4th July. 2021.Service.

Service of Worship 4^th July  2021

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

 Prelude: O God, beyond all praising
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnnQpC9oLxU

 Introit: Hymn 774   Jesus, Name above all Names
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIxCcy7mKKk

 Collect
O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbour: Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to you with our whole heart, and united to one another with pure affection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Hymn 124 Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vegvb1u5s4

 Call to Worship

Gracious God, you are greatly to be praised in all times and places
By your Word of power, you made all things and called them good.
You created humanity in your own image, giving us breath and life, a calling, and a purpose. In your love for all creation, you raise up leaders and send out your disciples into the world to fulfil your work of reconciling all things in Jesus Christ your Son.
Your love is endless, your mercy without measure and your faithfulness without limit.  We praise you now with all our heart and soul, strength and mind in the name of Jesus, your Son, and led by your Spirit who guides us day by day.

O blessed Spirit of Truth, you search the heart and test the inmost thoughts,
help us remember my sins, and let us see them in your light.
Strengthen us also with courage to confess them completely hiding nothing, excusing nothing, keeping back nothing in our hearts.
In your mercy, pardon and absolve, and thus heal us, that we may get up and sin no more, through the merits and for the sake
of Jesus Christ, our Lord and only Saviour.  God of overflowing grace,
we are a people blessed with plenty which we often take for granted,
We also forget that your gift of life is precious, and waste time on things that do not matter. Preoccupied with our own needs and desires, we close our eyes to the needs of those around us; we close our hearts to those who are not like us.
We avoid opportunities to learn and grow.
In your mercy, forgive us, O God.
Change our hearts and renew our calling to be bearers of your peace,
and witnesses to the work of your kingdom.

Assurance of Pardon

Blessed Lord, give us your Holy Spirit
to work in us daily a true and lasting repentance,
and lead us as repentant Christian people,
always willing to acknowledge and turn from our sins.
Yet also keep us firm and strong in our faith in the forgiveness of our sins and those of others and in our intention to change our lives;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer for Understanding

O God, the Father almighty,
shine on us with the light of your knowledge,
and the fullness of all virtue,
that, while we seek for the gifts of learning,
we may never depart from you,
the Fountain of all wisdom;
through Jesus Christ,
your Son, our Lord.
Amen.

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

Invitation to the Offering

 The Gospel of Mark reminds us that Jesus met both trust and unbelief in his ministry. We know that our ministry is also challenging and meets with different responses, too. Whatever we offer to God, we give in faithfulness, trusting that God will bless all our efforts in Jesus’ name with surprising results.

Prayer of Dedication

Faithful God, we bring our gifts with trusting hearts, seeking your blessing on the ministries these gifts support. Work through our gifts and our lives, to touch the world with your healing grace through Christ, in whose name we offer ourselves to you. Amen.

Hymn 126 Let’s sing unto the Lord
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvwmKCNUgIY

Mark 6:1-13

Jesus left there and went to his home town, accompanied by his disciples. ² When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.
‘Where did this man get these things?’ they asked. ‘What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? ³ Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?’ And they took offence at him.
⁴ Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honour except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.’ ⁵ He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few people who were ill and heal them. ⁶ He was amazed at their lack of faith.

 Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. ⁷ Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits.
⁸ These were his instructions: ‘Take nothing for the journey except a staff – no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. ⁹ Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. ¹⁰ Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. ¹¹ And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.’
¹² They went out and preached that people should repent. ¹³ They drove out many demons and anointed with oil many people who were ill and healed them.

 Come let us sing unto the Lord Psalm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-V__s5MOzA

2 Corinthians 12: 6-10

⁶ Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, ⁷ or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. ⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹ But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

 Be still my soul, the Lord is on your side
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAT6PWayxCI

Sermon

The Swiss psychiatrist, Paul Tournier wrote a book called The Strong and the Weak in which he asserted that people cope with life either by affecting strength or weakness. Thus, a person may project strength by being assertive, apparently in control and full of confidence, or another may use their weakness, their illness or their victimhood to get others to do what they want.  Tournier’s contention is that we are actually all weak and that we seek to make our way or defend ourselves by choosing to appear to be strong or weak.

When St Paul wrote: “when I am weak, then I am strong” it might appear to be a case of religious pretension; perhaps the pious bragging of a man who never really knew what it was to be a weakling.  Paul when he was still called Saul, projected strength. He was a bully and a persecutor, and like most bullies and persecutors, fear lay behind his actions. Paul felt he had to defend his Jewish faith and life against their new enemy the Christians. Behind every zealot, every violent person is not a strong persona, but a weak one, fearful and unsure, lashing out.

Let us say right away that weakness is not the same thing as cowardice, any more than a strength or violence is a sign of courage. Many weak people are very courageous, and many strong people can be fearful.

Before we get to St Paul, here are some examples of people who had to have their apparent strength taken away in order for them to be made whole. Martin Isaac in his book, Summons to Life, tells about a scientist who worked in many countries as an industrial chemist. He was an agnostic who rejected traditional Christianity of a personal God who could be bribed or placated by eloquent prayers and who had a special regard for those whose theology was right. He was compassionate who grieved over the sufferings and hunger of many whom he encountered in his overseas work.

Whilst in the mountains of Tibet he had a revelation of God’s peace and was called to devote himself to serving others.  Once home in the UK, his life fell apart, His wife became ill and was estranged from him along with his children, his finances failed, and he became chronically ill. Nonetheless, he discovered a remarkable healing gift and was able to bring comfort and solace to many whom he helped to discover the meaning of their suffering, especially in the church. Many devoted church goers were agnostic about eternal life, and he had the ability to help them to realise it in their own experience. He remained very youthful in his attitude, enjoyed young people and was interested in current discoveries in science philosophy and theology.

He was generous of himself and was helped by a devoted second wife. But yet throughout his life he was never released from his own physical suffering despite helping and healing other people. Late in life in his eighties he was struck down with cancer and the harsh treatment left him physically weakened and sent him into a deep depression. Israel writes:

He rallied outwardly but the soul was lowly being released from the ailing body. His sufferings were much more spiritual than physical, and he died six months after his disease became manifest This was not the manner of death that his friends had envisaged. But then was not Christ crucified between two criminals while the mob jeered at Him for His manifest helplessness? How little the naked eye sees if it is not filled with celestial vision.

Why do I tell this story? It is because as God’s children we are called to live by the power of God not our own, and that often for us to be most useful to God, he allows us to become weak so that we will depend upon his strength, not our own.

This is a way of thinking the non-believer cannot grasp. We all naturally want health, strength, and happiness, blessing and plenty and long life with minimal suffering leading to a peaceful end. But life on this planet is not guaranteed to be like that and if we are to realise eternal life and be of service, can I put it this way, God needs to tame our egos with suffering so that he can use us to his glory and our ultimate blessing. This was St Paul’s experience.

In the 12th Chapter of his second letter to the Corinthians Paul frankly talks about a chronic ailment that plagued his life. He labels this ailment a “thorn in the flesh, to harass me, a Satan’s messenger, to keep me from becoming over confident.”

Numerous people have made guesses at what that ailment could be. Guesses range from epilepsy to blindness or facial disfigurement, from stuttering to being a hunchback, from a hair lip to depressive illness. The truth is we do not have one incontrovertible clue as to what the “thorn in the flesh” really was. It is enough to know that it caused Paul ongoing pain.

Paul tells us that three times he begged God to be freed of this burden. But it seemed to him that God’s answer was: “No. live with it, Paul.” My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in human weakness.”

Paul then adds, and we do not know what it cost him to come to this, “For the sake of Christ, I am now content with weaknesses, insults, hardship, persecutions and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Israel also tells of a woman who, like the previous man, rejected conventional Christianity. She nursed during the war, went into family planning, and eventually became a psychologist who emphasised the primacy of the eternal soul in understanding people. She helped and healed people often at her own expense but she was not fully accepted by her professional colleagues. Over the years became sad, bitter and overweight until she suffered a stroke. For the last two years of her life she lived in a nursing home unable to speak. Here is what Israel wrote of her:

Yet those two years were the crowning glory of this create woman’s life, because what she had taught about the soul was now radiating through her own being. Being bereft of intellectual conceit and physical pride, she had nothing else but the light from within, and how radiantly this shone. She became a focus of benediction for the entire geriatric hospital where she spent this last period of her life. She had become as a little child who alone can enter the Kingdom of God. The nurses, sensible practical women, far too accustomed to the squalid facts of chronic illness to indulge in sentimental make believe flowed out in love to the speechless yet strangely articulate soul. They brought other patients to her so that by holding her hand, they could obtain a blessing.

A distinguished neurologist remarked on the splendid personality that must once have been present despite the tragic disintegration that was now taking place. Indeed, this last period was a blessing, and to be in her presence was an experience of divine grace.

When she was finally carried off by a second stroke there was a great sadness among the patients and staff. She could not communicate with words, but her soul established that deeper communication which is the heart of real communion. When the claims of the rebellious personality were finally stilled, the soul shone through directly, and she took all those round her to the threshold of the divine presence.

  What does this mean for us?  Where is this strength that is found when we are weak? This healing which happens although we are still suffering? This leap forward when we endure ugly setbacks? What does this mean in our lives?

Here are some possibilities. We gain a clearer insight into eternal life

Times of weakness can open our eyes to things worth living for. It does not automatically happen. We need to eject self-pity and be willing to grow (painfully) through the awareness of our vulnerability and weakness.

In times of weakness, physical or personal, or when crosses are thrust on our shoulders by adverse circumstances or by cruel people, we have the opportunity to see through the world’s superficial values and gloss to the realities which eternally matter.

The world’s nonsense becomes stripped way. Trivial matters can be seen to be trivial. Goals, no matter how glamourised by our culture, are seen to be mediocre.  Even second level values are recognised as secondary. When we are weak, important things stand out and we can become much stronger characters.

It is in our weakness that we are given opportunities to reassess and decide what we really want to take up our time, energy, and money. A new maturity and drive can arise out of the hardship, and we can focus our sights on the goals that will remain bright even in the darkest nights of the soul.

When we are weak, then we are strong.

We may have seen this happen to people who have coped with natural disaster or financial ruin; those who have recovered from family tragedy or physical disease; those who survive war or terrorist atrocity, other who may remain handicapped yet no longer define themselves by their handicap. These brave souls inspire the rest of us to take up our cross and get on with life.

The second strength that can arise in times of weakness is the discovery of inner resources we did not realise we possessed. We find we are drawing on hidden depths.

Often it is these newly-recognised strengths which enable us to hang on in times of crisis, like as rock climber on a cliff face. At other times, inner strengths enable us to walk on through difficult terrain; far beyond what we had thought was our limit. We may even surprise and surpass ourselves by being able to encourage another weak soul in the very hour when we ourselves feel over-stretched. Or we find ourselves laughing in a situation where we feared all humour had died.

When we are weak, then we are strong.

We must member, though, that Paul is not talking about our own inner strengths, but about God’s strength which is added to our weakness.

Nonetheless, the line between human and Divine resources is not as clear as we might at first think. Our very being is rooted in the ground of God. Without God sustaining the breath we draw every moment we would immediately cease to be. Our inner strength flows directly from our God. A friend can be the strength of God to us. A kindly stranger can be the strength of God to us. Each of us can be the strength of God to ourselves. Who can be certain where the human ends and the Divine begins. Our personal resources are a part of something far more profound and holy. That is a part of the paradox that enables us to say: When I am weak, then I am strong.

In our weakness we come to appreciate what we call “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is that supra-natural, gift – strength which does not come from our human nature but from the Divine.

Paul always brings us back to this fact of amazing grace. Remember Paul’s “thorn in the flesh”, and how he begged God on three occasions to rid him of this painful affliction? For Paul is seemed clear that the Lord was saying to him, “Forget the thorn, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in human weakness.”

Many today have experienced situations when we felt at our wits end. Bereft of options and floundering badly, something Holy saved us. We were sustained by “Something Other” than own resources or those of our caring neighbours or loved ones. Whether quietly or dramatically we were flooded with the sustaining warmth of the loving Spirit of Christ Jesus. The Lord is always our who makes us much stronger than we naturally are. The grace of God is always pure bonus, and we know for certain that “when we are weak, then we are strong.”

God indulges in the delightful effrontery of taking our own experience of weakness and then using it to strengthen others.

We may think that God can only use our strengths and abilities, but God is also pleased to use our weaknesses and our disabilities.

That was Paul’s story, and many who have their thorn in the flesh are still used by God to bring blessings to others. Do not fear your weakness, or your limitations, do not rail against your suffering. Instead, join the Psalmist and sing,

The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.
My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him. Amen

Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession

Lord Jesus, in your life on earth you reached out to many different people,
with many different needs, in many different situations.
We thank you for the ways you have reached out to us, in the embrace of prayer, in the energy of a song, in a thought sparked by a sermon, and in the wisdom of a word from scripture or that of a friend.
Sometimes your healing has brought comfort and sometimes it has brought challenge and the call to respond with faith and trust in your purposes for us. You reveal our weakness and add your strength. Hear us as we seek your comfort and your challenge for the world, for the church and for our lives.

Bring comfort to those whose lives have been overturned by the pandemic:
To those whose work or study has become more difficult,
To those who cannot find work and do not know where to turn.
To people who still struggle with long COVID-19 or any lingering illness who have lost hope that things will ever improve.
(Pause)
Bring the challenge of faith to people who lead recovery efforts: whose decisions affect the well-being of the vulnerable, or who are called to guide economic and educational planning, or whose task is to rebuild community life in every land.
(Pause)
May your wisdom and compassion guide them.

Lord Jesus, bring comfort to people who are lonely or shut in,
and to everyone who has lost beloved family members or friends during the pandemic.
Bring comfort to people who feel pain that cannot be relieved
and to those who await a diagnosis or a life-restoring treatment.
Offer your peace to people who know there is no treatment and wait in hope for your eternal welcome.
(Pause)

Give strength to men and women who work to make the world a better place in science, medicine, education, and the law to improve the quality of life for all people.
Give them an inspired vision of their work that gives them courage and hope for a world that is filled with justice and peace.
Challenge folk in whom fear stirs up violence and unrest
with a sense of shame at the cost of their actions to innocent lives,
and with a deeper understanding of what justice really means.
Lord Jesus, comfort your church  in places where ministries struggle, whatever the reason. Challenge your church to renew our vision for ministry and witness
that is faithful to the gospel and your all-embracing love, expressed not just in words but also in our actions as we embrace those who differ from us and also have a place in your heart and your eternal care.
Hear our many prayers in the name, and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

 I want to walk with Jesus Christ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c8-2D55lYE

 Sending out and Benediction

Go in confidence. Know that God goes with you to give you words of hope, comfort and peace. May God’s love flow through you to all those whom you meet. Amen.

And the blessing of God Almighty the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit be with you and all whom you love this day and evermore. Amen.

 May God’s blessing surround you each day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_3O_N49GiU

 Postlude I know not why God’s wondrous grace
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x4VH2hWx70

 The Hymns  

In the text are suggestions to check on YouTube if you wish to sing along. Some may not be as familiar as their titles suggest.

For Children

Do you feel welcome when you come to church? I hope so! I hope you have some friends here who you love to play with. Now let me ask you another question: If Jesus were to walk in today, do you think He would feel welcome? Explain why you think that.

The Bible tells about a time Jesus went to the synagogue, which is like a church, in His hometown. It says before Jesus returned to His hometown, He had healed many people and even raised a young girl from the dead. As He always did, on the weekly day of rest, called the Sabbath, Jesus went to the synagogue. He began teaching, and many who were there were amazed at what they heard. They didn’t know that Jesus had so much wisdom and power. But He wasn’t welcomed by everyone. What do you think about Jesus not being welcomed in His own hometown?

The Bible says some of the people in the synagogue began to make fun of Jesus. “Who does He think He is? And where does He get this wisdom and the power to do miracles? Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t He the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon? Don’t His sisters live right here in the same town with us?” They were offended by the teachings of Jesus and refused to believe in Him.

Jesus responded to those who rejected Him by saying, “A prophet is not accepted in His own hometown, among His relatives, on the streets He played in as a child.” Because of their unbelief, Jesus was unable to do any miracles among them except to place His hands upon a few people and heal them. Jesus was amazed at their unbelief.

Jesus told His disciples to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). But just as many in Nazareth rejected Jesus, they would also reject His disciples. If you and I tell others about Jesus, they might reject us too. They might say, “Who do they think you are? You’re just kids.” Jesus told us to tell others about Him, but He said it would not be easy.

God, just as Jesus was rejected in His own hometown, we may also be rejected when we tell others about Jesus. Help us remain Jesus’ faithful witnesses even when it isn’t easy. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Here is a video about this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBexQG9_RI8

 Intimations

 The funeral of our member, Mrs June Russell, will take place in Kirkcaldy Crematorium on Monday, 12^th July at 2:15 pm. As Mrs Russell has few immediate family in Scotland, we hope that friends and neighbours may be able to attend.