Sunday Worship – 26th January 2025

(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 Wilsden Trinity Church LEP where Methodists and United Reformed worship and witness together led by Stuart Ayrton one of our circuit Local Preachers.

Click on the blue links to follow them for bible readings and associated links

Call to Worship

Jesus, you came to bring good news to all, Help us to listen to you. Jesus, you came to release the captives, Help us to follow your example. Jesus, you came to release the oppressed,

Help us to walk in your ways.

Song – StF 169 – Come thou long expected Jesus

Prayers

Loving God,

Thank you that all are welcome in your presence and all have a part to play. Speak to us today and show us how to live as the body of Christ in this community, Bringing good news to all.

Lord, as your Church, we gather together to worship you, In person and online. You are the source of all being, The one who gives love and unites us, The one who gives all for our sake.

Almighty God, we are a mixed-up bunch of people, But all unique and special and with a common purpose To worship you. You are the bringer of good news, and the example of what true love is, giving yourself for our sakes. You are the meaning and motivation for how we choose to live. You are light in the darkness that draws us on. You are the whisper in the wind and the shout in the thunder. You are the Spirit that warms our hearts. We worship and adore you.

All too easily we stray from doing what is good And right in your sight.

God, forgive us. All too easily we find prejudice creeping into our lives.

God, forgive us. All too easily we become greedy and unwilling To share with those who have less. God, forgive us. All too easily we neglect the needs of the earth, Animals and humans. God, forgive us. All too easily we forget the path you set before us.

God, forgive us.

Amen.

 God forgives all who confess. Let us know we are forgiven, And go and live the Good News.

Amen.

We give thanks, O God, for the magnificence of your creation, Its vibrant diversity, its  provision for us. We give thanks for the rich cultures of the world And all they add to the mix of life. We give thanks for each other, With all our differences and quirky ways. We give thanks for your recorded Word through the ages. We give thanks for the life of Jesus, supreme example to us Of the outworking of your love. We give thanks for the outpouring of your Holy Spirit To comfort, warm and guide us. We give thanks for all this good news, In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Meditation

Local lad made good, he was. Or so they thought when he first came back to them. Their carpenter’s son with a reputation for being clever, ever since childhood. Big honour given to him, they thought, to be reading the holy book in the synagogue. Must be because he’d been away for a while and gained himself a name as a teacher. Glad to welcome him home, they were. Perhaps he’d bring some glory to the town. It seemed about time that someone famous could claim to have come from Nazareth. Eager to hear his teaching, they were. Rumours had spread that he was down to earth, but wise with it and it would make a change from the words they had heard on every other Sabbath. Astounded by his speech, they were, and full of praise for his knowledge and his clarity. But Jesus knew that once they remembered his parentage they would soon begin to cast doubts on his authority.

©Marjorie Dobson

Song – StF 404 – God’s Spirit is in my heart

Readings

Luke 4: 14-21

Song – StF 182 – On Jordan’s bank the Baptist cries

Sermon

After being tempted in the wilderness, Jesus returns in the power of the Spirit to Galilee and goes to his home synagogue in Nazareth. He  reads out some verses from the scroll of Isaiah to the people present and tells them that this Scripture is coming true today.

Jesus speaks about his mission to bring God’s kingdom into being in a way that is good news for all kinds of people who are currently  struggling: the poor, the imprisoned, the blind, the oppressed. We are called to join in with Jesus’ mission to share this good news with all.

We meet Jesus on his way from Galilee to Nazareth and the synagogue there. Here is the Jewish teacher standing in the place of worship on the Sabbath. He quotes from Isaiah 61:1-2 and Isaiah 58:6. This great liberation call is the reply to his mother Mary’s own words in the Magnificat. Jesus proclaims that the freedom foreseen by Isaiah has arrived in his own person. This is an identifying moment in the Gospel, in keeping with the Epiphany theme of the person of Jesus being revealed to us anew. Jesus is the one who is meeting the hopes and expectations of the prophets of old. The year of the Lord was one of great eschatological promise and is now here, as Jesus begins his ministry. Those who are on the outside, on the margins, are being brought in. Those who might typically be excluded are welcomed by Jesus. We see this embodied in his ministry as he eats and drinks with socially unacceptable people. This gospel is topsy-turvy – the things that we think we should value, the power structures of the world and the values of society – are questioned.

‘Strivers versus skivers’ is a political phrase that is sometimes used to try to separate out those who are believed to be contributing to society in the UK from those who are regarded as a burden on it. It echoes a wider trend in our society that values people according to what they do. A church leader in London tells a story about a member called Erin who suffers from chronic pain, uses a wheelchair and is not able to speak so uses a text-to-speech device to communicate. Erin has many stories of how she has been wheeled out of someone else’s way or spoken to loudly and slowly as if she were deaf. For several years, Erin planned all of the children’s work at this church, producing craft materials, story ideas and ways of praying for the different services every Sunday. When Covid hit, Erin organised a children’s church session online, planning activities, games and prayers for someone else to lead. Yet very sadly, despite producing all of this, Erin was not valued by the wider congregation because she wasn’t seen at the front of church. Ultimately, the pain and frustration of this lack of recognition caused Erin to step back from her work and ultimately from worshipping regularly with that congregation.

The commentators were ecstatic after the game. ‘He played like a man inspired,’ they said. What images does that conjure up for you? A sports star, perhaps, running rings round the opposition and scoring a brilliant goal. Or, from a different world, a musician: eyes closed, fingers flying to and fro on an instrument, filling the air with wonderful jazz. ‘Inspiration’: we use the word loosely. We imply that ‘it just came over them’, that they suddenly became someone different. Of course we know that it didn’t happen like that. The brilliant athlete has been training and practising, hour after hour and week after week. The musician has been playing exercises, perfecting technique for long hours out of the public eye. Then, when the moment comes, a surge of adrenalin produces a performance which we call ‘inspired’ – but which is actually the fruit of long, patient hard work. When Jesus said ‘the Spirit of the Lord is upon me’, Luke has already let us into the secret. His years of silent preparation. His life of prayer leading up to his baptism. The confirmation of his vocation – and then its testing in the wilderness. Then, at last, going public with early deeds in Capernaum (as the exchange in the Nazareth synagogue makes clear, people had already heard of what he’d done elsewhere). Now, with years of prayer, thought and the study of scripture behind him, he stands before his own town. He knew everybody there and they knew him. He preached like a man inspired; indeed, in his sermon that’s what he claimed. But what he said was the opposite of what they were expecting. If this was inspiration, they didn’t want it. What was so wrong with what he said? That’s what did it. That’s what drove them to fury. Israel’s God was rescuing the wrong people. The earlier part of Jesus’ address must have been hammering home the same point. His hearers were, after all, waiting for God to liberate Israel from pagan enemies. It’s not what people wanted to hear. What, then, was the earlier part of his address about? Luke says that the people ‘were astonished at the words of sheer grace that were coming out of his mouth’. Sometimes people have understood this simply to mean, ‘they were astonished at what a good speaker he was’. But it seems more likely that he means ‘they were astonished that he was speaking about God’s grace – grace for everybody, including the nations – instead of grace for Israel and fierce judgment for everyone else’. That fits perfectly with what followed. Why then did Jesus begin his address with the long quotation from Isaiah (61.1–2)? The passage he quotes is about the Messiah. Throughout Isaiah there are pictures of a strange ‘anointed’ figure who will perform the Lord’s will. But, though this text goes on to speak of vengeance on evildoers, Jesus doesn’t quote that bit. Instead, he seems to have drawn on the larger picture in Isaiah and elsewhere, which speaks of Israel being called to be the light of the nations, a theme which Luke has already highlighted in chapter 2. The servant-Messiah has not come to inflict punishment on the nations, but to bring God’s love and mercy to them. And that will be the fulfilment of a central theme in Israel’s own scriptures. This message was, and remains, shocking. Jesus’ claim to be reaching out with healing to all people, though itself a vital Jewish idea, was not what most first-century Jews wanted or expected. As we shall see, Jesus coupled it with severe warnings to his own countrymen. Unless they could see that this was the time for their God to be gracious, unless they abandoned their futile dreams of a military victory over their national enemies, they would suffer defeat themselves at every level – military, political and theological. Here, as at the climax of the gospel story, Jesus’ challenge and warning brings about a violent reaction. The gospel still does this today, when it challenges all interests and agendas with the news of God’s surprising grace.

In churches we can think that the ongoing running of the church is the most important thing and that can cause us to value the people who can fill certain jobs more than others. In the passage from Corinthians, Paul’s words speak of giving honour to those parts of the body that seem weaker. Certainly, if we believe that Jesus came to save everybody and that all have a place in God’s kingdom, it follows that God might have gifts for the church in people that have been overlooked up until now. Are we open to seeing God work through every person in our church? Do we value people for who they are and what we see of Jesus in them or only for what they are able to do? If the Church is to reflect Jesus to the world around it, we need to show that all are loved and needed. This is the good news for everybody.

Song – StF 228 – Hail to the Lord’s anointed

Prayers of Intercession

Dear God, as food prices rise and fuel costs increase, we pray for wisdom in how we use our resources. Guide us and help us not to overspend. We pray for those who struggle to pay their bills and those in debt. We ask your blessing on food banks, debt counselling services and credit unions. Help us all to be generous in supporting one another and sharing what we have.

May your kingdom come Through our prayers, actions and words.

Dear God, we pray for our justice system, for the police, lawyers, judges, probation officers and those who work in our prisons. May justice be served in the courts. May all be treated with fairness and equity. Be with those who have been convicted and those serving prison sentences and support their families and all whom they love. May your presence bring comfort and hope.

May your kingdom come Through our prayers, actions and words.

Dear God, sometimes the way forward is unclear, we hope for easing of restrictions, but we wonder about the timing or risks. Give insight to scientists and politicians that we may be led in the right direction and be encouraged by the hope which your Spirit offers us.

May your kingdom come Through our prayers, actions and words.

Dear God, in these challenging times give wisdom and strength to those who are trapped in lives of addiction, who feel there is no escape. We pray for Alcoholics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Drug Addicts Anonymous and all groups who seek to show people a path through addiction and offer kindness and support.

May your kingdom come Through our prayers, actions and words.

Dear God, we thank you for the mission and ministry of Jesus, for the challenge he offers, the peace with which he fills us and his love which inspires us. We pray that we may find imaginative ways to share his love and to proclaim his good news. Bless the church throughout the world. Enable the stronger to support the more vulnerable that Jesus name may be known and honoured in every place. May your kingdom come Through our prayers, actions and words.

Hear us for Jesus’ sake.

Amen.

Lord’s Prayer

Offertory

Song – StF 328 – Jesus shall reign where er the sun (tune Truro)

Blessing

Lord Jesus, you were anointed to bring new sight, Freedom and good news to all people. Help us to share this good news of your love and care with everyone we meet in the week ahead.

Amen.

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