Worship Notes for September and October

Dear Friends,

just a quick note to say that October’s Worship Notes have now all been loaded up; September’s have been up for a few weeks.

You can always find them by going to the URC website, urc.org.uk and then clicking on Your Faith | Prayer and Worship | Worship Notes.

This link takes you there directly but remembering where to find them means you don’t need to find an email from me!  

https://urc.org.uk/your-faith/prayer-and-worship/worship-notes/

With every good wish

Andy

The Rev’d Andy Braunston
Minister for Digital Worship
 

Thursday 14th August
 

Church Related Community Work 4
 
Jeremiah 29: 4-7
 
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. 
 
Reflection
 
Dorothy’s sentiment of, “there’s no place like home” in the Wizard of Oz, was one shared by the exiled Israelites in Babylon. Having had their hopes of a speedy return to their homeland dashed, here Jeremiah urged the Jews to build a future where they are – not just to survive and wait.  They should flourish and contribute to the flourishing of their Babylonian captors.  They had to contribute to the common good of their new society.
 
The Common Good can be defined as a society’s shared life where everyone can flourish.  We act together in different ways that contribute towards that goal, enabled by social conditions allowing all to participate. 
 
Whilst the concept of the Common Good comes from Catholic Social Teaching,  it is a key part of the community development process set out in the covenant CRCWs sign when inducted to projects.  We seek to work with churches and people to try and build flourishing communities where everyone feels like ‘it’s home’. 
 
The Common Good is most effectively achieved working at a local level.  Often it starts with taking an asset-based approach to community development, listening to people, and recognising the wealth of resources within individuals and communities.  Approaches such as community organising can be used to support diverse groups to take action on common concerns and interests. Where it would be beneficial for communities to build relationships with institutions and statutory services, churches can often be well placed to start building those partnerships.
 
We all can, at times, feel like we don’t belong.  We may not have lived in our current community all our lives but chosen to move there, or have been forced to move for work or a change of circumstances.  We can be tempted to  ‘other’ those around us – labelling them for their differences – and just seek our own survival.  Better to seek ways to challenge dehumanizing forces and find ways to work together so that everyone can flourish.
 
Prayer
 
Dear Lord, we pray for the flourishing of our communities – spiritually, socially, and economically. Help us to find ways to work together with others in our communities – neighbours, faith groups, community groups, charities, and statutory services to build for the common good. Amen
 
 

Wednesday 13th August
 

Church Related Community Work 3
 
1 Peter 4:8-11
 
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.  Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.  Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
 
Reflection
 
This is one of those times when a Bible passage feels very appropriate. I wonder if the writer has been watching over my shoulder? I confess, I grumble – ask anyone! There has even been talk of getting a “grumble box” for the café counter so that every time I grumble, I must pay a fine! I wouldn’t mind paying a fine, to be honest – if the person who keeps putting spoons in the knife drawer also has to pay one!
 
I have come, over the years, to realise the usefulness of grumbles, though. Working with and in the community I hear a lot of grumbles – and while it can be just a simple grumble, often it’s a sign of something more. Sometimes people just want to know they have been heard – a way of letting off steam while someone listens. Like letting the pressure out of a lemonade bottle slowly so you don’t get lemonade all down your trousers. It can also be a way of saying “I’m worried about something” – like the lady who isn’t sleeping well, who eventually tells me of her bigger worry which is preventing her sleeping.
 
It’s a privilege to be able to listen to, and perhaps help with, people’s grumbles; to be part of their lives in a useful way. I believe it’s one of God’s greatest gifts, to be allowed to listen, to be given the strength to serve – to lighten the burdens of others and empower them to move forward in some small way.
 
Prayer
 
Lord,
help us to be attentive to the words of others,
give us the patience to listen and hear
that we might serve you
and our fellow travellers in a meaningful way.
Amen

Tuesday 12th August

Monday 11th August

Church Related Community Work 1

Our Next Daily Devotion Series

Dear <<First Name>>,

I hope you’ve enjoyed our lengthy read through and reflection on St John’s Gospel.  The Lectionary we use doesn’t offer us much of John so it’s been good to read it through over the Spring and Summer.  Over the next few weeks we have some short series and, the first of these has been written by 5 of our Church Related Community Workers.

The URC’s Basis of Union recognises that the Lord Jesus continues his ministry in and through the Church which is called to and equipped by him.  In furtherance of the Lord’s ministry He has given the Church: Elders, Ministers of Word and Sacraments, and Church Related Community Workers (CRCWs).  CRCWs work in projects which can be accredited for up to 10 years.  These projects are practical expressions of the Church at work in the community and CRCWs are called to care for, challenge and pray for the community, with others to discern God’s will for the well being of the community, and to endeavour to enable the Church to live out its calling to proclaim the love and mercy of God through working with others for peace and justice in the world. 

Just as for Ministers of Word and Sacraments, CRCWs might be stipendiary or non-stipendiary.  They serve under the same terms and conditions as Ministers of Word and Sacraments.  

Over the next week we will read 6 reflections from 5 Church Related Community Workers to give a flavour of their unique contributions to our common life. 
 
With every good wish

Andy

The Rev’d Andy Braunston
Minister for Digital Worship
 

St John 21: 20 – 25

Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; he was the one who had reclined next to Jesus at the supper and had said, ‘Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?’ When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, what about him?’ Jesus said to him, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!’ So the rumour spread in the community that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?’ This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true.  But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

Reflection

Here’s a second ending to the Gospel that has opened our eyes to Jesus as the great ‘I am’ among us, God’s Word made flesh, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  The final verse of chapter twenty explains John’s purpose: it was ‘written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name’.   Life is the Gospel’s great theme – the life in abundance that Christ intends for all.  But paradoxically that life is offered and received through death – primarily the death of Jesus, but other deaths too.

The death of Peter and of ‘the beloved disciple’ had raised big questions among the community and so a final chapter is written, to explain how failure can be turned into glorious success, denial turned into renewed commitment and love, and death itself overturned.  Both Peter and John will face death, but the Gospel will not die.  In the words of Brian Wren’s great hymn:

Christ is alive! Let Christians sing. 
His cross stands empty to the sky. 
Let streets and homes with praises ring.
His love in death shall never die.  

The community that adds the final chapter to the Gospel knows that Jesus is not one who is trapped in the past, a great figure to be remembered oh so reverently.  No, Christ is alive and to be followed, here and now, in our own times and situations and ways.  Peter is gently encouraged by Jesus not to overconcern himself with John’s path, but rather focus on his own following of Jesus.  The risen living Christ returns to that simple invitation that began it all for Peter, those two words ‘Follow me.’

And what of us?  The Jesus story is not over.  More books – written on papyrus or paper or in human lives – are to be written.  How will we write that story in our own life today?

Prayer

Living Lord Jesus
write your book of life
in the lives of your people today.
Defeat hatred with your love.
Overturn death with your death,
that life may blossom once more.

St John 21: 15 – 19

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ A second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’ He said to him the third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.’ (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, ‘Follow me.’

Reflection

After Jesus was arrested, Peter had followed to the courtyard of the High Priest, outside the gate warming himself by a charcoal fire, three times he denied he was one of Jesus’ disciples. Now after sharing a fish breakfast by another charcoal fire Simon Peter is challenged by Jesus. He is taken back in time, for Jesus does not address him by the name he gave him Peter, the rock (John 2:42), rather Jesus calls him Simon.

Three times Jesus asks him do you love me? Twice Jesus uses the Greek verb for love, agapan, Simon responds using another verb philein. The third time Jesus asks he uses the same verb as Simon. It is difficult to be sure what these differences mean. Earlier in John’s Gospel the two verbs are used together where Jesus declares that there is no greater love (agapan) than to die for ones friends (philein) (John 15:13).

Two words for love, two words for the flock; lambs and sheep.

Three times Jesus gives this grieving and humbled disciple the commission to be a shepherd, guarding, guiding, and nourishing his sheep. The good shepherd is willing to die for his sheep (John 10:11). Peter in the past protested a willingness to lay down his life for Jesus, and demanded a right to follow (John 13:36-38). Peter now knows what it is to follow, he cannot follow led by his own desires, to follow means going the way of the cross.

 We are asked to examine whether we love Jesus, whether we can answer along with Peter that we are friends of Jesus. We are asked to consider what difference our answer makes to the way we live our lives. None of us are likely to become the Peter for today’s world, but then I doubt whether Peter was truly aware at the time of the significance of his ministry.

Prayer

O God,
Jesus asks Simon Peter whether he loves him.
We find the same question put to us.
Do we love Jesus,
And how do we show that love?
We pray that we will be guided.
Jesus commissions Simon Peter and calls him to follow.
We seek to follow Christ,
To walk in the way he would have us walk.
To do what he would have us do.
In Christ’s name we pray.
Amen

Thursday 7 August 2025 

St John 21: 1 – 14

After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples.  Simon Peter said to them, ‘I am going fishing.’ They said to him, ‘We will go with you.’ They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.  Jesus said to them, ‘Children, you have no fish, have you?’ They answered him, ‘No.’  He said to them, ‘Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.’ So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord!’ When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the lake. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.  When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread.  Jesus said to them, ‘Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.’  So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn.  Jesus said to them, ‘Come and have breakfast.’ Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ because they knew it was the Lord.  Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

St John 20: 24 – 31

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.  So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’ A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’  Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’  Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’  Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’ Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.  But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Reflection

I always think that Thomas has had bad press over the years. After all, how much scorn has been heaped upon him for his doubting and unbelief? And because of this, we think of him as ‘doubting Thomas’. Indeed, we rarely speak of him without adding this epithet. Yet, in reality, he was no different from the other disciples in struggling to cope with the events that he had witnessed, and in being unsure of what he was told. Just for a moment, try and put yourself in his shoes. Would you have behaved differently? Would you have believed? Are any of us really any different from Thomas? And yet, we continue to deride him.

But when Jesus appears to the gathered disciples this second time, he speaks specifically to Thomas and invites him to touch his wounds. And we’re left with one of the great unanswered questions of Scripture, simply because it’s not the focus of the story, but we still want to know – did Thomas actually touch the wounds?

Tom Wright reminds us that,

The whole point of the story is that it’s the same Jesus. The marks of the nails in his hands, the wound in his side, big enough to get your hand into. This isn’t a ghost. Nor is it someone else pretending to be Jesus. This is him. This is the body that the grave-cloths couldn’t contain any longer.

And the truth is, that when Thomas is faced with the risen Christ before him, he sees, and he truly believes. There is more than the simple rejoicing and celebrating of the other disciples – an arguably shallow rejoicing that finds them continuing to hide away behind locked doors despite the reality of the resurrection. For when Thomas meets the resurrected Jesus there is a true recognition of who Jesus is, and Thomas boldly declares it, exclaiming, “My Lord and my God!” This declaration is every bit the equal to that of Peter’s statement that Jesus is, “the Christ, the Son of the Living God” that we regularly hold up as the epitome of revelation.

Thomas believed because he saw. It may be harder for us to believe because we don’t have the opportunity to see the risen Christ in the same way that the disciples did. Yet, as our reading states, these things have been written so that we might believe, and Jesus comments that those who believe even when they do not see are blessed.

Prayer

Loving God,
I believe in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen; help my unbelief.
Give me the wisdom and grace to proclaim him as my Lord and my God,
the Saviour of the world, in all I do and say.
This I pray in his name.
Amen.