Hello friends of Riverbend United
Church and welcome wherever you are this
morning, sharing in worship, we're glad
you're here.  This is a service for Sunday,
May 17 and it is our youth led service
so we are in for a beautiful journey
with amazing music and a reflection by
Joel Fleck, given from the heart,
magnificent scenery, and you'll see all
of that in just a moment.  We want to
share with you two announcements for
this week the first is that on June 7th,
I think that's three Sundays away on
Sunday June 7, we will have a live
communion service on Zoom as well as
our congregational meeting by Zoom
immediately following our communion.  So
that's Sunday June 7 we will be electing our
board at that congregational meeting.
Hope you can join us and second
announcement is that our Safeway grocery
cards will be for sale at the church,
with safe social distancing practices in
place for the transference of the cards,
this Friday May 22 at 10 am, 10 to 12
a.m. stop by the church on this coming
Friday if you want to buy grocery cards
that you can then use and the church
receives money for that.  Thank you to
everyone who has responded to the
Finance Committee's letter last week, we
really appreciate your ongoing
generosity helping to keep the church
alive and I hope it means something to
you to be able to give as well.  So thanks
for that support.  There's an update of
our April financial situation in our
congregational email offered by our
board chair Matthew Schoenhardt and now
we are going to hear a children's story,
so kids gather round and it's actually a
story that's possibly not just for you
kids because it's actually one of my
all-time favorite children's stories
asking the question "Where do we find God?"
so let's share in children's time with
Carolyn Miller....Good morning everyone, my
name is Carolyn Miller and this morning
I'm going to be reading one of Valerie's
favorite books, "Old Turtle" by Douglas
Wood.  Once long long ago yet somehow not
so very long when all the animals and
rocks and winds and waters and trees and
birds and fish and all the beings of the
world could speak and understand one
another,
there began an argument.  It began softly
at first, quiet is the first breeze that
whispered, "He is a wind who is never
still".  Quiet as the stone that answered
"He is a great rock that never moves".
Gentle as the mountain that rumbled "God
is a snowy peak high above the clouds".
And the fish in the ocean that answered
"God is a swimmer in the dark blue depths
of the sea".
"No" said the star "God is a twinkling and a
shining far far away".  "No" replied the ant
"God is a sound and a smell and a feeling
who is very very close".  "God" said the
Antelope "is a runner Swift and free who
loves to leap and race with the wind".
"She is a great tree" murmured the willow,
"a part of the world always growing and
always giving".  "You are wrong" argued the
island "God is separate and apart". "God is
like the shining Sun far above all
things" said the blue sky.  "No!  He is a
river who flows through the very heart
of things!" thundered the waterfall.  "She is
a hunter" roared the lion.  "God is gentle"
chirped the Robin.  "He is powerful" growled
the bear.  And the argument grew louder,
and louder, and louder, until... "STOP!" a
new voice spoke.  It rumbled loudly like
thunder and it whispered softly like
butterfly sneezes.  The voice seemed to
come from, why, it seemed to come from....
OLDTURTLE!  Now Old Turtle hardly ever said
anything and certainly never argued
about things like God.  But now Old Turtle
began to speak.  "God is indeed deep" he
said to the fish in the sea.  "And much
higher than high" she told the mountains
"He is swift and free as the wind and
still and solid as a great rock" she
said to the breezes and stones.
"She is the life of the world" Turtle said
to the willow.  "Always close by yet beyond
the farthest twinkling light" she told
the ant and the star.  "God is gentle and
powerful, above all things and within all
things.  God is all that we dream of and
all that we seek" said Old Turtle.  "All
that we come from, and all that we can
find.  God is!"
Old Turtle had never said so much before.
All the beings of the world were
surprised and became very quiet.  But Old
Turtle had one more thing to say.  "There
will soon be a new family of beings in
the world" she said.  "And they will be
strange and wonderful.  They will be
reminders of all that God is.  They will
come in many colors and shapes with
different faces and different ways of
speaking.  Their thoughts will soar to the
stars but their feet will walk on earth.
They will possess many powers.  They will
be strong, yet tender, a message of love
from God to the earth, and a prayer from
the earth back to God."  And the people
came.  But the people forgot.  They forgot
that they were a message of love and a
prayer from the earth.  And they began to
argue about who knew God, and who did not.
And where God was, and was not.  And
whether God was, or was not.  And often the
people misused their powers and hurt one
another or killed one another.  And they
hurt the earth until finally even the
forests began to die and the rivers and
the oceans and the plants and the
animals and the earth itself.  Because the
people could not remember who they were
or where God was.  Until one day there
came a voice, like the growling of
thunder, but as soft as butterfly sneezes.
Please, stop!"
The voice seemed to come from the
mountain who rumbled, "Sometimes I see God
swimming in the dark blue depths of the
sea" and from the ocean who sighed  "He is
often among the snow-capped peaks
reflecting the Sun."  From the stone who
said "I sometimes feel her breath as she
blows by."  And from the breeze who
whispered "I feel her still presence as I
dance among the rocks."  And the star said
"God is very close."  And the island said
"His love touches everything".  And after a
long lonesome and scary time, the people
listened and began to hear and to see
God in one another
and in the beauty of all the earth.
And Old Turtle smiled, and so did God.
I hope that you enjoyed the story this
morning.  It's full of beautiful
illustrations and lots of messages if we
only listen.  But this morning I want to
focus on who or what is God.  At the start
of the book there is an argument as the
star says "God is a twinkling and a
shining far far away."  The breeze says "God
is a wind blowing."  The ant says "No, no, God is a smell, a sound, a feel.  And then the
fish came in with "God as a swimmer deep
in the ocean."  The argument gets louder
and louder until wise Old Turtle steps
in and says "Yes God is a swimmer in the
ocean.  God is a taste, a feel, a sound.  God
is a shining and a twinkling.  And God is
a breeze that blows."  I think what Old
Turtle was trying to tell us is that God
is everywhere.  I'm imagining being back
in the sanctuary of Riverbend United,
sitting on the steps with you all and I
would ask you the question "Where do you
see God?"  I'm sure all your hands would
have shot up by now and some very wise
answers would be given.  So this morning I
am asking the question "Where do you see
God?"  Hopefully your parents, your siblings,
and you can discuss this.  And maybe be
surprised where each of you feel God
close.  I'm looking out the window at the
trees that are blowing and God is there.
I'm looking at my dog and I know that
God is there.  God means different things
to different people
and there's no right answer, and there's
no wrong answer.  God is everywhere.
Thank you to Carolyn for that.  Such a beautiful story.
I invite you to pray with me... O God for
this new day we are grateful.  For the
chance to gather as community through
the gifts of technology, we are grateful.
And for those who helped make it happen,
we are grateful.  We lift up those among
us who are feeling alone and isolated.
May they trust the movement of your
spirit in unseen ways and sense your
love that does swirl within us and among
us.  Guide each of us to be vessels of
that love for each other even if not
especially in these difficult days.  Open
our hearts now to the many different
ways you come to us, the streams of your
love, the ways you are made manifest in
this world and in our hearts.  Open us to
the wisdom of our youth as they share
with us the ways they experience you.  We
pray in the name of the risen Christ.
Amen.  And now let's join Joel Fleck in a
journey of reflection and magnificence
and beautiful music.  And Thank You Joel
for putting all of this together!
My name is Joel Fleck.  I'm sure a lot of
you know me but for those that don't I'm
the Youth Coordinator here at Riverbend
United Church.  Around this time of year
we often have the youth lead one of the
services.  I've had some great Zoom
discussions with the youth and they
inspired many of my words for my
reflection today.  This period of
isolation has given me a lot of time for
self reflection. A complete pause on life
has allowed me to reflect on all the
experiences that have brought me to
where I am today.  One of the biggest
influences on my life growing up was the
church.  That being said though, I've
always found it difficult to describe
how spirituality fits as part of my
identity.  The idea of miracles, faith, and God, it
all seemed to conflict with logic and
reason.  This is especially difficult for
me as I'm currently studying physics and
chemistry at university.  I'm still quite
young and my faith journey is still in
its early days so it isn't really my
place to offer any spiritual guidance or
wisdom.  However I would like to share a
story from my spiritual journey and how
its shaped my perception of God and
Christianity as a whole.
About eight months ago I had a crisis of
faith.
It was a summer after a tumultuous first
year of university was drawing to a close.
I had just won the provincial rugby
championships with my under-19 team.
Our family was moving into a new house and I finished my first full-time job with
the University.  It seemed like my life was
going in a new direction, and the
prospect of becoming an adult seemed a
whole lot less intimidating.  However it
was during this time I felt the least
connected with my spiritual side.
I hadn't been to church in over two months
and I started to question what had
brought me there in the first place.  Well
it must have been the youth group of
course, I thought.  It was one of the most
influential facets of my adolescence and
I'm still very close with many of the
friends that I met through youth.  Then I
realized that I was the only one left
that still attended church.  Maybe it was
the music?  Playing music was one of my
biggest passions and I will always
cherish the countless hours I've spent
playing with my friends from the
ensemble.  Or maybe it was just a sense of
community.  I could always count on
someone to strike up a conversation with
me, and ask how I was doing, even when I
was feeling at my worst.  I would always
leave Church feeling a bit better,
knowing that there were people there who
could care for me and appreciate me.
I told myself for the longest time that I
was a Christian and that I believed in God.
I was both baptized and confirmed here and I've been a member of the congregation
for almost 20 years now.  Yet when I
started to reflect on why I actually
came to church, I realized that none of
the reasons I had for coming
require me to be religious.  I decided to
believe in God because I went to church.
I didn't go to church because I believed
in God.
It was almost ironic that at a time when
I felt so good about the direction my
life was taking, I felt the least
connected to God.  How was I supposed to
be a spiritual role model for the youth
when I didn't even feel spiritual myself?
That week I called on my spiritual
mentors,
Doug and John Spaner, to offer me some
guidance.  We went for drinks one night at
The Bend and stayed until the late hours
of the evening, talking about God, faith,
and religion as a whole.  The one thing
that I took from our conversation was
that God manifests himself in different
ways for different people.  Some people
feel closest to God during worship as a
congregation, or when we all sing
together.  Others feel closest to God when
they go out for a walk in nature, or for
some, God manifests himself when we spend time with friends and family.
After thinking about this for a bit I decided
that I need to define something that
makes me feel close to God.  I went over
all of my old Bible stories and started
to notice a pattern.  God revealed himself
to Abraham when he went to the top of
the mountain.  God gave Moses the Ten
Commandments when he went to a top of
the mountain.  Jesus gave his most famous
sermon on the top of a mountain.
I knew what I had to do.....
Near our family homestead near Jasper
National Park is a poorly maintained old
dirt road that can only be driven on
with an ATV or four-wheel drive.  After a
half-hour drive there's a path that climbs
the side of the ridge which overlooks
the Athabasca river valley.  After scaling
the ridge we walk along the top, above
the tree line with a full 360-degree
view of the valley, and at the end of the
ridge there's a small summit next to a shallow stream.  If there was one spot that was going to bring us closer to God, that was probably it.
There's something powerful about nature that never ceases to amaze us whether it be
looking across the vast ocean with a
starlit sky on a clear night or the
towering presence of the mountains.
Bear, deer, birds and squirrels, within a
kilometer from me, that have done their
best to hide themselves.  The mountains
jut out of the ground for thousands of
feet and the river continues on for
miles until it reaches Lake Athabasca.
And the sky seems infinite as it
stretches beyond our view.  Perhaps I
don't understand God very well however I
do know that I am but a minuscule part
of creation.  Proverbs chapter 9 verse 10
states that reverence for creation is basic to all wisdom.
This wasn't like the stories though.  In
Genesis God spoke with Abraham and Moses
on top of the mountains.  I haven't heard
anything yet though.  This was something
that really bugged me and is kind of what
caused me to be skeptical of God in the
Bible in the first place.  When we read
the old stories from the Bible
we get the impression that God is like
us, he thinks like us, talks like us,
and has emotions like us.  When I had my
discussion with the youth a few weeks
ago Annika and Nathan told me that when
they were little they thought our old
minister Don Koots was God.  I thought
this was absolutely hilarious, but when I
thought about it for a second I realized
that for a child
Don Koots with his white beard and
robes might not seem too far off.  To them
that made the most sense.  This example is sort of a microcosm for why we have
religion in the first place.  Throughout
our time on this planet our ancestors
have used religion, mythology, and deities
to provide explanations for questions
for which they didn't really know the
answer.  Why did the Sun come up during
the day and disappear at night?  Where did
the earth come from?  How did we come into
existence?
However as our technology and
understanding of the world progressed we
began to find evidence-based answers for
these questions.  We found out that the
Sun rises in the morning and sets at
night because our planet which is shaped
as a sphere rotates along its axis.  We
figured out that the earth and the solar
system formed due to the gravitational
attraction between clumps of matter
flying around through space.  And
overwhelming evidence indicates that we
have adapted into our current species
over tens of thousands of years through
a process known as evolution.  So is that
it then?  Can we truly disprove the
existence of God because we can't see or
hear him?  The United Church Creed says
the following: "We believe in God who has
created and is creating.  Who has come in
Jesus, the Word made flesh.  It works in us
and others by the Spirit.... Who works in us
and others by the Spirit.  To me this is
one of the most poignant lines of the
new Creed and it beautifully encapsulates
my own depiction of God.  In our own
statement of faith we acknowledge that
the workings of God aren't of magic or
miracles but of the spiritual connection
that exists between us all.  When I go
back to all the reasons I previously
stated for attending church, the youth
group, the music ensemble, the community,
I realized that they all share one thing in
common....
....a longing for spiritual connection.
Maybe God isn't a magical dude up in the
sky, but an incomprehensible power that
binds us through the spirit.  Even as I
stand here in the middle of nowhere
all alone, well, not really all alone... I'm
connected to all of you,
not by magic, but by the memories and
collective experience we share.  These
memories and experiences are what have
brought me to this moment.  This spirit
not only connects us to our present, but
also to our past.  It's the living memory
and experience of our ancestors that has
brought our society to its current state.
One of the most beautiful parts of the
Bible is that it reflects our ancestors
struggle to comprehend God.  Over the
course of all the many books it seems
that God shifts from a fear mongering
overlord to a kind of loving parent.
Though was it really God that had a change
of heart or was it humans that changed
our understanding.  No matter how hard we
try, we will never be able to truly
understand God.  But that is why we have
faith.  My message to the youth of the
congregation is that spirituality isn't
about discovering all the mysteries of
life.  It's about acknowledging the
incomprehensible.  We can boil our
existence to quarks and gluons at the
subatomic level and we can reduce our
emotions to the neurotransmitters in our
brain but there comes a point where we
will never be able to explain the spirit
that works in us and others.  I wanted to
dedicate this next song to the youth of
the congregation.  It's a lovely song by a
very spiritual man formerly known as Cat
Stevens.  Pay close attention to the
lyrics, I think they have some meaning
given the context of the service....
The whole reason I came out to the mountains in the first place was to see
if God would manifest himself to me.  To be quite honest, I'm not sure what a
manifestation of God would look like but I figured that maybe the youth of Riverbend
could help me out.  I went ahead and
asked the members of the youth group,
both past and present, if they had a moment
or a place that made them feel the most
spiritual or close to God.
No one's spirituality is the same,
however we were all connected by one
spirit....
I feel the most spiritual when I get to
sing and play music with other people
At a concert, listening to music, being with
my friends, walking my dog, when Connor
McDavid scores.  But all those are kind of
too imprecise, so I think for the full
answer I'm going to say I feel closest
to God when I feel alive.
Hi everyone.  This is me, Michelle
Roy.  The way that I feel close to God is
when I'm at church praying and when I'm at home
praying but ever since the Corona-19
virus started I felt him even more
closer to me than ever before.
Hi I'm Nathan and I feel closest to God at
church. Hi I'm Annika and I feel closest to
God when we're all together singing and
playing music.
I feel closest to God or most
spiritually connected when I am playing
music or I'm out in nature or when I'm
in a group of people who make me feel
very comfortable and kind of at home,
that's when I feel the most connected to God.
I feel closest to God when I'm in
self-isolation,
may be drinking tea or something, just in
self-reflection.
I feel closest to God when I'm walking
my dog and surrounded by nature.
They really feel like one with the world.
I feel closest to God when I am sitting out in a chair looking at stars.
So God, well to me, he's
like a Savior.  He's like a healer. He's good.
I feel God the most in the moments
where I can dissociate from myself and feel
the world outside of just me.  This could
be in nature or when I'm totally alone.
I feel closest to God when I think of you!
Go in peace friends....
