(All our songs this morning are from Hymns & Psalms (HP) Singing the Faith (StF) and Mission Praise (MP) numbers will be given where available)
Welcome to our Sunday Service, today shared on paper across our circuit and with the congregation at Calverley Methodist Church and led by Rev Nick Blundell, one of our Circuit Ministers. Most of our prayers this morning are courtesy of Roots (‘Worship and learning for the whole church’).
Click on the blue links to follow them for bible readings and associated links
Call to Worship We look for God in the dramatic. We discover God in the ordinary.
Invited by God to slow down, we freshly open our eyes to slowly see
God’s life breaking into our awareness, all around.
Prayer
Loving God, thank you for the wonder of our interconnected universe,
sustained and held in being by your love.
Tiny seeds nurtured by earth, which grow into great shrubs, sheltering creatures.
Barely visible yeast cultures leavening flour for bread.
Treasures that make life precious and joyful.
Wisdom handed down to us, freshly understood.
Your reign breaks in around us in so many ways;
help us to see and rejoice.
Amen.
Song – HP 138 – Seek ye first the kingdom of God
Prayers of approach, confession, and an assurance of forgiveness.
Father, all time is in your hand, unfolding; we see so little of it in a lifetime,
yet sometimes it is overwhelming.
God of the kingdom of heaven, you are our haven in life’s storms, our lifeline in calamity;
we watch and await your coming in power. Amen.
Lord, we confess that the concerns of the world weigh us down.
We worry about our needs, our wants, how others perceive us.
We are so overwhelmed that we fail to riddle the gold from life’s dross.
We turn to you, seeking the assurance that your kingdom is with us and among us;
help us to discern where it lies, so that we may turn our backs on all else.
Grant us the patience to seek you and your ways with the forbearance you show as you wait for us. Amen.
Almighty God, although we take forever, you have forever – you are the God of Eternity.
We are slow to seek you, slow to learn, slow to grow in faith;
but when we are faltering, ou wait sure and steady to forgive us; when we are lacking in trust,
you forgive us and persist in working out your ways despite us.
Thank you, O God of forgiveness and forbearance.
Amen.
Reading
5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”
6 Solomon answered, “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day.
7 “Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”
10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. 11 So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, 12 I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be.
‘Now my heart’s desire is to know you more.’
Song – MP 799 or StF 646 – All I once held dear
Reading
31 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”
33 He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds[a] of flour until it worked all through the dough.”
44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
47 “Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. 48 When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. 49 This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50 and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
51 “Have you understood all these things?” Jesus asked. “Yes,” they replied.
52 He said to them, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”
Song – StF 441/MP 803/StF 659 – As water to the thirsty, as beauty to the eyes
Song – HP 30 – As the bridegroom to his chosen
Reflection
During my last sabbatical, I was fortunate to be able to go on an Arvon Foundation poetry writing course up at Lumb Bank, Heptonstall, up above Hebden Bridge. One afternoon we were sent out into the lovely surrounding countryside, with the challenge of finding a voice in some part of the natural world in which we could write. I found myself drawn to a large oak tree, not far from the house, and a rambling bramble by its roots. The oak had been there decades, perhaps centuries; the bramble days, week or months. Imagining a conversation between them, I wondered at the contrast between the long, slow growth of the tree, and the frantic ephemeral activity of the bramble, here today, gone tomorrow. This led to the poem that follows, where the oak becomes the elephant and the bramble the mouse:
The title of this poem is the sound of an elephant’s distress call
dealing in the currency of lifetimes
makes foreign trade difficult
and the exchange rate
hard to calculate
the apocryphal Elephant
squared up to by the Mouse of legend
is panicked not by her opponent’s
sinewy tail cheese-wire whiskers
nor even his terrible table manners
her terror comes as she realises
his so-limited longevity
and is made to face
in mouse-shaped miniature
her own pachydermic mortality
this poem ends with the sound of an elephant’s distress call
and the squeak of a mouse
Today’s gospel reading continues a series of weeks when we have been looking at parables of the kingdom. Jesus has been saying that the kingdom of heaven is like seed, or soil, or a sower, sowing generously and indiscriminately. Today we have the mustard seed, the yeast, the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price, and the full net.
The kingdom of heaven is like….? As I contemplate the question in the light of Jesus’ parables I find myself between oak and bramble, or elephant and mouse. I find myself in a place where time is relative.
On the one hand, the kingdom is God’s to bring, in God’s good time. The scale is epic, the plan long-term. The sower’s work goes on and on, season follows season, the cycle of seedtime and harvest repeats and repeats and repeats. The treasure in the field, the pearl of great value, both require everything, a lifetime’s work, inheritance and all, if they are to be obtained. The language of the kingdom is that of oak and elephant, its sounds long and slow, its purpose sure.
On the other hand, the kingdom is now. We see the seed as it flies, notice the soil which receives it. The mustard seed is tiny, the yeast almost invisible, this is small world, in front of our noses, little details having significant effect. The treasure and the pearl both require a moment of decision, an instant when the deed is signed and done. The language of the kingdom is that of bramble and mouse, its sounds short and sharp, its effect immediate.
The bible has different words for time. There is Chronos, time passing, and Kairos, the right time. We all know Chronos, feel it in our bodies, see it in the mirror. We know our life-time is limited, as the elephant before the mouse, we face our mortality. But the kingdom comes in Kairos time, and Kairos time trumps Chronos. Not in a Dorian Gray way, with wrinkles rescinded. But in a ‘God is working his purpose out’ kind of way, in a ‘God being present in the moment’ kind of way.
The invitation and challenge to us, is to have eyes to see the presence of, and ears to hear the accent of, Kairos, God’s time, in the midst of Chronos, passing time. To stand between oak and bramble, elephant and mouse, and be able to say, ‘Thanks be to God’.
Prayer of Praise and Thanksgiving
God, we thank you for teaching us the things that matter, the things of true value.
We praise you that the treasures of your kingdom are hidden beneath the mundanity,
and sometimes the drama, of everyday life;
and that they are often there in small ways that, if nurtured, grow in abundance.
Thank you for your pearls of wisdom and your seeds of faith.
Let your Kingdom grow among us.
Amen.
Song – HP 139 – The kingdom of God is justice and joy
Prayers
Lord, you took so much care to describe your kingdom
in ways everyone could understand, including us.
Your kingdom come, O Lord. Your will be done.
We pray today that you will pass on to us that gift of making ourselves accessible.
Keep us from being a stumbling block to those who would seek you;
from using language that puzzles; from actions that confuse;
from anything that keeps us apart from your people around us.
Your kingdom come, O Lord. Your will be done.
We pray for those people and places we have noticed this week who need our prayers.
In quietness we lift them to God, and listen for God’s invitation to play our part.
Your kingdom come, O Lord. Your will be done.
We bring our prayers with the Spirit’s help and in Jesus’ name. Amen.
We share together in praying the Lord’s Prayer.
Song – HP 769/MP 189 – God is working his purpose out
Sending and blessing Loving God, thank you for your reign breaking in,
all around, for those with eyes to see.
May the light of your love be focused within us.
May we create space in our hearts to treasure it.
And may we be of service to your love, now and always.
And so may the blessing of God, Creator, Son and Spirit,
remain with us, and all those we love,now and always. Amen.
