Announcements:

Pastor: Rev. Dr. Gordon Crossfield

Musical Director: Michael Christopher 

Chairman of Official Board: Ian Warner

Secretary: Pat Grant 

Elm St. is one block south of Oakdale Ave. between Merritt and Hickory Sts.

Sunday Service and Sunday School at 11:00 A.M.

Choir practice every Thursday at 7:00 P.M. Organist and choir director, Mr. Michael Christopher, always welcomes new members.

United Church Women meet once monthly on the second Thursday of the month at 1:30 P.M.

Craft group meets on Thursday mornings at 9 A.M. for work and fellowship.

The Sacrament of Holy Communion is offered on several Sundays throughout the year. Home communion is given by appointment. The Sacrament of Baptism is available by appointment. Please call the church office at 905-641-0950.

Where Do We Look For Help?

“I will lift up my eyes to the Hills.”

From where does my help come?

That is a question. I always thought it was a statement.

‘From where my help comes.’

But it is a question.

It was a question asked by pilgrims on a long journey,

 on a pilgrimage from their homes to Jerusalem, the Holy City, itself situated on a hill.

Geography defines a people.

You cannot live in Manitoba or Saskatchewan and not be affected by the prairies.

 Alberta and British Columbia adapt to the Rocky Mountains.

The Maritime Provinces are called Atlantic Provinces for a reason.

Look at Afghanistan. It is the geography that determines the strategy of battle for our troops over there.

The author of “The Historical Geography of The Holy Land” writes of the effect of the hills surrounding Jerusalem on the Hebrew religion. The climate of Palestine creates a sense of ‘personal providence’.

There is a particular affinity between souls and hills.

A British climber confessed; there is “Some quality in a hill that defies analysis. Call it the spirit of the hill, call it anything you like, but no one has yet explained why it is hills have a power over men.”

 The movie “The Englishman who climbed up a hill and came down a mountain.” is all about how essential it is to the identity of a small Welsh village that a hill be increased by 20 feet in height so that it can be called a mountain.

Nearly all the great personal and dramatic national experiences seem to be connected with mountains.

From where did Moses bring the 10 Commandments?  Mount Sinai.

Where did he die? Mount Pisgah.

Where were Saul and Jonathon killed? Mount Gilboa.

 Where did the famous encounter between Elijah and the confused priests of Baal take place? Mount Carmel.

In the New Testament, we have the Mount of Transfiguration, the Mount of Olives, and Mount Calvary.

It was obvious then that the pilgrim’s eyes would be drawn to the hills in the midst of a dangerous journey which would include the burning relentless heat of the desert, the presence of robbers.

Pilgrimages were the stuff of life to the religious person of the time just as they are still today.

  The Muslim goes to Mecca. The Hindu goes to the Ganges River. The Christian goes to Israel or to the great passion play in Oberamergau.

And so this is a song for the pilgrim catching sight of the hill in the distance

 that would signal relief form the heat and danger of the desert.

The hills would be welcome because they would symbolize peace, stability and beauty and an end to that journey, but also the reality that sentries would be posted on those hills to protect the pilgrims.

I will lift up my eyes to the hill, but, but from where comes my help come, from the sentries?

In such a spiritual climate, in such a polytheistic land, a land of many gods, there were gods of the desert,

 gods of agriculture, gods of the hills. I lift up my eyes to the hill where hill gods live,

 but from where does my real help come?

We are all on a pilgrimage of sorts. After all our citizenship is not on this earth but in heaven writes Paul. We are merely pilgrims on this beleaguered planet. In our search for meaning and purpose we take dangerous paths at times. We are in a burning desert longing for the security of the hills because they symbolize a time to rest, to be spiritually fed.

Because this is a secular time,

there are many human beings offering advice, strategies, consultations, (by the way don’t presume to paint your living room until you consult with at least one of the myriad of self proclaimed decorating gurus). We consulted a financial planner some time ago who managed to help us plan to lose a fair bit of money.

Back then it was a spiritual time. Pilgrims could look to the hill gods for protection.

This is also a spiritual time. We can look to astrological signs, palm readers, astrologers, even our guardian angels.

But from where does our real help come?

“My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.”

For the pilgrim, wherever the destination, whatever the reason, the pilgrimage was an act of personal trust in the God who had protected and would protect them.

Pilgrims believed that the Lord was in the hills standing beside the human sentries.

But they also knew that the Lord was not restricted to the hills.

He will not let your foot slip.

May my guardian not slumber.

The Lord falling asleep like the sentry was not a strange thought in the Psalter. 

The response is “No He neither slumbers nor sleeps, the guardian of Israel.”

The pilgrim is confident that the Lord will shade him from sunstroke and moon stroke.

Their fear of moon stroke came from their belief in the correlation between the activity of certain diseases like epilepsy and ‘fevers’ and the moon’s phases.

People also believed that a demon in the sun or moon was the agent of all evil.

But the Lord shall preserve you from all evil, He will preserve your soul, He will keep your life.

The final words deserve special attention.

I love the older version.

“The Lord will preserve your going out and your coming in.”

This refers to the common doorstep, which was so significant to the Hebrews.

Even today the doorpost of the Jewish household has a mezuzah which contains a scroll containing the great commandment.

“Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and might.”

Remember the Passover when the doorpost was sprinkled with blood indicating that the household was protected by the power of God against the angel of death.

In many parts of the East the door step is always never stepped upon.

The doorstep is a symbol of the division between the home and the world.

On the inside is the home with intimacies, sharing, and refuge.

On the outside is the world with bitter competition, turmoil, temptation and busyness.

The door is always open. We come and go. When we go, we expect to return.

Once and a while we pause with trepidation, because the going out might mean a major adjustment in a relationship.

A child goes off to university or the mission field or a war, or just to make their own way or to get married. A spouse goes off on a faraway business trip. Maybe a family goes off on a holiday.

The psalmist assures that going or staying, coming or going

 “the Lord will preserve thy going out and thy coming in”.

Remember Stephen, the first martyr, who was stoned as Paul looked on. He stepped out and never returned. An agnostic asked Joseph Parker “What did Providence do in the case of the martyr Stephen. How did the Lord preserve Stephen?

Parker replied. God enabled Stephen to say “Lord do not hold this sin against them.”

God did not save him from stoning but saved him from the spirit of hate and a desire for revenge.

A pilgrimage is demanding. It requires a distant goal and steady endurance.

When Joshua took leadership after the death of Moses he was encouraged to

“Be strong and of good courage.”

Jesus clearly teaches. “Not every one who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

Paul warns us to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling.”

But most important, this is about God.

Everything we do as individual and as a church should be about God.

In the beginning was God

The Israelites are the children of God.

Abraham is the friend of God.

Jesus is the son of God.

All the Psalms are hymns to the praise of God.

This psalm in particular begins and ends with the Lord.

Where shall I look for help?

I automatically look to the hills because of their strength and beauty and symbolism,

 but my help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth...

Rise up O Church of God

Have done with lesser things.

Give heart and soul and mind and strength

To serve the King of Kings        .