(All our songs this morning are from 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 Thornton Methodist Church and led by Rev Jane Cook one of our circuit Ministers.
Click on the blue links to follow them for bible readings and associated links
Opening words:
Lord God, you are worthy of our praise,
for your grace offered to us when we were far away,
the love bestowed on us at the dawning of each day.
Lord God, you are worthy of our praise. 1
Song – StF 20 – Be still for the presence of the Lord
Opening prayers:
Holy God, Father, Son and Spirit, we gather in this place, made holy by your presence, to worship you:
Lord God, we lift our hearts and hands to worship you as we thank you for the richness and diversity of creation. We wonder that you made us, made us in your image – women and men, young and old; each unique and beautiful in your eyes.
Lord Jesus, we lift our hearts and hands to worship you, for you are our Saviour; and we are amazed by your love for us. Amazed that you willingly offered yourself as the sacrifice for our sin, you defeated death by your resurrection, and you call us to be part of your kingdom.
Holy Spirit, we lift our hearts and hands to worship you, for you are the power that stirs and shakes us,
comforts and encourages, guides and equips. The power that breaks into our lives and the lives of others – where least expected and most needed.
Yet as we worship, we do so knowing that our hands and hearts are far from clean. They are tainted by things that we have done and things we have left undone…
Forgive us… open our hearts to hear and receive again the words of Jesus: “Your sins are forgiven”.
So, now we lift up holy hands, not because we are worthy but because Jesus, our Saviour, has made us worthy. And we say thank you Jesus for your love and your saving grace, for giving us new life with you and for you. It is in your name we pray. Amen
Song – StF 11 – Holy Holy Holy
Readings:
Reflection:
Lost between the hullabaloo of halloween and the noise of bonfire night is another special day, although I suspect that most people on the street won’t know about it. The date I am talking about is today’s – 1st November – the day known as All Saints Day. The day when traditionally the church remembers and gives thanks for known and unknown believers – those who have gone before us into heaven, those who cheer us on and encourage us to live faithfully.
If I went to members of the early churches, those forming inthe first century, and asked the question, ‘What is a Christian?’ They would probably stare at me blankly. However, if I asked the same people, ‘What is a saint?’ They would say we are! Because saints was the name often given to the members of the churches in Paul’s letters, and this usage continued until the end of third century, when the title ‘Saint’ started to be used in the honorary way it is used today.
So if we are members of the church, faithful in Christ Jesus, then (by the early Church’s definition) we are all saints. But what does that mean for us? It is interesting that if you turn to a dictionary for a definition you will only get the post third century usage – a canonised person formally recognised by the church (Roman Catholic) as having lived a life of holiness – and if you turn to a bible dictionary you are likely to find nothing under ‘saint’ just a cross reference to the words holy and holiness. So our next question must be what does it mean to be holy?
In both the Old and New Testaments, holiness is applied in the highest sense to God. God’s separateness from creation and elevation above it; God’s moral excellence, free from all imperfection. In the Old Testament the word ‘holy’could be applied to someone or something – people or places could be holy – but in the New Testament the idea is restricted to people. People who are dedicated to God and distinguished from the world on account of having been called by God. Thus, in Jesus we see the supreme example of holiness because of his perfect sinlessness, and because his life was completely dedicated to the will and purpose of God.
Holiness calls us to be separated from the world in order to bear witness to grace and salvation. It is not that we have, or will shortly be, joining some giant monastic order. It simply means is that we should be different. This difference was best described by Jesus in the collection of his teachings in Matthew’s Gospel we call the Sermon on the Mount, and maybe most clearly in the verses we’ve just read today.
Blessed means happy with God. Those who are ‘blessed’ are confident that they are held in God’s love and care. The lives of God’s people should reflect a joy that no one take away; not even when they are poor, mourning, or persecuted. Jesus goes on to teach that those called to be citizens of the Kingdom of God are called to put God first in all their motives and actions, in their business, in their language and thoughts.
While studying at Oxford, John Wesley was the leader of a group called the Holy Club, which met regularly for prayer, bible study, discussion and what today we would call social action. Because of their regular practise of meeting this group was given another nickname – the Methodists! John Wesley saw faith and holiness as inextricably linked and this is reflected in his famous sermon on Christian perfection. Wesley is using the word perfection as another term for holiness, and argues there is always the need for us to grow in grace, that we might grow in our knowledge and love of Jesus.
Wesley, a high churchman, was trying, through this emphasis faith and holiness, to reform the Church of England. In the following century there would be another revival movement. Inspired by the Catholic tradition, the Oxford Movement was also committed to holiness and put great emphasis on the sacrament of Holy Communion. It sent many of its priests to serve in ‘slum parishes’ and the next generation of priests were typified by those with a deep concern for social justice – like Trevor Huddleston and Desmond Tutu who both stood against apartheid. So as we think about ‘all saints’, this very different church tradition inspires us again to always have God as our focus, and also sets before us the example of putting God’s kingdom values into action.
So what is a saint? It some like you or me! Someone, who has simply placed their faith in Jesus, in his love and saving grace; and is, day by day, trying to be more Christ-like in their living. More intentional in living in ways that reflects God’s kingdom values and that contribute to making God’s kingdom come here on earth as it is in heaven.
And if you are still sure that you are saintly material, or that your acts of Christ-liking are big enough to be of any consequence, then maybe this little story from Mike Yaconelli’s lovely book ‘Messy Spirituality’ might help:
Winter in Minnesota is cold and bleak, so in the town of Morehead everyone looks forward to the annual Christmas concert held in the local college. This is when a huge choir and full orchestra give a musical performance in the concert hall and where, each year, the people of the community create a unique background for the concert – a 100 foot x 30 foot mosaic.
Beginning in the summer, about six months before the concert, the community design an image for the new mosaic, rent an empty building, and the painting begins. Thousands of people from primary school children to retired folk come to paint. They paint by numbers on a very large scale design that has thousands and thousands of tiny individual pieces. Day after day, month after month, one little painted piece at a time, the picture on the mosaic gradually comes into focus. When it is finished, it is placed it behind the choir and has the appearance of an enormous stained-glass window.
On the weekend of the concert those people who have helped paint arrive early, along with their friends and neighbours. Throughout the building you can hear people whispering, “See that little green spot below the camel’s foot, I painted that”. Every year in the middle of summer in Morehead, Minnesota, thousands of unknown ordinary people paint a tiny insignificant tile. Six months later the result is spectacularly beautiful masterpiece.
Our moments of holiness, our kingdom bringing actions, our Christ-like living, might not seem like much. But one day we will stand altogether in the great cathedral of heaven, and up at the front, by Jesus, there will hang the most magnificent mosaic we could ever imagine, made up of the thousands and thousands of our tiny responses to Gods love in our lives and in the lives of others.
Song – StF 746 – For all the saints who showed your love
Prayers of intercession:
God of warmth and welcome, we come into your presence with wonder and praise; caught up with the saints and the angels, we bring you ourselves and our prayers:
We pray for all who hunger and thirst for what is right, for those who are prepared to stand up for justice and defend unpopular causes…….
God, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We pray for peacemakers; for peacemakers who live and work in places of conflict, for peacemakers who live in our own communities and homes…….
God, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We pray for those known to us who are ill, or in trouble, or in any kind of need…….
God, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We pray for those who have died, for those who, with the saints, are safe and joyful in God’s keeping. Tell them we love them. Tell them we miss them…….
God, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We pray for ourselves……
called to be just and gentle……
for our hopes, our needs, our dreams……
God, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Pilgrim God, lead us homewards. May your saints encourage us, your angels guide us, as we journey along the way.
Amen
Lords Prayer
Song – StF 545 – Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart
Closing prayers:
May Christ the good shepherd,
enfold us in love, fill us with peace,
and lead us in hope, to the end of our days;
and the blessing of God almighty,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
be among us and remain with us always.
Amen
Material from other sources: 1. John Birch, the Act of Prayer, BRF; 2. Ruth Burgess, Candles and Conifers, the Iona Community
