Worship for Sunday 26th January 2025, by Caroline Wickens

Invitation to Worship

Send your Spirit upon us, O Lord.
Anoint us and fill us today.
Make us confident to sing your praise,
make us attentive to your word,
make us aware of your glory,
make us ready to serve you in one another.
Empower us to make a difference.
Amen.

Hymn of praise: StF 116 – Sing for God’s glory that colours the dawn of creation

1    Sing for God’s glory that colours the dawn of creation,
racing across the sky, trailing bright clouds of elation;
sun of delight succeeds the velvet of night,
warming the earth’s exultation.

2    Sing for God’s power that shatters the chains that would bind us,
searing the darkness of fear and despair that could blind us,
touching our shame with love that will not lay blame,

reaching out gently to find us.

3       Sing for God’s justice disturbing each easy illusion,
tearing down tyrants and putting our pride to confusion;
lifeblood of right, resisting evil and slight,
offering freedom’s transfusion.

4       Sing for God’s saints who have travelled faith’s journey before us,
who in our weariness give us their hope to restore us;
in them we see the new creation to be,
spirit of love made flesh for us.

Kathy Galloway (b. 1952)

Reproduced from Singing the Faith Electronic Words Edition, number 116
Words: © Kathy Galloway

Prayers of praise and thanksgiving, confession and forgiveness

God of heaven and earth, we come in adoration
before the mystery revealed in your Son, Jesus,
who stood with us, as one of us.

We praise you for the freedom we take for granted, Lord –
the freedom to serve you every day of our lives,
openly and seldom challenged.
We give so little thought to this freedom that we sometimes fail to exercise it.
So we thank you, Lord,
for every opportunity that comes our way
to do your will, to see things as you do, to share your love in this world.
We praise you that in serving, we stand alongside
our sisters and brothers in Christ, in a ministry stretching down
the generations from Jesus himself.

Lord, we confess that we tend to see our calling as individual.
‘What would you have me do?’ we ask. ‘Where might I be best used?’

And, of course, that is part of our calling, for you see us as individuals.
We are also called to stand alongside one another in our service,

and we sometimes forget this.
But you, Father, always see the bigger picture.
Forgive us for being so caught up in our own spheres

that we fail to see the need to stand with our brothers and sisters,

to serve together in serving your kingdom.

Today we stand with one another in worshipping you
by living the way of love and life he showed us,
setting us free to serve in the fullness of your grace.

Bible Reading: Luke 4:14 – 21

14 Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. 15 He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

16 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

18 ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
        to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
    and recovery of sight to the blind,
        to let the oppressed go free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’

20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’

Reflective song: StF 338 – There is a redeemer

There is a redeemer,
Jesus, God’s own Son,
precious Lamb of God, Messiah,
Holy One.

Thank you, O my Father,
for giving us your Son,
and leaving your Spirit
till the work on earth is done.

Jesus, my Redeemer,
name above all names,
precious Son of God, Messiah,
Lamb for sinners slain.

When I stand in glory
I will see his face
and there I’ll serve my King for ever
in that holy place.

Melody Green (b.1946) and Keith Green (1953 – 1982), © 1982 Birdwing Music Ltd

Reflection

Who is the focus of Jesus’ promises in this story from the Gospel of Luke? At the very beginning of his ministry, he comes back to his home town of Nazareth. He has been alone in the desert, tempted by Satan, filled with the Spirit. Now he is ready to start telling the world what God has called him to do and where the heart of his ministry lies.

What will Jesus say? The suspense builds as Luke describes the scene. Jesus is in the synagogue, the worship place where he grew up. He is invited to read the Scripture, and the words he finds are from the prophet Isaiah. They are words that speak of setting people free from poverty and oppression. Jesus’ ministry will bring good news to poor people and freedom to those unfairly imprisoned. He will rebuild communities so that there is space for everyone to live life to the full, and in all this he will ‘proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour’, the time when God’s blessing is made real among God’s people.

Sometimes these verses are called the ‘Nazareth manifesto’. They set out Jesus’ intentions and purposes for his ministry, and then he goes on to make his words good. Luke’s Gospel, like the others, tells of sick people healed, hungry people fed, hurting people given hope. Jesus’ words come alive in his loving, caring presence with and for those in need. He is determined to make a difference and to reveal God’s glory through a world changed for the good, one life at a time.

This is God’s agenda: to share good news with people in need. During this week, the world has seen a very different set of priorities coming to the fore, as the richest of the rich are placed at the centre of attention, climate change is discounted and human health and wellbeing disregarded.

Alongside all the razzmatazz from across the Atlantic, I’ve been receiving news from a friend who is visiting Zambia, where I worked for a time. She writes of communities devastated by drought. Their crops have failed and people are hungry. Their electricity is cut off for hours at a time, because there is not enough water to make the hydroelectric power stations work properly. Yet this past week they have been celebrating God’s goodness as they mark the sixtieth birthday of their church, the United Church of Zambia, the largest Protestant church in the country. They base their hope not on wealth or power but on the good news of Jesus Christ made real in their midst.

In the power of the Spirit, Jesus speaks out the truth at the heart of God. God longs to see all people flourish, and therefore God is especially concerned for those whose lives are broken by hardship. God longs for mercy, compassion and understanding across the lines that divide powerful and powerless people.  If we dare to call ourselves Jesus people, we need to pay full attention to this, and shape our words and our lives in line with the priorities of God’s love made real in God’s Son through the power of the Spirit.

Prayers for the needs of the world

Let us pray to the Lord,
asking for the help we need to live the good news in a broken world.

Even though answering the call to justice and to peace asks for all we have;
even though life and its demands consume much of our energy;
even though we are anxious about the future:
the joy of the Lord is our strength.

So, with confidence we pray: send us, lead us, and fill us with your Spirit. 

Even though living for you at home, at school and at work is often challenging;
even though standing up for what we believe in a sceptical world is tough;
even though we fall short of what you ask of us and we let people down:
the joy of the Lord is our strength.

So, with confidence we pray: send us, lead us, and fill us with your Spirit. 

Even though the world is troubled and building the kingdom relies on our small offering of faith;
even though peace is so fragile and hope is hard to come by –

remembering especially the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas

and the West Bank where fresh violence has broken out;
even though we often lose our way and fail to listen, we can begin again:
the joy of the Lord is our strength.

So, with confidence we pray: send us, lead us, and fill us with your Spirit.  

Even though the world is so often full of suffering; 
even though our hearts are troubled by our own pain and by the suffering of others – remembering today those we know who are going through illness, redundancy or life changing events;

even though in our distress we do not see the signs of God’s presence with us:
the joy of the Lord is our strength.

So, with confidence we pray: send us, lead us, and fill us with your Spirit.  

Even though we feel small and insignificant, the good news is for us to share;
even though the need around us is great; our hands are empty and our courage fails;
even though the gifts we offer seem inadequate:
the joy of the Lord is our strength.

So, with confidence we pray: send us, lead us, and fill us with your Spirit. 

Hymn: StF 398 – There’s a spirit in the air

  1. There’s a spirit in the air,
    telling Christians everywhere:
    ‘Praise the love that Christ revealed,
    living, working, in our world!’

    2. Lose your shyness, find your tongue,
    tell the world what God has done:
    God in Christ has come to stay.
    Live tomorrow’s life today!

    3. When believers break the bread,
    when a hungry child is fed,
    praise the love that Christ revealed,
    living, working, in our world.
    4. Still the Spirit gives us light,
    seeing wrong and setting right:
    God in Christ has come to stay.
    Live tomorrow’s life today!

    5. When a stranger’s not alone,
    where the homeless find a home,
    praise the love that Christ revealed,
    living, working, in our world.

    6. May the Spirit fill our praise,
    guide our thoughts and change our ways
    God in Christ has come to stay.
    Live tomorrow’s life today!

  1. There’s a Spirit in the air,
    calling people everywhere:
    praise the love that Christ revealed,
    living, working, in our world.

Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus, you were anointed to bring new insight,
freedom and good news to all people.
Help us to share this good news of your love and care
with everyone we meet in the week ahead.
Amen.