(All our songs this morning are from 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 a Local Eccummenical Partnership where Methodist and URC worship & witness together and led by Rev Keith Hunt one of our Circuit Supernumerary Ministers
Click on the blue links to follow them for bible readings and associated links
Call to worship
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord our strength and our redeemer.
Song – H&P 190 – Christ is alive let Christians sing
The cross stands empty to the sky. Let streets and homes with praises ring. Love drowned in death shall never die.
Christ is alive no longer bound, to distant years in Palestine. But saving, healing, here and now, and touching every place and time.
In every insult, rift and war, where colour, scorn or wealth divide. Christ suffers still, yet loves the more and lives, where even hope has died.
Women and men in age and youth, can feel the Spirit hear the call and find the way, the life, the truth, revealed in Jesus freed for all.
Christ is alive and comes to bring, good news to this and every age, till earth and sky and ocean ring, with joy, with justice, love and praise.
Opening prayer
O God our loving Heavenly Father,
we give hearty and humble praise
for your many blessings and benefits,
which you shower upon us
and indeed is our daily experience.
But most of all we thank you
for the gift of your Son,
namely our Lord Jesus Christ,
the one who left the glory of heaven
and became a human being.
We thank you that he experienced our humanity,
lived our life, yet more important,
was his death on the cross,
in which he atoned for our sins,
that we might be forgiven in time and in eternity.
We rejoice in his resurrection
and the fact that he now lives in our hearts by faith.
We claim if necessary his perfect forgiveness
and say sorry for the wrongs
which sometimes we so easily commit.
So accept our worship
and be with us in this service,
we pray these our prayers in Christ’s name.
Amen
Song – There is a Redeemer
Bible Readings:
Sermon
I want to share with you today the incident in our first reading. This is where Jesus asks Peter the same question three times, which is “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these”, Peter replies, “Yes Lord, you know I love you”, to which Jesus says, “Feed my sheep”.
The first point I make is “the true test is the test of love”. It is the test of serving Christ, if you love me Jesus says, feed my sheep, (verse 16). It is the test of discipleship. In John 13: 35, Jesus says to the disciples, “Love one another as I have loved you, by this shall the world know that you are my disciples”. Love is the test for using the gifts of the Holy Spirit, “If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13: 1). Love is also the test of persecution, “If I am martyred and do not have love, it is no advantage”, (1 Corinthians 13: 3 ). So love should be our motive for all things. So what is our motive for doing things, it could be self esteem, love of power, any number of things, but ideally it should be love.
The second point I make is the” understanding Christ”. In the Greek language, there are four words for love. There is love of God, friendship, parental love and sexual love. So if we look at the conversation between Jesus and Peter, it runs like this, Jesus says to Peter, “do you love me in a God like way” and Peter replies, “Lord I like you as a friend”. When the same question is put to Peter, he give the same response. The third question is quite extraordinary , it runs like this, Jesus says, “well, do you like me” and Peter replies, “yes Lord you know I like you”. Peter at this point is unable to say to Jesus, I love you, but only I like you and yet, Jesus says, “feed my sheep”, or in other words, I want you to work for me. So I say again, we have here the understanding Christ. It is the same with us, Jesus understands us and the way we feel and even though we are far from perfect, he loves us just the same.
The third point I make is the “honesty of Peter”, I don’t love you, but I like you. It would have been easy to put on a pretence of spirituality. This also can be the case with us, we may know how to dot the “I’s” and cross the “T’s” of the faith and to know what is expected of us, but do we mean it. So Peter could only say to Jesus, I want to be your friend, but maybe Jesus saw in the idea of friendship something deep and genuine, something less emotional and yet someone who sticks with you through “thick and thin”. Jesus said in John 15: 13, “Greater love has no one than this, that a person lays down their life for their friends”, then Jesus says, “you are my friends”
Amen
Prayers of intercession
O God, our loving Heavenly Father,
we are glad that we can bring our prayers,
our requests and emotions to you.
First of all, we pray for our world,
especially in the areas of war and conflict,
we pray that our political leaders
might have a desire for peace and reconciliation.
We pray for healing of the nations
and the coming together of people
from different cultures and faiths.
Secondly, we pray for other people,
especially those known to us,
those who are laid on our hearts.
Lastly, we pray for our selves,
we ask you to bless us
that in return we might be
a blessing to other people.
We pray all our prayers
in Christ’s most worthy name.
Amen
We say the Lord’s Prayer
Song – H&P 559 – What a friend we have in Jesus
We say the Grace together.
Amen
