Worship at Home
Worship for the Week Beginning 6th February 2022
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Sunday 6th February
Local Preacher Mary Winchcombe 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:
Loving God, we draw near to you,
trusting not in any goodness of our own,
but in your grace and love,
you’re unfailing, overflowing mercy.
Open our hearts to all you say,
and our lives to all you would do,
by your grace and to your glory.
Amen
STF 28 Jesus calls us here to meet him
Jesus calls 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,
serving 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,
vastly different though we are;
creed and colour, class and gender
neither limit nor debar.
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.
Prayer
Heavenly father, we praise you for the joy, the beauty and the glory of your creation.
The world is your handiwork;
you are its maker and designer.
Your love is the source of its life and power.
Behind all we can see and hear,
Taste and touch is your unseen hand.
We thank you that you are the God of new life and new beginnings.
In a world where people fight for so many different causes,
we thank you that you sent Jesus to bring your love to us, and to teach us to live together in harmony.
We thank you that your love has drawn us here to offer ourselves back to you.
But we are not perfect, so we ask your forgiveness. When we will not let go of all that diminishes your love in our lives; greed, intolerance, selfishness, stubbornness.
Forgive us and set us free from our self-made prisons so that we rejoice at your saving power and sing out our lives to your glory.
We ask this in Jesus’ name.
Amen
STF 161 Speak, O Lord
Speak, O Lord, as we come to You
To receive the food of your holy word
Take your truth, plant it deep in us;
shape and fashion us in Your likeness
that the light of Christ might be seen today
in our acts of love and our deeds of faith
Speak, O Lord, and fulfil in us
all your purposes, for your glory.
Teach us Lord, full obedience,
holy reverence, true humility.
Test our thoughts and our attitudes
in the radiance of your purity.
Cause our faith to rise, cause our eyes to see
your majestic love and authority.
Words of power that can never fail;
let their truth prevail over unbelief.
Speak, O Lord, and renew our minds;
help us grasp the heights of your plans for us.
Truths unchanged from the dawn of time
that will echo down through eternity.
And by grace we’ll stand on your promises
and by faith we’ll walk as you walk with us.
Speak, O Lord, till your Church is built
and the earth is filled with your glory.
Bible Reading
Jesus calls his first disciples
5 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding round him and listening to the word of God. 2 He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.’
5 Simon answered, ‘Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.’
6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7 So they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, ‘Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!’ 9 For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.
Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.’ 11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflection:
Jesus’ ministry has begun and his actions and words are attracting lots of people who want to hear his words and witness amazing things.
Having experienced rejection in his own village he moves on to the shores of Lake Galilee, where fishermen are fixing up their nets, minding their own business and maybe giving half an ear to what Jesus is saying. Quite a crowd had gathered, and the number of people almost forced Jesus into the lake,
so he stepped onto one of the boats moored there and used it as his pulpit!
We’re not told what he spoke about but we are told that after speaking he told Simon to move out and cast the nets again.
Simon probably thought Jesus didn’t know what he was talking about! He was a carpenter not a fisherman!! Night is the best time to catch fish: in daylight they see you coming and swim away. Simon had already fished all night, with no luck at all, but he was willing to follow Jesus’ advice and we all know what happened, so many fish were caught help was needed to get it ashore.
Was it a miracle? -In their eyes it must have felt like one, and what did it teach them about Jesus?
Without Jesus they failed; with Jesus they could find success; it was an experience that generated trust. When he said “Follow me” their trust became faith – facing the unknown became possible, so much so they were willing to leave their homes to follow him.
In Mark’s account, it is assumed that the disciples responded to Jesus because of his compelling charisma. In Luke’s gospel there is the opportunity to hear Jesus’ teaching, there is a shared experience and there is a miracle.
Brilliantly, Jesus uses this miracle as the vehicle to speak about the vocation of the early disciples. Although they had made their living fishing on the lake, Jesus uses the same imagery to call them into their new lives in the Kingdom of God. Fisher folk are to become fishers of people. So often we assume that our calling to follow Jesus means that we have to leave everything of our past life behind. The genius of this passage is that these early followers did leave everything – in terms of their business – but Jesus is clear that their calling comes from their experience and identity as Fisher folk needing patience, persistence and stamina
Simon Peter, James and John were ordinary fishermen. It was, hard work; out every night, in those days throwing nets by hand. It required patience. Perhaps these were the people and skills Jesus was looking for – hard-working, ordinary people who had patience with the crowds.
None of them that day would have expected Jesus to single them out for a special task. ‘Who, me?’ says Peter. So, Jesus showed them, using things they could understand fish, nets, boats. We know the end of the story ordinary folk, who got caught up in God’s story, who went on to do extraordinary things.
Discipleship isn’t a reprogramming of our identity and experience, it is a reframing of it in light of our experience of the kingdom of God in our midst.
We too are called to tell others about Jesus – it’s sometimes hard to know the right words to say. Our everyday lives should reflect the fact that we are followers of Christ; that we know God loves us, we are children in his family and that should give us joy.
Are we allowing God to transform our everyday into something extraordinary?
Amen
Intercessions:
Light of the world, shine wherever there is darkness today. Where there is pain and sorrow, may your love bring joy. Where there is sickness and suffering, may your healing touch bring sunshine after the storm. Where there is greed and corruption, may your radiance scatter the shadows.
Where there is hatred and bitterness, may your brightness dispel the clouds. Lord Jesus Christ, light of the world, shine upon us we pray, and illuminate the darkness of this world through your life- giving grace.
In your name we ask it. Amen
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 418 We have a Gospel to Proclaim
We have a gospel to proclaim,
good news for all throughout 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.
Blessing:
Holy God, to meet with you is to radiate your glory. May we who have shared your word today shine with the knowledge of your love that others see you and come to know you.
Amen
Service prepared by Mary Winchcombe
Webpage: Paul Deakin