28th. February. 2021. Service.
February 28th 2021
Second Sunday in Lent
Prelude: “Come now, O Prince of Peace”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPF9nDMt8UM
Let us Worship God
Hymn “The God of Abraham praise”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKAIWQpbSH8
The Collect for today
Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Hymn “Come let us to the Lord our God”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHrDEPPb5n4
Call to Prayer
We have come to worship God seeking life in all its fullness.
We are here in God’s name, longing for what is real and true.
We meet in fellowship, drawn by the words of our Creator and Redeemer.
We are here to worship our Lord, who is worthy of all glory and praise.
Prayer of Adoration and Confession
Loving and holy God,
Our Creator, Christ, and Guide,
you speak the words of life to us.
In you we find our hearts’ desire.
By your grace we are saved.
When the way forward is unclear, you shine the light of your love.
When we are troubled, you give peace.
When times are difficult, you stir courage and hope.
Our deepest longing is to know you,
and to be known by you.
In these difficult days, we praise you for your faithfulness to us.
Draw near to us in our time of worship, O God,
and open the way before us,
that we may follow Jesus without wavering,
trusting him to lead us.
Although following you brings joy, O Lord,
we confess the way is sometimes hard for us.
There are times we get tired and would eagerly settle for an easier road.
Some days we find the task of loving others hard.
Sometimes we choose anger over forgiveness,
or ignore the needs of our neighbours.
Forgive us when our commitment to you wavers.
Forgive us when we take that easier path.
Stir the embers of our devotion and kindle a brighter flame.
Strengthen our determination to follow where you lead
and renew our energy to serve in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
We are justified by God’s grace which has come to us through Jesus Christ. By grace, we are forgiven and set free to find new life in Christ. Thanks be to God! We believe the good news of the Gospel.
Prayer for Understanding
Gracious God send your Holy Spirit to move in us and among us, that we may hear your voice speaking in the scriptures. Open our minds and hearts to your Living Word, and give us courage to follow, no matter the cost. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
The Lords Prayer (in the words familiar to you)
Hymn: “How deep the Father’s love”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzQj7XvKFmA
Invitation to the Offering
Jesus challenged his followers to deny themselves in order to follow him. Our offerings express to God our willingness to give not just a little something, but to commit resources we could have used in other ways for God’s purposes instead. We are blessed to be able to give.
Prayer of Dedication
Lord Jesus, you challenge all your followers to give to God like you did, without counting the cost. Receive our gifts and bless them so that they may continue your ministry of healing in this hurting world. Bless us with your courage so our lives speak to others of our love for you and for them. Amen.
The Readings
Genesis 17: 1-7; 15-16
17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. 2 Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.’
3 Abram fell face down, and God said to him, 4 ‘As for me, this is my covenant with you: you will be the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 15 God also said to Abraham, ‘As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. 16 I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.’
Amen.
Mark 8:31-38
31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. ‘Get behind me, Satan!’ he said. ‘You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.’
34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.’ Amen
Psalm 22: 23-31
23 You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honour him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
24 For he has not despised or scorned
the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.
25 From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
before those who fear you, I will fulfil my vows.
26 The poor will eat and be satisfied;
those who seek the Lord will praise him –
may your hearts live for ever!
27 All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,
28 for dominion belongs to the Lord
and he rules over the nations.
29 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
all who go down to the dust will kneel before him –
those who cannot keep themselves alive.
30 Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord.
31 They will proclaim his righteousness,
declaring to a people yet unborn:
He has done it! Amen.
Hymn: “Lord, the light of your love shines upon us”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rce9UHYZwl4
Sermon
There is a tale of the English actor William Macready who was once asked by a preacher; “What is the difference between you and me?” Macready was a famous Shakespearean actor, admired by Dickens and Tennyson, who greatly entertained people night after night declaiming fiction. The preacher declared the essential and the unchanging truths of God, yet most people listened with little passion in their hearts. Macready’s answer was this, “I present fiction as though it were true; you present truth as though it were fiction.”
One of the hardest messages to proclaim is Jesus’ call to self-denial which can only succeed if people become passionate about Jesus Himself. The Christian’s passion is to accomplish the complete will of God for him and he must have a desire in his heart to die to self-will. “Deny” the Greek word aparneomai means to disown, disregard, forsake, renounce, or reject.
Jesus was a person of deep passions. He did not preach an easy salvation. He was more in touch with the reality of human experience than any person who has ever lived. During the last months of his life, Jesus knew that rejection and suffering lay ahead of him. He understood the cost of being God’s true person; the price of doing the straight thing in a bent world.
Jesus’ beliefs were not made of sweet and pretty stuff. He was sharply aware that in this crooked world doing the straight thing could mean trouble and strife. During Lent and Easter, we are reminded of the cost of discipleship and salvation. Though it is given by grace salvation is worked out in fear and trembling says St Paul in Philippians 2:12. As he moved to the climax of his ministry Jesus saw hostility, rejection, suffering and death awaiting him in the shadows of Jerusalem.
We should not imagine that he liked this prospect. It frightened him. I wonder how many times he looked back with wistful longing to his years in the artisan’s bench at Nazareth. Or to those first halcyon days of his Galilean ministry when, apart from a few hecklers, his popularity soared.
Being human, Jesus did not want to suffer. He did not want to die in his early thirties any more than anyone else would.
Jesus was not a fanatic, eager for martyrdom. He didn’t look for trouble. His mission was to be true to God, to maintain his spiritual integrity, to demonstrate and preach the way of love; to refuse to bow to the intimidation of those who were shown in a bad light by his faith and compassion.
We sometimes speak as if the only time Jesus was really tempted was when he spent the forty days fasting out in the Judean wilderness. Not so. The devil did not resign his position after that confrontation. Jesus was constantly tempted. He was persistently tempted to swerve from the straight but rugged course on which he was set. I doubt hardly a day went by when he did not wrestle with the temptation to conform to worldly expectations
Today we read about Jesus trying to get across to his disciples that his way not a sweet and pretty religion when he began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days to rise again.
That’s where Peter came in with his clumsy feet. He did not want to hear about a religion that might result in pain. He did not want a God who would allow a good man to suffer Peter presumed to rebuke Jesus for being so negative. It is amazing how many people do not like the idea of God allowing “good” people to suffer even though it is an almost universal experience in this life.
We notice how fiercely Jesus on Peter. “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not on the side of God but of men.” His anger is very revealing. It shows what had been going on in the mind and soul of Jesus. Peter was saying aloud what Jesus had already been tempted to think. Jesus’ humanity instinctively rejected the notion that his suffering might be sanctioned by God and was tempted to rebel against it.
That is also how it goes with us. When you or I have withstood a temptation to do wrong, and then a friend dares advise us to take the easy but wrong way, we too are likely to feel anger.
Perhaps the scale of our anger matches the degree to which we had been tempted.
The anger of Jesus towards his friend Peter, shows us how deeply Jesus had fought the temptation to take an easier way, and how tough was his decision to set his face and keep heading towards his own demise. “Get behind me, you devil! You are not on God’s side but that of my enemies!”
His fixed determination to keep pressing towards the cross that awaited him, must have been won at considerable emotional cost. Then Peter, a best friend, was trying to reopen the pain! Peter, one of the select three who had been with Jesus on the holy mountain when he was transfigured, was undermining his determination! Peter, the very same man who had just a short time before declared Jesus to the long-awaited Messiah, touched the raw nerve. Jesus reacted vehemently! In our humanity we do not want to face suffering and coming to terms with it before or after the fact is not easy. Preparing a devotion for next week, I came across this meditation: “The power of God in our lives comes from suffering because it strips us down to humility and dependency.” Tackling the excesses and flaws of our egos necessitates the refining power of suffering and we all eventually have to accept that as part of life.
Get behind me, Satan! For you are not on the side of God but of men.”
After this outburst, Jesus gathered all his disciples around him, and included the crowd that had formed. He proceeded to emphatically teach them that being good did not mean, “Having a nice day or Having an easy life.” Faith and love come with a cost.
As we said, it will always be hard to go straight in this bent world. Eventually there will be pain for those who have thrown in their lot with Jesus and try to lives devoted to God in a crooked world. Those who would be true to God must be ready to lose something. The cost will, vary with changing circumstances, but cost there will be.
Hence Jesus says,” For those who want to be my disciple, let them take up their cross and follow me. For whoever tries to save his own life will lose it, and whoever will risk his life for my sake and the gospels, will save it.
Nothing could be clearer than this. Nothing could seem more unpalatable than this. To take the road with Jesus, will cost you. To be faithful to God will cost you. To be loving will cost you. The person of determined hope who attempts to create a little bit of heaven on earth, will pay a price. This may not be a popular message today in this “me-first” generation. Self-indulgence is the popular thing. Having a comfortable life with “lifestyle” is in fact the dominant theme in our indulgent western world.
There are many fanatical fundamentalist groups in the world who show a passion for the causes they take up. Often, they are motivated by hatred and anger, especially against the t self-indulgent hedonism of the western world. Ours is a selfish society, a self-serving way of life, a lifestyle that has been swamped by pervasive materialism. Far too many have eagerly made a grab for all that that glitters in this world and have lost their soul. Jesus grieves for that, but rather than seeking is destruction with hate he brings love and compassion to bear. It is true goodness which convicts the selfish and greedy heart, it is compassion and generosity which condemn a heartless society.
As Christians may we hear Jesus saying:
If any of you want to be my disciple, let them take up their cross and follow me. For whoever tries to save your own life will lose it, and whoever will risk your life for my sake and the gospels, will save it.
And remember another of his warning: “Woe unto you, when all people speak well of you.” If we refuse to accommodate to the world in a determined but loving way, if we stand against something wrong, we may not expect to be popular
We don’t go looking for trouble. That is not our game plan at all, but to ask ourselves to remain true to the Christ of the Gospel story. Be true to that sometimes-angry Jesus, who for the glory of God and the good of the world surrendered his precious and remarkable life that we might gain ours in larger abundance.
God knows, the way of Christ is not easy. Nor is it always clear how we will find our true way among the confusing voices of this twenty first century. We will make mistakes, but hopefully not wilful ones. The faithful can dare to make mistakes and fall down; and by the grace of God the faithful get up again from their tumble and press forward resolutely.
In 1999 the English writer Anne Perry, who usually wrote Victorian detective stories, wrote a sci-fi called Tathea a story which is a kind of salvation myth.
The heroine, Tathea had to flee from her country, and to survive through many dangers, and she is now trying to decide whether to return to her homeland in order to try and save it from the creeping evil that has corrupted every level of life. She is hesitant because she is not sure she is likely to succeed. Alexias, her good friend says to Tathea:
“Remember, there is no middle ground. We are either for God or for Asmodeus [Satan]
Either we are for the light, the beauty, the good, or we are for darkness, pain and bondage.
There is no place between, only the illusion of it. And that too is the creation of the Enemy, the eternal lie that you can win without battle, reap without cost, triumph without courage or pain.”
It is not easy to take the straight road in a crooked world.
The illusion is that we can have a bit of both ways and get away with it. That we can be a little bent and it won’t matter. If we buy that illusion, we actually put ourselves among the losers who end up in the darkness of the self damned.
Jesus was under no illusion that goodness would bring earthly favours and success. He faced the harder truth:
If any of you want to be my disciple, let them take up their cross and follow me. For whoever tries to save your own life will lose it, and whoever will risk your life for my sake and the gospels, will save it. Amen
Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession
Loving God, we thank you for the vision you have for our lives,
the promises you have made to us, and the journey you open before us. We know that it will present us with challenges to overcome and that we must bear our cross as you did. But we do so with confidence in your grace and the power of your Holy Spirit to help us.
Today we remember with gratitude:
The ways our lives are held secure in uncertain times by our trust in you.
(Hold a silence)
Moments in these months of pandemic that made us laugh or smile.
(Hold a silence)
Moments when we felt your gifts of courage and patience.
(Hold a silence)
Times when you helped us overcome temptation.
(Hold a silence)
The people who love us and give us encouragement.
(Hold a silence)
Gracious God, we are grateful for all these signs of your love in our lives.
Thank you for the hope they bring us. Show us how to share this hope and love with others who are struggling in these difficult days.
Faithful God, we pray for healing and restoration in the world that is our home.
Hear us as we name in silence the needs and concerns that we carry today:
We pray for people, places, and situations deeply in need of your grace,
especially where people face the fears and frustrations of coping with COVID-19;
(Hold a silence)
We pray for those who struggle to feed, clothe or house themselves and their families, and all those who worry about their economic future.
(Hold a silence)
We pray for those who are weak or vulnerable especially those whom we know, and for all who lack dignity and respect in our community.
(Hold a silence)
We pray for the earth and its well-being, that areas and species under threat may be cared for.
(Hold a silence)
We pray for peace with justice in regions of the world facing turmoil (Here, you may name relevant places in recent news)
(Hold a silence)
And we pray for all those offering leadership and service in these times of hope and anxiety, for those planning how to offer vaccines in our community, and for those uncertain about vaccination.
(Hold a silence)
By the power of your Spirit, O God, work in us and through us. May we bring the light and love of your kingdom into our relationships and our community in all we do and say for we would bring the love of Jesus to honour and glorify your Holy Name.
Receive our prayers in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Hymn “And can it be that I should gain.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQeIGbKqiw8
Benediction
Place your trust in God’s guidance. Go into this world that is in such need of hope and healing with the love of Christ in your hearts. Though the journey is long, God will sustain you. Go in peace and may God’s peace always go with you. Amen.
May God’s blessing surround you each day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_3O_N49GiU
Postlude: “Take up thy cross, the Saviour said”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS3q4uTEAik
For Children
Have you ever played Marbles? Let me show you how to play. First, you draw a big ring in the dirt. Then each player puts a few of his or her own marbles into the ring. The players take turns shooting a marble, trying to knock the other marbles out of the ring. When a shooter knocks a marble out of the ring, he picks it up and puts it in his pocket. If his shooting marble stays inside the ring, he is allowed to keep shooting. If not, the next shooter takes his turn. When all the marbles have been knocked out of the ring, they are counted and the one with the most marbles is the winner. Pick up all the marbles.
There are other rules. When I was a boy, we played marbles in the gutters by the kerbs on the way home from school. Someone would throw a marble forward, the other would try to hit it with his marble and we would take turns until someone succeeded. It is not safe to play that way nowadays unless it is in a garden or park.
Before a game of marbles begins, one player will sometimes ask the other players, “Are we playing for fun, or are we playing for keeps?” If you just play for fun, when the game is over, the winner gives the marbles back. But if you play for keeps, the winner gets to keep all of the marbles he has won. Sometimes I won quite a few marbles. other times I lost a few. It was important not to use your favourite marbles if you were playing for keeps!
Some people live their lives like a game of marbles, always trying to have the most “marbles.” They think that the one with the biggest house, the fanciest car, and the most money in the bank is the winner. They think they are playing “for keeps,” but how much do they take with them when their lives are over? Nothing!
Jesus said that if we want to be real winners, we must be willing to give up everything and follow Him. We may not live in a big house or drive a fancy car, but when we follow Jesus, we have something much better–treasures in heaven. In heaven we’ll walk on streets of gold and we’ll live forever with Jesus and in this life we will always have enough. Jesus has promised us so.
Dear God, help us realize that the only life that lasts is a life lived for You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Intimations
The World day of Prayer
We invite to you to Participate in the World Day of Prayer
On Friday, 5th March 2021
The service comes from Vanuatu and the theme is:
“Build on a strong foundation”
In 2020 The service came from Zimbabwe; please continue to pray for the people of Zimbabwe.
Please look on the website www.wdpscotland.org.uk and there will be an opportunity to donate if you wish.
The minister has received permission from the Trustees of the General Assembly to live in his own house whilst continuing in ministry. The new address is 32c Townhill Road Dunfermline KY12 0QX. The telephone remains 01383 621050 although the transfer of the line has been delayed to March 4th.
You can contact the minister meanwhile by email above, or via Moira Lamont 01383 415859 or Colin Bain in North Queensferry.