14th. March. 2021. Service of Communion..
March 14th 2021
Fourth Sunday in Lent
Prelude: “Healing Word”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAg1m-XrW_A
Let us Worship God
Hymn “Look and see the glory of the King”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QL_kvBdJ9Q
The Collect for today
Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen
Hymn “The Church’s One Foundation”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LZVz1guz2c
Call to Prayer
Give thanks to the LORD, for God is good.
God’s steadfast love endures forever.
God gathers God’s people from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.
Let us thank the LORD for such all-embracing love.
Let us praise God for God’s wonderful works to all people.
We will worship God with thanksgiving and tell of God’s deeds with songs of joy.
Prayer of Adoration and Confession
Gracious God,
Great and wonderful are your works!
Your steadfast love is everlasting.
In Christ Jesus you have come among us for our salvation
Into the darkness of this life, you bring light.
Your word speaks of hope and joy wherever there is or sadness.
Where there is despair, you bring new possibilities and open the way for us.
You bring healing to the sick, and forgiveness for the sinner.
You bring justice for the oppressed, revealing truth and banishing lies.
Stir our faith and thrill our souls by your Spirit, O Lord, in our time of worship.
Awaken our joy and deepen our reverence
as we offer you our songs and our silence, our prayers, and our praises,
for you are our God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, world without end.
Merciful God,
Even as we praise you, we are aware of our failures as your disciples.
We often take your love and acceptance of us for granted.
We can be quite careless in our relationships, as we tend to
focus more on ourselves than on you or those around us.
We find it so easy to spend our days distracted by the news, being drawn into anger and criticism of people whom we may know only by reputation and we forget your commandments to seek your kingdom and righteousness and to be bearers of love. Forgive us.
Create a new and clean spirit of commitment and compassion within us.
Give us a new vision of your purposes and our place within them,
That we may serve you more faithfully, day by day. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
Friends in Christ, by grace we have been saved through faith. This is not our doing but God’s gift to us. Help us to know that God forgives us and give us grace forgive one another. So may the peace of Christ be with us now, especially as we come together in our communion.
Prayer for Understanding
God of light and truth send your Holy Spirit to move in us and among us this morning May we hear your voice speaking to us through the scriptures, read and interpreted, that they may lead us to encounter your Living Word, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
The Lords Prayer (in the words familiar to you)
Hymn: “Praise, I will praise you, Lord”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWuTvpiVEmY
Invitation to the Offering
The season of Lent leads us on, closer and closer to the Cross. As we contemplate Jesus lifted up on the Cross for our sakes, consider what the gift of his mercy and grace means for you. Let your offering express your thanksgiving for such an amazing gift from God.
Prayer of Dedication
Lord Jesus, you gave so much without counting the cost. Bless these gifts with your generous love. Send them and us into the world to bless it with the same hope and healing we have found in you. And let us not count the cost until we too have given all we can for your sake. Amen.
The Readings
Numbers 21:4–9
4 They travelled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go round Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; 5 they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!’
6 Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, ‘We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people.
8 The Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.’ 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.
Amen.
John 3:14-21
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.’
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
Amen
Ephesians 2:1–10
2 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. This is the Word of the Lord, to Him be all praise and glory. Amen.
Invitation to the Offering
When Jesus grew angry at the money changers in the temple, he reminded God’s people that our offerings are intended to express our commitment to God’s ways. They are not just a financial transaction. As you present your offering to God this day, consider what commitment to God’s purposes your gift expresses.
Prayer of Dedication
Lord Jesus, you challenge your followers to give to God with commitment and thanksgiving. Receive our gifts as an expression of our commitment to you and your ministry. Bless them and us and use all that we can give to offer hope and healing in the world you love. Amen.
Hymn: “Sometimes a healing word is comfort”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvOViM5OiGM
Sermon
Owing to my being unwell this week, I offer thoughts on today’s gospel by Janet Hunt whose blog I follow. Thank you for your understanding.
Now I know all the arguments for not equating darkness with ‘evil.’ I agree with them and I have carried my deep awareness with me as I write today. It’s just that these words from John speak of light and darkness, which I also understand as lightness and heaviness today. So, forgive me if I go down a path which is not all that helpful… in the end I am trying to come to a place of receiving God’s intent for all of us, where God offers to take that which burdens, all that is heavy (as opposed to light) away. And I expect also invites us to be those who do the same in behalf of the world ‘God so loves…’
And there is this. As I read again what I have written here, I am not certain how closely it aligns with the conversation about ‘light and darkness’ in this particular section of John’s Gospel. The invitation into the light is, however, what I need to hear today. I pray that these thoughts might also serve as such invitation to you as well…
God so loved the world that he gave…
Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world…
And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world…
Those who do what is true come to the light…
I saw it twice today at least.
Ones yearning for light.
The first was standing in the shade of a tent at a cemetery. It is early spring here and, in the shade, things are still chilly. A nine-year-old grandson sitting in the front row simply could not wait to get out of that dark place and into the sunshine again… no doubt yearning to step away from more than that physical darkness but also back into a place of ‘lightness’ which before a few days ago was untouched by the loss of a beloved one. If only for just a minute.
And a few hours later in a hospital room. I sat down beside her and the first thing she said was that she heard it was a bright, sunny day. She did not have access to a view of it herself as the room had been retrofitted for COVID patients and the window had been covered up as a result. No doubt she, too, not unlike a nine-year-old boy at his grandmother’s graveside, was wanting a break from the darkness, the heaviness of her own now seemingly failing body and perhaps much more.
And I have seen it in myself as the losses have seemed to pile on especially in these last days, and I find myself wishing not only for ‘light’ but for a kind of ‘lightness’ that seems to have gone missing of late.
It seems to me that we naturally yearn for light, for lightness and all it means: life, new life, healing, hope…
It is into this very palpable yearning that today’s Gospel words are spoken.
- Words about God’s boundless love for the world and the life that is promised.
- Words about God’s intent — not for condemnation, but for salvation.
- Words about light and darkness and about those who love darkness and those who eagerly come into the light.
Except it’s hard for me to see why anyone would naturally love darkness, at least as we hear about it now.
Unless one has something or many somethings of which they are ashamed. Or afraid…
And we all have those, I expect. All of us.
At the same time?
Even with all of those, who among us doesn’t yearn for light?
The light and the lightness which come with today’s promises?
Who among us doesn’t want to stand still in the brightness of the grace and the hope that is promised today?
Like a nine-year-old boy just wanting to go climb a small pile of melting snow, free for just a few minutes of the seemingly too grown up needs to grapple with the death before him now.
Like an ailing old woman who only wanted a glimpse of sunshine today… a moment’s distraction, perhaps, from all that was feeling so heavy within her…
Like me and like you who have perhaps carried what is too heavy for far too long. Yearning for light or lightness of a whole other kind.
The kind that God promises in love today. In love for you and all the world.
Indeed, this afternoon I paused between calls to talk to a friend. She’s a wise one, this one, and she told me I have to not keep looking at all that is hard. That I need to train my eyes on light instead of darkness. Or at least that is what I heard. I heard sadness in her voice and maybe a tiny bit of worry as she heard me speak of yet another hard thing. Because the darkness, the heaviness becomes too much, it does. And we are not meant to stay there, not meant to bear it all alone.
So, this is where I am stubbornly trying to stand today… in the promise of light or of lightness… as it comes to us now in beloved, familiar words.
Where with a boundless love, God takes the burden of all that is heavy.
And where God, somehow in the trusted voice of another, invited me to train my eyes on that for a while, instead of all that is so heavy now.
For this is the best there is for you and for me and for all who yearn for light. This is God’s promise and deepest hope for us. And maybe like a 9-year-old boy I just need to step out into it for a little while… answering the yearnings of all of us for whom the light has been too long covered up. Maybe…
I hope this mediation is at least a little helpful now. It has been one of those weeks when I nearly didn’t write, unable to set aside the heaviness to hear these words of grace and promise. And then I remembered a kid reaching for the sunshine, an old woman yearning for it. And I realize this is God’s intent for us even now… Light or ‘lightness’ at least. And that embedded in the words of John’s Gospel today is an invitation to step into it, remembering God’s great love for all the world. And for you. For each one of you.
- I struggle with coming up with new ways to speak of light and darkness which do not in any way denigrate the dark, at least not as ‘darkness’ is associated with the melanin of the vast majority of God’s beloved. And so I have tried to speak here of ‘lightness’ instead of just ‘light.’ Does that help at all? Does that bring clarity to the intent of these words in a way that speaks in today’s world?
- How do you find yourself yearning for ‘lightness’ now? Do you hear the promises of the 3rd chapter of John as invitation to you? And don’t they also speak to Nicodemus who came to Jesus by night just before these words and to the woman at the well who comes just after, meeting Jesus in the glaring noon day sun?
- I cannot imagine why anyone would not yearn for ‘light’ or ‘lightness.’ Unless they/we have long grown so accustomed to the dark that we can imagine nothing else, or because we feel as though the darkness somehow is cover for something. But don’t today’s promises about God’s intent of life and salvation invite us all into the ‘light, ‘to lay down the heaviness? At least this is where I find myself landing today. Amen. Janet Hunt.
Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession
Generous and gracious God,
with your great mercy, you have made us alive together with Christ.
By your grace we are saved from sin and despair,
and promised hope for everlasting life with you.
You have shown us immeasurable riches through your grace and mercy,
and we offer you our deepest gratitude, now and always.
We pray that each person will know the fullness of your gifts
in ways that touch their deepest needs.
We pray for those dear to us and all those we have come to lean on in the months of the pandemic…
We pray for those who are struggling in isolation or frustration…
for all those who experience illness or pain in body, mind, or spirit…
for all who have lost someone or something central to their lives
and must cope with grief and loss…
May all these, your children, know your grace and mercy.
We pray for peace and safety in the world…
for countries struggling to care for their citizens and to rebuild their economies…
for all who do not receive the respect and consideration they deserve…
for all those persecuted for their faith or their views…
for all who are disenfranchised and long to live in freedom…
May all these, your children, know your grace and mercy.
We pray for your church around the world and for the congregations we know…
for the work of presbyteries across our land and the faithful ministries they lead in this time of working at a distance…
for the learning we have gained in outreach during the pandemic and all who have connected to your church in new ways…
and for ministers and other leaders who are finding this time of planning and decision making stressful.
May your church in all its many expressions know your grace and mercy.
Today we thank you for the graces of motherhood, the loving bonds of family in every generation as we ask your blessing upon the mothers and grandmothers in our community. We remember those mothers who have gone before us, those who have been denied motherhood and those for whom motherhood has brought grief or pain. We think of the mothers whose stories are told in your Word and ask that we may be inspired by them as we continue to walk in the pilgrimage of faith.
We pray for the concerns on our hearts this day,
for the fears and frustrations which we struggle with…
for any troubled relationships…
for the doubts and the hopes which compete within us…
for any need of healing and support…
May we, your children, know your grace and mercy.
We offer all our prayers through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
The details for the Virtual Communion at 11:00 am via Zoom are as follows: Join room from 10:50 am: This part of the service will begin as soon as everyone has joined.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82924556821?pwd=eFZ4azFVQWFCbEEwVjc0NjN2UXk5Zz09
Meeting ID: 829 2455 6821
Passcode: 662064
If you are unable or do not wish to join the Zoom meeting, please follow the service from the sheet and partake when you have said the prayers and read the institution in the section, Breaking of the Bread.
The Communion
INVITATION TO THE LORD’S TABLE
(The Words in bold may be said in response)
Friends, this is the joyful feast of the people of God! They will come from east and west, and from north and south, and sit at table in the kingdom of God. According to Luke,
when our risen Lord was at table with his disciples, he took the bread, and blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.
This is the Lord’s table.
Our Saviour invites those who trust him to share the feast which he has prepared.
GREAT THANKSGIVING
The Lord be with you.
And also, with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is truly right and our greatest joy to give you thanks and praise, eternal God, our creator.
You have given us life and second birth in your Spirit.
Once we were no people, but now we are your people. You claimed Israel as your chosen nation
and raised up the church as a witness to the resurrection, breathing into it your life and power.
From worlds apart, you gathered us together.
When we go astray, you welcome us home. Always, your love has been steadfast.
Therefore, we praise you, joining our voices with the choirs of heaven and with all the faithful of every time and place who forever sing to the glory of your name:
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.
You are holy, O God of majesty,
and blessed is Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord.
In love with you and in compassion for all,
Jesus healed and taught, challenged and comforted, welcomed and saved.
He formed a community,
promising to be with his disciples wherever two or three were gathered, and sending them on his mission of hope and healing in the world. Jesus trusted his life to you, and went freely to his death, so the world might be set free from suffering and sin.
You raised him from death and raise us also to live a new life with him. In the power of the Holy Spirit, you send us out to make disciples as he commanded.
Remembering all your mighty and merciful acts,
we take this bread and this wine from the gifts you have given us and celebrate with joy the redemption won for us in Jesus Christ. Accept this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving as a living and holy offering of ourselves, that our lives may proclaim the One crucified and risen.
Great is the mystery of faith.
Christ has died,
Christ is risen,
Christ will come again.
Gracious God pour out your Holy Spirit upon us and upon these your gifts of bread and wine, that the bread we break and the cup we bless may be the communion of the body and blood of Christ. By your Spirit unite us with the living Christ and with all who are baptized in his name, that we may be one in ministry in every place. As this bread is Christ’s body for us, send us out to be the body of Christ in the world.
O God, today you have called us together to be the church.
Unite us now at your table, and in one loaf and a common cup, make us one in Christ Jesus.
Let your Spirit empower the life we share and ignite our witness in the world.
With all who have gone before us, keep us faithful to the gospel teachings and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Give us strength to serve you until the promised day of the resurrection, when with the redeemed of all the ages we will feast with you at your table in glory.
Through Christ, all glory and honour are yours, almighty God, with the Holy Spirit in the holy church, now and forever. Amen.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
As Christ our Saviour taught us, we are bold to pray:
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 debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever.
Amen.
BREAKING OF THE BREAD
The Lord Jesus, on the night of his arrest, took bread, and after giving thanks to God, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying:
Take, eat.
This is my body, given for you.
Do this in remembrance of me. Partake of the Bread
In the same way he took the cup, saying: This cup is the new covenant sealed in my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this in remembrance of me.
Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the saving death of the risen Lord, until he comes. Partake of the Cup
PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION
Gracious God, Father of all, we give you thanks and praise that, when we were still far off, you met us in your Son and brought us home. Dying and living, he declared your love, gave us grace and opened the gate of glory. May we who share Christ’s body live his risen life; we who drink his cup bring life to others; we whom the Spirit lights give light to the world. may we who have received this sacrament live in the unity of your Holy Spirit, that we may show forth your gifts to all the world. Keep us firm in the hope you have set before us so we and all your children shall be free and the whole earth live to praise you name, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Hymn “Guide me O Thou Great Jehovah”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT4n1hGjDDg
Benediction
The darkness has been banished. God’s light is given for you. Go on this journey of discovery and hope. Bring peace and joy with you wherever you go. Be God’s bearers of light to this dark world. Go in peace. Amen.
May God’s blessing surround you each day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_3O_N49GiU
End of Zoom component
Postlude: “As when the Hebrew prophet raised”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnD1lHAbU2I
For Children
One of my favourite Bible verses begins, “For God so loved the world.” I was thinking about that verse and wondering just how great God’s love is and how we could measure it. This morning I brought several things that we often use to measure stuff. I thought they might help us measure God’s love.
Sometimes we measure ingredients. If I were making some biscuits, which of these would I use to make sure that I put in exactly the right amount of flour, sugar, and milk? That’s right, we would use a measuring cup for biscuits, but I wonder if we might use a measuring cup to measure God’s love? The Bible says, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want….my cup runneth over” (Psalm 23:1,5). Well, if our cup runs over with God’s love, I guess we couldn’t use a measuring cup to measure it.
If we were building something, which of these would I use to measure the length, width, and height of different things? That’s right, a tape measure, but I wonder if we might use a tape measure to measure God’s love? The Bible tells us that God’s love is higher than the heavens (Psalm 108:4). If God’s love is higher than the heavens, I don’t think we could use a tape measure to measure it, could we?
Which of these would I use to measure time? We use a chronometer or watch to measure time. There will probably be some people here this morning who will use their watches to measure how long the minister’s sermon lasts. I wonder if we could use a watch to measure how long God’s love will last. The Bible tells us that God’s love is from everlasting to everlasting (Psalm 103:17). Wow! If God’s love is from everlasting to everlasting, I guess we couldn’t measure it with a watch.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” How do you measure a love like that? We can’t measure it. We don’t need to, but we do need to experience it.
My prayer for you today is, “That you may understand how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love really is. May you experience it, though it is so great you will never fully understand it” (Ephesians 3:18-19).
Here is a song about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN06sLWuciY
Intimations
The North Queensferry Congregational Board and Session will meet via Zoom on Wednesday 17th at 7:00pm for regular business.
CHRISTIAN AID
The Forth Bridge Cross obviously won’t take place again this year. Here is an alternative!
Christian Aid Kilt Walk 23-25th April 2021.
Every pound raised will be topped by 50% from the Hunter Foundation.
Register on Kiltwalk website. Choose a local walk, run or cycle and ask family and friends to sponsor you. On the day wear your CA t-shirt if you have one and get going. Once you register a Just giving Page will automatically be set up for you. Events Officer Lauren will give support where required and answer any questions you may have. Don’t hesitate to get in touch – lmcfarland@christian-Aid.org Or contact Liz Hunter 416820
We are hoping that we may be able to worship with up to 50 persons socially distanced in the Church buildings before Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Confirmation by the First Minister is expected on Tuesday March 23rd.