Matthew 16:13-20

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’ Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Reflection

I’m a Christian Despite…the Enlightenment and the Church pretending it never happened!

Christian faith is not ‘normal’ and yet much of church life is conducted as if it is.  We can’t authentically pretend we are atemporal exiles from our culture.  We live in a post war (and post-holocaust) world where the misplaced optimism that believed in inevitable human progress is no longer possible.  The changing world drove churches either into the arms of Barth and his followers, or to fundamentalism.

Then came post-modernity, which a disoriented Church seized upon ravenously, twisting to mean that since all was thrown open to question (including those things that made faith difficult) we could pretend that the Enlightenment hadn’t happened at all.  So we sing the old hymns, pray in the old ways, and enforce the old creeds with renewed fervour even when we barely understand them.

But post-modernity means having passed through those ‘modern’ Enlightenment times. It doesn’t mean we can pretend they never happened.  It’s simply not possible to believe as if we were in the (apparently?) simpler times of pre-modern faith. We may still use the same language as metaphor or poetry, but we cannot honestly pretend that we understand the same as the ancients did. Though that is what we in the Church, most of the time, seem to do.  A lot of the time I find that disturbing, uncomfortable, and difficult.

The edifice of Christian faith is, if we are honest, ‘under erasure’… meaning that we still hear the whispers of divine longing for humanity; we are still enlivened by these Gospel stories but the metaphysical and cosmological scaffolding in which we encased them has melted away. 

So, why do I remain a Christian? Well, because of longing and desire: the ‘God shaped hole’ of Augustinian sloganising, the dream of a Kingdom announced, begun, and expected.  These stories are lifegiving and, in them, I meet one who is named in Jesus, but really cannot be named.  In them I find not constraint, but generativity and life; a garden not a fortress.

Prayer

God of yesterday, today and forever:
named in ancient scriptures, and yet beyond our naming,
known in Jesus, and yet beyond knowing:

We are not in exile, but people of our time and place,
afraid to stray afar from the truth of what our forebears knew,
yet knowing that we live in different paradigms,
to us not exile nor wilderness nor (yet) promised land – but a home we are still exploring.

Give us humility and faithfulness.
Give us grace to be disciples and truthful makers of meaning in our age and place. Amen.

Worship Matters 

Dear Friends,

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

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

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

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

This week our notes have been provided by the Rev’d Fiona Bennett, Minister of Augustine United Church in Edinburgh.  As you know Fiona served as Moderator of Assembly until July this year.  Fiona offers an all age activity based on the idea of family resemblance as a way in to thinking about the Church as God’s family.   In her sermon notes Fiona suggests we can find some comfort in the fact that a hero of the faith like Moses needed some encouragement and muses on how, just as in Jesus’ time, it’s hard to avoid systems and structures which deny God.  All the prayers needed for the service are there as are a range of hymns to explore.

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

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

Finally, each week we provide sample prayers of intercession.  Worship leaders for the Daily Devotion services prepare their material months in advance and so we like to also offer intercessions which reference the readings but also draw in current events.  This week’s prayers have been written by the Rev’d Helen Everard.  They can be downloaded here.

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

with every good wish

Andy

The Rev’d Andy Braunston
Minister for Digital Worship
 

I am still a Christian…despite the Church cosying up to power

1 Samuel 8 1-21

When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel.  The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beer-sheba. Yet his sons did not follow in his ways, but turned aside after gain; they took bribes and perverted justice. Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, ‘You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.’  But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, ‘Give us a king to govern us.’ Samuel prayed to the Lord,  and the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.  Just as they have done to me, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they are doing to you.  Now then, listen to their voice; only—you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.’  So Samuel reported all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king.  He said, ‘These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots;  and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plough his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots.  He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his courtiers.  He will take one-tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and his courtiers.  He will take your male and female slaves, and the best of your cattle and donkeys, and put them to his work.  He will take one-tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves.  And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the Lord will not answer you in that day.’  But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; they said, ‘No! but we are determined to have a king over us,  so that we also may be like other nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.’  When Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord.

Reflection

“The prevailing ideas in every epoch are those of the ruling class” (Karl Marx).

And how easily the Church has fallen into line, nearly each and every time.

It wasn’t always like this.

The opening chapters of Acts, especially four, shows the Jesus movement as a communist community of equals, underpinned by mutual aid and a focus on the Kingdom.

What it wasn’t was an emollient cheerleader for the High Priest or the Emperor.

Since then, the Church’s leadership, irrespective of denomination, location, or time period, has all too often suppressed its inconvenient truths (except,  ironically, in so-called Communist regimes), the better to live according to the flesh of control and domination.

In the UK, most of our churches are hot on tackling the symptoms, but oh-so-cold on addressing the causes, of societal ills, including monarchy (1 Samuel 11-18), capitalist economics and establishment political structures (eg bishops in the House of Lords).

However, the reason I do not despair is because of the URC and the wider Protestant movement in this country.

With a proud tradition of prophetic activism from the seventeenth century onwards (think Levellers, Diggers, Fifth Monarchists – ” No King but Jesus” etc), we are the most inclined to question, debate, and agitate about witnessing to the Kingdom against the overwhelming economic,  political, and social power of big business, the military-industrial complex and their very many apologists and hangers-on.

I’m so thrilled to see an intensification of this prophetic disobedience and resistance, with new Bible-based initiatives such as the Joint Public Issues Team and YourChurch aligning alongside older, but reviving, groups such as Christian CND.

The Kingdom presses in with a new urgency and the Spirit looks to us to stop our compromising. I’m excited and expectant!

Prayer

Revolutionary Christ!
You are the true expression 
Of the truest power – 
The love of God.
Let us not be charmed by the serpent of polite acceptance by the rich 
Rather shatter our earthly compromises,
Our fear of being ‘not one of us’
Because we are really one of you,
Builders of your Kingdom,
Fearless in our love of your love of us.
Amen

Tuesday 17th October 2023
 

1 Peter 2: 9-17
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people,  in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.

Once you were not a people,
    but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
    but now you have received mercy.

Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul.  Conduct yourselves honourably among the Gentiles, so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honourable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge. 

For the Lord’s sake accept the authority of every human institution, whether of the emperor as supreme, or of governors, as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right.  For it is God’s will that by doing right you should silence the ignorance of the foolish. As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil.  Honour everyone. Love the family of believers.  Fear God. Honour the emperor.

Reflection
There must be times when all of us fail to fit into world around us, when we do not feel part of the ‘holy race’. My first experience of feeling “other” was when my family moved from Yorkshire to Lancashire when I was just three.  Apparently on my first evening in the new house I wailed “I want to go home”.  When I was told “this is home” the wails became uncontrollable sobs.  Then, just another three years later, we moved again – to South Wales.  I felt very much like an alien; the only other English child in my junior school was my brother.

It’s hard to know you sound different, are ignorant of local geography, are singled out.

This was just the beginning of failing to fit in – a girl who likes science; a Christian in a largely secular world, a woman who married another woman.
 
Sometimes the Church has been a home and a haven when I have felt ‘other’.  My local church in Wales made me so welcome that now I have moved back to Wales as an adult I feel I have come home.  Sometimes, however,  people in the Church have found it hard to come to terms with my differences, or the differences of other people I know, and we have felt like outsiders.
 
I am still a Christian because at their best the people who follow Jesus Christ know that even with our differences we are all ‘God’s own people’.

The first letter of “Peter” was written to a scattered community of resident aliens facing discrimination, or possibly even state persecution. The writer reminds us of our identity in Christ, and of our duty to live in ways which honour God. In our treatment of the other – even the other who might seek to persecute us  – we have a chance to show the truth of the Gospel : ‘Honour everyone. Love the family of believers. Fear God’.

The final phrase is a real challenge ‘Honour the emperor’. Even those very people who would exclude us and deny us are to be honoured, if we believe that we are all God’s children.
 
Prayer
God of all,
to those who need a safe haven, you offer the arms of love
to those who hate or misunderstand others, you offer the challenge of love
to all, if we lash out or we cut others off, you offer forgiveness.
So fill your Church with grace 
that we may welcome the other, 
love and honour all your children 
and live up to our calling as God’s own people.
In the holy name of Jesus  Amen.
 

 
Today’s service is led by the Revd Wayne Hawkins

 
Call to Worship
 

No matter your name you have a place here.   Every name equally valuable.  Every name holding the sacred.  No name is greater  and no name is less important. Every name is spoken and heard and the one 
behind that name loved and held dear.  Let us worship.
 
Hymn    Jesus Calls us Here to Meet Him
Graham Maule, John L. Bell, © 1989 WGRG / The Iona Community 
(admin. GIA Publications, Inc.) sung by Matt Beckingham and used with his kind permission.
 

Jesus calls us here to meet him    
as, through word & song & prayer,   
we affirm God’s promised presence    
where his people live and care.   
Praise the God 
who keeps his promise;    
praise the Son who calls us friends;   
praise the Spirit who, among us,    
to our hopes and fears attends.    
 
 
Jesus calls us to confess him    
Word of life and Lord of all,   
sharer of our flesh and frailness,    
saving all who fail or fall.   
Tell his holy human story;    
tell his tales 
that all may hear;   
tell the world that Christ in glory    
came to earth to meet us here.    

I’m not ashamed to own my Lord,
or to defend his cause,
maintain the honour of his Word,
the glory of his Cross.
 
Jesus, my God! I know his name,
his name is all my trust;
nor will he put my soul to shame,
nor let my hope be lost.
 
Firm as his throne 
his promise stands,
and he can well secure
what I’ve committed to his hands
’til the decisive hour.
 
Then will he own 
my worthless name
before his Father’s face,
and in the new Jerusalem
appoint my soul a place.

Reading        Matthew 22:1-17
 
Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.  He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
 
“Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
 
“But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business.  The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.  The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.  So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’  So, the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
 
“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.  He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.
 
“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
 
“For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
 
Hymn    For Everyone Born a Place at the Table
Shirley Erena Murray (1966) Hope Publishing Co sung by the Beyond the Walls Choir 
 

For everyone born, 
a place at the table,
for everyone born, 
clean water and bread,
a shelter, a space, 
a safe place for growing,
for everyone born, 
a star overhead.
 
And God will delight 
when we are creators
of justice and joy, 
compassion and peace:
yes, God will delight 
when we are creators
of justice, justice and joy.
 
For woman and man, 
a place at the table,
revising the roles, 
deciding the share,
with wisdom and grace 
dividing the power,
for woman and man, 
a system that’s fair. 
 
For young and for old, 
a place at the table,
a voice to be heard, 
a part in the song,
the hands of a child 
in hands that are wrinkled,
for young and for old, 
the right to belong. 
 
For queer and for straight, 
a place at the table,
for trans and for gay, 
a welcoming place,
a rainbow of race 
and gender and colour,
for queer and for straight,
the chalice of grace.
 
For everyone born, 
a place at the table,
to live without fear, 
and simply to be,
to work, to speak out, 
to witness and worship,
for everyone born, the right to be free.

Address
 
Beyond our understanding You alone are God;
You speak to a world of brutal rule and shallow indifferences,
of arms fairs and reality shows: may the one who came to sit at table
with the victimized and excluded disturb our barren peace
and call us to another feast where only love may rule;
through Jesus Christ, the bridegroom. Amen ¹
 
Frequently in film, literature and drama, weddings are the setting for a joyful resolution, when lovers overcome the many hurdles on their journey to the altar, or the final scene in an unfolding tragedy.  The same in scripture – in the Hebrew Scriptures Isaiah imagines a feast of fine wine and choicest food where God overcomes death and invites people from every nation to one table.  And Jesus, when he imagines God’s reign will end history, it is a story of a king hosting a splendid wedding feast.
The banquet is ready, everything is prepared and the king, perhaps somewhat self-contented, summons the guests to attend.  Surprisingly, some simply ignore the invite and head out of town.  Others beat the king’s messengers and so the king sends an army to wipe out the invited guests.  And in their place, he invites guests from the highways and byways, both good and bad.
 
Matthew, Luke and the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas recount this same parable but with different outcomes.  In Luke, the stand-in guests are the poor, disabled, blind and lame, the epitome of Luke’s Jesus.  In the Gospel of Thomas there is nothing very elaborate but a simple dinner.  The guests refuse the invitation because it conflicts with their business interests and offshore investments.
 
A number of years ago my wife and I were invited to attend a garden party at Buckingham Palace.  The invitation came “The Lord Chamberlain is commanded by Her Majesty…” Along with the invitation came instructions about what to say if you are greeted individually, where to park and importantly the dress code for the day.  As you can imagine the dress code necessitated some serious shopping, not least for a new hat.  The day was sunny and warm as we parked along the Mall and my wife held  on to her new hat.  In the garden party itself we stood on the grass, while members of the Royal Family walked along the paths towards the marquee where they too would have tea.  We watched as the late Prince Philip came our direction and we overheard his conversations.  “Where are you from?”  “What do you do?”  I had already nudged my wife to point out someone not conforming to the dress code and the Duke noticed too.  “Where’s your hat?” he asked, “has it blown off?”
 
Thankfully no-one was asked to leave the Buckingham Palace garden party and the day went off smoothly.  The helpful thing about parables is that they rarely answer our questions, or certainly not directly.  However much we want to read them like a divine version of the Morse code, they behave more like dreams or poems instead, delivering their meaning in images that talk more to our hearts than our heads.  Parables are mysterious, and their mystery has everything to do with their longevity. Left alone, they teach us something different every time we hear them, speaking across great distances of time and place and understanding.
 
A parable washes over you like a wave full of life and light, but an explanation lets you know where you stand.  An explanation gives you something to work with, a tool with which to improve yourself and the condition of the world.   
 
No one can say for sure how accurate a reporter Matthew is, but one thing is certain: He warms up to any parable that has to do with judgement and decision!  Matthew is the street preacher with a sandwich board shouting at passers-by “the end of the world is coming!” When compared to the simpler – perhaps earlier – versions of this parable Matthew’s uncomfortable re-telling may point to his intention.  
 
Of all the gospels, Matthew is the only one who waxes eloquent about the end of the world, the only one who mentioned furnaces, weeping and gnashing of teeth.  His is the only gospel that tells the story of the foolish and wise virgins, or the separating of the sheep and the goats, the wheat and the weeds.  It is Matthew who adds the details about war against those who reject the invitation and the party-pooper who gets turned out of the party.  Matthew is the only gospel writer who appears to want a clear-cut creation, in which things are black or white, good or bad, faithful or faithless, in or out.  The conflict with the original guests and reference to fire might allude to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD.  So Matthew tries to pull Jesus’ teaching forward into the new circumstances that for his community have been hard to handle.  And in making the simple parable into an allegory stretches the time frame so that the banquet is served in the midst of the smouldering ruins.
 
On one hand the parable makes us apprehensive and on the other gives us reassurance.  We read into the parable that not all who believe themselves to be guests at God’s banquet belong there.  We see that the host will go to great lengths, and look in improbable places, to extend an invitation.  This host is the same farmer who had a sheep that got lost.  They left the ninety-nine in the wilderness and searched for the one.  This is the same host as the farmer who scattered seed on the path, among the thorns, on stony ground and in good soil.  This is the same host who when the harvest needed bringing in and everyone – whether they worked all day or just an hour at the end of the day – was paid the same. This is God’s table…  We understand that the only credential good enough for life in the kingdom is transformation.  We find comfort in the promise that the images of a destroyed city, a torn down holy place; a crucified messiah are replaced and overcome with images of wedding feast.
 
Life in God’s kingdom begins with an invitation, but that is not the conclusion.  Accepting the invitation leads to a changed and transformed life.  The unrobed guest does not show the changed life at the banquet, his downfall comes when asked by the host to explain his appearance and he has nothing to say.  We are invited to find our place at the table in the words of Colossians “clothed yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”   
 
Hymn    Great is thy Faithfulness
Thomas O Chisholm 1923 BBC Songs of Praise
 
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
there is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
as Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be.
 
Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
all I have needed Thy hand hath provided:
great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
 
Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest;
sun, moon, and stars in their courses above
join with all nature in manifold witness
to Thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love.
 
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow:
blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!
 
Prayers of Intercession
          
A prayer entitled “On earth as in heaven” from the 1986 URC Prayer Handbook, which focuses our attention on the gospel reading in Matthew.
 
Where are you, Jesus? Enthroned in glory? Receiving the alleluias of the saints?
 
Yes, Lord, that’s where you are for you are worthy to receive all honour and power. 
 
Where are you, Jesus? Still washing our feet? Still in prison, still hungry,
still without a home?
 
Yes, Lord, this is also where you are, for you have promised  never to abandon your humble and poor.
 
Lord, whilst still longing to be with you 
as those who hunger no more and thirst no more;
whilst cherishing the time 
when you will wipe away all tears from our eyes;
help us never to lose sight  of the vast need on earth
for food, for shelter, for health and peace.
 
As in heaven one shout of praise resounds so on earth may we act as one
to destroy the evils of greed and injustice, allowing your kingdom to come and your will to be done.²
 
When labels of traditional or progressive blind us to seeing the wisdom in others, clear our vision until we are open to change.  As you call us; Lord, we come.
 
When powerful influences distract us or lead us astray,
may we hear the quiet whisper of your wisdom.
May our homes and routines be the territory of your kingdom,
where your purpose guides, and your love rules.
As you call us; Lord, we come.
 
When we stand against cruelty  and unfairness or disease,
we pray for the comfort and healing of your presence.
As you call us; Lord, we come.
 
Thank you for the honour of being invited to your feast;
transform and change us as by your grace we take our place. 
 
We join together in saying the Lord’s Prayer:
 
Offertory Prayer
 
Creator God, 
we bring to you what is already yours,
for you to use our gifts and each of us as the givers 
to make your love known in your world.  
Amen
 
Hymn    O Jesus, I have Promised
              John Earnest Bode 1869 sung by members of the Somerset Mendip Methodist Circuit
 

Blessing
 
God – Creator, Redeemer, Keeper, 
You have made us in your image.
 
Though we are many, 
through Christ we are one: 
each of us bringing gifts, 
skills, and passions,
our individual selves  
in response to your call. 
 
Bless us, this day, 
as we seek to be your people, 
loving and serving you,
our neighbours, 
and all creation, 
as we pray your kingdom come.

This material is only for use in local churches not for posting to websites or any other use.  Local churches must have copyright licences to allow the printing and projection of words for hymns.

St John 4:4-30
But Jesus had to go through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’.  (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.)  The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’  The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?   Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’   Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,  but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’  The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’

Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come back.’  The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, “I have no husband”;  for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!’  The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet.  Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.’  Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.  You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.  But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’  The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’  Jesus said to her, ‘I am he, the one who is speaking to you.’

Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, ‘What do you want?’ or, ‘Why are you speaking with her?’ Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, ‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’  They left the city and were on their way to him.

Reflection
I was brought up in a home where all forms of prejudice were challenged but at church I encountered both sexism and misogyny.

The most damaging incidents were at the youth group.  My expressions of interest in ministry were met with: “you’re a girl! Girls are not clever enough.  It’s not allowed –  just read the Bible!”  This shocked me. Why would God not want me?  Am I not made in God’s image?  So many questions.  To jump many years forward, yes, God wants me – not despite the fact I am female but, as a woman, I am also made in the very image of God.  

As I have travelled along life’s journey,  one of my biblical heroes became the woman at the well.  Jesus sought her out, broke all social protocol, and did not judge her.  It angers and saddens me that the most common response to her, even now, is “she was a whore, a woman of ill repute.”  She lived in a time and place where women belonged first to their fathers then to their husbands.  Circumstance gave her no choice but to live, shunned, on the margin of society.  It was to her Jesus turned to bring people to him seeing in her a deep strength, an open willingness, a true faith.  For me she was the first female minister, and her strength gives me strength.  

For a long time, I failed to understand why John did not name her.   Despite still encountering sexism I have answered my call.  Through training at the Scottish College and Aberdeen University alongside my own studies, I can now see why John did not name her.   She does not stand alone but represents all women, named or unnamed.  In not naming her John elevated her role to one that demonstrates that God calls us all regardless of gender.  For we are ALL made in the image of God.

Prayer 
God of all,
without prejudice you call us.
Give us the strength of the ‘woman at the well’,
to listen, recognise, and to answer  when you call,
to go and gather your people
 and share with them your unconditional love.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

2 Corinthians 4: 1 – 15

Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart.  We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practise cunning or to falsify God’s word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.  And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.  In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.  For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake.  For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.  We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;  persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;  always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.  For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh.  So death is at work in us, but life in you.

But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture—‘I believed, and so I spoke’—we also believe, and so we speak,  because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence.  Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

Reflection

I was a committed member of an Anglican church before working for the URC.  I began ‘my journey of exploration’ as I call it, in a Synod Office and, for the final 23 years, I worked at Church House in a number of roles.  In one respect, the URC has been the mainstay of my life for the last 25 years – and still is (much to my surprise)! However, I know many other Christians across denominations who have told me that they feel let-down and frankly disappointed having worked for a church.

Let me try to explain: when I began working for the Church, at first all was wonderful.  I felt that I could finally ‘give something back’ and be amongst people who cared about other people – all people!  There would be no ‘back-stabbing’, no prejudice of any kind, no imbalance.  After all, we were all working for the same side, weren’t we?  After 25 years when I reflect back, I can see that along the way, there have been examples of all of the above that I would not want to see again – not anywhere let alone within a Church organisation.

I had assumed, like a lot of other people, that working for a Church would be working with Christians who respected and cared about and supported each other, but there were times when it didn’t seem like that at all!  To balance this, most have been shining examples of being God’s people but every now and then …

At the end of the day, people are human beings first, created in the image of God and some hide their flaws more successfully – and of course I have to include myself in that number.  I can only seek forgiveness for my own sins and pray that those who did not truly reflect God’s love when they might have done, have also repented and sought forgiveness also.

Prayer

Father, root out the darkness and light up my life with Your holy presence. You are the only one who provides for all my needs. I have no need to turn to others for satisfaction and approval.  You alone fill up my soul with deep down joy and peace beyond all understanding.  May it always be so, my Lord and my God.   Amen.

Habakkuk  3: 17 – 19

Though the fig tree does not blossom,
    and no fruit is on the vines;
though the produce of the olive fails
    and the fields yield no food;
though the flock is cut off from the fold
    and there is no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
    I will exult in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
    he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
    and makes me tread upon the heights.

Reflection

Elie Wiesel told of rabbis imprisoned in Auschwitz putting God on trial for allowing the German genocide against His chosen people, the Jews.  After many arguments, the rabbis found God guilty – who on earth could blame them?  Then, after the verdict was delivered, a candle was lit and the evening prayers were said.

There is much in the Church demanding a guilty verdict.  Our record on anti-semitism is, perhaps, our most ancient sin vying for prime position with our sexism.  Sections of the Church justified colonial expansion and its consequent slavery.  The persecution of those who thought, or loved, differently added to our hatred and denial of God’s image in His creation – to say nothing about how our clinging to patriarchal modes of power imperils the lives and faith of women and children.  Then there’s the Church’s inability to see, and differentiate itself from, what’s going on around it.  Whilst the Earth burns – fuelled in no small measure by the wars we wage – the Church prefers to focus on the insignificant.  

Personally I’ve been wounded by sections of the Church far more than by wider social movements – and those wounds have come most deeply from the more “progressive,” “inclusive,” and “liberal,” parts of the Church far more than my Catholic childhood or charismatic Anglican teenage years (though they don’t get a not guilty verdict either!)  

So why am I still a Christian?  Millennia ago the prophet Habbakuk foresaw environmental ruin and consequent famine and yet still sung of his trust in the Most High.  Decades ago those rabbis in Auschwitz clung to faith at the same time as believing God had wronged them.  I can only admire that illogical tenacity.  I don’t believe God has wronged me – but elements of His Church have.  So for me, being a Christian is often about differentiating between God and the Church; seeing the Church as a flawed agency of God’s love always in need of radical reform.

Prayer

God of the Church
we pray for its renewing,
for You to show us where we need to reform,
where we can bind up the wounds of our world,
that we may praise you,
and cease wounding others.
Amen.