Today’s service is led by the Revd Nicola Furley-Smith
Who’s agenda?
Welcome & Call to Worship
Good morning and welcome to this morning’s service, which comes to you from Purley United Reformed Church. My name is Nicola Furley Smith and I am the Secretary for Ministries. The Psalmist says: “How clearly the sky reveals God’s glory! How plainly it shows what he has done! Each day announces it to the following day; each night repeats it to the next. No speech or words are used, no sound is heard; yet their message goes out to all the world and is heard to the ends of the earth.”
Hymn O Sing a Song of Bethlehem
Louis F Benson 1889 Public Domain Sung by members of the Highland Baptist Church, Kitchener, Calfornia
O sing a song of Bethlehem, of shepherds watching there,
and of the news that came to them from angels in the air:
the light that shone on Bethlehem fills all the world today;
of Jesus’ birth and peace on earth the angels sing alway.
O sing a song of Nazareth, of sunny days of joy,
O sing of fragrant flowers’ breath, and of the sinless boy:
for now the flow’rs of Nazareth in ev’ry heart may grow;
now spreads the fame of his dear name on all the winds that blow.
O sing a song of Galilee, of lake and woods and hill,
of him who walked upon the sea and bade the waves be still:
for though, like waves on Galilee, dark seas of trouble roll,
when faith has heard the Master’s word, falls peace upon the soul.
O sing a song of Calvary, its glory and dismay;
of him who hung upon the tree, and took our sins away:
for he who died on Calvary is risen from the grave,
and Christ, our Lord, by heav’n adored, is mighty now to save.
Prayer of Approach
May the words that we use in our worship be formed by God,
focused on Jesus and filled with the Spirit.
God the Father, we stand in awe of you,
the one who spoke and brought the world into being,
who shaped our bodies and breathed into us the gift of life.
Majestic, awesome and wonderful,
yet at the same time, tender, loving and kind,
God the Son, we stand in awe of you,
who became incarnate to live on this planet alongside us.
You showed us how life should be lived,
and paid the price in full on the cross.
God the Spirit, we stand in awe of you,
the one alongside the Father at creation;
you inspired and strengthened his Son on earth,
and came in your fullness to be our companion,
to lead and inspire your people today.
Creative God, by your word comes life.
Forgiving Son, by your word comes love.
Empowering Spirit, by your word comes liberation.
Speak your word to us now and our lives shall proclaim your glory. Amen.
A Prayer of Confession
God, you gave us the power to speak.
Words enable us to tell each other what is happening, how we are feeling, why we are behaving in the way we are.
Sometimes someone cannot speak the words,
or cannot communicate because the language is strange,
or is afraid to say what needs to be said.
There are times when I did not speak; I was distracted, I was silenced.
I was afraid of the consequences or even said words that meant nothing.
Forgive us when we did not speak as we ought.
And in the knowledge that you are indeed a forgiving God
let your word come alive in our words.
Let our words become Good News.
Let the Gospel be welcomed by all.
We pray in the name and spirit of Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer
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 debts as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
Prayer for Illumination
O Lord, your Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Give us grace to receive your truth in faith and love, and strength to follow on the path you set before us; may your kingdom come and your will be done. the name of Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Reading Nehemiah 8.1-3, 5-6. 8-10
All the people assembled with one accord in the broad space in front of the Water Gate, and requested Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had enjoined upon Israel. On the first day of the seventh month, Ezra the priest brought the law before the whole assembly, both men and women, and all who were capable of understanding what they heard. From early morning till noon he read aloud from it, facing the square in front of the Water Gate, in the presence of the men and the women, and those who could understand; the people all listened attentively to the book of the law. Then Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above them; and when he opened it, they all stood. Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people raised their hands and responded, `Amen, Amen’; then they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves before the Lord. They read from the book of the law of God clearly, made its sense plain, and gave instruction in what was read. Then Nehemiah the governor and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who instructed the people, said to them all, `This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep’; for the people had all been weeping while they listened to the words of the law.
‘Go now,’ he continued, `feast yourselves on rich food and sweet drinks, and send a share to all who cannot provide for themselves, for the day is holy to our Lord. Let there be no sadness, for joy in the Lord is your strength.’
Hymn Thy hand, O God, Has Guided
E. H. Plumptre (1864) BBC Songs of Praise
Thy hand, O God, has guided thy flock, from age to age;
the wondrous tale is written, full clear, on every page;
thine people owned thy goodness, and we their deeds record;
and both of this bear witness: one Church, one faith, one Lord.
Thy heralds brought glad tidings to greatest, as to least;
they bade them rise, and hasten to share the King’s great feast;
and this was all their teaching, in every deed and word,
to all alike proclaiming one Church, one faith, one Lord.
Thy mercy will not fail us, nor leave thy work undone;
with thy right hand to help us, the victory shall be won;
and then, by all creation, thy name shall be adored,
and this shall be their anthem: one Church, one faith, one Lord.
Reading Luke 4.14-21
Then Jesus, armed with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee; and reports about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues and everyone sang his praises. He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and went to the synagogue on the sabbath day as he regularly did. He stood up to read the lesson and was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the scroll and found the passage which says, `The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me; he has sent me to announce good news to the poor, to proclaim release for prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind; to let the broken victims go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’ He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him. He began to address them: `Today’, he said, `in your hearing this text has come true.
Sermon
Whose agenda is it? As someone who sits in meeting after meeting, I sometimes wonder, who sets what we should or should not do as the church? Who sets what we should be or not be as the whole people of God? General Assembly? Synod? Church Meeting? We are the people of the Word. We come from a long tradition where the Word is given supremacy. I am a minister of the Word and Sacraments. And yet we do not live in a word-driven society. We live in an image-driven society. So, what does that say about the church? When I was a child, sermons were often 30 – 45 minutes depending on the preacher. People can no longer sit for 45 minutes and listen to the Word.
In today’s story from the Gospel of Luke, Jesus goes to the opposite extreme and preaches what could be the shortest sermon in history. He goes to the synagogue in Nazareth where he had been brought up, he is given the Scroll of Isaiah by the synagogue officer, and he reads from Isaiah 61.
“The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring the Good News to the poor. He has sent me to announce release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind; to set at liberty those who have been oppressed; and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
Then he sits down. When a rabbi sat down, it didn’t mean they were finished. That’s the position from which they taught or preached. The Gospels contain several incidents where Jesus sat to teach the disciples. And Jesus sat down and said: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”. That’s it. That is a very short sermon.
Our Old Testament reading this morning shows us what happens when a community comes together to hear the written word proclaimed and interpreted. The reason that the people gather that year is twofold. First, they have just finished the city walls of Jerusalem a few days earlier and the new moon festival seemed like a great time to celebrate what is a massive accomplishment. Jerusalem is a walled, protected city once again, for the first time in generations! Secondly, they gather for the festival of trumpets on the first day of the month of Tishrei, our modern-day Rosh Hashanah. The people gathered, and they wanted to hear Ezra proclaim the law, but they did not know how it will affect them. So what happens? The people bless God. The people give voice to their certainty, their faith, and their trust. The people let the actions of their bodies match the words in their ears and on their lips, lifting their hands to God in petition because they recognise that God alone gives life. The people fall to the ground in profound humility, knowing that God alone can lift them up and help them to stand. When they hear the written word proclaimed and interpreted, people weep because they hear their sins spoken out loud and they know they are not innocent, but guilty. People weep because they do not know how to bridge the gulf that separates sinful humanity from the faithful God who made them. But as surely as the Torah reveals to us their sins, it also reveals to the, the source of their hope: the God who keeps promises.
Think of their context. Is it very different from our own? The people have recently returned to the Promised Land after spending five decades in Exile in Babylon. Here they are, gathered together in the square next to the Water Gate in Jerusalem, men, women, and children and there the Law of Moses is read to them and explained to them from early in the morning till mid-day for close to six hours! Not for 15 – 20 minutes but six hours. Yet that is not the reaction of the people to this incredibly long proclamation of God’s Word.
Far from it. In fact the people are completely wrapped up in it. They cry. They shout Amen. They raise their hands to heaven. They fall down on the ground and bow their heads low and pray. In short, they are completely involved with the word that they hear. For it touches them deeply. When was the last time I was moved by the Word of God! When was the last time it caused you or I to cry, or to fall upon our knees, or to lift up our hands in thanksgiving, or to say with enthusiasm and with joy – Amen! Amen!
Perhaps we have become too familiar with the scriptures or perhaps we are not familiar enough with them or perhaps we have simply lost our hunger our sense of our need for something more for something divine, for someone to help us make sense of it all. Perhaps a better understanding of Ezra’s time would help us with our context. There are two groups hearing Ezra: those who could understand and those who could not, but who were still listening attentively. Ezra had specially chosen assistants and Levites whose job it was to explain what he was reading to the people. These assistants read from the Law, translated it, and then interpreted it in the hearing of the people. Many men and women understood the law as it was read. But others needed to have it translated and then interpreted for them. Which is why they meet at the Water-gate and not the temple so that all may hear not just the select few.
For the people of Israel, the explanation of their reaction to Ezra’s reading of The Word is found in their lack of familiarity with it and in the awesome sense that they had when they heard it proclaimed for the first time in many years of just how much they had strayed from God’s path, and just how much goodness from God’s hands that they had missed for so many years. Of course, the people of Israel 2500 years ago believed in God. They believed in living a good life, but they didn’t really pay attention to what God wanted of them to what was said in the scriptures. They didn’t pay a lot of attention to what God wanted of them or to the promises that God made to them and how it was they could claim those promises for themselves and for their nation. They were a lot like us. Before the time of exile there was the business to look after, the relatives to entertain, a living to be sought and, of course, some time to relax. The Sabbath worship was enough for some, for the rest the annual trips to the temple during Passover or for Yom Kipper was enough. They were a lot like us with changes in church going sometimes reduced to high days and holidays…Christmas Candlelight Services and very occasionally Easter Day.
When the people of Israel return from exile and all are finally are gathered to hear the Word of God it was a great eye opener to them. In listening to it, they knew the goodness of God. They heard the laws God had given them for their own conduct so that he might bless them and they realized just how far they were away from that law and just why it was they had suffered so much, and they wept for what they done wrong, for how they had offended God and for what they had missed because of it. They mourned who they were who they had become they mourned and they prayed to God for help. And Ezra and Nehemiah the Governor of the Land, and the rest of the priests, see them weeping and say:
“This day is Holy to the Lord your God – this time is special to God – do not mourn or weep. Go your way, celebrate – eat the best food and the drink the best wine and share it with those who have nothing to eat or drink – for this day is Holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved – do not sorrow – for the Joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Of course it is. Today is an important day, a holy day to our God for those of you who really hear the Word of God for those of you who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for wholeness for salvation, Now is a Holy Time! Have we had our eye-opener moment? What is the Word that we have heard that is powerful, inclusive, and brings about transformation in a community in need of learning to live in the reality of God’s love. The sermon that Jesus gave in the temple in reaction to the word of God as it is found in the prophet Isaiah is the same word that Ezra and Nehemiah and all who understand the word of God right down the ages have proclaimed. Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing! Today is the day of salvation. Today is the time of God’s favour of God’s forgiveness, of God’s jubilee. Today the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Listen to it…Listen with more than your ears. Listen with your hunger and your needs Listen with hope. Listen with the Spirit that God has given you for that purpose. So I ask you again whose agenda is it? Amen.
Hymn God’s Spirit is in My Heart
V1 and refrain Alan T. Dale (1902–1979) vv. 2-4 Hubert Richards (b. 1921) © 1969 Vanguard Music Corp OneLicence # A-734713 Sung by the Frodsham Methodist Cloud Choir and used with their kind permission.
God’s Spirit is in my heart; He has called me and set me apart.
This is what I have to do, what I have to do.
He sent me to give the good news to the poor, tell prisoners that they are prisoners no more,
tell blind people that they can see, and set the down trodden free,
and go tell everyone the news that the Kingdom of God has come;
And go tell everyone the news that God’s Kingdom has come!
Just as the Father sent me so I’m sending you out to be
my witnesses throughout the world – the whole of the world.
He sent me to give the good news to the poor, tell prisoners that they are prisoners no more,
tell blind people that they can see, and set the down trodden free,
and go tell everyone the news that the Kingdom of God has come;
And go tell everyone the news that God’s Kingdom has come!
Don’t carry a load in your pack; You don’t need two shirts
on your back God’s workers earn their own keep – can earn their own keep.
He sent me to give the good news to the poor, tell prisoners that they are prisoners no more,
tell blind people that they can see, and set the down trodden free,
and go tell everyone the news that the Kingdom of God has come;
And go tell everyone the news that God’s Kingdom has come!
Don’t worry what you have to say; don’t worry because on that day
God’s Spirit will speak in your heart – will speak in your heart.
He sent me to give the good news to the poor, tell prisoners that they are prisoners no more,
tell blind people that they can see, and set the down trodden free,
and go tell everyone the news that the Kingdom of God has come;
And go tell everyone the news that God’s Kingdom has come!
Intercessions
O Lord, your Word contains truth for each new generation.
Thank you for fresh and exciting reminders
of the power and glory of your sovereign love.
Help us to seek the wisdom to use your words wisely,
to pray for who cannot speak or who are inarticulate,
who depend on others to speak for them
Thank you for your Word which reminds us
of your concern for justice for the poor and oppressed.
Help us to announce your good news;
to proclaim your liberty to those held captive;
to work and pray for a better world.
Thank you for your Word which reminds us
of the ways in which you want us to live.
Help us to share the hope we have in you;
to proclaim your love for every individual;
to work and pray for new life for humankind.
Thank you for your Word which reminds us
of our calling as members of Christ’s body.
Help us to be united in love and respect for one another;
to proclaim your salvation to the world;
to work and pray under the guidance of your Spirit. Amen.
Offertory and Dedication
Generous God,
giving abundantly more than we can know or ask,
our promise is to justly share ourselves in celebration of your word.
Take our gifts to use in your service, Amen.
Hymn The Kingdom of God is Justice and Joy
Bryn Rees (1973) © 1973 Alexander Scott OneLicence # A-734713 Sung by Paul Robinson and used with his kind permission.
The kingdom of God is justice and joy;
for Jesus restores what sin would destroy.
God’s power and glory in Jesus we know;
and here and hereafter the kingdom shall grow.
The kingdom of God is mercy and grace;
the captives are freed, the sinners find place,
the outcast are welcomed God’s banquet to share;
and hope is awakened in place of despair.
The kingdom of God is challenge and choice:
believe the good news, repent and rejoice!
God’s love for us sinners brought Christ to his Cross:
our crisis of judgement for gain or for loss.
God’s kingdom is come, the gift and the goal;
in Jesus begun, in heaven made whole.
The heirs of the kingdom shall answer his call;
and all things cry “Glory!” to God all in all.
Blessing
Go to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release for all who are imprisonoed, recovery of sight for the blind and let the oppressed be valued in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
And the blessing of God Almighty Father, Son and Holy Spirit
be amongst us and remain with us, this day and for evermore. Amen.
