(All our songs this morning are from Singing the Faith (StF) numbers will be given where available)
Welcome to our Sunday Harvest Festival Service, today shared on paper across our circuit and with the congregation at Bolton Methodist Church led by Mervyn Flecknoe, one of our Circuit Local Preachers and Lay Pastors.
Click on the blue links to follow them for bible readings and associated links
This is Bible Sunday, so we are going to spend our time thinking about this wonderful collection of books written by holy men and women over a thousand years or so. How can we read it to help us become more Jesus-Shaped in our own lives?
First a hymn:
Song – StF 397 – The Spirit lives to set us free
This was written by Damien Lundy who was a religious brother of the De La Salle Order. He died in 1997 tragically at the age of 53. His work is widely respected in many forms of Catholic ministry and education in the UK. He is credited with devising the currently standard form of Catholic Residential Youth Work and for writing many popular hymns and prayers and leading seminars and conferences.
Reflection 1
When my mother was at her wits end, owing to poverty or to the unreasonable demands of her mother, she would open the Bible at a random page and read a verse for inspiration and guidance. She might, for instance, have opened it at Leviticus 19 and read Verses 16-18
“Don’t spread gossip and rumours. Don’t just stand by when your neighbour’s life is in danger. I am God. Don’t secretly hate your neighbour. If you have something against him, get it out into the open; otherwise you are an accomplice in his guilt. Don’t seek revenge or carry a grudge against any of your people. Love your neighbour as yourself. I am God.”
This would have been great guidance, wouldn’t it? It contains a whole slice of Christian essence just in that last sentence. However, she could have gone to verse 19, where she would have read:
“Don’t plant your fields with two kinds of seed. Don’t wear clothes woven of two kinds of material”.
Did that mean that she had to throw out all the terylene and worsted garments, which were her favourite because they didn’t need ironing? Of course not, these antique laws were not meant for us. And as for my grandfather’s techniques for getting the best out of his allotment, it’s just not relevant.
She might have read verses 20-22:
“If a man has sex with a slave girl who is engaged to another man but has not yet been ransomed or given her freedom, there must be an investigation. But they aren’t to be put to death because she wasn’t free. The man must bring a Compensation-Offering to God at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, a ram of compensation. The priest will perform the ritual of atonement for him before God with the ram of compensation for the sin he has committed. Then he will stand forgiven of the sin he committed”.
This passage might have convinced my mother of a truth which she already thought that she knew, that her life as a woman was worth less than the life of any man. But we don’t think that nowadays, do we? Because we read this precious book with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
She might have read v33-34, and this is a cracker:
“When a foreigner lives with you in your land, don’t take advantage of him. Treat the foreigner the same as a native. Love him like one of your own. Remember that you were once foreigners in Egypt. I am God, your God.
These verses encapsulate the Christian response to the relatively tiny number of people who seek asylum here.
Song – StF 158 – Lord you sometimes speak in whispers
Tune Stuttgart 169i This was written by Christopher Idle who became a priest in the Church of England in 1966. He served in, Barrow-in-Furness, Camberwell, Poplar, and in Limehouse; challenging placements. He is the author of more than 400 hymns
Reflection 2
Let’s talk about stories of Jesus in the Gospels. My mother might have opened her Bible at Luke chapter 4 and read about Jesus in the wilderness.
“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the Devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The Devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”
One of the characteristics of the life of Jesus, as reported in the Gospels, is his mission to the poor and deprived, those who did not know where their next meal was to come from. He didn’t eradicate leprosy, disability, poverty or mental illness. He “blossomed where he was planted” in occupied Palestine. The writer of Deuteronomy says that the tribe of Israel suffered 40 years of deprivation. Jesus aimed to understand the battles that people were fighting. His time in the wilderness helped focus His mind on how deprivation feels. It is not just in Gaza, Lebanon, and Darfur that this mission is still a necessary mission but here in Saltaire and Windhill. My mother would have been encouraged in her volunteering by these verses. Here is a poem that might speak to you:
Jesus suffered pains of hunger,
The desert baked and bruised him and,
along with dehydration,
This formed the God-man from the carpenter
Who needed no persuasion.
He made a plan, centred on the poor,
His whole lifespan,
Knowing this was better than joining
with the devil’s clan.
But life spent ministering to the dispossessed,
Convinced his family he was indeed obsessed,
Such a life suggested to those in power
That the hour might come when
Expedience might dictate that,
For the benefit of the state, that
An execution might just concentrate
The minds of those who would defy
Religious convention, and remind them why
They should pay less attention
To this prophet and his deeds.
Nevertheless from that time on
He was all for those with needs.
For two thousand years,
Our Faith has grown from just those seeds.
Let’s sing again:
Song – Immortal invisible god only wise
Lectionary Reading
“God, you’re my refuge. I trust in you and I’m safe!”
That’s right—he rescues you from hidden traps, shields you from deadly hazards. His huge outstretched arms protect you; under them you’re perfectly safe; his arms fend off all harm.
Fear nothing—not wild wolves in the night, not flying arrows in the day, not disease that prowls through the darkness, not disaster that erupts at high noon.
Even though others succumb all around, drop like flies right and left, no harm will even graze you.
You’ll stand untouched watch it all from a distance watch the wicked turn into corpses. …
Evil can’t get close to you, harm can’t get through the door.
He ordered his angels to guard you wherever you go. If you stumble, they’ll catch you; their job is to keep you from falling”
Reflection 3
In the desert, Jesus met hazards that caused him pain. There were sharp rocks just where he wanted to lay down, thorns that tore his clothing, baking sun, freezing cold, thirst, hunger.
He must have thought about the psalms and other scripture that he knew by heart. He would learn in the desert that he should not always treat the scriptures as literal truth.
He had to look to his own welfare to avoid snakes & scorpions, to shield himself from baking heat in the day, freezing at night.
He had to find food, and most of all he had to find water.
The desert taught him God protected his spirit, not his body.
God does not keep us safe from harm: Christians are caught in tsunamis & volcanic eruptions; they are in many disasters: relatives taken; homes demolished.
Knowing that God permits this sounds like heresy, but I don’t think it is.
Luke wasn’t in the desert with Jesus, how could he have known what temptations Jesus faced? Jesus must have had to explain what it was like. How did he tell His disciples? He made it into a graphic story about standing on top of the Temple; ludicrous, but very memorable. He continued to explain the mysteries of life to people, throughout his ministry, using graphic stories.
Here is another poem
God will keep you safe from harm,
He will rescue you from traps and hazards.
But what happens to the prayers of distress?
Gunmen, God does not disarm.
Hunger, homelessness, He does not address.
God will stop you falling? That’s just absurd;
Telling people that He will, is just appalling,
That’s the way to lose the Church goodwill.
Yet, I am hearing Jesus calling
All those in misery on life’s treadmill
To offer new life, safe and charmed
In which those suffering are not alarmed.
Like St Paul after such a savage beating,
Meeting his gaoler with a cheery greeting,
Singing in his chains ‘mid rats and damp
Defeating those abusing power,
Refusing all attempts to make him cower.
We have to find a way to lovingly convey
How following Jesus, his life our mainstay,
Will find that joy and happiness outweigh
The pains that life can on us shower,
And every hour advance us up to Heaven.
Let’s sing again
Song – StF 162 – The prophets’ voice comes down the years
Written by Alan Hinton who said “While I have occasionally written a general hymn I prefer the discipline of a particular purpose. I’m happy to write to order and have produced hymns for several conferences or meetings etc, but the Lectionary is excellent for my purposes. I covered about two thirds of the Sundays before my health deteriorated.” This one was written for the second Sunday in Advent.
Prayer Time
We long to learn from your word, Lord. Help us to read the scripture with the guidance of your Holy Spirit so that we never use it to reinforce our own prejudices but allow its overwhelming message of love to shape our lives.
Forgive us for our sins:
Sins of judgment, when we make assessment of others without knowing them, when we class a whole lot of people as being the same.
Sins of meanness, when we refuse to be generous with our time, our care, our kisses, our thanks of appreciation to others.
Sins of selfishness, when we spend more on ourselves than we do on those in greater need, when we withhold praise and kindness.
Help us to open our lives to love, when we allow the Spirit of Jesus to guide our lives, even when that makes us stand out from the herd.
We ask for help in developing our spirit of gratitude. We know, when we think about it, that this church only exists because of the time, skills, and money pumped into it by volunteers. We know that we benefit from the work of our councillors, of our MP, of our bus drivers, of our delivery drivers, but we also know how often we withhold our expression of gratitude that would help them know that their work was appreciated. Lord, shame us, mend us, open us to your love.
The Lord’s Prayer, from the New Zealand Maori Anglican Liturgy:
Eternal Spirit, Earth-Maker, Pain Bearer, Life-Giver,
Source of all that is and shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:
The hallowing of Your Name echo through the universe!
The way of your Justice be followed by the people of the earth!
Your Heavenly Will be done by all created beings!
Your Commonwealth of Peace and Freedom sustain our home and come on earth!
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In the times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For You reign in the glory of the power that is Love,
Now and forever.
Amen.
Song – StF 399 – When deep despair casts out all life
Michaela Youngson As a Past President of the Methodist Conference and one of the chairs of the London Methodist District, the Revd Michaela Youngson is well-known to many.
When she is not preaching, representing the Methodist Church or ministering to others, she can be found in her studio creating artworks in fused glass. Michaela is the author of two books and continues to be called upon as a writer of reflections, liturgy and poetry.
Come with us, Lord Jesus;
Fill us with your Spirit;
Shape us to your likeness;
Use us to enfold with love our needy world
