Worship for Sunday 10th July 2022, by Matt Smith

Call to worship

We come from scattered lives to this place, seeking unity in the Spirit, seeking the grace of the Christ of all people, seeking the peace of the God of All. God’s people have gathered, in our glorious diversity and difference, as God created and intended. Let us worship God together.

Hymn: Be still for the presence of the Lord StF20 

  1. Be still for the presence of the Lord
    The Holy one is here
    Come bow before him now
    In reverence and fear
    In Him no sin is found
    We stand on Holy ground
    Be still for the presence of the Lord
    The Holy one is here.
  2. Be still for the glory of the Lord
    Is shining all around
    He burns with Holy fire
    With splendour He is crowned
    How awesome is the sight

Our radiant King of light

Be still for the glory of the Lord

Is shining all around.

 

  1. Be still for the power of the Lord
    Is moving in this place
    He comes to cleanse and heal
    To minister His grace
    No work too hard for Him
    In faith receive from Him
    Be still for the power of the Lord
    Is moving in this place.

Prayers

O God, we thank you for this earth, our home;
For the wide sky and the blessed sun,
For the salt sea and the running water,
For the everlasting hills
And the never-resting winds,
For trees and the common grass underfoot.

Lord hear our prayer

We thank you for our senses
By which we hear the songs of birds,
And see the splendour of the summer fields,
And taste of the autumn fruits,
And rejoice in the feel of the snow,
And smell the breath of the spring.

Lord, hear our prayer.

Grant us a heart wide open to all this beauty;
And save our souls from being so blind
That we pass unseeing
When even the common thorn bush
Is aflame with your glory,
O God our creator,

Lord, hear our prayer.

O Lord, grant us the grace to grow deeper in our respect of and care for your Creation.
Help us to recognize the sacredness of all of your creatures as signs of your wondrous love.
Help us turn from the selfish consumption of resources meant for all and to see the impacts of our choices on the poor and vulnerable.
Lord, hear our prayer.

 May we have the wisdom to see the ways that we too impact on your creation,

And repent from our damaging ways

When your creation includes others and ourselves

And we damage those as well

And look on with distain

We as for your forgiveness

Lord, hear our prayer.

Loving God we thank you for your forgiveness

For your mercy and grace to each of us

Thank you that you make us whole again

Through the power of your love

You power to renew and restore

Has no limits

We pray all these things in the name of Christ Jesus

Lord, hear our prayer. Amen

 Reading: Luke 10: 25-37 NIV

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.’ And he said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’ Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while travelling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.” Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’

Hymn: Love the Lord by Lincoln Brewster

Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart
With all your soul, with all your mind
And with all your strength                             (x2)

With all your heart, with all your soul
With all your mind, with all your strength
Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart
With all your soul, with all your mind
And with all your strength

I will serve the Lord with all my heart
With all my soul, with all my mind
And with all my strength                               (x2)

With all my heart, with all my soul
With all my mind, with all my strength
I will serve the Lord with all my heart
With all my soul, with all my mind
And with all my strength

I will love You, (I will love You)
I will praise You, (I will praise You)
I will serve You, Lord (I will serve You)
I will trust You, Lord (I will trust You)

With all my heart, with all my soul
With all my mind, with all my strength           (x2)

I will love You, Lord, with all my heart
With all my soul, with all my mind, and with all my strength                                                    (x3)

Songwriters: Lincoln Brewster © Integrity’s Praise! Music

Reading : Colossians 1: 1-14

The Letter of Paul to the Colossians

Salutation

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

Paul Thanks God for the Colossians

In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God. This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow-servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Reflection

Matt, Student minister of the Church of Christ Jesus by the will of God,

To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Manchester

Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

I’ve had the privilege of serving in the Manchester circuit for the past two years, through some very strange times. Our world is changing at such a pace, there is no certainty in what the next few years will bring. Some of you will have seen a lot more change that I have in the 36 years of my life and be able to reflect on how different life is now. There are I’m sure many things we can hark back to the olden days and reminisce on the good things that happened or the things that we miss. With change though comes new opportunities. Without the advances in technologies, lives would be shorter, living standards lower, ability to communicate with loved ones far away reduced.

COVID 19 impacted the church hard, but look how well the circuit has responded. I want you to hear the encouragement in my writing, for a church that society had written off as out dated and stuck in the past, thousands got to grips with computers, emails, zoom services and the like, in a matter of months. For those who couldn’t, they also continued to be supported through written worship, posted notices etc. I know we all feel exhausted with all the trials we have had to overcome, but you did it, you showed that the church isn’t the building, because the church continued outside of it. Your love, care and compassion for each other continued, your desire to continue to worship God each week overcame the challenges. The Church is still alive.

In reading the opening of Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth, it reminded me of the need to keep building each other up and encouraging each other. We are after all part of the one Catholic Church in the world, but also the Methodist Church of Great Britain, the Churches in the Manchester Circuit. We may express our faith differently and understand the bible differently, but it is the same Father, Son and Spirit that we worship. It’s the same Kingdom of heaven that we hope for, both partly here and then later. We are an eclectic Church, not just Methodism, but the worldwide church. Made up of people of all nations, expressing their faith in varied ways, in varied languages, in varied settings.

The way the world has changed means that what people expect and how they respond to God has changed. The world is still hungry for spiritual meaning, but one that they can relate to and understand which is different to a more traditional style or written out. Just as it was the Samaritan who helped the robbed man, there is plenty of good in the world, they just don’t know who to praise for it. So as we re-gather into our communities face to face, is there an opportunity for our circuit look different? Could churches who engage in worship in similar traditional styles join together and create new church communities who worship differently. After all, the church is the people not the building and we know we can adapt.

The theme for this year that the President of Conference Revd Graham Thompson has set is the greatest commandment to Love God, Love our neighbours as ourselves, which happens to also be our liturgy passage for today. The Vice-President, Anthony Boateng’s theme is ‘Revival: The Methodist Dream’. Both of these if taken seriously will challenge us and change us.

Paul’s praise for the Corinthians was founded in their faith in Jesus and love that they had for each other, because of the hope for themselves in heaven. God, Others, Ourselves.  It is right to acknowledge a preferred style of worship and who mission and evangelism is focused on, God made us all individual, but brothers and sisters we need to allow for others to express their praise to God and acts of mission and evangelism in ways that are different to ours. The honest truth is that we have too many services and churches, with not enough people in them, and too few ministers to serve them. COVID-19 has shown the world that the church is not dead, we can change and adapt when we need to. So let’s think more holistically, let’s put the needs of others alongside our own needs, lets free up ministers to support new styles of worship and church, let’s let others find authentic ways to worship and love God, lets support each other as one family church in Manchester Methodist Circuit not 20 separate ones. Yes it will be hard and we are already tired, yes it will require bits of sacrifice, but I’ve seen the love you have for one another and for God displayed in the last two years with you. I know of the tireless work of many to keep the buildings safe, finance books balanced, services running and I know there were many more needed to keep churches going when they are open.

If you want to see the church in Manchester and great Britain grow again, if you want souls saved, lives changed, the name of God to be praised, then we must in love not duty, be the good Samaritan to our communities, sing again with Joy at the hope that we have found in Christ Jesus and unleash the power of the Holy Spirit into people’s lives.

Hymn: Hear the Call of the Kingdom SoF407

Hear the call of the Kingdom
Lift your eyes to the King
Let His song rise within you
As a fragrant offering
Of how God rich in mercy
Came in Christ to redeem
All who trust in His unfailing grace

Hear the call of the Kingdom
To be children of light
With the mercy of heaven
The humility of Christ
Walking justly before Him
Loving all that is right
That the life of Christ may shine through us

King of Heaven we will answer the call
We will follow bringing hope to the world
Filled with passion filled with power to proclaim
Salvation in Jesus’ name

Hear the call of the Kingdom
To reach out to the lost
With the Father’s compassion
In the wonder of the cross
Bringing peace and forgiveness
And a hope yet to come
Let the nations put their trust in Him

Prayers

Faithful and loving God, we ask for your guidance and help,

In a world that at times feels over run with hate and violence

Help us to see the goodness all around us.

Surround us, we pray with your light

So that the darkness has nowhere to hide.

 

Lord we ask you to protect those who protect us,

Those that fight for love, freedom from oppression and peace

This week we’ve heard around the world of people overcome by darkness who go on to hurt others.

Lord we pray for those perpetrators as much as those who have lost loved one. That they may find peace in you, but we also weep along side those who are hurting so much. Help love to win and not anger.

We thank you for those at conference this year, for decisions made for the benefit of your Church.

Help us to heed the words of the new President and Vice President, we pray for them this year as they share their message around the country. May that be from you Lord and may your churches be open to respond.

We ask for your strength and courage for our Lay and Ordained members of this circuit. We thank you for the gifts they bring, the work that they do, to bring Glory to your name. Help us all when we feel weary to keep loving others as well as you and ourselves.

We pray for a revival, but with that the courage to be the hands, feet and voice to tell others of your greatness.

 

Lord may our prayers not just be empty words, as we pray for those who come to our mind who are sick, alone and in need of help.

All this we pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Saviour and Friend.

Amen

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.

 

Hymn: To God be the Glory StF94 

  1. To God be the glory, great things He hath done,

So loved He the world that He gave us His Son,

Who yielded His life our redemption to win,

And opened the life-gate that all may go in.

Chorus                 Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,

                              Let the earth hear His voice;

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,

                              Let the people rejoice;

Oh, come to the Father, through Jesus the Son,

And give Him the glory; great things He hath done.

  1. Oh, perfect redemption, the purchase of blood,

To every believer the promise of God;

The vilest offender who truly believes,

That moment from Jesus a pardon receives.

  1. Great things He hath taught us, great things He hath done,

And great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son;

But purer, and higher, and greater will be

Our wonder, our worship when Jesus we see. 

Blessing

May the Love of our Lord Jesus Christ fill your heart anew with a passion for proclaiming his name. As you journey through this week, may you feel the presence of God along side you, comforting and challenging you in your walk of faith. May the words of others bring you encouragement, may you know the plans the Lords still has for you.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you now and ever more.

Amen