Beth began the service
with a poetic prayer, referring to the various parts of the church building as
symbols, each reminding us of our need for grace.
Hymn AHB 570 "This day God gives me strength of
high heaven" sung to the tune of "Morning has broken" this hymn
spoke our relationship with the One who provides every blessing. The One who is
ever alert to our every need and ready to defend us from everything that threatens
us. This raises the problem in our minds of why everything doesn't go
swimmingly for us. It may be that in defending us from every ill that the One doesn't
necessarily prevent the ill happening but gives us the strength and power to
survive it.
Prayer Beth
led us in a prayer to our loving Lord offering praise and thanksgiving and
declaring our intention to worship in a spirit of truth. Beth asked that God
would help us relax and be able to feel the quality of the peace we are
offered. She gave thanks for the wonderful life we are able to live and all the
blessings we enjoy, including being able to worship publicly and peacefully.
Beth asked that we remember those who endure racial hatred, lack of clean water
and those who have to worship furtively, giving thanks for our blessings of
medical care, warm homes and good food. She asked that we should take stock of
our privileged condition and asked for forgiveness for those times when we have
mistreated those things which are holy; for those times when we have failed to
carry out God's will; for those times when we have sought our own way.
Beth asked our God to
forgive us and draw us back into his kingdom of righteousness and grace.
Having asked, Beth, in
full confidence, declared that we are forgiven and commanded us to go forward,
living out our lives filled with God's grace. Amen
Offering The offering was then gathered and offered
with a prayer of thanks for our being blessed and in a position to give back
something of that blessing. Beth asked that it may bring comfort in God's name.
Hymn AHB 165 Sung to the tune of "The carnival is
over" the words of "What a friend we have in Jesus all our sins and
griefs to bear", like that of the earlier hymn sung to a different tune,
suddenly took on a clearer meaning otherwise lost in our familiarity with such
well known songs. Indeed "what
peace we often forfeit" simply because we stand, heels dug in, refusing to
turn matters over to God.
Readings Deuteronomy 30: 15 - 20 and Matthew 5: 21
- 37. The Deuteronomy reading echoes some of the sentiments of the last hymn.
God offers so much and all we have to do to claim it is to walk in his way. But
so often we simply don't and wonder why
things turn out so badly. There's a saying, "When all else fails follow
the directions."
The Matthew reading is
more challenge than most of us can cope with. Not only are we in trouble for
doing the wrong thing but also for just contemplating the possibility of such
an action. Maybe life is not so simple but as humans, all we can do is lean on
our Lord for guidance and when we do offend, ask forgiveness.
Reflection
Beth's introductory
comment was that as difficult as the lectionary readings for this week are,
we can't duck them and have to look
carefully at their message in the light of the teachings of Jesus. And what he
taught was that we should not judge others or throw bricks (wasn't it stones)
at each other. However, Jesus did not weaken any of the laws of common sense
and decency - he brought them to us in a way that we can handle them.
It is said that a good
person brings good out of the treasure of good things in their heart which is
often revealed through the words they speak and that the reverse also applies.
It is hard for someone whose heart is dark to bring forth goodness.
Beth then linked this
to our work and suggested we think of the hours we put in at home and how good
the pay we receive for it is. But we continue to put in the hard, long hours
because our heart is in it, and the ties that bind us to the people in our home
make it all OK.
Beth then followed with
a tale of life during a famine in Russia and a tinker's family who had suffered
more loss than most of us experience in a lifetime, lost their only daughter
through the savage attack of a dog, sooled onto her by its blacksmith master in
retribution for trade lost to her father. There was no rule of law to address
the terrible deed, but the people of the town made their own judgement and they
deserted the blacksmith shop the evil man owned.
As a result he was unable
to feed his family.
No he hadn't forgotten
one little bit but had sown the good seed that God might live.
If the church and its people
do not follow this path there will be no peace - no life for God in the people
of the world.
There is no way the church
can be the people of God until we tackle the big stuff.
Beth then turned the
focus to ourselves. We haven't done anything terrible but mostly because we
have never been in the position to need to. It's when we hit the big issues
that it becomes obvious as to whether or not we are the people of God.
Beth provided another
illustration of good will, God's will raising someone above their hurt, loss
and grief.
She could have provided
ten more illustrations of her message but it will only bear fruit if we act on
it. We think we live good lives. The truth is that we live quiet lives.
Hymn AHB 564 "Forgive our sins as we forgive"
Hard to do except, as the hymn goes onto say, with God's grace and our
willingness to let go our hurts and losses and our admission and appreciation
of "how small the debts men owe to us, how great our debt to you".
Prayers for the
People Today Margaret
led in a prayer that God help us to look at ourselves and open ourselves to
God's work in us, granting us the grace that brings peace. She asked for God's
guidance to all the people who lead us in any way in our community, that they
will conduct themselves honestly; that we will follow such honest leadership to
bring about a more Godly community. After praying for the concerns of our church
and those of our congregation we then prayed the Lord's Prayer together.
Hymn AHB 543 "God of grace and God of glory"
A prayer in song asking that God will guide us into his better way, healing us
of our flaws and weaknesses that cause us to do anything other than what we
should. Asking that by his doing so we will be more the people God created,
living in wisdom and courage.
Benediction Warwick pronounced the benediction, sending
us out in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ to be determined to make a difference.
We concluded, singing
together:
Now unto him who is
able to keep. Able to keep you from falling.
And to present you
faultless before the presence of his glory
With exceeding joy, to
the only wise God our Saviour
Be glory and majesty,
dominion and power, both now and ever.
Amen.
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