Metropolitan United Church London, Ontario, Canada

Lent II

Organ Prelude: O how fleeting, O how futile – Georg Boehm

Welcome & Announcements

The Christ Candle

Call to Worship - The Grace 

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ 

the love of God

and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit 

be with you.

All:  And also with you. 

Hymn VU#108 – Throughout These Lenten Days and Nights

Opening Prayer

A New Creed:  Let us declare our faith together:

We are not alone,    we live in God's world.

 

We believe in God:    who has created and is creating,    who has come in Jesus,       the Word made flesh,       to reconcile and make new,    who works in us and others       by the Spirit.

We trust in God. 

We are called to be the Church:    to celebrate God's presence,    to live with respect in creation,    to love and serve others,    to seek justice and resist evil,    to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,       our judge and our hope.

In life, in death, in life beyond death,    God is with us.We are not alone.

   Thanks be to God.SanctusHoly, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty

Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee

Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty

God in three persons, blessed Trinity!

Circle Time – 

Children's Prayer

Baptism

Nathan Halstyn James Tisdale

b. Oct. 14, 2025

son of Ryan and Sara Tisdale

Hymn – VU#365Jesus Loves Me

Anthem -Motet: Super Flumina Babylonis – Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

Translation: By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept: when we remembered thee, O Sion.  As for our harps, we hanged them up: upon the trees that are therein

Call to Confession

Confession 

Assurance of Pardon

Responsive - Psalm 121 – VU#844

Call for the Offering

Offertory Prayer

O Lord, giver of life and source of freedom

We know that all we have received is from your hand.

You call us to be stewards of your abundance,

the caretakers of all you have entrusted to us

Help us to always use your gifts wisely

and teach us to share them generously.

May our faithful stewardships bear witness

to the love of Jesus Christ in our lives.  Amen.

Doxology (VU#541)

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;

Praise him, all creatures here below;

Praise him above, ye heavenly host;

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  Amen.

VU#595 – We are Pilgrims

Pastoral & Lord's Prayer

Anthem – 

The Scriptures – Philippians 2:1-13

2 If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

6 who, though he was in the form of God,    did not regard equality with God    as something to be exploited,7 but emptied himself,    taking the form of a slave,    being born in human likeness.And being found in human form,8     he humbled himself    and became obedient to the point of death—    even death on a cross.

9 Therefore God also highly exalted him    and gave him the name    that is above every name,10 so that at the name of Jesus    every knee should bend,    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,11 and every tongue should confess    that Jesus Christ is Lord,    to the glory of God the Father.

12 Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

14 Do all things without murmuring and arguing, 15 so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world. 16 It is by your holding fast to the word of life that I can boast on the day of Christ that I did not run in vain or labour in vain. 17 But even if I am being poured out as a libation over the sacrifice and the offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you— 18 and in the same way you also must be glad and rejoice with me.

Message: A Not So Comfortable Pew

Rev. Dr. David McMaster

Hymn VU#112 O God, how we have Wandered

Commissioning & Benediction

Perhaps as much as 3,400 years ago, the high priest of the day raised his hands over the people of God and uttered these words:

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

May the Lord make his face to shine upon you

and be gracious to you.

May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you

and give you peace.

Num.6:24-26

And shortly after Jesus walked this earth,

the Church would add:

In the name of the Father, and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit.

Go in peace and may the God of peace go with you.  Amen.

Choral Amen

Musical Postlude: Fugue in g minor – Johann Adam Reinken