(All our songs this morning are from Hymns & Psalms (HP) and Singing the Faith (StF) numbers will be given where available)
Welcome to our Sunday Service, today shared on paper across our circuit and with the congregation at Northcliffe LEP Church shared with the URC and has been prepared by Christine Crabtree one of our Circuit Ministers.
Click on the blue links to follow them for bible readings and associated links
Welcome
At Northcliffe and in homes around the Circuit, on Sunday and during the week, we come together to worship God who holds us in his hands.
Song – StF 363 – My Jesus, my Saviour
Prayer
God our Maker and our Lover,
you hold us in your hands,
gently cradling all creation;
tending us, nourishing us,
helping us grow.
We call your name,
thinking we are making the first move,
only to find your hands have been reaching out for us all along.
In this time of worship,
help us to put our hands in yours,
to open ourselves to you
and offer you all that we have and are,
as you have offered yourself to us.
In the name of Jesus whose hands bear the marks of his love, Amen.
Reading:
Questions to ponder:
Spend a few minutes thinking about why God twice asks Elijah what he is doing there, and why Elijah twice gives the same answer?
What has happened between the first question and answer, and the second?
Has anything changed about the way the question is asked and answered?
What answers come to you? Don’t worry about them being right or wrong, just talk to God about them.
Let’s think about the different ways God speaks to us, as we sing:
Song – StF 158 – Lord, you sometimes speak in wonders
Reading:
Hands
Hands are so important in the way we relate to other people. We shake hands when we meet people, and the handshake may become extended as we talk. Lovers hold hands as they walk along. Parents hold their children’s hands to keep them safe. We hold hands with the dying as we walk with them through their final moments. In church we used to exchange the peace before Covid put an end to it, and many of us still miss that moment of intimacy with the ones we worship with.
Those with only one hand, or no hands, may learn to use their feet as dextrously as others use their hands.
Look (on the next side) at this painting by Sieger Köder, showing the moment when Peter has sunk beneath the waves and Jesus has caught him. Look at the hands of the disciples in the boat, at how they express fear in the gripping of the side of the boat and in being held up in the air. See the hands that form the focus of the painting. Peter’s hands are clutching desperately at Jesus’ hand, which is holding firmly onto Peter’s hands and won’t let go. See the strength in that hand, and picture Jesus pulling Peter from the water and setting him safely back in the boat.
I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a preacher saying that this means we should all go out on a boat on a choppy sea and trust that Jesus will help us walk on the water. Instead, they all talk about how we can trust Jesus to be with us in our metaphorical storms, and to help us to find the courage we need to risk stepping out from where we are comfortable and trying something new with God’s help.
This being so, is it therefore a metaphorical story, told less to show a one-off miracle than to show us we can trust Jesus – was that Matthew’s intention in telling it?
Had Elijah come through storms of opposition by the followers of Baal, symbolised by the wind, earthquake and fire? Did Elijah take hold of God’s hand in the silence on the mountain? Did that change things for him? Did it give him the strength he needed to go back into the situation he was facing in Israel?
Picture yourself with Jesus – on a boat, up a mountain, at your place of work, in your living room – wherever seems best to you.
What storms are you facing?
How hard are you clutching onto Jesus?
Is he clutching you back?
Does this make a difference, or do you need something more to help you feel safe?
Tell him what you need, and watch and see what he does. Don’t rush this, but take time to be with Jesus and allow him to respond to your need.
Thank God for being there; or if you do not feel he is there for you, you might like to offer the words of Psalm 13 (here from the New Revised Standard Version) as a cry from your heart:
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me for ever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I bear pain in my soul,
and have sorrow in my heart all day long?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and answer me, O Lord my God!
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,
and my enemy will say, ‘I have prevailed’;
my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.
But I trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.
This next song is a modern reflection on Psalm 23 and the knowledge that God is with us in dark places. If you don’t have Singing the Faith, you can sing the traditional hymn.
Song – StF 626 – Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
OR StF 480/HP 70 – The Lord’s my Shepherd, I’ll not want
Thinking a bit further about God’s hands holding us, read through the words of this song by Neil Diamond.
Whose hands are these
from the album “Home before Dark” – Neil Diamond © 2008 Neil Diamond and Sony BMG Entertainment.
Whose hands are these,
that reach into a secret place?
Whose hands are these,
that brush across my sleeping face
like quiet waves
on silent shores –
whose hands are these?
These hands are yours.
Whose name is called,
to find my soul in need of care?
Whose name is called,
To answer when that need is there?
A name that sings,
whose music soars –
whose name is called?
That name is yours.
When I need peace,
a quiet that belongs to me;
to be released
from on a loud and angry sea,
I think of you;
thinking of you quiets me,
as only you can do for me.
Whose eyes are these,
that see into the place I live?
Whose eyes are these,
that show me what I’ve yet to give;
that see beyond unopened doors –
whose eyes are these?
These eyes are yours.
Where do I go,
when not a door is open wide?
What can I know,
when questions asked are unreplied?
I know of one;
one is all I need confide
to fill that place inside of me.
Whose hands are these,
that touch me when my soul is bare?
Whose hands are these,
that offer all they’ve got to share;
to show the way
and stay the course –
whose hands are these?
These hands are yours.
Prayers of intercession
Lord, you have promised to be with us; and you keep your promises, whether we are aware of your presence or not. Help us to trust in your promises as we pray for others.
We pray for those in the storms – emotional, physical, financial, ecological – that they might find your hands holding them; and that we might reach out hands of love and of practical help.
We pray for those in dark valleys – illness, bereavement, depression, anxiety – that they might find light in their darkness; and that we might be ready to light candles, torches, and beacons of hope.
We pray for those who have reached a place of safety – from war, from abuse, from fear, from hunger – that they might be healed of their trauma; and that we might provide them with safe spaces.
We pray for those in green pastures – celebrating new beginnings, new birth, good news, joyful times – that they might enjoy this time to the full; and that we might rejoice with them.
We pray for these and all God’s people as we pray together the Lord’s Prayer.
Our Father,
who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever, Amen.
Song – StF 526/HP 552 – Lord of all hopefulness, Lord of all joy
Blessing
May God, whose hands have formed us and hold us;
Jesus, whose hands bear witness to the depth of his love;
and the Spirit, who strengthens our hands to work for the kingdom,
bless us and give us peace. Amen.
