prepared by Rev David Jebb – 13th July 2025

by Autumn Leung · July 9, 2025

Call to worship

Christ has set us free

Free to serve

Free to welcome and include

Free to love our neighbours as ourselves

SONG: STF 28 Jesus calls us here to meet him

PRAYER OF ADORATION

Loving, awesome, almighty, inspiring, comforting, parent God, we praise you. We praise you with songs of praise, let us make music from our hearts in adoration of you. We praise you for your awesomeness. You are our sustainer. Direct our paths so that your will may be done, through the power of your inclusive and all-encompassing love. Strengthen us and sustain us to follow that path, to seek justice and to defend the oppressed. Guide us, O God, to engage with our communities and tune into the needs of your global family. Walk with us on the path of justice that we may protest against the wrongs of the world and live out your justice for all to see. Amen.

CALL TO CONFESSION

Our world and our human desires often lead us to oppose God’s way.

Before we hear the Word read and proclaimed, let us confess these sins

before our God.

Prayer of confession

Spirit of the Living God, your fruit includes love, peace, patience and

kindness but we are a divided, hateful people. We turn to violent

means and violent words to settle our disputes. We are impatient

with each other and fail to honour your commandment to love. Our

idols fascinate and distract us from your rightful path. Forgive us.

Turn us from our sinful ways. Set us free in Jesus Christ. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READINGS: Amos 7:7-17 New International Version

7 This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb,[a] with a plumb line[b] in his hand. 8 And the Lord asked me, “What do you see, Amos?”

“A plumb line,” I replied.

Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer. 9 “The high places of Isaac will be destroyed and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined; with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.”

10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel: “Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words. 11 For this is what Amos is saying:

“‘Jeroboam will die by the sword,

and Israel will surely go into exile,

away from their native land.’”

12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. 13 Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.”

14 Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. 15 But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 16 Now then, hear the word of the Lord. You say,

“‘Do not prophesy against Israel,

and stop preaching against the descendants of Isaac.’

17 “Therefore this is what the Lord says:

“‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword.

Your land will be measured and divided up, and you yourself will die in a pagan[c] country.

And Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land.’”

LUKE 10:25-37 NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’[b]”

28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?”

30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

HYMN: STF 249 ‘Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love.’

Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love,
show us how to serve the neighbours
we have from you. Kneels at the feet of his friends,
silently washes their feet,
Master who acts as a slave to them. Neighbours are rich folk and poor,
neighbours are black, brown, and white,
neighbours are nearby and far away.

These are the ones we should serve,
these are the ones we should love;
all these are neighbours to us and you. Kneels at the feet of his friends,
silently washes their feet,
Master who acts as a slave to them

MESSAGE / REFLECTION

That image a straight line isn’t something we see every day. But it’s simple: it’s a weight on a string that builders use to check if something is straight, if it’s aligned, if it’s right. And God says to Amos, “Look, I’m setting that in the middle of my people.”

It’s a striking picture. It tells us that God is not just interested in how high we build, how grand we look, or how successful we seem. God is interested in how true our lives are. How aligned we are with justice, with compassion, with love. And I wonder… if God dropped a straight line into the middle of our lives today into our Circuit, churches, our families, our country, our cities and our villages, what would it show?

1.Complacency Is a Crooked Wall

Let’s start with Amos. Amos was a prophet from the southern kingdom, Judah, but God sent him north, to Israel—a land that was, by many accounts, doing just fine. The economy was strong. Worship was happening. The people had what they needed.

But God saw something different.

He saw a people living in comfort but forgetting their calling. A people enjoying privilege but ignoring purpose. And Amos stood there, speaking into the noise of prosperity and saying: “God’s straight line is not lining up with what you’re doing.”

And how did the people respond? With denial. With dismissal. “We’re fine. Why are you bothering us? Go home.”

Friends, this is where we have to pause and ask hard questions. In what ways have we become like the people Amos addressed? Where have we become so used to comfort that we’ve forgotten our calling?

2.The straight Line of Love

That question brings us to today’s Gospel—the parable of the Good Samaritan. It’s a story so familiar that we almost stop hearing it. We think we already know our role: we’re the Samaritan. We’re the one who helps. We’re the good one.

But let’s be honest how often do we really cross the road?

Jesus tells this story in response to a man asking, “Who is my neighbour?” But what he’s really asking is, “Who isn’t my neighbour? Who do I not have to love?”

And Jesus says through this story you don’t get to draw those lines.

In the parable, two religious men, people like me, maybe like you—walk by someone in desperate need. And they have their reasons. Maybe they’re scared. Maybe they’re tired. Maybe they’ve got a meeting to get to. It’s not that they’re evil. They’re just… preoccupied. They have small, understandable excuses.

And I think that’s what Jesus is challenging. Because we all have reasons. But reasons don’t always line up with the plumb line of love.

3.When You’re the One in the Ditch

There’s something else I want us to notice. The Samaritan is the unexpected hero—but the man in the ditch is just as important.

See, most of us want to identify with the helper. But many of us, at some point in our lives, find ourselves in the ditch. Hurt. Helpless. Overlooked. Alone.

And when that happens, help might come from the very last person we expect. Maybe even someone we were taught to dislike or distrust. That’s what made this parable so radical in Jesus’ day and still does today.

If Jesus were telling it now, he might say:
“A churchgoer broke down on the side of the road. A bishop passed by. A preacher passed by. But a person they judged, a felon, an undocumented migrant, a political enemy—stopped. Cared. Helped.”

That’s the reset Jesus is offering. That’s the plumb line he’s holding up to our hearts.

4.Resetting Our Own Lines

Let’s come back to that image of the plumb line swinging wildly.

That’s what life can feel like after a loss. After a tragedy. After something breaks inside us or around us.

For many of us, 7th July 2005—the day the bombs went off in London—was one of those moments. A day that shook everything in London. A day that knocked the plumb lines of our lives off centre.

Even now, twenty years later, some are still trying to find their bearings. In my previous Circuit, one of our members was badly injured in those attacks—yet, miraculously, survived. That day changed their life forever. It changed all of us. But hear this, friends: it’s okay to take time.

You can’t build anything solid with a plumb line that’s still swinging.

So first—we wait.

We listen. We breathe.

And in that stillness, we begin to ask ourselves:

What have I been aligning myself with?

Have I confused privilege with purpose?

Have I always assumed I’m the Good Samaritan—and not the priest or the Levite who passes by?

Am I willing to cross the road to help someone in need?

Am I willing to let someone else cross the road to help me?

Because here’s the good news:

The Kingdom of God is full of unexpected neighbours.

And grace—grace often shows up in the people and places we least expect.

5.Go and Do Likewise

Jesus ends the parable with one line: “Go and do likewise.”

That’s our marching order—not just to be the Samaritan when we can, but to see everyone as a possible neighbour. To let the plumb line of love, mercy, and justice reset our assumptions.

Not one of us is perfectly aligned. But God’s grace is patient. And God is still speaking.

Conclusion:

So today, I invite you to notice your straight line.
Is it swinging wildly? Is it tilted by fear, complacency, or pain?
Let God help you reset it not for privilege, but for purpose.

And may you be surprised by who helps you.
And by who you are called to help.
And may love deep, boundary-crossing, risk-taking love be the standard you measure your life by.

In the name of the One who crosses every road for us.

Let us be open to that grace. Let us reset our lives in line with God’s plumb line of love.

Amen.

PRAYER OF INTERCESSION

God of justice, Be with us as we seek to work and witness for a society modelled on your “first will be last” kingdom.

We pray that we would put those who are poorest and most marginalised at the centre.

We pray that we would welcome the stranger among us.

We pray that we would pursue environmental renewal and climate justice.

We pray for a just economy that enables the flourishing of all life.

We pray that we would work actively for peace.

We pray that our politics would be characterised by listening, kindness and truthfulness. God, may these hopes guide our words and our actions and may your kingdom come. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

THE LORD’S PRAYER – please pray whichever version you prefer

HYMN STF 257