Printed Service – Sunday 17th November 2024
Prepared by William Glasse
Keep Faith
Call to Worship – Psalm 16:7-9
I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure.
Hymn – STF56 – King of Glory, King of Peace
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King of Glory, King of Peace,
I will love thee;
And that love may never cease
I will move thee.
Thou hast granted my request,
Thou hast heard me;
Thou didst note my working breast,
Thou hast spared me.
Wherefore with my utmost art
I will sing thee,
And the cream of all my heart
I will bring thee.
Though my sins against me cried,
Thou didst clear me;
And alone, when they replied,
Thou didst hear me.
Seven whole days, not one in seven,
I will praise thee;
In my heart, though not in heaven,
I can raise thee.
Small it is, in this poor sort
To enrol thee:
E’en eternity’s too short
To extol thee
George Herbert (1593-1633)
Prayer
God of Glory and of peace, God we love and worship, God always with us and teaching us, Hear our prayer and receive our adoration.
We come in worship because we can, Responding freely to all life is for us we see you, We want to know more of you and to grow with you. Receive our thankfulness and Praise.
We come in silence, We come with singing. We come in thought. We come in prayer. William Glasse
Cascading Love
Source of overflowing goodness and mercy, Forgive us when we flare up full of anger, Resentment and self-pity.
Remind us that our cup overflows with the stillness Of tolerance, understanding and acceptance. Forgive us when we feel filled to overflowing with doubt, Defiance and fear.
Open our senses to your stabilising gifts Of trust, obedience and courage. Forgive us when we open ourselves to greed, Selfishness and jealously.
Empty our hearts and minds, Creating room For your generosity, service and encouragement.
Today we set ourselves before you ready to be filled anew With your light, truth and hope, That these attributes might cascade,
Overflowing the brims of our hearts, Into the hearts of those we meet.
Source of all goodness and mercy, forgive and renew us today. May it be so
Ana Gobledale ©The United Reformed Church Adapted by William Glasse
Receive the assurance of God’s forgiveness:
In the time of his favour the Lord answers you; in the day of salvation he helps you; the Lord comforts you, he has compassion on you; he has not forsaken you, nor has he forgotten you. Lift up your eyes and look around: the Lord is your saviour and your redeemer; in Christ you are forgiven. Amen.
Isaiah 49 Michael Perry ©2024 Jubilate
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.
Introduction to theme – Keep Faith
In this service we are going to read from the Old Testament and be reminded about how Hannah prayed fervently for a child and had her prayer answered. Samuel was born but before he breathed his first lung-full of air, his grateful and godly mother had committed his life’s service to God.
In the New Testament passage, Jesus will remind us that we can expect upheavals and clamour as part of life but they are all part of how it is. They may not necessarily signal the imminent end of the world.
The question we face is how we should keep faith and what does it mean to keep faith in today’s circumstances when our best teaching comes from a different culture and time.
Or does it?
Hymn – 186 – Tell out my soul the greatness of the Lord
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Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord!
Unnumbered blessings, give my spirit voice;
tender to me the promise of his word;
in God my Saviour shall my heart rejoice.
Tell out, my soul, the greatness of his Name!
Make known his might, the deeds his arm has done;
his mercy sure, from age to age the same;
his holy Name, the Lord, the Mighty One.
Tell out, my soul, the greatness of his might!
Powers and dominions lay their glory by.
Proud hearts and stubborn wills are put to flight,
the hungry fed, the humble lifted high.
Tell out, my soul, the glories of his word!
Firm is his promise, and his mercy sure.
Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord
to children’s children and for evermore!
Timothy Dudley-Smith (born 1926) from Luke 1 vs46-55 © administered by Oxford University Press in Europe (including UK and Ireland) and Africa, and by Hope Publishing Company in all other territories (including USA)
Reading – 1 Samuel 1:4-20
Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters.But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb. Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. Her husband Elkanah would say to her, ‘Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?’ Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the Lord’s house. 1In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. And she made a vow, saying, ‘Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.’ As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, ‘How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.’ ‘Not so, my lord,’ Hannah replied, ‘I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.’ Eli answered, ‘Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.’ She said, ‘May your servant find favour in your eyes.’ Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.
Early the next morning they arose and worshipped before the Lord and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her.So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, ‘Because I asked the Lord for him.’
Reading – Mark 13:1-8
The destruction of the temple and signs of the end times
As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!’
‘Do you see all these great buildings?’ replied Jesus. ‘Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.’
As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately,‘Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?’
Jesus said to them: ‘Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming, “I am he,” and will deceive many.When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth-pains.
Hymn – 526 – Lord of all hopefulness, Lord of all joy
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Lord of all hopefulness, Lord of all joy,
Whose trust, ever child-like, no care could destroy,
Be there at our waking, and give us, we pray,
Your bliss in our hearts, Lord, at the break of the day.
Lord of all eagerness, Lord of all faith,
Whose strong hands were skilled at the plane and the lathe,
Be there at our labours, and give us, we pray,
Your strength in our hearts, Lord, at the noon of the day.
Lord of all kindliness, Lord of all grace,
Your hands swift to welcome, your arms to embrace,
Be there at our homing, and give us, we pray,
Your love in our hearts, Lord, at the eve of the day.
Lord of all gentleness, Lord of all calm,
Whose voice is contentment, whose presence is balm,
Be there at our sleeping, and give us, we pray,
Your peace in our hearts, Lord, at the end of the day.
Jan Struther (1901-1953) © Oxford University Press
Sermon – A bright hope for tomorrow (Psalm 16:9)
Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure.
When people ask me what I do for a living sometimes I will reply that I am paid to worry. My job is partly about facing up to things that may go wrong routinely, or occasionally and catastrophically, and looking for ways of mitigating or eliminating those risks. Put like that it sounds easy.
To my way of thinking, a starting point for risk management is establishing how great a risk really is by stripping away figments of people’s, sometimes overactive, imagination. The converse is that I run the risk of being desensitised and downplaying something very serious.
In our Gospel Reading, Jesus got into a conversation with the disciples, Peter, James and John, which gave him the entrée to talk about perspective. From a passing comment, a couple of steps in the conversation took Jesus from present to future and let him talk about the long term. It is worth locking in these steps in our minds.
The comment was about the great stones used to construct the magnificent temple buildings. That was fact. 19 years before Jesus was born Herod the Great had begun to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.
In a quick retort Jesus predicted the future destruction of the buildings, which happed in AD70 thanks to the Roman General Titus (who was later Emperor). The disciples asked the natural question, ‘when will that happen’. A specific question to which Jesus answered generally with a few warnings:
- That wars and rumours of wars happen all the time but they are not necessarily a sign of the end;
- Natural phenomena that cause destruction, like earthquakes are not necessarily a sign of the end;
- False prophets will come with deceitful messages that win people over but they need to be avoided.
- The end is further away than we may think so we must not catastrophise every tough event that happens.
Move out of the first century narrative and into the moment. Read the newspaper, listen to the radio, watch television and the news is frequently harsh. Read social media and it is often distorted and sometimes catastrophised. People are upset by it and we have a reported mental health crisis on our hands, especially among younger people.
It is encouraging to read reports that there is a trend emerging that suggests that being part of the Church is good for people’s mental health and that may even knock on into physical health too. What is less understood and so less commonly reported is that both have their roots in spiritual health.
Why?
A popular hymn these days is ‘Great is thy Faithfulness’. Based on verses from Lamentations and the letter of James it was written in 1923 for a church in Chicago. I have always loved the older hymn, John’s Keble’s ‘New every morning is the love my wakening and uprising prove.’ Both hymns are about spiritual solidity build on the foundation of an unchanging God, which is a source for joy in all times, the reasons for there being rainbows and rain together.
The Greek word that is translated ‘joy’ is associated with overflowing from the heart and much more than a notional expression of joy with the lips or whistling to keep up the spirits. Fraudsters cannot bring about what Jesus inspires – and so we are back to his teaching.
The Psalmist put it well – My heart is glad; my tongue rejoices and my body rests secure – I feel safe.
Does this feel ‘pie in the sky’? if it does, then possibly, we have not understood ourselves well enough to know the risks that undermine us, or we have not met the real, the genuine Jesus.
And that thought brings me to Hannah.
Samuel, Hannah’s longed for son was an important character in his day but what I want to focus on is Hannah’s state of mind when she went to the Temple to pray.
For all of us who want or wanted children and are fortunate to have them this is a good story with a happy ending. For many more people it is a difficult story with the power to cause hurt and bitterness. Couples who desperately want children are not able to have them for many reasons. Increasingly in our time, the choice not to have children is one made after great thought and for many reasons. It is no longer right or safe to assume that all marriages and life partnerships are going to result in a family.
Culturally for Hannah, to have a child was important and her dream; by being a mother she would be fulfilled. Add to that the obvious tension because Elkanah’s other wife, Peninnah produced children and you have the perfect recipe for jealously. Elkanah tried to mitigate it by focusing on their relationship but Hannah was depressed and did not want to hear.
Now let go of the theme of the blessing to a woman of bearing children and come into our world. Whether justified or not there are things that we consider we are entitled to have and not to have them makes us depressed, dejected, sad or just frustrated – use whatever example you like from your own experience and you will realise that to get the things you feel entitled to makes you feel better and removes a blocker from your view of God. Sometimes those things are minor, sometimes they are major and life changing. That is human nature.
Hannah was transformed by her pregnancy.
A theme that runs through the teaching of Jesus is that of being careful what you wish for. Yes, some things are harmful, but more importantly some desires focus us on the short term when, as Jesus was trying to get the disciples to understand, the long term is more significant and to be content with the view we have of that gives peace: the peace of God that passes all understanding.
The Psalm goes on to talk of not being abandoned to the grave and became an important theme to both Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the light of knowing that Jesus rose from the dead whereas King David had eventually died an ordinary mortal death.
If you stand back and think, is it surprising that mental health benefits accrue from being at peace in a faith in life beyond death?
The text I began with was:
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure.
The peace we really need and should want more than anything else, not because it is a virtue but because it is a boon, brings us to the place Hannah was in after Samuel was born and which Jesus wanted Peter, James and John to see:
- I feel good inside
- I feel safe in the world
- I feel free to express joy
Not because I am good or the world is safe but because God has enabled me to feel content.
And so to God, the source of eternal joy and peace be glory, now and always, Amen.
Hymn – 426- Hark, my soul, it is the Lord
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Hark, my soul! It is the Lord;
‘Tis thy Saviour, hear his word;
Jesus speaks, and speaks to thee:
‘Say, poor sinner, lov’st thou me?
‘I delivered thee when bound,
And, when bleeding, healed thy wound;
Sought thee wandering, set thee right,
Turned thy darkness into light.
‘Can a woman’s tender care
Cease toward the child she bare?
Yes, she may forgetful be,
Yet will I remember thee.
‘Mine is an unchanging love,
Higher than the heights above,
Deeper than the depths beneath,
Free and faithful, strong as death.
‘Thou shalt see my glory soon,
When the work of grace is done;
Partner of my throne shalt be;
Say, poor sinner, lov’st thou me?’
Lord, it is my chief complaint
That my love is weak and faint;
Yet I love thee, and adore;
O for grace to love thee more!
William Cowper (1731-1800)
Dedication of Giving and Living
Lord God, you have given us much and we bring back a part. We offer our time. The abilities you give us and material goods from our store. We given them all in different ways and at different times but may they come together to forward your work in the world to your eternal Glory for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen. William Glasse
Prayers of Intercession
In our prayers we come to God, reflecting on the message we have heard from the scripture for today.
God our father, as we pray, we reflect on the lesson of Hannah about the effectiveness of fervent prayer. In times that are culturally different, we acknowledge that outcomes are seen differently now from then, but the picture of your response in a way that was right then gives us hope now.
We pray for all who are longing and praying earnestly for things in their lives. All who feel as if life has passed them by, or they are not fulfilling their potential because something is missing and detracting from their humanity.
Show us how to learn the lessons of a different time, not literally but as metaphors that we too may rejoice as Hannah rejoiced having prayed as Hannah prayed, finding answers as Hannah found them.
Help us to be sensitive to those who pray fervently and seem not to find answers or ever to hear a response. When that is our experience grant us grace to accept that the time of our asking may not be right or the nature of our request not in line with God’s work in us or around us.
Lord, help us to be content as we are and to cope with whatever we have today.
As we think about Peter, James and John and the Temple destruction we reflect on all those who are concerned for the future of the physical buildings of the Church and the physical presence of people in buildings. As we live in changing times, we find it hard to adapt to change even if we know in our hearts that we want to.
Give us patience to await your guidance, to gather and to worship as you want us to do.
And we pray too for the world round us with the upheaval and violence that abounds, the threat of war and the way it is playing out in Eastern Europe, The Middle East and elsewhere. Give wisdom and vision to those who are able to broker peace, to reduce tensions and bring people together. William Glasse
Hope
What is hope, God?
What is hope when all seems hopeless, And its hard to know what to hang on to?
We do know t at you bring hope though your great love for us. So, perhaps we can hope that, in you, everything will be well. Maybe that is what hope is. Just a longing for everything to be well.
But sometimes it can be difficult, God. There are some things that never will be well.
In those times, you often point to the little things. A new bud on a tree. A cheerful song. A fluffy white cloud. A child having fun. A home-made cake. A welcome hug.
In those little things there surely is hope. So we give you the big things, God, because we know you must have taken care of those as well. We can see that hope is just hanging on to you. And never letting Go
Jill Nugent ©The United Reformed Church
Lord, give us peace as we bring you our prayers; Whether we are mixed up or clear, Whether we are happy or sad, Whether today is ordinary or special, We know that you will hear us.
So it is then that we pray Lord God our creator, for the sake of Jesus Christ our redeemer, in the empowered by the Holy Spirit. Amen. William Glasse
Hymn – 550 – Forth in thy name, O Lord, I go
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Forth in thy name, O Lord, I go,
my daily labour to pursue;
thee, only thee, resolved to know,
in all I think or speak or do.
The task thy wisdom hath assigned
O let me cheerfully fulfill;
in all my works thy presence find,
and prove thy good and perfect will.
Thee may I set at my right hand,
whose eyes my inmost substance see,
and labour on at thy command,
and offer all my works to thee.
Give me to bear thy easy yoke,
and ev’ry moment watch and pray,
and still to things eternal look,
and hasten to thy glorious day.
For thee delightfully employ
whate’er thy bounteous grace hath given,
and run my course with even joy,
and closely walk with thee to heaven.
Charles Wesley (1707-1788)
Benediction : Live lives worthy of the gospel of Christ, stand together, defend the faith, do not be afraid; trust your Saviour, follow him, suffer for him: and the blessing of our God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be upon you now and always. Amen.
Based on Philippians 1: Michael Perry ©2024 Jubilate