(All our songs this morning are from Singing the Faith (StF) Mission Praise (MP) & Hymns & Psalms (H&P) numbers will be given where available)
Welcome to our Sunday Service, today shared on paper across our circuit and with the congregation at Wilsden Trinity Church LEP Methodists and United Reformed worship and witness together and led by Rev Phil Drake our Circuit Superintendent Minister.
Click on the blue links to follow them for bible readings and associated links
Theme of ‘Lost and Found’ from Luke’s gospel.
Call to worship:
You are worthy, our Lord and God,
we offer you glory and honour,
for all things were created by you.
Come, let us worship the Lord,
our redeemer and sustainer.
Join in with singing or reading one of these songs:
Song – StF 24 or MP 1040 – Come now is the time to worship
Song – StF 443 or H&P 691 – Come let us sing of a wonderful love
Prayer of approach
Ever-loving Father, we come before you
as children created and called by you.
Humbly we bow before you, as those deemed worthy
of being sought and found by you when we have become lost.
May our worship be worthy of your all-redeeming love.
Amen.
Epistle reading:
Gospel reading:
Food for thought:
How far do you go in looking for something that is lost? I write this reflection just a couple of days after my family and I spent a half hour looking for missing set of car keys – only to discover them in a safe place where we might have been expected to find them – if only we had thought to look for them there in the first place! Consider the significance of searching in your life – of things you have mislaid in your daily lives. What have you lost? And perhaps a more testing question – what would you most like not to lose.
Consider now losing and finding in a much more important way. In Pakistan, following the calamitous floods which have recently wreaked havoc in that country, people have been looking for loved ones not knowing if they are alive or dead. Some have continued to search, even though they must have known in their hearts that their loved ones would not be found alive.
In today’s gospel passage are two stories from Luke 15 about lost and found – the lost coin and the lost sheep. One is about a man who is searching, the other about a woman, but both follow the same pattern: losing, seeking, finding, gathering of friends and neighbours, and finally a time of rejoicing. Our lives stand as evidence of God’s own searching and finding – they witness to the God who is always searching, always ready to reclaim what has been lost:
Cost. The lost coin has value – without it the woman may have had to forego some item or produce that the coin would have paid for. In the story of the lost sheep, the shepherd ‘bears the cost’ of finding the sheep, just as God in Jesus bears the cost of redeeming humankind from its sin.
Care. The story of the lost coin gives us some wonderful detail of the woman’s search – the lamp is lit, the room is swept; this is not only good story-telling technique, but delivers an understanding that God is in the detail, that there is a thoroughness in the woman’s action that is a work of care. Paul expresses this care as the patience of Christ’s mercy.
Celebration. The conclusion of both stories is a note of rejoicing. Throughout his telling of the gospel, Luke emphasises the significance of joy and rejoicing. The rejoicing continues in the gathering of friends and neighbours as the good news is shared, and that’s a rejoicing in heaven and on earth alike.
God’s cost; God’s care; God’s celebration: we remember these things in the story of the Son of Man who came to seek and save the lost.
Question for reflection: Consider this picture, then answer the questions below
- How does it feel when you find a lost, treasured item?
- How did you find God – or God find you?
- How can we show people in our community that they are precious to God, and to us?
Prayers of intercession
God who searches for the lost,
we pray for those
who are like the sheep or coin,
who have gone their own way,
who have got into trouble with the police,
or who have run up debts
or become dependent on drugs or alcohol:
Help us to search for others who are lost.
We pray for those
who are like the tax collectors and sinners:
who have discovered Christ in their own way,
but maybe don’t fit
into society or church structures
or conform to our expectations.
Help us to rejoice with all who welcome Christ.
We pray for those
who are like the Pharisees and scribes in Jesus’ story:
those who think they know how church should be,
who like order and who need to feel safe and secure
trying hard to keep church respectable.
Help us to embrace challenge and change.
We pray for those
who are like the shepherd or woman
worried about their security and the future,
driven to reach out and care for others,
to search out those who are lost
or sometimes tired out from caring.
Help us to reach out and care for others and find rest.
Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your Name,
your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours,
now and for ever. Amen.
Sing, read or listen to:
Song – StF 44 or MP 99 – Come on and celebrate
Song – StF 440 or H&P 215 – Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
Final prayer and Blessing:
Go in the knowledge and confidence
of God’s love for you,
trusting that Christ Jesus is with you.
Amen.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit
be with us all forevermore. Amen.
Acknowledgments: Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Prayer resources taken from Roots resources, copyright Roots For Churches Ltd. Photo of ‘Lost and Found’ box: Paul Gorbould, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
