Call to Worship Give thanks to God and call on God’s holy name. We will tell of God’s wonderful works! Let the hearts of those who seek God rejoice. We will sing God’s praises! Give glory to God, our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. We will remember God’s mercy in all our words and actions. Hymn 147 – All creatures of our God and King Prayers of Approach and Confession God of the past, present and future, we marvel at the wonder of your creation. We praise you for gardens growing, birds singing, stars twinkling, for shouts of playful joy and restful evening sunsets. Such delights around us remind us of your goodness. God with us, day by day, you surprise us with moments we will treasure for ever, and with confidence that turns small beginnings into projects that make a huge difference. You promise us a life beyond anything we can imagine, a kingdom marked by grace, love and justice for all. We will live to serve you, and offer you our love and loyalty now and always. Merciful God, We confess we are not always merciful people. We turn away in anger rather than seek solutions. We criticize those who differ from us in culture or conviction, rather than seek understanding. We can hold grudges for a lifetime. Forgive us our failures to live out the mercy we claim from you week by week. Open our hearts with your great love. Lord’s Prayer Readings – Genesis 29: 15-28(Pg 31) Matthew 13:44-53 (Pg 980) Hymn 550- As a deer pants for the water Prayer of Illumination God of truth, by the light and transforming power of your Holy Spirit, open our ears to hear, our minds to understand and our hearts to embrace your Word for us today through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Sermon What is your favourite toy? Book? Pet? We all have things we treasure. They might not be the newest or most expensive – sometimes they can be old and worthless, but they mean a lot to us. I have moved around and lost a lot of things over the years, but I have this little box and inside there are some treasures: Piece of mosaic from Palestine (Elgin Marbles) Badge from 1936 Olympics in Berlin – father was army chaplain, stationed in Berlin in aftermath of war. Scarab beetle – worthless. Don’t know why I have it. Pink Tourmalin – Amon was a young church member in Zambia and a jeweller, and he demonstrated to me how he polished gemstones. Piece of stone, but by polishing the facets it became a thing of beauty. None are worth anything, but each has its memories or associations. In our Gospel reading today Jesus tells some parables to the disciples. In fact, they were very short stories about what the Kingdom of God was like. Jesus likened the kingdom to someone finding treasure in a field and being so excited that they sold everything they had in order to buy the field and possess the treasure. Now, if someone with a metal detector found treasure and kept quiet and hid it, so he could buy the field, we would see it as dodgy in the very least. But what Jesus wants to capture is the joy of finding something wonderful and being ready to give everything to possess it. I think of Howard Carter, the archaeologist in Egypt working away, always hoping for a find and then stumbling across the tomb of Tutankhamun with its wonderful treasure – imagine the joy. Most archaeologists are not like Indiana Jones and work away doing the boring stuff but dreaming of a find. Jesus is saying that the Kingdom of heaven is such a find. Jesus also talks about a merchant who deals in pearls, but one day he comes across a pearl of astounding beauty, and suddenly none of the other pearls in his collection could ever satisfy him again. Pearls form in oysters or, here in Scotland, in mussels and are very much to be prized. Sometimes the mussel beds are kept secret in case people try to steal them. Maybe he was a connoisseur who wanted the best, but in comparison with this pearl, all the others were like imitations. Some football clubs in Saudi Arabia think that paying two and a half million pounds nothing for a football striker, a crazy sum, but they want the best. This merchant wanted the best, and Jesus likens the Kingdom of God to that, something worthy of sacrifice. The disciples certainly agreed, for they gave up their fishing businesses to follow Jesus; Matthew gave up his secure job in taxes to take the risk because Jesus offered something more, something life-enhancing. David could have stayed a shepherd, but he would have missed out being king. Isaiah could have been a functionary at court but miss out on his mystical vision in the temple. Zacchaeus could have stayed up the tree and failed to entertain Jesus in his house and miss out on having his life transformed. But all aimed for the pearl of great price. Do we aim for what satisfies our soul, do we aspire to the best? We see glimpses of the kingdom around us. For what are the things we treasure? In Rhodes and the other Greek islands we have seen terrible scenes of wild fires. The news has concentrated on tourists, who are understandably concerned, but how much more for the local Greeks who see their whole livelihood go up in smoke, as the fires destroy homes and possessions, dreams and businesses, landscape that they know so well. They have learned what to treasure. Today we will witness the baptism of Bella Rose as she is brought into the family of the church, and Rob and Christina will make vows to bring her up in a stable family environment where Christian values flourish. That is so important. There was an article this week about David Tennant, the actor, who has a new programme coming out, and in the article he reflects on growing up in a manse as the son of a minister. ‘I’m very thankful for having a truly Christian upbringing’, he says. ‘The Christianity I was taught was about acceptance and tolerance, kindness and compassion, love and community – all these things you can find in the Bible and I found in the example set by my parents’. Family nurture is so important. In Genesis we read more of the story of Jacob. He had tricked his brother out of his inheritance, so his mother quickly sent him away to his uncle Laban to escape the wrath of Esau, but you reap what you sow, and Jacob found his match for trickery in his uncle who dupes Jacob into marrying Leah instead of Rachel, so he has to work another 7 years to marry Rachel. It is all complicated, but is a story of sibling rivalry, deceit, jealousy, heartache, yet God works through this dysfunctional family to bring blessings to the nations. God is active in all the messes of our lives, seeking to bring grace. God encourages us to open our eyes to see the kingdom around us – in a child befriending someone from a different background or someone getting over addiction or fighting prejudice, someone standing alongside the marginalised or being resilient in the face of illness and fear. The Kingdom is all around us; these parables give us the chance to make that kingdom life a reality. Prayers of Dedication and Intercession God of all true treasure, we offer our gifts with thankful hearts, knowing you keep providing what makes life truly rich. Bless these gifts so that your goodness is multiplied to touch the lives of those in need, for Christ’s sake. Amen. Loving God, whose Son Jesus talked about a farmer who sowed seed. Today we seem to be in the midst of climate chaos so we pray for all who sow seeds. We pray for those who are finding it hard to know what the weather will bring and who need to grow crops to survive. We pray for those farmers who are suffering from drought while other are seeing their fields flooded by heavy rain. We pray for everywhere suffering from the climate chaos. We pray for the countries struggling to deal with fires We pray for all our leaders that they will work together to reduce the damage humankind in doing to your world. Almighty God we pay for Christian Aid and all other similar charities who are working hard to help those who plant but nothing grows Loving God, Jesus talked about a man who found a treasure buried in a field. We pray for the situation in Ukraine where cluster bombs are leaving unexploded bomblets in fields which can kill or maim. We pray for Sudan and Yemen and all other countries where war brings misery and pray for the leaders of the world will be able to find a way to end wars and stop the killing. We pray for the situation in Israel that peace, justice and democracy may prevail. Loving God, we pray for our leaders in Parliament and in local councils. We pray that they will be guided by you. Many people are struggling with rising prices and they have nothing left in their larder. We pray that you will guide all our political leaders so inflation will be brought under control, so people will have enough to buy food and pay for somewhere to live. We pray that food banks will have enough food to provide for those who are in need. Loving God we thank you for sending Jesus to be our Lord and saviour and we bring these prayers in His name. Amen Hymn 632 –Our children, Lord, in faith and prayer (Yetholm) Hymn 691 – Be still my soul (Morebattle) Sacrament of Baptism Hymn 448 – Lord the light of your love is shining Benediction
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