2  The God of Abraham praise,
the God of all who roam,
who guides us into foreign lands
and makes our home.
When darkness shrouds our path,
the stars, as pledges, shine;
God’s covenant will be fulfilled
by love’s design. 
 
3  The God of Hagar praise,
the God of those oppressed,
who sees the lost and overlooked
and calls them blessed.
Though wandering alone
through deserts of despair,
God leads us to a well of hope
and meets us there.

2 My steps have been 
steadfast in your paths, 
my feet have not faltered. 
I call upon you, 
for you will answer me, O God; 
incline your ear to me; 
hear my word.
 
3 Keep me as the apple of your eye, 
hide me in the shadow 
of your wings. 
But I in justice shall 
behold your face, 
on waking I shall be 
content in your presence.

Reading   Romans 9:1-18
 
I am speaking the truth in Christ – I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit – I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own brothers and sisters, my own flesh and blood. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.  It is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all Israelites truly belong to Israel,  and not all of Abraham’s children are his true descendants; but ‘It is through Isaac that descendants shall be named after you.’  This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants.  For this is what the promise said, ‘About this time I will return and Sarah shall have a son.’  Nor is that all; something similar happened to Rebecca when she had conceived children by one husband, our ancestor Isaac.  Even before they had been born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose of election might continue, not by works but by his call) she was told, ‘The elder shall serve the younger.’ As it is written, ‘I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.’ What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.  For the scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.’ So then he has mercy on whomsoever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomsoever he chooses.
 
Reading   St Matthew 14:13-21
 
Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled, and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
 
Sermon
 
They say that life can be a struggle; for many it is, a struggle to get by, to have more money than bills at the end of the month, to live with dignity.  For many in our world the struggles are even worse – as people struggle for food, warmth, and security.  Struggle, for most of us, is part of what it is to be human. Sometimes these are minor, sometimes they are major.  We have heard about different types of struggle in our readings today.
 
If they wanted to make a drama out of the Jacob and Esau stories in the Bible for TV they’d be laughed at as the tale would be seen as too far fetched.   Today’s passage from Genesis is part of a wider story of, frankly, dreadful family dynamics.  Esau was born before Jacob (who came out of the womb holding his brother’s heel as if trying to pull him back).  The name Jacob means “he grasps the heel” which might be a Hebrew idiom for deceptive behaviour.  Certainly, Jacob’s life was often built on deceit.     The struggle between the brothers continued in life as, when grown up, Esau returns from work in the fields dreadfully hungry; Jacob offered him a bowl of stew (pottage in older English) in return for his birthright – the right to be recognised as first born with the wealth and authority that might come with it.  Jacob’s actions were not illegal but were certainly not honourable.   In his old age Isaac told Esau to bring venison, prepare food, and then he would bless Esau – ie confer the status of inheritor and authority on him.  Rebecca overheard and told Jacob to go, disguised with a fleece so his father would think he was his, hairier, brother.  As a result, Issaac unwittingly blessed Jacob giving him status and authority.   Not surprisingly Esau was furious and vowed to kill Jacob as soon as their father died.  At Rebecca’s urging Jacob fled abroad leaving behind the wealth of his father’s livestock, land, and tents in Esau’s hands.   Impoverished Jacob takes refuge with his uncle, Laban, who makes him work for 7 years before being able to marry his daughter Rachel and then, swapping Rachel for her sister Leah.  This all brings us to today’s passage; Jacob and Esau are to finally meet again – Jacob was worried so divided his retainers into two camps so that one could safeguard his family and flee if necessary.  He doesn’t at this point, know if his brother was still in a murderous rage.  After today’s passage there’s a reconciliation but relations between them remain difficult.  
 
Today’s passage, however, concerns the wrestling with an angel; it’s an intriguing story in its own right but the wrestling motif seems to be a good metaphor for Jacob’s life.  It’s not clear at the start of the passage if the unnamed wrestler is Esau – it would be logical for Jacob and the reader to think it was given all that had gone before.  Jacob is not successful in gaining the name of the wrestler – to know someone’s name in Hebrew is to have power over that person – and the wrestling only stops when the wrestler wounds Jacob’s hip.  A new name is given (Israel) which is a pun on the Hebrew word used for God which means  “God Strives” to Israel which means “Striving With God (and others)”. Then, as mysteriously as the wrestler appeared, he goes.  
 
We hear this story and ponder on the struggles we face in life – those of our own making and those thrust upon us.  Like us, Jacob is an unlikely hero; a cunning man who cheated and grasped at things.  A man who lost  all after falling out with his family but did well for himself.  A man determined in his wrestling after truth to secure God’s blessing holding as fast to God as he once did to his brother’s heel.  
 
What do we hold fast to?  What do we wrestle with?  When are we honourable and not so honourable?  What are we prepared to risk for truth?
 
Our Psalmist held fast to his or her innocence, crying to God for justice.  Struggling with false accusers, the poet takes refuge overnight in the Temple “under the shadow of your wings” and in the morning is acquitted at trial.   Just as Jacob wrestled with God, so the Psalmist has wrestled with an unnamed adversary.  Just as Jacob was tested by God, so the Psalmist asks to be tested so he or she can be found righteous.  Just as Jacob wrestled through the night, the Psalmist found sanctuary with God in the unsafe hours of darkness.  When we struggle with life’s challenges do we turn to God and find refuge with him?
 
God, however, can be something of a challenge when we seek our refuge.  God’s ways are not, as Scripture reminds us, our ways.  Our neat logical and theological systems can all fall apart as we encounter God and God’s actions.   In our reading from Romans Paul laments at what he saw as the plight of the Jews, his siblings and kindred, who have not accepted Jesus as the Messiah.   Yet, as his argument develops Paul did not see Israel’s plight as being contrary to God’s design.  He was clear that God has not repudiated the Covenant with the Jewish people.   Paul puzzles over the Jacob and Esau stories; Esau the first born should have been the one to inherit but God’s favour was on Jacob – despite Jacob’s character flaws.  God chooses without, it seems to us, reason or favour!  That’s how grace works.  God’s mysterious ways always surprise us!
 
God surprised the hungry crowd in our Gospel reading today.  The passage is in striking contrast to the earlier verses of the chapter where Herod’s birthday feast concludes with the head of the decapitated John the Baptist being served up on a platter.  Instead, in these verses, Jesus shares a life giving meal where many are included.  Like the Last Supper – which one sees echoes of here, this meal takes place at evening. Whilst we call this the feeding of the 5,000 that’s only the men – the women and children would have multiplied this number hugely.  The story looks forward to the Eucharist – Jesus took, blessed, broke and gave just as he will do at the Last Supper.  
 
So we have lots about struggle and a miraculous feeding that looks forward to Communion.  We have wrestling brothers in a conflict-ridden family, and Jacob wresting with God through the night.  We have the unjustly accused Psalmist wrestling with injustice, longing to be tested by God to be proved righteous, and taking shelter in the Temple at night for safety.   In Romans Paul used the Jacob and Esau story to wrestle with the mysterious foreknowledge and election by God of the Jewish people, even those who don’t accept Paul’s views on Jesus.  In our Gospel the disciples wrestle with tiredness and logistics but Jesus, in a foretaste of the Eucharist, feeds a hungry people.  
 
We hunger now for so much – many in our world hunger physically for food, shelter, and the basic necessities of life whilst the rich get ever more rich and ever more unwilling to pay their fair share of taxes.   We hunger for peace in a world ever more set on war and conflict.  We hunger for justice in a world where people are still executed for how they love or what they believe.  We wrestle with the world as it is, even as we long for it to become what it could be.  We wrestle with the purposes of God longing for the world to turn, for hopes to be fulfilled not dashed.   As we hunger and wrestle, we are fed and satisfied every time we share Communion but more – Jesus also gives energy and inspiration to work for change, for the coming Kingdom.  Let’s pray:
 
O God with whom we wrestle 
until the break of day,
make us long to seek Your face 
beyond the limits of our strength;
that in our wounds we may remember You,
and in Your blessing we may find ourselves,
through Jesus Christ, Amen.
 
Hymn       Come O Thou Traveller unknown
Charles Wesley (1742) Public Domain, Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band, PRS Licence.
 

Come, O Thou traveller unknown, whom still I hold, but cannot see!
My company before is gone, and I am left alone with Thee;
with Thee all night I mean to stay and wrestle till the break of day.

2 I need not tell Thee who I am,
my misery and sin declare;
Thyself hast called 
me by my name;
look on Thy hands and read it there!
But who, I ask Thee, who art Thou?
Tell me Thy name, and tell me now.
 
3 In vain Thou 
strugglest to get free;
I never will unloose my hold.
Art thou the Man that died for me?
The secret of Thy love unfold;
wrestling, I will not let thee go,
till I Thy name, 
Thy nature know.
 
4. ’Tis love! ’tis love! 
Thou diedst for me!
I hear Thy whisper in my heart.
The morning breaks, 
the shadows flee:
pure, universal love Thou art;
to me, to all Thy passions move;
Thy nature and Thy name is love.
 
5. The Sun of Righteousness on me
hath rose, with healing in his wings;
withered my nature’s 
strength; from thee
my soul its life and succour brings;
my help is all laid up above;
Thy nature and Thy name is love.

An upper room
did our Lord prepare 
for those he loved until the end:
and his disciples still gather there 
to celebrate their Risen Friend.
 
2 A lasting gift Jesus gave his own:
to share his bread, his loving cup.
Whatever burdens 
may bow us down, 
He by his Cross shall lift us up.
 
3 And after Supper he washed their feet 
for service, too, is sacrament.
In Christ our joy 
shall be made complete — 
sent out to serve, as he was sent.
 
4 No end there is! 
We depart in peace, 
He loves beyond the uttermost:
in every room in our Father’s house 
Christ will be there, as Lord & Host.

Holy Communion
 
Just as He did on the hillside with the multitude, the Lord Jesus, at the Last Supper, took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and shared it.
As Jesus fulfilled the hunger of the crowd that evening, 
he now satisfies the hungers of humanity in this meal. 
Jesus used the simple things of bread and fish to ease hunger,
and now uses the simple things of our lives to ease need.  
Jesus invites all to His table where the hungry are filled with good things,
where we are gathered up into the presence of the Most High, 
where He, himself, risen and ascended, is present and gives Himself to us for our spiritual nourishment and growth in grace.
So, we gather at this table and remember a meal shared long ago,
when Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread 
and gave it to his friends saying:
 
‘Take this all of you and eat it, for this is my body broken for you.
Do this in memory of me.’
 
After supper Jesus took the cup filled with wine, said the blessing, and gave the cup to his friends saying:
 
‘Take this all of you and drink from it,
for this is the cup of my blood,
the blood of the new and everlasting covenant
which will be shed for you and for all for the forgiveness of sin.
Do this in memory of me.’
 
Let us remember Jesus as we recall the central mystery of our faith:
 
Christ has died!  Christ is risen!  Christ will come again!
 
Come, Most Holy Spirit,
as we Your people, in obedience to the Lord’s command,
show forth His sacrifice on the Cross 
through this broken bread and out poured wine.
Bless these simple gifts that they may be for us
the communion with the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
Unite us with Jesus and, through Him,  
with the whole Church on earth and in heaven,
as we gift our sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and renew the offering of ourselves, our lives, and our struggles.
Keep us joyful in the promise of Jesus’ coming again in glory,
for through Him, with Him, in Him,
all glory and honour belongs to the Most High,
in Your unity, O Holy Spirit, forever and ever, Amen.   
 
The body and blood of Christ, given for you.
 
Music for Communion    Table of Plenty
© 1992 Daniel Schutte OCP Publications sung by the Sunday 7pm Choir of St Francis De Sales Church Ajax, Ontario OneLicence
 
Post Communion Prayer
 
We give thanks to You, O Most High, 
for Your Holy Name which You tabernacle in our hearts, 
and for the knowledge, faith, and immortality 
which You make known to us through Jesus Christ. 
To You be glory for ever!
You created all things for Your Name’s sake, 
and give food and drink for our enjoyment, 
that we might give You thanks, 
but You also bless us with spiritual food and drink 
and eternal light through Jesus Christ. To You be glory for ever!
Remember, Most Holy Spirit, Your Church,
deliver it from all evil and perfect it in Your love,
gather it together in holiness from the four winds 
to Your kingdom which You prepared for it.  
To You be glory for ever!  Amen
 
Hymn       Canticle of the Turning
Rory Cooney © 1990, GIA Publications, Inc. One Licence A-734713
Performed by Chris Brunelle and used with his kind permission.
 

 
Blessing
 
May the One who satisfies your hungers,
the One offers His own life for peace,
and the One who inspires us to dream 
of what the coming Kingdom might be like
make you yearn for all to be filled with good things,
make you work for peace, and inspire your dreams,
and may the blessing of Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit 
be with you all, now and always, Amen.

Reformed Spirituality: An Aniconic Spirituality

Exodus  20:1-6

Then God spoke all these words: “ I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.  You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me,  but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Reflection

In September 1523 in a sermon preached in Zurich, a learned Hebraist called Leo Judt pointed out a long-forgotten truth. There were two ways of numbering the ten commandments. The Western Church had assumed that today’s reading was the first commandment. Judt pointed out that for Jews, it was two. ‘You shall have no other gods but me’ was the first, and the second was ‘You shall not make for yourself an idol’.

Judaism was, of course, vehemently opposed to idolatry – think of Isaiah’s scornful and satirical dismissal of the idols of Babylon (Is 44:12-18; 45:20-25; 46) – and equally vehement in its witness to God’s power and freedom. God was so utterly beyond the power of the human mind, or the genius of the human imagination that any attempt to control him, capture him, picture him or imagine him was impossible. God was God’s own interpreter. If God is thought about in this way, images become a hindrance to God’s communication of himself.  The technical term for avoiding the visual in theology is ‘aniconic’. We have seen that Judaism was and is aniconic. So is Islam, and so for a time was Eastern Orthodox Christianity, although the role of icons was firmly restored in 843.

The great strength of this aniconic way of thinking is that it makes everything relative to the might and wonder of God. The American Reformed theologian Richard Niebuhr put it well when he wrote, ‘The converse of dependence on God is independence of everything less than God.’  It is all too easy to let other things take the place of God, be it people we love and admire, systems of thought and political allegiance, or the accumulation of knowledge. As its best, the Reformed emphasis on God’s wonder and majesty lends perspective to the rest of life.

Prayer

Lord
save us from ourselves
when we believe we have the answers
when our systems seem infallible
when we are convinced of our own goodness
and the truth of our causes.
Remind us then
that you are God
and that salvation is to be found
only in your everlasting arms.
Amen.

Psalm 139: 1-18
O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
    you discern my thoughts from far away.
You search out my path and my lying down,
    and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
    O Lord, you know it completely.
You hem me in, behind and before,
    and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
    it is so high that I cannot attain it.

Where can I go from your spirit?
    Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
    if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning
    and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me fast.
If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,
    and the light around me become night’,
even the darkness is not dark to you;
    the night is as bright as the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

For it was you who formed my inward parts;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
    Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
    My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
    all the days that were formed for me,
    when none of them as yet existed.
How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
I try to count them—they are more than the sand;
    I come to the end—I am still with you.
 
Reflection
This beautiful poem lays bare the intimate relationship between God and the believer. One of the themes of Scripture is that God works through people.  God called Abram to travel to a land he didn’t know.  When God commissioned Jeremiah, he tells him, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…’ (Jer 1:5). Even foreign potentates like Cyrus who have no idea who God is are subject to his anointing (Is 45:1).

There is a paradox at the heart of Christian spirituality.  It feels sometimes that we are the initiators of the journey of faith. After all, we choose to go to church, or take a retreat. But at other times, often when looking back, we have an overwhelming sense like the Psalmist, that God is the one who has sought us out, called us and opened doors of discipleship for us. Reformed Christians have always taken that sense of God as the initiator with great seriousness. In Reformed thought there have been many theological approaches to the primacy of God’s activity and grace – all of them grappling with that central mystery. They range from the idea that God chooses both those who will be saved and those who will be ‘damned’ (which is surely an ethical outrage!) to the thought that in Jesus Christ God says ‘Yes’ to the whole human enterprise, and to all individuals (which runs the risk of equating St Francis and Hitler!)

Truly here we are dealing with a mystery – one to which Scripture bears ample witness, and which reverberates throughout the history of Christian thought. God is working his purposes out, and he calls a people – Israel – and individuals like Jeremiah and Mary and Paul to be an essential part of that work of salvation. It is that, not the theologies which attempt to explain it, which should delight our hearts.

Prayer
Gracious God
as we review our lives
we see the golden thread of your love
weaving through our decisions and deliberations.
We thought it was us,
so gentle and gracious was your footfall,
yet truly you were there.
We praise you that you know us
better than we know ourselves,
and that we were created to be your sons and daughters.
Guide us we pray in the ways of Jesus,
until your kingdom comes and your will is done.
Amen

Colossians 3:1-4
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth,  for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

Reflection
Christians, Paul told the Colossians, are those whose lives ‘…are hidden with Christ in God’ (Col 3:3), caught up in the mystery of that relationship with Jesus, held by Christ’s love which is stronger than time and death. That is the basic reality of Christian living, and the source, incidentally, of Christian unity.

We grow up in families and communities which are shaped by history, experience and geography, and that partly determines the ways in which we come to that basic Christian experience of being ‘in Christ’. We have been caught up in the route and experience of the Reformed family of Christians – some 100 million people from 109 countries and 230 churches according to the World Communion of Reformed Churches.

Our familial roots are to be found in the reformations of the sixteenth century, particularly as they were experienced in the Swiss cities, and those roots have borne fruit in churches across the world.

It is by no means a monolithic tradition, but it does have particular emphases. The first is that it seeks to let God be God, in mystery, wonder, and grace. The second is that it finds the Word that God speaks in Christ through the Scriptures. The third is that the Reformed know that God is an active God who calls his people to discipleship in the world. The fourth is that we expect to meet God in the world, as much as the Church, for the world (in Calvin’s words) is ‘the theatre of God’s glory’.  Ours is therefore a worldly spirituality.  

Those emphases help shape the Reformed church. Christ is the only head of the Church, and therefore all are equal under him, ministers and lay people alike. There is a concentrated simplicity about Reformed worship which allows God to speak through the Word with minimum distraction.

Prayer
God of new beginnings,
we give you thanks that our lives are ‘hid with Christ’ in you.
We give you thanks for the families that nurtured us
and the church communities which shape us.
We thank you for the grace given to the Reformed tradition
as part of your church catholic.
We pray that our discipleship
may be part of the drama of salvation
which you are working out in the world,
‘the theatre of your glory’.
 
We ask in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
 
Amen.

 
2 Teach us, Lord, 
full obedience,
holy reverence, 
true humility.
Test our thoughts 
and our attitudes
in the radiance of 
your purity.
Cause our faith to rise, 
cause our eyes to see
your majestic love 
and authority.
Words of power 
that can never fail;
let their truth prevail 
over unbelief.
 
3 Speak, O Lord, 
and renew our minds;
help us grasp the heights 
of your plans for us.
Truths unchanged 
from the dawn of time
that will echo down 
through eternity.
And by grace we’ll stand 
on your promises,
and by faith we’ll walk 
as you walk with us.
Speak, O Lord, 
till your Church is built
as the earth is filled 
with your glory.

 
Reading            Romans 8:26-39  
 
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.  And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.  And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
 
Reading   St Matthew 13:31-33
 
Jesus put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’ He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’
 
Hymn       Seek Ye First
Karen Lafferty (born 1948) © 1972 CCCM Music/Maranatha! Music/Adm. by Song Solutions CopyCare, OneLicence No. # A-734713 Performed by Emmaus Music and used with their kind permission.
 

Seek ye first the kingdom of God,
and His righteousness,
and all these things 
shall be added unto you.
Allelu, alleluia.
 
Alleluia.  Alleluia.
Alleluia.  Allelu-alleuia.
 
2 Ask and it shall be given unto you,
seek and ye shall find;
knock and it shall be 
opened up to you.
Allelu, alleluia.
 
3 We do not live by bread alone,
but by every word
that comes forth
from the mouth of God.
Allelu, alleluia.
 
Sermon
 
1.      Hearing Creation’s Cry 
 
In 2018, I attended a gathering of churches in Tanzania. It was a meeting of Christians from many countries; each sharing stories of how their communities were experiencing the changing world. During one discussion, a young woman from Tanzania stood up to speak. Her voice was calm, but her words carried the weight of her people’s daily life. She said that the water in her village had become so polluted that no one could drink it safely. Every morning, she walked a long distance to a faraway source. But even there the water was not clean. “It still makes us sick,” she said quietly, “yet it is the only water we have.” There was no drama in her tone, only a quiet acceptance.  Her testimony stayed with me, because it revealed something deeper about the world we live in. It showed how easily human suffering and the suffering of creation become normal in a society that no longer knows how to listen. Scripture gives us a name for such a world, and it introduces us to a man who embodied it.
 
2.      When Listening Fades (Genesis 29:15–28)
 
Genesis 29 allows us to step into Laban’s household. Jacob arrives worn out and uncertain, hoping that family might offer rest. At first, Laban seems welcoming, but as the story moves on, we begin to sense another layer beneath his hospitality. He sets terms before Jacob asks for anything, and arrangements take shape before real relationships have time to grow.
What stands out most in the chapter is the silence of Leah and Rachel. They are at the centre of the unfolding story, yet we do not hear their voices. Their silence raises a pertinent question for us. What happens when decisions are made about people’s lives without attending to their voices? The customs of work and marriage in that time were complex, and the text does not fault the customs themselves. But it does invite us to notice how easily those customs can lean toward control when the heart is driven by gain. What might have deepened kinship instead becomes something managed and arranged.
 
This narrowing of vision is something many of us recognise. A young man once told me, “Sometimes I feel like I only matter when I am useful.” His words echo the pattern in Laban’s story. A world focused on productivity often misses the softer voices around us. We miss the heart of the people before us, and the quieter aches of creation. Yet the story also turns our attention toward another way of seeing, one that grows not from calculation but from a heart willing to attend. And this prepares us to meet someone who longs for a heart that can truly listen.
 
3.      Solomon’s Wisdom: Learning to Listen (1 Kings 3:5–12)
 
1 Kings 3 places Solomon at the beginning of his reign in a moment of real vulnerability. He has received the throne, yet he does not feel steady in this role. He describes himself as a little child. He is not speaking about age but about his sense of capacity. He knows that he does not yet understand how to lead the people entrusted to him. Into this uncertainty, God appears to Solomon in a dream and invites him to ask for whatever he desires. The invitation is wide, but Solomon begins by naming his limitations. He speaks of the size and complexity of the people he must guide. He recognises that he cannot lead well unless he first learns how to listen well. So Solomon asks God for a listening heart. The Hebrew phrase, lev shomea, speaks of a heart that can hear in a way that leads to wise discernment. It is the ability to attend not only to spoken words but also to what remains unspoken. It is a heart that can receive the truth that may be hidden within a difficult story.
 
When we place this scene beside Genesis 29, the contrast becomes clear. Laban makes decisions without attending to the people affected by them. Solomon seeks a way of seeing that allows him to recognise beneath the voices and silences around him. Laban’s household contains voices that are not heard. Solomon’s prayer opens a space where such voices can finally be acknowledged. A listening heart is not passive. It grows through humility. It strengthens itself through attentiveness. It shows us that listening can become a form of justice and a form of care. And this way of listening prepares us for the hope described in Romans 8.
 
4.      When the Spirit Groans with Us (Romans 8:26–39)
 
Romans 8 begins with an honest confession: we do not know how to pray as we should. We are not as strong or centred as we wish to appear. Yet Paul tells us that our weakness does not silence God. The Spirit prays within us and echoes the very groan we heard in the voice of the young woman on her long walk for water. Our inability becomes the place where God begins. Here, Paul is inviting us to embrace a posture of humility that our time rarely embraces. The willingness to admit that we do not see everything clearly. The courage to wait for God’s timing rather than forcing our own.
 
We often try to explain God’s work with our limited understanding, but our vision is small. It is like touching only one part of an elephant and believing we have grasped the whole. We live with fragments. God sees the whole. And Paul invites us to trust the One who holds the threads we cannot follow. This is why Paul’s questions are not about the cause of suffering but the presence of God within it. If God is for us, who can stand against us? If Christ intercedes for us, who can condemn us? He is not ignoring hardship. He is helping us to see it inside the unshakeable care of God.
 
Paul names the realities that shake us: distress, hunger, danger, even death. Yet he sets each of them inside a larger truth: nothing in life or death, nothing in the present or the future, nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Romans 8 does not give us escape from weakness. It gives us a place where our weakness can rest, sheltered in God’s faithfulness. And from that place of humility and trust, Jesus speaks of a seed, a hope that begins small.
 
5.      The Mustard Seed and the Pilgrimage We Walk (Matthew 13:31-33)
 
Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed. So small that it can slip between our fingers unnoticed. Yet when planted, it becomes a tree where birds find rest.  This is how God guides us to act in a wounded world. We do not transform everything at once. We plant what we can. We trust that God is present in what is hidden.
 
A mustard seed can be a gesture of patience, a gentle conversation, a choice to forgive, or a commitment to use water and energy with love for the earth. A mustard seed can even be the decision to listen to someone’s pain without rushing to speak.  And we do not plant alone. In recent years, the World Council of Churches has invited Christians everywhere into what they call a Pilgrimage of Justice, Reconciliation, and Unity. This pilgrimage is not about grand achievements. It is about walking together, step by step, listening for where God is already at work. It is about believing that hope grows through faithful presence, not sudden victories.  At a gathering of global churches, someone once said, “Hope is shaped by the steps we take, not the speeches we make.” Those words stayed with me. Hope is a journey. Hope is a shared path. Hope is something we embody when we choose to walk with creation, rather than over it.
 
6.      Conclusion: Walking with Listening Hearts 
 
Beloved in Christ, creation is speaking. Its cry reaches us in the voice of a young woman carrying water, in the silence of Laban’s household, in Solomon’s prayer for a listening heart, and in the Spirit who groans within us. The question is whether we will listen.  So let us walk gently in the days ahead. Let us attend to the voices that are easy to miss. Let us trust that when our strength feels small, God’s love remains steady.  Nothing in all creation will separate you from the love of God in Christ. In that love, walk in peace. Amen.
 
Hymn       Christ Be Our Light
Bernadette Farrell (born 1957) © 1994 Bernadette Farrell published by OCP Publications One License No. A-734713 Performed by Chris Brunelle and used with his kind permission.
 

Longing for light, 
we wait in darkness.
Longing for truth, 
we turn to you.
Make us your own, 
your holy people,
light for the world to see.
 
Christ be our light!
Shine in our hearts.
Shine through the darkness.
Christ be our light!
Shine in your church 
gathered today.
 
2 Longing for peace, 
our world is troubled.
Longing for hope, 
many despair.
Your word alone 
has pow’r to save us.
Make us your living voice.
 
3 Longing for food, 
many are hungry.
Longing for water, 
many still thirst.
Make us your bread, 
broken for others,
shared until all are fed.

 
Prayers of Intercession
 
Creator God, we hear the groaning of the earth.
Forgive us for the ways we have taken more than we needed.
Guide us back to our true calling to care for your creation with love.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
 
We pray for the leaders of the nations.
Turn their hearts from Laban’s way 
of shaping relationships around advantage.
Grant them Solomon’s wisdom to listen with care
and to choose what leads to life and dignity for all.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
 
We pray for all who suffer,
for those affected by floods, fires, droughts, and every kind of loss.
Be a shelter to those who have been displaced
and open our eyes to see them as family.
Move our hearts to offer compassion and help.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
 
We pray for our church.
Though we may feel small like a mustard seed,
bless our daily acts of care and compassion.
Help us to plant seeds of hope and peace
in the lives of our neighbours.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
 
God of life, receive these prayers.
Renew our spirits and renew the earth.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
 
Offertory 
 
God has given us gifts beyond measure:
the warmth of the sun, the gift of rain, the beauty of the earth,
and the grace that sustains our lives each day.
In gratitude for all we have received,
let us offer our gifts with thankful and willing hearts.
 
Generous God,
from your hands we have received everything we have.
Accept the gifts we bring today,
signs of our gratitude and our desire to serve you.
Like small seeds, may they grow in your grace
to bless our neighbours and to strengthen your church.
In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.
 
Hymn       Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
Charles Wesley (1707-1788) Public Domain Sung by the Northern Baptist Association
 

Love divine, all loves excelling,
joy of heaven to earth come down,
fix in us thy humble dwelling,
all thy faithful mercies crown.
Jesu, thou art all compassion.
Pure, unbounded love thou art;
Visit us with thy salvation,
enter every trembling heart.
 
2 Breathe, O breathe 
thy loving Spirit
into every troubled breast.
Let us all in thee inherit,
let us find that second rest;
take away our power of sinning,
Alpha and Omega be,
end of faith, as its beginning,
set our hearts at liberty
 
3 Come, almighty to deliver,
let us all thy grace receive;
suddenly return, and never,
never more thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
serve thee as thy hosts above,
pray, and praise thee, 
without ceasing,
glory in thy perfect love.
 
4 Finish then thy new creation,
pure and spotless let us be;
let us see thy great salvation,
perfectly restored in thee:
changed from glory into glory,
till in heaven we take our place,
till we cast our crowns before thee,
lost in wonder, love, and praise!

Blessing
 
Go into the world with a listening heart.
May the seeds of love you plant grow in God’s grace.
Walk gently upon the earth as God’s beloved children.
And remember, nothing can separate us from God’s love.
And may the blessing of God Almighty,
the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Sustainer,
be with you and with all creation,
now and forever. Amen.

St Mark 10 v 45
Jesus said: ‘For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’

Reflection
How many of our churches could be stronger if they worked in partnership with other agencies in their communities? I know many already do and see the benefits of that. Looking at the church of which I am a member, a few years ago we carried out an extensive refurbishment of our sanctuary, hall and toilets. It’s now comfortable and warm. We need a new kitchen to enable us to embark on the mission we feel called to in our diverse community.  We are not in competition but want to work alongside others. We can’t and won’t survive on our own. We have a close relationship with the local community supermarket and local primary schools.  Our most recent community development is using our grounds as a car park for Coventry City FC fans. The thing about that is not only bringing money in but having fruitful conversations with those who park. We have a community drama group that meets in our large hall, church members are a part of that and the members of the drama group see the congregation as ‘their church’ and support us at church events not just by coming but by being a part and helping. We couldn’t do without them!  By the time you read this we hope to have a different peer support group running.  We are lucky in that we have grounds and greenery; this is going to be developed by making it more nature friendly and diverse with native hedging and trees which have been planted as well as a mini orchard. Our dream is to work alongside and with others so that our part of Coventry can become a Compassionate Community.

Prayer
Let us pray for our local churches 
and the communities in which they are set. 
We give thanks for the opportunities 
of sharing and living out our faith with our neighbours. 
May we offer welcome, support, love and hospitality.
May each church find its own way 
of being a servant to those around them, 
so that our communities become more compassionate.
Amen