13th June. 2021.Service.

Service of Worship 13^th June 2021

Third Sunday after Pentecost

Prelude I am a new creation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Teva2_x2aXo

Introit: Father I adore you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ_qohUEunY

Collect for today

Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness and minister your justice with compassion; for the sake of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Praise my soul the King of Heaven
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60JgQoJK9J8

Call to Prayer

It is good to give God thanks, to sing praises to the Most High!
We will sing for joy to God who has made us glad.

Let us declare God’s steadfast love in the morning,
and God’s faithfulness by night.

Come and worship God with thankful, joyful hearts!
Let us praise God’s holy name together.

Prayer of Adoration and Confession

Living God, from you come vitality, love and joy and we rejoice today that eternal life is ours in Jesus Christ our Lord
Your peace is our companion, your love is our strength, your Son is our hope and in our darkest moments, your presence brings comfort to us.
Hidden deep in the soil of life, your Spirit nurtures the seeds of purpose and potential which bless us with new life. Like the earth in Spring, beginning to bloom around us, your kingdom unfolds and grows within us, bringing us to maturity and fruitfulness in you service.
We come with prayers and praises this morning with faith in the power of your Spirit to inspire worship that will honour you and fill us with the gifts we need
to serve you faithfully as our souls are refreshed and renewed by your love, in Jesus Christ our Lord.

God of life and growth as we watch growth in our gardens and in the children around us, we confess that as we grow older, we often resist growth and change.
We form ideas and opinions about many things—and hold on to them.
We think we already know what you desire from us and fear new insights and new directions.
Forgive us for thinking we already know it all. Forgive us for blocking out the concerns and commitments of those who differ with us. Help us to see the signs of new life stimulated by your Spirit among your people and take away our fear of change.
Grant us faith like the mustard seed, so small and insignificant on its own, but full of potential for growth. Forgive all our sins, all our pettiness and every fear that holds us back. Let your grace be a lively force within our lives reaching out in blessing to others

Assurance of Pardon
Christ reigns in power for us, Christ prays for us and Christ forgives us! We believe the good news of the gospel. In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven and set free by God’s generous grace!

Prayer for Understanding
God of patience and persistence, scripture tells us your people have not always listened for your leading. Send your Holy Spirit to soften our hearts and let the Living Word of Jesus Christ speak through the scriptures and inspire our growth and gratitude. May we be changed by what we hear in Jesus Christ our Lord in whom we pray, Our Father…

The Lord’s Prayer in the version most familiar to you.

Invitation to the Offering

The parables of St. Mark remind us that God’s kingdom grows from small beginnings with surprising results. We give to God as we are able, and trust that God will honour our generosity for the purposes His Spirit at work among us and beyond us.

Prayer of Dedication

God of small seeds and secret growth, we bring our gifts to you, trusting that you will bless them. Use them to generate new life in our community and in your world. Grow in ways we cannot yet foresee—within us, among us, because of us, and beyond us for the sake of Christ, our Living Lord. Amen.

Lord of all hopefulness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8mti7VL3gg

The Readings

Psalm 20
For the director of music.

A psalm of David.

1 May the Lord answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.
2 May he send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion.
3 May he remember all your sacrifices
and accept your burnt offerings.
4 May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.
5 May we shout for joy over your victory and lift up our banners in the name of our God.
May the Lord grant all your requests.
6 Now this I know: the Lord gives victory to his anointed. He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary with the victorious power of his right hand.
7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
8 They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm.
9 Lord, give victory to the king!
Answer us when we call!

One more step along the world I go
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jhAzbdKq6U

Mark 4:26-34

²⁶He also said, ‘This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. ²⁷Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. ²⁸All by itself the soil produces corn – first the stalk, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. ²⁹As soon as the corn is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.’

³⁰Again he said, ‘What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? ³¹It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. ³²Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.’

³³With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. ³⁴He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

¹⁶So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. ¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God. ²¹God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Amen, this is the Word of the Lord, to him be all glory and praise.

God’s Spirit is in my heart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VTQvYG-bl4

Sermon

Mark 4: 26-29

I was speaking to another minister this week, lamenting together the declining state of the Church of Scotland and the recent challenging changes proposed by the General Assembly. She said, “I feel like a palliative care nurse for the church when I would much rather be a mid-wife!” I have certainly had a similar thought about palliative care for the Church of Scotland myself.

The focus of today’s scriptures is upon the quiet, steady work of God, bringing new ministries into being and refining the lives of his people by the power of the Holy Spirit, which is apt during this ongoing season of Pentecost.

We begin with the parable of the realm of God being like a farmer who sows his seed in a field. Before we go to the main point of this parable we need to pause for a moment and create a “back-story” for it.

This week we have had a landscaper in our garden preparing it for planting. The area was overgrown and needed to be cleaned out. Turf has been cleared, turned over and buried for compost, new beds prepared, a patio for a summer house and a meandering path are being created. A lot of rubbish has also surfaced including the pavers from an old patio. We cannot hope to have a good garden until the detritus of the past plantings and neglect are cleared away.

We all know that good planting requires radical clearance and preparation for the new seed to have a chance to grow. That is the back story of the parable. In nature the old growth dies down and yields its nutrients to the ground for the next generation. Thus, it is in the kingdom of God. Israel and the church have both been likened to a plant that grows, needing pruning, feeding, and clearing. At times, the pruning needs to be radical. Recently I have been reading in Isaiah, a prophet whose task was to announce the harrowing of Israel, to the point where only a small remnant or stump was left. It was not, and is not a popular message, that a lot of clearing out is necessary before new growth can begin. Many fear for the future of the Church of Scotland given that it is shrinking, but does it not appear that being pruned back, reduced to a stump or remnant even, is part of a cycle that has repeated throughout the history of God’s people?

This seems to be currently the case, but it should not be a cause for despair, rather for hope that God intends a new era of growth to come. This is not the end, but a transition.

We usually read this parable as a spur to greater activity, when in fact is message is one of faith in the quiet persistent work of God.

People in the western world put much store in activity. We are proud of getting things done. Keen on setting our goals and achieving them. Measurable productivity has become the bench mark of success. Many of us will work determinedly, and often frenetically, to that end.

We do not put much store on sitting in the sun letting things be. We work hard and play hard and pride ourselves for it.

Some people may go in for meditation or disciplines like Tai Chi. But usually this is so that they can return renewed to their busy-ness, and cope better with the demands they place upon themselves.

Hyperactivity like this is not limited to the world of commerce and industry. It infects the church in numerous places: an unstoppable torrent of committees and sub committees, church meetings, working parties, goal setting, project reports, performance reviews, and much more. In fact, in some quarters a frenetic church may be regarded as a particularly holy church.

Ministers do not always set a good example. The over-busy folk in congregations might be following the modelling of a minister, who always seems to be rushing, darting from this to that, talking to people while on the run. There can often be a perception that the minister is too busy to be disturbed

But the obverse of this, is that there are often many in churches who resist being moved.

There is the story about a young pastor serving a country parish in outback South Australia who used to jump in his car and disappear every Monday morning. One curious parishioner one day decided to follow him to see what he was getting up to. The young man drove for an hour and a half until he arrived at the Indian-Pacific rail line, which crosses the continent. There he waited patiently until the Ghan, an exceptionally long train, went by. He got out of his car and watched it intently until it receded into the distance, which took a considerable time, given the dead-level nature of the inland terrain. Then the pastor had a drink of coffee from a thermos, got back into his car and drove all the way home again.

Back in town, the parishioner who had witnessed this performance through binoculars from a secure distance, confronted his minister; “Why on earth, when there is so much to be done, did you do that? Is that what you do every Monday?”

The young pastor nodded and replied: “Once a week, I like to go and watch that glorious train. I say this prayer: “Thank God there is something in this region that moves without me having to push it.”

Such frustration over apathy is not limited to the young. Inactivity has also tried the patience of mature and experienced pastors. The famous Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon, regularly preached to packed congregations, but becoming frustrated that so little seemed to get translated into action for the Lord. one Sunday, towards the end of his sermon he exploded: “I would that the wood on which you sit should suddenly sprout thorns!”

What is the balance when it comes to growth and change in the Church?

One of the first things we need to get into our head is simply this: God’s mission in this world does not totally depend on either a minister or a parish. With us or without us, God is at work, tirelessly. There is no situation into which we go in the name of Christ where God has not been there before us.

That is where the parable of Jesus from Mark Chapter 4: 26-39, brings a breath of sanity into the soul of busy and stressed Christians. It is farmer who does the ploughing, harrowing, and sowing the seed. It is then up to nature the life force of God.

The farmer cannot control rain or sunshine, hail or heatwave. He just has to wait it out. Of course, he can torture himself with worry, if he wants to put himself through that kind of misery. But worry will not alter a thing. He is best to get on with life, waking and sleeping. Even while he sleeps, nature will be quietly at work. The grain will sprout and take root, develop long blades and form ears of grain. In time, without any pushing from the farmer, the crop will ripen. Then will be the right time for the farmer to get busy again. With his sickle he will harvest the crop, let it dry out in stooks, and finally bring into the barn for secure storage. That is how it is with the kingdom of God. The bottom line lies in the free grace of God. Grace in bestowing nature’s gifts. Grace in redeeming us from our acute folly and evil. A grace that is always at work.

There are seasons of preparation and hard work, but also seasons of quiet waiting. There are appropriate times for careful planning and activity. There are times for harvesting a bumper crop or a small one.

So in life there are long periods when we just have to leave things in the hands of God. In such periods there should be spaces when we ourselves should recuperate from the stresses of the busy times and gather our own spiritual resources for the next season.

There should be a rhythm of engagement and disengagement. This rhythm should shape a healthy church and give balance to the lives of individual members. There is a season for hard planning and doing, and times for quiet waiting and just being God’s child. A time for prayer and a time for busy, efficient service. A time for toiling under the midday sun, and a time for taking warm relaxing bath in the thermal spring of God’s grace. In this way the parable applies to the church as part of the kingdom of heaven,

But that is only half the story here. The Kingdom of heaven is not just out there. As Jesus reminds us, the kingdom of heaven is also within us. When the lectionary was compiled, a lot of wisdom went into the combination of scripture passages. Today this parable is combined with Paul’s second Corinthian letter. There we read:

We no longer look at a person from a humanistic point of view. Even though at first we saw Christ as just another human being, we no longer do. Now everything has changed. If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has arrived.

At first the connection may not be obvious, but if we look closer, we will see it.

In every Christian life, something new has begun. As Paul says, it is a new creation. The old has gone the new has arrived. This is a spiritual reality which begins with rebirth from within by the power of God’s Spirit. It is instantaneous on a spiritual level, but it is a progress that is organic and gradual in our earthly life.

The challenges of life are like the preparation of the ground. The upheavals, the losses, the dealing with sins and mistakes, the trials we face are like the ploughing and harrowing, preparing us for the planting and growth of the seed of faith and the transforming influence of grace. The seeds of love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness gentleness and self-control need the freshly turned soil in our souls and take time to grow and mature.

When by faith, we see the hand of God in the challenges and trials we face, we may be sure that He is strengthening the new creation within us. Thus, when He gives us the grace to forgive someone, or to act in love towards a person who is our enemy or is hard to like, the new creation is more firmly established. This may be at some cost to our own egos, but the outcome is the quiet growth of the seed of life within us. There may be times when we feel that we are not accomplishing much in our spiritual lives, but God is at work transforming even our sins and mistakes into good. ⁸And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. as St Paul reminds us Romans 8:28

The work of God is going on all the time, both in his Church and in our inner lives. Martin Luther once famously said, “While I sit here drinking my little glass of Wittenberg Beer, the gospel runs its course”

Wherever we have faithfully sowed the seed of Christ, and where others have lovingly done the same, the Word of God continues its dynamic work.

Thanks be to God, through our Saviour Christ, in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit! Amen!

Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession