Words for Worship

Ministry Today

Welcome

 

 

Tell me did you come to church this morning happy or sad; alone or in company; in joyful expectation or dutiful remembrance.

 

 

Well last week we started to look at how we grow our faith through these ups and downs moods; these emotions born of Life’s disasters and its delights.

 

And we realised that the first name given to Christ is a great foundation for faith. Since in accepting him as ‘God with us’ we not only find his companionship but his understanding as well.

 

Therefore, knowing that Jesus knows how we feel, let us seek him

With an open mind and quiet heart. Let us hear his footsteps approaching in the words:

 

 

Most powerful Holy Spirit

Come down

Upon us

And subdue us,

 

From heaven

Where the ordinary

Is made glorious

And glory seems ordinary,

 

Bathe us

With the brilliance

Of your light

Like dew

 

 

 

Let find peace and pleasure in worshipping God

By singing

HYMN……………

 

Glory belongs to the Lord God creator and maker of all

Praise belongs to God on high, who stoops down low to meet us

Power belongs to the Spirit who is both wisdom and peace

 

 

Let us pray

 

Generous God, you measure value in terms of love, mercy and hope rather than bank accounts, shares and property. And so we come before you today as members of this faith community with treasures both in our hearts and in our hands, trying to establish the proper equilibrium of being human.

 

For we do feel we need to be sure of our sense of security yet we want to be charitable, to our church and organisation that make the world better. We remember too Jesus telling us to store riches in heaven not on earth, however we do not wish to be a burden to anyone.

So with hands, heads and hearts now full with all the things you present us with, we give ourselves to you once again, giving thanks for this past week and all its experience. We also set before you all that we have planned for the coming week, which may, or may not come to pass.

 

Enable us then at each decision along the way to make a touching place with you; to reconnect with what is truly worthy and worshipful and always to be aware of the danger of become lesser people out of our lesser steps, rather than greater people in your greater sight.

And so we pray again together:

 

Our Father which art in Heaven

Hallowed be thy name

Thy Kingdom come

Thy will be done on earth

As it is in heaven

 

Gives this day our daily bread

And forgive us our debts

As we forgive our debtors

 

And lead us not into temptation

But deliver us from evil

For thine is the Kingdom

The power and the glory for ever

 

Amen

 

They say that when Marconi, the inventor of radio, was born he had huge ears. To which his father is reported to have remarked – with those ears he will hear the world. Well, our childhood ambitions rarely bear repeating in adulthood; which, sometimes, is a pity, other times it’s a mercy and on most occasions its just acceptance of reality.  Well, this morning we are about to hear someone speak confidently about his childhood ambition but now he is aged 30.  

 

And if you would please judge for yourself wither that was a pity or a mercy or in fact a reality.

 

Our foundation text for this morning is read to us by……..

 

(Luke  4.14-22)

 

As you know we have been trying to see how the names that Jesus received help us in the faith growing business. And here in this lesson we see the basis of two new titles given to our Lord. The first is healer and the second is liberator.

 

Certainly, we hope that our faith will provide us with healing and with freedom. Yet we come to this lesson about freedom and health with all sort of doubts.  And high above most of them is that question which stands either as a bar or a signpost at the cross-roads for our current faith development. It is highlighted by this folk tale.

 

 

 

The French have a story about a millionaire in his palace who spent his days counting his gold. Beside the palace was a poor cobbler who spent his days singing as he repaired people's shoes. The joyful singing irritated the rich man. One day he decided to give some gold coins to the cobbler. At first the cobbler was overjoyed, and he took the coins and hid them. But then he would be worried and go back to check if the coins were still there. Then he would be worried in case someone had seen him, and he would move the coins and hide them in another place. During all this, he ceased to sing. Then one day he realized that he had ceased to sing because of the gold coins. He took them back to the rich man and said, "take back your coins and give me back my songs."

 

For surely the question of the hour is what do you need healed from and what burden must you have lifted away. Because, how we perceive the way God is dealing with the subsequent answer will either erode our individual faith or growing our individual faith.

 

HYMN……………………

 

 

Well, it is one thing to have ambition but it is quite another to be able do anything with it. As we have already heard Jesus aspired to be known as someone who was a healer.  And to his prove himself worthy of that name, he went out and did just that – he healed someone.

 

And here to read to us of Christ the healer is………….

 

Mark 9.17-24

 

Isabel Scott will now lead our meditation upon Christ the healer and his healing of the boy and the boy in us:

 

(Isabel Scott)

 

 

Anthem

 

There are a number of documentaries at the moment about the events of 20 years ago. For that was the momentous year of 1989 which even now few of us realise was a turning point of history. Because it was in that year I saw something I was certain I would never see in my lifetime. And that was people walking to freedom through the scar across Europe known as the Berlin Wall. Today, of course the divide of the Iron Curtain has been healed so well it is hard to find where the watch-towers and electric fences and autoshutz-gerat – the automatic machine guns - were.  Freedom and healing then has gone hand in hand in our own lifetimes.

 

Yet there were times when it was touch and go. Remember when the solidarity movement gained a momentum in Poland in the early 80’s and the Soviet Union effectively enforced a clamp down. It was then few of us in the west had faith that we should see those dissidents again.

 

Yet just before Lech Walesa, the first leader of solidarity, was placed under house arrest, he was interviewed. During it he was asked if he was afraid. He replied that he was afraid of no one but God. He went on to say;

 

Someone could say that because Christ was crucified, it means he lost because he was crucified. But he’s been winning for 2000 years. The fact that I lose today because someone breaks my Jaw, or hangs me, does not mean I have ultimately lost. It only means I have only lost in this instant. But whatever happens later will prove the greater victory.  And in faith I can say our victory is certain.

 

Lech Walesa served as the President of a now free Poland from 1990 until 1995.

 

People like that are impressive, inspiring and shockingly challenging. But on the other hand such strength can only highlight our own weakness and irresolute faith. Since, it is all too easy to feel that Christ is not present in our current situation; that the church is indeed holed below the waterline and that Christians are no better and sometimes worse than non-believers.

It is then in the quiet moonlight of night, belief deserts us, hope melts away and any answer give by daylight now only breeds more questions.

 

Questions like - how do we as ordinary mortals participate in the good news of healing that Jesus brought and used so effectively. Moreover, how can we have the strength of faith that will allow us to enjoy the healing that the gospel promises?

 

Well our starting point must be the fact that Christ has another role than just healer; for, he is also known as liberator; liberator, at one level, by liberating us from our ills. But he is also a liberator in a deeper sense. Because, we need to be freed from cynicism, doubt and the fear that prevents faith development. Moreover, we need to be shocked into the freshness of freedom.

 

HYMN…………………

 

Recently I heard to pictures described. One was of the figure in Jesus' story of the rich man whose crops produced so abundantly that he decided to pull down his barns and build bigger ones, and he said to his soul, "Soul, eat, drink, and have a great time, for tomorrow you die." The caption under this painting said: "The Failure that Looked Like Success." The other painting, the companion painting, was of Jesus dying on the cross, the crown of thorns on his head, his chin drooping against his chest, the crude nails in his hands, and all his friends off somewhere in hiding. The caption under this picture said: "The Success that Looked Like Failure."

 

And the point that is being made here is that Jesus does things in different, unusual even shocking ways. He bring success by a strange measure, he offers his good news in unexpected and sometimes shocking ways and he gifts healing and freedom by novel and surprising methods.

 

And so we need to be open to the event of healing and the offering of liberation. For, when we listen to Jesus, we realize that curing and freeing and even fulfilling really don’t occur when and where we often expect them to. They aren't the direct result of anything we can do to attain them. Instead, they're a gift from God and they simply happen when we are do the right things in our lives; when we have faith in the right person and when we are keep ourselves open to be pleasantly shocked . Since as it has been said to many who feel the have failed in the face of fear, affliction and captivity; in God's eyes it is a whole lot better to be a success that looks like failure than a failure that looks like success.

Or as Bilbo Baggins recites in the Lord of the Rings:  

All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost.

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring.

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.

 

Next we need grasp the idea that Christ came not condemn or punish or to inflict. Instead he came primarily to bring the freedom that is inherent in a curing. For, if do really get out heads round that, we see we have an ally against all that causes fear and despondency; all that creates oppression of the soul and disease of the body; all that chains and blinds and is bad news.

And, if that was not the case, why should he have chosen to read about healing and liberation to his home audience; a crowd likely to his most critical listeners?  Indeed, if he did not come to earth in curative and liberating love why did he called us salt of the earth?

 

Because an ancient king once asked his three daughters how much they loved him. One daughter said she loved him more than all the gold in the world. One said she loved him more than all the silver in the world. The youngest daughter said she loved him more than salt. The king was not pleased with this answer. But the cook overheard the conversation, so the next day he prepared a good meal for the king, but left out the salt. The food was so insipid that the king couldn't eat it. Then he understood what his daughter meant. He understood the value of salt.

If then we want to find healing and freedom today, let us too understand the value of being loved like salt.

 

A minister called at a parish home recently. The door was opened by the house’s his six year old son. Come in said the Lad – mum is in the kitchen and dad is in the garage – they will be through in a minute. The minister sat for a while and then asked the boy what he wanted to be when he grew up. The child replied – I want to be possible! Utterly perplexed the clergyman queried – what do you by being possible. Well, all the time my mother says I am impossible.

 

Well, finally today, we must believe in the impossible being possible. We must do as the father we heard of this morning did. For here was a man at his wits end with the impossibility of finding a cure for an ill child. He was utterly desperate that his son be liberated from his affliction. Yet he wasn’t sure Christ was man enough for the job. So opened the bidding it what seemed impossible stakes by saying before Jesus;

 

I believe. Help my unbelief.

 

And my goodness, wasn’t he well rewarded for the little faith he had; for, his son was restored to him

 

Put another way, we too increase our larder of faith when we cast as much faith as we have at the problem and just believe. Or it has often been remarked to those who are looking for God but don’t know where to start – Give as much of yourself to as much of God as you can!

 

 

 

Jean Donavan, one of the four women missionaries killed in 1979 in El Salvador felt called to the poor of Latin America. So she left her comfortable suburban existence in Ohio and gave her life to serve people who are still captives of oppression. Home on leave, she knew it is dangerous to go back. But more than anything in the world she wanted to bring healing and liberation to a suffering people so she returned once last time.

 

Few of us are up to being Jean Donovans or Lech Walesas or Martin Luther Kings. Yet if we contain our fear and look to Christ to bring us healing whether physical, emotional or spiritual, we at least follow their example of allowing Jesus’ to minister. In having even a little faith – we respond to his call to bear witness to his healing and we will be rewarded beyond measure. And if we align our own wills to his freeing us from what is afflicting and binding and undermining, we invite in Christ’s power over our minds and bodies. Indeed, we risk being stunned by his reaching out and saying Believe I can do little and I will do much; believe that I can heal and I will heal; bleive that you will be free and free you surely will be!

 

 

Amen

Offering

 

HYMN……………

 

(offering)

 

 

Let us ask in gratitude for the healing and liberation for our fellow human beings.

 

Let us pray

 

 

Holy Spirit of God, You inspire men and women to seek and find you throughout the generations and you do not hide from us, but sometimes we find you in what we consider unlikely places that you put us in.

 

So in a place where we expect to meet you, we bring our prayers for those in the world who, in different ways are searching and leading a search.

 

In particular we ask for those who search for the meaning of life, when purposes are few, direction unclear, and voices many, that they might know our concern and commitment.  Indeed, still small voice of God, be heard above and below the clamour of the world and let Heaven’s song be celebrated, the good news told and truth rejoiced in, as people of our time are  enabled to understand your answer and their questions.

 

We pray for those whose journeys are both long and hard, as they travel through pain, deprivation, injustice or grief. May they encounter healing, generosity, mercy and companionship on the road. Set Good Samaritans on their road who will share their struggle and bring them to a safe destination in your presence, and may we willingly volunteer for the task.

 

Finally, we pray for those who have lost their way, their sense of self, their treasure.  Because we know some ending up in prison or in loneliness; others have arrived in hospitals and hostels whilst still more just betray their principles and all those who love them, and then suffer the guilt. As a result, they wander through our communities bumping into life, never enjoying  only enduring:

 

Therefore for all this day who need healing and liberation, we plead -

Lord God, lead them to the place where they catch a glimpse of what you offer in our living. Moreover, help them to search for a fulfilling moment. For we know they will find you there; ready to embrace them in peace, curing and freedom.

 

 

Amen

 

Let us now meditate personally on what we asking of God in this moment…  

 

 

Church News

 

 

Detailed discussion of notes

 

 

Beginners choir

 

 

 

 

 

Hymn…………………..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Healer & Liberator