Welcome to worship today. Let us pause for a moment and open our hearts to listen to the world that God has made. Scripture tells us that creation is not silent, but groans with longing and waits for hope. In our readings today, we meet Laban, who often approached relationships in a transactional way, and we meet Solomon, who asked God for a listening heart. Through Paul, we hear that the Spirit helps us in our weakness and intercedes for us when we do not know how to pray. Through Jesus, we learn that even a small act of love, like a mustard seed, can become a sign of God’s healing and peace. As we begin worship, we ask a simple question. How can we walk gently on this earth and live as God’s children who listen, who care, and who bring hope? May this time of worship open our hearts to the voice of creation and to the love of God who restores all things.
Call to Worship
Beloved in Christ, we gather today mindful of God’s creation, where every breath of wind and every living being reminds us of God’s compassion and presence. We come remembering that we are part of God’s creation and children of God. Let us set aside the burdens we carry. Open our hearts to the One who teaches us to listen to the quiet cry of the earth, to the longing of all creatures, and to the voice of the Spirit calling us into new life. We praise the God who helps us our faith to develop into hope. God of mercy and peace, you invite us to worship. With all creation, we lift our hearts to you. Amen.
Hymn Touch the Earth Lightly
Shirley E Murray (1931-2020) © 1992 Hope Publishing Company. One Licence No. # A-734713 Frodsham Methodist Church Cloud Choir. Accompanied by Andrew Ellams and produced by Andrew Emison and used with their kind permission.
use the earth gently,
nourish the life of
the world in our care:
gift of great wonder,
ours to surrender,
trust for the children
tomorrow will bear.
2 We who endanger,
who create hunger,
agents of death for
all creatures that live,
we who would foster
clouds of disaster –
God of our planet,
forestall and forgive!
3 Let there be greening,
birth from the burning,
water that blesses
and air that is sweet,
health in God’s garden,
hope in God’s children,
regeneration
that peace will complete.
4 God of all living,
God of all loving,
God of the seedling,
the snow and the sun,
teach us, deflect us,
Christ reconnect us,
using us gently,
and making us one.
Prayers of Approach, Confession and Grace
Creator God, you breathe life into all that exists.
The sky, the soil, the rivers, and every creature
bear witness to your goodness.
We come before you in gratitude,
seeking your presence and your peace.
Yet we confess that we have not always lived
In harmony with your creation.
We have hurried past the voices of creation.
We have chosen convenience over compassion
and have forgotten the deep connection
we share with all that you have made.
Forgive us, gracious Lord.
Heal the places where we have caused harm.
Restore in us a listening heart,
a heart that notices beauty, responds to suffering,
and seeks the flourishing of every living being.
Pour out your renewing Spirit upon us,
that we may walk gently on the earth, love generously,
and join your work of healing and hope.
In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
Declaration of Forgiveness
Beloved in Christ, hear the good news.
The One who created the heavens and the earth
is the same One who renews our hearts.
God’s mercy is wider than the oceans
and gentler than the morning light.
In Christ, we are forgiven. In Christ, we are made whole.
In Christ, we are invited again
to walk with creation in hope and harmony.
Receive this grace, and live as people restored by God’s love.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Prayer for Illumination
Spirit of God, open our hearts as we listen to your Word.
Give us a listening heart, so that we may discern your wisdom
in Scripture, in creation, and in our daily lives.
Guide us by your light through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Reading Genesis 29:15-28
Then Laban said to Jacob, ‘Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?’ Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah’s eyes were lovely, and Rachel was graceful and beautiful. Jacob loved Rachel; so he said, ‘I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.’ Laban said, ‘It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me.’ So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her. Then Jacob said to Laban, ‘Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.’ So Laban gathered together all the people of the place, and made a feast. But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob; and he went in to her. (Laban gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her maid.) When morning came, it was Leah! And Jacob said to Laban, ‘What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?’ Laban said, ‘This is not done in our country—giving the younger before the firstborn. Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me for another seven years.’ Jacob did so, and completed her week; then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as a wife.
Reading 1 Kings 3:5-12
At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, ‘Ask what I should give you.’ And Solomon said, ‘You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart towards you; and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne today. And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?’ It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. God said to him, ‘Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you.
Hymn Speak O Lord, As We Come To You
Keith Getty (born 1974) and Stuart Townend (born 1963) © 2005 Thankyou Music OneLicence # A-734713 Frodsham Methodist Church Cloud Choir. Accompanied by Andrew Ellams and produced by Andrew Emison and used with their kind permission.
Speak O Lord, as we come to you
to receive the food of your holy word.
Take your truth, plant it deep in us;
shape and fashion us in your likeness,
that the light of Christ might be seen today
in our acts of love and our deeds of faith.
Speak, O Lord, and fulfil in us all your purposes, for your glory.
2 Teach us, Lord,
full obedience,
holy reverence,
true humility.
Test our thoughts
and our attitudes
in the radiance of
your purity.
Cause our faith to rise,
cause our eyes to see
your majestic love
and authority.
Words of power
that can never fail;
let their truth prevail
over unbelief.
3 Speak, O Lord,
and renew our minds;
help us grasp the heights
of your plans for us.
Truths unchanged
from the dawn of time
that will echo down
through eternity.
And by grace we’ll stand
on your promises,
and by faith we’ll walk
as you walk with us.
Speak, O Lord,
till your Church is built
as the earth is filled
with your glory.
Reading Romans 8:26-39
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Reading St Matthew 13:31-33
Jesus put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’ He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’
Hymn Seek Ye First
Karen Lafferty (born 1948) © 1972 CCCM Music/Maranatha! Music/Adm. by Song Solutions CopyCare, OneLicence No. # A-734713 Performed by Emmaus Music and used with their kind permission.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God,
and His righteousness,
and all these things
shall be added unto you.
Allelu, alleluia.
Alleluia. Alleluia.
Alleluia. Allelu-alleuia.
2 Ask and it shall be given unto you,
seek and ye shall find;
knock and it shall be
opened up to you.
Allelu, alleluia.
3 We do not live by bread alone,
but by every word
that comes forth
from the mouth of God.
Allelu, alleluia.
Sermon
1. Hearing Creation’s Cry
In 2018, I attended a gathering of churches in Tanzania. It was a meeting of Christians from many countries; each sharing stories of how their communities were experiencing the changing world. During one discussion, a young woman from Tanzania stood up to speak. Her voice was calm, but her words carried the weight of her people’s daily life. She said that the water in her village had become so polluted that no one could drink it safely. Every morning, she walked a long distance to a faraway source. But even there the water was not clean. “It still makes us sick,” she said quietly, “yet it is the only water we have.” There was no drama in her tone, only a quiet acceptance. Her testimony stayed with me, because it revealed something deeper about the world we live in. It showed how easily human suffering and the suffering of creation become normal in a society that no longer knows how to listen. Scripture gives us a name for such a world, and it introduces us to a man who embodied it.
2. When Listening Fades (Genesis 29:15–28)
Genesis 29 allows us to step into Laban’s household. Jacob arrives worn out and uncertain, hoping that family might offer rest. At first, Laban seems welcoming, but as the story moves on, we begin to sense another layer beneath his hospitality. He sets terms before Jacob asks for anything, and arrangements take shape before real relationships have time to grow.
What stands out most in the chapter is the silence of Leah and Rachel. They are at the centre of the unfolding story, yet we do not hear their voices. Their silence raises a pertinent question for us. What happens when decisions are made about people’s lives without attending to their voices? The customs of work and marriage in that time were complex, and the text does not fault the customs themselves. But it does invite us to notice how easily those customs can lean toward control when the heart is driven by gain. What might have deepened kinship instead becomes something managed and arranged.
This narrowing of vision is something many of us recognise. A young man once told me, “Sometimes I feel like I only matter when I am useful.” His words echo the pattern in Laban’s story. A world focused on productivity often misses the softer voices around us. We miss the heart of the people before us, and the quieter aches of creation. Yet the story also turns our attention toward another way of seeing, one that grows not from calculation but from a heart willing to attend. And this prepares us to meet someone who longs for a heart that can truly listen.
3. Solomon’s Wisdom: Learning to Listen (1 Kings 3:5–12)
1 Kings 3 places Solomon at the beginning of his reign in a moment of real vulnerability. He has received the throne, yet he does not feel steady in this role. He describes himself as a little child. He is not speaking about age but about his sense of capacity. He knows that he does not yet understand how to lead the people entrusted to him. Into this uncertainty, God appears to Solomon in a dream and invites him to ask for whatever he desires. The invitation is wide, but Solomon begins by naming his limitations. He speaks of the size and complexity of the people he must guide. He recognises that he cannot lead well unless he first learns how to listen well. So Solomon asks God for a listening heart. The Hebrew phrase, lev shomea, speaks of a heart that can hear in a way that leads to wise discernment. It is the ability to attend not only to spoken words but also to what remains unspoken. It is a heart that can receive the truth that may be hidden within a difficult story.
When we place this scene beside Genesis 29, the contrast becomes clear. Laban makes decisions without attending to the people affected by them. Solomon seeks a way of seeing that allows him to recognise beneath the voices and silences around him. Laban’s household contains voices that are not heard. Solomon’s prayer opens a space where such voices can finally be acknowledged. A listening heart is not passive. It grows through humility. It strengthens itself through attentiveness. It shows us that listening can become a form of justice and a form of care. And this way of listening prepares us for the hope described in Romans 8.
4. When the Spirit Groans with Us (Romans 8:26–39)
Romans 8 begins with an honest confession: we do not know how to pray as we should. We are not as strong or centred as we wish to appear. Yet Paul tells us that our weakness does not silence God. The Spirit prays within us and echoes the very groan we heard in the voice of the young woman on her long walk for water. Our inability becomes the place where God begins. Here, Paul is inviting us to embrace a posture of humility that our time rarely embraces. The willingness to admit that we do not see everything clearly. The courage to wait for God’s timing rather than forcing our own.
We often try to explain God’s work with our limited understanding, but our vision is small. It is like touching only one part of an elephant and believing we have grasped the whole. We live with fragments. God sees the whole. And Paul invites us to trust the One who holds the threads we cannot follow. This is why Paul’s questions are not about the cause of suffering but the presence of God within it. If God is for us, who can stand against us? If Christ intercedes for us, who can condemn us? He is not ignoring hardship. He is helping us to see it inside the unshakeable care of God.
Paul names the realities that shake us: distress, hunger, danger, even death. Yet he sets each of them inside a larger truth: nothing in life or death, nothing in the present or the future, nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Romans 8 does not give us escape from weakness. It gives us a place where our weakness can rest, sheltered in God’s faithfulness. And from that place of humility and trust, Jesus speaks of a seed, a hope that begins small.
5. The Mustard Seed and the Pilgrimage We Walk (Matthew 13:31-33)
Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed. So small that it can slip between our fingers unnoticed. Yet when planted, it becomes a tree where birds find rest. This is how God guides us to act in a wounded world. We do not transform everything at once. We plant what we can. We trust that God is present in what is hidden.
A mustard seed can be a gesture of patience, a gentle conversation, a choice to forgive, or a commitment to use water and energy with love for the earth. A mustard seed can even be the decision to listen to someone’s pain without rushing to speak. And we do not plant alone. In recent years, the World Council of Churches has invited Christians everywhere into what they call a Pilgrimage of Justice, Reconciliation, and Unity. This pilgrimage is not about grand achievements. It is about walking together, step by step, listening for where God is already at work. It is about believing that hope grows through faithful presence, not sudden victories. At a gathering of global churches, someone once said, “Hope is shaped by the steps we take, not the speeches we make.” Those words stayed with me. Hope is a journey. Hope is a shared path. Hope is something we embody when we choose to walk with creation, rather than over it.
6. Conclusion: Walking with Listening Hearts
Beloved in Christ, creation is speaking. Its cry reaches us in the voice of a young woman carrying water, in the silence of Laban’s household, in Solomon’s prayer for a listening heart, and in the Spirit who groans within us. The question is whether we will listen. So let us walk gently in the days ahead. Let us attend to the voices that are easy to miss. Let us trust that when our strength feels small, God’s love remains steady. Nothing in all creation will separate you from the love of God in Christ. In that love, walk in peace. Amen.
Hymn Christ Be Our Light
Bernadette Farrell (born 1957) © 1994 Bernadette Farrell published by OCP Publications One License No. A-734713 Performed by Chris Brunelle and used with his kind permission.
Longing for light,
we wait in darkness.
Longing for truth,
we turn to you.
Make us your own,
your holy people,
light for the world to see.
Christ be our light!
Shine in our hearts.
Shine through the darkness.
Christ be our light!
Shine in your church
gathered today.
2 Longing for peace,
our world is troubled.
Longing for hope,
many despair.
Your word alone
has pow’r to save us.
Make us your living voice.
3 Longing for food,
many are hungry.
Longing for water,
many still thirst.
Make us your bread,
broken for others,
shared until all are fed.
Prayers of Intercession
Creator God, we hear the groaning of the earth.
Forgive us for the ways we have taken more than we needed.
Guide us back to our true calling to care for your creation with love.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We pray for the leaders of the nations.
Turn their hearts from Laban’s way
of shaping relationships around advantage.
Grant them Solomon’s wisdom to listen with care
and to choose what leads to life and dignity for all.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We pray for all who suffer,
for those affected by floods, fires, droughts, and every kind of loss.
Be a shelter to those who have been displaced
and open our eyes to see them as family.
Move our hearts to offer compassion and help.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We pray for our church.
Though we may feel small like a mustard seed,
bless our daily acts of care and compassion.
Help us to plant seeds of hope and peace
in the lives of our neighbours.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
God of life, receive these prayers.
Renew our spirits and renew the earth.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Offertory
God has given us gifts beyond measure:
the warmth of the sun, the gift of rain, the beauty of the earth,
and the grace that sustains our lives each day.
In gratitude for all we have received,
let us offer our gifts with thankful and willing hearts.
Generous God,
from your hands we have received everything we have.
Accept the gifts we bring today,
signs of our gratitude and our desire to serve you.
Like small seeds, may they grow in your grace
to bless our neighbours and to strengthen your church.
In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Hymn Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
Charles Wesley (1707-1788) Public Domain Sung by the Northern Baptist Association
Love divine, all loves excelling,
joy of heaven to earth come down,
fix in us thy humble dwelling,
all thy faithful mercies crown.
Jesu, thou art all compassion.
Pure, unbounded love thou art;
Visit us with thy salvation,
enter every trembling heart.
2 Breathe, O breathe
thy loving Spirit
into every troubled breast.
Let us all in thee inherit,
let us find that second rest;
take away our power of sinning,
Alpha and Omega be,
end of faith, as its beginning,
set our hearts at liberty
3 Come, almighty to deliver,
let us all thy grace receive;
suddenly return, and never,
never more thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
serve thee as thy hosts above,
pray, and praise thee,
without ceasing,
glory in thy perfect love.
4 Finish then thy new creation,
pure and spotless let us be;
let us see thy great salvation,
perfectly restored in thee:
changed from glory into glory,
till in heaven we take our place,
till we cast our crowns before thee,
lost in wonder, love, and praise!
Blessing
Go into the world with a listening heart.
May the seeds of love you plant grow in God’s grace.
Walk gently upon the earth as God’s beloved children.
And remember, nothing can separate us from God’s love.
And may the blessing of God Almighty,
the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Sustainer,
be with you and with all creation,
now and forever. Amen.