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How can I repay the Lord for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation And call on the Lord by name. I will pay my vows to the Lord In the presence of all his people. Let us worship God Hymn 198 – Let us build a house (1,2,3,5) Prayers of Adoration and Confession We have heard about you, God of all power. You made the world out of kindness, creating order out of confusion; You made each one of us in your own image, your fingerprint on every soul. We praise and worship you. We have heard about you, Jesus Christ: The carpenter who left his tools and trade; The poor man who made others rich; The healer who let himself be wounded; The saviour who died and rose again. We praise and worship you. We have heard about you, Holy Spirit. You broke the bonds of every race and nation, To let God speak in every tongue; You made the disciples drunk with grace; You converted souls and emptied pockets; You showed how love made all things new And opened the doors to freedom and change. We praise and worship you. Most merciful God, we come before you, confessing that we have sinned, in thought, word and deed, Through our own fault and in common with others. We are truly sorry and turn from our sins Lord have mercy/ Christ have mercy/ Lord have mercy. God freely forgives all who confess their sin and offers us the grace and strength of the Holy Spirit to be the people of God in the world. Amen Readings: 2 Kings 2: 6-14 Luke 9:51-62 Hymn 510 – Jesus calls us here to meet him (1,2,4) Weekly Prayer Gracious God, we come together to share in the communion of our Lord Jesus Christ and are reminded to do this until He comes. Thank You for Your Word and its powerful influence in our lives. Help us to learn to put its truth into practice as we go from here to live and serve each other in the week ahead. Amen Reflection Recently there has been speculation over who would succeed the Prime Minister if he were to go – though he seems to survive. Similarly in the Labour party, if Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner were to step down over Beergate, who would take over? In any business, an eye is always kept in who would step into the shoes of the one at the top. Often people are groomed to take over, so that there is no vacuum. Certainly for Jesus, he had the twelve disciples, for support but also to train up, and most did an admirable job when the mantle fell on them. But today we are going to concentrate on the passage from Kings, the story of an older prophet, nearing the end of his ministry, and a younger prophet. It is the story of Elijah and Elisha, and they make a journey together. If we had read from the beginning of the chapter, we would have seen how Elijah initially his protege to stay put, not to accompany him, but in echoes of Ruth and Naomi, Elisha is not put off but stubbornly follows, and they make a tour of places important to the faith. Places like Gilgal, where the Israelites crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land; places like Bethel, where Jacob famously had his dream of a ladder into heaven, with angels ascending and descending, and he said, this is truly the House of God, and we have that phrase above us as we enter Linton Kirk. It is as if Elijah is making a farewell tour of the country, but it is also the older prophet impressing on his apprentice the importance of history, the places where God showed up and inspired Israel. He wanted the younger generation to know the past in order to face the future. We learn from the past so that we can be stronger in the days to come. Elijah asks what he can do for Elisha, before he is taken up to heaven, and the latter asks for a double portion of his spirit. It sounds greedy, wanting twice of what Elijah has, but perhaps it is humility as well; Elisha realises Elijah’s greatness and knows he will come nowhere near to it. But also it is like an inheritance for a first-born son. He wanted to be like Elijah, to bear a resemblance to his character. The story is told a couple who were about to have their first child. If it were a girl, they agreed the name would be Ruth. All good. But they disagreed over the name, if the baby were a boy. So violently did they disagree that they went to see the minister. The wife told him, ‘I want to name him after my father, but he wants to name the boy after his father’. ‘What’s your father’s name?’ Joseph. He turned to the husband, ‘And what is your father called?’ Joseph! What’s the problem? ‘Well, my father was a real saint, a really good person, but his father was a rogue. I don’t want to call him after him!’ The minister thought about it and wisely told the couple to call the baby, if a boy, Joseph, and only when he grew up would they be able to tell after which father he was named. Elisha wanted to be like his mentor. The disciples grew more like Jesus. As children of God, we seek to be more Christ-like in all that we do. The time had come for Elijah to hand over his mantle, to hand over the succession to Elisha, and the great prophet was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire. It is one of these great images, and it emphasises being brought into the presence of God. Jacob at Bethel had a sense of God in the ladder reaching to the skies; Elisha in the dazzling spectacle of the chariot of fire. But we can feel God’s presence in the ordinary, everyday things of life too. For the disciples, they remembered the last meal that they shared with Jesus and how he passed bread to them and then wine, and he told them to remember him. We do that today at communion. We take the bread in our hands and the wine, and we remember Christ and give thanks for all our blessings and seek ever to resemble Christ and have God’s fingerprint on our very souls. Prayers of Dedication and Intercession Holy One, you call us to love neighbour as self. Use all we have to offer, of money, talents, time, and energy to live and love the good news of your kingdom in our lives. We pray for the nations of this world, asking that you show us what it means to love other nations as we love our own. We pray for peace where there is none, particularly for Ukraine, Syria, Yemen and other places we hear about and those we do not. We pray for the communities where we are set. Show us what you need us to do, what perhaps only we can do, in the places we live out our lives. Show us how to love neighbour as ourselves. We bring before you those who are sick in body and in mind, those in hospital and home; for those who have lost loved ones and for the anxious and the lonely. Enfold them all in your care. Amen Invitation to the Table This is the Lord’s Table. The Lord Jesus invites us to share this joyful feast. Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. Anyone who comes to me I will never drive away. Hymn 662 – Jesus thou joy Let us hear again the story of the Last Supper. The tradition which I handed on to you Came to me from the Lord himself: That on the night of his arrest The Lord Jesus took bread, and after giving thanks to God, broke it and said: This is my body which is for you: Do this in memory of me. In the same way, he took the cup after supper and said: This cup is the new covenant Sealed by my blood. Whenever you drink it, Do this in memory of me. For every time you eat this bread And drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death Until he comes again. Let us pray: The Lord be with you And also with you Lift up your hearts We lift them to the Lord Let us give thanks to the lord our God It is right to give our thanks and praise With joy we give you thanks and praise, Almighty God, Source of all life and love, that we live in your world, that you are always creating and sustaining it by your power, and that you have so made us that we can know and love you, trust and serve you. We give you thanks that you loved the world so much that you gave your only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him may not die but have eternal life. We thank you that Jesus was born among us that he lived our common life on earth; that he suffered and died for us; that he rose again; and that he is always present through the Holy Spirit. Therefore with all your people, past present and to come, and with the whole company of heaven we sing the hymn of your unending glory: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of power and might, Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Heavenly Father, send your Holy Spirit To bless us and these your gifts of bread and wine, That in communion with Christ our Lord We may receive his life and remain his glad and faithful people until we feast with him in glory. As we share in the body and blood of Christ, may we become a living sacrifice, dedicated and fit for your acceptance, through Jesus Christ our Lord Lord’s Prayer Breaking of bread The Lord Jesus on the night that he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said, ‘this is my body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of me’. In the same way he took the cup, saying ‘This cup is the new covenant sealed by my blood. Whenever you drink of it, do so in memory of me’ O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world: have mercy on us. (x2) grant us your peace. As we follow the example of Jesus, I invite you to hold the bread. This is the Christ’s body, broken for you. Take and eat in memory of him. I invite you to take the wine. This is the blood of Christ poured out for each one of us. Take and drink in memory of him. Peace The disciples were together behind locked doors, and Jesus came and stood among them and he said, Peace be with you. And so I say to you, The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Prayer Loving God, we praise you for what you have given and for what you have promised us here today. You have made us one with all your people in heaven and in earth. You have fed us with the bread of life and renewed us for your service. Now we give ourselves to you and ask that our daily living may be part of the life of your kingdom and that our love may be your love reaching out into the life of the world. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Hymn 419 – Thine be the glory Benediction May the blessing of God Creator, Christ, and Holy Spirit, be with you, with those we love and those we are called to love, today and in the days to come.
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We come, those who are at peace and those who are discomforted. We come together to worship God, all of us, all loved, all called, all forgiven, for all our hope is in God. Hymn 184 – Sing to the Lord Prayers of Adoration and Confession God of earthquake, wind, and fire, God of healing touch and uniting love, God of our ancestors, neighbours, and grandchildren, God of deafening silence and quiet harmonies – We are drawn by Your Spirit calling out to our own souls, for You are the source of all life, the home to which we will return. In You we find strength and comfort, safety and courage. May all that is in us, praise You, O God! As we come to You in worship, Eternal One, we gaze upon You and become aware of our lack of holiness. We become conscious of the times when our lives have reflected malice and guile instead of kindness and grace; insincerity and envy, instead of honesty and sharing; slander and quarrelling, instead of love and peace; Give us time to change O God, time to see ourselves as we really are – beautiful yet in need of work; living stones yet in need of polishing. God forgave the quarrelsome disobedient pilgrim people; the Lord Jesus forgave those who hardened their hearts; so God forgives us, and gives us the grace to change our lives. Our Father.. Readings: 1 Kings 19:1-4, 8-15 Luke 8:26-39 Hymn 609 – Come living God (1,2,3,6) Weekly Prayer Heavenly Father, help us be still so that we can hear your gentle whisper as we come again into your Holy presence. We thank you for the Good News we have been given; help us to remember that is not just for us, but to pass on to the rest of the world. Amen. Reflection St Andrew’s Church is in the middle of Cairo. It is on a busy road junction and is surrounded by noise. There are buses opposite dropping off people, picking them up. Yet go through the gates into the church compound and you enter a place of greenery and some kind of peace. It is still busy, because it is the centre of StARS, a ministry to refugees, providing help, education, legal services and psycho-social care to the many refugees who find themselves in Cairo. Many had made long and dangerous journeys to reach Cairo, hoping that somehow they could be resettled somewhere safe. Many of the refugees are young, sometimes just teenagers, and had left family behind. All the thousands who access help from the programme had left homelands because of oppression or war; because they were afraid. All of them are dealing with traumas. In Cairo there were people on the lookout wanting to abuse refugees in some way, but there was also a discrimination. At St Andrew’s Church, the refugees felt that they were in a safe place, even though most would be Muslim. Entering through the gates made such a difference. There they would be accepted and valued for who they were. There they were safe. We read today of two people who needed to feel safe. Nowadays we hear a lot about mental health issues. A lot of people struggle, but at least today we are more ready to talk about mental health and the stresses and strains of life. In the Old Testament we read about Elijah. Elijah was one of the greatest of the prophets. On the Mount of Transfiguration he is there with Moses. He had been faithful to God and had fought the priests of Baal singlehanded, but it all took its toll. Jezebel, the Queen, was determined to kill him. He had confronted Jezebel so many times, but now, he just wanted to run. He fled from her and began to doubt himself and all he had worked for. He basically had a breakdown. He was completely burned out. He had collapsed on the ground, but there he was provided with food and water. He was looked after, and then he had his vision of God’s presence on the mountain, not in the earthquake or wind, but in the still small voice. That was what he needed. He had been traumatised by his dealings with Jezebel, but now he was in a safe place and was being looked after: he could continue with his work now, which was to appoint a successor. In the Gospels, Jesus had crossed the Sea of Galilee to the other side, and that was Gentile territory, belonging to the town of Gerasa. But he immediately encounters a naked man in the graveyard. The local townspeople could not cope with him; he was violent and had thrown off his clothes and had perhaps self-damaged, because he had needed to be restrained, and he lived now among the tombs. He was disturbed and nowadays we might see him as paranoid schizophrenic. Then, people said he was possessed by demons. Jesus came and saw a person who was suffering, a person in need of help. He cast out the demons, and the man comes to his right mind. It is a story that can make us uneasy, especially if we like pigs, but a story about a violently disturbed man who finds some peace. It is interesting that the townspeople also feel uneasy, maybe because they had lost a herd of pigs, maybe because they have had to confront their own fears, and they ask Jesus to leave. But the man stays there, and we hope that he would be accepted back into the community. We need to feel safe. Today is Safeguarding Sunday, and safeguarding is about making sure that the church is a safe place for all the people who come through our doors. We believe that everyone is precious to God and loved by God; that is one of the basic tenets of our faith. We have to ensure that people don’t come to any harm, be it physical or emotional or sexual abuse. We have to create an atmosphere where all are valued and welcomed and can feel something of the peace of God. Hymn SGP 102 – The Spirit lives (1,2,5,6) Prayers of Dedication and Intercession Loving God, accept the gifts we offer you, today and every day. Put our time, our talents and our treasure to good use wherever they are needed, for the sake of our Lord, Jesus Christ Eternal defender and protector of the weak, we give thanks for Your universal love, which sees beyond our human labels and divisions, rejoicing even more in Your preference for the outcast and oppressed. We give thanks for the shelter and protection of our homes; we pray for all people who are homeless, for whatever reason, including refugees and victims of trafficking: may they know Your love and protection. We give thanks for the range and quality of food around us; we pray for each person who is hungry, whether they be across the world or on our doorsteps: may Your love be shown in practical ways. We give thanks for easy access to clean water; we pray for all who are parched with thirst, especially where the decision is dirty water or none: may Your love be shown in practical ways. We give thanks for the relative peace and security we enjoy: we pray for all places of war and violence, whether the aggressor be in the home or another nation: may Your peace be known in our time. We give thanks for all the bits of our life that bring us joy and contentment; we pray for the broken-hearted, bereaved, and lonely, and for all who have lost faith or purpose in life: may Your peace be known in their hearts. Healing, liberating, transforming God, in amongst our shouts and songs of thanksgiving, may we hear Your still whisper in the midst of pain and suffering, and may we respond with courageous tenderness to the needs around us, as we follow the example of Christ Jesus, our teacher and Lord. O God, we thank you for those we have known who have died. May we never forget them but continue to honour them with our living. And may we, with them, find our eternal rest in you. Silence Amen Hymn 594 – Come, Holy Spirit, come (1,3,6) Benediction Go in peace to love and serve God; And the blessing of God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be with you today and always, Amen  Notices:
Creator God we come humbly into your presence. Jesus, Son of God we come gratefully into your presence. Holy Spirit we come quietly into your presence. When I see the heavens, the work of your hands, Everything inside me wants to jump for joy! Hymn 111 – Holy, holy, holy Prayers of Adoration and Confession God of Mystery and Mercy, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we meet you in wonder as the Blessed Trinity. You are the Ancient of Days, eternal and unchanging; yet you are the Source of each new day, renewing all things. In Christ, you encounter us in whatever each day brings with a heart that beats in love for us. Through the Spirit, you breathe life into what is growing older, energizing us to serve you in good times and hard times. In the mystery of the Trinity, you are always with us and so we bring you our worship and praise to join in your dance of life and love, Holy One and Holy Three, now and ever more. O God of all holiness as we are here in your presence help us to be honest about ourselves and our world, to recognise the good and the bad, our strengths and our failures, all that we have done wrong, and all the ways in which you are blessing and affirming us. We confess our sins, and the sin of the world, and we ask for mercy, and the wisdom and courage to change. Let us hear for ourselves the words that Jesus said to so many, ‘Your sins are forgiven’ and ‘Be at peace’. God the source of all life re-creates us each day, Christ has, once for all, redeemed the world, and the Holy Spirit works to empower us in goodness. Thanks be to God, the Holy Trinity of mercy, love and power, Our Father.. Readings: Psalm 8 John 16: 12-15 Hymn 189 – Be still in the presence of the Lord Weekly Prayer One God, three Persons, help us to be gentle, with others and with ourselves. Give us, we pray, the calm that makes for consideration and the respect for others that makes us courteous. Give us the true wisdom that comes from our Creator God and thank you for reminding us that you rejoice and delight in all mankind. Amen Reflection We had the funeral of Audrey Gibson yesterday, and on the service sheet there was a very dashing photograph of her in younger days, with a photo of her in more recent times at the back. It made me wonder who chooses the photos? Usually it would be family, going through albums to decide which one was best. These days, it would be images held in the phone, I suppose. In Audrey’s case, maybe she had decided beforehand. How do we like to portray ourselves? We always want to look at our best. Winston Churchhill would have had his portrait painted a number of times, but he so disliked the portrayal by Graham Sutherland that he famously burned it. It wasn’t how he wanted to be portrayed. Churchill was himself a painter, but preferred landscapes, as trees couldn’t speak back! At weddings the photographer is snapping away, but only the best will make it to the wedding album. These days we can put little photos of ourselves beside emails or on social media apps like Whatsapp or Facebook – again we choose something good. I am conscious mine, even my picture on the church website, are all from a few years ago. I should maybe look for something more recent with more grey hair! So how do we portray God? I remember having a book which began, ‘I saw God the other day. He was dressed in a white robe, with long flowing locks of hair, dangling his feet over a cloud’. It wasn’t a serious book! But often this is the kind of image we have of God, an unlikely, somewhat remote figure. But for the Hebrews, no-one could look at God. God was so holy, and could not be depicted. The same applies in Islam, and I was reading of a film being withdrawn from cinemas this week, because of a portrayal, not of God, but of Mohammed. In Christianity, we can’t picture God, but we do know what God is like through Jesus. In the early church, they came up with the Trinity in order to describe God. Sometimes the Trinity can be depicted by an interconnected Celtic knot or a trefoil or even a triangle. The Russian Rublev painted his famous icon of the Trinity, and we see that God is social, is relational. The Trinity is inadequate, because we as humans use language, and that has its limitations and ultimately includes our prejudices. But it is also a glorious attempt to try to picture God. We have God the Almighty Maker of heaven and earth. In Psalm 8 we see God as creator and the Majesty of God’s handiwork. It makes us aware of just how small we are - teeny-weeny. Yet God made us a little lower than the angels, and we have a glimpse of God as Parent, who is like a father or, for some, the image of mother is better, so nurturing and protective. The God who has a passionate parent’s love, wanting the best, while also giving us the freedom to be ourselves. But there is also God as seen as Jesus, who says the Father and him are one and who shows God’s love and mercy in action, to the point of sacrificing himself on the cross out of love for us. In Jesus we see God alongside us. The last part of the divine portrait is the Holy Spirit, God within us, if you like. We celebrated her coming on the disciples last week at Pentecost. The Spirit lives in us, inspires us, directs us. One writer said, that ‘the Spirit is often portrayed as a dove, warming you, softly breaking your shell so that beautiful things can hatch, relentlessly and gently leading you into your future’. Father, Son and Holy Spirit– we invoke the Trinity every week, and it shows a beautiful and complex truth to those who gaze on it. A God who creates and who redeems us, and who sustains our living; a God worthy to worship. Hymn 112 – Thou whose almighty word Prayers of Dedication and Intercession We offer to God; the lives we lead each day, the best of what we are and hope to be, the resources we have and the money at our disposal. God of all that is made, take our money and make it holy, fit for good work in the world. Take our lives and equip us for service among your people. Take all that we have to offer this day and make it a blessing for others. Holy God, Holy One and Holy Three, we bless you for bringing us into communion with you, offering us the same unity in love you share as the blessed Trinity. Help your church in all its branches discover the unity for which Christ prayed. May our unity in Christ show the world how to overcome divisions and enjoy the diverse gifts you have created in us. By your Spirit, equip us to explore unity in diversity through local mission and ministry. We pray for children and their parents, knowing how important it is for a child to have a secure, loving start in life, and we pray for parents as they seek to provide it. We pray for youngsters setting out on adult life, dipping their toes into the waters of friendship and romantic love and seeking to know what to study, or where to work, We pray for those whose land has been torn apart by war and who have lost not only people that they loved, but all that once felt safe and secure; for those who are waiting— at an airport, or on a railway platform or by a hospital bed— for the moment of parting from someone who is dearer to them than life itself. May they know the presence and comfort of the one who said, “Do not be afraid… for I am with you always... to the end of time.” Silence Amen Hymn 622 – We sing a love Benediction Go in peace to love and serve God; the holy and undivided trinity. And the blessing of God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be with you today and always, Amen.  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Call to Worship God says: I will pour out my Spirit on all people. The spirit has come. Alleluia! Come, holy spirit, gentle as a dove, burning as fire, powerful as the wind. Come, Holy Spirit, come Hymn 584 – Like fireworks in the night Prayers of Adoration and Confession Spirit of God, flickering over our heads, illuminating our faces, inspiring our thoughts, give us now, we pray, words of joy and praise. Spirit of God, filling our hearts with hope, steadying our nerves with peace, comforting our lives with love, give us now, we pray, words of joy and praise. Spirit of God, come to us now – surging through the darkness of our lives, sweeping over our weariness –so that, in this time of Pentecost, the sparkling light of faith, the rushing wind of hope and the joyful sound of praise may echo round the world, may echo in the church, and find their response in us. Spirit of God, give us now, we pray, words of joy and praise. Almighty God, you poured out your Spirit to guide your disciples, and empower your church with gifts. We confess we often resist the Spirit’s guidance. We have not acted with justice and loved kindness. We have stretched our grasp with greed. We have protected our privacy with isolationism. We have ravaged your creation with entitlement. Forgive us, O God and open our minds and hearts to the challenges of life in your service. If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. The old life has passed away and new life has begun. Know that in Jesus Christ, you are forgiven! You are set free to live life anew in the power of the Spirit. Our Father.. Readings: Genesis 11: 1-9 Acts 2: 1-13 Hymn 600 – Spirit of God, unseen as the wind Weekly Prayer Faithful God, we unite in prayer, as those disciples did on the first Day of Pentecost, and open ourselves to receive the very same Holy Spirit. We thank you that in all our confusion you understand and pray that you will make something beautiful of lives while we seek to serve you, as we celebrate 70 years of Faith and Service of Elizabeth our Queen. Amen Reflection This weekend the Yetholm History Society, as part of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, are showing the Pathe Newsreel of the Queen’s Coronation in 1953. It was of its era – black and white, clipped accents- but it would have been shown in cinemas all over the country and perhaps even abroad and reached a big audience. That was communication in the 50s, along with radio and maybe some would have television, rented specially for the occasion. Fast forward 70 years, and communication has changed so much. Now it would be unusual not to have a big screen television with so many channels screening live jubilee celebrations in the most vivid colour, and not just the BBC. There is internet, and communication happens in an instant throughout the world. Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram and many more I haven’t heard of. Though there can still be communication breakdowns, and I know some of my messages end up in Spam and indeed when the service is sent out by email every week, it always arrives with a warning that the sender (me!) seems a bit dodgy. Communication has been there since the beginning of time, from Adam and Eve debating whether to have a good bite out of the apple or not. And today we read two stories about communication. The first was the Tower of Babel, about how humans built a tower so high, it seemed to reach to heaven. This is traditionally seen as a display of human pride wanting to challenge God, but nipped in the bud. You could also see it as people cooperating and building together, only for a rather peevish God to punish these uppity people with confusion. But most probably it started as a story to explain why there were so many languages and cultures in the world. Put a group of children together from different cultures, and they will play together regardless of the fact that they have different languages, but as adults we are less good at that and more suspicious of what we cannot understand. The story of the Tower of Babel brings out that division and confusion. But on the day of Pentecost, we see the reversal of Babel. The disciples were together, when suddenly all was noise and chaos. There was a sudden wind and even tongues of fire. It must have been terrifying, but it was the Holy Spirit resting on them, and all of a sudden, the disciples started to communicate with the people around, who had come on pilgrimage from all over the Mediterranean world and beyond. They came from different cultures, but they heard people speaking in their own tongues, communicating the good news about Jesus, communicating the Gospel of love. The disciples were empowered to reach out to all around them and communicate God’s love for them all. It was the day the church came into being. The Church’s birthday. We too are Christ’s followers and we too are called to communicate the Gospel in fresh ways that people can hear. But sometimes the best way is living faithful lives. Today we mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, 70 years on the throne. But in 1947, when she was 21, she said, ‘ I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service... But I shall not have strength to carry out this resolution alone unless you join in it with me.’ The Queen has shown that devotion to duty, and it has been sustained by her faith. She is a devout Christian and I know friends who have ministered to her especially when she has been at Balmoral and have been so encouraged by her faith. She has been able to communicate that in her quiet way throughout her life. In 1975, in her Christmas message, she articulated it. ‘Jesus’ simple message of love has been turning the world upside down ever since. He showed that what people are and what they do, does matter and does make all the difference…. It does matter therefore what each individual does each day. Kindness, sympathy, resolution and courteous behaviour are infectious. Acts of courage and self-sacrifice …are an inspiration to others. And the combined effect can be enormous…. We may feel powerless alone but the joining efforts of individuals can defeat the evils of our time. Together they can create a stable, free and considerate society.’ The Queen has shown self-sacrifice and self-giving and complete devotion. It is right that we should mark her jubilee. But equally it should inspire us, where we are, to share these values and thus by our words and by our example communicate the love of God to all. Hymn 704 – I vow to thee Prayers of Dedication and Intercession Gracious God, receive these gifts that represent our love for you and our commitment to act for justice. May they reflect the self-sacrifice described by Queen Elizabeth and be used boldly as we join efforts to ‘defeat the evils of our time.’ Wind of the Spirit, blow through us on this day of Pentecost and renew our faith. Re-awaken our love for God and strengthen our fellowship. Let your flames warm our hearts with trust in Jesus Christ and hope for the future he will create. Dare us to do great things in his name. Eternal God, in these days of national celebration we give thanks for the long reign of Her Majesty The Queen. For her commitment to serve all her people, for her steadiness in every crisis, for her loyalty to the nation and to the Commonwealth, and for the pledge she has made and kept to honour all people, we praise and bless You today. Gracious God, we ask Your blessing on The Queen as she continues her work amongst us. Sustain and strengthen her in these later years. Grant her the health and strength that she seeks to fulfil her tasks. And bless those who will support her in shouldering new and increased responsibilities. Inspire them and us to continue to lead and serve according to her example. Loving God, we bless You for the faith of Elizabeth, our Queen, her devotion to Jesus Christ, her unashamed witness to His cause, her love of our Church and her commitment to its worship. Spirit of compassion, as we celebrate this weekend, we also pray for those whose hearts are sad and troubled. For those whose country is attacked and whose loved ones are at war; for those whose country is riven with economic or social tensions; for those whose crops have failed or whose job has been lost; for those who are sick in body or sick in spirit; for those who are bereaved. Silence Amen Hymn 702 – Lord, in love and perfect wisdom Benediction May the Spirit comfort you in your sorrow strengthen you in your weakness empower you in your uncertainty and enable you to speak to God’s love to all you meet and may that same love of God – creator, saviour and inspirer - be with you all, evermore. Amen The National Anthem (verse 1) |
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