 We welcome everyone to our services at Yetholm (10am) and Morebattle (11.15) on the 5th Sunday of Lent, Passion Sunday, as well as St Patrick’s Day.
Call to Worship Come, all who desire to know God. We come, for we want to see Jesus. Come, all who thirst for the Spirit. We come, for God is in our midst this day. So let us praise God’s holy name. We will worship God with heart, mind, strength and soul. Hymn 153 – Great is thy faithfulness Prayer of Adoration and Confession Creating God, Loving Christ, Guiding Spirit, With the promise of spring and new life awakening, you wake us from our slumbers. You are faithful to us through every season of the year and every season of life. The hope you offer in Jesus Christ draws us together, as your Spirit rises within our hearts. Even as the cross looms on the horizon, we praise you for Jesus’ courage and compassion, which bring renewal to us in the midst of all our challenges. We praise you, O God, for such love that will never let us go. Gracious and Loving God, as we draw closer to the Cross, we recognize ways we fall short of your hope for us. We get lost in our own concerns and neglect to show love, even to those right beside us. We find some people too difficult to care for. We think others unworthy of your love and ours. Forgive us and renew a right spirit within us, so that we find the courage to go on and the compassion to reach out in your name. Jesus said, Come to me all you who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Friends, trust that peace and forgiveness are God’s gifts to you this day. Be renewed by the power of the Spirit that moves with you into each new day. Lord’s Prayer Readings – Jeremiah 31:31-34 (Pg 792) John 12:20-33 (Pg 1080) Hymn 356 – Meekness and majesty Weekly Prayer Merciful God, thank you for your promise to be our God and that our sins will be remembered no more. We thank you for Jesus lifted high on the cross so that we might have a living hope and a future where love will never be terminated and life will never end. Amen Sermon Jason Leitch is stepping down as National Clinical Officer. He was of course on our screens seemingly every night during Covid and seemed ordinary and reassuring. He spoke at a compline service at St Andrew’s in Kelso last year. And there is always something exciting at being close up to someone famous. I like books, and it can be a thrill to see an author I admire in the flesh and hear them speak. I am sure that many of us will have met ‘celebrities’ or even members of the royal family. There can be a buzz about being in the presence of someone famous, seeing how they dress, or what they eat or how they react to those around. One time I was in a restaurant when a politician came in, but he and his party were quickly shown to a private room away from everyone’s gaze! It was Passover time in Jerusalem, and many people had come to the city to be right at the centre of things at such a special time. Many were Jews from abroad wanting to celebrate the festival at least once in Jerusalem – the same as Muslims wanting at least once to make the pilgrimage to Mecca. But some were tourists, maybe attracted to Judaism, maybe just curious to see what happened. In John’s Gospel we read about some tourists, some Greeks who were in Jerusalem. Perhaps they had witnessed Jesus’ entry into the city on a donkey and had discovered about his healings and his feeding of the 5000, his raising of Lazarus from the dead. Maybe some of Jesus’ stories and sayings had been recounted to them. But to them, he was the man of the moment, and they wanted desperately to meet him or just to be in his presence. As usual, you need an introduction, so they somehow cornered Philip and Andrew, the two disciples with Greek sounding names, and so had their entry. ‘We want to see Jesus’, they said. We don’t know whether they had a conversation with Jesus or whether seeing was enough, the Gospel doesn’t tell us. What we do know is that Jesus gave a fairly long theological discourse and basically said, ’If you want to see me, you soon will, lifted high on the cross, but I will draw all people to me’. Passover could be a turbulent time. Today in Jerusalem it is Ramadan, and by the end of the month, Easter; Passover is later this year. It is a tense, emotional time. So it was at the time of Jesus. Maybe Jesus could sense that the tide was turning and that his death was not far off, so he talked to his disciples and told them how a seed had to be buried in the ground, dead to the world, in order to sprout. Only if it was buried could it bear fruit. So he had to die that we might have life. ‘We want to see Jesus’, said the Greeks.’ Wait and you will see him hanging on the cross. But when as followers of Jesus we look at the cross, we see sacrifice and love. When we see Jesus hanging on the cross, we are reminded of the new covenant that Jeremiah speaks about, for what God is doing here is something new. For the disciples, they had to realise that that their old way of thinking had to die; that their preconceptions of what the Messiah was had to die; that their prejudices had to die. To me it was a wonderful thing that the Greeks came looking for Jesus and heard what he was saying, for they represented the outsider, the Gentile, people that the disciples would normally shy away from and consider unclean. Yet they are included here in the Gospel. But we too have to let our prejudices and old way of thinking die in the face of such love that we see on the cross. Today there is so much talk about extremism, about antisemitism and islamophobia, about racism. You have to watch what you say and even how you edit your photographs. The world isn’t in a good way. It needs a lot of love and cherishing. So we need to include and affirm others around, as Jesus included and affirmed those around him, including the Greeks. ‘We want to see Jesus’. We look to the cross, but we also look around us, for the followers of Jesus are still showing his face today. Wherever there are those working for reconciliation and understanding between different groups, we see Jesus. Whenever there are those seeking to bridge gaps, we see Jesus. Wherever the hungry are fed and the marginalised included and the stranger welcomed, we see Jesus. When the oppressor and those who seek to diminish others are challenged, we see Jesus. When the world is loved and tended and taken care of, we see Jesus. We want to see Jesus – then look around, for they will know we are Christians by our love. Hymn – Lift high the cross (CH3 550/ MP 417) Prayers of Dedication & Intercession God of growth and new life, with our gifts we offer you our thanks and praise for the promise of spring and the promise of resurrection in Christ Jesus. With these gifts, accomplish more than we can ask or imagine, as they bear fruit in the world you love, through Christ, our Lord. Steadfast God, amid many changes and challenges around us, we are grateful that you are with us. You understand our fears; you support and guide us; and you give us courage to face whatever lies ahead. Thank you for the gift of faith, a solid rock to support us, and so we trust that you keep working, in ways seen and unseen, for goodness to prevail. God, in your mercy, Hear our prayer. Loving God, in this time of when there is much to be anxious about, we pray for the world you love. Send your healing Spirit to bring peace with justice to the troubled places, Gaza, West Bank, Ukraine, Nigeria, Haiti Bring care and comfort to those who have been hurt in conflict, wisdom to those who seek to end hostilities, and courage to those who advocate for the most vulnerable. God, in your mercy, Hear our prayer. Send your healing Spirit to people we know and to the earth you love. We remember before you friends in grief… (pause) those suffering illness and all waiting for treatment… (pause): those facing difficulty at work or finding work… (pause); concerns about the environment we depend on… (pause) God, in your mercy, Hear our prayer. We pray for the continuing ministry of the Church in our area and around the world. As we move toward our celebration of Christ’s resurrection, send your healing Spirit to raise our hearts and our hopes with the promise of new life in Christ. Restore to us the joy of your salvation and sustain in us all a willing spirit. We pray through Jesus Christ, Amen Hymn 465 – Be thou my vision Benediction People of God, go out into the world as agents of change, as bringers of hope as beacons of God’s love and the may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you now and forevermore, Amen.
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