20th. February. 2022. Service.
Inverkeithing Parish Church linked with North Queensferry Church
Worship 20th February 2o22
Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany
Prelude “Go tell everyone”
Bible Introit 212 “Morning has broken
Opening Prayer
O Lord, you have taught us that without love whatever we do is worth nothing: Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts your greatest gift, which is love, the true bond of peace and of all virtue, without which whoever lives is accounted dead before you. Grant this for the sake of your only Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Hymn 153 “Great is thy faithfulness”
Call to Prayer
Take delight in the Lord;
For God will give us the desires of our hearts.
Trust in the Lord!
For God will give us security and strength.
Come, let us commit our ways to the Lord.
Let us worship God who is our refuge in time of trouble.
Prayer of Adoration and Confession
Almighty God, across the ages you have guided your people through the wildernesses of life, assuring us of a home with you. Throughout all time, you have been with your people in the changing seasons of life. You have given us the precious gift of time – time in your glorious creation, time with loved ones, time with your most holy Word, time to live, love, laugh, worship, and serve. How precious are these gifts, O God! We are grateful for your presence – as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – that you have shown us the way of life and faith. But Father, we freely admit that too often we have been like ungrateful children. We have failed to be good stewards of your creation. We have hurt even the people we love and ignored our neighbours. We have neglected our faith and the teachings of Scripture. We have wasted precious time on foolish things that are of no value. Forgive us, O Lord, for not living in your time. Your word declares Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit. Compassionate God, wash us with your grace. Renew us in your love. Equip us with courage and strength to be the followers of Christ that you need us to be. Inspire us your Spirit so that you will be the centre of all that is and all that we are.
Prayer for Understanding
Lord of heaven and earth, as we search for knowledge and truth in our lives help us today to discover divine treasure. May we be able to hear your word fitted to our individual needs that our souls may know blessing today in Jesus Christ our Lord in whom we pray,
Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in 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
Next Sunday 27th the services will be conducted by Morag Wilkinson. The minister will be isolating from 22 February prior to minor surgery. The Rev’d Christine Sime is covering pastoral care.
Coffee mornings
Coffee mornings will be held in Inverkeithing Tuesdays and in North Queensferry on Wednesday.
The World Day of Prayer will be held in North Queensferry Church on Friday 4th March 2022. All are welcome.
Invitation to the Offering
God is the source of all goodness. Through our offering, we express our thanks for every good thing we enjoy, and we share what we have with those in need. Be generous, as God is generous, so that the world may know that God is good.
Prayer of Dedication
God of generous love, we bring our gifts with grateful hearts,
for we have received so much through your kindness.
Bless our offerings and use them to touch lives with your love in situations we may never know . Make us a blessing in our community for the sake of Christ, our Friend and Saviour. Amen.
All Age Talk
A ruler makes rules. Only, I think I need some help with the rules. So let me ask you…
If you were ruler, a king or queen or president or prime minister what would your number one rule be, and why?
Those were some interesting rules you all came up with. Today we’re reading in the Bible about something Jesus, our King, said was important to do. Many people call this “The Golden Rule.” Do you know what that means?
Jesus taught that loving one another, even people we don’t get along with is most important. And one way we do that is to treat others how we want to be treated. So if we want others to welcome us when we’re new to their school, then we do that for others. Or if we want others to be kind to us, we are kind to others. We’ll learn more about that today.
Dear God, we want to treat others with love as Jesus taught us to do. Help us to do that well. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Here is a video about the Golden Rule
Hymn 765 “God’s love is for everybody” alternative below:
Genesis 45: 3-11,15
3 Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am Joseph! Is my father still living?’ But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence.
4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Come close to me.’ When they had done so, he said, ‘I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no ploughing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
8 ‘So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt. 9 Now hurry back to my father and say to him, “This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; don’t delay. 10 You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me – you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have. 11 I will provide for you there, because five years of famine are still to come. Otherwise, you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute.” 15 And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterwards his brothers talked with him. Amen.
Hymn 722 “Spirit of God, come dwell within me”
Luke 6: 27-38
27 ‘But to you who are listening I say: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who ill-treat you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.
32 ‘If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
37 ‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.’ Amen, this is the Word of the Lord, to Him be all glory and praise.
Hymn 561 “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!”
Sermon
I have a pet hate. At church meetings in Sydney, I had colleagues who used to describe people they admired as “godly.” I don’t know what it is about the word, but it gives me a grue in my stomach. Perhaps it is because it seems to say, There is a person who, I think, is holy” and usually this refers to someone who agrees with me about most things theological. It is a form of judgment, as pejorative as “that person is ungodly.” Usually, it is based on the observation of externals that may or not be real. Many good people aspire to this thing called “godliness”. There is no doubt that the word “godly” in its best sense seems appropriate, though its dictionary definition is “devoutly religious, pious,” which both describe externals.
It has been rightly asked: What is godliness?
Is it keeping yourself apart from the world, free from any possible contamination?
Is it being ready for every occasion with a quote, chapter, and verse from the Bible?
Is exhibited in those who refuse to own a TV or read a newspaper?
Is it found in those who can fluently pray extempore in any situation?
Is it the capacity to stay awake in prayer meetings that run from dusk to dawn?
Is it abstaining from sex, except for procreation, even in marriage?
Is it having a perfect attendance record at church, come wind or high water?
Is it the virtue of those who meticulously tithe from every skerrick of their income?
What is godliness? Someone could be all of the list I have just given you, yet sadly, you might still have missed out on “godliness” as it is meant by my colleagues in Sydney.
- S. Lewis Wrote: “There is someone I love, even though I don’t approve of what he does. There is someone I accept, though some of his thoughts and actions revolt me. There is someone I forgive, though he hurts the people I love the most. That person is me. There are plenty of things I do that I don’t like, but if I can love myself without approving of all I do, I can also love others without approving of all they do.
As that truth has been absorbed into my life, it has changed the way I view others.”
What would or could happen if we were to view others with the same grace that we give to ourselves? We would be living more like Jesus would we not? We are not to judge because that’s what God is like. God is astonishingly merciful.
You can see from this that godliness is not something that can be accurately measured outwardly. The pharisees were devoutly religious, but Jesus often accused them of hypocrisy, especially since they tended to despise people who did not share their enthusiasm. Perhaps a better word is holy, but even that should be used sparingly, because as Lewis points out honesty about the inner reality is the first step in holiness. Our faith and our standing with God are founded upon an inner reality of which Jesus’ word here leaves us in no doubt. It is being generous in motive, thought, word and deed; like the Most High God whom he called “Abba.”
Love your enemies and do good and lend without expecting any return. Your reward will be great for you will be children of the Most High. For God is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
If you think you know the God of Jesus yet have not realised how freely and generously this Most High One showers unconditional gifts upon you without measure, then you have not met the Christ of the Gospels. God is pure altruism, white-hot generosity, looking for no reward except for the enrichment of each person. It is a high standard to meet.
The story of Joseph’s reconciliation with his brothers in the Old Testament illustrates one of the earliest examples of the kind of holiness we are speaking about in the Bible.
Joseph was the second youngest and favourite child of his father Jacob, the son of his favourite wife, Rachel. He was a gifted child a dreamer of dreams who managed to alienate his ten half-brothers because of this. Gifted does not necessarily mean wise or good and through arrogance, Joseph alienated his brothers. We all know the story of kidnap and sale into Egypt by his brothers and the heartbreak this caused their father.
Joseph paid for his precocity and his unusual gifst with a life that was for many years difficult and painful. How frighteningly unexpected it must have been for Joseph to be sold into slavery by his brothers. Do you think he did not realize the resentment he had been sowing among them? Do you suppose he believed he would always be shielded by his father’s favour?
So much of his experience was beyond his control. But then the mix of relief and grief Jospeh must have felt as he made his way in Potiphar’s house. What a wonder it must have been for him to discover gifts he never had reason to know he had before. But still, he was far from home, missing all that was familiar.
But then the sordid scene with Potiphar’s wife. Where Joseph pays the price once more for having no legal standing, no real voice with which to defend himself. His gifts did not shield him from this either.
He had to wait a long time before who he was by nature could come to fruition. It was in prison, the darkest place of his life, even darker than the pit in Israel that this began to happen. There we see Joseph tapping into his first and best gifts. And while he was hoping it would gain his freedom sooner rather than later as he interpreted the dream of Pharaoh’s cupbearer, still he was forced to wait, for the timing was out of his hands.
Even then it was not a straight trajectory into freedom, because the cupbearer forgot about him until Pharoah was disturbed by his dreams.
Again, we know the story. Summoned to help Pharaoh Joseph brought everything at his disposal to ward off a world-wide famine disaster, ensuring that people near and far would be fed.
During this terrible time, those with whom he had tangled in adolescent conflict and with whom Joseph’s history was most inextricably intertwined, came to him. Worldwide circumstances conspired to bring them together again. Or rather God brought them together for the very purpose of reconciliation.
We do not know anything of Joseph’s inner journey, except that he maintained the faith of his fathers and was morally and spiritually open to God. Remember, there were no recognised ten commandments; we do not know what his moral and spiritual code contained. But is kept him going until he was faced with one of the biggest challenges of any human life, to forgive betrayal. To put this in context, consider Dante’s description of the ninth circle of hell in his “Inferno”, the circle of treachery, the betrayal of trust. The first circle is that of Caina, named after Cain, who murdered his brother Abel. It is the first circle of the lowest level of hell. No wonder that forgiveness of that kind of insult is often the hardest.
In our scripture we witness this process in Joseph’s encounters with his brothers as they return to Egypt again and again. His childhood dreams about his brothers bowing before him had come true.
We do not know if the game Joseph played with his brothers demanding that Benjamin remain as a hostage was designed to test his brothers, but they did acknowledge how hard Jacob had been stricken by Joseph’s supposed death. Maybe it took some movement on their part to soften Joseph’s heart completely. Whichever, grace prevailed, and Joseph embraced his brothers who had been entirely within his power with full and complete forgiveness.
Can we say that he was able as Paul was later to articulate, that “all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose.”
Here is a second example:
A flash of silver – that’s all Nettie, a mental health counsellor, remembers about driving to work on the morning of August 10th , 2017.
With her right leg pinned between the dashboard and the front seat, Nettie drifted in and out of consciousness for almost an hour before firefighters rescued her.
In the emergency room, convinced that she was going to die, Nettie asked a nurse to write down a good-bye letter to her 13-year-old son, Dominic.
“I told him how proud I was of him,” she says, “and how sad I was to leave him.”
Her injuries were nearly unbelievable, and she was in surgery for 10 hours.
“For days it hurt to breathe,” she says, “and even feel the hospital gown against my skin.”
It wasn’t until weeks later when Nettie started to recover that her lawyer broke the awful news to her: The woman who had caused her accident had a blood-alcohol level well over the legal limit.
“Before that I hadn’t been angry,” says Nettie.
Her distress only increased when she learned that the driver had minimal auto insurance and that Nettie, who was separated from her husband would be saddled with hefty medical bills.
The last straw came the day before Thanksgiving, when her boss told Nettie that she was being let go.
All that devastation took a toll.
The following Spring, Nettie started taking antidepressants and seeing a therapist.
In August, Nettie was in the courtroom when the woman who had caused the accident was sentenced to 8-16 months in jail.
“The woman looked so scared,” she remembers.
“I couldn’t imagine what was going through her head.”
Afterward, Nettie approached the public defender.
“I said, ‘Please let your client know that I forgive her.’”
That gave Nettie a huge sense of relief.
“I wasn’t in control of her actions that morning,” she says.
“But I am in control of how I respond from here on out, and I decided to choose forgiveness over hate and animosity.”
Forgiving in Christ is not a matter trivializing what has happened.
Forgiving in Christ means confronting our hurt head-on and grappling with it.
It means acknowledging the pain we’ve experienced, yet not allowing that pain to master us.
It’s been said that “evil propagates by contagion.
It can be contained and defeated only when hatred, insult and injury are absorbed and neutralized by love.”
Jesus said, “love your enemies, do good, and lend expecting nothing in return. If you do, you will have a great reward.”
You will be acting the way the children of the Most High act, for God is kind to ungrateful and wicked people.
Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate.
The “great reward” Jesus talks about has nothing to do with full pockets, big houses, or even a fancier room in heaven.
It does, however, have everything to do with who we become, for there is much grace and transformation needed for us to live out the radical faith Jesus calls us to.
And there is no greater reward than to be seeking to live and act the way Jesus acts toward us.
Godly? Let’s call people radical seekers of God instead. If we give less than what is just, we are a long distance off. If we deal justly in all things, we might be one third of the way there. But it is in the other two thirds of generous abundance, grace upon grace, that we begin to share the sheer wonder and delight that is of God.
For it is in loving like Jesus loves that we find true freedom, true peace, true joy, and true LIFE. Amen.
Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession
Gracious God, you know us better than we know ourselves, you know what we need, you know what we desire, and we trust that in the name of Jesus you will perfect the prayers we offer today. Us courage to accept the challenge of your word to us today.
We praise you, God, for your creative power, for your redeeming love, and for your sustaining presence in the world and in our lives. We thank you for a world rich with your blessings – rain to give life, changing seasons to enjoy, bodies that can move, embrace, and heal, art and music to enrich us, communities, and families in which to share your love. Holy Spirit, thank you for your work to renew us and strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ. We praise you for the way you enliven the church and ask you to include us in your mission to the world. Inspire us to share the love of God in Jesus Christ with everyone we meet. Thank you for all who lead us in this work and who encourage us to experience the unity of your church around the world.
God of all nations, thank you for your Holy Spirit’s power at work in the church around the world with whom we are united in Christ Give us joy in who we are as your gathered people. Heal our divisions, and give us the mind that was in Christ Jesus, to empty himself and give to others.
Lord Jesus, you healed the sick and you made time for those in need to come to you, and so we bring before you today those on our hearts who are in need – those who deal with illness of body or mind, those who are grieving a death or another kind of loss, people who are victims of abuse or trafficking, refugees. Hear our prayers, Lord, as we hold these people in our hearts and minds. We pray for everyone whose lives have been disrupted by the storm this week, who have suffered grief loss and comfort We pray e for people known to us whose needs are great and for whom we have a special concern. Also hear our prayer for peace in our time. May your Spirit calm the tensions in Ukraine and hold vback the power of aggressors there and elsewhere in the world. Father
God of love, we pray for the ministry of the congregations in our Presbytery as we seek a way forward for your church in our communities. Take away our fear of the future and reveal to us how we may proceed.th Continue to show us the ways that we can serve you in your kingdom and use us to be a blessing to many people. We offer these prayers, joining our voices to the great chorus of those who sing your praise and depend on you alone. We long for that day when all your children will live in your peace and praise your name. Until that day, give us sturdy patience and enduring hope, rooted only in Jesus Christ our Lord, in whose name we pray. Amen
Hymn 159 “Lord for the years”
Benediction
Go now to follow the way of Jesus: see others as he did.
Dare to give freely as he did; and to love unconditionally as he did.
Go, embraced by the Source of life, love, and hope,
in the company of the Word of life and
encouraged by the Breath of life. Amen
“May God’s blessing surround you each day”
Postlude: “My God what a morning”