(All our songs this morning are from Singing the Faith (StF), Mission Praise (MP) or 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 where Methodists and United Reformed worship and witness together led by Rev Phil Drake our Circuit Superintendent Minister.
Click on the blue links to follow them for bible readings and associated links
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus continues his teaching on how to behave as God’s children. He challenges his hearers to not only love those who treat them well but to go beyond this and to love their enemies. Jesus challenges us to think about how having a generous spirit benefits ourselves and others.
Call to worship:
We are called into this place, at this time, to worship:
God who loves us;
Christ who teaches us,
and the Holy Spirit who enables us.
Let’s be ready to respond
to the generosity of God.
Song – StF 65 – Sing of the Lord’s goodness
Or H&P 566 – Now thank we all our God
Prayers of approach and confession
Generous God, giver of all that is good,
we are surrounded by your blessings.
We gather to worship you with body, mind and spirit. Amen.
Praise to the Lord in whom we trust.
Give thanks to the Lord who puts trust into our hands.
Praise the Lord who blesses us with happiness.
Give thanks to the Lord that we can share it with others.
Praise the Lord for being patient with us.
Give thanks to the Lord that we are taught patience
with each other.
For all God’s blessings to us,
seen and unseen, known and unknown,
we give thanks and praise. Amen.
Old Testament reading:
Gospel reading:
Song – StF 649 – God! When human bonds are broken
Food for thought
Have you ever opened a box of cereal or a packet of crisps and noticed that it is only half full? I expect it is filled up to the top at the factory, but when it gets transported and carried around it settles and the level goes down; they’re not cheating you – you get exactly the weight it says on the packet, but you can’t help feeling disappointed that it isn’t still full; and what a waste of packaging – can’t they get someone to shake all the packets before they are sent out?
But God’s love and mercy is like this: you buy your box of cornflakes or packet of crisps, and when you open it up – it’s still full to the top, in fact it’s bursting out, flowing over the top – that’s what God’s love is like – good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over – isn’t that wonderful – all that, it says in the Bible- will be put into your lap.
In bible times, people had clothes with lots of loose baggy material; and they would use their girdle to carry things in – at the market a measure would be put into the girdle, pressed down, shaken together – and there would be room for more – God’s love and mercy is like that, put into your lap until it runs over the top. Or they would use a basket to hold their goods – and the same thing – pressed down, shaken together, now there’s the extra room to put more in.
And we should be the same – our love, our mercy full to overflowing to those around us, whether they deserve it or not. Our measure of giving as one person to another is the generous giving of God himself. It’s not about demanding back what is owed. It is about a gift; something given freely, wholeheartedly, without reservation, without strings attached.
Nobody pretends that this is easy. How does it feel when someone hurts you? Sometimes we are motivated by a sense of wanting to get our own back. One Christian writer considers the phrase, ‘to give as good as you get’, a saying usually associated with revenge. But the writer wants to reclaim the saying as a Christian principle, making it about giving to others what you have already received from God.
The Joseph story in the Old Testament illustrates that very same challenge. We all know the story. Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery to get rid of him and make him as good as dead. But Joseph rises to become Pharoah’s right-hand man in Egypt, and the brothers unknowingly fall into his debt when they come begging for food in a time of famine. Yet although his brothers hated him, although they became in debt to him, Joseph does not look for ‘payback time’. On the contrary, he forgives his brothers their hatred and their debt, and, even more generously, offers them far more than they could have expected. Joseph gave of his own because he knew that everything he had been given, had been given by God.
Jesus’ story, of course, is like Joseph’s. Given up to death by those who hated him, Jesus comes back from death with the gift of new life; though we too are forever in his debt, he never demands repayment but offers us still more from the overflowing fullness of his Spirit. By the power of this same Spirit, then, let us speak out for and live for Christ, bringing the good measure of his mercy to those who need his love the most. Amen.
Let’s learn to give as good as we get from God.
For reflection:
Watch this video: Heart Rocks – Sending my love
Look at this picture of a Stone Heart. Consider how hearts of stone can become hearts of love.
You see, we have been given hearts to love, but we don’t always show it. How often are we hard hearted in our response to others? How often do we shut others out from receiving our love. That’s especially true I think of those we see as being offending us the most – those do not approve of or those who have hurt us in some way. But Jesus tells us we must love even our enemies and forgive others in the same way that God forgives us.
Prayer of confession
Lord, the world around us is in a sorry state.
We see the effects of climate change affecting the poor the most.
Forgive us for our misuse of the earth’s resource.
Lord, forgive.
We see people in some parts of the world crying out in hunger.
Forgive us for so much unequal sharing and wasting so much.
Lord, forgive.
We see wars and conflicts around the world destroying
lives and futures.
Forgive us for not speaking out for peace.
Lord, forgive.
We see the strong and powerful bullying the powerless.
Forgive us for not standing up to those who misuse
their authority.
Lord, forgive.
God forgives us and understands our regrets and our hopes.
Let us go in peace and love to serve our generous God.
Amen.
Song – StF 519 or MP 133 – Father, I place into your hands
Or StF 615 – Let love be real, in giving and receiving
Words of blessing (Jude, verses 24&25):
Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing, 25 to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and for ever. 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. Prayers taken from Roots resources, copyright Roots For Churches Ltd. Photo of ‘Stone Heart’, Heather Stanley, downloaded from theworshipcloud.com, with permission to use in local services.
