Worship at Home
Worship for the week beginning 22nd May 2022
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Sunday 22nd May
Rev Romeo Pedro 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.
Gathering Prayer:
New songs we sing, to you our God. New songs we sing, to share that you have saved us. New songs we sing, that peoples and nations may hear and know, that you are our God.
Amen
To God be the glory (StF 94)
To God be the glory, great things he has done!
So loved he the world that he gave us his Son,
who yielded his life in atonement for sin,
and opened the life-gate that all may go in:
Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!
Let the earth hear his voice!
Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!
Let the people rejoice!
O come to the Father, through Jesus the Son;
and give him the glory — great things he has done!
O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood,
to every believer the promise of God!
And every offender who truly believes,
that moment from Jesus a pardon receives:
Great things he has taught us, great things he has done,
and great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son;
but purer, and higher, and greater will be
our wonder, our rapture, when Jesus we see:
Prayer Confession and Thanksgiving:
God of us all, we praise you for the abundance of your gift and the giving of your grace and love, your caring and compassion, and for your word. O God, we often forget your gospel message, your word of truth, and your transforming power within our lives. We often let the trappings of our world, and the busyness of our lives, edge you out of our consciousness.
Forgive us, and help us to focus afresh on all you are, have been and will be.
We give you thanks that your abundance speaks to us, touches us, holds us, heals us, transforms us, and moves us.
We marvel at all that you and your word hold for us. Our hearts overflow with shouts and songs and tears of wonder.
Amen.
Will You Come and Follow Me (StF 673))
Will you come and follow me
if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don’t know
and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown,
will you let my name be known,
will you let my life be grown
in you and you in me?
Will you leave yourself behind
if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind
and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare
should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer
in you and you in me?
Will you let the blinded see
if I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free
and never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean,
and do such as this unseen,
and admit to what I mean
in you and you in me?
Will you love the ‘you’ you hide
if I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside
and never be the same?
Will you use the faith you’ve found
to reshape the world around,
through my sight and touch and sound
in you and you in me?
Lord, your summons echoes true
when you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you
and never be the same.
In your company I’ll go
where your love and footsteps show.
Thus I’ll move and live and grow
in you and you in me.
John L. Bell (b. 1949) and Graham Maule (b. 1958)
Today’s Readings:
Acts 16:9-15
9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ 10 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
Lydia’s conversion in Philippi
11 From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day we went on to Neapolis. 12 From there we travelled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.
13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. 14 One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15 When she and the members of her household were baptised, she invited us to her home. ‘If you consider me a believer in the Lord,’ she said, ‘come and stay at my house.’ And she persuaded us.
John 14:23-29
23 Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
25 ‘All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
28 ‘You heard me say, “I am going away and I am coming back to you.” If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Time to Reflect
The governing theological and pastoral concern of John 14 is to prepare the community of Jesus’ followers for life in His absence.
This theme is captured most poignantly in the promise of Jesus to His disciples in 14:18: “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.” This promise speaks directly to the disciples’ fear and despair – that they will be left alone, that the new life and hope that Jesus has given them will end when his physical presence among them ends, that they will be left like children without parents, with no one to care for them, with no one to love and no one to love them – as they face the inevitability of Jesus’ departure.
It is the wonder of the Farewell Discourse that on the eve of Jesus’ own death, he pauses to speak to the disciples about their fears, anxieties and despair. Jesus moves the disciples beyond the present moment in which they are living, into the future that is grounded in the certainty of the resurrection and the gift of the Spirit.
He offers them a vision of a future shaped by the promises of God, in which God is always present to them – through their love for one another and through the presence of the Spirit. Over and over again in John 14, Jesus sounds the note that the disciples will not face the future alone, that the gift God has given them in Jesus will not terminate with the end of Jesus’ life, but will take on new shape when, under the guidance of the Spirit, they live out God’s commandment to love.
Jesus offers his disciples the good news of the love of God and the abiding presence of God with them, even when the circumstances of their lives would indicate otherwise. In the face of the evidence that says that the battle is lost, that death will claim Jesus, and that the hope Jesus offered them is thereby nullified, Jesus speaks words of renewed hope and assurance, “Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid” (14:27).
In the preaching of Isaiah, it was the insistent refrain of those same words (do not be afraid) that led the exiles to believe that a new future with God was possible (Isaiah 41: 8-13; 43: 1-7; 44: 1-5). In the preaching of Jesus in the Farewell Discourse, that refrain occurs again, summoning disciples to believe in a life shaped not by Jesus’ absence, but by the unending presence of God.
The disciples will not be orphans – they will not be alone – because they will live in the peace of Jesus. The peace that Jesus offers is not the world’s peace – neither the false promise of security, nor the end of conflict.
The peace of Jesus is the all-embracing sphere of his life (verse 19 – because I live, you also will live); his love (verse 21; 23 – They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them) and his joy (15:11 – I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.).
This gift of peace was of course at the centre of Israel’s hopes (Isaiah 52:7 – How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’) and is now available in Jesus.
Jesus is not simply telling His disciples not to worry – but it is a call to find the strength to face the new circumstances in which Jesus’ departure places them and to live the values of Jesus (of which peace is a core value).
Jesus’ promise of peace is a vision, a hope, and a belief, about the ultimate reality of human life. It is not an invitation to shut ourselves away from the world or to escape into fantasy. It acts to inspire our decisions, our actions, and our relationships, giving us the courage to face difficult situations.
As we celebrate Aldersgate Day (John Wesley’s conversion), let us remember Wesley’s famous words: “The best of all is, God is with us” – let us live the values of God’s Reign.
Amen.
Prayers of Intercession
Loving God, in your great compassion and mercy, bring wholeness, healing and new life as we come now to ask for healing:
For those who are ill and frail…
Loving God, in your mercy, hear our prayer For those who feel ignored and neglected…
Loving God, in your mercy, hear our prayer For those who are refugees in a foreign land…
Loving God, in your mercy, hear our prayer For those who struggle to accept that they are loved, liked, needed, wanted…
Loving God, in your mercy, hear our prayer For those who draw near to the end of life…
Loving God, in your mercy, hear our prayer
Loving God, with all the faith we have,
we ask our prayers in Jesus’ name.
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.
Hear the Call of the Kingdom (StF 407)
Hear the call of the Kingdom
Lift your eyes to the King
Let His song rise within you
As a fragrant offering
Of how God rich in mercy
Came in Christ to redeem
All who trust in His unfailing grace.
Hear the call of the Kingdom
To be children of light
With the mercy of heaven
The humility of Christ
Walking justly before Him
Loving all that is right
That the life of Christ may shine through us.
King of Heaven we will answer the call,
We will follow, bringing hope to the world,
Filled with passion filled with power to proclaim
Salvation in Jesus’ name
Hear the call of the Kingdom
To reach out to the lost
With the Father’s compassion
In the wonder of the cross
Bringing peace and forgiveness
And a hope yet to come
Let the nations put their trust in Him
King of Heaven we will answer the call…
Final Prayer of Blessing
May the love we find with you be reflected in our lives. May the power we receive from you make us peacemakers and healers. And may the God who fills us again and again lead us to be those who proclaim God’s Reign in every word we speak and in everything we do. For Jesus’ sake.
Amen.
Service prepared by Rev Romeo Pedro
Webpage: Paul Deakin