Welwyn & St Albans Methodist Circuit – Sunday 25th February 2024
Welwyn & St Albans Methodist Circuit
Sunday 25th February 2024
Words from Psalm 31:1-8
In you, Lord, I have taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame;
deliver me in your righteousness.
2 Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue;
be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me.
3 Since you are my rock and my fortress,
for the sake of your name lead and guide me.
4 Keep me free from the trap that is set for me,
for you are my refuge.
5 Into your hands I commit my spirit;
deliver me, Lord, my faithful God.
6 I hate those who cling to worthless idols; as for me, I trust in the Lord.
7 I will be glad and rejoice in your love, for you saw my affliction
and knew the anguish of my soul.
8 You have not given me into the hands of the enemy
but have set my feet in a spacious place.
Words that remind us that God, in all situations walks with us.
Prayer
Loving God
As the season of Lent continues to unfold, you call us to return again and again
As you invite us to reflect on your love made visible through the person of Jesus, align our lives more closely with you through, prayer, fasting and generous giving.
As with David we rejoice that we can take refuge in you, that you do indeed turn your ear toward us, in whatever desert place we may find ourselves
Bless our desire to accompany Jesus’s suffering here and now in the crucified people of our world.
With your grace, may we live lent fully and move with transformed hearts into the abundant life of Easter morning
Amen
1st Hymn STF 254- Seek ye first the kingdom of God.
Dear God,
You have made yourself known to us
as creator and sustainer of all that is, in Jesus Your son
you have revealed your undying love for each one of us.
As we enter this season of Lent
help us to reflect on your words in the Scriptures
and give us the faith and courage to follow Jesus
in the way of active engagement with the world for justice
and an equal sharing of all that brings fullness of life to each human being.
Save us from the temptation of making gods of our possessions or status,
misusing the power we hold over others.
Guide us by Your Holy Spirit
to a deeper understanding of our joyful dependence on your love.
These things we ask through our saviour Jesus Christ.
Amen
Please Read: Romans 10:8-13 Reading this through the lens of walking humbly through Lent, we are encouraged to live an embodied faith. An active belief and trust in our hearts and evident in the way we communicate with others.
Lent as an opportunity to reflect and confess. To allow the justifying and saving love of God to do an inner work that is also on our lips in our daily interactions in the world.
In setting our intentions for Lent we might wish to take verse 11 as a rhythm for our walking humbly; allowing our trusting and deepening relationship with God to rid us of shame. “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.”
Prayer of confession
Faithful God,
we are your children made equal in your sight and love
but we confess that we have been selfish and lacked love:
renew Your Spirit within us.
Lord have mercy.
Lord have mercy.
You have entrusted to us the gospel of truth and salvation
but we confess our failure to share your word, through fear and inaction:
renew Your Spirit within us.
Christ have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
You have walked with us in the way of righteousness
but we confess that we have turned aside and refused your trust:
renew Your Spirit within us.
Lord have mercy.
Lord have mercy.
Holy God,
holy and strong,
holy and immortal,
have mercy upon us.
2nd Hymn – STF 317 – At the name of Jesus
Please Read – Luke 4:1-13
Sermon – In the wilderness
Well, each lent we hear the story of Jesus in the desert. The devil arrives and temps Jesus, and Jesus combats the temptation using scripture, the devils tries again and Jesus again rebukes the devil with Scripture. And so it goes until the devil leaves with his tail between his legs and the angles arrive like the cops in a movie after the hero has already saved the day. It is all pretty straight forward, after all Jesus is the Son of God, of course he could resist temptation and win the day.
However, there is a caveat here, we must not forget that Jesus was a man, he was human and had all the feelings and frailties we have. Jesus grew tired, Jesus was hungry: I heard an American pastor say once, “Jesus had to use the bathroom just like we do!” …I think that we should not forget how hard this time would have been. This would have been a real battle going on between Jesus and the devil who was attacking Jesus with three of the most difficult temptations, appetite, power and pride. It was Jesus’s understanding of who he was and the power of God’s word that eventually brought him through. That coupled with the power of the Holy Spirit that led him to that place.
In many ways Lent for us is not supposed to be an easy time, it is a time to walk humbly with God.
We are not called to be humble in the sense that we become insignificant but relevant, I love this quote from Thomas Merton: “It is, therefore, a very great thing to be little.”
It is often in the wilderness times when we become, or should become, more reliant on God. We read in scripture that in our weakness God finds his strength.
My dad who spent many years working in Arabic countries, spoke the language fluently, He often used an Arabic proverb, I can’t speak the language but the translation is: “The further you go into the desert, the closer you become to God.
In 2017, The Methodist Diaconal Order Celebrated 30 years of being reopened. Many of the Old deaconesses were in attendance and I had the opportunity to chat to some of them. I asked them if they had any advice for someone just starting their journey into full time ministry. One replied, “The dirtier and muckier you find the work, the more of God’s glory you will see”
Sometimes it is hard to see God in the turmoil of what is going on but we are assured he is with us, (remember the words from the Psalm at the beginning)
This is so obvious in this very difficult times we find ourselves today. The news from Gazza, the war that continues in Ukraine, and other places around the world. I saw an image recently of people praying in a church from Ukraine, the image was powerful and humbling at the same time.
As Paul encourages in the Romans passage, we have an opportunity in Lent to allow our inner and outer faith to become more and more aligned. As an actual activity of walking humbly with our God. It becomes a time of allowing our shame and insecurities to be healed by the healing grace of God.
Forty days to walk closer with God.
Forty days to trust in God in the wilderness.
Forty days to reflect, repent and reorient our lives to doing the will of God in the world.
During Lent the Church presents us with three aspects: prayer, sacrifice and charity.
The first point here is Prayer. This lent we are praying more than ever, especially around the injustice of the war in Gaza, However, we don’t just pray that God will act in those situations: We also pray with thanks
that we are a saved people, broken by sin and restored through Jesus. We pray in the knowledge that because of Jesus are prayers are heard by God. We give thanks to God through prayer. It is through prayer that we are so often are given opportunities to act ourselves. Often prayer will enable an opportunity. If we pray that God feeds the hungry, he often gives us the opportunity to do it. Sometimes we have no idea what to pray, but we are assured that we can cast all our burdens fears and doubts on him.
The second point here is, sacrifice. Jesus is affirmed through the voice of God and the coming of the Holy Spirit, as the Son of God. Jesus sacrificed his glory in the desert, he was taunted and tempted by the devil, and would go on to give himself in the ultimate sacrifice. Maybe there are things that we need to sacrifice this lent? I am not just talking of chocolate and sweets!
Finally we think of charity, so often we get caught up with what Charity actually is. In the our lent study this Lent, it talks of how the “Word Charity” is translated “Love” I would like to suggest that charity is a real outpouring of compassion, it stems from deep within and comes as a fruit of the spirit which is goodness. This is not something that is the right thing to do but something we are led to do from deep within our hearts as Christians. It is the sharing of love, from the example that God gave us through Jesus. We read in the feeding of the 5000, that Jesus had “Compassion for them” It is that compassion that should lead us to be a giving people.
So as we travel together on this road of Lent, we travel with so much to reflect upon, to pray upon and to act upon. As we remember and reflect our own journey we are reminded that we are a forgiven people, a forgiven people through the sacrifice and love of God.
Amen
3rd Hymn STF 236 – Forty days and forty Nights
Prayer
Lord God as we continue this journey into Lent , we remember the trials and temptations of your son Jesus Christ in his journey through the wilderness, and how he triumphed over all.
In our prayers we think of the difficult journeys in life encountered by so many people in the world.
We pray that in their different times of need, they may find discernment to see their way ahead, and strength to overcome whatever problems they face.
We pray that faith may be deepened in this period of Lent, and all may walk in the light of the Lord.
Through Jesus, our saviour we pray
Amen
Blessing
May Christ give you grace to grow in holiness,
to deny yourselves, take up your cross, and follow him;
and the blessing of the Father, the Son, and The holy Spirit, be with you now and forever
Amen.
