‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’
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 –
O God, as we gather, may we be reminded never to place our own needs above those of the other, seeking our own comfort rather than consoling those in need.
We come together today, to celebrate the value you have given to all of us.
Hold us in your love, as we gather, O God.
Hymn – 17 – With gladness we worship
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1 With gladness we worship, rejoice as we sing, 2 Thy right would we give thee — true homage thy due, 3 Renewed by thy Spirit, redeemed by thy Son, 4 We join with the angels, and so there is given |
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George Rawson (1807–1889) |
Prayer of adoration & confession
Holy God,
We are in awe of your power and your goodness.
Your works are amazing, your love unrelenting.
Your glory blazes through our lives.
Your mercy surrounds us.
Your grace astounds us.
We come now, to worship and adore you, to listen for your message, to praise you in hymns and songs, and to dwell upon your word.
Join with us as we worship, that we may know your presence, and go with us when we leave, that we may take you and share you, wherever we go.
Amen
Forgive us, O Lord, when we have pushed out those we do not understand, or sat in judgement over them, and made them feel unwelcome.
Forgive us when we have rejected people because of what they can’t do, when we should be celebrating what they can.
Forgive us when we have not loved one another as you have loved us, instead giving the cold shoulder.
Forgive us when we speak words of faith, but do not apply them to our lives.
God does not exclude us even when we forget or exclude him, for God is love, and forgives our sins through Jesus.
Amen
Readings
Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23
22A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches,
and favour is better than silver or gold.
2 The rich and the poor have this in common:
the Lord is the maker of them all.
8 Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity,
and the rod of anger will fail.
9 Those who are generous are blessed,
for they share their bread with the poor.
22 Do not rob the poor because they are poor,
or crush the afflicted at the gate;
23 for the Lord pleads their cause
and despoils of life those who despoil them.
Reflection
This reading contains three pairs of verses designed to challenge our treatment of the poor
- Better to have a good name than riches - God has made us all equal, only man divides us according to wealth
- We need to be generous with what we have rather than promote injustice
- We should not make the plight of the poor any worse but should do what we can to alleviate their plight
What defines who is rich and who is poor? Rich person has an abundance of something, a poor person has insufficient for their needs. Rich and poor in what? Can be a relative question – might be rich in comparison to some, but poor in comparison to others – it depends what we are measuring it against. We automatically think of wealth as in money, but we can have plenty of money but still be poor in other areas of our lives.
Question this raises is what motivates us in life – is it acquiring things for ourselves, or is it helping others out of our surplus who have bigger needs?
Easy to drop a few pounds into an envelope and think we have done our bit. We cannot just give and think we have done all we need to do – often there is an ongoing need, and it would be interesting and challenging for us to follow that through.
James’ letter challenges us on a new front – do we show favouritism to those we like and differentiate them from those we don’t? By having favourites we are rejecting the rest, when we should be accepting of everyone.
James 2:1-10, 14-17
Warning against Partiality
2My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favouritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? 2For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, ‘Have a seat here, please’, while to the one who is poor you say, ‘Stand there’, or, ‘Sit at my feet’, 4have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?5Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6But you have dishonoured the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court?7Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?
8 You do well if you really fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ 9But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.
Faith without Works Is Dead
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
Reflection
This afternoon is the Double Hills commemoration, where there will be seats reserved for those VIPs attending. How do we decide who is a VIP? – because they have the shiniest medals or are a Member of Parliament, or because they have lots of money or an important job? The very fact that we call them VIPs – Very Important People – differentiates them from everyone else. But what does that say to other people – you are not good enough or important enough to sit in these seats?
As soon as we differentiate between people for any reason, we have abandoned that central message that God teaches us – you shall love your neighbour as yourself.
The point is – who are we to judge between people, or rank some above others, because our judgements can be flawed, it is only God who can judge because he has perfect knowledge. James reminds us that God chose the poor to be the inheritors of the kingdom, and Jesus constantly lived that out by associating, not with the leaders of the communities, but the poor, the outcast, those on the margins who had been rejected by everyone else.
The challenge of this reading is that we should honour everyone equally, and not be influenced by any factor other than the imperative to share God’s love for us with another individual.
We will be sharing in a few minutes in bread and wine. This table is freely available to anyone. There are no means by which we become acceptable to receive, and there are no means by which we can be disqualified – we just need to have a desire to come and share with each other – as equals.
The reality is that God has chosen to share his love with us – meeting us where we are on the margins and inviting us into his circle, despite our flaws and our weaknesses – chosen despite who we are rather than because of who we are.
The story of the good Samaritan is a good reminder of the need to accept and not differentiate between people, and to live out our faith through our actions.
Jesus said - 36Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ 37He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’
Prayers for others
We pray for the world,
As we watch the aftermath of the withdrawal of American troops in Afghanistan and see the chaos at Kabul airport and bewilderment on the faces of people left behind, we pray urgently for your peace to descend. We pray for those who are fearful. We pray for those now in charge of the country. May our anxieties about the way they will rule move us to pray with passion for Afghanistan.
We pray in the aftermath of hurricane Ida which has left a trail of destruction in Mississippi and with a rising death toll we pray for the communities that have been deeply affected by the storm. We pray for the emergency services and for those families who have suffered loss. As communities rebuild we pray they would have the resources to recover from this natural disaster and be able to move forwards.
Covid still dominates our news. Help those who make complex decisions about vaccinations work out how to provide jabs for the poor as well as the rich. We pray for wisdom and calm as we approach the winter, for timely and sensible decisions and for the health and safety of our friends, family and neighbours.
May your love be known by all.
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 Bathampton, and their minister, Simon; and for Beechen Cliff, and their minister, Jan Tate
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 ask on behalf of all those in need.
Amen
The Lord’s Prayer - Sung
Let us pray with confidence as our Saviour has taught us
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.
Blessing the offering
Communion Hymn – 569 – An upper room did our Lord prepare
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1 An Upper Room did our Lord prepare 2 A lasting gift Jesus gave his own — 3 And after supper he washed their feet, 4 No end there is! We depart in peace; |
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Fred Pratt Green (1903–2000) |
Holy Communion
Hymn – 409 – Let us build a house where love can dwell
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1 Let us build a house where love can dwell 2 Let us build a house where prophets speak, 3 Let us build a house where love is found 4 Let us build a house where hands will reach 5 Let us a build a house where all are named, |
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Marty Haugen (b. 1950) |
Blessing
The blessing of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be upon you, now and always. Amen
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
In the name of Christ. Amen.