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“Thus Saith the Lord: Seek Shalom”
A Service of the Word for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 12, 2025: IN-PERSON and ONLINE at 10:30 a.m.
The Rev. Matthew Emery, lead minister, preaching
Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7
On this Sunday of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, we near the final couple of weeks in our “Thus Saith the Lord” worship series in the book of the prophet Jeremiah. In the passage we’ll hear this week, Jeremiah is writing a letter to the people who have already been taken off to exile in Babylon.
Where there could be despair, and a temptation to simply give up and not go on, Jeremiah counsels them to keep going with the work of life: building and growing. Moreover, even as a people in exile, Jeremiah reminds them that they have a mission to others beyond their own community.
As we gather this weekend in the midst of our civic Thanksgiving holiday, the theme of gratitude takes centre stage in many of our hearts and minds. Even in the midst of their displacement and despair, the ones to whom Jeremiah wrote were never separated from the One in whom and through whom they could still give thanks for all they had, all they were, and all that they could yet do to seek their own welfare and that of those around them.
In worship this week, we'll encounter the Word through scripture and sermon, as usual, but then in place of the offertory and prayer times, we’ll have the opportunity to respond to the Word through interactive worship stations inviting our prayer, meditation, creative action, and more. We are inviting worshippers of all ages—children/youth and seniors/elders alike—to engage with these prayerful activities (and so there will be no separate Children’s Church).