Bible Reading:                   Psalm 133:

Hymn:   Jesus calls us here to meet him                 Watch on You Tube

Jesus calls us here to meet him
as through word and song and prayer
we affirm God’s promised presence
where his people live and care.

Praise the God who keeps his promise;
praise the Son who calls us friends;
praise the Spirit who, among us,
to our hopes and fears attends.

Jesus calls us to confess him
Word of Life and Lord of All,
sharer of our flesh and frailness
saving all who fail or fall.

Tell his holy human story;
tell his tales that all may hear;
tell the world that Christ in glory
came to earth to meet us here.

Jesus calls us to each other:
found in him are no divides.
Race and class and sex and language-
such are barriers he derides.

Join the hand of friend and stranger;
join the hands of age and youth;
join the faithful and the doubter
in their common search for truth.

Prayers:

Lord, I come before you and acknowledge that you are King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
I bow before you and recognise you as the one who is able to do great things.
Help me to trust you and listen to your reply as I call out to you. Amen

Old Testament Reading                 Genesis 45: 1-15

We had a lovely experience at Bramford Road on Sunday morning as we shared in an open-air act of worship, thankfully God was gracious to us and granted us a lovely sunny day.  O course we had to comply with Covid regulations, meaning that we all had to wear face masks, bring our own chairs and social distance.  It was a strange experience seeing people wearing sun hats, sunglasses, and face masks, nevertheless, it was lovely being back together.

We read in the Genesis story of the re-union between Joseph and his brothers.  This must have been quite an awkward reunion, the brothers might well have expected Joseph to seek retribution for what they had done to him, they needed his help and must have been quite fearful now that Joseph revealed to them who he was, the wonderful message of the story is that Joseph is ready to forgive them for all that they have done.

Consider:

• If we can imagine ourselves into the position Josephs brothers found themselves in, we might never have sold a sibling into slavery, but are there things in our lives that we feel ashamed of?
• We often use the word “Salvation” in our Christian journey and it is our belief that it is the will of God to forgive us when we get things wrong, this is two stage action, firstly we need to recognise our own sinfulness and confess it God asking for his forgiveness and secondly, cleansed by the power of his Spirit we need to receive forgiveness as we put ourselves in the shoes of the brothers.
• Turning things around and looking from the perspective of Joseph, we need to be ready to forgive others who have wronged us.  I think that it is important to remember that when we have forgiven people, that is an end to the matter, and we need to move on with grace.

Hymn:                  God! When human bonds are broken  Watch on You Tube

God! When human bonds are broken
and we lack the love or skill
to restore the hope of healing,
give us grace and make us still.

Through that stillness, with your Spirit
come into our world of stress,
for the sake of Christ forgiving
all the failures we confess.

You in us are bruised and broken:
hear us as we seek release
from the pain of earlier living;
set us free and grant us peace.

Send us, God of new beginnings,
humbly hopeful into life;
use us as a means of blessing:
make us stronger, give us faith.

Give us faith to be more faithful,
give us hope to be more true,
give us love to go on learning:G
God! Encourage and renew!

Epistle                  Romans 11: 1-2, 29-32

One of the biggest problems faced by religion over generations is that of change and the result has been splits in the community of faith.  This is not a recent phenomenon, it was going on in Old Testament times when groups wanted to express their faith in different ways, and there were new interpretations of God, although a God or some gods seem fairly common.  In more recent years it has tended to be about how we “do religion” and over the last three hundred years the Church has split time and time again until today, most Christian fellowships are a made up of people from a mixture of faith traditions.

Christianity in the time of Paul was a new tradition and the problem was whether this “Christianity” was completely new and nothing to do with Judaism, or whether it was a movement within Judaism, somehow trying to force the faith to be what it always should have been, and questions like “do I have to first be a Jew to be a Christian were being asked.  Paul is trying to clarify to the Romans that the same God of Abraham is central to Christian thinking and living, in other words, Christianity is the fulfilment of Judaism, not the replacement    

Consider:

• I guess that most of you who are reading this attend a Methodist Church, does that make you a Methodist? Where does your personal faith tradition come from? Maybe you have switched denomination on more than one occasion. What denomination would you say you belong to? Does it matter?
• The original hearers of Paul’s message would have fallen into two camps Jews or Gentiles.  We can be fairly certain that the Jews would have been indoctrinated in their faith.  If you can label the denomination that you feel you belong to, how much do you know about the theology (the denominations understanding of God and interpretation of scripture)? Their policy (how they do Church)? or their structure? Does that matter?
• Assuming that you belong to a particular Church community, what keeps you attending that particular Church? What are the strong points that you like? What frustrates you? That you would like to change? Do you feel that you have a voice to make your views heard?

A time of prayer

Reflect for a moment on the words of the final verse of Charles Wesley’s hymn “And can it be”

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.

I approach your throne for the people I know personally that need a special touch from you. I picture them as I place them into your loving hands.

I approach your throne for the people who are shouting out with questions and despair and don’t know where to turn. Be their comfort Lord.

I approach your throne for those far from me and give to you their needs, knowing that I can trust you to respond

Almighty God, I come now to pray for Your world. Your world which is full of brokenness, injustice, and inequality. I bring before You the rulers of the world, local or national, and pray that they would remember that all power comes from You.

Almighty God, I pray for your church. I pray that during these times we would unite in worship and service. I pray for my local church, and its ministers/pastors, that they would be strengthened by Your Spirit.

Almighty God, I pray for those known to me and name them before You. And, I pray for myself, that I would be transformed by Your Spirit, and live in the love which You have given me through Jesus.

In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer:

Hymn    Lord, we come to ask your healing Watch on You Tube

Lord, we come to ask your healing,
teach us of love;
all unspoken shame revealing,
teach us of love.

Take our selfish thoughts and actions,
petty feuds, divisive factions,
hear us now to you appealing,
teach us of love.

Soothe away our pain and sorrow,
hold us in love;
grace we cannot buy or borrow,
hold us in love.

Though we see but dark and danger,
though we spurn both friend and stranger,
though we often dread tomorrow,
hold us in love.

When the bread is raised and broken,
fill us with love;
words of consecration spoken,
fill us in love.

As our grateful prayers continue,
make the faith that we have in you
more than just an empty token,
fill us in love.

Help us live for one another,
bind us in love;
stranger, neighbour, father, mother –
bind us in love.

All are equal at your table,
through your Spirit make us able
to embrace as sister, brother,
bind us in love.

Gospel                 Matthew 15: 21-28

Before attending important meetings, whether they have been in business or in Church, I have always tended to try and fugure out where I think we should be heading and normally I like to put my ideas down on paper so that we have an idea to start with.  I have learned over the years that good ideas are not my monopoly and others can ether develop my thoughts in far more creative directions, or come up with something far better than my original plan and I think that through flexibility and creativity we have become far more effective.

This reading from St Matthew’s Gospel always intreaugues me. It reminds me that first and foremost Christ is a Jew and , I’m not convinced that he came to start a new religion, but more to shift Judaism to where God had always intended it to be. This encounter with the Syrophoenician woman is fascinating, because she appears to change the mind of Christ, it is as though we are witnessing the point where Christ recognises that his message is a global message, not exclusively for the Jews.

Consider:

• Not all people will agree with my interpretation of this passage of scripture, but if we consider that Jesus changes his mind here, it prompts the question How easily do we change our minds?  A year ago, the nation was in deadlock about Brexit, with people arguing on both sides, how important is all of that in light of what has happened recently? Are there issues you have fought vehemently about in the past, which seem of little importance now?
• The whole experience of the last twenty-two weeks has changed the Church and we will be faced with even tougher decisions in the future, what do you want to go back to when all of this is over?  What are you happy to let go of? What have we started doing during this period that you would like to continue with?
• If we believe that this reading from St Matthews Gospel marks a turning point for the whole future of Christianity, what are the significant turning point you have seen in your Christian journey? The instigator in the Gospel story is a foreign woman, somebody seen as being of little significance in her day, she makes an enormous change.  How do you make your voice heard? How significant do you feel to be?

Hymn:  We have a gospel to proclaim    Watch on You Tube

We have a gospel to proclaim,
Good news for men in all the earth;
The gospel of a Saviour’s name,
We sing His glory, tell His worth.

Tell of His birth at Bethlehem,
Not in a royal house or hall
But in a stable dark and dim,
The Word made flesh, a light for all.

Tell of His death at Calvary,
Hated by those He came to save,
In lonely suffering on the cross,
For all He loved His life He gave.

Tell of that glorious Easter moon,
Empty the tomb, for He was free.
He broke the power of death and hell
That we might share His victory.

Tell of His reign at God’s right hand,
By all creation glorified,
He sends His Spirit on His Church,
To live for Him, the Lamb who died.

Now we rejoice to name Him King,
Jesus is Lord of all the earth,
This gospel message we proclaim,
We sing His glory, tell His worth.

A prayer of blessing

In the joys, may I celebrate with you Lord.
In the troubles, may I shout out to you with boldness and listen to you in faith.
And in the everyday, may I journey on with you.