Sunday Service from the URC Daily Devotions 30th August 2020

Worship from the URC’s Daily Devotions
for
Sunday 30th August 2020

 
  
The Rev’d David Coleman
 

Prayers of Approach, Confession and Forgiveness
 
God, Christ and Spirit, Partnership of Creation: Bringer of beauty from chaos welcoming all who are lost.   Alone and together we bring life to transform.
 
Earth cries out against us; so: pardon our species: forgive! Forgive each,  forgive all!
 
And where damage is done by my choice or neglect to what you have made and you love: so open a window of healing that, mindful of the magnitude of change, we be not bound by despair but empowered by hope encouraged by mercy enlivened by grace beyond earning.
 
Silence
 
Declaration of Forgiveness
 
God of Good Earth, who offers forgiveness in advance of completed action. Show us our place and purpose as creatures of dust and love through the friendship of Christ  sharing flesh with all life. Amen, Amen, as you call.
 
Prayer of Illumination
 
God who inspired the writers of Scripture to interpret the joys and crises though which they came to know you; bless the words we read and wrestle with today; the thoughts they provoke the anger they arouse the impatience they encourage for these our days.  Sustain our hope and our readiness to forgive as well as to “get on with it” living to your glory and the good of the Earth, telling your story,  speaking your Word.  Amen
 
Readings
 
Romans 12:9-21
 
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
 
Matthew 16:21-28

Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.

And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
 
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them renounce self  and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
 
For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?
 
“For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
 
Musical Reflection: By Gracious Powers  (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
 

By gracious powers
so wonderfully sheltered
and confidently waiting,
come what may,
we know that God
is with us night and morning,
and never fails
to meet us each new day.

2: Yet are our hearts
by their old foe tormented;
still evil days
bring burdens hard to bear;
O give our frightened
souls the sure salvation
for which, O Lord,
you taught us to prepare.

3: And when the cup you give
is filled to brimming
with bitter suffering,
hard to understand,
we take it gladly,
trusting though with trembling,
out of so good and so beloved a hand.

4: If once again,
in this mixed world, you give us
the joy we had,
the brightness of your sun,
we shall recall
what we have learned through sorrow,
and dedicate our lives to you alone.
 
Sermon Beyond Apple Pie
 
Paul’s advice to churches is generally on-the-hoof, but considered.
 
He likes to send lists of things that they ought to see as good as a way of getting across that from the identity of Christian community follows as a matter of course, that you care for the social and created environment where you have ended up. 
 
Paul’s lists have their faults, and granting them word-for word authority can be counter-productive, though using them as a springboard  for reflecting on the many dimensions of what it means to be church here and now is seriously challenging.
 
For instance: for churches in western cultures, having suffered from a winner-takes-all view of competition, where prizes are allocated for trampling the weakest underfoot, thus  perhaps embracing as a knee-jerk response, a view of Christian character as non-competitive, …do we miss the chance to use the gift of a competitive spirit for the benefit and encouragement of all: “outdoing one another in showing honour”? 
 
Do we recycle, rather than just reject?
 
And can we repurpose the deep and powerful feelings  – that should  surely  explode into revenge – instead into burning-coals actions of love and justice?
 
Can we accept that  the satisfaction, closure and healing  that nations who maintain the death-penalty believe is offered when victims’ families witness an execution, can be equalled or exceeded by the defiance of rising in goodwill above the evil we have experienced? 
 
Here, having already got across the uncontroversially apple-pie message that “it’s good to be good”,  as well as a version of  Jesus’ more wholesome reassurance, that we shouldn’t worry, but welcome it, if we find a good life rewarding, …..after all that, Paul is sticking his neck even further out, meddling in matters of honour and shame, and those things of importance, from which we might prefer to exclude some ‘wimpish’ religious influence.
 
In the controversies this year about the statues of slavers, Paul’s notorious cultural accommodation of slavery -on closer inspection ( especially in the letter to Philemon) turns out to be a first step in  subverting the fabric of an unjust society by appeal to better nature.
 
With hindsight, this does fail to impress, though hindsight can be smug and merciless, as well as defensively  keen to demonstrate the moral superiority of our own day.
 
But in any time and place: How far can we push the change that is needed? How many noses can be put out of joint?
 
When is it right to blow our irrevocable scope for martyrdom, and when right, to ‘keep our powder dry’ as our Scottish moderator, the late John Humphreys so frequently advised as our synod piloted the sensitive waters of the reconsideration of the inclusiveness of Christian marriage, just a few years ago.
 
Plenty of what we will do as the church today will amount to the planting of seeds  to be trees for others and future generations. That’s a holy calling.
 
If as a prayerful offering, you want to plant  real  trees, though, take advice: take the same care with the effectiveness of environmental actions as you would with the maintenance of an organ, or of the church boiler.
 
Act for the care of Creation as if your life as a church depended on it, because, in so many ways, that is true.
 
Not least the mission bonus of being seen by wider society to care for what society wishes it had time to care for,  thus our life together does depend on it.  No one who is concerned for mission and its effectiveness, can afford to ignore the deeply environmental context of the Gospel.
 
Christians do rock boats.  Sometimes despite themselves.   It goes with being bearers of Good News.  The least diplomatic hymn of the Bible is that of Mary, looking to God tearing down tyrants from their thrones.  Is that part of your Christmas?
 
Christians rock boats.  Sometimes half-heartedly,  though when the boats they travel in are rocking due to stormy waters, as Paul found in the storm that led to his shipwreck, we have the chance to shed inhibitions and come into our own as the bearers of healing, hope,  and transformation. The ship may be wrecked, but there will be survivors.
 
But hindsight or no hindsight, we should be in awe at Paul’s  rattling the cage of a culture of  honour satisfied through revenge which, to this day is perpetuated in song, film and story; daring to comment on the sort of thing where even in churches, people prefer to leave well alone.
 
Just  as, apart from bringing a tree into the church at Christmas, many of our local congregations will set aside care for creation, feeling that some things are too holy to be green, so too, once the lived and practical implications of Christ’s  teaching and example begin to be risky or contradictory of the iron fist of common sense, then a voice in our head says ‘hold on’, ‘be sensible’. You don’t want to do THAT do you”. That is when we follow that other scriptural advice to ‘test the spirits; [ 1 John 4:1] as to whether this is the voice of love and wisdom, or, as Jesus identified it even in his close friend Peter, the outright opposition to God: Satan, the contradictor of shocking but ultimately life-giving decisions.
 
Jesus, as we meet him in Matthew 16 has already wrestled with the limits of his perceived mission “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”, as well as facing and accepting the possibility that a project of change and transformation is not rendered invalid merely because its completion is uncertain or distant. 
 
His lifetime,  and that of the disciples, will not round off the transformation of the world.
 
For us, the ethic of success is not clear-cut, but it can also be oppressive.
 
Is a self-evidently good direction of travel, a good aspiration, worthwhile only if it will run clearly and precisely to plan and completion?
 
Again, the voice of Satan is heard  when climate science cannot offer precision, but only a range of possibilities, though it’s abundantly clear that we know enough about enough to make some serious changes of direction.
 
That’s when we can look to  some of the distinctive resources and treasures of our faith.
 
As in the practise of  prayer. Praying  we offer with no guarantee of cause and effect, but trusting in the wisdom and goodness of God, and frequently reconciled to effort and sacrifice without guarantees. 
 
A prayer is worthwhile, and may change our own outlook, whether or not any firm causal link might ever be established between the conversations that arise out of our relationship with God and  how things eventually turn out.
 
What then, is the voice of Satan for us today:  the reasonable, sensible, “slow us down Lord”  prayer, passed off as wisdom and maturity, which might earn the rebuke of the  reckless determination of Jesus to  continue to Jerusalem?
 
For what will it profit us if to keep on growing GDP but forfeit all else that makes life worthwhile?
 
Well, right now, it has  seemed sufficient to see the acute  coronavirus crisis, which may have been more disruptive than any other factor in recent memory, as a time to put things on hold, on ice, in mothballs, rather than a chance to finish off, to write off, to let go.   Cherish memories, but recognise that what is past is past.
 
It’s  been easier  and seemed kinder to see these months  as an irritation than a gift, especially given the casualties,  the farewells which have been forced on us, to loved ones and ways of life.
 
There is a reluctance to acknowledge that some changes really have happened.  Amidst much crying,  the milk is spilled.
 
It takes courage to grasp that the pain of the death of friends has accompanied the release which is the end of some things that needed  to end.  Or at least, that chance is offered.
It takes courage, if  we are looking forward  to  getting back to an old, or even a new “normal”  to hear the news that  the greater many layered crises of climate and extreme weather, rising sea-levels and the acidification of the oceans, biodiversity, soil degradation, plastic overload, and of course, the terrifying toll of the sixth mass extinction on earth…. all these things have carried on apace, even if we have been granted the encouragement of cleaner air and coastal waters, of cities quiet enough to hear the birds praise God in their singing. 
 
We have been shown how things still might be.  God is never saying nothing. Let those with eyes to see and ears to hear read, and continue to read the signs; to take note of the voice of the Earth, interpreted through the honesty of science. We have learned that some of the changes we didn’t expect we could make can be made.
 
The global theme of the Season of Creation, in which churches from around the world make the effort to highlight the environmental responsibility which is inherent to our faith… the theme this year is a ‘jubilee for Creation’.
 
Jubilee, which Jesus also referred to in his preaching, is a deeply  holy  and profoundly practical theme,  related also to Sabbath: a reset of and reboot of our relationship with the soil and the land, where injustice and abuse may have crept in. Slaves (formally or de facto) are to be liberated.
 
Perhaps Satan would prefer us to just go back to the deadly status quo we set aside this year.  Or to its close  and much more attractive relative gradualism:  which is doing nothing at all by doing the sensible minimum.  Not to learn. Not to repurpose reuse and recycle.
 
The other change, which sensible Satanists would rather we kept on one side, is that the wilder passages of scripture,  even those verses with which our Gospel reading concludes; poetic and apocalyptic speech which is both a response and a resource for times of crisis, begins to come into its own.
 
“For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done”
 
…should not keep us calm, but should equip us for the struggle of love and justice,  zealous and ardent in spirit.
 
Remember that the church on the day of Pentecost attracted the (malicious) suspicion of intoxication. What grounds do you offer for a similar accusation?
 
Our faith is no longer boring. That too was a lie, long upheld as a way of evading the transformative implications of following Jesus.
 
Tragedy remains tragedy.  Never let it be said, even that the Cross was “worthwhile”. Though what followed from, it is joy and sustaining hope; the offer of a world different from what might have been, and the solidarity of God in the flesh, by the power of the Breath of Life,  come what may.
 
Hymn:      Lord, Bring The Day to Pass
                 Ian Fraser (1964)
 

3 Help us, when we release
creation’s secret powers,
to harness them for peace —
our children’s peace and ours:
teach us the art of mastering
in servant form,
like Christ our King.

4 Creation groans, travails,
futile its present plight,
bound — till the hour it hails
God’s children born of light
that we may gain our true estate.
Come, Lord: new heavens
and earth create.

 
Affirmation of Faith
 
We believe in God, creator of all,
whose word sustains the life of humanity,
and directs our history. God is our life.
 
We believe in God’s Son,
born amongst the poor, light in our night,
first-born from the dead. He is alive.
 
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
who gives birth to the new life of God,
who breathes life into the struggle for justice,
who leads us to hope. Who is a living force.
 
We believe in the holy universal Church,
herald of the Good News
which frees people and brings new life.
We believe in the coming of a new world
where Jesus Christ, our Lord, will be all in all. Amen.
 
Invitation to the Table
 
If you are blessed by the attempt, if not by completion  of the healing of the Earth, as which Christ is incarnate, as are we, then gather round his table to be a work of God in progress finding friends in the friends of Jesus and nourishment in bread and wine in food and drink made available through human hands, from  Earth itself, on which we feed; holy hitherto, for Jesus, by God’s choice, is made of such. 
 
Jesus said: when you celebrate,  invite those who can’t finish what you begin: for completion’s in God’s hands alone. celebrate now with whoever who will join you: make time now, whilst you can, for the feast.
 
Offertory
 
What you’re listening to  just now is provided by people like you. Some years ago, I was asked to leave out of a sermon the idea from 2 Corinthians that there’s no point in giving if you don’t enjoy it.  The organisers were worried  that people would give less in freedom than in duty.  So pause just now, and think about the good things that are part of the life we share.  The things of the church, locally and nationally  that give joy and pleasure, comfort and fulfilment. Then see where your heart leads you.  Our reading from Romans today offer some responses in terms of sustaining what it is to live as friends of Christ, offering what we are and what we have:
 
Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
 
Our response, in support of our local church, yes, in money, as well as in our kindness, and our impatience, at this time when so much is hidden, allows that good things continue to be visible, and thus that those around us turn to God in praise:
 
So here’s a  wee prayer for when we get round to it, as well as what you’re sharing right now.

Dear God
give us joy in our giving
wisdom in our spending
and your peace in our hearts
now, and until next time.
 
We pray in the way Jesus teaches us….Our Father
 
Thanksgiving
 
Thank-you God for our place and purpose  as creatures of soil and partners with Earth’s creatures. Through all the ages, as mountains dance and trees applaud we hear the call to join your praise. From our beginning, Earth cried out at the spilling of blood bearing the burden of human harm. Your People sought a land of milk and honey but injustice brought decay. Your prophets: priests and farmers, called them to account. Yet then, as now, your countless warning signs (and words and actions) fell often by the wayside.

Then: Christ Jesus, friend of wildlife, speaking to the seas teaching through trees, showing God’s generous wildness  in  wildness of wind and eloquence in weather. In Jesus  you spoke of sharing; of justice as acknowledgement of need. You showed the  cost of healing and the price of  the truth unwelcomed by the Powerful. Now risen, Christ is with us in the care of a damaged world. And he feeds, invites, inspires us friends and siblings, with Christself  through food and faith.

At the Last Supper shared with friends  before his murder Jesus gave them food and drink, flesh and blood, bread and wine. Celebrating past and present Church, throughout the earth, where God is, here and now:
 

Holy, holy, holy Lord,
God of pow’r and God of might,
heav’n and earth are full,
heav’n and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest,
hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is He who comes
in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest,
hosanna in the highest,
Hosanna in the highest,
in the highest!

Intercessions
 
Dear Christ, as we bring to your table what we are and what we have you call on us to pray, (if necessary, using words) to carry and focus the thoughts and feelings which might heal, disturb and enable us as your hands, feet, heart, in the midst of Creation  rooted in soil, sheltered by sky.
 
The World
 
We pray as part of it all, responsible, and yet carried along victims and collaborators, unclean of speech and action, yet on the spot to heal and tend and catalysts of change beyond our seeing.
 
We pray for and with the life of the Earth; giving thanks for the great healing and balancing power of nature acknowledging the injustice which distorts even that;
 
In the midst of all the disruption which we have experienced from the virus and the measures we have taken to mitigate its spread; with the trajectory of climate catastrophe neither shelved  nor yet diverted; in the midst of suffering and perhaps, of premature hope that “all will soon be normal again” teach us respect for life; even for dangerous life: seeking to befriend rather than dominate to manage, rather than eradicate, to sustain and transform, rather than “solve” what it means to share breath and be part of the cycles of the living planet.

Open to us the significance of our place and purpose to till and keep your garden; the family business of life sustained that we may look our fellow creatures in the eye and see you staring back.
 
The Church
 
Dear Spirit, Wind of Change, and Breath of justice we pray as your Body, the Church; a people, not just an idea, far from perfect, yet subject to your wayward gusts  of kindness, vision, prophecy and truthful speech;
 
Risen, Christ commissioned us, believers and doubters to bring good news to every creature; teaching your way of care, with justice; confident to converse with trees and seas: and in our praise, to join Earth’s lovely chorus.
 
Claiming the unity, your given gift, whatever barriers we still cherish and botch in the midst of the times and seasons you called us into being for:
 
Show forth in us the power of the powerless the strength of the weak, the joy of those who do not aspire to control, yet carry love’s authority, content to get hands dirty as Christ reached out where all withdrew.
 
Recall us too, to that privilege of care at the ending of lives; for hope and healing even through the painful times holding hands even as ours are held because, when we’re together, trust in you lives here.
 
Ourselves
 
We’ve prayed the world, the Church to you: and all we offer overlaps.  So now, beyond the words we hear we hand hearts over, silent, fragile. we share a space of quiet without spoken words for what you need to say and hear.
 
Silence  (with water and birdsong)
 
God, you have heard. Amen.
 
Prayer of Consecration
 
Blow, breath of life on flesh and blood, on bread and wine.  Make us, in sharing these good things more fully creatures of your Earth.
 
Breaking of Bread
 
Taking into our own hands what Earth has given and other hands have made we break and share
 
Jesus, Lamb of God, have mercy on us
Jesus, bearer of our sins,  have  mercy on us
Jesus, redeemer of the world, grant us peace
 
Communion
 
Dear God, by faith, beyond mere symbol by the reality of food and drink your blood flows in our veins,  carrying goodness to sustain justice your flesh walks and works as we do receiving and reaching out. As we eat, feed the world  Pause
 
As we drink, quench life’s thirst Pause
 
The Peace
 
Christ, your peace is offered by grace may we be worthy
that peace rests and remains on our house. Peace be with you, and with all those with whom we share today.
 
Christ our Saviour, so live within us that we  continue this day  with the light of hope in our eyes, your Word on our lips, and your love in our hearts. Amen.
 
Hymn       O the Life of the World
                 © Kathy Galloway (b 1952)  
 

Oh the life of the world
is a joy and a treasure,
unfolding in beauty
the green growing tree,
the changing of seasons
in mountain and valley, the stars
and the bright restless sea.
 
2: Oh the life of the world
is a promise of blessing,
in the rain that renews,
in the heat of the sun;
in the heart that confesses
and the act that expresses
all things and all people are one.

3: Oh the life of the world
is the breath of our being,
it is fragile and precious
and offers a choice;
shall we share the earth wisely,
can we touch the earth gently,
will we listen to
earth’s silenced voice?
 
4: So give thanks for the life
and give love to the Maker,
and rejoice in the gift
of the bright risen Son,
and walk in the peace
and the power of the Spirit,
till the days of our living are done.