celebrations
Acknowledging The Territory
Lighting The Christ Candle
Lighting The Rainbow Candle
Call To Worship:
One: We are one flock,
All: we are called to be one in community.
One: We have boldness before God
All: because we know we are loved and known
One: and so, in the same, way let us love each other, siblings and cousins.
All: not only in word or speech
One: but in truth and action—let us join together as one flock to worship the one God.
All: Amen.
-In Truth and Action, United Church of Canada, 2018
Opening Hymn: VU 509 “I, the Lord of Sea and Sky”
Passing of The Peace
Learning Together
Opening Prayer
Prayer for Courage (a body prayer)
All: God, when I don’t know where courage will come from, help me in my anxiety.
Fear is taking up too much space and I have little bandwidth left.
If courage is a gift, then please give it.
And if you put me here for this moment, show me what you would have me do.
-Adapted from Kate Bowler, A Blessing for Courage, as a body prayer, by Tori Mullin and by Paul Whiteley, 2026
Hymn: VU 266 “Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound”
Scripture:
Genesis 18:1–15, 21:1-7: “God’s Messenger Speaks; Sarah Laughs”
Matthew 9:35–10:8: “The Gift of Healing”
Anthem: “When Long Before Time”
Reflection: “Laughing at Miracles”
When our Protestant tradition reflects on Hebrew Scripture, there are a few stories for me that come to mind first. For our ancestors in faith, for a long time, the one essential story was about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Now I am of a certain age where my Grade 13 English course included Roberton Davies’ Fifth Business. The protagonist of the novel, Dustan Ramsay, enters adulthood with a faith grounded in an original, primordial sin that even seems incompatible with miracles and free grace. That version of Protestant theology chooses fall from grace as the essential message of Hebrew Scripture, almost overbalancing the good news of the gospels.
But even early in the United Church era, the messages we find in Hebrew Scripture start to shift. Our theology, even Sunday school theology, came to emphasize the abundance of creation in Genesis, finding a new appreciation of the covenant at Sinai and the Exodus. We listen for the ways “Old Testament” prophets spoke to power, and against evil, in ways that may also be true in our time.
Also, gradually, we started hearing a new emphasis on the women of Hebrew Scripture, from Miriam in Egypt to Ruth and Naomi to Esther in Persia. And this is one piece of context for the role of Sarah in particular, in this origin story of the people of Israel. While Sarah has a complicated life, we recognize her for her faithfulness, her willingness to listen to God’s promise and to adapt to the mysterious and unexpected events God will often along the way.
Now limiting ourselves to a single interpretation of a biblical story isn’t generally a good idea. And part of this story is a fable, a kind of piece of wordplay on Isaac’s name, which in Hebrew means “he is going to laugh”. This is 2026 but I am not a person who relies on AI for things; still, it reached out to me when I was looking something up and helped underline something I think whenever I read this passage. The root of Isaac’s name is to laugh, and according to Google Gemini its carries a dual meaning of playfulness and disbelief.
Also, this story of Abraham and Sarah is also a story of hospitality to messengers. By one common interpretation, the three men of the story – the ones to whom Abraham offers bread, curds and beef – are understood as God’s messengers, as angels. God promises Sarah a miraculous pregnancy, and she overhears this promise spoken by these three strange men. But this is a mystery story, where Abraham treats these strangers with respect: he sees God in them. And perhaps the message to us is about the unexpected: Abraham acts toward the strangers with generosity, to which God responds with a miraculous promise that then comes true.
Today’s gospel story is also all about miraculous promises. It begins with Jesus proclaiming good news in the synagogues and offering healing. Jesus then sends out the disciples during his ministry; he sees that the people’s needs are more than he can deal with, and feels their pain.
Next, the text includes a theological “explanation” of the kind that sometimes gets in the way; the author or editor of Matthew is at pains to make the point that salvation and healing are offered to the “lost sheep of Israel” first, and only later to the Samaritans and the gentiles. And this does give reason for concern in our day, if we see “Jews” and “gentiles” as opposed to one another and feel the need to take sides. But Matthew’s gospel was written an audience especially of Jewish Christians in their diaspora, and this audience must have been reassured to hear a personalized invitation to the good news.
Still, the commissioning Jesus gives the disciples seems to be intended for everyone. The message is that God’s presence is close by; the disciples are sent out to announce that good news, while driving demons away and making sick people well. In all three of the parallel gospels, the disciples are sent out and empowered by Jesus as a direct extension of his ministry on earth.
How are we supposed to react, in 2026, to this invitation to participate in the making of miracles? Miracles, remember, are understood as defying “rational” explanation – throughout scripture, including today’s passages, they defy the ways we understand and experience our everyday lives. I remember growing up to a debate in some quarters, about why we don’t see miracles around us the way they are recorded in our sacred stories. Now not everyone accepts the premise – Roman Catholics, for example, require documented evidence of miraculous events in order to identify and canonize saints. Likewise, to come back to Fifth Business, Dustin Ramsay opens his mind to Roman Catholic influences as he wrestles with myth and miracle.
But there are two other main perspectives about miracles in the present day. Some believe that there were miracles in the past because they were needed to build the faiths of our forebears; God has ceased to offer these miracles because they just aren’t needed any more. I’ve always felt that there is something cold, even cruel, about this perspective: it suggests that Jesus healed the sick to prove some kind of theological point, but the stories themselves show Jesus as the human one, moved by emotions of sympathy and compassion.
The other main perspective challenges the premise, again, but not quite in the way of Catholic dogma. Miracle and mystery are part of the world around us, but we can’t see it without the right kind of faith perspective. This idea that miracles continue in our world can feel uncomfortable, and it can easily be abused and exploited: for example, by revivalist “faith healers” and even some forms of alternative medicine. Believing in miracles doesn’t mean we should believe in all miracles, or that we should expect miracles on demand. Wanting something badly enough is not the kind of faith to which God might respond with a miracle.
At the same time, though, the ways people talk about miracles in scripture might be models for us today. The disciples are sent out to make a difference in the lives of those around them, and while casting out demons is a miracle to us, it is also the same miracle that happens every time someone experiences grace by stepping out of addiction. The disciples don’t earn their status or train to be able to spread the good news; Jesus spots the need and trusts in miraculous possibility.
And Sarah, in Genesis, may offer even a better example for us today. Her embodied experience tells her to expect no children, and when promised a miracle she laughs. Now her laughing can mean two things, and I for one can relate to both. We can laugh harshly at an unlikely suggestion because it reminds us of previous disappointment – a false promise would just hurt too much. But we can also laugh when an absurd possibility gives us joy. I like to think that Sarah is feeling both things, and no matter what perspective we take to scripture, in the end Sarah becomes the mother of a nation, against all odds and appearances. Her promised miracle becomes real, and the miracle of the good news in Christ becomes real in our hearts. There is joy in unexpected abundance, now as much as ever; divine love bless us in more ways than we could ask or imagine. So my hope for each of us is that we respond to the absurdity of God’s love as we laugh in joy. And for these promises, to God be the praise and the thanks. Amen.
Prayer For the Indigenous Day of Prayer:
God, Creator and Great Mystery, we praise you for the Sacred Fires that burn today and for the prayer-filled smoke that you receive and bless. We offer our deep gratitude that the Fire’s light informs and guides our journey. We pray, just as the Elders prayed, for renewal and for the restoration of beauty to the land and its people.
We acknowledge the diverse and abundant gifts of Canada’s Indigenous Peoples. We recognize that their knowledge and wisdom have benefited generations past and present, and that this blessing will continue for generations to come. We remember the many who are committed to the healing of family, community, and nations.
We pray for Mother Earth, the waters, the winds, for our siblings the animals, birds, and fish, and all of life that surrounds us. We pray that we will walk the good Red Road of life, and that we will walk with courage, honesty, humility, love, respect, truth and wisdom.
We offer this prayer in humility and hope, and in the name, of our brother Jesus, the one who lights our path to wholeness, justice and peace. Amen.
- We Praise You Sacred Fires, Rev. Maggie Dieter and Bill Snow, 2026
Invitation For Offering
Offering Hymn: VU 541 “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow”
Offering Prayer
Prayers of The People
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 the evil one.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
Hymn: VU 506 “Take My Life and Let it Be”
Benediction
Choral Blessing: “Go Now in Peace”
Go now in peace, never be afraid.
God will go with you each hour of every day.
Go now in faith, steadfast, strong and true.
Know he will guide you in all you do.
Go now in love and show you believe.
Reach out to others so all the world can see.
God will be there watching from above.
Go now in Peace, in Faith, and in Love. Amen.
"A Village Church With A Heart For The World"
Christ United Church
12 Perth St., Lyn, ON, K0E 1M0
(613)498-0281 (Phone) (613)498-2589 (Fax)
lynunitedchurch@cogeco.net www.lynunitedchurch.com Follow on Twitter: @Ch1United