Worship at Home
Worship for the Week Beginning 30th May 2021
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Sunday 30th May
Local Preacher Angela McNally has prepared this week’s message
This short act of worship is for use from home. Please use this service whenever you like during the week.
Pause to settle yourself in God’s presence, knowing that other people are sharing in worship with you.
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© ROOTS for Churches Ltd www.rootsontheweb.com. Reproduced with permission.
Call to Worship – (Based on Psalm 29)
We gather in your name Lord, for You are the Lord who gives strength to your people and who blesses them with peace.
You are the Lord who comes close to your people and draws them into Your heart.
You are the Lord who equips your people and calls them to serve You in the world.
You are the Lord who loves your people and invites them into the fellowship of the Holy Trinity.
You are the Lord. We worship you.
StF 11 - Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty
Sing or make this a prayer…
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning Our song shall rise to thee
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!
Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore Thee,
casting down their golden crowns
around the glassy sea.
cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee,
who wert, and art, and evermore shalt be.
Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide thee
Though the eye of sinful man
Thy glory may not see
Only Thou art holy; there is none beside thee,
Perfect in power, in love and purity.
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name
In earth and sky and sea;
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty
God in three persons Blessed Trinity!
Reginald Heber (1783-1826)
Prayers of praise, adoration, thanks & repentance
Dear Lord God, heavenly Father,
we worship and glorify your holy name.
You, Father of creation, who provides constantly for our every need.
You who offers us shelter and protection.
You who give us comfort and the assurance that with you in our lives we can want for nothing. To you our helper, guide, challenger, protector, Saviour and life-giver,
we honour you
Acknowledging all that you are to us and all that you give to us we know that we should never have reason to let you down, but we do.
Loving God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit we bring to you those times when we have not loved as You do, when we have been unforgiving, hurtful and cruel. These times we remember with shame and regret and we ask merciful Father that you will forgive us.
We thank you dear Lord that by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ you have bought us from places of darkness into a place of light, and as we bring you our thanks we remember that by your might we are reborn, giving us hope, joy and courage.
AMEN
Bible Reading
Jesus and Nicodemus
3 There was a Jewish leader named Nicodemus, who belonged to the party of the Pharisees. 2 One night he went to Jesus and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher sent by God. No one could perform the miracles you are doing unless God were with him.”
3 Jesus answered, “I am telling you the truth: no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again.”
4 “How can a grown man be born again?” Nicodemus asked. “He certainly cannot enter his mother’s womb and be born a second time!”
5 “I am telling you the truth,” replied Jesus, “that no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6 A person is born physically of human parents, but is born spiritually of the Spirit. 7 Do not be surprised because I tell you that you must all be born again. 8 The wind blows wherever it wishes; you hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. It is like that with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 “How can this be?” asked Nicodemus.
10 Jesus answered, “You are a great teacher in Israel, and you don’t know this? 11 I am telling you the truth: we speak of what we know and report what we have seen, yet none of you is willing to accept our message. 12 You do not believe me when I tell you about the things of this world; how will you ever believe me, then, when I tell you about the things of heaven? 13 And no one has ever gone up to heaven except the Son of Man, who came down from heaven.”
14 As Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the desert, in the same way the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 16 For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to be its judge, but to be its saviour.
The Message…
When we think back over the years it is interesting to recall the friends we have made, and often what a mixed bunch they are with their varying ideas, thoughts, opinions, ideas and talents.
It is the same with our church families and how much we differ, coming in all shapes and sizes as we do, but in this instance of course what we have in common is our faith.
When we read of Jesus ministry we can only wonder at the varying people he met. We could be forgiven for thinking what a surprising choice he made with his first disciples. He healed many, physically and spiritually; he ate with tax gatherers and, so called sinners; he accepted the hospitality of Zacchaeus; Mary Magdalene whom he saved; the Samaritan woman he met at the well. He watched a widow give all she could afford; & he restored to life another widow’s son, and so we could go on recalling the many Jesus met and welcomed during his ministry, and in today’s gospel reading we met another seeking Jesus – Nicodemus. A Jewish leader, a Pharisee, not seeking to challenge Jesus but asking for his help. Clearly nervous in what he was doing, seeking Jesus under the cover of darkness, but with those opening words we can see the reverence and respect Nicodemus had – Rabbi, we know you are a teacher sent by God. The reply, however, confused him, when Jesus said – No one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again. Words we are familiar with, the need to be born again. To be reborn as a child of God. Speaking personally the need to be born again was not a one off.
I came to my faith when I was 11 years old, continuing through into my 20’s, but then I drifted away from God, but luckily for me I was bought back to my faith, being reminded of the words – HE LOVES YOU TOO MUCH TO LET YOU GO.
We could all tell differing stories of how we came to our faith, how we were born again, and probably the need to be born again. Reborn into a new life as children of God.
Today is Trinity Sunday, a day when we have the opportunity to give thanks to God for what he has given us, through the grace, love and fellowship of the Trinity, and the life we can live through them. If you look up the words love, grace and fellowship in a thesaurus, rather than a dictionary, you will find these descriptive words:-
LOVE – to adore, cherish, treasure, worship, in rapture with regard and tenderness. The word that conjures up the emotion would do anything for, and by His love for us God did just that.
GRACE – bringing charity, clemency, mercy, pardon, compassion and forgiveness.
FELLOWSHIP – sharing brother/sisterhood, communion, companionship, unity and solidarity.
Three things God given. Things we did not earn, but which we should never take for granted, being eternally grateful and never underestimating their power.
We do not know if Nicodemus was born again. We hear of him just twice more in the gospel, when he asked the chief priests and Pharisees to let Jesus speak (John 7, verses 50 & 51), and then when he helped Joseph of Arimathea to anoint his body with spices and wrap in linen, according to Jewish custom (John 19, verses 38-42), but I like to think that he found the answers and understanding he was seeking. That he found grace, love and fellowship, and learnt that faith through Jesus was something that need not be followed under the cover of darkness.
Take a time to sit quietly and reflect…
Time to Pray…
Loving God we bring to you our prayers for all people everywhere.
We pray for those without faith and trust;
those with no hope, no dreams, no visions,
no knowledge of You;
those who are lost, those who have no love, security or peace in their lives;
those who are lonely, without support, friends, homes;
those who mourn loss of a loved one,
a relationship, trust, employment, finances.
Merciful God for all these your children
we pray in the name of Jesus
who taught us when we pray to say…
The Lord's Prayer
Please use the version that you prefer
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.
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.
StF 6 – Father we love you
Father, we love you,
we worship and adore you:
glorify your name in all the earth.
Glorify your name, glorify your name,
glorify your name, in all the earth.
Jesus, we love you,
we worship and adore you:
glorify your name in all the earth.
Glorify your name, glorify your name,
glorify your name, in all the earth.
Spirit, we love you,
we worship and adore you:
glorify your name in all the earth.
Glorify your name, glorify your name,
glorify your name, in all the earth.
Donna Adkins (b.1940)
Final Prayer of Blessing
On this TRINITY Sunday let us say the words of the blessing:
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God and the fellowship of the
Holy Spirit, be with us and remain with us always.
Amen.
Service prepared by Angela McNally
Webpage: Paul Deakin