Tuesday 23rd April 2024
 

Worship Matters 

Dear Friends,

the Church often wonders about its mission.  For years we’ve said the Church doesn’t have a mission but is God’s mission in the world – and then we struggle to articulate what that might mean for our life together!  Many churches try and discern their work using the Five Marks of Mission (but forget what they are!) and these, oddly, don’t mention worship.  Whatever else the Church does, worship is key to our life together.  Worship gives us the energy to serve our communities,  the strength to witness to our faith,  the passion we need to evangelise – or at least it should! 

The biggest changes Christians saw in the Reformation era were about worship – most Christians probably didn’t follow the theological arguments but saw the pattern of worship change; the move to the language of the people instead of Latin, congregational instead of choral singing, along with the exposition of Scripture (which itself had been read to them in their own language) in (longer) sermons and more frequent reception of Communion were startling changes – along with the physical changes to church buildings.  In the Catholic reaction to the Reformation, changes to worship were key. 

Worship matters.  Not for nothing to we name our clergy “ministers of the Word and Sacraments” and expend a large part of our resources in training and sustaining them.  Similarly we give a lot of resources to train lay preachers so that the people of God are themselves nurtured and sustained in worship.  My role was created to give tangible expression to our commitment to worship and to focus, in particular in helping resource ministers, lay preachers, elders and local churches as the new digital technology gives us opportunities not seen since the invention of the printing press in the 16th Century.  

We now provide Worship Notes which assist in the careful preparation of worship. They offer all the prayers needed (and some that might not be!), notes on the readings that could be built into a sermon, and suggestions for hymns (which might be used or might stimulate the thinking of those who lead worship).   They are used by hard pressed Elders who haven’t been trained to lead worship as well as busy Lay Preachers and ministers.  Sometimes they spark thoughts, other times they can be used in their entirety, most often selections from them are used to enhance the worship leader’s own ideas.   The notes can be found here https://urc.org.uk/your-faith/prayer-and-worship/worship-notes/  They are always produced at least a month in advance, often longer.

This week our notes have been provided by the Revd Sue McCoan who gives extensive notes on all four of the Lectionary readings for next Sunday, a good range of hymns mainly from Rejoice and Sing, and all the prayers you would expect to see in Worship Notes.

his resource is designed to help plan worship locally. We also offer services by PowerPoint (which can be adapted) if you’d prefer to facilitate worship that way as a form of pulpit supply.  Our preachers video themselves giving the introduction, sermon, and blessing and, at least once a month, presiding at Communion.  These videos are placed into a PowerPoint file along with audio recordings of the prayers.  The words of the hymns and recordings of them are also placed into the file too.  We provide an Order of Service too.  Some churches want to change the hymns, or strip the sound file out so they can be played locally.  Others want to just use the videos and use the script we provide to lead the prayers and readings locally.  All this is possible with this resource.  Sign up here if you’d like to access those materials and drop me a line so I can send you the current set of PowerPoint material for pulpit supply along with the audio and print versions to distribute locally to those who can’t get to church and don’t have access to the Internet.

We are building up a bank of prayers that can be useful as people craft worship or wish to use in their own prayer life.  We’ve arranged the material by season on the website – click on the Your Faith tab, then Prayer and Worship, then Prayers for Church Seasons or click here.  
This resource is being expanded all the time and is another way in which the church is hoping to equip leaders of worship.  

Finally, each week we provide sample prayers of intercession.  Worship leaders for the Daily Devotion services prepare their material months in advance and so we like to also offer intercessions which reference the readings but also draw in current events.  This week’s prayers have been written by the Revd John Grundy and can be downloaded from a link just above the April Worship Notes on the webpage above.

I hope you find them useful – do let us know your thoughts on these resources as you use them.

with every good wish

Andy

The Rev’d Andy Braunston
Minister for Digital Worship
 

 
Today’s service is led by the Revd Adam Payne

 
Welcome & Call to Worship

My name is Adam Payne. I am the minister at Godalming United Church in Godalming, Surrey. I’m honored to have been asked to participate in worship and so I welcome you to this service, no matter where you are joining us from.  Let’s begin with a call to worship.

The Lord is our shepherd, the Good Shepherd who loves his sheep. We will love one another, as Christ loves us. Love, not merely in thought and word, but in truth and action. Open your hearts to goodness and mercy today.   Come today and praise the God of love. May God bless our service today. Amen. 

Hymn     Awake, My Soul, and with the Sun 
Thomas Ken (1637 – 1711) Public Domain sung by The N Crew and used with their kind permission.

Awake, my soul, and with the sun
thy daily stage of duty run;
shake off dull sloth, and joyful rise
to pay thy morning sacrifice.

Wake, and lift up thyself, my heart,
and with the angels bear thy part,
who all night long unwearied sing
high praise to the Eternal King.

All praise to Thee, who safe hast kept,
and hast refreshed me while I slept:
grant, Lord, when I from death shall wake,
I may of endless life partake.

Direct, control, suggest, this day,
all I design, or do, or say;
that all my powers, with all their might,
in Thy sole glory may unite.
 
Prayer of Approach and Confession 

Good Shepherd, 
help us to boldly proclaim your love, 
lighting the way of your truth for all to see. 
As we walk through green pastures, 
beside still waters, 
and even through the darkest valleys, 
help us to go forth confidently. 
For you are greater than our fears 
and you know how to bring us peace. 

As the world we live in seems to be a more fearful place every day,
help us to remember that you ARE with us. 
Goodness and mercy may seem so elusive, 
but we know that you have promised we will find
them in your house, if no where else. 

Lord, we confess to you that there are times where we have 
seen enemies in the faces of our neighbours…
the other….the refugee…the poor…and the oppressed…
As you have prepared out tables, Lord, 
help us to turn enemies into friends.
Help us to desire a longer table, where more can be welcomed in your name. Amen. 

Hymn     In Heavenly Love Abiding
Anna Letitia Waring (1850) Public Domain Sung by Gareth Moore from the Isle of Man Methodist Church and used with his kind permission.

In heavenly love abiding,
no change my heart shall fear;
and safe is such confiding,
for nothing changes here:
the storm may roar without me,
my heart may low be laid;
but God is round about me,
and can I be dismayed?

Wherever he may guide me,
no want shall turn me back;
my Shepherd is beside me,
and nothing can I lack:
his wisdom ever waketh,
his sight is never dim,
he knows the way he taketh,
and I will walk with him.
 
Green pastures are before me,
which yet I have not seen;
bright skies will soon be o’er me,
where darkest clouds have been;
my hope I cannot measure,
my path to life is free;
my Saviour has my treasure,
and he will walk with me.

Offering Prayer 

Giving and loving God, 
as the Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep, 
may we, too, strive to serve our neighbours. 
Whether next door, across town, or around the world, 
may God bless our prayers, our gifts, and our ministries. 
In Christ’s name, we present these gifts. Amen.

Reading     St John 10:11-18

‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.  The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,  just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.  I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.  For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one take  it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.’

Sermon     The Other Sheep

We find this morning’s scripture in the midst of Jesus’s I Am statements,  a group of statements that Jesus used to convey deep truths about himself in a very simple way.  I am the bread of life, he said.  I am the light of the world.  I am the door.  And this morning,  I am the Good Shepherd.  In this statement, he’s using language that would have been very familiar to the people of Israel.

That of shepherding.  This was an integral part of Israel’s economy. Even to those who were not shepherds themselves, this was something that would have resonated with them. Something that they would have known the truth of deep in their bones, so to speak.  And he begins by talking about how the Good Shepherd will lay down his life for his sheep. 

Now, I’m sure that there are a great many Good Shepherds throughout history that would dispute that fact.  But Jesus is here showing that he goes beyond even the most radical expectations.  Unlike the hired hand,  unlike the false prophet,  Jesus is willing to lay down his life for each and every one of us,  something that he would go on to prove  on Good Friday. 

Now the verse that I really want to focus in on here this morning is verse 16, the one that I really think is most relevant for us today.  Jesus said, but I have other sheep which are not of this fold.  These two I must bring in, and they will hear my voice, and they will become one flock, and there will be one shepherd. 

I think that one of the hardest lessons that we have to unlearn is exclusiveness. For some reason, human beings like to divide ourselves.  You’ve all heard the saying there are two kinds of people in the world.  How often have you heard that expression? If you’ve heard it as much as me, then must already be thousands of types of people  just based on those words. 
I was thinking about this expression this week and I ran across a blog post of a writer that collected examples about it.  And one of his favorites was he wrote about his father going to Rome and expressing concern to the taxi driver about the rather harrowing ride through the city streets,  to which the driver replied, there are two kinds of people in Rome,  the quick and the dead. 

Further Googling leads to hundreds of examples of this saying, and most of the top hits were quizzes that claim to be able to tell you about your personality based on whether or not you ate the crust of your pizza, or you preferred Coke to Pepsi.  And all of this reductionism to one type or another, all of this disregards and ignores the multitude and complexity of human likes. 

dislikes  and behavior.  And yet, for some reason, we like to decide who is most like us, who is least like us, and then find some reason to exclude those  that are least.  This is a trap Jesus’s day had fallen into. They were God’s chosen people. They were the ones God had spoken to and chose to save.  Anyone outside of the people of Abraham were Gentiles. 

A word that means outsiders.  They thought they were God’s chosen people because they were special.  But in fact, they were only special because they were God’s chosen people.  They wanted to exclude anyone from outside. Their sheep fold.  Anyone who was not like them,  but Jesus is saying that there will come a day when all will know him as their shepherd. 

There were premonitions of this even throughout the Old Testament and the days of the prophets.  Isaiah had had that same dream, and it was his conviction that God had given Isaiah to be a light to the nations.  The gospel stories of Jesus himself echo this. At the very beginning of Jesus’s story, we’re told of wise men that come from another nation to worship him. 
He himself taught in Samaria, the region that was detested by the Jewish people of Jerusalem.  It was the faith of a Roman centurion whom Jesus praised, saying that he had seen nothing like it in Israel. 

Jesus is using the imagery of sheep here, especially that of sheep pens,  sheep coming from different households, different places. But once they were all taken through the pens and into the meadow,  Jesus wanted them to become one giant flock,  indistinguishable from each other,  all being led by one shepherd. 

And yet here we are. 2, 000 years after Jesus.  And we have people, even churches, continuing to draw lines between who is in  and who is out.  Sometimes, those lines are deliberate and obvious, such as when they include and exclude peoples of different sexualities.  Sometimes they are less obvious, such as when a church makes it where only those of a certain class or certain income level feel comfortable in the church. 

Back in my home country of America, Martin Luther King Jr. once wrote, The most segregated hour is 11 o’clock on a Sunday morning.  And unfortunately, that’s true here nearly 60 years later.  Even to some degree here in the UK,  along racial lines,  as well as others. 

Now, some of you may be getting a little uncomfortable about now. Where’s he going with this? You’re thinking.  Our church doesn’t do that. Our church welcomes everyone.  Maybe that’s true.  In fact, I hope it’s true.  Of the myriad of United Reformed churches taking part in the service this morning,  I would think that the vast majority of them are warm and welcoming places. 

But  can we do better?  And I think the answer  is always yes.  Yes, we can do better.  We have to examine ourselves, see our church from an outsider’s perspective, and ask the question, unintentionally, who are we excluding?  With either our words  or our actions.  How do we let people know that they are welcome?  No matter who they are, no matter where they come from, no matter what language they speak. 

the skin color they have, whom they love, how they dress, how much money they make, or, I think this is a big one in society today,  how church literate they are.  Attending church for the first time can be a truly daunting experience. There is a language about church that’s foreign to many people today.  A way of, of acting and behaving that’s vastly different than anything we see in any other organization. 

And we have to acknowledge that, frankly,  that can scare people off.  So how do we make sure that we are not just welcoming,  but invitational to those people?  Unfortunately, every church listening will have to find their own answer to that question.  But I think it’s a question that we must ask,  because despite the decline of Christianity in the global West, people are still looking for answers. 

People are still seeking something bigger than themselves.  I don’t know if we’re seeing a religious resurgence, at least not yet, but I do think that we’re seeing a bit of a spiritual resurgence. A recent issue of Reform magazine included a blurb about prayer becoming more popular among young Westerners than among their parents. 

A recent poll by Ipsos Mori found that of 20, 000 people in 26 countries, religion was less popular in the West than elsewhere. This is not surprising, you’ve heard this. For example, 48 percent of people in the UK said they have no religion. Compared to just 1% of people in India,  in South Africa, 78% said that they had prayed in places like their home, but only 25% of people in the UK said that they prayed.

However,  there was a bit of light at the end of the TU tunnel in this study.  The same study found that in the Western countries, teens and early twenties. are more spiritually engaged than the over 60s.  In the UK, this group was 15 percentage points more likely to pray at home.  And 22 percent, 22 percentage points more likely to pray in church. 

The sheep are still out there.  And currently, they are looking for us.  Now, not in the same way as generations past.  The days of opening the church doors and people just streaming in,  those days are gone.  But people are still looking,  and God is still looking for them.  It’s up to us  to be the shepherds in between. 

Welcoming people from all over. into God’s sheepfold  and making them feel that when they come into our churches,  that they have truly come home.

Hymn     Christ, Who Knows All His Sheep
Richard Baxter (1615-91) Public Domain Sung by the Treble Choir of St Paul’s United Methodist Church, Houston, Texas

Christ, who knows all his sheep, will all in safety keep:
he will not lose one soul, nor ever fail us:
nor we the promised goal, whate’er assail us.

We know our God is just; to him we wholly trust
all that we have and claim, and all we hope for:
all’s sure and seen to him, which here we grope for.
 
O blessèd company, where all in harmony
God’s joyous praises sing, in love unceasing;
and all obey their King, with perfect pleasing.

Prayer of Intercession 

God of the Resurrection, we thank you for the time that we have to worship and praise together this day. We praise you for the continuing gift of Easter, for the Spring that brings longer days and beautiful flowers. We pray for that same new life and vitality within our churches, Lord, that we may be energised to do your work. 

Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

As you have been our shepherd, we pray for the shepherds within our own churches. Those that keep watch, guarding your flocks. Those willing to go out and search for sheep in need. Bless all those willing to tell others about You.  

Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. 

We pray for those walking daily on your path. On the days that the paths are straight, and the sun is shining, it’s easy to follow you.  On other days, when we’re walking in a dark valley, it’s more difficult. It’s during those times when we need you the most. 

We pray especially for the sick, the elderly and bereaved: that the Good Shepherd may give them courage and lead them beside the restful waters of healing and peace.

Lord, in your mercy. Hear our prayer.

Bless us now as we join with that cloud of witnesses throughout the ages, as we pray the prayer Jesus taught us…

Our Father…

Hymn     In Christ There Is No East or West
Text based on Galatians 3:28 John Oxenham, 1852-1941. Public Domain Music: spiritual, adapted by Harry T. Burleigh, 1866-1949 Sung by Chris Brunelle and used with his kind permission.

In Christ there is no east or west, 
in him no south or north; 
but one great fam’ly bound by faith 
throughout the whole wide earth

In him shall true hearts everywhere 
their high communion find; 
His service is the golden cord 
closebinding humankind

Join hands, disciples in the faith 
what e’er your race may be! 
Who serve each other in Christ’s love
are surely kin to me

In Christ now meet both east and west, 
in him mees south and north; 
all Christly souls are one in him, 
throughout the whole wide earth
 
Benediction 

May you show the love of God in all you do.
Following the Good Shepherd, 
welcome others with kindness, love, and humility. 
Bring comfort to all, 
making friends and not enemies,
wherever you go. 
And all of God’s people said…Amen. 

Saturday 20th April

 

Reading 2 Timothy 4:1-5

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you:  proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favourable or unfavourable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.

Reflection

Paul is drawing towards the end of his life and is imprisoned yet rather than become despondent or feel sorry for himself he remains fully motivated to see more and more people hear Jesus’ message. During his life and evangelistic ministry Paul has mostly worked with other people; collaboration remains important in our day. Indeed, when some looked to use him to justify their groups or disunity, he responded by writing in 1 Corinthians 1:13 ‘Is Christ divided?’

As my ministry has moved into its later years, I have become ever more convinced of how important it is to invest time in mentoring others. Sadly, I need to confess that at a moment when I felt especially led to do that, I allowed other stuff and expectations by others in the church to squeeze it out of my agenda – to my regret. Paul, however, had worked alongside and mentored Timothy, being constantly concerned that he be equipped and strengthened to carry on ministry and his own calling.

I was recently reminded that, at the beginning of this century, I had the privilege of co-authoring a report ‘Growing up to the role and recognition of Evangelists in the URC’, during my time on the URC Life and Witness Committee. It is fascinating to read this now in the context of our current reviews of church life review and special category ministry, and as we look to pioneering and creating new Christian communities:  “We need to recognize the importance of giftedness: being an evangelist is not simply the exercise of a personal interest or enthusiasm, but a response to the calling and equipping of the Holy Spirit.”

Our verses today remind us about the core values of an evangelistic ministry; proclamation, resilience, patience, and sharing the faith ‘in season and out of season.’ Finally let us remember that the vocation of all Christians to witness to God’s grace and power in the gospel is not diminished by the calling of evangelists.

Prayer

God who gives good gifts
may your Holy Spirit rekindle 
your gifts that are within me and your Church.
Thank you for those you have called as Evangelists. 
may you continue to raise up and equip 
people of faith, integrity, and accountability, 
to pioneer and reach out with your love and good news 
in favourable or unfavourable times.
May we know your wisdom and discernment
about how we communicate.  Amen

Reading 1 Corinthians 1:18-21

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe.

Reflection

On the surface this text is challenging us with the idea that the Cross can seem to some as foolishness. Maybe this is our lived experience quite a bit of the time. Christians may not always agree on what was going on when Jesus died for us but it remains central to our faith.  Proclamation with integrity and humility is a significant part of evangelism.

For many people that we seek to share faith with there can be an intellectual barrier in what can be seen as credible. There can also be an experiential barrier, where the Church has genuinely let people down, abused them in some way, or just not connected with them.

The writer C.S. Lewis has had a big impact on my life and helped me to see how fiction, narrative, and imagination can also play a significant part in how people can come to faith. Lewis wrote “I thought I saw how stories of this kind could steal past a certain inhibition which had paralyzed much of my own religion in childhood. Why did one find it so hard to feel as one was told one ought to feel about God or the sufferings of Christ? I thought the chief reason was that one was told one ought to. An obligation to feel can freeze feelings…. But supposing that by casting all these things into an imaginary world, stripping them of their stained-glass and Sunday School associations, one could make them for the first time appear in their real potency? Could one not thus steal past those watchful dragons? I thought one could.”

Perhaps today you can take a moment to think of a book, song, musical, painting, film, play, or poem that connects with what it means to be human and what it might mean to see and encounter God at work in Christ. I’d like to suggest that as we increasingly have our imaginations baptized this will overflow into our conversations with others.

Prayer

Creator and creative God, 
God of our experience, imagination and beyond, 
help us find natural ways to steal past watchful dragons. 
I thank you that your encounter with the world
is so rich with imagery, metaphor, wonder, mystery, and beauty. 
Help me to resonate with this in my conversations 
and point to you as you are 
and not as we have found ourselves confining you. 
I hear and receive the words ‘Courage dear heart’
Amen

Reading 1 Peter 3:13-16 

Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good?  But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving.  At the same time pray for us as well that God will open to us a door for the word, that we may declare the mystery of Christ, for which I am in prison,  so that I may reveal it clearly, as I should.  Conduct yourselves wisely towards outsiders, making the most of the time.  Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone.

Reflection

Which subjects are you most comfortable speaking about? Your sports team, politics, family, or TV, current affairs or your specialist subject which you may suspect might bore other people?  Maybe you find it easy to talk about faith?  Most of us don’t. There is a middle ground when we get the opportunity to talk about church, its activities or festivals.  These can be great conversations, but I find that sometimes they get stuck and don’t always go deeper.

I was so pleased to hear about the focus our URC Mersey Synod is giving to ‘Talking Faith’ and encouraging people to verbally express the difference faith makes to our lives and to those around us (https://www.urcmerseysynod.org.uk/talking-faith)

Sometimes we can’t say it all,  get it all correct, or answer every question but  it can be enough to signpost or provoke curiosity.  Let me, share a piece that I recently wrote inspired by the mystery, curiosity, and journey involved in a life of following Jesus: 

In John 10 verse 9 Jesus said ‘I am the door’

Maybe the old ones are the best, let’s see..
When is a door not a door?
They used to say, probably though people not today
When is a door not a door?
When it’s ajar,
Brackets pause here for childish chuckle or grown-up groan.
Is it open wide to see inside like the red sea divide?
Or the wood firmly in the hole as in the hallowed Holman Hunt?
but….. and it’s a big buttery bang of a but …
Less could be more in this open shut story
Cos cracks cause constant curiosity
Sounds like Toyah’s it’s a mystery
Sneak a peak, prod and creak – gap grows greater
Not all at once but like an incubator
In this drama the opening act is the act of opening, the act of beholding, belonging and beyonding
So consider this after words have been spoken
Is a door a door if it’s already open?

(https://vimeo.com/827367709)

Prayer

God in whom we encounter the Living Word,
I know you are present in my conversations, 
in the seemingly important and the trivial. 
Help me to be curious about you, 
other people and the world 
and to express that in simple words 
that germinate in the lives of people around me. 
Help me to listen as well as speak 
and may your good news 
flavour who I am and what I say.
Amen

Dear Friends,

Worship is at the heart of our life as God’s people.  Whatever else we do, worship is at the core as it is through meeting God – in the hymns and the music, the movement and the silence, the Word and the words, in friend and stranger as well as in the bread and wine – that we are fed and sustained.  This encounter with God lifts our spirits and gives our lives direction, our prayers focus and our faith a grounding in the everyday realities of life.  

My role was created to help churches find resources to aid their worship.  Our Worship Notes this week were written by the Revd Adam Payne who focuses on Good Shepherd Sunday.  

The Revd Camilla Veitch continues this theme in the weekly intercessions which can be found just above the Worship Notes on the webpage above.  

With every good wish

Andy

The Revd Andy Braunston
Minister for Digital Worship
 

Matthew 16:24-26 

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

Reflection

It was in the summer of 1980 at sixteen years of age that I found myself sitting in a big top tent on a playing field in Bournemouth listening to a band and a preacher. I went on my own having read a publicity leaflet (no internet then of course), feeling strangely drawn is the only way I can describe it over forty years later.

I listened intently to the words of their song “when you come to the place of absolute surrender….” and I was in that place at that moment when the preacher issued a simple invitation to follow Jesus. And so, as I took that step of faith, I was powerfully conscious of the love and grace of God, present and active and the journey of discipleship for me began. For me this encounter with the living God was also accompanied by healing of a significant medical condition that I had been suffering from.

I am so very thankful for God’s mercy, acceptance and new life that has been at work in my life ever since even when I mess up, go off course, doubt, and fear. I am also so thankful that there were some people willing and able to share the good news of Jesus Christ with me.

At the beginning of this two-week Daily Devotions series, we begin with my very brief testimony because I feel that it is a reminder that we are not thinking about making a lifestyle choice to belong to some kind of religious club or philosophy. God who is made known perfectly in Jesus Christ is a God who calls and goes on calling people and this is of utmost importance.

Perhaps today we might be encouraged to call to mind God’s call upon our lives and the way God has encountered us and drawn us into being Christ-followers, whether that be over time or, like me, suddenly and somewhat unexpectedly.
 
Prayer

Living and Loving God,
I praise you today for You have the words of eternal life. 
Help me to ponder ever more regularly and deeply 
your love and grace in Jesus Christ 
that has changed the world and encountered me.
I want to call these things to mind today 
and find the words to describe and declare them. 
When memories fade and passion cools 
please do a new thing, I pray.
Amen    

 

Evangelism

Dear Friends,

I know from my email inbox that many of you have been profoundly moved by the reflections on artists’ depictions of Jesus over the last 10 days or so.  I’m grateful to the writers, the artists who let us use their material and the licensing agency who charged a small fee to show some of the others.  I hope that we can come back to art again in the Devotions next year.

For the next two weeks we are going to be looking at evangelism in our daily readings and reflections.  As a denomination we can get passionate about social justice, international development,  and speaking out to those in power but rather terrified when it comes to sharing our faith.  Our reticence is partly because we’re unsure of what to say without being offensive, partly because our culture relegates faith to the private sphere – even as matters of faith become big talking points in society – and partly because we’re not really sure what to say.  Over the next two weeks Eddie Boon, a URC minister serving as the Discipleship Enabler in Thames North Synod, will help us explore how we might make more sense of evangelism in our own lives. 

With every good wish

Andy

The Rev’d Andy Braunston
Minister for Digital Worship