 We welcome all visitors to our services at Yetholm (10am) and at Linton (11.15am). Please sign the Visitors’ Book.
Call to Worship Give thanks to God and tell of God’s gifts. We will sing praises for all that God has done. Let your hearts be joyful! We will seek God’s presence continually. Call to mind God’s wonderful works. We will always remember the blessings of God and glorify God forever! Hymn 173 – Sing to God new songs of worship Prayers of Approach and Confession Holy, Mysterious, Eternal and Ever-loving God, In you we live and move and have our being. You are the beginning and end of all things. In your depth, we find mystery. In your breadth, we know your tender embrace. We can only wonder at your love for us, so small a part of your whole creation are we. Yet in Jesus Christ we meet your generous grace. In the Holy Spirit, you move with us to inspire our action and fill us with hope. Our thoughts cannot exhaust your wisdom, nor can our hearts fathom your mercy. And so we worship you in humble praise, Holy God, ever Three and ever One, now and always. Faithful and forgiving God, we confess we do not live out your love and mercy. We cling to old hurts and familiar habits. We nurse anger and envy. We are often so self-absorbed that we turn our backs on those in need. Forgive what we have been, amend who we are, and guide us toward who we may become according to your generous grace. If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. Thanks be to God that we can all make a new start through God’s embracing grace. Lord’s Prayer Readings – Romans 12: 9-21 (Pg 1139) Matthew 16: 21-28 (Pg 984) Hymn 155 – Think of a world without any flowers Weekly Prayer Gracious God, help us to be joyful in hope and faithful in prayer. Deepen our loving so that as we pray, we may do it with your heart of compassion. Help us to take up our cross as we seek follow you throughout this coming week. Amen Sermon Earlier this year there was a programme on one of these streaming services called ‘Succession’. It won awards, made a lot of headlines. I of course didn’t see it, but it was about a big businessman, Logan Roy, who builds up a global media business and he has 3 sons and a daughter. It is all glamour and wealth, but the story is really about who will succeed the father, the Patriarch, when he dies. There is a lot of backstabbing and jealousy and double-dealing. Not a happy family. Jesus and the disciples present a happier group of people. The disciples were human, and I have no doubt there would be jealousy and bickering and one – Judas – did fall out at the end, but their devotion to Jesus was so strong. Jesus was young of course, so there was no eyeing the succession, but there was a jostling for position – James and John seemed keen to sit on the right and left of Jesus. But if there was one disciple who was at Jesus’ right hand, it would have been Simon Peter. Who will be my disciple? Peter’s hand shot up, and he was one of the first called to follow Jesus. Who will walk on water? Peter’s hand shot up, and he did try, even if he did sink like the rock his name implied. And then at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asks the disciples who they say that he is, and Peter, quick as a flash, says the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Go to the top of the class, Peter. It is the correct answer, and he bathes in adulation. Jesus calls him the rock on which the church will be built. But the next minute he goes from Solid Rock to Stumbling Block. From being praised to being condemned, with Jesus blasting him, ‘Get thee behind me, Satan!’. The reason? Because after Peter affirms him as the Messiah, Jesus expands what it actually means to be the Messiah. For Peter, his understanding of the Messiah would have been like the other disciples and their fellow countrymen and women. They would see the Messiah as a charismatic warrior figure, ready to cast out the hated Romans and bring about a new kingdom of independence. A kingdom with Peter no doubt as one of the movers and shakers. Fame and glory were on Peter’s mind. But Jesus talk of a different kind of Messiah, one who would go to Jerusalem not to confront the powers-that-be, but rather to suffer and even to die. No wonder Peter reacts. Who wants a friend to suffer after all? Not for the first time he gets it wrong – and indeed not for the last. But Jesus knows the way will be hard and wants the disciples to be aware of the difficulties that lie ahead. He sees himself as the suffering servant, whose way is one of self-sacrifice and self-giving, and he tells the disciples that they too will have to take up their own crosses, endure suffering for his sake. Peter’s reaction was all self-centred, but Jesus’ way was other-centred. It focused on other people’s needs. Self-giving is all about love. Paul writes about that in his letter to the Romans, Let love be sincere. We are always tempted to hate those we disagree with, to seek for vengeance, but Paul gives a better way and invites us to imitate Christ, who on the cross was ready even to forgive his persecutors- they know not what they do. Eric Liddell, the famous athlete and rugby player was a missionary in China. When Japan invaded the country he was put into a POW camp. It would have been difficult. There would be countless petty humiliations. He would have been abused both verbally and physically. But he read aloud the Sermon on the Mount and dwelt on one verse – ‘Love your enemies. Bless those who curse you and do good to those who hate you’. That was the way of Christ who suffered and forgave even on the cross. That changed Eric Liddell’s perspective and daily he prayed for his captors. He moved from being self-centred to other -centred. From thinking of himself to thinking of others, and as such was imitating Christ. What Eric Liddell was doing, as do all who love sincerely, was recognising that all people are made in the image of God and that God loves evildoers, deeply wanting them to be well and whole again. Jesus doesn’t sugarcoat the truth, that to follow him doesn’t mean an easy life, but one of sacrifice and commitment, of taking up our crosses. Peter didn’t want to think about it, he said ‘God forbid that you suffer and die’, but in the end Peter learned his lesson and was the rock on which the church was built. He learned to look outwards towards others and not inwards towards self and thus imitate Christ. We too must seek to imitate Christ in our lives, ever living out lives of love and service. Hymn 402 – Take up your cross Prayers of Dedication and Intercession O God, we offer these gifts to you in hope and thanksgiving. Use them to transform the world you love with the mercy and compassion we celebrate in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. O God in whom we live and move and have our being, We come to you in prayer as the summer season draws nearer to its close. We give you thanks for the occasions we have enjoyed this summer, savouring the beauty of your creation right outside our doors, catching up with family and friends and enjoying times for recreation & restoration. We recognize how blessed we are to live in this place with many opportunities to find rest and relaxation in the summer. Thank you for every good thing that has refreshed us. Yet we remember those for whom this summer has been difficult: Those whose homes and communities have been ravaged by fire, storm or flood this year; Those who go hungry or face violence in forgotten corners of our own community and around the world; Those whose face economic struggles at home or at work, those whose crops have withered in heat or drought; May each one find courage to face tomorrow in your company O God, Jesus walked with so many people in their pain and grief. We remember those who have faced crises this summer - Through tragic death or unexpected loss, Through critical illness or injury, Through pain or problems that seem to have no end…. Surround them with your comfort and compassion. O God, Jesus often faced many demands and pressure from his critics, So we pray for all those who have not found rest this summer: For leaders trying to figure out ways forward for their communities when resources are tight; For those whose jobs and responsibilities present new challenges; And for all who seek secure and affordable housing when supply is low; May they know your strength and assurance day by day. O God, we need the embrace of your presence, each in our own way. Bring healing and peace to our lives and to this world you love. Open our eyes and our hearts so that we may offer healing and peace to those we encounter, in the name of Christ Jesus Hymn 519 – Love Divine Benediction
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