Today, we are very pleased to have Rev. Randy Barrington lead us in worship and serve us The Lord’s Supper.  Thank You Randy!

CALL TO WORSHIP           
(congregation reads words printed in bold)
God calls us to a feast!
The table is set, and we will come to sit at Christ’s table.
Compassion, love, and grace are poured out like fine wine.
We come to share our stories and Your story,
to share our hope and our pain,
to share our wisdom and our laughter.
The table is set, so come let us worship God together!

WE PREPARE FOR HOLY COMMUNION
 
COMMUNION HYMN:   # 543   “Here O My Lord”  vs 1-3
Here, O my Lord, I see Thee face to face;
Here would we touch and handle things unseen;
Here grasp with firmer hand eternal grace
And all my weariness upon Thee lean.

2 Here would I feed upon the bread of God,
Here drink with Thee the royal wine of heaven;
Here would I lay aside each earthly load,
Here taste afresh the calm of sin forgiven.

3 This is the hour of banquet and of song;
This is the heavenly table spread for me;
Here let me feast, and feasting, still prolong
The brief, bright hour of fellowship with Thee.

THE GREAT PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING 

THE GREAT PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
 
One: The Lord is with you.
All:   And also with you.
One: Lift up your hearts.
All:   We lift them up to the Lord.
One: Let us given thanks to the Lord, our God.
All:   It is right to give our thanks and praise.
One: Eternal God, you loved us long before we knew or loved you; and in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ you show us that nothing can destroy your love or separate us from it. You have       empowered the Church at Pentecost with the unsettling gift of Holy Spirit, both comforting and convicting.
All:   So, with all our hearts, we thank you, and we renew our         covenant and our commitment to recognize your presence at every turn, and to grow in your love.
One: Now into our communion, and into your eternal loving kindness we    offer the prayers we have named:
for ourselves,
for each other,
for our families,
for your Church where we serve and love others,
for every person with whom we will have contact this week,
for our beautiful and broken world of nations and peoples,
All:   Thank you for hearing us.  Thank you for speaking to us.  Thank you for your abiding presence in every breath of all creation and beyond. Amen.
 
BLESSING OF THE BREAD AND CUP
 
On the night before he died, Jesus had a meal with his friends. While they were eating, he took bread, gave thanks to you, broke it and said, “This is my body which is given for you.  Do this in memory of me.”
 
After supper he took the cup and said, “This cup is God’s new        covenant, sealed with my blood. Whenever you drink it, do it in   memory of me.
 
When Jesus took bread and wine, he gave new meaning to commonplace things. So come now, Holy Spirit, pour your goodness into these gifts of bread and cup, and into us your people, that these common elements, and we ordinary persons might become Christ’s body, your gift for the healing of the world. Amen.
 
These are the gifts of God for the people of God. Come, for all is ready.
 


CELEBRATION OF THE LORD’S SUPPER
PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION
COMMUNION HYMN:   # 543   “Here O My Lord”   vs 4,5


Today, we so very pleased to have Rev. Randy Barrington lead us in worship and serve us The Lord’s Supper.  Thank You Randy!
 
We also welcome special guest Anna Kiraly today…as part of her, Religion 409 Class – “Methodology and the Study of Religion” at Concordia University, Anna has chosen Rockburn Church for her mini Thesis.  We are very pleased to support you Anna!
 
Rockburn Canadian Food Grains Bank Fundraiser is under way…let’s see Gus move up the chart.
 
Thanks to everyone who prepared and sent Samaritan’s Purse Shoeboxes.
 
The Military Whist we hosted last Monday evening was a great success…
Today, we so very pleased to have Rev. Randy Barrington lead us in worship and serve us The Lord’s Supper.  Thank You Randy!
 
We also welcome special guest Anna Kiraly today…as part of her, Religion 409 Class – “Methodology and the Study of Religion” at Concordia University, Anna has chosen Rockburn Church for her mini Thesis.  We are very pleased to support you Anna!
 
Rockburn Canadian Food Grains Bank Fundraiser is under way…let’s see Gus move up the chart.
 
Thanks to everyone who prepared and sent Samaritan’s Purse Shoeboxes.
 
The Military Whist we hosted last Monday evening was a great success…

​Offertory
Today, 0 Lord, we offer you our sacrifice of time, energy, and love, knowing full well they are mere tokens of the awesome faith you inspire within us. Accept these gifts, that they may continue the good work in Christ — in our church, in our community, and in the world. Blessed be the name of the Lord!
AMEN
Pastoral Prayer
There is fear 0 God, and there is uncertainty in many human hearts—even in our hearts today—and for some—every day. There is aimlessness in the hearts of others— senseless excitements about the details of the end of time, bout the signs that are around us, for us to read and to understand—and yet they have no peace in this knowing and often argue about the meaning of things with others instead of breathing in the strength of earth and sky and breathing out love and compassion upon their own selves and the self of the world around them—the world you have made.
0 Great God, you know about Fear, Aimlessness, Senseless excitements, and deep depressions of the soul. You understand the afflictions of the lonely— of those who have no one to draw were abundantly clear. When disasters hit, Jesus' followers should get to work and leave the end time prognostication to God alone.

A priest and a pastor are standing by the side of a road holding up a sign that reads "The end is near! Turn around now before it's too late!"
A passing driver yells, "You guys are nuts!" and speeds past them. From around the curve, they hear screeching tires—then a big splash.
The priest turns to the pastor and says, "Do you think we should just put up a sign that says 'Bridge Out' instead?"

We've all seen the cartoons of the bearded, crazed man atop his soap box, wearing a sandwich board that informs us that `The End is near!!!'
People have been prophesying the end of the world for thousands of years.

And there are still many examples today....
Remember the Year 2000 crisis? For months leading up to the calendar flipping from 1999 to 2000, we were told that all the computers on the planet would fail, planes would fall from the sky, power grids would fail and the world would be hurled into eternal darkness.

A host of 'New Age' scientists' (and please note that ! have both those terms inside quote marks) spent the better part of the new millennium telling us that the end of the Mayan Long Count calendar in December 2012 signaled with absolute certainty that the Earth was to perish in a massive black hole in the center of the galaxy.

Good old David Meade, the pseudonym (which means, aside from a few other definitions, someone too embarrassed by their own blather and nonsense to give their real name) of an American doomsday-crier, made all kinds of headlines last year when he informed us that, following a lifetime of study and research he had determined that the here-to-for hidden planet Nibiru would suddenly appear in the heavens and crash into the earth, putting an end to all life.

That was to happen on September 23rd, 2017. And then it was to happen in December of 2017. And then March of 2018.

Currently, Mr. Meade's apocalypse is due on an unspecified date between May and December of this year. Brothers and Sisters, keep awake!

Today's Gospel reading from Mark is a bit of a tough one, if we choose to interpret it literally. Following a day of teaching in Herod's Temple in Jerusalem, he and his disciples leave the city to rest. As they do, the disciples comment on the beauty of the temple. Jesus wastes no time in informing them that it would soon come crashing to the ground. And, once clear of the city, proceeds to talk about the coming end of days.

Mark 13 is commonly referred to as the 'Little Apocalypse'. Today's reading focuses on the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, and further along in the chapter Jesus speaks specifically about how it will be in the end times, when God's judgement is brought down upon the world.

And it seems like no matter what the tragedy these days, someone is always more than willing to get out into the media and attempt to connect it to God's judgment. The California wildfires are God's wrath against the liberal Californian culture.

The spate of mass shootings across the United States are not the result of ridiculously lax gun controls and very human prejudice, but rather God's judgement of a faithless Country.

This instinct to interpret current times through the broader lens of God's judgment is not new. Examples appear throughout the Bible. For those who believe God's Spirit does work in the world through signs and miracles, such tragedies can function as intellectual puzzles, but they should never stop us from responding with heart, head and hands.

Jesus spoke often about the end times and certainly not in ways supported by a modern scientific worldview. For Jesus, the belief that God controls history was fundamental to his perspective.

Not long before his arrest, Jesus was with the disciples in the temple. As they came out, one of the disciples exclaimed his awe of the structure. "Look, Teacher, what large stones and large buildings!" he said. Indeed, ancient historians wrote that the temple in Jerusalem was magnificent. If its massive size was not impressive enough, much of it was covered in gold.

Jesus' response must have caught the disciples off guard: "Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down".

The disciples too must have been in a mood to discuss the end times because next, when Jesus was sitting opposite the temple on the Mount of Olives, some of them asked for further explanation. "When?" they wondered aloud, "What will be the sign?" Jesus responds in his trademark roundabout way.

Jesus warns of those that would lead them astray. He tells them not to be alarmed by "wars and rumors of wars" which, if you ask me, are some of the most alarming prospects imaginable.

A more troubling time would be coming, Jesus explains. it will include war, earthquakes and famines. But they are not to be afraid since, "This is but the beginning of the birth pangs" (Mark 13:8).

Jesus' response is the first century equivalent of the famous propaganda poster produced by the British government during World War II that boldly proclaimed, "Keep Calm and Carry On."

Now, if any of you have spent any time at all on the Facebook or the Twitter these days, you've seen the many, many, many revisionist versions of this iconic poster from WW2 Blitz-era England. "Keep Calm and Grow a Beard"................................................. "Keep Calm and Use the Force".... Or even "Keep Calm and Avoid Zombies".

But the original message behind this poster was to persevere. Perseverance through adversity, through calamity and through terror.

Like the disciples, something makes us want to know every detail about when and how our future — and God's ultimate justice — will take place. Certainly, knowing the severity and destination of future superstorms will help save lives, but the disciples were longing for more. They wanted a blueprint. Perhaps they hoped for a way to save themselves as they interpreted the signs of the time.

In this passage from Mark, Jesus uses language and terms common in other biblical books to help reveal what is currently hidden to the disciples. It was common, around Jesus' time, to mix visions, symbols and dreams to disclose a future more important than the present reality.

Mark 13:1-8, and similar passages in Daniel and Revelation, long for a future in which oppression is a thing of the past, but they should not be read as an end time recipe book with detailed step-by-step instructions. The coming times are sometimes described in vague, rough, violent terms, but the ultimate end is full of God's justice and peace.

Trust in God means living a life expectant and hopeful for Christ's return; it need not be consumed by explaining every world affair in terms of God's super-plan.

Discipleship calls for a faith in which ultimately, despite our present struggle, God's love is sovereign. We need not micromanage the signs of God's judgment. Instead, we are called to manage our lives and conform them to God's vision of justice, love and peace.

Believers today take many different approaches to waiting (and interpreting) the end times. Some read into the Bible explanations that simply are not there, mislabeling natural catastrophes and man-made calamities, and causing more hurt and confusion in the process.

Note that in this passage, Jesus does not suggest interpretation of the troubles ahead will be easy. In fact, he warns of exactly this danger of overly-clear explanation. Many will come in his name, Jesus cautions, but they are not he. Since we are so prone to confusion, Jesus explicitly advises against alarm and overreaction.

The faithful response to disaster is not pointing a finger, or making shocking headline-grabbing accusations, but service to God and neighbor. Sadly, we know too that one day there will be another storm, another shooting, another earthquake.

We must break the cycle of interpreting these events in ways Jesus specifically warned against, and instead, follow the one who healed at every opportunity, who urged care for those without food and shelter, who loved beyond all love even in the most desperate of times.


Keep awake! Trust in God. Keep calm, and carry on.

ARMISTICE: 100 YEARS
Remembrance Day is a day for all Canadians to remember the men and women who served and sacrificed for our country. It is a day we encourage every individual, young and old, to pause, to give thanks, and to remember.
La ceremonie du souvenir a joue un rOle majeur depuis 1931, lorsque chaque armee, a la onzieme heure du onzieme jour du onzieme mois, nous nous rassemblons dans les pares commemoratifs, les salles communautaires, les lieux de travail, les ecoles, les maisons et les eglises pour etre en P honneur de tous ceux qui sont tombees. Together, we observe a moment of silence to mark the sacrifice of the many who have fallen in the service of their country, and to acknowledge the courage of those who still serve.
The Royal Canadian Legion was born from the ashes of World War 1. This day, November 11, 2018, marks 100 years since the signing of the armistice that officially ended. WWI. En hommage a tous les Canadiens qui ont servi dans cette terrible guerre, la filial 196 est fiere de faire partie de ce service ecumenique special. Nous remercions le reverend Barbara Bryce de nous avoir inclus dans ce service.
Today, we take a moment to stop, to remember and to feel the joy that peace brought after so much death and destruction. Close to 61,000 Canadians were killed during the war and another 172,000 were wounded. If we are to remember those who fought, we need to drive home the message of the horror of war and its effects on the society that wages it. To this end, I would like to share a couple of stories with you this morning.
As the war wound down, the focus turned to liberating France and Belgium from the retreating Germans. The period from August 8 to November 11, 1918 was called Canada's Hundred Days. The Canadian troops spearheaded an advance from Amiens.

The final destination of Canadian troops was the city of Mons in Belgium. The troops pushed into the city and were engaged in house to house fighting when the armistice was declared.
Canadian soldier George Price holds the sad distinction of being the last Canadian and the last Commonwealth soldier to die in the war. A total of 10,000 men were killed, wounded or listed as missing from all participating armies on the last day of the war.
Private Price was a native of Port Williams, Nova Scotia. He then moved to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and joined the army there in October 1917.
"George was facing me," fellow soldier Art Goodworthy said. "And I was saying something to him when all of a sudden BANG! He fell into my arms. I could have cried. It was not an accidental shot. It was a sniper from way up the end of the street." Goodworthy said his Captain was stunned when he got the news and kept repeating, "But the war is over. The war is over."
The mayor of Mons is said to have written the following of the Canadian entry into his city.
"At five in the morning of the 11th, I saw the shadow of a man and the gleam of a bayonet advancing stealthily along that farther wall, near the Café des Princes. Then another shadow, and another. They crept across the square, keeping very low, and dashed north toward the German lines. I knew this was liberation. Then above the roar of artillery, I heard music, beautiful music. It was a.-,though the angels of Mons were playing. And then I recognized the song. It was 0 Canada. This was the signal. The whole population rushed into the square, singing and dancing, although the battle still sounded half a mile away."

My last story is in remembrance of the last two Canadian WWI veterans. Clare Laking was 18 when he defied his father's wishes and left the family farm to enlist. He arrived in France just after Vimy Ridge, serving as a signaller who ran telephone wire along the trenches. Though he was wounded by a German shell, he believe, he was the only farm boy from his area to return home alive. Clare Laking died on November 26, 2005, at the age of 106.
John Babcock was born on an Ontario farm in 1900. He enlisted to join the war at the tender age of 16. He lied about his age but 'found out and sent to the Boys Battalion. He never saw the front lines. He died at the age of 109 in February, 2010. These two men were the last of 600,000 Canadians who fought in the Great War.
Et nous n'oublier que les femmes canadiennes ont joue un role important dans la premiere guerre mondiale. Quelque deux milles infirmieres se sant enrolees dans le corps expeditionnaire canadien, et un autre mine a travaille pour le RAF. Plus de trente milles femmes travaillaient dans des usines de munitions, et des milliers d'autres ont pris du travail dans les bureaux du gouvernement, les banques, les fermes et les usines.
We, the members of the Royal Canadian Legion, and all Canadians, have been handed the torch of remembrance by our fallen comrades to hold it high and to never forget the sacrifices made in the name of Canada and for Canadians.
Nous nous souviendrons d'eux.
Lord God of hosts, be with us yet, Lest We forget. Lest We forget.
​