God is with You
This short act of worship has been prepared for you. I invite you to share in a few moments with God, knowing that other people within Paulton, Trinity and Chew Stoke Methodist Churches are sharing this act of worship with you.
Revd Martin Slocombe
Call to worship – a gathering prayer
Psalm 34 - Praise for Deliverance from Trouble
1 I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul makes its boast in the Lord;
let the humble hear and be glad.
3 O magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name together.
4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me,
and delivered me from all my fears.
5 Look to him, and be radiant;
so your faces shall never be ashamed.
6 This poor soul cried, and was heard by the Lord,
and was saved from every trouble.
7 The angel of the Lord encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
8 O taste and see that the Lord is good;
happy are those who take refuge in him.
Hymn based on words of Psalm 34
Hymn – MP702 – Through all the changing scenes of life
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1 Through all the changing scenes of life, 2 Of his deliverance I will boast, 3 O magnify the Lord with me, 4 The hosts of God encamp around 5 O make but trial of his love; 6 Fear him, you saints, and you will then |
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Nahum Tate (1652–1715) and Nicholas Brady (1659–1726) |
Introduction
One of the challenges of faith that I always struggle with is, why has God revealed himself to me, when other people seem completely oblivious to him. My sister was brought up in the same Methodist family as I was, but now wants nothing whatsoever to do with religion. How can that be?
Our readings this morning perhaps shed some light on the undeniable presence of God even in the lives of those who choose to deny it.
Prayer of adoration & confession
Almighty and wonderful God, we thank you for your call on our lives, your presence which guides our thoughts and actions, your love which supports us through all the changing scenes of life. You are the constant presence which supports us and gives us life.
Open our eyes to see you in the world around us, in the wonder of small and personal experiences as well as in the dramatic and life-changing events which we experience.
We thank you that when we do not see you, it is our failure to recognise you, rather than your absence. We are sorry for our blindness, and for our faithlessness which allows us to think you could ever abandon those whom you have created.
We willingly receive your forgiveness, to cleanse our souls, and restore our relationship with you.
Almighty God, receive our prayer, which we make in and through the holy name of Jesus, our Lord. Amen
Readings
1 Kings 19:4-8
4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: ‘It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.’ 5Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, ‘Get up and eat.’ 6He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. 7The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, ‘Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.’ 8He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food for forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.
Reflection
In this reading we meet Elijah, triumphant after his contest against the other prophets, but in which he signed his own death warrant, and was being sought by Ahab and Jezebel. He could see no way to escape his oppressors, and exhausted, he asks for God to end his life.
To Elijah, the appearance of an angel, not just once, but twice, doesn’t seem to be that remarkable, and the message they bring is also unremarkable. His request is ignored, and a simple message is given. Eat and drink so that he will have strength for the journey ahead of him. Elijah is to travel to the mountain of Horeb, a journey of 40 days and nights, and to give him the strength he needs, the angels provide him with what seems to be a very simple meal, but one which will somehow sustain him for the journey.
But I don’t think that it is the food here that really matters. When Elijah is at the point of giving up, even on life itself, God’s will cannot be denied. There is something significant here about how God exists within us and works through us, even if at times we are unable or even unwilling to cooperate. In this story it is God, speaking through his angels, who leads Elijah to Mount Horeb where he finds God. This tells us something of the undeniable will of God, which will overcome the obstacles we place before him, even, in this case, when Elijah himself has reached the end of his tether.
John 6: 35-51
35 Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; 38for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.’
41 Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ 42They were saying, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, “I have come down from heaven”?’ 43Jesus answered them, ‘Do not complain among yourselves. 44No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. 45It is written in the prophets, “And they shall all be taught by God.” Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. 46Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life.48I am the bread of life. 49Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’
Reflection
If you have ever tried to teach anybody, you will know that repetition of your instructions until your student finally gets it, is often the key to teaching success. I am sure we all struggle with technology, especially during lockdown. I have lost count of the number of times meetings on Zoom have been delayed because a speaker has not unmuted themselves, and you know everyone is shouting “unmute yourself” at their screens. But they do finally get it. Jesus’ words here are also very repetitive, and yet the crowd repeatedly fail to understand his message.
The message Jesus is trying to get across in this passage is that he will welcome those believers whom God sends to him. Our Christian belief does not rest solely in Jesus, but takes it’s root more fundamentally in belief in God first. Jesus is therefore an extension of God and not an alternative. In verse 44 Jesus says, “No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day” and in verse 45, “Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me”.
We cannot choose to believe in Jesus if we do not initially have faith in God. It is this fundamental belief existing within each of us, which then allows us to believe in Jesus.
I wonder, as we look back to that moment when we first acknowledged God’s influence in our lives, was it a balancing of probabilities leading to a decision to follow, or was it a more fundamental recognition of God’s presence within you, which brought you to faith? This passage, and Elijah’s experience, seems to suggest that God exists within each of us, and yet the final decision to acknowledge this, and to make a decision to accept that fact are ours to make.
I believe that God does exist within everyone. He is a fundamental creative part of who we are. Some of us choose to accept this and live our lives accordingly, but many others both fail to recognise that source of love in their own lives, or to understand it in the lives of those of us who do. Therefore, accepting God is not about choosing to follow a remote and separate God, like we would choose to follow a football team, but is about a fulfilment of who we are. Denying that call, is akin to denying a part of ourselves.
I know many of you find sharing your faith difficult, and the idea of converting others and making disciples of unbelievers seems an impossible task. But if we believe that God exists within us all, then rather than converting unbelievers, our task is rather one of helping them to recognise the God who already exists within them. This doesn’t mean to say that it is an easy task, but I think it might help us to see the task of bringing people to God in a new light. As Jesus points out, even some who saw him still did not believe. It is not necessarily about helping people to look for God in their lives, but about helping them to recognise the God who is already there.
For those today who still do not come to faith, perhaps our friends and members of our families, there is still hope that they will recognise what we already know, no matter when that time comes in their lives. It is therefore really important that we live Christian lives in a visible way which others can see, for in seeing they start to understand what we perhaps might struggle to put into words.
Our lives of faith are not founded upon a calculated decision to follow, but upon a recognition that God’s presence in our lives has always been a reality, and at some point God has been revealed to us, and in recognising that, we have chosen to respond to it. God has led us to Jesus, and Jesus will hold us fast, and raise us up on the last day.
By our lives, our words and our actions, may we help others to recognise God as the source of love and peace in their lives, so that they too might acknowledge and love him with the same passion and commitment that He loves us.
Amen
Hymn – MP544 – Open my eyes that I may see
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Clara Scott (1841-1897) |
Prayers for others
Almighty God, as we see you in our lives, and in the lives of others, we bring our prayers for those whom you love, regardless of their response to you.
We pray for the world, and for the many places where personal desires and greed obscure your message of love for each of us.
We pray for your church in the world,
for the North East Somerset & Bath Circuit, of which we are a part, for it’s ministers, lay workers, churches and congregations – especially this week we join with the Circuit as we pray together for Peasedown St John, and their minister, David.
for Churches Together in Radstock & Westfield we pray for ourselves at Trinity Radstock, at this time of change, especially for those who feel saddened or betrayed by our recent Church Council decision , and for a mutual sense of unity as we give thanks for the past, and look forward with eagerness to new opportunities that will come before us.
We pray for our friends who are unwell, and their families who are supporting them, and for all those we know and love …………
And we pray for ourselves
In silence or spoken aloud, we bring our own prayers
silence
God of all, we pray on behalf of all those whom you love.
Amen
The Lord’s Prayer
We say together the prayer that Jesus gave us:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your Name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours,
now and for ever. Amen.
Hymn – Communion Hymn – MP66 – Broken for me, broken for you
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Broken For Me, Broken For You,
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Janet Lunt |
Holy Communion – non-responsive
Bead and wine are uncovered
Prayer of invocation
Come, Lord Jesus, with friend, with stranger, with young and with old, be among us today. Come close to us that we may come close to you. Forgive us that we may forgive one another. Renew us so that, where we have failed, we may begin again. Amen
The Story of the Last Supper
Among friends, gathered round a table, Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and, having blessed it, he broke the bread and gave it to his disciples, saying. “This is my body which is given for you”.
In the same way he took wine, and, having given thanks for it, he poured it out and gave the cup to his disciples, saying, “This cup is the new relationship with God, sealed with my blood. Take this and share it. I shall drink wine with you next in the coming kingdom of God”.
So now, following Jesus’ example, we take this bread and this wine; the ordinary things of the world; through which God will bless us. And as Jesus offered thanks for the gifts of the earth, let us also celebrate God’s goodness.
Prayer of Thanksgiving
Let us pray
Blessed are you, O God, for you have brought forth bread from the earth. Blessed are you, O God, for you have created the fruit of the vine.
And here at your table, you offer us bread and wine for the journey to nourish us as sons and daughters. And so, with all our sisters and brothers, before us and beside us, we praise you from our hearts for your unending greatness. Amen
Blessing of the bread and wine
Lord Jesus Christ, present with us now, as we do in this place what you did in an upper room, breathe your Spirit upon us and upon this bread and this wine, that they may be heaven’s food and drink for us, renewing, sustaining and making us whole, so that we may be your body on earth, loving and caring in the world.
Breaking and sharing of the bread and wine
Look, the Bread of heaven is broken for the life of the world. The gifts of God for the people of God.
Invitation
Come to this sacred table, not because you must but because you may; come, not to declare that you are righteous, but that you desire to be true disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ;
Come, not because you are strong, but because you are weak; not because you have any claim on heaven’s rewards, but because in your frailty and sin you stand in constant need of heaven’s mercy and help.
Distribution
Prayer
We praise you Lord God, for the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation which you give for the life of the world. With this food for our journey bring us with your saints to the feast of your glory. Amen
Hymn – MP440 – Lord of creation, to you be all praise
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1 Lord of creation, to you be all praise! 2 Lord of all power, I give you my will, 3 Lord of all wisdom, I give you my mind, 4 Lord of all bounty, I give you my heart; 5 Lord of all being, I give you my all; |
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Jack Copley Winslow (1882–1974) |
Blessing
On our hearts and on our houses, the blessing of God. In our coming and our going, the peace of God. In our life and our believing, the love of God. At our end and new beginning, the arms of God to welcome us and bring us home. Amen
Amen.
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