From east and west, from north and south

Good to be back after a four month sabbatical!

Welcome and Call to Worship

Hymn: Immortal, invisible, God only wise

Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer

Genesis 12:1-9

The call of Abraham, the promise of blessing –

in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed

Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’

 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lordappeared to Abram, and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’ So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on by stages towards the Negeb.

Psalm 118

Verse and  Response

O give thanks to the Lord for he is good

his steadfast love endures for ever

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
   his steadfast love endures for ever! 

Let Israel say,
   ‘His steadfast love endures for ever.’
Let the house of Aaron say,
   ‘His steadfast love endures for ever.’
Let those who fear the Lord say,
   ‘His steadfast love endures for ever.’ 

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
   his steadfast love endures for ever! 

Out of my distress I called on the Lord;
   the Lord answered me and set me free;.
With the Lord on my side I do not fear.
   What can anyone do to me?

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
   his steadfast love endures for ever! 

Open to me the gates of righteousness,
   that I may enter through them
   and give thanks to the Lord. 

This is the gate of the Lord;
   the righteous shall enter through it.
I thank you that you have answered me
   and have become my salvation.

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
   his steadfast love endures for ever! 

The stone that the builders rejected
   has become the chief cornerstone.
This is the Lord’s doing;
   it is marvellous in our eyes.
This is the day that the Lord has made;
   let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Save us, we beseech you, O Lord!
   O Lord, we beseech you, give us

that wholeness and peace you alone can give!

 O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
   his steadfast love endures for ever! 

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
   We bless you from the house of the Lord.
The Lord is God,
   and he has given us light.

You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
   you are my God, I will extol you. 

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
   his steadfast love endures for ever! 

Thank you, Lord Jesus,

That you are with us at all times,

That you hear our prayer no matter what we may face

That you set us free from darkness

And draw us into your glorious light.

Grant us, we pray, that peace the world cannot give

That we may live in the light of your love

From this day forward

And forevermore.

Amen.

A great big thank you to everyone at church from Felicity and me for making our sabbatical possible.  I’d been reluctant to have a Sabbatical but I am persuaded.  I feel as if I have cleared the cobwebs and done really important things with family and the project I have been doing.  And the church has had to do things differently and in new ways which we all hope we can now build on … and not just go back to what we did before!

I’ve spent the last four months immersed in the world of the Bible.  And it’s the world we live in.

I passionately believe that it’s through the words of the Bible that God speaks his word to us and shapes the way we lead our lives.  Sometimes we just need a word of comfort, sometimes we need a word of challenge.

What we don’t need is an expert to tell us what to think.  Maybe we all of us need to be prepared to listen to each other, to explore things together and take seek through all the words we read and the words we share that Word of God we need to hear.

It is not what I say that counts

But what each of us hears in God’s Word and then what each of us does in response – that’s what matters.

What we are going to do in a moment is what happened each Sunday in the late afternoon service at the church of the pilgrims in Leiden from 1608 through to 1620 when the pilgrims set sail on a journey that was later to take them on the Mayflower to New England.

Before we share in doing what they did we are going to sing the hymn that is based on the parting words of Pastor John Robinson to those pilgrims at the last service they shared in Leiden.

He invited them always to have an expectation that through the words of the Bible they would hear God’s word for them … and that they should always be prepared for some new light to shine from the Scriptures.  It is that hymn that almost more than any other captures that sense of expectation that God will speak from his word to each of us in our hearts as we read and as we share.

For some reason Congregational Praise omits the second verse of the hymn which is wonderful as it invites us to journey adventurously into the future whatever that future may hold for us.

There is a mistake in punctuation in verse 3 – the apostrophe is omitted.  Put the apostrophe back into ‘valley’s’   We’ve come through the valley – we are soaring to the mountain top and beyond

For the Lord hath yet more light and trutgh to break forth from His word.

We limit not the truth of God
  To our poor reach of mind,
By notions of our day and sect,
  Crude, partial and confined.
Now let a new and better hope
  Within our hearts be stirred:
The Lord hath yet more light and truth
  To break forth from His Word.

2

Who dares to bind by his dull sense
  The oracles of heaven,
For all the nations, tongues and climes
  And all the ages given!
The universe how much unknown!
  That ocean unexplored!
The Lord hath yet more light and truth
  To break forth from His Word.

3

Darkling our great forefathers went
  The first steps of the way;
’Twas but the dawning yet to grow
  Into the perfect day;
And grow it shall, our glorious Sun
  More fervid rays afford:
The Lord hath yet more light and truth
  To break forth from His Word.

4

The valley’s past, ascending still,
  Our souls would higher climb,
And look down from supernal heights,
  On all the bygone times;
Upward we press, the air is clear,
  And the sphere-music heard!
The Lord hath yet more light and truth
  To break forth from His Word.

5

O Father, Son and Spirit, send
  Us increase from above;
Enlarge, expand all Christian hearts
  To comprehend Thy love;
And make us all go on to know
  With nobler powers conferred:
The Lord hath yet more light and truth
  To break forth from His Word.

So … over to you – think of this last week – it may be at work, it may be stuff in your own lives, it may be the stuff that’s going on in the news at the moment.

We have arrived at Luke 13 – I invite you to turn to that chapter in the church Bibles.  In a moment we are going to focus on Luke 13:18-30.  In this passage is God saying something to you?  Is there something that’s going on in your life at the moment that this passage speaks to?  Is three something going on in the world around us, on the news that this passage is speaking to?

If this is the moment when you go all cold and cannot think of anything at all, let alone anything to say … then that’s the point you will be just like me.

That’s the great thing about sharing and coming together in church – it may be that something that’s struck someone else is just what we need to hear.

If you want to, just have the conversation with someone near you – and share anything that’s come to mind.

But first, let’s just pray.

Gracious loving God open our minds to the Word you have for us in the words of Scripture this day and open our hearts that we may act on what we hear.

Luke 13:18-30

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

18 He said therefore, ‘What is the kingdom of God like? And to what should I compare it? ¹⁹It is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.’

The Parable of the Yeast

20 And again he said, ‘To what should I compare the kingdom of God?²¹It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’

The Narrow Door

22 Jesus went through one town and village after another, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. ²³Someone asked him, ‘Lord, will only a few be saved?’ He said to them, ²⁴‘Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. ²⁵When once the owner of the house has got up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, “Lord, open to us”, then in reply he will say to you, “I do not know where you come from.” ²⁶Then you will begin to say, “We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.” ²⁷But he will say, “I do not know where you come from; go away from me, all you evildoers!” ²⁸There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrown out. ²⁹Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God. ³⁰Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.’

A time to share

And now let me share what struck me as I read this passage.

First, I found in it great encouragement.

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

18 He said therefore, ‘What is the kingdom of God like? And to what should I compare it? ¹⁹It is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.’

The importance of small things.

Our God is a great big God, but he also the God of small things.

I did have an exciting time on my project The World of the New Testament on our doorstep – reading the New Testament in Roman Britain.  I had been trying to meet up with Philip Esler from the University to discuss my project but our diaries hadn’t worked out.  I managed to meet him on 30^th April just before my sabbatical was due to start on 1^st May.

He was very encouraging and ended up inviting me to read a paper to an international conference he was hosting at the end of June – it was great to have a deadline to work to.  And a wonderful experience.

I had been going to write something very general.  But he suggested that I should find something in small detail to look at … I did … and you can find out more at Explore in Tuesday evening or after our lunch on Wednesday.

What he said was very significant. 

God is in the detail.

There is so much to be done … it’s daunting.  In church.  In our own lives.  IN response to the news we hear.

But the small thing we do matters.

Sometimes we are disheartened that what we do is insignificant.

More than that we feel church is insignificant.

It has been great to share in worship at … churches over the last four months.  But the other thing that’s been very apparent is that we have also been out and about on Sundays seeing just how few there are at church and how many who have no time for anything of what we stand for.

This is encouragement indeed.

We must stick to it.

The Parable of the Yeast

20 And again he said, ‘To what should I compare the kingdom of God?²¹It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’

Then comes a very thought-provoking and mind-stretching passage.

One of those hard sayings of Jesus.

Actually the way Christ opens up for us is a narrow way.  And it’s a narrow door.

What comes across to me in these words is the  surprise in store for us.  There’s a wideness in God’s mercy that will surprise us.

God forbid we should ever think ourselves holier than everyone else.

There are choices to make.  Are we for Christ and his way or not?  Choices we need to make that make a world of difference.

My eye fell on that verse 29.

Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of ~God.  Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.

One Sunday on our holiday in Fairboune we did something we had not done before.  In the morning we worshipped in a Welsh church in Dolgellau and learned how much we must value the warmth of welcome we seek to give at Highbury.  In the afternoon Felicity read on the beach at Barmouth while I took my body board into the sea for a dip!  With surf almost coming up to my knees I did almost as well as the 10 year olds further down the beach who were the only other ones with my kind of body board.

In the evening we joined the local parish church in Fairbourne who were hosting a male voice choir.  But we squeezed in Songs of Praise from Calais.  It caused quite a stir.  Strange really, because a fortnight before, an even more controversial Songs of Praise was aired that didn’t cause a ripple.

In fact few would have spotted its significance.

A hymn was sung that was inspired by this verse from Luke 13.

We are going to sing it in a moment or two.  It’s another hymn that comes out of our Congregational churches.  In 1908 the London Missionary Society held a pageant in the Agricultural hall, London.  John Dunkerley had grown up in Chorlton Road Congregational Church, Manchester, and had become a deacon at Ealing Congregational Church where he led a Bible class.

The hymn he contributed on that occasion was a riposte to another ballad popular in that Edwardian period that had been penned by Rudyard Kipling in the context of Britain’s wars in Afghanistan

East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet.

John Dunkerley wrote under the pen name, John Oxenham.  He had caught something of the drift of another couple of lines in Kipling’s ballad, and then filled that out with a very different view of the world.

It is this hymn that captures the all-embracing welcome of the kingdom of God and challenges us all at this time too.

In Christ there is no east or west,
in him no south or north,
but one great fellowship of love
throughout the whole wide earth.

2 In Christ shall true hearts everywhere
their high communion find;
his service is the golden cord
close-binding humankind.

3 Join hands, then, brothers of the faith,
whate'er your race may be.
All children of the living God
are surely kin to me.

4 In Christ now meet both east and west;
in him meet south and north.
All Christly souls are one in him
throughout the whole wide earth.

As we sing those words let’s think of that church in Calais, and reflect on the response we make in maybe the smallest of actions, or in making our voice heard in shaping the response of our country to this unprecedented refugee crisis.

Hymn 346 In Christ there is no east or west

Prayers of Concern

Offering and Dedication

253 City of God, how broad and far

Words of Blessing