Call to Worship (Psalm 89: 1-2)
I will sing of the Lord’s great love for ever;
with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known
through all generations.
I will declare that your love stands firm for ever,
that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself.

HYMN 153 Great is Thy faithfulness

Prayers

God of love,
light a flame of love in our hearts to you,
a flame of love to our families and friends,
a flame of love to our neighbours,
a flame of love to our enemies.

Jesus, Son of Mary,
light a flame of love in our hearts to all,
from the lowliest thing that lives,
to the Name that is highest of all.

God of life,
grant us your forgiveness.
We have been heedless in our thoughts,
cruel in our words,
shameful in our actions.
We are indifferent to a world made sad
by want and wastefulness;
we pass by on the other side
when we see our neighbour in need;
we wander from the way that leads to peace
in paths of our own pleasing.

God of life,
grant us your forgiveness.

silence

God of the new day and God of love,
you created us and you have redeemed us.
As you scatter the mist
from the hills,
banish the deeds of darkness
from the sons and daughters of your light.
Help us to know and believe
that, as the children of your love,
we are free to begin again;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

Scriptures:

Jeremiah 28: 5-9
Then the prophet Jeremiah replied to the prophet Hananiah before the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord. He said, ‘Amen! May the Lord do so! May the Lord fulfil the words you have prophesied by bringing the articles of the Lord’s house and all the exiles back to this place from Babylon. Nevertheless, listen to what I have to say in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people: from early times the prophets who preceded you and me have prophesied war, disaster and plague against many countries and great kingdoms. But the prophet who prophesies peace will be recognised as one truly sent by the Lord only if his prediction comes true.’

Matthew 10: 40-42
‘Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.’

HYMN 739 The church’s one foundation

(To play, click on the link below – it is not automatic.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHCqXL3mCwU

Reflection

Why?
The question on the philosophy exam was ‘Why?’ Lost for anything else to say the student answered ‘Why not?’ It’s a question that children often ask, usually when confronted with a simple fact. It’s a question adults often ask when dealing with trauma. In faith and theological circles it’s a question that’s often asked when we consider suffering and evil.
It’s a question I believe that we should be asking today. I do not mean in terms of the great general themes of meaning and existence, but in specific reference to the church. Let me explain. At present we are looking toward how we may re-open our buildings after a period of lockdown. Initially we are focussed on making our properties safe for private prayer; all being well this will progress onto being free to celebrate together on the Lord’s Day. Before we may open there are many things that we need to do. This involves lots of questions and many answers; it is no small task. Yet these questions focus around two things, ‘what do we want to do’, and ‘how are we going to do it’. These are appropriate and helpful in their context. Yet few are asking what, to me, is a more fundamental question, namely ‘why do we want to re-open our building?’
Over time our buildings have become more than places for praise and prayer. They are places where we may meet regularly with friends; often they have the role of contributing to our sense of identity; importantly, they also have become resources for the wider community. Re-opening may also contribute to our sense that some form of ‘normality’ is returning. These are all good things, but are they the reasons that we want to re-open our buildings? To answer that we need to consider our primary purpose in having them.
So what is our primary purpose? Ask many Christians that question today and there’s the likelihood that you’ll get more answers that the number of people you ask. Perhaps it would help if I rephrased it: What is the chief end of man? Some of you will immediately recognise those words while others may find them to be new although a little antiquated in terms of language. The precise words of that last question date from the seventeenth century. They come from the ‘Shorter Catechism’ that, until reasonably recent times, was one of the main teaching tools of the faith as understood by our tradition. However, it is the answer to that question that is important; it is ‘the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.’ That, I would argue, is what our primary purpose should be, and should also apply to our reasoning for re-opening our buildings. We should be re-opening so as to be able to gather to praise, or enjoy, God together.
In our Bible readings we see some challenging things that relate to this. In Jeremiah we find him asserting that we must be truthful about the plans and purposes of God, for there are consequences involved. In the gospel, too, we find that there are consequences for those that share the good news, and also for those that provide welcome and hospitality for those who are doing the sharing. In part these readings both speak about forms of obedience, but they also speak about honouring, or glorifying, God through speaking His truth. The consequence of glorifying God is the experience of ‘enjoying’ His presence.
Glorifying God has to be our primary purpose and reason for re-opening our buildings. If you accept the argument of the catechism it should also be the primary purpose of our lives. So how does this apply to the question of buildings? In scripture we see that obedience to God has consequences. If we are obedient to God in seeking primarily to glorify Him through meeting to praise and honour him then we will see consequences. These actions of faith will see these other good actions follow. It is the glorifying of God that will see our buildings be the community resources, meeting places, and life shapers that they could be. It is the glorifying of God that will lead us to knowing His presence and love more deeply. It is glorifying God, as our chief end, that will see us know the answer to the ultimate question of ‘why?’
Amen.

Prayers

Let us pray for the Church,
the world, and one another.

For the Church we pray, the bright lamp of faith,
her ministers and people, and this parish.
May the Christ, our King, protect her,
keep her, and save her.

For the world we pray, the creation of God,
seeking its healing, its peace, and its prosperity.
May the Christ the Son move through all the earth,
blessing it.

For those who are ill we pray,
and for those who suffer.
May the Good Shepherd
who knows and loves his sheep
make them whole and well, active and content.

For those who work we pray,
and for all who shape
the patterns of this world’s life.
May the King of grace
give to their labour
growth and fruitfulness,
until the day of gladness come.

For those we love, and for ourselves we pray.
May the guarding of God be theirs and ours,
until together we come
to the High King’s house in heaven,
in the name of Father, Son, and Spirit Holy.
Amen

HYMN 516 We are marching in the light of God

Benediction
The guarding of the God of life be on you,
the guarding of the loving Christ be on you,
the guarding of the Holy Spirit be on you,
every day and night,
to aid you and enfold you,
each day, each night.
Amen.

If you have ever wondered what our last hymn sounds like in its original style and language, then follow this link:

Acknowledgements
Scripture readings taken from Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized,
NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®
Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide

Call to Worship (Psalm 69: 13)
But I pray to you, Lord,
in the time of your favour;
in your great love, O God,
answer me with your sure salvation.

HYMN 127 O worship the King, all glorious above

Prayer

Almighty God,
to whom all hearts are open, all desires known,
and from whom no secrets are hid;
cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
that we may perfectly love you,
and worthily magnify your holy name;
through Christ our Lord

Almighty God, our Father, we have sinned against you and one another,
in thought, word and deed,
by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.
In your mercy forgive what we have been,
help us to correct what we are,
and direct what we shall be; through Jesus

Christ our Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

May God forgive us our sins,
strengthen us by his Spirit,
and keep you in life eternal;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Lord, you have assured us of your continuing love and grace.
Help us now in faith, hope and love
to share in this worship to your honour and glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Lord God our Father,
through our Saviour Jesus Christ
you have assured mankind of eternal life
and in baptism have made us one with him.
Deliver us from the death of sin
and raise us to new life in your love,
by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

Scriptures

Jeremiah 20: 7-13
You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived;
you overpowered me and prevailed.
I am ridiculed all day long;
everyone mocks me.
Whenever I speak, I cry out
proclaiming violence and destruction.
So the word of the Lord has brought me
insult and reproach all day long.
But if I say, ‘I will not mention his word
or speak any more in his name,’
his word is in my heart like a fire,
a fire shut up in my bones.
I am weary of holding it in;
indeed, I cannot.
I hear many whispering,
Terror on every side!
Denounce him! Let’s denounce him!’
All my friends
are waiting for me to slip, saying,
‘Perhaps he will be deceived;
then we will prevail over him
and take our revenge on him.’

But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior;
so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.
They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced;
their dishonour will never be forgotten.
Lord Almighty, you who examine the righteous
and probe the heart and mind,
let me see your vengeance on them,
for to you I have committed my cause.

Sing to the Lord!
Give praise to the Lord!
He rescues the life of the needy
from the hands of the wicked.

Matthew 10: 24-39
‘The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!
‘So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
‘Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.
‘Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn
‘“a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law –
a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.”
‘Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

HYMN 187 There’s a wideness in God’s mercy

Reflection

‘A Burning Desire’
What really drives you? What really excites you? What is it that truly motivates you to action? For each of us it will be something different. For some of us it will be a hobby or interest; for some of us it will be a job or career path; for others of us it will a particular relationship or person. All of these, whether they be things or activities or people, can be forces for good because they arouse in us a drive to do something positive. Many of us who read this will consider ourselves to be Christian; for us there is also something else that should drive, excite, or motivate. That ‘something else’ is our faith. Jeremiah, in today’s reading, describes this drive as being, ‘like a burning fire shut up in my bones’. What, though, does it mean when Jeremiah speaks like this?
Jeremiah was a prophet who earned himself the unenviable reputation of being messenger of ‘doom and gloom’. To an extent this was true, however he earned this label by speaking the truth. He did this while others around him would speak what the rulers of the people wanted to hear. This made him unpopular facing slander, violence, and persecution because of it. Jeremiah, however, was not alone. Others, before and after his time, also spoke ‘truth to power’ with similar outcomes.
If we move forward some six hundred years to the time of Jesus we find that not much had changed. Jesus, like the prophets before him, spoke truth. He spoke it irrespective of his audience. He didn’t modify his message to appease the powerful. Like Jeremiah, Jesus retained his personal integrity. With Jesus there was also another dimension to his speaking out. He spoke ‘truth to power’ but he also spoke truth about power. This was a power that is not of this world. Jesus spoke truth about the power of God. Unlike Jeremiah there was a dimension of Jesus’ message that was about his identity and place in God’s order of things. This combination made Jesus doubly unpopular. It cost him his life.
When Jeremiah spoke of the fire in his bones he was speaking of the drive that God had placed within him to speak the truth. Like Jesus, this truth was spiritual in nature but for both it also had direct implications for the physical world. Their message was also relevant to the worlds of politics, economy, and society. Today we like to keep matters of spirituality and religion in those spheres of our lives that are ‘marked’ as personal and private but that wasn’t the way for Jeremiah or Jesus. For both the prophet and the Christ the message had a much wider, public, dimension. In our culture such a message would not be popular.
Today’s reading from the Gospel presents us with stark choices. The disciples of Jesus are called to acknowledge him in public; they are called to share that they are his followers. The starkness comes in the consequences of denying that truth, that relationship. That’s a demand that is as true today as it was in their time. Jesus warned that such would not be a popular move, and that it could result in the same outcomes as we find with Jeremiah. History does have the habit of repeating itself.
For us, speaking truth to power may mean many things. It may mean speaking out about homelessness in our city; it may mean challenging poverty as it effects people through food or healthcare; it may mean challenging lethargy or corruption in places of power. For Christians, though, it also means sharing the good news that through Jesus we may know God. It means acknowledging, or confessing, that he is the Lord of our lives. If he is truly our Lord, then it’s him we follow, him we obey, him to whom we show allegiance. Speaking truth has never really been popular, the lives of the prophets and Jesus show that, but it’s the path that the people of God have been called to walk. Amen.

Prayer

We believe it to be your will, our God,
to bless in answer to prayer.
Hear us as we pray:
for the whole world, for all nations and their governments,
that we may work together for freedom, peace, and healing
in all parts of the earth;
for the Church in all its branches,
that its energy may be rekindled, and its faith renewed,
that it may bring hope in these troubled times;
for one another,
that we may all truly know the peace and blessing
Christ offers us in each moment;
for those who are not with us today,
and whose presence we miss;
may the peace of Christ may be known to them also;
for our homes and families, for our neighbours,
and for the places where we would work, learn or rest;
for our schools and universities,
that they are able once more to be places of safety,
where our children and young people may meet and learn;
for the sick and the suffering, the careworn and the sad,
remembering in silence any whose need lies heavily upon our hearts
… and for the dying, that they may depart unafraid
and in peace;
This we ask in the name and for the sake of him who lives
to make prayer for us: Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

HYMN 396 And can it be

Benediction
Let us go from this time of praise,
in the name of him who died, and rose again,
Christ Jesus the Lord;
to love and serve him,
throughout our daily lives. Amen.

Acknowledgements – scripture readings taken from:
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized,
NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®