15th. May. 2022. Service.
Inverkeithing Parish Church linked with North Queensferry Church
Worship 15th May 2022
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Prelude “In His time”
Bible Introit Hymn 770 “I love you, Lord”
Collect: Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Hymn 104 “The Lord of heaven confess”
Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise God in the heights!
Praise God, all you angels; praise God, all creatures high and low!
Rulers of the earth and all peoples, praise God’s holy name!
Young men and women alike, old and young together!
With voices united, let us praise the Lord!
Prayer
Holy God, you are the first and the last, beginning and end of all things, worthy of praise from all your creation.
Sun, moon, and stars praise you.
Earth, sea, and sky praise you.
In its own way every living thing praises and we in all our human diversity praise you and join our varied voices with all your creatures in heaven and on earth. You fill our lives with the wonder of your love in Christ Jesus. Your Spirit moves throughout the world revealing your purposes for every living thing. Receive our prayers and praise this morning, Source of our life and our hope, Holy God, ever Three and Ever One.
Loving God, Jesus commanded us to love one another that
the world might know that we follow him. We confess we do not always love one another, and not in the way Jesus loves us.
The world has seen our squabbling, our history of hypocrisy,
and our lack of compassion for those whom we think don’t measure up. Loving God, forgive us. Lord Jesus, continue to love us. Holy Spirit, fill us with love, that the world may witness your love in our words and actions. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
Jesus taught us that no one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
Christ has laid down his life for us and invites us to love one another as he has loved us. We thank you for his forgiving love and ask grace to share it with each other every day.
Prayer for Understanding
O God, your Word is our source of hope and truth in a world that is full of lies and deception.
Fill us with your Spirit as we listen to your Word and satisfy our need for wisdom and truth in Jesus Christ our Lord,
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, for ever Amen.
The Intimations
The Annual stated congregational meeting of both North Queensferry and Inverkeithing will be held after worship. There will be a soup and pudding lunch in aid of Christian Aid in North Queensferry at noon.
The Bible discussion group will meet in North Queensferry on Tuesday 17th May at 7:30pm.
The North Queensferry Congregational Board and Kirk Session will meet on Wednesday 18th May at 7:00pm in the Church.
Holding Ukraine in the light
To mark three months since Russia invaded Ukraine, we will be holding an event on Tuesday 24th May to pray for peace and restoration.
The church will be open from 6.30 till 9, and people are welcome to drop in and out as they wish. Various prompts and points of focus will be available to help with private prayer.
If anyone is interested in helping organise this event, they can speak to Morag after the service or call her on 695664.
Messy Church
The next Messy Church will be “Messy Pentecost” on Saturday, 11th June, 2-4 p.m. in the church. All are welcome, especially families. All children must be accompanied by an adult.
The C-Word
Following on from Messy Church, the next C-Word event will be at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, 15th June. As we continue looking at “Creed”, we have reached the events of Easter – “Was crucified, dead and buried … the third day he rose again from the dead”. We will be discussing in more detail some of the beliefs about the purpose of Christ’s death and resurrection.
Coffee mornings will be held in Inverkeithing each Tuesday at 10:00 am and in North Queensferry on Wednesday 25th May at 10:30 am.
Inverkeithing Christian Aid
Christian Aid envelopes are available today. These can be returned any time up to the end of the month.
On Saturday 14th May, Dalgety Church are holding a Cafe while the Farmers Market is taking place next to the Church. All proceeds are for Christian Aid.
On Saturday, 28th May Aberdour Church are holding a Christian Aid Coffee Morning in the Church Hall from 10.00-12.00noon.
The funeral of our elder, Bill Duff will take place in Inverkeithing Parish Church at 10:00 am on Thursday 19th May and then to Douglas Bank Cemetery. Please remember his son, Billy, in your prayers.
The Offering
The season of Easter unfolds while the gifts of spring remind us of God’s generosity in Christ and in creation. May the gifts we offer express our gratitude for God’s goodness to us, and the hope of new life we have in Christ Jesus.
Prayer of Dedication
Generous God, we bless you for your gift of life renewed in the love of Christ reflected springtime growth in fields and gardens. Bless the gifts we bring and make them signs of hope and renewal in the world we serve in the name of Jesus Christ, our Risen Lord. Amen.
All Age Talk
Who do you think these people are? Can you guess what they do from their pictures? You can usually tell what people do from the way they are dressed, in a uniform. What clues can you find about each one from their picture? Of course, we have a fireman, a musician an artist and a fisherman. The musician is called Doron Sherwin, and he is playing a cornetto, a very old musical instrument made of wood and leather. Here is a video of him playing it:
Often there are clues about a person from what they wear or do. What clues do you think would tell people that someone is a Christian? Could you tell from their clothes, or their job, or how they look? It is not always easy to tell, however there is one thing that should give a hint and it is found in what Jesus told his disciples.
He was getting ready to go to heaven and He wanted them to be ready, too. He told them, “You can’t go where I’m going. But when I leave, I want you to love others as I have loved you. Then they’ll know you’re My disciples.” Jesus says when we love others like He loved others, they’ll know we’re His friends. So, the clue as to whether a person is a Christian is that a Christian is a loving person. Would you like people to know you’re Jesus’ friend? Then practise being loving towards everyone. As the song says: “They will know we are Christians by our love.”
God, we want others to know we’re Jesus’ friends. Help us to love others like Jesus loved. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Video: We are one in the spirit, we are one in the Lord
Psalm 148
1 Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord from the heavens;
praise him in the heights above.
2 Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his heavenly hosts.
3 Praise him, sun and moon;
praise him, all you shining stars.
4 Praise him, you highest heavens
and you waters above the skies.
5 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for at his command they were created,
6 and he established them for ever and ever –
he issued a decree that will never pass away.
7 Praise the Lord from the earth,
you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,
8 lightning and hail, snow and clouds,
stormy winds that do his bidding,
9 you mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars,
10 wild animals and all cattle,
small creatures and flying birds,
11 kings of the earth and all nations,
you princes and all rulers on earth,
12 young men and women,
old men and children.
13 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for his name alone is exalted;
his splendour is above the earth and the heavens.
14 And he has raised up for his people a horn,
the praise of all his faithful servants,
of Israel, the people close to his heart.
Praise the Lord. Amen.
Hymn 251 “I the Lord of sea and sky”
John 13:31-35
31 When he was gone, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.
33 ‘My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: where I am going, you cannot come.
34 ‘A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.’ Amen.
Revelation 21:1-6
21 Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling-place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death” or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’
5 He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ Then he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’
6 He said to me: ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.
every tear from their eyes.”’ Amen, this is the word of the Lord, to Him be all glory and praise.
Hymn 724 “Christ’s is the world”
Sermon
I am indebted to the late Rev. Bruce Prewer for these thoughts on Revelation 21, saving time in preparation for the Annual Stated Meetings of both congregations.
Revelation 21:1
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
The ancient world and the contemporary world agree on one thing:
Humanity is not what it could be; it suffers from a grave malady; something is tragically wrong.
The Jews gave the world ancient explanation:
It is the one and on which John Milton spun his remarkable poem “Paradise Lost.” The story of “The Fall”. Humanity was once perfect, but when it came to exercising it’s freedom of choice, it screwed up and fell out of paradise. Adam and Eve, the primal man and woman, have been banished from the Garden of Eden. Not only that, but we have inherited from our ancient mother and father a spoiled will, a bias towards evil. “Original sin” rules in our lives.
Among contemporary explanations, one stands out:
The most popular myth is that of human evolution. What is wrong with us is that we have not yet freed ourselves from our brutish past where survival of the fittest was the fundamental law of the jungle. We are too much dominated by billion-year-old habits, fears, and lusts. We have not fallen from paradise but are painfully slow in using our developing brains to reach for paradise.
In this contemporary view, redemption is a long process:
Only the better use of our human brains, our so called rational left brain and our imaginative right brain, can get us out of the mess. The sciences are our hope. We must pull ourselves upwards through determined social and genetic and epigenetic manipulation
However, despite humanistic optimism in some quarters, it is by no means obvious that better use of the human brain will achieve the hoped-for paradise. The “fall” persists. Every new breakthrough seems to be accompanied by the shadow of old evil manifesting itself in the new forms. The current rise of tyranny and increasing violence attest to this
From the Biblical view there is one cure, salvation; an act of God to save his people. Biblically speaking, God has always been active in the business of salvation. The God of Abraham and Sarah, Moses, Miriam, Ruth, and David, is a redeeming God. The finest Hebrew visionaries believed that God has promised that the whole world will one day be made whole. We get visions of the divine healing of creation in Isaiah:
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the loin shall be together, and a little child shall lead them… Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.
Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson. they shall become like wool.
Of course, not all the old Jews were visionaries.
Some were always looking backwards. They reckoned that only a return to the good old days (as if they ever existed!) would do. Many became bogged down in longing for the past. Others, like the pessimistic writer in the book of Ecclesiastes, claimed that newness was not possible: History was just a wearisome repetition.
Vanity of vanities! All is vanity… What has been, is what will be, and what has been done, is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.
The New Testament picks up the vision of the Old and affirms Isaiah and proclaims the prophet’s words have been fulfilled. Through Jesus of Nazareth, the vision of salvation has happened in one person. The “New Adam” as some called him. Then, as in Paul’s writings and in John’s Revelation, that fulfilment is seen to embrace all time and eternity. The Apostle envisions the wonderful world that already is but is yet to come.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. Look, the house of God will be with humanity. He will live with them, and they shall be his people. God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning nor crying no pain anymore. For the former things have passed away.
What I put to you now is this: Are we Biblical people or secular humanists with a tinge of religion.?
Are we facile secular optimists, or anxious secular pessimists, or are we the hopeful people who have been caught up in the event and vision of Christ Jesus? Are we numbered with those whose minds are centred on the sinfulness of the world, or on smart technology, or are with the serene yet energetic band of those who stake their all on the Biblical vision of what has and is to come?
Perhaps we need to meditate on God’s new world, saturate ourselves in it.
Unless each day we relish its beauty in trust and hope, we will find ourselves slipping back into the ruts and gloom of the old. What we think about, the mental diet on which we feed ourselves, will determine what we are and what we do. Mentally/spiritually “we are what we eat.” Our thought patterns do matter! They are critical! Our thinking shapes the way we live. The whole counselling method of what is these days called “cognitive therapy” is based on this insight.
Perhaps we must think big like Isaiah, Jesus, and John.
Think big, and you will help bring the vision to pass. Think negatively like Ecclesiastes, like many the in the community around us and we will strengthen their kind of cynical community and world.
With what are we today actually filling our minds?
What are the images we choose to embrace from TV, newspapers, magazines, books, and in conversations? Positive or negative pictures? What do we choose to see and read? How much of the Bible do we allow to occupy our thoughts? What do we absorb and internalise, maybe without even noticing what we are constantly doing?
What topics characterise our conversations with ourselves?
Everyone talks to themselves; most of us do it silently. What is our internal chatter about? Are we picturing a healed world or a broken world, achievement or failure, happiness, or misery? On what do our thoughts dwell? Are we saturated in gloom and doom or with the glory of which John writes?
We of all people, need to focus on Jesus. Let others ignore him if they wish or admire him from a distance if that is their thing. But as Christians, we must envisage him, hear him, chat with him every day
We need his Spirit to reshape our goals and flavour our days.
We need the man who tells stunning parables of grace, the healer of diseases, the embracer of the outcasts, the forgiver of sins, the man who eats with the local “low-life,” the person who invites us to learn from the wildflowers and ravens, the Rabbi who – when preparing for a ghastly death – says: “Don’t be afraid. I have overcome this old world.” And we need to focus on the risen Christ, as he breathes into the souls of his friends the Spirit of grace and forgiveness.
Can we dare to be like John?
Like John writing from his lonely exile, not wallowing bad news (of which there was plenty) but looking into the future and trusting the consummation of all that Jesus was, is and does? Will we allow John to teach us how to stay positive when things crumble around us? Will we permit him to show us how to keep the faith when the church appears to be in decline, how to practise love when others practise cruelty, how to embrace the future while others wallow in pessimism?
Would it be presumptuous of me to ask you to do an audit of your own thoughts?
Also, during this week will you experiment by deliberately feeding your thoughts on the bright Bible visions of the future?
‘Look! God’s dwelling-place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death” or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’ Amen.
Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession
Lord our God, you have given us so many wonders in this world you created. We thank you for spring sunshine and refreshing rain. for colours exploding as flowers blossoms, grass greens, and gardens mature. We thank you for the signs of burgeoning new life around. Make the earth fruitful in this summer and provide
a good harvest and plenty for the people of the world,
We pray for this planet which you have given to us to care for to preserve it before it’s too late. We pray for scientists and all who are working to teach us how we can play our part in protecting the environment. Encourage them in their research and increase their understanding and give them an attentive audience. We pray particularly for leaders in government, business, and communities, that they may make care for the earth a priority for the sake of the generations to come. Inspire each of us to do all we can, even if our efforts may seem small or insignificant that humankind may learn to live with respect for your creation.
We thank you for our families and friends who offer us love and encouragement as we travel through life. We pray for families and communities whose lives have been disrupted by war and conflict, for whom safety is a concern every day and who worry what the future will hold for them.
Guide people entrusted with decision making power to consider the lives of the vulnerable and so make policies that protect their future. We pray for the General Assembly of our Church meeting at the end of this coming week, that all acts and decisions may be made within the will of God for the well-being of the Church of Scotland.
For many the future is uncertain, and we pray for people facing illness, receiving, or waiting for treatment, for all who are mourning the loss of someone dear, and everyone who is lonely or discouraged. Keep a brief silence.
We commit the homeless or unemployed, the hungry and despairing to your loving care and claim the power of your Spirit to reach out to people in need, in our community and in distant places. You have given us the opportunity to respond through Christian Aid to make your love tangible in the lives of
in Jesus’ name inspire our generosity for their sakes.
God of our Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for our own community that gathers in Jesus’ name, for the warmth and welcome offered here, for friendship and faithfulness, for the learning and leadership we share with each other, but especially for the hope that is ours through the resurrection of your Son, Jesus Christ.
Hymn 519 “Love divine, all loves excelling”
The Benediction
May the love of God which was lavished upon us by Jesus Christ be in your hearts, your minds, and your spirits as you go out into God’s world. Be bearers of peace and hope to all you meet and may God’s peace be with you always. Amen.
Postlude: “Let there be love shared among us”