8th. August. 2021. Service.
Service of Worship 8th August 2021
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
Prelude: What a beautiful Name
Introit Hymn 810 Sing to the Lord of heaven and earth
Collect for today
Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Hymn 110 Glory be to God the Father
Collect for today
Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Hymn 550 As the deer pants for the water
Call to Prayer
Let us bless the Lord at all times.
We will praise God’s holy name together
Look to God and be radiant.
We will never be ashamed for God has delivered us from all our fears.
Jesus has promised whoever comes to him will never be hungry and
those who believe in him will never thirst.
Let us taste the Bread of Life in scripture and song. Let us worship God!
Prayers of Adoration and Confession
Living, giving God, you are the source of all good things. You created all things and declared them to be good.
In Jesus Christ, you give us the Bread of Life, and we know that your providence and care for us are assured for all eternity.
By your Holy Spirit, you are present in every moment and every circumstance of our lives even though you reign in majesty over all that you have made. Your love envelopes and fills the ever-expanding universe and embraces even the tiny sparrow.
We are glad to meet you in our worship to offer you our praise, our love and loyalty, seeking to give you the best of ourselves, as you have given us of the fulness of Jesus Christ your Son.
Living, forgiving God, in Jesus Christ you have renewed our lives and offered us the Kingdom of Heaven, but we confess that we too often prefer our old ways
We feed our bitterness about hurts and disappointments with anger which can hold us hostage for years. We find it easy to say one thing to someone’s face and something else behind their back.
Forgive us for falling short of the standard of life to which you have called us
Free us from our captivity to old habits of sin, selfishness, carelessness, and resentment and by your grace, challenge us again to live in love and grace. Amen.
Assurance of Forgiveness
God is tender-hearted and gracious to all and has already forgiven us in Christ Jesus. Let us trust God’s grace and be kind to one another, forgiving others as God has forgiven us.
Prayer for Understanding
God of wisdom, you have taught us that we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from your mouth. Let your Holy Spirit open our minds and hearts to receive your Word, revealed in the scriptures we study today. May that Word be our daily bread, feeding the life of eternity in our souls for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer (in the words most familiar to you)
Intimations
The North Queensferry Board followed by the Kirk Session will meet on Tuesday 17th August at 7 pm in the Sanctuary observing social distancing.
The Inverkeithing Kirk Session will meet on Wednesday August 18th at 7:00pm in the sanctuary with social distancing.
Communion Service
We will celebrate the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper during worship on Sunday 22nd August 2021. Please be sure to notify Chris Duguid 413372 or Joan More 414515 if you intend to be present.
Bruce Davies Concert
We are delighted to be welcoming back Singer Songwriter Bruce Davies on Saturday 28th August at 2.30 pm in Inverkeithing Parish Church.
Please phone Moira Lamont on 415859 to book your place as Track and Trace is still required and masks need to be worn whilst in the building.
Invitation to the Offering
The stories of scripture repeatedly speak of God’s goodness and generosity. We are encouraged to keep offering our gifts to God, trusting that He will bless them. May the gifts we bring continue to feed the world with God’s goodness, in mission and in ministry, for the sake of Christ, the Bread of Life.
Prayer of Dedication
Lord Jesus, we bring our gifts to you, knowing that you have given yourself in the fulness of life for us. Bless everything we bring that they shall become the source of plenty in the lives of all who are touched by the ministry and mission of your church. Amen.
Hymn 374 From heaven you came
1 Kings 19:1-8
19 Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, ‘May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.’
3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. ‘I have had enough, Lord,’ he said. ‘Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.’ 5 Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.
All at once an angel touched him and said, ‘Get up and eat.’ 6 He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.
7 The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, ‘Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.’ 8 So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he travelled for forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. Amen.
Hymn 566 When I receive the peace of Christ
John 6:35; 41-51
35 Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
41 At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ 42 They said, ‘Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, “I came down from heaven”?’
43 ‘Stop grumbling among yourselves,’ Jesus answered. 44 ‘No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: “They will all be taught by God.” Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live for ever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.’ Amen, this is the Word of the Lord, to Him be all praise and glory.
Hymn 557 O love that wilt not let me to
During the past week, one of our daily devotions focussed upon a verse from Psalm 103: He remembers that we are dust. The writer, Harvey Kiekover, was advised by a rather blunt friend to recognise the limitations of his humanity and take care of himself. The message being that God recognises our frailty and takes it into account.
There are times, such as we have been going through with the Covid-19 pandemic, when life gets too much for us. Times when the pressures upon us peak and we have, as much as we can take. The story of Elijah under the broom bush illustrates this principle for us.
Briefly, Elijah was caught up in a religious war between the Prophets of God in Israel, and the prophets of the Canaanite Baal worship introduced by Jezebel, wife of the Israelite King Ahab. Elijah had just won a great victory in a contest by fire and rain to prove the power of the true God on Mount Carmel. Afterwards he drove himself to the limit, running ahead of King Ahab’s chariot to Jezreel.
When King Ahab reported what happened to Queen Jezebel, she sent a messenger to Elijah that she would have him killed by that time tomorrow. Instead of a day of triumph for Elijah, it became a day of terror. He fled Samaria and ran over 100 miles to an area south of Beersheba in Judah. Elijah came to a broom tree, sat down under it, and prayed that he would die. Elijah was completely disheartened; finally he fell asleep.
To understand this story fully we have to understand the symbolism and the significance of the broom tree.
In Biblical Israel, the white broom tree was used for kindling in cooking stoves and coals were made from its roots, trunks, and branches (Job 30:4). Broom embers retain their heat for long periods after they appear to be dead ashes. An ancient Israelite reading that on awakening Elijah saw bread baked on embers would have assumed the embers retained fire from an earlier traveller and were blown into heat to bake the bread. Desert travellers have reported forming a layer of broom embers to suit their size. They covered the embers with a 2–4 inch layer of sand or fine soil. The sand-cover embers provided a warm mattress during the cold desert night. Perhaps Elijah had such a mattress as he slept under the broom tree.
The broom tree that Elijah rested under in the Negev was the Retama raetam, also known as the white broom or the white weeping broom tree. This tree is thought to be indigenous to the Middle East, North Africa, and possibly Sicily. In Israel, it is widespread in deserts including extreme deserts, shrub steppes, and Mediterranean woodlands. Although called a tree, it is a shrub with a broad canopy. In Israel, the white broom tree is most beautiful between January and April when it is covered with a myriad of white flowers. The flowers emit a honey fragrance. At times seeds remain viable in the soil for several years until the seed coat wears down. Mass germination can occur after a fire that destroys seed coats. In Israel rabbits consume pods and have been known to disperse seeds up to 6.2 miles from parent plants. Seeds can survive soil being mulched or composted.
The symbolism of the broom tree is renewal. With renewal comes a restoration of vigour and a new freshness; what is faded or disintegrated is made whole. When Elijah arrived at the bloom tree, he was exhausted, depressed, and ready to die. If anyone needed to be renewed, it was Elijah. The broom tree provided this renewal for Elijah. If the shrub was blooming, Elijah would have seen thousands of tiny white blooms and smelled their soothing scent. Sinking below the tree’s canopy, Elijah fell asleep on a soft bed of broom leaves. Warm embers under the sand may have helped maintain his warmth in the cool desert night.
While he was sleeping, an angel touched Elijah, and directed him to get up and eat. Looking around, Elijah saw a cake of bread baked over embers and a jar of water. Elijah ate and drank, then lay down again. The broom tree’s embers were used to bake a cake of bread for Elijah; and God provided Elijah water in the desert.
The angel came back a second time, touched Elijah and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” Elijah rose, ate, and drank. Strengthened by the food, Elijah travelled 40 days and nights until he reached Mount Horeb, where God gave Moses the 10 Commandments. There he was ready to renew the struggle for the soul of Israel.
Here are few thoughts I would like to highlight in this story. Elijah’s efforts were heroic. He had challenged the power of a strong enemy had won. But it came at great personal and physical cost. Instead of being buoyed by the victory, all it took was a small further aggravation to cause his collapse. The war was not over yet, but further effort was too much.
There are times when we seem to face one thing after another, and we have thought to be through it and something small comes along which is the proverbial straw on the camel’s back. When it happens it can be accompanied by nervous exhaustion, depression or complete discouragement. That is often when we need to remember that we are dust. We see this with Elijah. After travelling another hundred miles he finally lay down and tried to resign his commission: have had enough, Lord,’ he said. ‘Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.’ Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.
With the pressures of the pandemic and other circumstances we may feel that we have pushed through this far. We have done more than perhaps we ever thought we could. We have faced down adversaries inside and out. And now we have woken up to realize that we are not nearly done yet.
And maybe along with Elijah, from time to time these days we find ourselves, sitting under our own ‘solitary broom trees’ fighting tiredness or despair.
Right now around the world, it is readily apparent that this deadly virus is not nearly done yet. Repeatedly we find ourselves needing to rethink how we do things, understandably afraid that whatever ground we have gained may soon be lost. Will the lifting of restrictions signal the end or just a pause in the battle?.
It seems that Elijah under his solitary broom tree is precisely the story we need right now with the angel’s encouragement to get up and eat the simple meal laid out for him, and the reminder that the journey is just beginning but more than this, that God is still in it. God sends an angel. We do not need to imagine a heavenly spiritual being. A passing traveller, a Bedouin, or desert who are known to have been there in Elijah’s day, may have spotted him and provided for his care. The right person at the right time.
And oh, don’t we all yearn for the visitation of an angel reminding us that God is not done yet? Don’t we all pray for precisely what Elijah was provided — a simple meal from God’s own hand —- and this tangible reminder that we will not be left alone in it and strength for whatever comes next?
Not everyone will identify with Elijah at this time. Some may identify with the angel, made aware of someone else’s struggles and ready to offer an encouraging word or practical help. In this case it was a simple meal. That may be all that it takes to renew and fortify a struggling person. Someone described such a person as a Get-Up and Eat Angel as one who makes the phone call, or drops the note, or shows up with soup or a casserole, takes the children, or offers to take you to the hospital.
This story itself may be enough for someone:
It seems fitting now that God offers just the basics to you. Just a cake baked on hot stones and some water. But more than that, of course, for with the visitation of an angel, you are reminded that you are not alone after all. And that in spite of all evidence or recent experience to the contrary, there is a larger purpose at play here. Indeed, with a simple meal and an angel to wake you and send you on the next step of your journey, you were reminded that the purpose to which you were called was so much larger than you. J.H.
And that is a good point. It’s not over yet, but God has a greater purpose, so keep going.
Perhaps the angel had no idea what a difference this simple gesture made for Elijah as he continued the work God had called him to do. His presence reminded him that God was not done yet. For Harvey Kiekover’s it was powerfully important for his ‘only-humanness’ to be pointed out and he be reminded that we are made to depend on God’s good, sometimes physical gifts, and that as we do so we are strengthened for the journey wherever it may lead. The journey is far from over, but we are not alone on it.
At this point I don’t think we have seen so much upheaval in the world since the last great war. We are living and serving in a time of political turmoil. People have been taking sides and often we may find ourselves coming up against folks who just don’t see the world as we do. Sometimes and for some, these may be family members or friends. All of us who are serving in the church know that there is a diversity of viewpoints on what is right and wrong in the world and that unhealthy ways of sorting things out spill over in our life together, often in unhelpful ways.
We have experience now with a pandemic which shut our worlds down and where too many, it seems, are more concerned about individual rights or freedoms than about keeping others safe. We are all threatened by a virus which some have taken seriously and which many have not. Many people have buried beloved ones who died of the virus, or who died of something else, but at least until recently, our normal rituals for grieving were suspended or changed. And we have had our eyes opened to the ways in which socioeconomic status, which is too much tied to race or circumstances, has made a decided difference in terms of who would pay the greatest price in this recent time. We sense we are called to act in new ways, and we are trying to listen for what those new ways are.
We are living in a time (like all times but it seems more evident now) where we cannot see what may come next or what will be required of us. We just know now that if the last 18 months are any indication, the challenge is not done yet. Just this summer we have had evidence of how close to the climate change tipping point we have come.
Maybe we feel drawn to sit with Elijah now under his solitary broom tree, to take a break to escape in sleep. If that is the case, God has dropped Elijah’s story into our minds just when we need it most: this flesh and blood reminder that while the exhaustion is real, so are God’s gifts along the way. Like cakes baked on hot stones and jars of water, all we have to do is receive them.
The hard work was not done for Elijah. It is clear that it is not yet perhaps not ever done for us either. And while we cannot see what will be required of us next, help us to remember the simple story before us now and to recognize it lived out repeatedly right before our eyes in the midst of where we are today…
So, just as God renewed Elijah using attributes of the broom tree, God’s renews us. We are made new through our faith in Christ as our Lord and Saviour; however, God knows that after our new birth, we need to be refreshed and restored to vigour from time-to-time. For just these times, God had Isaiah write, “those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.” When we hope in the Lord, we have confidence in him. Having confidence in God can renew us so we can walk, run, and soar without collapsing from the weight of the world’s challenges.
We are not told so explicitly, but Elijah’s subsequent story tells us that he renewed his commitment to God and to his calling and went on to defeat Jezebel and the power of worldly political power. So the desert respites and angelic help have a final purpose, restoring our souls and faith for the journey ahead with whatever struggles and battles it may contain. It will be thus until we have gone the last mile of the way. Amen.
Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession
God of every generation, as we look back over the past few months, we are grateful for your constant presence with us through a time of great uncertainty and upheaval.
We have witnessed tragedy and courage, generosity and selfishness, resentment, and resilience, fear and faithfulness. We ask that through the lessons of these difficult days we may become wiser and more compassionate people. Amen.
What will you require of us, O God, but that we will do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with you.
God of the Church Universal church and the communion of saints in heaven and earth.
As we look back over the past few months, we are grateful for the inspiration and support we have received through difficult times of change and testing.
We have known isolation and discovered new ways to connect with one another as
old traditions have been changed or set aside and new opportunities have emerged.
There have been decisions and dissent, people have drifting away, and others have reconnected,
and we have called on the skills of many generations to maintain our life together.
Confirm the lessons we have learned from the pandemic and make us more faithful people.
What will you require of us, O God?
We will do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with you.
God of every nation and of our nearer neighbours,
As we look back over the past few months,
and we are grateful to you for cooperation and creativity among our leaders in politics, education, health care, in business, labour, and community life.
We have seen both energy and indifference, selfless dedication and harsh criticism, deep differences, and significant collaboration.
We know some who have lost a lot during these days who need help to re-establish themselves
We know some who have felt deep anger and others have had anger directed at them.
Make us more engaged with all whose needs have been exposed and give us resources and a will to help them.
What do you require of us, O God? We will do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with you.
God of family and friends,
As we look back over the past few months, we are grateful to you for helping us to sustain relationships.
We thank you for the technologies which have enabled us to keep in touch with those we love
Through loneliness and anxiety, we have known loving kindness, and appreciation.
We know some families have been torn apart by distance or dispute and others have rebuilt their lives together. Thank you for grace to honour and strengthen our important relationships.
What do you require of us, O God? We will do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with you.
God of healing and hope, there are many still suffering in body, mind, and spirit.
Many are grieving and yet others do not know what the future holds for them.
Hear us in this holy silence as we silently name the people and situations that concern us deeply.
Remembering all you have done for us, with us and through us, O God, we offer our prayers through Jesus Christ your Son, our Lord. Amen.
Hymn 396 And can it be that I should gain
Sending out and Benediction
Benediction
Having been filled by Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life, go into this world where hunger and thirst persist. Bring the healing, life-sustaining, nourishing word of God and the peace and love of Jesus Christ. Offer the transforming witness of the Holy Spirit to all you meet. Go in peace and may God’s peace always be with you. Amen.
May God’s blessing surround you each day
Postlude: I know not why God’s wondrous love
For Children
Do you have a role model? You might wonder what a role model even is. It’s someone you respect, admire, and want to be like in some way. It might be a famous person, such as a great Olympic athlete or a movie star. It might be someone you know personally, like your favourite teacher. It could even be your Mum, Dad, brother, or sister. Whether we realize it or not, we all have role models.
It’s important that we choose our role models carefully, isn’t it? If we choose a role model just because the person is rich and famous, we’ll likely be disappointed.
If you’re looking for a role model, the Bible is a good place to start. In the book of Ephesians, Paul said to the people in the church at Ephesus, “Imitate God in everything you do, because you are His dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered Himself as a sacrifice for us.”
What are a few things about Jesus that make Him the perfect role model to follow?
Jesus is kind, loving, forgiving, patient, obedient, respectful, and truthful–just to name a few.
We could go on and on. Couldn’t we? Jesus is our perfect role model because He is God’s perfect Son who brings salvation to all who follow Him.
God, thank You for sending Your Son to save us and to be the perfect role model for us to follow. Though others may fail, Jesus never fails. We want to live a life that is pleasing to You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.