The Lord be with you! Good morning, Cheviot Churches – and Good morning to those joining us in other places too! You are all very welcome. This is Colin, and I hope everyone is staying well. Come, people of God, let us worship together.
Notices:
Call to Worship The Lord is the first and the last, our beginning and our end. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord our God, who was and is, and is to come. Blessing and honour, glory and majesty be to our God, now and evermore. Hymn 459 – Crown him with many crowns Prayers of Adoration and Confession God most holy, You are known to us as the Almighty, Powerful, Eternal, King and Lord. We call you our Shepherd and Guide. We praise you with many names, but you are beyond our imagination, so much greater than our words. We know you in the stories of Jesus and in him, we see your love in action, reaching out to the world. You move in us and through us by your Spirit, drawing us to you, sending us to live out your Word. God most holy, Three in One and One in Three, we praise you with our lips and with our lives to offer you honour and love. Mighty and merciful God, we come with a sincere desire to walk in your ways and live under your reign. Hear us as we confess to you our sins: We confess that we have failed to love fully, forgive wholly, and to share the joy of your presence day by day. You offer us freedom but we settle for the familiar. You offer risky love but we opt for safer choices. Teach us to abandon our selfish ways and cautious service, so that we can risk offering you our whole lives, committed to following Jesus and building your kingdom here on earth. Hear the good news. God’s compassion never fails. God’s grace is new every morning. Know that you are forgiven by the grace of Jesus Christ. Forgive each other, and live in peace and harmony. Lord’s Prayer Readings – Ezekiel 34: 11-16, 23-4 Matthew 25: 31-46 Hymn 462 – The King of love Weekly Prayer Loving God, we pray for your world, of which your Son is King. We pray for peace, reconciliation and healing in the places of war, hatred, terrorism and the Covid Pandemic. We pray that the nations may be united and subject to the rule of Christ the King, through whom and for whom all things were created. Help us to see you in the eyes of those most in need in our world and as we reach out to help, realise that "we do it for You". Amen Reflection ‘It will be all right in the end. If it isn’t all right, then it is not the end’. That is the message of the film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, in which a group of retirees decide to spend their retirement in an upmarket hotel in India. Except – the hotel isn’t quite up to advertisement blurb. But the young owner is brimming with optimism and says ‘It will be all right in the end. If it isn’t all right, then it is not the end’. At a time when half of Scotland has moved to Level 4 and other parts of the UK still in lockdown, and there is a lot of talk about what we may or may not be able to do at Christmas and the consequences if we do ease up, then perhaps it is reassuring to hear that ‘It will be all right in the end…’. Certainly the various governments are on a hiding to nothing, and leaders have to make incredibly difficult decisions. Some leaders around the world seem to have come through this Covid period highly regarded, whereas others have done less well. There is nothing new under the sun, and Ezekiel in our first reading was reflecting on how the leadership of Judah had coped in a crisis period. The Babylonians had invaded, had installed a government in Jerusalem more amenable to their wishes and taken a group of the movers and shakers of Judean society into exile in Babylon as hostages. Ten years later, the Babylonians would be back and this time destroy the city and the temple and take more into exile. It was the ultimate catastrophe. The prophet Ezekiel was one of the first group taken into exile, and he had plenty of time to reflect on what had happened and why it had happened, and he came to the conclusion that the leaders were at fault (and in this he was condemning himself). He likened them to shepherds, looking after a flock of sheep, but they were out for their own interests and their own profit. They favoured the strong and neglected the weak and vulnerable. It is a picture of selfishness and disunity. But the prophet says that God will take control and be a true shepherd caring for all and providing justice for all, and if anything, having a bias towards the poor and vulnerable because they are most in need. I think that sometimes we wish that God would take control of our situation and right all the wrongs, but we are Christ’s representatives here on earth and have been empowered to live in his ways. Today is Christ the King Sunday, and it came about in the 1920s as a reaction to the growing totalitarianism in the world and the rise of fascism, as people took control and saw no place for Christian values in politics, and the weak and vulnerable were cast aside. The Church was recognising Christ’s kingship and affirming the Christian values that we see in our Gospel reading. It is the story of the Last Judgement and the separation of the sheep and the goats, and in Palestine the sheep and goats really do look very similar. The message is clear – to serve Jesus means loving the marginalised and disadvantaged, the needy and the lonely. But what always gets me is the surprise of both sheep and goats, the surprise to find Jesus, not on a throne in glory, but among the down and outs. I remember mentioning once before of the statue of Christ as a homeless person, stretched out on a bench in Glasgow’s Buchanan Street. It is a powerful image. We have to serve those who are overlooked, not out of duty but love. Augustine wrote ‘ Life is for love: time that we may find God’. So let us keep on loving, and it will be all right in the end. We may feel bewildered or weary or scared, but keep on loving, and the more we love, the closer we come to God who is love. Hymn 544 – When I needed a neighbour Prayers of Dedication and Intercession Generous God, you envisage a world where the hungry are fed and strangers are welcomed. We bring you our gifts to become part of your vision. Bless them and bless us, so that all our gifts bear fruit in Christ’s name, and honour him as Lord of our lives. You came as one who was hungry and thirsty. Where people live on the streets today, suffer from hunger, or beg for a meal: Your kingdom come. Your will be done. You came as a stranger in need of welcome. Where people live lonely lives or feel like strangers in a strange land; where love is lacking and people face rejection for the colour of their skin or the language they speak: Your kingdom come. Your will be done. You came as one who was naked. Where people lack enough clothing, shelter or life’s basic resources; where people live without dignity, exposed to every kind of pain and hardship: Your kingdom come. Your will be done. You came as one who was broken. Where people feel pain in body, mind or spirit; where someone grieves the loss of a beloved or the future they planned; in places where the pandemic has done its worst and desperation has moved in: Your kingdom come. Your will be done. You came as a Shepherd. Where people are led astray or nations are ruled by corrupt or greedy leaders and there is no peace in the land: Your kingdom come. Your will be done. You came as one who was in prison. Where people are treated unfairly, targeted or tortured; where justice has failed and people are punished with cruelty: Your kingdom come. Your will be done. Silence Amen Hymn 533 – Will you come and follow me Benediction So now we leave this space of worship And while so much of the road ahead is uncertain, the path constantly changing, we know some things that are as solid and sure as the ground beneath our feet, and the sky above our heads. We know God is love. We know Christ’s light endures. We know the Holy Spirit this there, found in the space between all things, closer to us than our next breath, binding us to each other. And may the blessing of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be with you and with those whom you love, wherever they may be, now and always, Amen.
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