2 Timothy 1: 3 – 7

I am grateful to God—whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did—when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy.  I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands;  for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.

Reflection

What would it feel like to receive a letter from your mentor affirming and challenging you in your faith and your living? Here was Timothy, a young man, in receipt of such a letter from Paul. Paul, the man responsible for ensuring the faith was known throughout the world. ‘Worshipped’ and revered in many places, ready to endure long spells in prison because of his faith but taking the time to write a personal letter. 

The letter paints a picture of a close and long standing friendship, with mutual respect and trust. It also affirms the depth of faith which the older man had observed in his younger protégé. Faith which had been nurtured by Timothy’s mother and grandmother so not a temporary phase of life but a solid foundation from which to go forward with the tasks which Paul has lined up for Timothy.

Might we imagine Timothy reading the letter for the umpteenth time and realisation dawning as to the magnitude of what this means for him and his life. But challenging as that realisation may be there are words which remind Timothy that nothing he will be called to do is beyond God, and the gift of God is already within him.

At the beginning of this new year the landscape does not look particularly hopeful but God’s Spirit is within us, there, just waiting to be rekindled. Remembering how we all need affirmation, look around you and see who you can write to, affirming them in their ministry and thanking them for showing the presence of God’s Spirit to you.

Prayer

Look around you and give thanks for God’s Spirit working in the world
Renewing God,
open our hearts and awaken your Spirit within us.
Loving God, when we are weary – love us.
Self disciplined Christ when we doubt our ability – give us your self discipline.
Powerful Spirit, when we falter – give us your power.
May we go into the world with a faith re-ignited and ready to reveal you to those around us. Amen

Letterhead

Dear Friends,

As the Christmas season draws to a close and we think about taking down the decorations many Churches will observe Epiphany, which falls on Saturday, in worship on Sunday.  With that in mind I prepared the Worship Notes for Sunday and will be using them in a local parish church here in Orkney. 

I suggest an all age activity using frankincense and myrrh (you’ll need to prepare in advance), a Call to Worship based on the hymn Hail to the Lord’s Anointed (which needs the verse about kings falling down before Jesus which isn’t in every hymnal), a short sample sermon, an Affirmation of Faith, sample intercessions and a blessing based on some work by Howard Thurman as well as a range of hymns to chose from.  I hope you find them useful.

Just above the Worship Notes are some intercessions written this week by the Revd Helen Everard designed to be used when a congregation is marking Epiphany and reflecting on some of the news stories this week.  Again I hope these are useful.

With every good wish

Andy

The Rev’d Andy Braunston
Minister for Digital Worship
 

Psalm 51: 6 – 14

You desire truth in the inward being;
    therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
    wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
    let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins,
    and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and put a new and right spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence,
    and do not take your holy spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    and sustain in me a willing spirit.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
    and sinners will return to you.
Deliver me from bloodshed, O God,
    O God of my salvation,
    and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.

Reflection

The fifty-first Psalm is one of the Bible’s greatest moments of repentance. The ascription sets it as David’s heart-searching when his adultery with Bathsheba and conspiracy to have her husband killed are called out by the prophet Nathan. Not so many of us are going to reach quite that desolation! But these ancient words continue to invite us to a very current conversation within ourselves and with others and, crucially, with God. We are being reminded that our lives are woven from all sorts of choices, experiences and encounters. Some stuff just happens to us. But there are plenty of times when our actions, decisions, assumptions, biases (unconscious or otherwise), and more place us firmly in the driving seat. Sometimes, maybe more often than we dare notice, we get stuff wrong. What then?

The Psalmist offers a beautifully evocative set of possibilities. God knows us. We cannot and need not hide our brokenness. Instead, we are being drawn into the difficult but ultimately life-giving journey of repentance and confession. God responds to us the more we open our true selves to God’s gaze. My willingness to come clean ushers in God’s transformation within me. The language is intimate. It is a journey inwards to my “secret heart” that God and I take together as I confess. The outcome is transformation; my renewal, God’s restoration of salvation’s joy in me. These gifts of mercy and love are offered to us all. They are such glorious gifts that they beg to be shared. The psalm moves from the profoundly private to the powerfully public, from my heart to my sharing with everyone the truth of repentance and forgiveness.

We end in the songs of worship. It is a good place to have reached. Confession is my own journey but it is also a shared pilgrimage of possibility in the community of faith. Little wonder, when Christ teaches us the Lord’s Prayer, that it is our sins we confess and not only mine. 

Prayer

Help me to trust in your forgiveness, Lord.
Help me to confess what I need to confess today.
Let me taste again the depth of your love
as I let you in to the truths within me that I regret,
the truths I hide,
the shame I carry,
my longing to be forgiven.
Let me never treat your forgiveness lightly.
Let me live for others in ways that shine with the marvel of your mercy.  Amen

Romans 12: 1 – 2

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.

Reflection

As a girl guide Thinking Day was an important event.  You got to wear your Scout / Guide uniform to school and there were often celebrations, jamborees, and much renewing of promises.  Now called World Thinking Day it is celebrated each February 22nd by scout and guide organisations around the world.  This was the joint birthday of Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout movement, and Lady Olave Baden-Powell, his wife and the world Chief Guide. In 1926, this day was inaugurated so that guides and scouts around the world could think of their sisters and brothers in the movement with thanks and appreciation. Nowadays, it also focuses on a theme related to service and action. 

In our lives as Christians, we rightly focus on living out the faith we hold in loving our neighbour as we love ourselves, in serving, seeking out the lost, doing and being whatever we can within the love of God. Not often are we encouraged to think for God, although Charles Wesley ‘got it’ in his 1762 hymn (see below).  Paul urged the Romans to give their whole selves to God, body, spirit and mind.  This includes being open to having our minds transformed by the presence of God in our lives, and by living in community with other seekers of truth.

Thinking has often been undervalued as a force for change but without the thinkers in our religious traditions, we would still be stuck in the dark ages. Thinking for God demands both courage and integrity and also the gift of discernment as to what is of, and not of, God.  Tricky stuff in an age of so much information and opinions.  Olave Baden-Powell urged guides to think in order to “keep the spirits high and the ideals bright” but she was clearly not short on action and service too.  

May our minds be transformed by all that is good and perfect and acceptable to God and may every day be a thinking day.

Prayer

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 the gift in me.
Charles Wesley (1762) 
https://youtu.be/IJ6pmSEzJ5A?si=D5xBPuXMBSqg2We2
Or if you prefer it
https://youtu.be/j1j_yNojsL0?si=bmUlO8yD6W8kawWD

Monday, 1 January 2024 
If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation
 

Happy New Year

Dear Friends,

I hope that the reflections on the Christmas story over the last couple of weeks, and the O Antiphons before that were helpful as we celebrated Christmas.   Now, hovering on the edge of a New Year we have our hopes and fears for the year ahead to ponder. 

Elections in America, Russia, Taiwan and, probably, the UK all look set to dominate news stories.  In some places democracy itself is under threat, in others it’s long gone; last week two poets were sentenced in Russia to lengthy prison terms for simply reading out protest poetry.  Mr Trump promises to exact revenge on his detractors if he’s re-elected, the Chinese are more than interested in the result of the Taiwanese elections and here in the UK the election looks set to feature debates about our duties under the Refugee Convention.  We hope and pray for some sort of just resolution of the war in Gaza but are tempted to despair that our leaders will ever hear the angels’ song of peace.  We’ll need a lot of prayer and patience to navigate 2024 together.

Tomorrow we start a short Daily Devotion series reflecting on the New Year with some themes about hope and renewal.  After that we’ll read through St Mark’s Gospel together which will take us to just after Easter.  Then we have a short series looking at how Jesus has been depicted in art, a couple of weeks on Evangelism with Eddie Boon, five weeks looking at how Congregationalist Minister, Graham Adams (who teaches at Northern College) has reworked the Five Marks of Mission, and then we will spend a couple of weeks looking at and praying for the situation of the Presbyterian Church of Myanmar.  Later on in the Summer John Proctor will lead us through Hebrews.  As ever we continue our way through the Psalter on Sundays.

In what might be a challenging year I hope that as we read, pray, reflect and discern together we become more faithful disciples, more equipped to proclaim good news to a hurting world.

With every good wish for the year ahead

Andy

The Rev’d Andy Braunston
Minister for Digital Worship
 

Philippians 2: 4 – 11
Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.  Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

who, though he was in the form of God,
    did not regard equality with God
    as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
    taking the form of a slave,
    being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
    he humbled himself
    and became obedient to the point of death—
    even death on a cross.

Therefore God also highly exalted him
    and gave him the name
    that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
    every knee should bend,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
    that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

Reflection
Whether you are thinking of making some specific New Year resolutions, or focusing on more general priorities or approaches for the coming year, this passage may provide guidance: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”

What was in Jesus’ mind?  The point Paul is making, when he introduces those rhythmic phrases that look like an early ode about Jesus, is this: “Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.”  So, that gives a direction in which to set priorities and resolutions.

This song or poem celebrates Jesus born in human likeness, and the generous approach he took to human life.  He did not seek to wield dominant power, but poured out self-giving love.  And this action by the grace of God had people of the whole world in its sights: every knee should bend and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  Can our resolutions and priorities benefit people of other cultures, communities and countries in their relationships with God, and help us all to live responsibly in God’s world?

This passage may also give guidance for church meetings.  “Let the same mind be in you” – you plural – and the letter was written to all “in Christ Jesus in Philippi with the bishops/overseers and deacons/helpers” (Phil 1:1).  So, in church meetings about church life and wider responsibilities: listening to each other’s interests, insights and experiences of God’s work, strive to come to one mind.  And this would involve not seeking to wield dominant power, but pouring out self-giving love, with concern for people not only of our own cultural group, community or country, but for all to flourish in Christ’s life to the glory of God.

Prayer
(Some words, but not all, from hymns by KB Wilkinson, and AC Ainger, Rejoice and Sing’s version)

May the mind of Christ, my Saviour,
live in me from day to day,
by his love and power controlling
all I do and say.
What can we do to work God’s work,
to prosper and increase love and justice throughout the world,
the reign of the Prince of Peace? 
What can we do to hasten the time,
when the earth shall be filled with the glory of God?

St Matthew 2: 19 – 23
When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said,  ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.’  Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel.  But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee.  There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, ‘He will be called a Nazorean.’

Reflection
Andrew Roberts in his book Holy Habits begins by looking at the first Jesus’ call to discipleship of the first disciples.  As I read this passage there were two things that struck me in connection to making disciples and Joseph.

Firstly, in the Gospels call narratives, the first disciples’ obedience is really striking.  They must have heard murmurs about Jesus’ radical teaching; nevertheless they leave their nets and follow Jesus, to a life they know nothing about, to sacrifices they know nothing of, but also to a kingdom greatness they know nothing of. 

Joseph here does the same thing. He is now the earthly father to God incarnate; he knows little about what his future holds, of the sacrifices he will have to make, of the kingdom greatness that he is contributing to, yet he still obediently follows God’s command to return to dangerous Israel.

Second, keeping with the call of the disciples, Philip famously says in John 1:46 “can anything good come out of Nazareth” or in The Message translation, “Nazareth? You’ve got to be kidding” and here we have Joseph and the family going to settle in Nazareth. Clearly, something good can come out of Nazareth, because over 2000 years later, we are still talking about and know where Nazareth is – perhaps for different reasons than where Jesus lived!

Obedience is something we are called to as Christ-followers, not something that is easy, but when we obey God’s command to follow him as disciples, we are generally agreeing to a life we know nothing about, to sacrifices we know nothing of, but also to a kingdom greatness we know nothing of. And yet, we have obeyed and still continue to do, because we have been called to the greatest adventure of our lives in following someone from an obscure town, who has inextricably changed not only our lives but the world.

Prayer
We pray in the words of Walter Brueggemann (in Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann, (Augsburg Fortress, 2003, p. 90).

You are the God who makes extravagant promises. 
We relish your great promises of fidelity and presence and solidarity, and we exude in them. 
Only to find out, always too late, that your promise always comes in the midst of a hard, deep call to obedience.

You are the God who calls people like us, 
and the long list of mothers and fathers before us, 
who trusted the promise enough to keep the call.

So, we give you thanks that you are a calling God, who calls always to dangerous new places. 
We pray enough of your grace and mercy among us that we may be among those who believe your promises enough to respond to your call. 
We pray in the one who embodied your promise and enacted your call, even Jesus. Amen.

St Matthew 2: 1 – 12

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem,  asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising,  and have come to pay him homage.’  When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.  They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:

“And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
    who is to shepherd my people Israel.”’

Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared.  Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.’  When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.  On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure-chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

Reflection

Such a disturbing episode in the “Christmas Story” reaches its terrible conclusion tomorrow on Holy Innocents Day.

It is so familiar that we can readily glide through it without fully coming to terms with it. We are so used to learning about devious and cruel tyrants in our own time, and the early readers of this Gospel lived under Roman Emperors all too similar to Herod the Great, that we become inured to the horror, so what is there to say?

Surely, we should like to know more about these magi, astrologers: taking the account at face value the “star” may have been a conjunction of planets before Herod’s death in 4 BC, aged about 68. We do not know where the visitors came from – “the East” is hardly specific; we do not know how many of them there were – leaving three gifts proves nothing – my generous daughter-in-law readily gives more than one item to nephews and nieces! What was their motivation – may we assume that they expected some reward for their effort? They came equipped with frankincense and myrrh, so useful in creating a mystic atmosphere and sense of mystery – as well as gold, a useful currency, perhaps gained from their trade.

Yet the story tells us that they were sensitive to being led by a greater power than that of the tyrant; on reaching their goal they worshipped, left behind the gold, frankincense and myrrh – tools of their trade? – and left by another route.

For me this last point is so significant. Their encounter with the holy family changed them, they took another route; when they returned to their own country, changed people, how would they be received and what tales would they relate?

Our encounter with the holy family should change us; should we not have a story to tell about the way our encounter with Jesus has changed us? 

Prayer

Almighty God who led strangers to experience an encounter with the infant Jesus, and whose signs and words lead people of every age to him; we thank you for revealing Jesus Christ to us as Lord and Saviour, and guide us to share this revelation with others. Amen