Today’s service is led by the Revd Andy Braunston
Introduction
Hello and welcome to worship for Safeguarding Sunday. As we hear Tracy Chapman’s haunting song about domestic violence fade away we think about this year’s theme for Safeguarding Sunday “let’s talk about it”. For some this will mean talking about what’s happened to them, for others it’s about talking about how to make the Church a safe refuge to find God, our shelter in the storm, and to find strength there to bring about change. Our readings today all speak of finding safety, security and shelter in God amidst tumultuous times. They are a good starting place to think about the role of safeguarding in the church as we seek to make our congregations places of safety, security and shelter. My name is Andy Braunston and I am the United Reformed Church’s Minister for Digital Worship. I live in Orkney off Scotland’s far north coast and am a member of the Peedie Kirk URC there. Let’s worship God together.
Call to Worship
Arise in times of anguish and come to God, who delivers us.
Listen to God’s voice so that we awaken
to everlasting life not everlasting contempt.
See through the light in the gloom to perceive God’s glory
shine as the brightness of the day, like the stars forever and ever.
Hymn We Cannot Measure How You Heal
John Bell © 1989, WGRG the Iona Community (Scotland), admin. GIA Publications, Inc Sung by Ruth and Joy Everingham and used with their kind permission. OneLicence # A-734713
We cannot measure how You heal
or answer every sufferer’s prayer,
yet we believe your grace responds
where faith and doubt unite to care.
Your hands, though bloodied on the cross,
survive to hold and heal and warn,
to carry all through death to life
and cradle children yet unborn.
The pain that will not go away,
the guilt that clings from things long past,
the fear of what the future holds,
are present as if meant to last.
But present too is love which tends
the hurt we never hoped to find,
the private agonies inside,
the memories that haunt the mind.
So some have come who need Your help
and some have come to make amends,
as hands which shaped and saved the world
are present in the touch of friends.
Lord, let Your Spirit meet us here
to mend the body, mind and soul,
to disentangle peace from pain
and make Your broken people whole.
Prayers of Approach, Confession, and Grace
We come to meet You, delivering God, in an age of uncertainty;
we greet You with our pain and our praise,
seeking healing in our weary woundedness.
We cannot measure how You heal or answer our prayers,
yet faith and doubt combine to give us glimpses of Your coming Kingdom
where public and private agony will find peace.
We gather at Your table, Liberating Jesus, to be fed by Your own self,
to see Your hands hold, heal, and warn when we go astray
and embrace us in welcome when we turn back to You.
In times of difficulty, we are tempted to trust
in our wealth, politicians, and armies instead of in You.
Forgive us when we turn away from You,
when we cling to the safety of our pain, fear and memories
which haunt us,
and when we trust in anything other than You.
Give us the courage to heal, to turn back to, and trust in, You.
We discern your presence, Most Holy Spirit,
as perfume in the air, as light in the gloom, as joy in despair;
meet us here, O God, to mend and tend us,
to disentangle peace from our pain,
and to make Your broken people whole. Amen.
Prayer for Illumination
Bless us, O God, with Your counsel,
as the Word is read and proclaimed.
Instruct our lives and gladden our hearts
that as we hear and think,
You may stir us to action and show us the path of life
where, in Your presence, there is fullness of joy. Amen
Reading Daniel 12:1-3
“At that time Michael, the great prince, the protector of your people, shall arise. There shall be a time of anguish such as has never occurred since nations first came into existence. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.
Psalm 16
Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”
As for the holy ones in the land,
they are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.
Those who choose another god multiply their sorrows;
their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out
or take their names upon my lips.
The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
I have a goodly heritage.
I bless the LORD, who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.
I keep the LORD always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices;
my body also rests secure.
For you do not give me up to Sheol or let your faithful one see the Pit.
You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Hymn Heaven Shall Not Wait
John L. Bell (b.1949) and Graham Maule (b.1958) © WGRG, Iona Community, Glasgow G2 3DH Scotland. OneLicence # A-734713 Frodsham Methodist Church Cloud Choir accompanied by Andrew Ellams. Produced by Rev’d Andrew Emison and used with their kind permission.
Heaven shall not wait for the poor to lose their patience,
the scorned to smile, the despised to find a friend:
Jesus is Lord;he has championed the unwanted;
in him injustice confronts its timely end.
Heaven shall not wait for the rich to share their fortunes,
the proud to fall, the elite to tend the least:
Jesus is Lord;he has shown the master’s privilege
to kneel and wash servants’ feet before they feast.
Heaven shall not wait for the dawn of great ideas,
thoughts of compassion divorced from cries of pain:
Jesus is Lord; he has married word and action;
his cross and company make his purpose plain.
Heaven shall not wait for triumphant Hallelujahs,
when earth has passed and we reach another shore:
Jesus is Lord in our present imperfection;
his power and love are for now; and then for evermore.
Reading St Mark 13:1-8
As Jesus came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.” When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.
Sermon
Living so far north we are lucky to have regular opportunities to see the Northern Lights or, as they are called in Orkney, the Merry Dancers. I have an app on my phone which alerts me but takes no account of cloud cover nor the fact one can’t see the Dancers in daylight. A much more accurate alert is provided by our neighbour who excitedly bangs on our windows to tell us! The odd thing about the Merry Dancers is that they aren’t very exciting to look at with the naked eye – coming across as, at best, a shimmering green-grey light or, at worst, a slightly lighter bit of cloud. However, once you realise these are the Northern Lights, they can look spectacular when photographed. This makes me wonder which is the reality – what I can see with my eyes or what I can see in a picture. Our eyes give a glimpse of what’s there, but a fuller truth is revealed in a picture where the lens picks up the colours and shows us a different reality.
In some ways that shouldn’t surprise us. As Christians we pray for the Kingdom to come; we read of Jesus’ acts of power and love showing the Kingdom breaking into His world, we read his parables and his teaching which shows us how we can embody God’s Kingdom in our lives and loves but, at the same time, we know the Kingdom isn’t fully here, the world isn’t as it should be, injustice and evil haven’t been banished, people still suffer, the earth still groans from our harmful activities. Just as our naked eyes catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights so we catch glimpses of the Kingdom breaking in – yet we don’t yet see it fully revealed.
There are many places in our world where we long for the Kingdom to break in more fully. We live in uncertain times; who would have predicted the breakout of riots in the summer in many cities in England and Northern Ireland? We’ve elected a new UK government who seem to make much of the economic legacy they’ve inherited and are concentrating on telling how bad it is rather than being hopeful about change; sunny uplands seem to be as far away as the coming Kingdom. As I write, the outcome of the American election hangs in the balance but will be known when this sermon is published. Has the American public voted for the strong white man with easy answers or the nuanced mixed-race woman who ran for office with a sense of joy? Life is hard for those struggling to get by – the reduction of support for pensioners this winter will hit some very hard indeed; countless people struggle to afford to rent somewhere decent to live and for many the dream of owning their own home is a laughable fiction. Many of those who have had to live with various forms of abuse have not been believed when they told their stories; horrifically some experienced abuse within the Church. Our faith tells us the Kingdom is coming and will shine like the glorious colours of the Merry Dancers, yet our eyes only show a glimmer in the dark. This sense of trusting there’s more going on underpins our three readings today.
Daniel is a difficult book – it doesn’t appear much in the Lectionary. It was written to encourage faithful discipleship in the face of a powerful oppressive empire which neither understood nor cared about Jewish life and practice. Against this imperial oppression the author of Daniel asserts God’s sovereignty. Today’s passage concerns a power vacuum after the death of a king – all changes of government can be disruptive; in the ancient world a peaceful transition of power that we (hopefully) see in democracies today was not guaranteed. Rival claimants to a throne might battle it out and the ability to quietly get on with life became more and more difficult.
Daniel offers comfort that this change too will pass. Daniel introduces Michael into the equation as a great ruler who will protect God’s people; the name “Michael” means “who is like God?” and later tradition saw Michael as an archangel. The passage is a rare glimpse of Jewish belief in an afterlife; the idea is to provide hope, relief to those suffering and to show that God is not far away. Daniel thinks those who remained true to God under the oppression of empire will rise to light and life whilst those who weren’t faithful will rise to shame and contempt. Those who have faith can see beyond the dull light and see the colours and glory of God’s coming Kingdom.
Like the passage from Daniel, Psalm 16 is about offering hope in uncertain times. The poet opens by asking for God’s protection and refuge. In our contemporary society we are constantly told to be afraid – the Climate Emergency demands our attention but little action, it seems, from our politicians. The media tells us of the dangers of smoking or eating too much sugar, of crime and fear of the outsider. These stories attract attention, they sell. They are amplified in our social media echo chambers. The Psalmist seeks to reassure and offers an antidote to fear; trust in the Lord and ignore those who say otherwise. The Psalm opens and closes with assertions of trust in God; in uncertain and dangerous times this is what matters; uncertainty can produce anxiety, living with danger can be horrific. The Psalmist offers faith in God as a source of stability, security and strength. God is not just a shelter from the storms and pains of life but a means by which injustice, pain, abuse, oppression and fear can be resisted and subverted. Those who have faith can see beyond the dull light and see the colours, glory and change embodied in God’s coming Kingdom.
Daniel faced moving political tectonic plates in the ancient near east. Jesus also looked to world changing events. The destruction of the Temple came in the year 70; all that remains now are parts of the Western Wall and an area where the Temple was to be expanded – now with a mosque on the site. The area is often in the news and is called the Haram al-Sharif or the Temple Mount. In Jesus’ time the Temple was the centre of Jewish life and worship; to imagine the destruction of this Temple would have been horrific. In such horrible times anyone who offers certainty might be believed and followed. We’ve seen in our political life the rise of the strong leader who offers certainty, easy answers to difficult questions, and who blame the weak and vulnerable for problems caused by systems controlled by the rich. Jesus’ warning not to follow those who promise such answers in times of cataclysmic change is useful for us now to remember in times of political and environmental change. Instead of the strong leader, the problem-solving blamers, we need to cling to Jesus who offers us true security in an age of change where we don’t often see justice, where the powerful manage to stay in power even when governments change, and when social media conspires with those who pedal hate to drive up fearful ratings. Jesus’ good news can seem like fiction in an age of horror; we long for the glory of the Northern Lights but see only a dim glow in the sky. Yet Jesus’ presence can comfort, inspire, strengthen, move us to action and remind us that the eyes of faith see more than our own naked eyes.
What might these passages teach us, then, today – especially as we mark Safeguarding Sunday. Daniel, in the face of overpowering forces, reminds us that God is near, looks after His faithful people, and – whilst there may not be justice in this world – the resurrection offers a hint of justice in the next. Those imperial systems of oppression, injustice, patriarchy, and violence will be defeated and those who operate them and hide behind them will be punished. Whilst we work to make our churches and our institutions safer places we know that many who abuse will not face justice; people are often not believed, evidence can be hard to get, and lies are often credible. Holding fast to the glory and colour of God’s justice beyond the dim flickers of our own systems of justice can provide hope and the power to heal. The Psalmist reminds us that the security which comes from God’s love can give strength to speak and to act. The Church should always be a place of strength and safety encouraging all to speak out to find both justice and dignity. When abuse is perpetuated, tolerated, or covered up by the Church we betray our fundamental calling and further obscure the signs of the Kingdom breaking through. Jesus calls us, again and again, to trust in Him – something made more difficult if the Church proves untrustworthy. In all these situations of pain, confusion and injustice these readings offer hope. Daniel’s assertion that God safeguards His people with justice – even justice that happens beyond the grave as it is denied in life – offers hope. The Psalmist’s certainty that in God we find safety and security gives a space for action – to tell the truth, to demand justice, to cry for change. Jesus’ words in the Gospel reading remind us to look for him as the calm centre in the storms and struggles of life; not simply as a refuge but as a place to regroup, heal and work for change.
So, as I walk my dogs last thing at night and gaze at the sky I sometimes get glimpses of colour, glory, and power that I can’t quite see. As we live our lives of quiet discipleship we get glimpses of the Kingdom breaking in, releasing the captive, healing the wounded, and allowing the silenced to speak. As we pray and as we proclaim God’s Kingdom, His power, glory, and love, break in forever changing us and our world.
Let’s pray:
Justice-bringing God
help us to see beyond the drabness of the news
into the glorious colours of your kingdom;
that as we yearn and work for its coming,
you will help us make all things right. Amen.
Hymn The Kingdom of God is Justice and Joy
Bryn Rees (1973) © 1973, Alexander Scott OneLicence # A-734713. Sung by the Revd Paul Robinson and used with his kind permission.
The kingdom of God is justice and joy;
for Jesus restores what sin would destroy.
God’s power and glory in Jesus we know;
and here and hereafter the kingdom shall grow.
The kingdom of God is mercy and grace;
the prisoners are freed, the sinners find place,
the outcast are welcomed God’s banquet to share;
and hope is awakened in place of despair.
The kingdom of God is challenge and choice:
believe the good news, repent and rejoice!
His love for us sinners brought Christ to His cross:
our crisis of judgement for gain or for loss.
God’s kingdom is come, the gift and the goal;
in Jesus begun, in heaven made whole.
The heirs of the kingdom shall answer his call;
and all things cry “Glory!” to God all in all.
An Act of Commitment
As God’s people we are called to glimpse the glory of the coming Kingdom, where all are safe and valued, where justice shines like the stars at night, and where all hurts are healed. As God’s people we are called to make our churches reflect the values of the coming Kingdom and so I ask:
Will you show God’s love by treating everyone with respect and dignity,
love and grace, seeking to harm no one?
With the help of God, we will.
Will you help make and keep this congregation safe and support all those who have safeguarding responsibilities?
With the help of God, we will.
Will you make space for those who’ve been hurt and harmed?
With the help of God, we will.
Will you work for the Kingdom so that all might be safe,
those who face justice will find the grace of repentance, self-knowledge, and change, and so that healing becomes a hallmark of the Church?
With the help of God, we will.
Will you learn to see beyond the gloom and use the eyes of faith to see
the light, colour, excitement, and energy of God’s coming Kingdom?
With the help of God, we will.
May the God who began this good work within you,
continue it until it is finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. Amen.
Intercessions
Loving God,
we lay before you the challenges that confront us
at home, at work, in our communities and churches.
May your Son, the Good Shepherd,
guide and shape the life of your Church
that all may find a welcome, secure in your presence.
Jesus, Lord of the Church, in your mercy, hear us.
Renew your Church in the love of truth and in passion for justice.
Take from us all hypocrisy and deceit, and teach us to serve with humility and honesty those whose lives are broken.
Jesus, Lord of the Church, in your mercy, hear us.
Help us to cherish children and all in our community who are vulnerable,
to protect them, and keep them safe.
May this place rejoice to be a place
where your love is celebrated with integrity.
Jesus, Lord of the Church, in your mercy, hear us.
Bring into your healing presence
all who have been damaged and diminished by abuse,
or whose lives continue to be overshadowed by guilt or fear,
may sorrows be shared and memories be healed.
Jesus, Lord of the Church, in your mercy, hear us.
May those who have been damaged by abuse
not simply survive, but flourish.
May young and old discover your life-giving love,
and delight in your gift of life,
so that fun, laughter and joy overflow to your glory.
Jesus, Lord of the Church, in your mercy, hear us.
Merciful Creator,
accept these prayers for the sake of your Son,
our Saviour Jesus Christ who taught us to pray saying: Our Father…
Offertory
Giving is at the heart of our faith: God so loved the world that Jesus was given for its sake. Jesus poured out himself in love to his friends and, on the Cross, for us. The Holy Spirit gives us any number of graces to help us be faithful disciples. We respond to God’s self-giving love through our own attempts to follow, through loving service of others and through the giving of our financial offerings. We now pray for the gifts of grace and wisdom.
Giving God,
You shower your blessings upon us,
giving us gifts to herald Your coming Kingdom;
give us the grace and wisdom we need to see Your light in the gloom,
to see through faith You at work in our midst.
Bring light and life to all.
Bless this money which we offer to you,
and help us to use it wisely that it too may be a sign of Your love. Amen.
Hymn God’s Spirit is in My Heart
Alan Dale, Hubert Richards © 1982, Kevin Mayhew sung by Matt Beckingham and used with his kind permission. OneLicence # A-734713
God’s Spirit is in my heart
He has called me and set me apart.
This is what I have to do,
what I have to do
He sent me to give the Good News to the poor,
tell prisoners that they are prisoners no more;
tell blind people that they can see,
and set the downtrodden free.
And go tell everyone the news that the Kingdom of God has come,
and go tell everyone the news that God’s Kingdom has come.
Just as the Father sent me
so I’m sending you out to be,
my witnesses throughout the world,
the whole of the world.
He sent me to give the Good News to the poor,
tell prisoners that they are prisoners no more;
tell blind people that they can see,
and set the downtrodden free.
And go tell everyone the news that the Kingdom of God has come,
and go tell everyone the news that God’s Kingdom has come.
Don’t carry a load in your pack,
you don’t need two shirts on your back;
God’s workers can earn their own keep,
can earn their own keep.
He sent me to give the Good News to the poor,
tell prisoners that they are prisoners no more;
tell blind people that they can see,
and set the downtrodden free.
And go tell everyone the news that the Kingdom of God has come,
and go tell everyone the news that God’s Kingdom has come.
Don’t worry what you have to say,
don’t worry because on that day
God’s Spirit will speak in your heart,
will speak in your heart.
He sent me to give the Good News to the poor,
tell prisoners that they are prisoners no more;
tell blind people that they can see,
and set the downtrodden free.
And go tell everyone the news that the Kingdom of God has come,
and go tell everyone the news that God’s Kingdom has come.
Blessing
May the One whose realm shines like the stars at night,
the One who brings good news to the poor and downtrodden,
the One who brings love, live and laughter,
enable you to shine with the joy of the Kingdom,
encourage you to proclaim good news,
and energise you with divine healing,
and the blessing of Almighty God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
be with you all, now and always, Amen.