(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 Saltaire Methodist Church led by Jackie Marshall one of our Circuit Local Preachers.
Click on the blue links to follow them for bible readings and associated links
Theme – Christ The King
Our call to worship is based on verses from Psalm 93.
The LORD is King, robed and ruling,
the LORD is robed and surging with strength.
And yes, the world is firm, immovable,
Your throne ever firm – you’re Eternal!
Song – StF 264 – Make way, make way, for Christ the King.
Opening Prayer: Let’s approach God in prayer.
Father God,
We worship you
Self-sacrificing Son,
We worship you
Holy Spirit here with us,
We worship you
Silence
Christ Jesus,
King on the Cross,
we have come to recall again
with awe, wonder and humble thanks
how far you were prepared to go
to rescue us from the consequences
of our human selfishness and folly,
and to remember and be reassured
just how much we are loved.
Holy Spirit,
Breathe your life into our worship,
so that it may be a time of blessing
and a worthy offering of praise.
Amen
Toy Sunday
Saltaire Methodist Church are very kindly collecting toys today, to be donated to Windhill Community Centre, brightening up the lives of children in the area who have little to play with. We give heartfelt thanks to God for this opportunity to share the blessings that he has given us.
One of the toys being donated is a Disney Prince doll, a character from one of the famous Disney cartoons, along with his Disney Princess. It has to be said, Prince dolls are much harder to come by than their matching Princesses – perhaps that reflects the girls likely to be playing with them being at the “boys are yukky” stage!
Here is a picture of the doll. See if you can guess which Disney Prince he is. Doesn’t look very princely, does he? No robes, crown or other royal regalia in evidence. That’s because he meets his Princess Ariel when she rescues him from a shipwreck…
That’s right – he’s Prince Eric, from The Little Mermaid.
During his time on Earth, Jesus didn’t ever wear royal robes and his only crown was one made of thorns, not gold and precious jewels, yet among his many names he has a princely title, a very significant one; The Prince of Peace. And later on in our service we are going to reflect on another of his titles, Christ The King.
Song – StF 354 – Jesus is the name we honour.
Old Testament Reading: Now for our reading from the Old Testament. It is some years since Daniel escaped the lions’ den and King Darius instructed all his people to “fear and reverence the God of Daniel.” There is now a different king on the throne and Daniel has had an uneasy night, filled with dreams and visions.
Song – StF 362 – Meekness and majesty
New Testament Reading 1: Our first reading from the New Testament is from St John’s gospel. Jesus is brought before Pilate.
Song – StF 272 – From Heaven you came, helpless babe.
New Testament Reading 2: Around 600 years after Daniel’s vision of the son of man being lead into God’s presence, John of Patmos, traditionally believed to be the same John who was Jesus’ disciple and a gospel writer, was having his own series of visions – his Revelation. By now an old man, and a prisoner in a Roman penal colony on the island of Patmos, John barely seemed to notice the hard manual labour in the stone quarries and the poor conditions, except to note that trials were part of the journey with Jesus. His thoughts were with Jesus and with the believers on the mainland whose faith that God was in control was wavering under the rule of the mad Emperor Domitian, who actually believed he was a god and dealt harshly with anyone who dared to disagree.
Poem:
Every good story has a beginning, a middle and an end.
But where do we start with God?
If God is the source of all being,
how far back must we go to find the start of everything?
And where is the middle?
Is it in the emergence of the human race?
Or at the point when people began to worship?
Or in the days when Jesus showed God’s presence among us?
Or in our present global age?
Then are we prepared to think about the end?
Often we cannot even face the thought of our own death,
so how do we cope with the idea of the end of the world?
Isn’t it reassuring to hear the announcement
that God is the Alpha and Omega,
the first and last letters of the whole alphabet, not just the story?
A never-ending, ever newly-beginning source of life and hope and promise.
An eternal narrative.
One that the whole world will know – one day. ©Marjorie Dobson
Reflection:
We sang a little earlier of “Meekness and majesty..” and this last Sunday before we start the season of Advent is a really good point at which to pause and reflect on these two apparently conflicting characteristics of Jesus. Do we sometimes fall into the habit of thinking of him only as the Lamb who was slain, forgetting he was also the Lion of Judah?
Regarding his majesty, sometimes the biblical rhetoric we find in Daniel and in Revelation describing flaming heavenly thrones and Jesus coming with clouds can sound so strange to our ears it’s almost impossible to imagine the scene, isn’t it?
Our modern impression of kingship can also mislead us. King Charles III is mainly a ceremonial figurehead, with influence, but little real power. Contrast that with days gone by where a king literally had the power of life and death over his subjects.
The fact is, God’s Son, who humbled himself to come to earth in the form of the man Jesus was, and is, and always will be the ultimate ruler, King of wisdom, goodness, justice, peace and love, wielding infinite and eternal power over not just his human subjects, but over everything that exists. Just imagine how annoying it must be for God that, even after Jesus came to earth to show and teach us the laws of his Kingdom, us humans still persist in thinking we know best and constantly ignore or defy his rule! Thankfully, Christ our King’s self-sacrifice on the cross allows us to be forgiven and restored to a loving parent – child relationship with God.
Reflecting on meekness, to modern ears describing someone as meek can make them sound a bit wishy washy, suggesting they might be really quiet and submissive as well as being gentle and patient. But the Greek word for meek, ‘praus,’ can also be translated as ‘strength under control,’ which sounds a far better description of Jesus, doesn’t it?
So perhaps there isn’t such a conflict between those characteristics of meekness and majesty after all – as another of our songs this morning poetically put it
”From heaven you came, helpless babe, entered our world, your glory veiled..”
But from the description of the interactions Jesus had with ordinary people there is no doubt Jesus was patient and gentle. He was (and is) the living definition of compassion, of suffering along with and acting to help those in difficulty.
My Nana had a saying that “A bit of help is worth a lot of pity” and that’s perhaps a good way of thinking about the difference between pitying somebody and having compassion for them. Compassion is active, and comes from a place of love, and where love is, there is God.
The only people we hear of Jesus not treating at all meekly, but with righteous anger, are those who were hypocrites; the Pharisees who claimed to represent God but cared more about their own positions in the Temple hierarchy than people, and the traders in the Temple who were interested in making money for themselves, not the worship of God.
Therefore, let’s be careful to avoid hypocrisy, doing our best with the help of the Spirit, to honour and serve Christ our King, by obeying and living out the two laws of his Kingdom, as proclaimed by Jesus in person to a Jewish teacher of the law. (Matthew 22: 36-40)
Time of Prayer: Let’s come together in prayer
Inexplicable God
Your way of looking at your world turns our views of life upside down and inside out. You disregard things that we value and point us to situations, people and principles that we tend to ignore, either because we are too selfish, or too careless to be concerned about them. Help us to change our perspective on life, so that we can understand yours. Teach us how to live with open minds and hearts and how to care as Jesus did. Remind us that he was outspoken and not afraid to tackle unjust authority and that he was treated as foolish because of that. So many people could not see that his compassion for those in need was a window into your kingdom. Then open our eyes to the needs and concerns of those around us and guide us as we work to make your upside down kingdom a reality for those who need that most.
For your world’s sake.
Our King of kings, trusting in you, we bring before you now the people and situations known to each of us that lie heavy on our spirits this morning, those far way that we have heard about, read and seen in the media, and those painfully close to our own hearts and homes…
(You may like to light a candle and spend a time of quiet reflection with God.)
We offer these and all our prayers through the name of Jesus, our Lord and King, as we pray together the prayer he continues to teach his followers;
Our Father who art in heaven…Amen
I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God. Our final hymn looks forward to the time when Jesus returns and God’s kingdom is fully come,
Song – StF 185 – Sing we the King
Blessing:
Great God we call you ‘King’ and ‘Lord’ yet find you kneeling at our feet.
Here you anoint us with your love, bless us with your grace, offer us your peace.
Then we hear the words, ‘Go and do likewise’.
God, give us strength and courage that our neighbours
may see you mirrored in our love for them.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen
Credits: Copyrighted items downloaded from The Worship Cloud, theworshipcloud.com with permission to use in local services of worship.
