Sunday Worship 25 August 2024

 
Today’s service is led by Roo Stewart

Hymn     The Canticle of the Turning  
Rory Cooney GIA © Publications 1990 OneLicence # A-734713. Sung by the Virtual Choir of Creator Lutheran Church
 
My soul cries out with a joyful shout
that the God of my heart is great
and my spirit sings of the wondrous things
that you bring to the ones who wait.
You fixed your sight on your servant’s plight
and my weakness you did not spurn.
So, from east to west shall my name be blest,
could the world be about to turn?

My heart shall sing of the day you bring;
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears for the dawn draws near
And the world is about to turn!

Though I am small, my God, my all, 
You work great things in me.
And your mercy will last  from the depths of the past 
to the end of the age to be.
Your very name puts the proud to shame
and to those who would for you yearn,
You will show your might, put the strong to flight,
for the world is about to turn.

My heart shall sing of the day you bring;
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears for the dawn draws near
And the world is about to turn!

From the halls of power to the fortress tower
not a stone will be left on stone.
Let the king beware for your justice tears 
ev’ry tyrant from his throne.
The hungry poor shall weep no more
for the food they can never earn.
There are tables spread, ev’ry mouth be fed
for the world is about to turn.

My heart shall sing of the day you bring;
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears for the dawn draws near
And the world is about to turn!

Though the nations rage from age to age
we remember who holds us fast.
God’s mercy must deliver us 
from the conqueror’s crushing grasp.
This saving word that our forebears heard 
is the promise which holds us bound.
‘Til the spear and rod can be crushed by God
who is turning the world around.

My heart shall sing of the day you bring;
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears for the dawn draws near
And the world is about to turn! 

Welcome 

Welcome to our Sunday service from the United Reformed Church. I’m Roo Stewart and part of my role as Head of Public Issues is to lead the URC’s presence at the Greenbelt Festival. The annual Greenbelt Festival is happening this weekend, where Christians, questioners, and all their friends come together to celebrate, grow, and enjoy time together, on the grounds of Boughton House near Kettering in Northamptonshire. Some will come for a day, others will travel in from guest houses and hotels, but the hardiest of us are camping on site throughout the weekend. Which explains why I’m speaking to you from inside a tent today! 

The URC runs both the youth venues and an ethical café on site. These are hugely popular places at the festival, and visitors get to experience something of the character and mission of the URC as they eat and drink, attend workshops, listen to testimonies and pray with us.

One of our contributors at Greenbelt will be preaching later in this service: Dr Anthony Reddie will be encouraging us to do the right thing, from Matthew 25. And we’ll have hymns and prayers that evoke the strong sense of justice, artistry and faith that pulses in the very heartbeat of Greenbelt.

This evening, at 6.30pm, you are invited to join us for our live online Greenbelt service where you can be part of our worship, and also get a chance to see the finished ‘blanket of dreams’, which has been stitched together from 100s of squares submitted by URC members all across the country. It promises to be a really special time.  (the link for this is at the end of the order of service.  But until then, let’s prepare our hearts for worship.

Prayers of Approach

Lord, you are the Bread of Life, so we come to you, hungry for justice, praying you will give us the bread that is the food of life,
with plenty for everyone in the kingdom of heaven.

Lord, you are the oasis of life, so we come to you, thirsty for peace,
praying you will give us a cup of your life-giving water
that will never be empty In the kingdom of heaven.

Lord, you are the host of life, so we come to you, needing to belong,
and pray you will open the door into the hearts of your people
where we will find a welcome in the kingdom of heaven.

Lord, you are the light of life, so we come to you, stripped of our identity,
praying you will clothe us today with the light of your love
that everyone will be wearing in the kingdom of heaven.

Lord, you are the healer for life, so we come to you, 
sick from doing wrong, praying you will heal us today
so we can do better tomorrow, 
forgiven and renewed for life in the kingdom of heaven.

Lord, you are the truth for life,  so we come to you as prisoners of fear,
praying you will break into our lives, with your truth unlocking the doors
and leading us from captivity into the kingdom of heaven.

Lord, your food for the world is to do the will of God, 
so may we sit at your table  with thousands who are hungry 
and break bread with you in the kingdom of heaven.

So, Lord, we pray we can eat what you eat and drink from your cup,
wearing your love as a coat, healed by grace and forgiveness,
to live free from our prisons of fear in the kingdom of heaven.

Some prayers of saying sorry to God. Please join in the words in bold.

Lord, forgive us for choosing to feast on injustice when
we believe you are Bread for the hungry.

Forgive us for fighting over the source of life when
we believe you are an oasis for the thirsty.

Forgive us for choosing to walk in the dark when
we believe you are the light for the world.

Forgive us for neglecting the good health of your creation when
we believe you are our healer and sustainer.

Forgive us if we become prisoners to the lies of the world when
we believe you are the truth that sets us free.

Your food, Lord, is to do the will of God.
So may we eat what you eat and drink from your cup
so the kingdom will come as we pray:

Our Father…

Reading     St Matthew 25:31-46

‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.  Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”  Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?”  And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”  Then he will say to those at his left hand, “You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.”  Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?”  Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’

Hymn     Heaven Shall Not Wait  
Graham Maule, John L. Bell © 1987 GIA Publications OneLicence # A-734713. Performed by Ruth and Joy Everingham and used with their kind permission.

Heav’n shall not wait for the poor to lose their patience.
The scorned to smile, the despised to find a friend.
Jesus is Lord: he has championed the unwanted.
In him, injustice confronts its timely end.

Heav’n shall not wait for the rich to share their fortunes,
The proud to fall, the elite to tend the least.
Jesus is Lord: he has shown the master’s privilege
To kneel and wash servants’ feet before they feast.

Heav’n shall not wait for the dawn of great ideas,
Thoughts of compassion divorced from cries of pain.
Jesus is Lord: he has married word and action.
His cross and company make his purpose plain.

Heav’n shall not wait for triumphant hallelujahs,
When Earth has passed and we reach another shore.
Jesus is Lord in our present imperfection.
His pow’r and love are for now and then for evermore.

Sermon     Doing the Right Thing by Dr Anthony Reddie  

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and Our Redeemer. Amen.

The theme of my sermon is doing the right thing. There’s a sense in which, right from its earliest days, there’s always been a tension in the Church between what’s more important (and obviously it’s both) but you have to choose one: is it to believe but not do the work, or to do the work but not believe?  The Church has always been clear: it’s the first but not the second. In most of the official teachings of our Church, in terms of most of our creeds – certainly in the Methodist Church – although we have a strong tradition for social justice, we still say that the means of salvation is through the scriptures in the name of Jesus. That’s how you get saved. You get saved by acknowledging the saving work of Jesus.

If you happen to do the work that Jesus calls us to do in these passages, to be in solidarity with those who are ‘the least of these’, ‘that’s great but it’s not essential’ and therefore, as I was saying earlier at the start of my talk, there’s a reason why Christianity was able to collude with empires, because in the end ‘doing the work’ isn’t necessarily what saves you… Except for this passage – which is interesting! One of the things about some of the early reformers is that they didn’t like this passage, because it seems to be ‘salvation by works’. Because when you look at the text, there’s no indication that those on the right – the sheep who do the right thing – believe the right thing. There’s nothing in the text that says that they have the right belief. What they do have is that they’re in solidarity: they do the right thing and, by doing so, it would appear that they are saved. Whereas those on the left – the goats (who may well believe – we don’t know) – don’t do the right thing.

So that seems kind of obvious: it’s clearly that we have to do the right thing to be in solidarity and to help others. But here’s the rub: that’s not quite how it works, because the truth is it’s very easy to do the right thing for all the wrong reasons, which doesn’t therefore make it right.

One of my earliest experiences of ministry was as a university student. I was part of SCM [the Student Christian Movement] and one of the things we would do is we’d go on mission over Easter. I remember we went on mission to Droitwich, which is a town not far from Worcester. We spent a week as good, righteous, radical progressive students, working alongside people all on the margins. I remember befriending a young man called Bert who had drug addictions. And of course, me and my 18-year-old… – I mean, what the hell did I know about drug addictions and trying to help him – but anyway, I was full of righteous zeal, and I was doing the right thing. I read the passage and I wanted to work alongside him to help him. But the truth is, it was transactional: I was doing that because this was my way of working out my faith. It never occurred to me that the guy I was working with might have something to teach me, because the truth is, I was there doing my good thing. I was doing the right thing, but I was doing the right thing from a paternalistic, patrician model that the Church loves to do. We love social welfare. We love to help people. We love to help those who are ‘not as quite as good’ as we are; people who maybe are having a hard time. All of it is well meaning, but it’s still paternalistic and the power still lies with the people who are doing good.

To be clear, that’s not to say that doing good is not good, but it’s still problematic. The key thing I’ve learned from this passage over the years has been this radical sense that it’s not that we do it because it makes us feel good or does something for us. We work in solidarity and do the right thing because it’s in doing that that we find Christ. It’s interesting, if you look at the text, that what is revealed in working alongside those who are the least of us is Christ. That’s a radical idea that the Church has never embraced right from its early stages, even though it’s right up front and centre in the text.

In most of our official teachings, we say that we meet Christ in our official liturgy, so in bread and wine we meet Christ. Such is the significance of that, that in many of our traditions – obviously not so much in the URC – but certainly in the Methodist Church and certainly in Episcopal churches, only certain hands of those who are set apart are deemed holy enough in order to say the requisite prayers that then reveals God in Christ in those elements. A key insight of liberation theologies has been that actually that’s not to say that God is not present in bread and wine, or present in sacrament, but it’s to say that human life is also a sacrament, in those that are the least of these, those whose bodies we often see as being transgressive, that seem problematic, the ones who don’t turn up at Greenbelt because they can’t afford to come: it’s in the lives of those ordinary people who are the least of these that we find Christ. Actually, I would go even further and say if we are not finding Christ in them, we’re not finding Christ at all.

Doing the right thing is not a transactional thing that we do because, somehow, it’s about us. It’s actually a fundamental question of where are we looking in order to see where Christ is present in the world. Here’s the key thing: if we really believe that Christ was present in those who are the least of these, we would treat the least of these very differently. If we really believe that not only was God present in Christ in bread and wine, in sacraments, in holy and distinct things that we say are ordinary but made extraordinary by the power of the Holy Spirit – I have no problem with any of that theologically – but we also believe that Christ was as present in beggars, was as present in asylum seekers, was as present as people who are in prison, was as present in those who don’t have a voice and we see as being ‘problematic’ (those we patronise and want to help them, but don’t really see as being as important) – if we really believe that, think of how different the world would be.

If we really believe that Christ was present in them, we wouldn’t send one asylum seeker or refugee off to Rwanda. If we really believe that God was present in the least of these, then our penal system would be different. If we really believe that Christ was present in the poor, then our taxation system would be different, rich people would pay their taxes and we would have proper distribution of resources. This is a revolutionary text, because in not seeing Christ in the ‘other’, in the ones who are the least of these, I would say that we are not seeing God at all. The challenge is: are we prepared to genuinely do the right thing? To genuinely do the right thing is to be alongside those who are the least of these because it’s a just act to do, and not simply because it’s a nice bit of social welfare that fits into our forms of paternalism, and simply helping the ‘others’ because we feel somehow it makes us feel virtuous.

That’s as much a challenge for me, so it’s easy for me to say it and much harder for me to do it. But every time I read this text, I see it as a judgment on myself because while I would like to confidently believe that I’m on the right (it’s interesting that it’s the only time I’m ever on the right by the way – every other time I’m always on the left!) but to be on the right side, which, however we understand that, cannot be in any other way than being in solidarity with those who are the least of these.

It’s easy to worship a God we can’t see and despise those people that we can see because they’re not our type of people. So let us do the right thing, but do the right thing in the spirit of searching for Christ in the least and the lost and the lonely in the name of Christ.  Amen.

Hymn     The Reign of God Like Farmer’s Field
Sr Delores Duffner © 2003 GIA Publications Ltd OneLicence # A-734713. Sung by Tim McNabb and used with his kind permission.
 
The reign of God, like farmer’s field,
Bears weeds along with wheat;    
The good and bad are intertwined    
Till harvest is complete.    

Like mustard tree, the reign of God 
From tiny seed will spread,    
Till birds of every feather    
Come to nest, and there be fed.            

Though hidden now, the reign of God 
May, yet unnoticed, grow;    
From deep within it rises up,    
Like yeast in swelling dough.    

The reign of God is come in Christ;    
The reign of God is near.    
Ablaze among us, kindling hearts,    
The reign of God is here!    
 
Intercessions

God of majesty, creator of all. In you all things hold together. 
All things come from you. All are yours.
 
Yet you willingly set aside the splendour of heaven
to become like us and live among us.
 
You are the hungry. You are the thirsty.
You are the naked. You are the sick. ou are the prisoner.
 
We remember all those who are hungry and thirsty
in our homes, our neighbourhoods and our world.
 
We remember those unable to afford the essentials
in our homes, our neighbourhoods and our world.
 
We remember those who seek shelter from danger
in our homes, our neighbourhoods and our world.
 
We remember those who seek healing and relief
in our homes, our neighbourhoods and our world.
 
We remember those in prisons physical and psychological
in our homes, our neighbourhoods and our world.
 
As we share our food, our water, our essentials,
our clothes, our care and our attention, we encounter you.
 
Guide our thoughts and our words,
our actions, our giving and our presence today and all days.
 
May we seek first your ways, finding heaven in the margins,
the transcendent entirely immanent, 
God-with-us in the midst of hardship.
 
We pray for those who lead us.
Help us not fool ourselves into relying on them to do the right thing.
Help us do the right thing anyway, echoing Jesus, our best example,
our saving grace, our divine friend.
 
In a moment of stillness, we cast our unvoiced concerns upon you…
 
…knowing that you are more present in suffering and despair
than we could ever know.
 
Remain with all those who need you this day and forever. Amen.

Hymn     The Kingdom of God is Justice and Joy  
Bryn A. Rees, © 1973, Alexander Scott OneLicence  # A-734713. Sung by Paul Robinson and used with his kind permission.

The kingdom of God is justice and joy;
For Jesus restores what sin would destroy.
God’s power and glory in Jesus we know;
And here and hereafter the kingdom shall grow.

The kingdom of God is mercy and grace;
The prisoners are freed, the sinners find place,
The outcast are welcomed God’s banquet to share;
And hope is awakened in place of despair.

The kingdom of God is challenge and choice:
Believe the good news, repent and rejoice!
His love for us sinners brought Christ to his cross:
Our crisis of judgement for gain or for loss.

God’s kingdom is come, the gift and the goal;
In Jesus begun, in heaven made whole.
The heirs of the kingdom shall answer his call;
And all things cry “Glory!” to God all in all.
 
Closing Blessing

We have gathered together to share in worship.
Gathered together from different places,
circumstances and understandings. 
Gathered together to rejoice and pray and be fed. 
 
Let us go forth to live out the Gospel message. 
Let us be empowered by our time together
to keep walking the path of discipleship. 
Let us live out the Good News in our lives.
 
We have come together, and now we part, refreshed and renewed.
And as we part, let us do so comforted by the love of God,
challenged by the teachings of Jesus,
and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
 
And let us affirm our common ground
and celebrate the joy of our faith
by sharing together the grace:
 
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore. Amen.

You can join us live at 6:30pm for the URC service in the Greenbelt tent via Zoom:
Zoom Meeting ID: 965 1457 5443
Passcode: YourChurch
or click here:
 
 

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