Today’s service is led by the Revd Neil Thorogood
Welcome
Hello. My name is Neil Thorogood, and it is my joy and privilege to welcome you to our worship from the United Reformed Church today. I am the minister of two congregations in the South Western Synod. Thornbury URC is in a market town outside Bristol. Trinity-Henleaze URC is in a Bristol suburb. As we come together wherever we are, we gather to worship God. So let us take a moment to be still and to acknowledge God’s presence as our worship begins.
Call to Worship
We give thanks to you, O God, with all our hearts. We join with your people of all places and ages as we bring our praise. We come to worship because we rejoice in your love and faithfulness. We come to worship because your steadfast love endures for ever.
Hymn Dear Lord and Father of Mankind
John Greenleaf Whittier (1872) Public Domain Sung by the choir of St Bartholomew’s New York.
Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
forgive our foolish ways;
re-clothe us in our rightful mind,
in purer lives thy service find,
in deeper reverence praise.
In simple trust like theirs who heard,
beside the Syrian sea,
the gracious calling of the Lord,
let us, like them, without a word
rise up and follow thee.
Drop thy still dews of quietness,
till all our strivings cease;
take from our souls the strain and stress,
and let our ordered lives confess
the beauty of thy peace.
Breathe through the heats of our desire
thy coolness and thy balm;
let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still small voice of calm.
Prayers of Approach and Confession
Who are we, God of all, to come before you?
Who are we, bringing our fickle faithfulness and our fragile lives?
Who are we to dare to pray in praise and confession? Who are we today?
We are your children, gathered as your people. We are named amidst the countless hosts you have called and blessed across history; so it is that we bring our deepest thankfulness, so it is that we join our songs to the worship of ages and angels, so it is that we belong here, pray here, believe here, trust here.
All this can be because you are. All this can be because, in Jesus,
you have come to find us, sought us out, brought us home.
All this can be because your Spirit is your passionate presence in our hearts; weaving our many lives into your one great and beautiful chorus of praise.
We need you, dear God!
How we need your presence, and the promises you share!
For all is not well within us or amongst us.
Our lives break with the sadness and shame
of things done and left undone,
words spoken without thoughtfulness or silence
held without the courage to speak.
We share in sins that shatter creation,
tear communities and nations apart
and trap so many in lives without hope or dignity or safety.
Forgive us, merciful God.
Help us to change, and to trust that change can happen
everywhere as your will is done.
Heal us of the hurt we hold.
Help us to grow in trust and hope
as we let Jesus change everything for us.
We believe he died for us.
We believe he took upon himself all the brokenness of creation,
undoing all that steals life away.
Give us a new start and fresh courage, strength and hope to follow him.
We ask, in the name of Jesus,
and in the power of the Spirit he shares. Amen.
Declaration of Forgiveness
We believe as the apostles believed:
“The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners…”
Through the cross and empty tomb, our sins are forgiven,
our shame is washed away and new life has come.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Prayer for Illumination
Thank you for the gift of these ancient words,
treasured and shared down through the ages.
May they become for us your Word of life today. Amen.
Hymn With Grateful Heart My Thanks I Bring (Psalm 138)
Psalter Hymnal 1912 Public Domain sung by Brian Cochran
With grateful heart my thanks I bring,
before the great your praise I sing;
I worship in your holy place
and praise you for your truth and grace;
for truth and grace together shine
in your most holy word divine,
in your most holy word divine.
I cried to you, and you did save;
your word of grace new courage gave;
the kings of earth shall thank you, Lord,
for they have heard your wondrous word;
yea, they shall come with songs of praise,
for great and glorious are your ways,
for great and glorious are your ways.
O Lord, enthroned in glory bright,
you reign above in heav’nly height;
the proud in vain your favour seek
but you have mercy for the meek;
through trouble though my pathway be,
you will revive and strengthen me,
you will revive and strengthen me.
You will stretch forth your mighty arm
to save me when my foes alarm;
the work you have for me begun
shall by your grace be fully done;
your mercy shall forever be;
O Lord, my Maker, think on me,
O Lord, my Maker think on me.
Reading St Luke 5: 1-11
Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’ Simon answered, ‘Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’ When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
Sermon
On Saturday, 6th May 2023, King Charles III and Queen Camilla were crowned amidst plenty of pomp and circumstance in Westminster Abbey. If you read the order of service for that day, you find a moment that our Psalmist this morning would have appreciated. It came almost at the very start, a moment that set the context for all that would follow. It was the same starting point for many previous coronations in Westminster Abbey, including for Queen Elizabeth II, mother of Charles. The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland presented a Bible to Charles. As he did so, he spoke these words: “Sir, to keep you ever mindful of the law and the Gospel of God as the Rule for the whole life and government of Christian Princes, receive this Book, the most valuable thing that this world affords. Here is Wisdom; this is the royal Law; these are the lively Oracles of God.” The most valuable thing that this world affords.
We hear the echo of our Psalm: “All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O Lord, for they have heard the words of your mouth. They shall sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord.” Moments don’t come much grander than coronations. But at the very moment when a king is being crowned, he is given the Bible and reminded that the Bible is the treasure above and beyond every other treasure. Here is the most valuable thing that this world affords. You can wear a crown, live in palaces, reign over millions of people, be head of the Commonwealth and supreme head of the Church of England, lead the armed forces, accept Prime Ministers, be revered and honoured across the world. You can be surrounded by the finest of things and the most dutiful of people. But remember, be ever mindful, that this book is worth more than everything else put together. Remember that in this book there is power beyond any power any monarch ever wields. The Bible sets the context for every coronation. Here is Wisdom; this is the royal Law; these are the lively Oracles of God.
In different ways across our churches, we echo a similar devotion. Some of our churches, including the two I minister in, begin worship with the Bible being carried in to be left open during the service as a sign that we have gathered around God’s word and want to hear it read and preached. As worship concludes, the Bible is carried out to symbolise that we leave worship carrying God’s Word within us into the life of the world. The Bible shapes much of our worship, its words and concepts shaping much of our praying and finding expression in our hymns and music. We handle the Bible this way to remind ourselves that we, just as much as the King, are people of this book. We choose to remain mindful that this book is the greatest treasure in the world.
But how is the Bible a treasure? Certainly, it contains some amazing words. But, if we’re honest, doesn’t it also contain stuff that isn’t very easy to read or understand or apply? One of the most fatal things I’ve found in my life with the Bible is trying to read it systematically from cover to cover. There are some fabulous passages but, goodness me, there are some dry and dusty pages! And there are plenty of bits I personally can wish had never been included!
I don’t know what the Bible means to you, or how well things like Bible study are enjoyed in the congregations that you know. My experience is that we might not be quite so excited about digging up this treasure as we could be. For many, inside and outside the Church the Bible can be an increasingly a closed book, a strange and foreign world.
Often, I hear people saying that a reason why they aren’t particularly keen on Bible study, either on their own or with others, is precisely because they assume you have to study for years and years before you can even have something to say about the Bible. The Bible becomes a book that is really only a treasure for people who have devoted lifetimes to its study. Which is a terrible and ironic tragedy, given that our bit of the Christian tradition was born in the belief that the Bible needed to escape from only being in Latin; only being the preserve of the clergy. Instead, the Reformers translated Bibles into local languages inviting anyone who could read could read it. Let the treasure become everyone’s treasure to read and wrestle with.
So, how is the Bible the greatest treasure in the world? And what might that mean for me and for you? Perhaps, the Bible is treasure not because it contains profound words, although it does. Surely the Bible is treasure because it lets God come to us. It is the world’s greatest love letter. It shows God to the world that God made. The Bible is a beginning, for everyone, of a meeting and a friendship and a love that will never end, never fail, never be undone. That’s why one of the great struggles in Christian history became all about the language of the Bible: did it have to be in Latin so that only a few could read and interpret it, or could it be translated into every language so that anyone could read it or hear it and understand the words?
The Bible is never primarily about us, about how we read it, how often we read it, how clever we are in unpacking it, how passionate we are with it. The Bible is always primarily about God. About how God loves us and longs for us to know it.
The Psalmist writes beautifully. But I do not think the Psalmist writes fiction when we read: “I bow down towards your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness; for you have exalted your name and your word above everything. On the day I called, you answered me, you increased my strength of soul… The Lord will fulfil his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.”
God has touched the life of the Psalmist; God is real in the life of the Psalmist. And it is out of this experience that a Psalm is written. Fast forward to our text from Luke’s Gospel and the same is happening; God loves us and God longs for us to know it. Simon already knows Jesus. Just before the bit we read this morning, Jesus has gone to Simon’s house and healed his mother-in-law. On the beach that morning, Simon and his friends are cleaning their nets by their boats after a miserable night’s fishing in which they failed to catch anything. Jesus is already being followed by eager crowds. He speaks well. His reputation is growing. He gets Simon, possibly with his partners James and John the sons of Zebedee, to row out a little from the shore. Their boat becomes his floating pulpit. Jesus teaches. Presumably, Simon and the others can’t help but listen too.
Jesus knows Simon. Jesus knows Simon in ways Simon doesn’t yet know himself. Jesus knows, God knows, that Simon needs a little more than just the words of a fine teacher. “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Reluctantly, somewhat baffled by this carpenter who thinks he can teach them how to fish, the fishermen try again. And this time the nets overflow. And it is now, kneeling amongst the fish in his boat, that Simon begins to see. He is discovering heaven in the ordinary amongst the smell of the fish and the tang of the sea. Something is understood.
For Simon it becomes a frightening moment, because meeting God can so often make us feel so small, so vulnerable, so aware of how unholy we are: “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” But here’s why the Bible is such treasure. The story has to be told that when God comes closer it is a move of sheer, abundant, unquenchable love: “Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid…” The more we open the Bible, the more God promises to come close to us, to be revealed, to meet us and to show us that we do not need to be afraid. But there is even more!
If the Bible is a love letter and an invitation, it is also a compass. The Bible wants us to be travelling people, pilgrim people, people on a journey deep into the life of the world and never away from the world and all of its pain and possibility. Simon learns that he does not need to afraid. And then he learns that he can be someone he did not know he was: “’…from now on you will catch people.’ When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.’” Jesus comes to meet us where we are, in the boat, in the normal routine, where we live and work and play and love and linger. He meets us to bless us and to forgive us so that we do not need to be afraid. And he calls us, commissions us, invites us into becoming who God intends us to be. We can do this, and believe this, because the Bible tells us so.
The more we let the Bible be part of our lives, the more we let God speak into our hearts. That will often mean lots of questions and plenty of riddles. The joy of the Bible is that, as with Peter in his boat, the stories the Bible tells are of ordinary people being encountered by God and feeling confused, uncertain, afraid sometimes. But the Bible also overflows with joy and wonder as lives are transformed for good by the presence and work and call of God.
The story is often told about the great Swiss-German Reformed theologian Karl Barth. He was answering questions at the University of Chicago in 1962. Barth wrote very many, very big books about faith. So, one student asked him to summarise his theology in just one sentence. Barth responded with the truth he had been taught since he was a child. He said: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Of course, as well as being people of the book, we are people of the person. Our faith is much more than reading about God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit and all those who are mentioned in the story. Our faith is all about each one of us having a personal sense of the presence of God in the world, and the call of Christ upon our lives, and the work of the Holy Spirit in our days. But the Bible, as the psalmist sings, helps us by letting us meet the God who made us, the Saviour who died and rose for us, the Spirit who helps us to believe and to follow. No wonder, even for the King at his coronation, this book is the most valuable thing that the world affords. May it be our treasure too. Amen.
Hymn Would I have Answered When You Called
Herman G Stuempfle Jr, © 1997 GIA Publications OneLicence # A-734713. Performed by Ruth and Joy Everingham and used with their kind permission.
Would I have answered when you called, “Come, follow, follow me!”?
Would I at once have left behind both work and family?
Or would the old, familiar round have held me by its claim
and kept the spark within my heart from bursting into flame?
Would I have followed where you led through ancient Galilee,
on roads unknown, by ways untried, beyond security?
Or would I soon have hurried back where home and comfort drew,
where truth you taught would not disturb the ordered world I knew?
Would I have matched my step with yours when crowds cried, “Crucify!”
When on a rocky hill I saw a cross against the sky?
Or would I too have slipped away and left you there alone,
a dying king with crown of thorns upon a terrible throne?
O Christ, I cannot search my heart through all its tangled ways,
nor can I with a certain mind my steadfastness appraise.
I only pray that when you call, “Come, follow, follow me!”
you’ll give me strength beyond my own to follow faithfully.
Prayers of Intercession
Jesus, you came and found Simon in his world;
the waves and the breeze and the gulls,
the smells of fish and the charcoal fire,
the fishermen at work on their nets and the crowds pressing forward.
You found him where he was,
and changed the world for Simon and James and John and their families.
Now it’s our turn.
We bring to you all that we are and all that we carry.
We come with hopes, and we come with sadness.
We come with a world around us and within us so in need of your transforming touch.
Hear us, we pray, just as you heard Simon’s fears.
We pray for places and people devastated by violence;
where wars continue to rage,
where streets remain unsafe,
where workplaces, homes and social media hide abuse.
We pray for places and people condemned to injustice and poverty;
where lands no longer produce crops,
where systems become inhuman,
where power is used to corrupt and coerce.
We pray for places and people burdened by sickness and sadness;
where care is at breaking point,
where healing is slow and difficult,
where death is coming closer.
We pray for churches everywhere, and the churches dear to us;
where worship and prayer are faithful,
where welcome and outreach are generous,
where challenges and burdens are real.
We pray for ourselves, and those on our hearts this day;
where life has been blessed,
where life has turned difficult,
where the future feels uncertain.
In all of these complex,
beautiful and risky places and moments, dear Lord,
come close, we pray.
Bring your healing and your help.
Hold your aching world and give strength to those we pray for.
We ask it as you have taught us to,
trusting that you hear, and care, and act. Amen.
Offertory
We now bring to God our offering, in thankfulness for the gifts we have received.
Let us pray,
God of goodness and love,
you have gifted to us the wonders of your world
and the possibility for life.
We now offer back to you something of the blessing we have received.
Take and use all that we can offer for your work and to your glory.
Amen.
Hymn Sing Hey for the Carpenter
John L. Bell & Graham Maule © 1987, Iona Community, GIA Publications One Licence # A-734713 Frodsham Methodist Church Cloud Choir accompanied by Andrew Ellams. Produced by Rev’d Andrew Emison and used with their kind permission.
Come with me, come wander, come welcome the world
where strangers might smile or where stones may be hurled;
come leave what you cling to, lay down what you clutch
and find, with hands empty, that hearts can hold much.
Sing hey for the carpenter leaving his tools!
Sing hey for the pharisees leaving their rules!
Sing hey for the fishermen leaving their nets!
Sing hey for the people who leave their regrets!
Come walk in my company, come sleep by my side,
come savour a lifestyle with nothing to hide;
come sit at my table and eat with my friends,
discovering that love which the world never ends.
Sing hey for the carpenter leaving his tools!
Sing hey for the pharisees leaving their rules!
Sing hey for the fishermen leaving their nets!
Sing hey for the people who leave their regrets!
Come share in my laughter, come close to my fears,
come find yourself washed with the kiss of my tears;
come stand close at hand while I suffer and die
and find in three days how I never will lie.
Sing hey for the carpenter leaving his tools!
Sing hey for the pharisees leaving their rules!
Sing hey for the fishermen leaving their nets!
Sing hey for the people who leave their regrets!
Come leave your possessions, come share out your treasure,
come give and receive without method or measure;
come loose every bond that’s resisting the Spirit,
enabling the earth to be yours to inherit.
Sing hey for the carpenter leaving his tools!
Sing hey for the pharisees leaving their rules!
Sing hey for the fishermen leaving their nets!
Sing hey for the people who leave their regrets!
Blessing
May the Spirit bless, empower and guide us
as we travel on in the way of Christ.
May the hope and vision we have shared together
sustain us in the days ahead.
May the songs of praise not fall silent as Sunday becomes Monday.
May our prayers and our work as God’s people continue.
And may God go with us, each and every one of us,
now and for ever. Amen.