Introduction
Welcome in the name of the Lord — the One who speaks over us in Isaiah 44: “I’m first, I’m last, and everything in between. I’m the only God there is.” As we gather today, we come before the God who stands unmatched in power, love, and faithfulness. Isaiah reminds us that there is no other Rock, no other source of hope or strength that can compare. In a world full of noise, options, and distractions, God calls His people to remember who He is — the One who formed us, redeemed us, and holds all things together. And into our uncertainties, He speaks these words: “Don’t be afraid and don’t worry… you are my eyewitnesses.” So, as we begin our worship, we come with confidence — not in ourselves, but in the God who has already declared His faithfulness from ancient days and continues to guide us now. May this time be one where we remember who God is, rest in His unshakable presence, and respond with praise to the One who is first, last, and Lord of all.
Gathering Words
Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place–and I did not know it!” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
Hymn Jesu Tawa Pano
Patrick Matsikenhyiri (1937-2021) OneLicence recorded by the United Church in Walpole and used with their kind permission.
Jesu tawa pano Jesus, we are here;
Jesu tawa pano Jesus, we are here;
Jesu tawa pano Jesus, we are here;
tawa pano mu zita renyu we are here for you.
Prayers of Praise, Confession, and Assurance
“O LORD, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue, O LORD, you know it completely.
You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is so high that I cannot attain it.
Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and night wraps itself around me,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my thoughts.
See if there is any wicked way in me
and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Thank you, Lord, that you know each one of us,
that you have called us to this house of God today.
Thank you that you are such a parent
who is genuinely interested in our ways,
our lying down, our thoughts and our words.
Thank you that you hem us in on all sides
even though we often don’t even realise it, Lord;
also, in doing that that we sill have freedom to choose our own paths, even though they may diverge from yours.
How scary to us are the words that you know our thoughts, our hearts and that at times there is wickedness in each of us
and yet you still love us and have called us here this day.
Even though you know all this,
we come before you to confess that we have sinned in our thoughts,
in our hearts and in our words –
that at times darkness has overcome us
and we have preferred that to the light.
So, we beg you today,
forgive us these attitudes of heart and mind
and actions or inactions of body;
take our hands and lead us into the light, into the way everlasting.
(pause)
But God has shown us how much he loves us—
it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us!
Thanks be to you Holy One
for this great hope and assurance we have in you.
So, we praise You, God of light and hope,
for Your presence that never leaves us,
and for Your love that sees each one of us and holds us gently.
We pray this in the name of the Most High and Holy one, Amen.
Prayer for Illumination
God who sees and knows us,
open our ears, hearts, minds and souls as the scriptures are read
that we may hear not just with our ears,
but with our whole being. Amen.
Reading Isaiah 44:6-8
“God, King of Israel, your Redeemer, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says: “I’m first, I’m last, and everything in between. I’m the only God there is. Who compares with me? Speak up. See if you measure up. From the beginning, who else has always announced what’s coming? So, what is coming next? Anybody want to venture a try? Don’t be afraid, and don’t worry: Haven’t I always kept you informed, told you what was going on? You’re my eyewitnesses: Have you ever come across a God, a real God, other than me? There’s no Rock like me that I know of.”
Reading Romans 8:12-25
So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh-for if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if we in fact suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God, for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its enslavement to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labour, and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what one already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Hymn Thou Art Before Me God, Thou Art Behind
Ian Pitt-Watson (1973 – 1989) © 1973 Ian Pitt-Watson Trust BBC Songs of Praise
Thou art before me, Lord,
Thou art behind.
And over me
Thou hast spread out Thine hand;
Such knowledge is
too wonderful for me,
too high to grasp,
too great to understand.
2 If I should take my flight
into the dawn,
If I should dwell on
ocean’s farthest shore,
Thy mighty hand
will rest upon me still,
and Thy right hand
will guard me evermore.
3 Search me, O God, search me and know my heart;
Try me, O God, my mind and spirit try;
Keep me from any path that gives Thee pain,
and lead me in the everlasting way.
Reading St Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field, but while everybody was asleep an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and then went away. So, when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, ‘No, for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'” Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!
Sermon
Many of you may be familiar with the character of Annie. Annie was a comic strip and later became a hit musical and spawned a couple of movies. Annie was an orphan in the 1930s. She was unappreciated and mistreated in the orphanage. But her life is turned around when she is adopted by a millionaire called “Daddy Warbucks.” Overnight she goes from being an impoverished orphan to being the adopted daughter of the richest man in the world. She goes from not having enough to eat to having tea with the likes of Eleanor Roosevelt. She goes from having to work in the orphanage to having servants at her beck and call.
At first glance that seems to be what Paul is talking about happening to us on a spiritual level. We were once orphans in this world. Because of sin we were separated from the one who gave us life. Our only prospects were death and eternal punishment. We were destined to reside in sin. But we have been adopted by God. God sent His Son to pay our debt and free us from sin. And through the Spirit we have been adopted as children of God. Overnight we have gone from being poor orphans to being the adopted children of the creator of the world!
Just in case anyone doubts that adoption God gave His Spirit as proof that we are his children. The spirit prompts our spirit to call God “Abba,” Father. This is important. “Abba” is not just any Aramaic word for a patriarch. It literally means “Daddy.” Funnily enough, this was brought home to me rather strongly while watching the TV show NCIS. One of the main characters is Ziva and she is from Israel, and there are a few scenes where she is speaking to her father, and each time calls him “Abba” – just a simple conversation between a father and his daughter.
Romans says, “We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.” When you hear the word “heir” you automatically think of money. An heir receives the amassed wealth of the one leaving the fortune. Under Roman law it was a privilege for a male to be adopted into a more prestigious family. Indeed, many roman rulers were themselves adopted. Julius Caesar passed on his rule to an adopted son, Caesar Augustus. He in turn adopted Tiberius, who was succeeded by two rulers, one of who was an adopted grandson called Caligula. Under Roman law, if you were adopted into a powerful family your life would change dramatically. All former debts were cancelled and the family name conferred on you, along with a share of the inheritance equal to that of a natural-born son. But in this case, we are talking about much more than money. We are heirs to the Kin(g)dom of God! We are talking not about gold and silver and stocks and bonds. We are talking about grace and peace and hope and love. We are talking about power to do good and transform and change people and the world.
If we are heirs to such a fortune, why are so many of us living in spiritual poverty? Why aren’t we living like heirs to a fortune? Why aren’t we just swimming in hope and peace and joy and love? Why aren’t we transforming the world and people’s lives? I think part of our answer lies in our parable of the weeds – we live in a world where good and evil co-exist and unfortunately, we sometimes allow that evil (those weeds) to strangle the good (seed). Sometimes, we pull up the weeds too early and in so doing, destroy the good seed; we do not have the patience of God and so, we lose out on the fortune waiting for us.
But being heirs to the riches of Heaven is not always easy. In the context of our being heirs Romans says, “If, in fact, we suffer with Christ so that we may be glorified with him.” Like Annie we are heirs, but this is real life not a cartoon. There are hardships involved in being an heir to God. We are heirs to a kingdom that is at war with the power that rules this world. We are royal heirs of selfless love in a world that serves selfishness. Jesus is the prime example of this. “He was a baby born in obscurity, a child made a refugee, a man pursued and eventually nailed to a gallows on a trumped us charge“ (Nick Baines “Who am I?”). Jesus did nothing but serve his Father and love his neighbour.
Paul is also an example of this truth. He was a co-heir with Christ. And like Christ he suffered. He was hunted and imprisoned and beaten and even stoned. Eventually he was beheaded for being a child of God! And we will suffer in this world. Some today still lose their lives for being children of God. Some lose their jobs or accounts or friends. But Paul, who should know, said that all this is nothing compared to the glory to be revealed in us. This is nothing to compare to the glories of the Kingdom of our Dad.
That brings us to the next consequence of being children of God. As children of God, we live in expectation. Romans says, “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God.” And we wait with it. The world we live in is a world without hope. It is a world in which injustice and evil rules. But our Dad is going to fix that. Our Dad is bigger than the Devil. The Devil is just a big bully terrorizing this world. But God promised to put the Devil in his place. And all creation is groaning awaiting the fulfilment of that promise.
Romans likens it to a woman giving birth. She experiences pain during childbirth. That pain is often something that cannot be put into words, but as soon as you hold that child in your arms, the pain fades and disappears from memory. In the same way we await the coming of our inheritance knowing that the pains of this life will pale in comparison to the glories of God. We are children of God. We are heirs to the glories of heaven and a co-heir with Christ. When our heart cries out “Abba Father” that is the Holy Spirit moving our spirit to turn to our heavenly Dad. Our challenge is to take hold of that inheritance and live those lives of lavish abundance – abundance of joy and hope and peace and love even in a world where good and evil live side-by-side but that are far out measured by the glories of our Dad’s kin(g)dom.
Hymn O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go
George Matheson (1842-1906) Public Domain. Sung by Songs from the Schemes
O Love, that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in Thee;
I give Thee back the life I owe,
that in Thine ocean depths its flow
may richer, fuller be.
2 O Light, that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to Thee;
my heart restores
its borrowed ray,
that in Thy sunshine’s
blaze its day
may brighter, fairer be.
3 O Joy, that seekest me
through pain,
I cannot close my heart to Thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
and feel the promise is not vain
that morn shall tearless be.
4 O Cross, that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from Thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
and from the ground
there blossoms red
life that shall endless be.
5 O Love, that wilt not let me go, I rest my weary soul in Thee;
I give Thee back the life I owe, that in Thine ocean
depths its flow may richer, fuller be.
Prayers of Intercession
Lord, we have just heard from the scriptures that evil and good co-exist – they did whilst you walked the earth, and they are ever evident as we walk the earth today. So, as we now turn to think about those around us, as we still have the words of the psalm ringing in our ears that you know us and we cannot hide from you, we lift up to you to world and communities in which we live.
There is so much happening around us in the world – war and violence are ever present. So, we beg that you will be with those who are caught up in such situations; those who don’t have the means to leave and those who have been forced to leave, those who have chosen to stay and those who have been forced to fight. May they know your hand of protection on them…
For those working towards peace – give them grace and discernment; may they know when to speak and not speak, when to act or not act. Grant them wisdom and guide them that the good of the people they steward may be at the forefront of their minds in all they do.
As we move closer to home, we lift up to you our own local town/cities. Lord, you regularly interacted with people as you went about your daily activities, bring them healing and wholeness. As we go about our daily lives of working, shopping, schooling and being, may we bring about healing and wholeness to whose we encounter, whether it be by a simple word, action or gesture, knowing that all we do is a witness and testimony to the fact that we are all created in your image and are all your children.
We lift up to you too Lord, those in our own church communities. Be with those who are not well in body, mind, soul or spirit – may they know your presence, and may we be that presence too Lord. Again, with the words of the Psalm ringing in our ears, “even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.” May your light shine in our lives and may we be a light to everyone around us. We pray these things in your holy name as we say the Lord’s prayer together, Our Father….
Offertory
Our offerings are seeds of hope. Through them, God’s love is shared in word and deed. As we give, we join in His work of healing, welcoming, and renewing the world.
You have searched us Lord and you know us, and so we thank you for all that you have given to us, and the reassurance that you with us always; as an acknowledgement of all you have done us for, we give back to you a portion of what is already yours and ask that you be with all those who administer it for the greater good of your Kingdom. Amen.
Hymn God of Grace and God of Glory
Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969) © Stephen F Downs legal representative of Dr Elinor Downs
OneLicence No. # A-734713 Sung by the choir of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City
God of grace and God of glory,
on thy people pour thy power;
crown Thine ancient Church’s story;
bring its bud to glorious flower.
Grant us wisdom,
grant us courage,
for the facing of this hour.
2 Lo, the hosts of evil round us
scorn thy Christ, assail his ways!
From the fears that
long have bound us
free our hearts to faith and praise.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
for the living of these days.
3 Cure thy children’s
warring madness,
bend our pride to thy control;
shame our wanton selfish gladness,
rich in things and poor in soul.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
lest we miss thy kingdom’s goal.
4 Save us from weak resignation to the evils we deplore.
Let the gift of thy salvation be our glory evermore.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
serving thee whom we adore.
Blessing
As we go our separate ways, may we seek to be good seed, to send out strong roots and walk humbly with you Lord, while thriving in our various communities and leaving the judgement up to God. We go in peace to love and serve the Lord. Amen.