prepared by Ros Hancock – 6th July 2025
Make a joyful noise to God all the earth. Sing the glory of his name; give him glorious praise. Come and see what God has done; he is awesome in his deeds among mortals.
Bless our God O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard.
Hymn: 24 – Come, now is the time to worship
Prayers of Praise and Adoration:
Creator God; immortal, intimate and imaginative. Your breath brings life to all creation.
Your spark of love is at the heart of each atom.
From the moment before time began, you have known and loved each person here.
You have been concerned with our thoughts, words and actions.
There is not a minute when you abandon us. You are constant: loving, protecting and guiding us.
You are wise beyond our knowing. You see, love and understand us, your children night and day.
We are painstaking and lovingly made in your image.
With all creation we offer you our thanks and praise. Amen
A Prayer of confession:
God of all time, forgive us when we waste precious time, worrying or busying ourselves with pointless jobs.
Forgive us that we are so skilled in the art of procrastination.
Forgive us when we use activity to stop us spending time with you.
Forgive us when we are distracted from your purpose in our lives.
Help us to make the most of the time available to us and not to keep waiting until the ‘right time’, putting off things that matter. Help us to celebrate each day and each moment as a gift from you.
Thank you for forgiving us and for all your blessings. Amen
Please pray the Lord’s prayer as you continue to worship
Reading: Luke 10: 1 – 11, 16 – 20
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way; I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. And if a person of peace is there, your peace will rest on that person, but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’ “Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.” The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. Indeed, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Sermon: Did you ever watch ‘Our Yorkshire Farm’ on the TV? It was about a rather large family, of about 11 children, who lived on a farm in the Yorkshire dales. It’s a lovely example of what it means to be family, working together from the youngest, a pre- schooler to the oldest, away at university. Anyway, my point is that when harvest arrived, it won’t wait – it has to be done when the fields are ripe and ready, and the weather was dry. If they didn’t all work together to bring the harvest in the crop would be ruined, the hay would rot, and the sheep would have no food for the winter.
In our reading today we have the same kind of urgency from Jesus about the coming Kingdom. In the previous chapter, Luke told us that Jesus had set his face towards Jerusalem, so this is the start of his journey to the cross, albeit a long and circuitous journey through Samaria and other gentile towns and villages. The 70 missionaries he sends out are to be focused on their task – not taking anything with them and not stopping to chat to those they might meet on the way. The urgency of their mission is such that they must not be delayed by anything.
Jesus says the 70 will be vulnerable and at the mercy of the world, so will need God’s strength and presence with them on the journey. For the same reason they are to stay in one house and not engage in a social whirl of moving around but accept the hospitality of that household without worrying about the preparation of the food or the culture and custom of their host. Their goal, as they go ahead of Jesus, is to prepare each place for his coming. They are to offer peace to each house they enter and show that peace by their actions – healing the sick and telling them that God’s Kingdom is close. There is no mention of telling them what to believe or any rules they should follow, just the offer of peace, through word of mouth and action.
God called them, and calls us today, to that same vulnerability and community as we live out our Christian faith. Their goal and ours is to prepare people for his coming….
Vulnerability and community are linked together in so many ways it is impossible to separate them.
Jesus sent the missionaries out in pairs – for company, for support and as witnesses to each of what was taking place. But he didn’t exactly send them out prepared for what they were to face. They were to take nothing to help them in their mission; they were to be completely dependent on each other and the communities they were visiting.
Rabbis in Jesus’ time would describe Israel as being like a lamb surrounded by 70 wolves who they saw as pagan nations. A wolf is arrogant and violent but a lamb is meek, weak, fragile and vulnerable – easy prey for the wolf. Not only were the missionaries at risk from the violence of the wolves of the world, but they were also at risk of succumbing to the temptation to become more like the wolves – feeling resentment, greed and rage if their message was rejected; attempting to control and abuse people who didn’t listen to their words of peace.
Jesus saved us all by becoming a lamb – vulnerable and physically dependent on others, not by forcing his will on anyone. The outcome of the 70’s mission is not, after all, dependent on them instituting a new belief system, but by offering peace, verbally and demonstrated by their behaviour – material simplicity, acceptance, sharing and working together. Any outward physical appearance is not important, it’s their capacity to give up their lives in love and peace that shows the state of their hearts. They embodied peace, justice, respect, compassion and generosity, showing a new way of being, a peaceful way, a healing way, a loving and caring way; showing how God’s kingdom will be. The results of their work are utterly dependent on God.
Loving others is to make oneself vulnerable – it’s impossible to truly love without putting yourself at risk of hurt, loss and pain. If the missionaries were rejected, they were to merely dust their feet showing a complete separation of themselves from that place, but to then tell the townsfolk what they had missed being a part of, through their rejection. There seems to be an increasing individualism in today’s society. As Americans celebrate Independence Day this week, we might remember that the early pioneers in that country knew very well that their very survival depended on others. The good of any individual was inextricably linked to the survival of them all, and as Benjamin Franklin said at the signing of the Declaration of Independence “We must hang together, or assuredly we will all hang separately”. But today we see that the American dream, and our own societies too, seems to be more individualistic, self-sufficient; nurturing an invulnerable way of being and thinking. Being tough and aggressive. Look out for yourself because nobody else will. Get to the top of your profession but it doesn’t matter how many people you tread on to get there. We increasingly use the words ‘I’ and ‘me’ rather than ‘we’ and ‘us’. In developing countries – there is much more idea of and need for community living, because they are more vulnerable. During the period of lockdown in the Pandemic, we did seem to learn how to be community: helping each other out with shopping, collecting prescriptions, and generally keeping an eye on the more vulnerable. We all stood outside clapping for the NHS each Thursday evening, and got to know neighbours better than ever before despite the fact that we couldn’t actually visit them. I think we all hoped that lessons would be learned during that time, as they were during the war and at other times of national emergency. But sadly, it was not to be……
This message of the coming of Jesus, of peace and of God’s kingdom is not to be done by individuals, subject to their opinions, private imaginations and interpretations but by communities. That’s why even preachers and ministers have someone to whom they are subject – we have peer reviews, to ensure that we’re still preaching doctrine that the Methodist Church has scrutinised. All LP’s have to attend LP meetings regularly and be a practising member of a Methodist Church. We are all part of community. That brings us to the whole purpose of the mission – to prepare people for an encounter with Jesus.
How are we to do that in the cynical world that we inhabit today?
This world is desperate for peace, reconciliation, justice and a way forward based on compassion rather than conflict. The 70 missionaries offered people a new world view, a way to be in right relationships with other people, even those considered enemies – gentiles, and Romans. Even in times of desperation and fear, they demonstrated reverence for God and all of humankind. We don’t do that just by preaching through words, we do it like the missionaries by showing how God’s kingdom will be. By sharing peace in the world. By showing that we are all brothers and sisters, sharing the one sun and the one moon – one family with one home – Earth.
Our mission is to show and share God’s love, to tell people that his Kingdom is on their doorstep. Mission is always compassion, respecting the dignity of all people. It’s grace, forgiveness, meaning and peace. Living and working together, becoming vulnerable and giving up our need to control. We’re not to be cocooned in a building. We have been sent out to do the work God has called us to do – whatever that is, but never alone. When we work together, we gather strength and courage from each other and sometimes, we can share the joy that comes when what we’ve done brings results. Most of the time we will never know what happens with someone we have helped, shown God’s love, or even spoken to of our faith. Do those who work with children ever know what faith those children will develop when they are adults? Do most ministers know who they’ve particularly helped on their faith journey? And yet when we do find out we can share the joy of the disciples and missionaries when they returned from their journey to meet once again with Jesus, amazed at the effect they have had in spreading his words of peace, and healing and care. Chris’ Dad, as many of you know was a Methodist Minister most of his working life. He had been ordained over 60 years when he died. One year when Chris and I were on holiday in Norfolk we went to church service in a little Methodist chapel in Overstrand. On chatting to the Minister after the service we discovered that she had been married by Dad 35 years before in Norwich. At the time she didn’t have a faith, but his marriage preparation classes had prepared her not only for her marriage but for the coming of Jesus into her life. She had become a LP and then been ordained. Her Husband was undertaking his LP training too. Dad was, of course, delighted to hear this when we returned home and told him. We don’t work alone because he calls us to community, a shared mission. Our hope and welfare are inextricably linked to those around us. We are to prepare the hearts and minds of people for Jesus’ coming into their lives. To tend to the harvest God has already planted, together. Amen
Song: 462 – Come with me, come wander, come welcome the world
1 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!
2 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.
3 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.
4 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.
John L. Bell (b.1949) and Graham Maule (b.1958)
Prayers of intercession: Lord Jesus Christ we bring before you today all those countries at war. We think especially of Ukraine, Iran, Israel and Palestine, Somalia, Yemen, and Iraq, to name but a few. We pray for all those suffering as a result of conflict of any kind, within themselves or with family or friends. Bring peace to them Lord and help the world to raise up people who can negotiate with those who seek to control or cause violence to others.
We ask that your love Lord is shown in and to all people. We particularly pray for those who feel unloved – the homeless, the refugee, those with addictions, and those suffering domestic abuse or with mental illness. Show us how to show love to the unloved and the unlovely, reminding us that you love everyone equally.
It’s difficult sometimes Lord, to have faith when all around us seems so difficult, chaotic and selfish. Help our faith Lord, and show us how we can share that faith with others. We commit ourselves to pray for the faith of those we love who have no faith, and ask that you give us encouragement, so we don’t give up on them, or on your amazing power to change lives.Hope seems to be in short supply at the moment Lord, and we all need hope. Hope for a better world, hope for healing, hope for an easier life. We pray for those who are ill in body or mind, particularly those we know and love within our family here at St John’s or our friends and family elsewhere. We pray for asylum seekers, and for our world – dangerously close to climate catastrophe. Show us how to offer hope to others by our words of comfort and our actions.
Finally Lord, help us to see the joy in our world and our relationships. Joy in the little things of life: a rain-drop glistening on a flower petal, a bird singing in the trees, children playing and family celebrations. Help us to share that joy with others as we celebrate your gift of life to us all. Amen
Hymn: STF 687 One human family God has made
| 1 One human family God has made, and all for each to care. One world, to be the home of all, with all its wealth to share. One Christ, to manifest on earth love’s ultimate design. One Church to know the mystery of broken bread and wine. 2 One race, one world — yet torn apart, we spurn the way of love. But still ahead, the Christ leads on and calls his Church to move from love of power to power of love, to give the word to all — to trust the love that conquered death, outside the city wall. | 3 And are we brave enough to join with that great company — the cost not less than all we have and are or hope to be the bitter cup of human sin to drink with him who died, and take his love outside the wall to all the crucified? 4 Claim him who claims us for his own, to share his pain and grief, to bear the scars that stamp us his — the hallmark of belief. As partners of the living Christ, who risk the path he trod, with wondering love we find we share the timeless joy of God. Rosemary Wakelin (b.1932) |
Blessing: May God bless you, and in loving mercy grant peace in this world, peace in our nation, peace in your homes and peace in your hearts. In the name of the prince of peace. Amen.
