URC Daily Devotion Sunday Worship 25th September 🙏

Sunday Worship from the United Reformed Church
for Sunday 25th September

Welcome
 
Hello and welcome to worship in this service of the Word on Sunday 25th September 2022.

My name is Walt Johnson. I am an ordinand at Northern College in my last year of training to become a minister of Word and Sacrament in the URC. I am currently on placement in a group of churches in the Bolton and Salford Missional Partnership, in the North-Western Synod. 

The theme of today’s service is: turning the world upside down.

So I invite you, let us come together to worship God: Father, Son and Hols Spirit; our Creator, Saviour and life giver. Amen. 

 
Call to Worship
 
Praise the Lord! We will praise God as long as we live; 
we will sing to our God all our lives. 
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
 
We do not put our trust in human leaders. Happy are we who have the Lord to help us. 
Great is God’s love towards all people!
 
God is on the side of the oppressed and the hungry. God lifts those who have fallen. 
God’s faithfulness lasts forever!
 
We depend on the Lord, our God, the Creator of heaven and earth.
Praise the Lord, all nations! Praise God, all peoples!
 
Hymn: Praise and Thanksgiving Father We Offer
Albert F. Bayly (1970)© 1988, Oxford University Press sung by the singers and musicians of St Michael’s Church, Solihull.
 

Praise and thanksgiving, Father we offer,
for all things living you have made good;
Harvest of sown fields, fruits of the orchard
hay from the mown fields, blossom and wood.
 
 
Lord bless the labour we bring to serve you,
that with our neighbour we may be fed.
Sowing or tilling, we would work with you;
Harvesting, milling, for daily bread.
 
 
Father, providing food for your children,
your wisdom guiding teaches us share
one with another, so that rejoicing
sisters and brothers may know thy care.

 
Then will your blessing reach every people;
each one confessing your gracious hand.
When you are reigning no one will hunger;
your love sustaining; fruitful the land.
 

Prayer of Approach
 
All-powerful and loving God, we come before You this hour to spend time in Your presence. We give You thanks, for You are our refuge, the One in whom we can put our trust. We come to You as we are, with our sorrows and our joys, and the worries for others and for Your world which we carry in our hearts. For surely You are there with us: Your faithfulness covers us. We come to You, responding to Your steadfast love for us. You save us with a love that overcame death. As the Psalmist called on You, we come to You now: we seek Your blessing on our worship. In Jesus’ name we pray.
Amen. 
 
Prayer of Confession
 
We bring to God the times when we have failed to love others, failed to love God, and even failed to love ourselves. Listen for the Words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew: 

 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
 
We take a moment in silence for reflection.
 
O God, You have searched us out and known us,
and all that we are is open to You.
We confess that we have sinned:
we have used our power to dominate
and our weakness to manipulate;
We have evaded responsibility
and failed to confront evil;
We have denied dignity to ourselves and to each other
and have fallen into despair.
We turn to You O God;
we renounce evil; we claim Your love; we choose to be made whole.

 
Assurance of Pardon
 
Listen for the assurance of pardon, as found in Psalm 103:
“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love…as far as the east is from the west, so far God removes our transgressions from us.”   

Thanks be to God. 

Amen.
 

Hymn: Our God Stands
Martin Luther (1483 – 1546) translated by the Rev’d Stephen Orchard (b 1942) Sung by the Rev’d Paul Robinson
 

 
Prayer of Illumination
 
Loving God, Your word is a lamp to our feet, and a light to our path.
You are our hiding-place and our shield: we hope in Your word.
May our cry come before you: give us understanding according to Your word. May we listen, and may You speak to us.
Amen. 
 

Reading: St Luke 16:19-31
 
Jesus said, ‘There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.

And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. 

In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.”

But Abraham said, “Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.” 

He said, “Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.”

Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.”
He said, “No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.”
He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”’
 

Sermon
 
May I speak, and may we listen: in the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; our Creator, Saviour and Life-Giver. Amen.
 
Whenever I hear a reading which begins “Jesus said…”, I always wonder who was there, listening to His words. If we read back, the last clue as to where Jesus was at the time is found Luke 14:1, an occasion where Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee. Later, in Luke 14:25, we are told large crowds were travelling with Jesus. And in Luke 15:1, we learn that tax collectors, anonymous sinners, Pharisees and teachers of the Law were also present. Today, we are included in that large, diverse group of people listening to Jesus’ words.
 
Jesus had just told them the Parable of the Shrewd Manager, which had not gone down well with the Pharisees. Luke tells us that they were sneering at Jesus. He told a lot of parables about money and wealth. This one is unique: it is the only parable where a character is named: Lazarus, the poor man. In a reversal of roles, it is the rich man who goes unnamed.
 
This man is a different Lazarus to the one in John chapter 11, the one whom Jesus raised from the dead. The name comes from the Hebrew Eleazar, meaning “God has helped”. In different ways, when it came their time to die, God came to help both men called Lazarus.
 
When we read Luke’s Gospel, we encounter a recurring theme of turning the world upside-down. The King of Kings, Jesus, was born to a lowly peasant woman. Mary prophetically sang in her Magnificat: “He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” (Luke 1:53) In this parable, we see the outworking of those words.
 
In this story, Lazarus speaks no words. We may see this as a metaphor for how the downtrodden and oppressed in society – those like Lazarus – have been treated throughout the ages. 
 
Lazarus’ painful skin condition would have caused him to be excluded from mainstream society for fear of cross-infection, also making him unemployable. With no welfare state to assist him, Lazarus had to resort to begging. The Gospel writer comments that Lazarus received greater compassion from the dogs, than from his fellow humans.
 
Lazarus might not have spoken, but his presence did not go unnoticed by the nameless rich man, for he calls on Abraham to send Lazarus to his aid his suffering. In life, the rich man would never allow Lazarus near him; but in death, he is willing for Lazarus to touch his tongue, a very intimate act in itself.
 
This Parable also offers us an insight into a First Century Jewish understanding of what happens after death. Some Bible commentators point to the book 2 Esdras, found only in Catholic and Orthodox bibles. In some Church traditions, this Parable’s description of the afterlife has been taken very seriously. 
 
We can see an outworking of this Parable in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Like the rich-man, Marley’s ghost is forever in torment because of his shortcomings in life. In a way, the change which takes place in Scrooge is the change which the rich man in the Parable wants for his surviving five brothers.
 
Or we can read this Parable as an allegory which teaches us about the temporary nature of wealth. My late maternal grandmother had a saying: “Shrouds do not have pockets”. When she died, we discovered that the only money she had left was a few pounds in her purse. She had always been a generous woman; and she knew that she was dying. In the weeks before, unbeknown to her family, she had given everything else away.
 
There is an element of the eternal in this Parable regarding the decisions we make in life in how we treat others. It is only in death that the rich man reconsiders how he ought to have lived his life.
 
Speaking prophetically into this Parable about His own death and resurrection, Jesus’ concludes somewhat pessimistically that even someone rising from the dead will be insufficient to convince some people to change their ways.
 
The human trait of stubbornness remains with us: whether it is the sign which states “30mph”, or the warning-signs our bodies give us that we may be unwell, or the extreme weather events alerting us to climate catastrophe.
 
This Parable calls us as a church to be a sign for change. We live in God’s world where there is much that is broken, and there is much that is good. Our mission is a personal one, as we are called to change our hearts and to be an example to others. Our mission is also local and global, where we can be a voice for change in our communities and become involved in kinder ways of being human.
 
Elsewhere, in Matthew 9:12, Jesus says to us: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” May God grant us the humility to acknowledge that we, too, can be among the sick, and to recognise our shortcomings and frailty, and even the need for change.
 
This talk finishes with a secular song, entitled Fix You. It is from Coldplay’s 2005 album  The World Turned Upside Down. Its lyrics speak for themselves. Amen.
 
Song for Reflection Fix You, by Cold Play  
© 2005 from their album “The World Turned Upside Down”. Performed by Pastors Heiko and Katja von Kiedrowski and the musicians of the “Liveline” Lutheran online church of the Kirchenkreis Lübeck-Lauenberg.
 
When you try your best, but you don’t succeed
When you get what you want, but not what you need
When you feel so tired, but you can’t sleep
Stuck in reverse.
And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can’t replace
When you love someone, but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

Affirmation of Faith
 
Together, let us affirm our faith in God:
 
We believe in the one and only God, Eternal Trinity, through whom we and all created things exist. 
God alone we worship: in God we put our trust.
 
We worship God, Source and Sustainer of creation, whom Jesus called Father, whose children we are.
God alone we worship: in God we put our trust.
 
We worship God, revealed in Jesus Christ, the eternal Word of God made flesh: who lived our human life, died for sinners on the cross, and who was raised from the dead, and proclaimed by the apostles – Son of God. God alone we worship: in God we put our trust.
 
We worship God, ever present in the Holy Spirit: who brings the Gospel to fruition. assures us of forgiveness,  and strengthens us to do God’s will. God alone we worship: in God we put our trust.
 
We believe in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, united in heaven and on earth. 
We rejoice in God, who has given us life and shares our humanity.

To God be glory, praise and adoration, now and evermore.

Amen.
 
Hymn: O Lord, All The World Belongs To You
Patrick Appleford © 1965 Josef Weinberger Ltd sung by the St John the Evangelist, Shirley, Lockdown Choir and used with their kind permission.

O Lord, all the world belongs to you
and you are always making all things new.
What is wrong, you forgive, and the new life you give
is what’s turning the world upside down.
 

The world’s only loving to its friends,
but your way of loving never ends,
loving enemies too; and this loving with you
is what’s turning the world upside down.

The world lives divided and apart,
You draw us together, and we start
in our friendship to see that in harmony, we
can be turning the world upside down.
 

The world wants the wealth to live in state,
but you show a new way to be great:
like a servant you came, and if we do the same,
we’ll be turning the world upside down.

Prayers of Concern
 
We bring our concerns before God in prayer… O Lord, hear our prayer. 

And let our cry go unto You.
 
Lord Jesus, you say to us, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” We pray for the world where there is no peace and where peace is threatened.
Leader: O Lord, hear our prayer. 

And let our cry go unto You.
 
Lord Jesus, you say to us, “Blessed are the meek.” We pray for local, national and international leaders, for business-leaders and decision-makers. O Lord, hear our prayer. 

And let our cry go unto You.
 
Lord Jesus, you say to us, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” We pray for all refugees, asylum-seekers, political-prisoners and all who work to support them. O Lord, hear our prayer.  

And let our cry go unto You.
 
Lord Jesus, you say to us, “Seek first the Kingdom of God.” We pray for your church and for its leaders; we pray for the URC in its Jubilee year. We pray for those taking the first steps in faith. O Lord, hear our prayer. 

And let our cry go unto You.
 
Lord Jesus, you say to us, “Blessed are the poor in spirit… blessed are those who mourn.” We pray for all those who are unwell in body, mind or spirit. We name them before God in a moment of silence…
O Lord, hear our prayer.  

And let our cry go unto You.
 
We remember before you those recently bereaved, and those for whom anniversaries of loved ones occur at this time. O Lord, hear our prayer. 

And let our cry go unto You.
 
Lord, you say to us, “I came that they might have life.” We bring before God our own prayers in a moment of silence… O Lord, hear our prayer. 

And let our cry go unto You.
 

The Lord’s Prayer

 
Hymn: Tell Out My Soul, The Greatness of the Lord
Timothy Dudley Smith © 1962, 1990, Hope Publishing Co. Sung on BBC Songs of Praise

Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord!
Unnumbered blessings give my spirit voice;
tender to me the promise of His Word;
in God my Saviour shall my heart rejoice.
 

Tell out, my soul, the greatness of His name!
Make known His might, the deeds His arm has done;
His mercy sure, from age to age the same;
His holy Name, the Lord, the mighty One.
 
 
Tell out, my soul, the greatness of His might!
Powers and dominions lay their glory by;
proud hearts and stubborn wills are put to flight;
the hungry fed, the humble lifted high.

 
Tell out, my soul, the glories of His Word!
Firm is His promise, and His mercy sure.
Tell out my soul, the greatness of the Lord
to children’s children and forevermore!