(All our songs this morning are from Singing the Faith (StF) numbers will be given where available)
Welcome to our Sunday Service, this week comes courtesy of The Vine at Home and Twelve Baskets
Click on the blue links to follow them for bible readings and associated links
Song – STF 20 – Be still for the presence of the lord
Opening Prayers
Be still, in the midst of the noise.
Be still, in the midst of the business.
Be still, in the midst of all the distractions and the other places you could be today.
Be still, for the Spirit of God is here, and is calling you to notice,
If you can just be still.
When all around is noisy and busy, help me in this moment to be still with you, O God.
Silence
When my mind is chaotic and full of wondering, help me in this moment to be sure of you,
O God.
Silence
When my soul is troubled, help me in this moment to be calmed by you, O God.
Silence
If you feel able speak these words aloud:
Still, calm and sure I come to worship you, O God.
Amen.
You may now wish to say the Lord’s Prayer in a version or translation with which
you are familiar.
Reading:
Matthew 16:21-28
Responding to the reading
There is a noticeable shift in Matthew’s Gospel at this point. Until now, Jesus has been
travelling, teaching, healing, and revealing God’s kingdom. But now he begins to speak
openly about where this journey is leading: Jerusalem, rejection, suffering, and death.
Peter, for one, cannot bear to hear it: “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.”
Who can blame him? Peter loves Jesus. He wants to protect him. He imagines that God’s
purposes should lead to victory, not vulnerability. Yet Jesus responds with surprising
sharpness: “Get behind me, Satan!”
These words can sound shocking. But perhaps Jesus is recognising something deeper
than Peter’s mistake. Peter is offering a vision of success that avoids sacrifice, a kingdom
without cost, glory without love’s vulnerability. Jesus knows there is another way. Then heturns to all the disciples and says: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
These words have sometimes been misunderstood. They have even been used to
encourage people to remain in abusive situations or to accept injustice without protest.
That cannot be what Jesus intends.
The cross was not a symbol of private suffering or quiet resignation. It was the Roman
Empire’s instrument of public oppression. To “take up your cross” is not to seek suffering
for its own sake. It is to choose the path of courageous love, even when that love comes at
a cost.
It means refusing to let fear, ego, or the pursuit of comfort become the centre of our lives.
Jesus continues: “Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their
life for my sake will find it.”
Perhaps another way of hearing this is that we lose the life built on self-protection in order
to discover the life built on love. Every one of us constructs identities around success,
reputation, certainty, or control. We spend enormous energy protecting these fragile
versions of ourselves.
But Jesus invites us into something freer. He invites us to let go of the false self that is
driven by fear and discover the true self that already belongs to God. For those of us
seeking to follow Christ today, this is deeply challenging.
The world often tells us to put ourselves first, to win every argument, to protect our own
interests, to avoid discomfort at all costs. Jesus asks something different. He asks us to
become people whose lives are shaped by compassion rather than competition, by service
rather than status, by love rather than fear.
This does not make us weak. It makes us profoundly free. So today, reflect on these
questions: —
- What are you holding onto so tightly that it prevents you from living more freely?
- Where might Christ be inviting you to choose courageous love, even if it costs you
- something?
- What does it mean for you to “take up your cross” in a way that brings life to others
- rather than burden to yourself?
Following Jesus is not about becoming less fully human. It is about becoming more fully
alive. As we loosen our grip on fear, pride, and self-protection, we discover that God’s
grace has been holding us all along.
May you have the wisdom to let go of what cannot truly satisfy, the courage to follow the
way of self-giving love, and the deep assurance that in losing yourself to the grace of God,
you will discover the life you were created to live.
Song – STF 239 – Sent by the Lord am I
Blessing
You go from this time, knowing yourself loved.
Try not to forget that, in the days and weeks to come.
You go from this place, called by the living, loving God to follow the path of discipleship.
Try not to stray from that path, in the days and weeks to come.
You go from this place, with the Spirit of God going ahead, within and around you.
May you know that to be true, this and every day,
Amen.
