Call to worship:
The kingdom of God is at hand.
We want to enter this kingdom.
The mercy of God is made known.
We want to receive this mercy.
The grace of God is abundant for all.
We praise you, O God,
for your compassion and your love. Accept our grateful praise
as we come to worship you today.
Hymn: StF 34
O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness;
Bow down before him, his glory proclaim;
With gold of obedience, and incense of lowliness,
Kneel and adore him: the Lord is his name.
Low at his feet lay thy burden of carefulness:
High on his heart he will bear it for thee,
Comfort thy sorrows, and answer thy prayerfulness,
Guiding thy steps as may best for thee be.
Fear not to enter his courts in the slenderness
Of the poor wealth thou wouldst reckon as thine:
Truth in its beauty, and love in its tenderness,
These are the offerings to lay on his shrine.
These, though we bring them in trembling and fearfulness,
He will accept for the name that is dear;
Mornings of joy give for evenings of tearfulness,
Trust for our trembling and hope for our fear.
O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness;
Bow down before him, his glory proclaim;
With gold of obedience, and incense of lowliness,
Kneel and adore him: the Lord is his name.
C: Jubilate hymns Ltd
Prayer:
We bring our praise…..
O Lord our God, it is our joy and our privilege to come into your presence,
to celebrate your love,
and to praise to your name.
We rejoice in your goodness,
which is from everlasting to everlasting.
Gracious God,
How can anything but praise be on our lips
For all that you are and all that you do.
We thank you for the life and words and ways of Jesus.
We thank you for his giving of himself
His dying on the cross and his rising,
For our sakes,
To save the lost,
To find the fearful and the doubting
And give new faith and strength.
Lord, we thank for the gift of the Holy Spirit,
Moving among us,
challenging us to grow in faith
Lord God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
We praise your holy name.
and our confession…..
Lord,
we look for you
in the wrong places.
We put our trust
in material things.
We worry about things
we cannot change.
We wonder
if you are even there at all.
For all the times
we have doubted you, Lord,
forgive us.
For all the ways
we have neglected your word
and ignored your people,
forgive us.
Do not be far from us, Lord.
There is no one else
we can turn to for help.
Renew our fickle hearts
and help us put our trust in you.
Take a moment of quiet
There is no wrong
that God cannot make right.
There is no chasm
that can separate us
from God’s love.
The Lord is patient and kind,
generous and good.
God will not forsake you
or leave you.
Turn to the Lord with confidence
and put your faith in God’s great mercy.
By the power of Jesus Christ,
we are made whole. Amen.
Hymn: StF 565
Only by grace can we enter
Only by grace can we stand
Not by our human endeavour
But by the blood of the Lamb
Into Your presence You call us
You call us to come
Into Your presence You draw us
And now by Your grace we come
Now by Your grace we come
Lord, if You marked our transgressions, who would stand?
Thanks to Your grace we are cleansed by the blood of the Lamb
Lord, if You marked our transgressions,
who would stand?
Thanks to Your grace we are cleansed by the blood of the Lamb
© Integrity’s Hosanna Music
Readings:
Hebrews 4:12-14
12 Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.
14 Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Mark 10:17-31
17 As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.'” 20 He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” 21 Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” 22 When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
23 Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”
28 Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age – houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
Hymn: StF 250
Jesus calls us o’er the tumult
of our life’s wild, restless sea;
day by day his sweet voice soundeth,
saying “Christian, follow me.”
As, of old, apostles heard it
by the Galilean lake,
turned from home and toil and kindred,
leaving all for his dear sake.
Jesus calls us from the worship
of the vain world’s golden store,
from each idol that would keep us,
saying “Christian, love me more.”
In our joys and in our sorrows,
days of toil and hours of ease,
still he calls, in cares and pleasures,
“Christian, love me more than these.”
Jesus calls us; by thy mercies,
Saviour, may we hear thy call,
give our hearts to thine obedience,
serve and love thee best of all.
Cecil Frances Alexander
Reflection:
When I was a teenager, (not so long ago really), all my friends had a holiday job, earning what seemed to me to be vast amounts of money. I didn’t want to be left out, so I found myself a weekend job at the local cinema. I admit my motivation for working was totally materialistic. I wanted clothes, I wanted music, I wanted to keep up with my friends, to have the things that they had – at least, I thought I did. Even then, looking back, something made me vaguely uncomfortable. As it happened, it was at the time my parents divorced, so, for various reasons, I never got those things. I was surprised to find that not having them really didn’t matter.
In Mark’s gospel, that man who ran to Jesus appeared to have it all, everything he could want – or did he? Despite all his riches, he is searching for something more. Those who saw him must have wondered what he was doing, in all his fine, expensive clothes kneeling in the dirt before Jesus, with this question burning in his heart, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
He thinks of eternal life as a something he can earn or buy, but salvation is God’s gift, we can’t earn or buy it. Jesus loves this man, telling him “You lack one thing. Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”
What will he do? It’s not just his money and his material goods Jesus is asking him to give up.
How about his leadership? People would think he’d really lost it if he just gave everything away. He wouldn’t stay respected for very long.
He’d have to give up power. Wealth is power. It buys influence. People listen to you if you have money.
He’d have to give up his status in society, his influence.
And there’s his family. If this man just gave away a great proportion of the family’s wealth, how would his wife feel, or his children, to find there’s no inheritance, or his parents who may have worked hard give him a good start in life.
It is too much for the man and he goes away grieving. He realized it meant giving up everything that was important to him and leaving it behind.
I don’t think Jesus is telling us that we can’t have anything materially. After all, if you’re in the position of not having enough money to put electric in the meter, (and I’ve been there too), your focus is still on money and where the next meal is coming from. He is showing what it can do to us if it’s the “be all and end all” for us; how it can possess us, become the most important thing to us, and get in the way of us having the life we really want and need.
A London newspaper offered a prize once for the best definition of money. The winning answer said, “Money is an instrument that can buy you everything but happiness and pay your fare to every place but heaven.” Our life is to be found in Christ, not in wealth and possessions.
We don’t know what happened next in that man’s story. I wonder what that he chose to do. Did he go back to his old life, or did he come back?
J.D. Walt wrote, “No one has any claim on the Kingdom of God. In fact, it’s impossible for anyone to enter the Kingdom of God on their own terms. … In the end this is not about divesting oneself of wealth but entrusting oneself to God.”
Let us pray:
Loving Lord,
All I have is yours.
May I never hold on to your gifts so tightly that they begin to hold on to me.
May my hands be open, both to receive your blessings, and to let them go; both to carry your gifts, and to pass them on.
Question for reflection:
Jesus calls us to think about what is most important to us, what do we truly value the most?
Hymn: StF 566
Take my life and let it be
consecrated, Lord, to thee.
Take my moments and my days;
let them flow in endless praise.
Take my hands and let them move
at the impulse of thy love.
Take my feet and let them be
swift and beautiful for thee.
Take my voice and let me sing
always, only, for my King.
Take my lips and let them be
filled with messages from thee.
Take my silver and my gold;
not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect and use
every power as thou shalt choose.
Take my will and make it thine;
it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart it is thine own;
it shall be thy royal throne.
Take my love; my Lord, I pour
at thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be
ever, only, all for thee.
Frances Ridley Havergal
Intercession & The Lord’s Prayer
Giver of life,
we think of our world today –
where there can be so much greed
and so little justice.
We pray for those for whom money is their great motivator,
while other concerns get pushed aside.
We ask for a renewed compassion
among those whose hearts seem so focused
on their own gain, to the detriment of others.
We pray for situations we have heard about this week,
where wickedness and corruption hold sway,
and where those who have little are trampled
under the heels of the powerful.
We ask for your light to spread into the darkest places –
the remote areas scarred by suffering we know nothing about,
the anguish behind closed doors of respectability,
the evil that can lurk within human hearts.
Jesus, you defeated darkness by confronting it on the cross,
and then rising to brilliant life again.
May we be your torch bearers,
showing those around us a better way of living.
In your name.
Amen.
Rootsontheweb
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: StF 345
And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Saviour’s blood
Died He for me, who caused His pain
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be
That Thou, my God, should die for me?
He left His Father’s throne above
So free, so infinite His grace
Emptied Himself of all but love
And bled for Adam’s helpless race
Tic mercy all, immense and free
For O my God, it found out me
Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light
My chains fell off, my heart was free
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee
No condemnation now I dread
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine
Alive in Him, my living Head
And clothed in righteousness divine
Bold I approach the eternal throne
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Blessing
Lord, you have given us so much in Jesus Christ. Help us to give to others as freely and generously.
God of Love,
Send us out in the power of your Spirit.
And may the blessing of God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
Be with us always.
Amen.
CCL: 57681
