Melbourne URC Morning Service 30th August 2020, 10.30am

Take up your cross and follow me.

Please read the service together out loud as appropriate, or read it slowly to yourselves savouring the words, as you prefer.  This is except for the Readings which will be read out loud by a member of the congregation on behalf of us all. So please just read those words quietly and hold them in your hearts knowing that they have been said.

You will need your Bible and a candle to light.

To begin : Please open your Bible and place it where you can see it.

The call to Worship.

Good morning everyone and thank you for joining in our worship today.  Let us just hold silence for a moment as we come into God’s presence.

 

We come now in worship to God in our need and bringing with us the needs of the world.

We come now to God, who comes to us in Jesus, and who knows by experience what human life is like.

We now come with our faith and with our doubts.

We come now with our hopes, our fears and our dreams.

We come as we are, because it is God who invites us to come and God has promised never to turn us away.

 

(So as we come into God’s presence just as we are this morning we say/read or maybe even sing our first hymn.

 

As we are gathered, Jesus is here,

one with each other, Jesus is here;

Joined by the Spirit, washed in His blood,

part of the Body, the Church of God.

As we are gathered, Jesus is here,

one with each other, Jesus is here.

 

Please light your own peace candle and say/read the following prayer.

 

We light this candle in peace Lord. In times of uncertainty, fear and anxiety, we call to you to bring your peace into your world, into the hearts of your people, and into our homes, remembering always that even now in these difficult times there are people still being displaced by violence, war and famine in other places. Lord, bring your peace into your broken world.  Amen.

 

God of peace and freedom, we welcome you in our midst.

We praise you for your love which surpasses all understanding

We praise you for who you are – now and forever.

You are an amazing God!

 

As we pray so we confess our failings:

O God of life, eternity cannot hold you, nor can our little words catch the magnificence of your kindness.  Yet in the space of our small hearts and in silence you can come and repair us.

O God of life, grant us your forgiveness for our careless thoughts, for our thoughtless deeds, for our empty speech, and the words with which we wounded.

O God of life, grant us your forgiveness, for our false desires, for our hateful actions, for our wastefulness, and for all we left unattended.

O Living Christ, hanged on a tree yet risen in the morning, scatter the sin from our souls as the mist on the hills; begin what we do, inform what we say, redeem who we are for in you we place our hope this day and evermore.

Listen to the words of Christ, words that we can trust “Don’t be afraid, your sins are forgiven, I love you, come take up your cross and  follow  me.” Thanks be to God amen.

We say together the prayer our Lord Jesus Christ taught us:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory,
for ever and ever.  Amen.

1st Reading.

Romans 12,9-12

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

 

We read or sing the 2nd Hymn :

O Thou who camest from above, the pure celestial fire to impart, kindle a flame of sacred love on the mean altar of my heart.	There let it for Thy glory burn with inextinguishable blaze; And trembling to its source return, in humble prayer and fervent praise.
Jesus, confirm my heart’s desire to work and speak and think for Thee; Still let me guard the holy fire, And still stir up Thy gift in me;	Ready for all Thy perfect will, my acts of faith and love repeat, till death Thine endless mercies seal, and make my sacrifice complete. Amen.

 

2nd Reading

Matthew 16 21 to 28

From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.’ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’

Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

‘For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.’ This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

We read or sing our 3rd Hymn: (There are several tunes to this next hymn.  This time you can all sing/imagine it sung to your favourite tune!)

O Jesus, I have promised to serve Thee to the end; be Thou forever near me, my Master and my Friend; I shall not fear the battle if Thou art by my side, nor wander from the pathway if Thou wilt be my Guide.	O let me feel Thee near me; the world is ever near; I see the sights that dazzle, the tempting sounds I hear; my foes are ever near me, around me and within; but Jesus, draw Thou nearer, and shield my soul from sin.
O let me hear Thee speaking in accents clear and still, above the storms of passion, the murmurs of self-will; O speak to reassure me, to hasten, or control; O speak, and make me listen, Thou Guardian of my soul.	O Jesus, Thou hast promised to all who follow Thee that where Thou art in glory there shall Thy servants be; and, Jesus, I have promised to serve Thee to the end; O give me grace to follow my Master and my Friend.

O let me see Thy footmarks,

and in them plant mine own;

my hope to follow duly

is in Thy strength alone.

O guide me, call me, draw me,

uphold me to the end;

and then in heaven receive me,

my Saviour and my Friend

 

Reflection :

Matt 16:21-28

The Gospel reading today is the beginning of the second phase of Jesus’s teaching in the Gospel of Matthew.  The first phase is Jesus teaching the people of Galilee and it finishes with Jesus turning to the disciples and asking “Who do you say I am?”and Peter’s response, “You are the messiah, Son of the living God.” Today in our Gospel, the people being taught are the disciples alone, and in this generation that’s you and me.

I want us to focus on just a few verses.  Then Jesus said to his disciples, “if any of you want to become my followers, then let them deny themselves, and take up their cross and follow me, for those who want to save their life must loose it and those who loose their life for my sake will find it.”

A few years ago, when holidaying on the Isle of Arran, we came across an old graveyard on the sea shore in the middle of no-where.  In the graveyard we found a memorial stone in memory of John Brown. He died 1855 age 74. In the same grave we find that he had lost his wife Marian in 1826 age 44, 2 children in infancy and an older child age 18. The memorial stone then had a further inscription placed on it by the Minister, Revd Versits which read:-

“The above John Brown was an elder in the Free Church in the Parish of Kilmory, A man of intrepidity of character, simplicity of manner and stirling piety. An Israelite indeed!  The 40 years he took part in prayer meetings in his native place, was always ready to encourage every appearance of genuine piety from his knowledge of God.  His ideas were rich, edifying and heavenly and of late year especially his addresses and prayers grew more searching and lively betokening that he was drawing near his heavenly home.  Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.”

Today the “Wee Frees” in the Free parish of Kilmory are no more. Just the remains of John and his family remain by the Kilbrannon Sound beneath the shadow of the mountains.  From the memorial inscription John Brown, as we can see, carried the cross of loosing all his children and his wife and yet still continued to follow Jesus, faithfully and vigorously. But that is not the end of the tale.

John Brown was an Elder at the time of the clearances.  Arran was cleared much later than the rest of Scotland. The villages were left to ruin during the 1800s and whole families were made homeless or deported to Canada. 

High above the cottage where we stayed was the ruins of the village of Penroich in the Parish of Kilmory. It was emptied late 1800’s in the name of deer and shooting  estates.  John Brown saw the people he loved made homeless, saw the boats taking some of them from Lamlash to a new life in Canada with just their bundles of clothes, their faith, and nothing else. He saw people dying in poverty and starvation and he saw his parish lie in rack and ruin and yet still he continued to carry his cross of faith in his journey to heaven. A stalwart of the Christian faith who stuck it out to the end. 

And yet in some ways John Brown had it easier than us.  The promise of salvation and heaven in the face of everything that this world could throw at the people of Arran, clearances, starvation, weather, homelessness and dereliction must have been tantalising.  The promise of a new life in the peace and eternity after death where sorrow and sighing were no more must have been something that people craved for and worked towards. It was the good news of the Gospel.  The earthly cross that they chose to carry in the name of Christ was, for them, the road to salvation and the glory of heaven.

For Matthew too, salvation and the coming of the beauty of the eternal kingdom was good news. Palestine was governed by a despot King Herod, and under the thumb of Rome.  It was a society under occupation – a society that had had to become adjusted to the violence of the Pagan rulers.  Israel was occupied territory and was waiting for a new messiah to come and save them .

Peter had just identified Jesus as that man when we get today’s Gospel, but Jesus then has to teach his disciples something quite radical. Following Jesus in the search for salvation is serious business.  Those who follow are called not just to take up their cross but to be prepared to loose their physical life for the Gospel in the same way as Jesus did. 

But what of us today.  How do we relate to the good news of Jesus Christ We live in a free country. In general we are fed, have some money, a houseful of possessions, holidays, cars and pleasure. If John Brown were looking at us today perhaps it might seem as if heaven had already arrived. Maybe the cross we carry is one of relative affluence. These last few months of Coronovirus and all the surrounding restrictions have left us shocked, frightened and grieving.  Often we are like the rich man in the Gospels, when he asked Jesus how he might be saved he was told to give away his possessions first, and he walked sadly away because he couldn’t. Yet in some ways, just recently, we have lost or had to put on hold for the time being, much that we hold dear. In many ways our cross has become very personal and our horizons much closer to home.

Recent events in Lebanon have re-directed our sightlines away from ourselves and into the rest of the world.  Sadly Lebanon is dealing with a Pandemic as we all are, but on top of that their capital city has been destroyed, lives lost and torn away, and a culture of corruption and poor governance brought to light in the most horrifying way.

Our little cross that we carry has become “insular” but the cross that Jesus carried was for all humankind. What he really wants us to carry is a little bit of his and not one of our own making.  Lebanon has re-directed our minds, and as we start to emerge from total lockdown into a strange new normal perhaps this horrifying event in Lebanon and the repercussions will help us once more to widen our horizons and re-direct our efforts.  But most of all, in the face of everything we have had or lost, or in the case of John Brown everything that was being destroyed. We are called to be faithful. To take up the cross bestowed on us at Baptism. That is a little bit of the cross that Jesus carried for the whole world that he loved and came to save, and follow him! How do we do that? Paul’s letter to the Romans gives us a few ideas worth pondering on.

Amen.

4th Hymn (we read or sing)

Father hear the prayer we offer; not for ease that prayer shall be, but for strength that we may ever live our lives courageously.	Not for ever in green pastures do we ask our way to be; But the steep and rugged pathway May we tread rejoicingly.
Not for ever by still waters would we idly rest and stay. But would smite the living fountains from the rocks along our way.	Be our strength in hours of weakness, in our wanderings, be our guide; through endeavour, failure, danger, Father, be Thou at our side.

 

Intercessions : For our intercessions today I want you to imagine that you are standing by a pool of water and you drop a stone in and watch the circles of ripples spread across the pool.

In the power of the Spirit and in union with Christ let us pray to the Father.

Father, we see the first circle of ripples.  We pray for those close to us. For the wellbeing of our families and friends.  For all who we come into close contact with on a regular basis.  Help us to live as your disciples, that they may, in us, see something of you and your love for them.  We pray for that natural world that we come into contact with regularly. We give thanks for our gardens, fields and rivers and the green environment that we have so much needed in the lockdown.  Help us to care for the environment close to us and to do our best to protect it.

Father, we see the circles of ripples widening.  We pray for those who occasionally come into our lives, that they maybe kept well.  We give thanks for all who help us ; the doctors, shopkeepers, refuse collectors, councillors, and school teachers.  Give them your guidance, protect them in their work and help us to help them see you presence in their working environment.  We pray too for the wider natural world, for our woods, farms, nature reserves, mountains and waterways.  Help us to enthusiastically support those whose lives are given over to the care of our beautiful country.

Father, we see the circles of ripples widening out into the distance.  We pray for those who influence the world but that we do not often see in person.  For our Queen and Politicians and for the governments of the world.  We pray that they may make good, right, and respectful decisions about the wellbeing of the people of the world. We pray this month for the people of Lebanon as they try to come to terms with the disaster in Beirut. For those with life- long injuries and those who have lost homes and businesses. We pray too for the people of Belarus looking for a more just government, and those immigrants escaping violence and war who are staring longingly across the English Channel towards the white cliffs of Dover.

 We hold out to you also the natural world in all its global and cosmic beauty and ask that those who hold the reigns of power may understand the need to act now if we are to avert the destructive path of global warming on which we are embarked.

As we see the ripples grow weaker, we hold out to you all who are suffering at this time and in a moment of silence we place before you for your strength those whose names are written on our hearts……(silence).  May they know your touch upon their lives and your peace in the midst of their afflictions.

In the distance we see the ripples disappear over the horizon of our view.  We pray now for those who have recently crossed the threshold of death and now rest in your closer presence.  (names) Their passing from our view is seen by us but not by you.  May they rest in peace and rise in glory safe in your everlasting kingdom.

Merciful Father accept these prayers for the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

We read or sing our final hymn:

All my hope on God is founded; He doth still my trust renew. Me through change and chance He guideth, only good and only true. God unknown, He alone, calls my heart to be his own.	Pride of man and earthly glory, sword and crown betray his trust; what with care and toil he buildest, tower and temple fall to dust. But God’s power, hour by hour, is my temple and my tower.
Daily doth the almighty giver bounteous gifts on us bestow; His desire our soul delighteth pleasure leads us where we go. Love doth stand, at his hand; Joy doth wait on his command.	Still from man to God eternal sacrifice of praise be done, high above all praises praising for the gift of Christ his Son. Christ doth call one and all Ye who follow shall not fall.

Let us pray:

Be present, Spirit of God within us, your dwelling place and home,

May our homes and your world, be one where all darkness is penetrated by your light, all troubles calmed by your peace, all evil redeemed by your love,

all pain transformed into your suffering, and all dying glorified in your risen life.

And so we say to each other across the homes of Melbourne and beyond:

 

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face.

May the rain fall soft upon your fields,

And until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hand.

AMEN

 

Thank you for taking part in this service. God bless you all and keep you safe and well.

 

CCL 257405.  Hymns from Mission Praise and Congregational Praise.

Some Liturgy from The Pattern of our Days, A Wee Worship Book. (Iona Community).