The Call to Worship Hugh welcomed us to worship in the name of
Jesus Christ! “It is a delight to be together
in the house of God! Let us lift our voices with joyful hearts! May the grace
of God, the love of Jesus and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us now
in this hour”.
Hymn TiS 627 “Praise and
Thanksgiving”
Albert Frederick Bayly
began his ministry in the late 1920’s and served at four Congregational
churches before he became pastor in Thaxted, Essex in 1962. He retired in 1971 and became active in his
local United Reformed Church. Hugh
suggested that the last few lines of this hymn, written in 1961, should be a
focus for daily prayer all over the world.
“Where you are reigning no one will hunger, your love sustaining
fruitful the land.”
Announcements:
Pat told us we have an extra week to prepare our shoeboxes for the
Samaritan’s Purse Program, to send them as a gift to children in need and Ruth
reminded us there will be a Friendship Circle Morning Tea after Church in two
weeks from today. We welcomed eight week
old Billy to his first service with us with his family.
Prayer of Adoration: This was read by Hugh; “God of grace and love, you are the reason for our gathering in this
place. Enhance our minds and our faith,
we pray, so our spirits may reach up to your Spirit, so our hearts may beat
with the compassion of your heart, and we may worship you this hour in purity
and peace. Lord our Father, you alone are
the source of hope we have cherished all our lives. So, we praise you with songs and prayers for
ever and ever. Amen.”
Prayer of
Confession: Together we
read; “Gracious God, our sins are too
heavy to carry, too real to hide, and too deep to undo. Forgive what our lips
tremble to name, what our hearts can no longer bear, and what has become for us
a consuming fire of judgment. Set us free from a past that we cannot change;
open to us a future in which we can be changed; and grant us grace to grow more and more in your likeness and image,
through Jesus Christ, the light of the world. Amen”.
Assurance of
Pardon: Leader: Dear children of
God’s Kingdom! Do not be afraid. For with God there is great mercy to forgive
and there is great power to transform.
People: Thanks be to God.
Our sins are forgiven!
Offering / Prayer: Hugh invited us to dedicate part of our lives as an offering to God as we
expressed our gratitude to Him for all His gifts.
Important Bible Words for Children
for Today & Children’s Message: Jan invited
Oliver to help her read the “Important Bible Words” – in day’s gone by perhaps
called a weekly “text” to be committed to memory, this “new tradition” was a
real joy. Verse 1 of Psalm 106 was
beautifully read; “It is good to give thanks to the Lord for His love lasts
forever.” Hugh reminded us all that we
should remember to say thanks every day.
After we sang Hymn
TiS 467: “I am the
church! You are the church! We are the
church together! - Ruth took the children out to Sunday Kids with a special blessing
from Hugh to welcome young Billy as the newest of the “Sunday Kids”. This brought special meaning to the lines; “I
count if I am ninety or nine or just a baby.”
Bible Reading
Malcolm reminded us that this “Shepherd’s Psalm” is the most loved
passage in the Bible before he read the familiar words to us. I could almost feel the people in the church
relaxing as he began to read. The
passage from Matthew; the Parable of the Wedding Feast – like the story of the
Tenant Farmers last week – is quite shocking and certainly stops us in our
tracks!
Reflection:
“Who
has time for God’s Banquet?”
Hugh began his reflection by asking us to imagine a scenario where; all the
invited guests for the 2011 wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, having
accepted their invitation, did not attend – but made ridiculous excuses. Hardly – it was the wedding of the year!
Of course this example highlights that this would be considered a great
lack of respect for our Queen and her family and brings a sense of “reality” to
the Parable of the Wedding Banquet, which Hugh was at pains to remind us is not
a true story. It is a made up story to
encourage us to think deeply about finding time in our lives to attend God’s
Banquet – or put bluntly – “To put aside
time to respect God and centre our lives on Him and His purpose in our lives.” This kind of deep thinking helps me at
least to be able to dismiss the harshness of the story – and to accept this is
part of the parable’s lesson about respect.
We need to set our priorities. This is not to say that our families and our
work and our friends are not very important; but as Hugh said so eloquently; “The point is that amidst those important
matters in life, we still have to make a priority, and that is God and our
relationship with Him through Jesus Christ and we must find some more room for
our church and all its activities, so that the church goes ahead for many years
and generations to come in preaching the good news to the world”.
I really understood the next thought in the reflection: “If
we do not make God our first priority; the important things in life are crowded
out by the urgent things, and you’ll often find that you are living barely one
day at a time.” I had a wonderful
brother who lived his life this way – always stopping to decide which matters
were urgent and which were important.
This could sometimes be annoying to live with, but it was probably the
best of many good life lessons I learned from my brother.
Back to Hugh’s thoughts about God as our first priority! “Solomon’s
Proverbs ch. 1 says; ‘The fear of the
Lord is the beginning of all knowledge’.
We all know and agree that the most important priority in our life is
knowing God and serving God. But the
problem is that our lifestyle and many other factors in modern life crowd out
that priority. If you are too busy to heed God's voice then you are too busy.
If you are too busy to make God’s invitation to his feast the top priority,
then you are too busy. We must not
forget that there will come a time when our relationship with Him will be the
only priority that will matter and last forever”.
That certainly is a thought provoking comment!
That certainly is a thought provoking comment!
“In A Journey with the Saints,
Thomas S. Kepler has written: ‘The secret of the revolution in the lives of the
saints lies in the fact that their lives are centered in God.’ That is the great secret to successful living
the realization that when one reserves time to come to God's banquet, all of
the rest of life will fall in place.”
“We need to keep in mind… without
God life is simply a whirlwind of meaningless activity in the middle of
nowhere. We need to center our lives in Him and His purpose in our lives. Then
we discover that life truly is a feast.
Our God always offers an invitation to His banquet. The question is….”Will you take time to
accept?”
Prayers of the People: Our prayers for the people were led by Hugh who
asked us to pray with all our heart and mind.
“Let us pray to God, saying,
"God of grace, be with us." We repeated this plea over and over as Hugh
spoke of; “This time of confusion, grief, vulnerability and loss in this small
global village … Those who serve God in all countries and all traditions… We
remembered God’s love as we embraced His forgiveness… We prayed for the
strength to hold fast to God’s hope as we help His people to do the same… We
prayed for the leaders of this nation and all people in authority to be guided
by God’s wisdom … We prayed for strength and courage to know and accomplish God’s
purposes in the midst of the evil of these days.” Hugh reminded us of; “A God whose vision
spans all the ages of the earth and asked that we might see and embrace the
wider perspective of His whole creation… We asked to be delivered from hatred,
cruelty, revenge and misunderstanding and to be lead into a way of love and
justice that makes room for all peoples.”
We prayed for the needs of those people we know personally and joined
together in the comfort of the Lord’s Prayer.
Hymn TiS 601 "O Master, let me walk with you"
The words of this Hymn were originally written by Washington Gladden as
a poem, but his friend, Rev. C. H. Richards, saw a hymn in the lines of the
poem and adapted the words. A really good hopeful hymn to set off on our path
for the coming week!
In hope that
sends a shining ray Far down the future’s broadening way,
In peace that
only Thou canst give, With Thee, O Master, let me live.
The Benediction: “May the God of hope fill you
with joy and peace. May the Grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ be with you and with all your family and friends, now and
forever”. Amen.
Retiring hymn TiS
720: “Hale, Hale, Hale”
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