APC 21st June 2020   
 
“Father’s Day – Giving Honour to whom it’s due”
 
Welcome and Introduction
Good morning everyone and welcome to our Sunday morning Service.  Today is Father’s Day.  This morning we will be thanking God for good fathers and reflecting on what it means to honour our fathers and our mothers.  But before we do that, let’s take a moment to talk to God, let’s pray…
 
Prayer
 
Loving God, we come on this father’s day reminded that you are the father of us all.  You have been with us from birth, guiding, nurturing and sustaining us.  You have taught us and brought us to maturity, always concerned for our welfare, constantly seeking the best for us.
 
Father God, we praise you.
 
Whenever we have needed you have been there, willing to listen and advise, yet giving us freedom to make our own choices and find our own way.
 
You have called us to be your family, a people united through your son, Jesus Christ. And through Him you have revealed your love, a love that reaches out to us day by day despite our failure to love you in return.
 
Father God, we praise you.
 
Teach us to live as your children – to hear your voice, obey your instruction and respond to your goodness.
 
Teach us to bear your name with pride, to share with others, through word and deed the joy you have given us.
 
And finally receive our thanks for the fathers you have given us, all they have meat to us, all they have given and all they have done in so many ways.
 
Father God, we praise you.  In the name of Christ, Amen.
 
Lord’s Prayer
 
Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name,
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day, our daily bread, And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us,
And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil,
For Thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory,
For ever and ever, AMEN.
 
Bible Readings
Exodus 20 v 12
“Honour your father and your mother so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.”
 
Proverbs 6 v 20-22
20 My son, keep your father’s command
    and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
21 Bind them always on your heart;
    fasten them around your neck.
22 When you walk, they will guide you;
    when you sleep, they will watch over you;
    when you awake, they will speak to you.
 
Reflection               “Giving honour to whom honour is due.”
 
Today is a very special Sunday, it is Father’s Day.  A day when we give thanks to God for our dads and do something special to let them know we appreciate all they do for us. But as we do that it’s important to acknowledge that this is a day which many people find difficult.  Quiet tears will be shed by many today.  Tears for fathers who have died.  Tears of those who never knew their dads, tears of dads for children who have died, tears of parents who have been rejected by their children, tears of children who were treated badly by their parents.  All in all, Father’s Day is always a day of mixed emotions.
Despite this, today is a unique Sunday in the church year when we celebrate and thank God for our fathers, and when we can take time to reflect on the broader responsibility that God gives us to honour our father and our mother.  That’s what I want us to do for a few minutes this morning.  Our text for the day will be the God’s words to Moses that we find in the fifth commandment –
 
“Honour your father and your mother so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.”
 
Let me begin by asking an important question….
 
1      Why should we honour our parents?
 
i)      They deserve our gratitude:
 
From the physical side of things we owe our lives to our parents for they are the ones who brought us into the world.  They are the ones who fed us, clothed us and gave us a home for all the years we were growing up.  From an emotional point of view our parents are the ones who have loved us, believed in us, encouraged and supported us until we’ve reached the stage when we’ve been ready to flee the nest and fly solo.  For many of us our parents have sacrificed in order to give us a good start in life like helping us to insure our first car or to get on the property ladder.  The famous Scottish poet William Soutar said, “If I have done anything in life, it is because I was able to stand on the shoulders of my father.”
 
ii)     It is common sense:
 
Our parents have walked the journey of life before us and therefore they know the dangers and the pitfalls in the way.  The person who is unwilling to listen to the voice of experience will almost certainly end up in trouble.  This was true of the great general Napoleon.  His plan was to invade Russia.  He gathered those with experience of the territory around him and asked them “What do you think?  They answered, “We would advise you not to invade this winter because we believe the weather is going to be particularly severe.”  “But how can you be sure?”  Napoleon asked.  “Because the birds have begun to migrate so early general.” they replied. 
 
Napoleon refused to listen to their warning.  He continued with the campaign only to be met by a deadly winter of snow, ice and blizzards.  His Grand Army was almost entirely wiped out.  For Napoleon, this one decision marked the beginning of the end.
It is sensible to listen to what our parents tell us because they have an experience of life that we do not yet possess.
 
Now let me ask a second question…
 
2      How do we honour our parents?
 
i)      Treat them with importance, seriousness and dignity:
 
The Hebrew word translated ‘honour’ in this passage is found elsewhere in the bible.  In these other places it is used to refer to something that is important, substantial, serious, dignified or possessing status.  In biblical terms, therefore honouring of our parents is determined primarily by adopting the right attitude towards them.  If we have the right attitude to our parents then right actions will naturally follow.  Biblically these words direct us to considering our parents as people of great worth and dignity.  Just because they are older doesn’t make them or their views irrelevant.  Quite the opposite in fact.  They are worth listening to.  They are worth spending time talking to.  They are worth looking after- not because we will necessarily receive something in return but simply because of their inherent worth as the ones who made us, the ones who cared for us, ones in whom, however faintly in their best moments we glimpse the image of God.  Even when the years have taken their toll and they barely recognise us or make no sense our parents are worthy of our respect, our care and our time.
 
John, never came to church but I always made a point of visiting him regularly in Belfast.  Despite his lack of attendance I always came away humbled from his home and wondering if he wasn’t a lot closer to the kingdom of God than me.  Because you see John exemplified obedience to this commandment to a degree that I have never seen.  Five years previously he had given up a good job to stay at home and care for his mother who at that time was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.  He did everything for her, almost every day for all those years, with hardly any respite simply because she was his mother and he loved her.
 
Now I’m not suggesting that this is the only way we can honour an ageing parent.  A time may come when we are unable to care for them unaided or when a Nursing Home is the best option for their happiness.  I simply use it as an example of the attitude that we should have towards our parents whatever stage of life they are at.  For when we have the right attitude, our actions will also be right. 
 
If we really appreciate the inherent worth and dignity of our parents, we’ll not treat them as a dumping ground for the kids, we’ll not push them out of church because they are no longer contemporary, we’ll not dismiss their advice because it’s irrelevant in a modern world.  Rather, we’ll make time to include them in our lives, time to make that call, time to listen to the ramblings of the past. We’ll make the effort to send a card, give a gift, drop in during lunch and even muster the courage to say, “I love you.”  What’s more, we’ll find ourselves avoiding a way of life that would bring them shame or break their hearts and adopting attitudes and actions that we know would make them proud.  A friend of Robert Louis Stevenson found him turning over a scrap-book of press cuttings which contained all the praises that had been given to him and his books.  “Well, Louis” he said.  “Is fame all it’s cracked up to be?”  “Yes” he replied, “When I see my mother’s face.”
 
But a 3rd question I think it’s important to ask is-
 
3      What if our parents have made it hard to honour them?
 
None of what I’ve said before is easy.  None of us can honour our parents the way God wants without the internal help and power of the Holy Spirit.  But for some of us the situation is even more difficult because we’ve never really known our real parents or because our parents haven’t treated us the way a parent should.  How can I help you apply this scripture to your own lives? 
To be honest I’m not sure, so I pray your forgiveness if these thoughts are too hard or too removed from the pain of reality.  But let me say this:
 
If we’ve never known our real parents perhaps we can still recall people who cared for us as parents.  Would it be possible to give to them the honour that is their due? Perhaps we have discovered our real parents but have never tried to make contact.  Could God be asking us to honour Him and them by having the courage to make the first move?
 
Even if our parents have been far from perfect or the cause of much of our pain, could God by His grace enable us somehow to forgive?  Could God by His mercy enable us to still honour our parents by not talking badly about them or by trying somehow to show them kindness?
 
By ourselves this is not possible, but however God leads us in our individual circumstances, I believe with Him, all things are possible.
 
The last question I want us to consider is-
 
4      When is right to disobey our parents?
 
In life there can be a higher duty even than honouring our parents.  Jesus said, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.”  For most of us this will never happen, but on rare occasions, our loyalty to Jesus can clash with our loyalty to our parents.  For example, suppose a young man or woman feels that God is calling them to be a minister or to go to a far away country to spread the good news about Jesus.  Suppose the parents, in all sincerity thinking of the interests of their children say, “But that job won’t pay you very well, you’ll have no security, or what about the health risks and dangers?”  “Would you not consider something else?” 
 
When this happens, the young man or woman has to be true to their calling to Jesus.  When this happens, it can be a painful clash.  But our last loyalty must always be to Jesus.
 
Let me finish by saying as Christian parents may we encourage our children to follow Christ and if in the future they should choose to give their lives to him in a sacrificial way, difficult as it will be to let them go, may we give them our blessing and our constant support.  For believe me, the costs will be great enough without adding to their burden.
 
The final part of this verse says that if we honour our parents God will reward us with long life.  While experience tells me this can’t be a promise, the principle certainly holds true that if we listen to and follow the wise advice of our parents we are more likely to enjoy our lives and to avoid the things that might shorten our existence.
 
It is my prayer that God may help us all to understand how we might better honour both our parents, not just today, but every day.  Amen.
Prayer
Gracious God, you know the joy of fatherhood and also the pain, for you witnessed the life and death of your son. And you see each day the triumphs and tragedies of us your children.
Lord God our Father, reach out in love.
In Jesus you experienced the delight of being a father – as you watched him grow and mature into adulthood, as you saw him baptised in the Jordan, as day by day he responded to your guidance, faithful to the very last – a beloved son with whom you were well pleased.
Yet you also experienced agony – in the horror of the cross, the pain, the humiliation and the sorrow he endured for our sakes.
Lord God our Father, reach out in love.
In each of us you find pleasure – when we pursue what is good, when we honour your commandments, when we seek your will and respond to your guidance.  But we cause you also so much pain – through our weakness, our repeated disobedience, our deafness to your call and our rejection of your love.
Lord God our Father, reach out in love.
Gracious God, you know the joy and the pain of fatherhood, and so we now pray for fathers everywhere.  Help them to appreciate both the privilege and the responsibility they bear, and teach them to give freely of themselves so that they may discover the happiness, the fulfilment and the inexpressible rewards that fatherhood brings.
Lord God our Father, reach out in love.
Give them wisdom, patience and dedication and grant them strength to persevere when children bring tears as well as laughter, anxiety as well as hope, pain as well as pleasure.
Lord God our Father, reach out in love.
Reach out we pray to all fathers in such circumstances – those who question their ability to cope, or who fear they have failed; those striving to offer support, or who feel they have nothing left to give.
Lord God our Father, reach out in love.
And finally hear our prayer for children who on this father’s day feel pain instead of joy – those whose fathers have died, those orphaned as children, those who have been mistreated, rejected, abused, and those from broken homes who barely see or know their fathers.
Lord God our Father, reach out in love.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
 
Closing Words
 
It’s been a joy and privilege to share with you again today.  Thanks again for logging on.  I hope if you are a dad you are able to have a very happy father’s day.  I trust that all of us have been reminded of how best to show due respect our parents.  Thank you for all your prayers for our church leadership as we have been planning for reopening our Sunday services in a safe and socially distanced way.  We have really known the Lord’s help in our meetings.  We will be sending all of you a letter by email shortly to let you know our plans, to enable you to sign our Covid policy and to give you plenty of time to prepare for what will be a wonderful opportunity to meet together again for worship.
 
I hope you can tune in again on Wednesday morning as we look at Psalm 32 together and discover the amazing freedom God’s forgiveness can bring us.  I also want to say a big thank you for all your support and prayers for my mum who has been moved into hospice care in Belfast which means we are now able to see her.  Next Sunday our new Moderator Rev David Bruce will be leading a service organised by members of our Dublin and Munster Presbytery.  One of the aims of this service is to encourage all our Presbytery members to tune in together and to remind ourselves that we are part of a family that is so much bigger.  It also gives all our ministers a Sunday off!  So please do tune in to that at our normal time of 10.00 am by clicking on the link on our Facebook Page or on our church Website.  To close today, I’m delighted that members of our church choir our going to sing us a beautiful benediction…So may the Lord bless you and keep you…
 
Benediction
 
May God's blessing surround you each day
As you trust Him and walk in His way.
May his presence within guard and keep you from sin
Go in peace, go in joy, go in love.

Call:
 
Because you are sons and daughters of God, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba Father.”
 
Invocation:
 
Almighty God, we rejoice in the privilege of being able to call you our Father.  We bless you that you are a perfect parent one who knows everything, one who is always there for us, one who loves us completely, one who guides us with all wisdom and always for our good, one who disciplines us when necessary but who forgives us immediately we say sorry and buries our failures in the sea of your forgetfulness.  Give us the help of your Spirit in our service this morning so that our singing, our prayers, our attention to your word and our willingness to obey will give you great pride and joy.  This we ask in Jesus name, Amen.
 
Confession and thanks:
 
Father, we thank you for our parents and for all the people who have cared for us and guided us wisely as e have grown up.  We thank you especially for your perfect fatherhood and for the brotherhood we share in your Son the Lord Jesus Christ.  We thank you that He gave His life that we might be reconciled to you.  We thank you that He reigns in heaven, our Great High Priest and that he prays for us every day.  We thank you that you have given us your Spirit to guide us, strengthen and comfort us. 
 
Forgive us when we have taken our parents for granted and when we have not honoured those who have cared for us the way they deserve.  Forgive us when we have not been the parents you would want us to be.  Forgive us when we have rejected your parenthood.  When we neglect to talk to you or to seek your advice through reading your word.  Forgive us when we refuse to obey you and when we spurn your discipline.  Yet we thank you Father, that you are gracious and merciful, that you never stop loving us and that you always stand with open arms waiting for us to return to you.  So cleanse us afresh from our sin and renew daily our relationship with you, with each other, with our parents and with our children.  So may every part of our lives reflect the glory of your Divine Parenthood, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Intercession:
 
Heavenly Father, from whom all parenthood comes, teach us to be better parents despite our many failures.  Help us to understand our own children and all the children that you place in our care so that they may grow in your wisdom and love according to your will.  Fill us with sensitive respect for the great gift of human life which you have committed to our care, help us to listen with patience to their worries and problems and give us tolerance to allow them to develop as individuals, as your Son did under the loving guidance of Mary and Joseph.
 
We pray for young people growing up in a difficult and dangerous world.  We pray for those who are unemployed or struggling to find employment.  We pray for those taking their first steps in their skill, trade or profession.  We pray for those who feel they have little support from the adults around them.  We pray for those who are caught up in violence, either giving or receiving it.  We pray for all whose lives are being harmed by an abuse of alcohol or drugs.  We pray for those who are morally confused and uncertain about what is right or wrong.  We pray for young Christians as they strive to live out their faith in an unsympathetic world.  We pray for those who are homeless, or orphans and whose lives are overshadowed by disease and cruelty.  We pray for all children who have been abused, bullied or cruelly treated
 
Lord, give us wisdom to know what you want us to do to make life better for all children, youths and young adults in our families, in this church, in our town and nation and throughout the world.  Bless every individual and organisation that genuinely seeks to care for them and grant that through our combined efforts each will grow up to find Jesus as their Saviour and to enjoy life as you intended.
 
These prayers we offer in the name of your only begotten Son who teaches us to pray saying:
 
Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name,
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread, And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive those who trespass against us, And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil, For Thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory, For ever and ever, AMEN.
  
Offering:
 
Heavenly Father, we thank you that as a perfect parent you always provide for our daily needs.  Help us to say thank you by obeying you in every detail of our lives and so bring great honour to your name and great pride and joy to your heart.  In Jesus name we ask it, Amen.
 

APC 17th June 2020              

​“The Gifts of the Holy Spirit”
 
Welcome and Introduction
Good morning everyone and welcome to our Midweek reflections and prayers.  Today we continue on with our series on the Holy Spirit.  This morning we will be thinking about the varied gifts the Holy Spirit gives us and how we might best use these for the healthy growth of the church, Christ’s Body.  But before we do that, let’s take a moment to talk to God, let’s pray…
 
Prayer
 
Lord of life, we thank you for the gifts you have given us- the things we can do well and enjoy doing, the things that bring happiness to us, and contribute to the happiness of those around us.  Lord of life, teach us to use the gifts you have given us. To play our part in the life of our church community and our society.
 
We thank you for the gifts of others – those things they can do which we can’t, the talents they have which we haven’t, the skills they can offer which complement our own, and the qualities they display which in so many ways  enrich our lives.  Lord teach us to appreciate the gifts of those around us, to appreciate the contribution they make to our lives.
 
Lord of life, teach us to recognise those things we can do well and those things others can do better.  Teach us that we belong together, that all have something to give and something to receive.  Teach us to see the worth of every human being. And to understand you have a special place for each f us in the body of Christ, for it is in His name we pray.
 
Let us pray the Lord’s prayer together…
 
Lord’s Prayer
 
Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name,
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day, our daily bread, And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us,
And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil,
For Thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory,
For ever and ever, AMEN.
 
Bible Reading         2 Corinthians 12: 12-30
Unity and Diversity in the Body
12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?
 
Reflection       “Using God’s Gifts to Work Together”
One of the worst experiences in life is the feeling that we aren’t wanted or we’re not needed.  I can still remember the reason I gave up playing rugby.  After travelling long distances on 3 occasions and sitting on the bench for the whole of those games, I decided it was time to hang up my boots.  Perhaps I over reacted.  Maybe I should have used that experience as a springboard to train harder.  In hindsight, with my build and natural abilities I may have been wiser choosing hockey.  In my more gracious moments, I even think it may have been my coach’s way of saving me from injury!  But I’ll never forget the feelings of frustration, disappointment and uselessness that I experienced.   I’m sure you’ve also had those experiences at some point in your life.
That’s how some of the Christians in the church in Corinth felt.  Whether it was due to false teaching or because of a power struggle between personalities, they had begun to argue over which of them was the more spiritual and which of them possessed the most important spiritual gifts.  Many of them had developed the completely wrong idea that if you could speak in tongues you had really arrived!  As a result, some of the people in the church were made to feel inferior and were beginning to feel useless and unwanted.  Others were flexing their muscles and parading their gifts in an attempt to prove that actually what they did was more important than someone else.  The end result was an internal conflict that not only threatened to destroy their relationships but also the effectiveness of their witness to the community in which they lived.
Thankfully someone had the good sense to write to their spiritual Father, the apostle Paul, explaining to him what was going on and asking him for advice.  In his response, Paul reminds them of 4 important lessons- lessons that it’s also good for us to ponder and with God’s help to put into practice.
The first lesson is simply this-

1. Jesus needs us!

At one point in his letter, Paul says these remarkable words, “You are the body of Christ and each one of you is part of it!”
Just stop and let that sink in for a moment.  Paul says, “We are the body of Christ!”  What that means is that because the Lord Jesus is not in this world in the body anymore, if he wants something done he needs to find a man or a woman who will do it.  Now of course Jesus is with us by His Holy Spirit.  God can still do anything and in that sense He doesn’t need us!  But He also chooses to use us.  He chooses to allow us to be the vessels in which His Spirit lives to guide us, teach us and comfort us.  He also gives us the privilege of being His hands and His feet to do His work on earth!  If Jesus wants a child taught he needs to find a teacher who will to do it.  If he wants a sick person cured he has to find a doctor to make a diagnosis and a surgeon to perform the operation.  If He wants the hungry to be fed or a village to have clean water then He needs a group of people to get together to provide what is necessary.  If God wants to help someone in miraculous ways, He can do it without us, but normally God chooses to work in this way in answer to our prayers. 
In all these ways, God chooses to do His work and reveal His care for the world through us.  Paul reminds the Corinthians and us that each of us is part of Christ’s Body.  That means that God needs you, God needs me!  It doesn’t matter how old or how young you are.  It doesn’t matter what gifts and abilities God has given you.  It doesn’t matter what your nationality is.  It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor.  It doesn’t matter what your family background is.  It doesn’t matter what sort of education you have received.  Whoever you are, God needs you.  He has a job for you to do so that people in this world may experience His love and care!
Believe me, God will never leave us on the side line.  That should be such an encouragement to us.  But it’s also a challenge.  Because the truth is sometimes God’s problem is that He’s calling us onto the pitch and we’re saying, “Could you not use somebody else?” 
I want to take this opportunity to thank you for all that you contribute to the life of our congregation.  I know that everything you give is on a voluntary basis and in circumstances where money and time are often at a premium.  But at the same time I want to encourage you to keep on stepping up to the plate and getting involved in the life of our church.  The reality is, church and all the activities that go with it don’t just happen.  They happen because many of you are willing to say to God, “Here I am use me!”  Whether that’s arranging flowers, putting together a power point, writing and saying a prayer, playing music, making coffee, taking photos, teaching kids, sweeping floors, supervising kids, attending meetings, counting money, organising fund raisers, updating Facebook, baking cakes, printing leaflets, making phone calls, keeping accounts, liaising with hall users or visiting someone who is sick, the only reason this church can function effectively and be a blessing to so many people in our community and the wider world is because each of us is willing to play our part.  I want to thank you for the part that you are playing and I want to encourage those of you have yet to get involved to come and speak to me or your elder, or put your name on a rota and to share the load.  The good news is God needs you and we need you to keep our church alive and growing.
 

1. We need each other:

The second lesson Paul teaches us in this section of his letter, is that we need each other.  The Corinthians had forgotten that very simple truth.  They had begun to play as a group of individuals rather than as a team.  Some of them were spiritually proud.  They thought that the spiritual gifts that they possessed were far more important than anybody else’s.  Some people were becoming jealous of the gifts that other people possessed.  Probably saddest of all, was the fact that in this competitive climate some people felt that the things they did were of no real significance either to people or to God.  Wisely Paul brings them back from the very brink of implosion by reminding them that it is only together that they can function effectively as the Body of Christ.  In a nutshell, what He says to them is, “You are like a human body.  It is made up of many parts.  Some of them are very prominent, some of them are hidden away.  Some of them seem more important than others but when you think about it, all the different parts have a really important role to play.  If any of those parts were missing then the whole body is affected.” 
The significance of these words struck me very forcibly one Christmas several years ago when I got an ear infection.  To be honest with you, I’ve never really appreciated the fact that I can hear.  I never really understood or sympathised properly with those of you who have hearing aids.  But that has all changed because for 4 weeks I couldn’t hear anything at all out of my right ear and I was concerned that it might stay like that for good.  I am fortunate that my hearing was not damaged by that experience, but I can now appreciate in a new way what a huge difference hearing loss can make to a person’s life.  I realised again just how important every little part of my body is to the physical and emotional functioning of my whole being.  It is that very simple truth that the Corinthians had forgotten.  Some of them thought the people who could speak in tongues were the really spiritual ones.  In a day and age when medical care was extremely primitive others thought the people in the church who could miraculously heal people were the most important.  And so the list goes on….As a result of this internal conflict, the Body of Christ that was the church in Corinth had stopped functioning effectively because they weren’t working in harmony.
You know that’s a really important lesson for us to remember in our church too.  We are a body.  We are all very different and we have all been gifted by God in very different ways.  The roles we play in church life are also very different.  All these talents or gifts that we possess are gifts to us from God.  We can’t take any personal credit for them.  God didn’t just give them to us for our own personal satisfaction, although we do get much pleasure out of using our talents.  God also gave us them so that we could use them to benefit other people.  What’s more, none of these gifts are really more important than any other because if one of them was missing, then our whole church would be affected and would not function effectively.  I mean, what would happen if all the musicians decided that they weren’t going to play for us?  What would happen if everyone decided they weren’t going to contribute financially?  What would happen if the Sunday School Teachers all decided to pack it in?  What would happen if Club leaders decided not to turn up for a week?  What would happen if we didn’t have Wendy to clean the toilets, hoover, mop the floors and put out chairs?  What would happen if no-one was willing to organise and help run our fundraising events?  What would happen if no one was willing to lodge money and be our treasurer?  What would happen if no-one visited people in hospital or popped in regularly to visit people who are elderly or who live alone?  What would happen if no-one ever cut the grass on the back field?  What would happen if I decided to lie in some Sunday?  (Don’t answer that!)  The truth is, without everybody doing the different jobs that they do our church would simply be a shambles.  In fact it would probably cease to exist altogether.  Take a moment to think about the people you know in church.  Never forget we are a team.  We need each other.  All of us are important.  None of us is more important than the other.  The part that you play in our congregational life is important.  But that role is no more important than what someone else does!
3      We should respect each other:
The third lesson we can learn from what Paul says to the Corinthians is that we should respect each other.  In his attempt to get the Corinthians to do this, Paul reminds them that it’s very often the less presentable parts of our bodies that we treat with special honour.  We give them a respect and a modesty that we don’t give to other parts of our bodies that are more visible.  It is those areas of our body which aren’t for public display that we treat as special and private and that is wholly appropriate.  Paul says to the Corinthians and to us, “You need to respect each other the way you respect the less presentable parts of your body.”  You need to appreciate the importance of those people that some of you seem to think are dispensable. 
You know, whether it’s at home, where we work or in the clubs and societies we are involved in, there will always be people who do the more menial tasks or take more of a back seat role.  Maybe you are one of those people.  It’s important that we give those people as much respect as we give to the CEO or those who are the main decision makers.  It’s the same in our church.  We should have as much respect for the person who types the announcements, hoovers the carpet or takes the photographs as we do for the minister or the Clerk of Session.  We should value the importance of an older person as much as we value our children or teens.  It’s easy for all of us to have our own hobby horses in church life.  It’s easy for all of us to think that one area of church life is more important than another.  It’s easy for us to think that certain people are more important.  It’s easy for us to think that certain things we do or support are more important than another.  But we need to remember the words of Jesus who reminds us in his parable of the mustard seed of the importance of small things.  We need to remember Paul’s words to the church in Corinth that all people are equally as important in the life of any congregation.  If we’re honest this is a temptation we all have to struggle with.  It’s human nature to have our favourites or our own particular priorities.  But God calls us to a way that is different- a way of mutual respect, a way of giving everyone equal time and significance, a way of always trying to see the bigger picture, a way of trying to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes, a way of taking time to hear both sides of every story.  We need to respect each other.
 
4      We should care for each other:
The last lesson we can learn from Paul in this section of his letter to the Corinthians is that we should care for each other.  When I had my ear infection, it was important that I went and got it treated.  The longer I couldn’t hear, the more I realised how important that was.  I began to realise how important my hearing was to functioning normally in everyday life.  I couldn’t listen to the radio or music when driving.  I didn’t feel connected to the congregation when I was preaching because all I could hear was my own voice and I was never sure how loudly I was talking.  I was beginning to annoy my family because I kept saying, “What was that?” and I found it very hard chairing meetings because I couldn’t always hear what people were saying.
The fact that one part of my body was suffering and not working properly really affected my life in a lot of ways.  It also affected the lives of those around me.  Paul says to the Corinthians that it’s exactly the same for their church.  He reminds them that because they are a Body, when one of them suffers it affects them all.   That’s why he says that they should have equal concern for each other and try and look out for each other.
That’s an important lesson for us to learn.  We need to try and look out for each other.  The truth is that behind the smiles that we put on a Sunday morning, many of us are struggling.  We struggle with illness.  We struggle with financial problems.  We struggle with loneliness.  We struggle with work and family demands.  We struggle with loss.  We struggle with temptation.  We struggle with guilt.  We struggle with relationships.  We struggle with growing older.  We struggle with becoming a teenager.  We struggle with life events that are beyond our control and so the list goes on.  And the truth is that if all of our struggles are to be listened to and helped we need to look out for each other.  With the best will in the world, even in a small church like ours, the minister and the elders can’t provide the level of support that is necessary for everyone on our own.  We are also people who struggle and need support too!  That’s why all of us need to make an effort to get to know a few people in the congregation and to make it our aim to be there for them when it really matters.  That’s why all of us need to allow ourselves to be a little more vulnerable and to admit to those closest to us when we really aren’t coping.  That’s why each of us has the responsibility of saying to each other, “Thanks for that, or you did that really well or I appreciated what you said.”  Support and encouragement must be a collective responsibility if they are to be successful in any growing church.  I know that many of you are doing these things and I want to encourage you to continue to do that.  If we make these efforts not only will individual people be encouraged and supported but the life of our congregation as a whole will be strengthened and maintained.
 
Conclusion:
Paul reminds the quarrelling Corinthians that they are the Body of Christ.  Using this analogy he teaches them and us 4 really important lessons for our corporate life.

1. Jesus needs us!  We are His hands and His feet.  Let me encourage you to get involved for God in the life of our congregation. 
2. We need each other.  We all have different gifts and roles but none of us is more important than the other.  We must work together and play as a team.
3. We should respect each other.  Because we are all as important as each other we should treat each other with dignity and appreciation.  We must remember the bigger picture and not fall into the trap of thinking that any part of the whole is less significant.
4. We should care for each other.  Because we are a body, when one of us suffers it affects us all.  The truth is, we all suffer, we all struggle with life at times.  We need to be aware of that and make it our goal to get alongside each other collectively to offer support and encouragement.  We need to allow ourselves to be vulnerable enough to let others know when we need a listening ear.

 
Prayer for our church family
Father we pray today for our church family.  We remember those who have been bereaved in recent times.  Father bring your deep comfort in those moments when we feel deeply sad because our loved ones are no longer with us.
We pray for the most senior members of our congregation especially those who are in residential care.  Lord, may they know that they are deeply loved by us and by their families.  Give them the grace and patience that they need in the current circumstances and help us never to forget them and to always make time to keep in touch. 
Help us all to really appreciate our grandparents and parents.  May the love and care that we show them, encourage them to still find great enjoyment every day despite the limitations and difficulties that growing older can bring.
We pray for those recovering from operations and ask that you will give them patience and enable them to heal well.
We remember those who are in hospital.  Lord, thank you for all the medical staff who are treating them.  Give them great wisdom and grant that through all of their efforts and your healing presence, that our loved ones will soon be well enough to return home.
We pray for our children and teenagers.  God, give us wisdom and creativity as parents and grandparents to know how to help them to find stimulation and happiness each day despite the continued difficulties imposed by the restrictions of social distancing.  Lord, guard their minds and their faith and may they know how much we love them.
We think especially of those who are transitioning from one school to another or from school to university.  Lord, even if they cannot experience a graduation in the normal way, help them to find ways of saying their goodbyes, appreciating all that they have experienced and to know that there will still be many great and exciting experiences to look forward to.
We remember all those who are still working on frontlines that are difficult.  Give them courage, perseverance and keep them safe.  May they not be fearful in the future despite all that they have experienced during this pandemic.
We pray that you would give all of us the continued grace and patience that we need.  Help us to stay hopeful knowing that it won’t be long now before we are able to meet together again.  Lord, take away our fears and keep us safe as we continue to go about our daily lives.
Lord, we thank for our church leaders and for all they are doing in the background to prepare our church for us to return to worship.  Give them wisdom and creativity so that despite the restrictions, it will be a rewarding and blessed experience when we meet together for worship.
In a moment of quiet let me encourage you to bring our personal prayers and concerns to God and also to think of one or two people in the church and to pray for them….
Lord we know you hear and are ready to answer our prayers.  Whatever answer you give may our hearts be open and ready to receive your blessing.
 
Closing Words
 
It’s been a joy and privilege to share with you again today.  Thanks again for logging on.  Let me encourage you to reflect this week on the gifts God has given you and ask Him how you might best use them to bless others in our church and in society.  Let me also encourage you to read the lists of the gifts of the Spirit in the bible and pray that God would give you the gifts he wants and which he feels would most befit our church and community at this time. 
 
We are working hard as a leadership behind the scenes to get all our policy and procedures in place so that we may reopen our church for socially distanced services.  As we’ve been setting out chairs, and discussing all the other things we can and can’t do, we realise that initially church is going to be very different.  But we will do all we can to make it a positive and safe experience. We are aiming for Sunday 6th July but will confirm closer to the time if everything is in place.  We will also be emailing out our policy and guidelines for reopening once those are completed.  That will probably take us another couple of weeks.  Please do pray for our church leadership as we continue to meet, pray and plan for holding our services in a socially distanced way.
 
I hope you can tune in again on Sunday morning as we gather to celebrate father’s day and to reflect more broadly on the gift of our parents and how we might honour those to whom honour is due.  To close let me share the benediction, after which I invite you to say the grace together…
 
Benediction
 
Go into your week with your ears pitched
to the sound of God’s voice calling your name.
Go into your week with your eyes peeled
for the face of Jesus in unexpected places.
Go into your week with your soul poised
to receive the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Peace.
 
And may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all now and for evermore, Amen.”
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

APC Sunday 14th June 2020               “The Fruit of the Holy Spirit”
 
Welcome and Introduction
Good morning everyone and welcome to our Sunday morning Service.  Today we continue on with our series on the Holy Spirit.  This morning we will be thinking about cultivating the fruit of God’s spirit in our lives.  But before we do that let’s take a moment to talk to God, let’s pray…
 
Prayer
 
Almighty and loving God, we thank you for all the ways you have sown the seed of your word in our lives – through the living relationship we share with Christ, through the movement of the Holy Spirit within our hearts, through the preaching and the reading of scriptures, through the fellowship of the church, through the daily experience of your love in the world around us.
 
Forgive us for all those ties when your word has failed to take root.  Forgive us for the shallowness at times of our faith and our unwillingness to dig deeper.  Forgive our failure to prepare ourselves for worship, our carelessness in making tome for you, our laziness in discipleship, our preoccupation with everything that distracts us from our true calling.
 
Loving God, forgive us that our lives have been barren when they should have borne lasting fruit.  Sow afresh your word in our hearts and nurture it within us, so that we may grow in grace and yield a rich harvest of your spirit, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.
 
Lord’s Prayer
 
Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name,
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day, our daily bread, And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us,
And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil,
For Thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory,
For ever and ever, AMEN.
 
Bible Reading         Galatians 5 v16-26 (NIV)
 
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
 
Reflection               “The Fruit of the Holy Spirit”
 
One day Paddy and Seamus were discussing the wonders of the universe as they usually did, every Friday lunchtime.  Seamus turned to Paddy and asked, “What’s the world’s greatest invention?”  Paddy thought for a moment and then responded wistfully, “Ah, the world’s greatest invention must be the thermos flask.”  “Why’s that?”  enquired Seamus.  “Well, it keeps hot things hot and cold things cold, but how does it know?” 
 
While God’s Spirit is personal He is also invisible.  In some ways God’s Spirit is a bit like the wind or a vacuum in a thermos flask.  We can’t see the wind or the vacuum, but we know they are there when we see how it blows the trees or the washing on the line or how it keeps things at a constant temperature.  In the same way we can’t see God’s Spirit but we can see his effects in people’s lives. 
 
It is common for all of us to doubt at times whether we really are Christians.  It often happens when we feel guilty about something we’ve said or done wrong. Or when we pass through a particularly difficult life experience when God seems distant.  Our natural reaction at these times is to want to feel something inside or to experience a miraculous or special answer to our prayers in order to feel close to God or to be reassured that we are actually connected to Him.
 
Thankfully there are times when these experiences can be a reality.  We may feel goose bumps when we sing a particular song or feel especially close to God during a special time of prayer.  God may answer our prayers in ways that can never be attributed to coincidence.  But if we are always looking for reassurance in these areas we will be disappointed and may even become disillusioned.  That’s because our feelings are so changeable.  They can be affected by all sorts of things including our own hormones, medications and even whether we had a good night’s sleep or not.  It’s also because, God has not promised to always answer our prayers miraculously or even to always answer with a ‘Yes’.  So where can we find a solid foundation that will reassure us that we really are Christians and that God is with us?  And what is the best way to show other people that God is real and that he can make a positive difference in our lives?
 
The answer is to look for the visible signs of the changes that the Holy Spirit brings about in our lives.  We call these changes or these characteristics the ‘fruit’ of the Holy Spirit.  If we can see these right attitudes and actions ripening and blossoming in our lives then we can be certain that the Holy Spirit lives within us.  If other people can see and experience these characteristics in us they will be attracted to the God whom we worship.
 
But what does the fruit of the Holy Spirit look like?  Well, thankfully, St Paul tells us in a letter he wrote to a group of Christians living in Galatia which is part of modern day Turkey.  In Galatians 5: 22-23 Paul writes, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.”
I think it’s important to stress that this is one Fruit with 9 segments.  It’s not 9 different fruit.  That means that all of these characteristics should be developing within our lives at the same time, although for all of us, at any given time, there may be certain segments that need a little watering.
 
It would be great at some point in the future to do an in-depth study on each of these segments, but for today, let me give you a brief taster so that you know what to look for in your own life for reassurance and also so you know what characteristics to ask God to create within you.
 
The first segment is love.  The word used by Paul describes a very special type of love.  It is a love that always wants the best for other people even if they are not nice to us.  It is a tough love that is willing to sacrifice for God and others.  It is a love that seems almost impossible to achieve, but the miracle is that the Holy Spirit will help us to be people who really love others in this sacrificial way.
 
The second segment is joy.  The joy that the Holy Spirit will give
us is a special type of happiness that only God can give us.  It describes a deep sense of contentment that we know God loves us and is on our side even when life is difficult or painful.
 
The third segment is peace.  The Holy Spirit will give us a special trust that we are God’s friends even though we still aren’t perfect.  He will also help us to trust that no matter what happens God is in control and has a good plan to make us more like Jesus.
 
The fourth segment is patience.  The Holy Spirit will help us to become people who don’t get cross easily, who don’t always go mad when things don’t go the way we want and who are quick to forgive people when they have annoyed us.  He will help us to be people who don’t seek revenge even when we have been wronged.
 
The fifth segment is kindness.  The Holy Spirit will help us to be kind.  The word the bible uses describes people who have a goodness that is gentle.  So the Holy Spirit will help us to be courteous and polite.  He will help us to overlook people’s faults and not be sharp or bitter in our attitudes.
 
The sixth segment is goodness.  The Holy Spirit will help us to be good.  As well as doing what is right and what pleases God it also means that He will cause us to love other people and want to help people who are in need.
The seventh segment is gentleness.  The Holy Spirit will help us to be gentle.  The word used in the bible describes an animal that has been brought under control by its owner.  It describes an attitude that is submissive to whatever God wants.  It describes an attitude that is teachable and considerate of others.  It describes someone who is slow to put themselves or their own ideas forward.
 
The eighth segment is faithfulness.  The Holy Spirit will help us to be people who are reliable- People who live by good principles.  The Holy Spirit will help us to be people who will do what we have promised- People whom others can trust.
 
The final segment is self-control.  The Holy Spirit will help us to be able to control our emotions, our actions and our attitudes.  He will enable us to say no to ourselves so that we can help the needs of others.  He will help us to be in such control of ourselves that we are fit to serve other people.
 
The last question we need to ask is, “How will the Holy Spirit
make these changes in us?”
 
Well the simple answer is He will do it as we do 3 things.
 
He will do it as we read the bible and as we memorise these different characteristics so that we know what we are aiming for.
 
He will do it as we pray and ask Him to help us to change.  This is
something we need to do every day.  
 
We need to pray things like, “Please Lord, help me to be kind to this person.  Please help me to be more patient in this situation.  Please help me to remember to do such and such so that others can rely on me etc.”
 
Lastly, He can only do these things in our lives if we are willing to
play our part.  We need to be willing to respond to a situation of
need by being generous.  We need to be willing to calm down and
not blow our temper when something goes wrong or when
someone does something that annoys us. We need to be willing
to keep our promises so that people can trust us.  We need to be
willing to forgive people who have hurt us.  We need to be willing
to trust God even when life is difficult or painful. 
 
In the same way that farming is a joint venture between people
and God so too growing the fruit of the Spirit is a joint venture
between us and God.  The farmer must plough and sow and
spray knowing that only God can send the sun and rain to make
the crops grow.
 
So too, only the Holy Spirit can make His fruit grow in our lives.
But we must read our bibles, we must pray and we must be willing to do all that we can to obey how we know He wants us to behave.
 
Conclusion
 
If we are to live like Christ and live lives that we can be proud of then we need the help of God’s Holy Spirit.
 
When we are willing to turn from all we know to be wrong and when we trust that Jesus died for our sins and ask Him to forgive us a miracle happens.  God sends His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus to live inside us.  We can’t see Him.  Sometimes we may feel His presence.  But over time we will be able to see the changes that He will make in our lives, making us into better people.
 
These changes that He will create in us are called the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  They are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.
 
These changes will happen as we read our bibles, as we pray and as we are willing to do all that we can to obey how we know God wants us to behave.
 
As we begin to see these changes growing in our lives it gives us reassurance that we really are Christians.  As other people see these changes in us they will be attracted to the God whom we worship.
 
Prayer
 
Father God, we thank you that we are able to meet online today.  We pray that everyone who logs on to this or any other service of worship today will be encouraged, blessed and helped through this activity.
 
Father, we thank you for giving us this day and for your example of taking time to rest.  Help us to make the most of our Sundays and to take time in our busy weeks to rest and to worship so that we might be regularly renewed in body, mind and spirit.
 
Lord, give us your strength, patience and resilience to continue on the path set before us by the unexpected and unchosen circumstances of pandemic and lockdown and in your mercy may this virus soon be eradicated so that we might be able to return to the type of living that we all enjoy.
 
Holy Spirit, we pray that you will continue to grow your beautiful characteristics in our lives.  May our lives attract the people we live and work with to you.  When they ask us about you, please give us the courage to tell them how much you mean to us and what a difference you have made in our lives. 
 
We pray for leaders in the business and retail sectors as they navigate a path towards reopening, Lord, give them a necessary mix of restraint and resourcefulness in guiding return to trading.
 
We pray for shop owners, managers and staff as they think through practical and financial implications for reopening.  Lord enable them to arrive at arrangements for safe trading and feasible models for profitability. 
 
Lord, we pray for ministers, elders and members involved in delivering pastoral care from a distance.  Lord continue to help us to show your love in prayerful, sensitive and practical ways.  We ask that you will give great wisdom to all church leaders thinking through how they may reopen church in a way that maintains safe social distancing.
 
We continue to pray for those who are suffering through illness, anxiety, bereavement or loss of employment and in particular we remember families who are unable to visit their loved ones in hospital and the distress this causes.  Loving father, bring strength, peace, comfort and the reassurance of your presence and provision to all who need it most.
 
Take a moment to include your own prayers…

Closing Words
 
It’s been a joy and privilege to share with you again today.  Thanks again for logging on.  I hope you’ve been encouraged because you recognise that God’s Spirit is producing fruit in your life and you know He will continue to help you to grow even more.  Given the government announcement last Thursday that churches may now reopen from the 29th June we are currently hoping we can begin church services on Sunday 6th July.  This will be subject to confirmation from our denomination.  There will be more details to follow.  Please do pray for our church leadership as we pray and plan for holing our services in a socially distanced way.
 
I hope you can tune in again on Sunday morning as we reflect more deeply on the role the Holy Spirit plays in producing spiritual fruit in our lives.  I also want to say a big thank you for all your support and prayers for my mum and family at this difficult time.  To close let me share the benediction, after which I invite you to say the grace together…

Benediction
 
May God, who began a good work in you,
continue to be at work in your life,
guiding, teaching and equipping you
until Jesus Christ returns.
 
May your love and compassion continue to grow-
a love that is full of knowledge and wise insight,
so that you will be able to recognize what really matters,
and live a pure and blameless life.
 
May you live a life centred in the Holy Spirit,
a life that bears rich fruit –
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
generosity, faithfulness, tolerance and self-control –
all the good things that come from following the Spirit,
for living this way will bring much glory and praise to God.
 
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all now and for evermore, Amen.”
 

10th June 2020 APC
“Black lives matter!” – “Lessons from the Good Samaritan”
 
Welcome and Introduction
Good morning everyone and welcome to our midweek prayers and reflections.  Following the death of George Floyd and the media discussion that has followed, I thought it would be appropriate today to interrupt our series on the Holy Spirit to think about what it means to love our fellow man as we reflect together on the story of the Good Samaritan.  But before we do that let’s talk to God, let’s pray…
 
Opening Prayer
Loving God, we come to you today as the family of your people, those you have united in Christ, and as we come, reminded of that great truth, we give you thanks for all the families to which we belong. 
Lord of all, join us together in love.
We think of the families among whom we have been raised – those with whom we have shared so much, to whom we are especially close, and who will always be uniquely precious to us.
Lord of all, join us together in love.
We think of the family of our church – the fellowship we find here, the friends we have made, and the encouragement we give to one another.
Lord of all, join us together in love.
We think of the family of the church as a whole – those across Ireland, across the world across the centuries who are one with us in Christ.
Lord of all, join us together in love.
We think of the family of humankind, the common bond that ties us together, the wonderful variety of peoples and nations of which we form a part, the diversity of cultures, customs.
Lord of all, join us together in love.
Loving God, we thank you that we share something in common with all people near and far, our lives interwoven, inter-related, interdependent, intertwined.  Help us we pray to recognise more fully what that means, to appreciate the responsibilities it brings and the opportunities to share it offers.  So may we learn to love our neighbours as ourselves and to see your image in every one.
Lord of all, join us together in love.
For the sake of Jesus Christ our Lords, Amen.
 
Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name,
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day, our daily bread, And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us,
And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil,
For Thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory,
For ever and ever, AMEN.

Bible Reading         Luke 10: 29-37            
 
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’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
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 neighbor?”
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 traveled, 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 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 neighbor 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.”
 
Reflection      “Black lives matter!” – “Lessons from the Good Samaritan”
 
“Black lives matter.”  What began as a statement of truth following the murder of George Floyd, has evolved into a global movement where all of us are being challenged to reflect on our prejudices and in particular our treatment of people whose skin colour is different from our own.  I welcome this movement wholeheartedly because all lives do matter and every form of prejudice is wrong because it causes untold hurt to those who are its victims.
 
One of the reasons this movement is so important is because it has caused many of us to realise that we have become complacent, blinded to the reality that despite all that was achieved through the peaceful protests of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Ghandi, prejudice, racial-hatred and cruel injustice are still alive and kicking in our world today.  What’s most disturbing of all is that the seeds of these disgusting attitudes and behaviours lurk not far below the surface in all of our hearts, even in those of us who consider ourselves to be religious, and in those of us who are fully behind the movement “Black lives matter!”
 
So what can we do?  Where can we go to be re-awakened to the prejudices within our own hearts?  Where can we get the help that we need to be different, to make a lasting impression on this broken world?
 
Well let me direct your thoughts to Jesus, the greatest glimpse we’ll get of God this side of heaven.  And let me turn your thoughts to his encounter with someone who was completely blind to their own inner prejudice.
 
The story begins in Luke’s gospel, when an expert in Jewish Law asks Jesus what seems like a reasonable question.  “Teacher”, he says, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
 
Luke tells us that the man was out to test Jesus rather than to get an answer to his own spiritual searchings.  He probably wanted to know if Jesus really knew the Jewish laws, if He was a true or false prophet.
 
Despite the hidden motives behind the man’s request, Jesus takes the opportunity to lead the man forward in his understanding of God.  Instead of giving him a direct answer, Jesus responds with a question.  He says, “What is written in the law?  How do you understand it?”
 
Immediately the man quotes two verses of scripture that he would have known off by heart.  Most likely he would have had these verses written on a tiny piece of paper and housed securely in a little leather box called a ‘phylactery’ which was tied around his wrist. 
 
He puts these two verses from Deuteronomy and Leviticus together in his mind and replies, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbour as yourself.”
 
“That’s the right answer!” says Jesus, “If you do this you will live forever!”
 
Unfortunately this wasn’t enough for the man.  He was a scribe.  His job was to go through the law with a magnifying glass and try to come up with exact details of how each of God’s laws could be carried out in daily life.  General principles of ‘loving God’ and ‘loving other people’ were too simplistic an answer for this educated academic.  He was used to defining words like
‘neighbour’.  In fact, in their academic research, some rabbis had narrowed the meaning of ‘neighbour’ down to their fellow Jews.  Some of them were so strict in this interpretation that they said “it was illegal to help a gentile woman in childbirth because this would only bring another gentile into the world.”
 
So to try and get a more specific answer from Jesus, to see where he stood on this point of teaching, the man asks Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?”
 
Jesus knows this man’s mind-set needs challenged and changed, so he tells him a story with a punch line that will shock him to his senses.  It is the story we know as “the Good Samaritan”.
 
The story would have been familiar to the man.  The road from Jerusalem to Jericho was notorious.  It was narrow, rocky and twisty and dropped over 3,600 feet.  It was perfect bandit country!  Hardly a day would pass without a reported mugging in the daily news along this notorious black spot.
 
The story was familiar, but the actions of the characters and the identity of the hero would take this religious leader by complete surprise.
 
Jesus includes 4 main characters in the story.  The first is a rather foolish traveller.  He is carrying valuables and he is alone.  Anyone with common sense would have travelled such a dangerous route in a larger group of people.  Even though it is deeply sad, it is no surprise then that this person ended up robbed, beaten up and lying at the side of the road.
 
The second character is a Priest.  His daily job was to help minister to God’s people as they came for worship in the Jewish temple.  He would have been familiar with God’s ceremonial law recorded in Numbers 19 v 11.  This stated that anyone who touched a dead person would become unclean.  Not knowing if the body was dead or alive the Priest wasn’t willing to take the risk of losing his turn of duty in the temple.  So he walked on by.
The third person to take the stage is a Levite.  Like the Priest, he also would have had a role to play in the temple worship. Perhaps he too walked on by because of the fear of ritual defilement.  It may even be that he was simply trying to avoid any danger to himself.  It was a common practice for a robber to lie at the side of the road pretending to be injured.  When someone came to help, the rest of the gang would jump out and ambush the unsuspecting helper.  It may be that the Levite was simply applying the common sense rule of safety first.  Whatever his reasons, he too walked on past the injured traveller.
 
Undoubtedly the scribe who was listening to Jesus’ story would have been somewhat surprised that the Levite and the Priest did not stop to help despite understanding the possibility of ambush or spiritual defilement.  However, his jaw must have dropped when he heard the conclusion to the story.
 
For onto the scene steps a character who would have been despised by any strict orthodox Jew.  This man was a Samaritan.  The word Samaritan was sometimes used to describe someone who was a law-breaker or a heretic.  ‘Real’ Jews would have absolutely no dealings with anyone considered to be a Samaritan.
To the scribe listening to Jesus, the Samaritan would automatically be seen as the villain in the story.  What a shock he must have got when Jesus goes on to paint the Samaritan as the hero. 
 
When he sees the man lying at the side of the road the Good Samaritan rushes to his aid.  He has no worries about ritual defilement.  He sets aside his natural fears for his personal safety.  He forgets about the inconvenience and the cost of helping- He
may have missed an important meeting.  He may have upset a few people by being late.  It certainly cost him in time and effort.  A ripped shirt or scarf to act as a man-made bandage.  A generous helping of olive oil and wine.  The blood stains on his clothes and the blankets on his donkey.  A night away from his family in a roadside hotel with no mobile to phone home.  A lot of explaining to do to his worried wife without any pictures as evidence.  He had to cover the man’s expenses for the duration of his stay in the hotel and with no cheques or postal service he had to make another journey back to the hotel to make the payment. 
 
If anyone was ever an example of what it means to show God’s love to another human being it was this man.  Here was a man who was showing the signs of having eternal life- a love for God that flowed out in love to others.  A life in God that would last for all eternity.  What’s more he was a Samaritan.  He wasn’t supposed to be religious, he wasn’t supposed to have any claim on God.
 
When he has finished telling the story, Jesus turns to the Jewish scribe and asks,
 
“Which of these 3 characters do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”
 
The scribe replies, “The one who had mercy on Him.”
 
“Then go and do likewise,” says Jesus.
 
We can learn a number of important lessons in this parable of Jesus.
 
I suppose the first lesson is an answer to the original question, “How can I inherit eternal life?”  The story of the Good Samaritan suggests that eternal life is a gift that we receive from God that causes us to love God and love all other people.  God loves us so much that He sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins.  Through Jesus’ death we become God’s friends when we repent and believe.  When we experience God’s love in Christ we begin to love Him in return.  As our relationship with God deepens we become more like Him and we find ourselves wanting to share God’s love by being kind and helpful to other people.  This is the essence of eternal life.  It is a life lived in God, a life of love which begins with God, flows into our lives and then flows out again into the lives of other people. 
 
This better way of life, this ‘Eternal life’, is a gift of God.  It is not something we can engineer by our own efforts.  I think that’s an important piece of the jigsaw that needs to be included in the ‘Black lives matter’ movement.  I think if we are to see lasting change within society, not only must we campaign and re-educate people, but we must also encourage people to seek the help and the power of God to overcome the prejudices that lie hidden within their hearts.  History has proven time and again that education on its own does not have the power to effect long-term change.  It must be coupled with the power of the Divine to change the heart.  This is what telling people the good news about Jesus can do.  God’s love for us changes us from the inside out.  It motivates us to love Him and love other people.  This is eternal life.  It is a life that begins here on earth and will continue forever even after death.  It is a life that can overcome the deep seated prejudices in all of our hearts.
 
Reflect    What are the prejudices that you are blind to?  Have you realised that you might need the power of God to help you to change?
 
The second lesson is that we need to be wary of the many obstacles to love.  As the characters of the priest and the Levite suggest, there are many obstacles to loving other people.  We may simply be too busy to notice or make time.  We may have natural pride that feels people deserve the predicament they are in.  Our prejudices may cause us to look down on others and not offer help because we feel threatened or lack an understanding of those who are in some way different from us.  We may simply be unwilling to pay the price either in time or money or effort that it will take to get involved.  We may even feel that there is nothing we can really offer or that whatever we do will not make much difference anyway.  There are any number of things that can hold us back from really loving others or helping others. 
 
Only this morning I heard the story of a young woman from the Caribbean who has grown up in Ireland but has experienced terrible racial abuse on many occasions in Dublin.  She described one incident when a gang of individuals hurled racial abuse at her on public transport, and even poured a can of beer over a baby’s head.  Her biggest concern was that no one else said anything.  Even if they were too afraid to confront the gang, she was deeply hurt that no one made eye contact with her or asked her if she was ok.  What was it that prevented those people from showing any form of support?  Evil prevails when good men stay silent.
 
Reflect    What are the obstacles that might be preventing you from showing solidarity with those who are experiencing injustice or making a stand against attitudes or actions you know to be wrong?
 
The third lesson in this story is about who the objects of our love should be.  They should be those who God loves.  And who does God love?  He loves everyone even if they don’t deserve it.  The traveller in the story was stupid.  He shouldn’t have been travelling alone, carrying valuables.  In one sense he deserved what he got.  But the Samaritan loved him despite his foolishness.   None of us deserved for Christ to die on the cross for us because we are the ones who have sinned.  We are the ones who have grieved God.  Yet God still loved us enough to die for us!  So too we need to love people even if they are in trouble because of their own actions.  Whether that’s the child in the class who’s hard to handle, our own kids when they do something foolish, the addict who is placing a drain on public services or someone who’s hurt us in the past who has fallen on hard times.  God calls us here to love all people even when they don’t deserve it. 
 
This story also challenges us to love all people no matter what their creed, their colour or their country.  The person who saved the day was a Samaritan.  Samaritan’s were despised by any orthodox Jew. Yet by choosing their arch enemy as the hero of the story Jesus was saying to the scribe- Look! It was those you consider to be ungodly that actually showed the greatest likeness to God in this story.  He was the one who truly showed love to God by loving his fellow human being!  Therefore if he showed signs of having God’s love then how can you despise him the way you do?  Here Jesus challenges us to love all people no matter what their creed, colour or their social class and to stand against every form of prejudice that we may encounter.
 
Reflect    Who are the people in need that you do not love because you feel they deserve it?  Who are the people that you do not love because they are somehow different to you?
 
The final lesson this story teaches us is what the outcome of true love will be.  You see real love always results in action.  It is not just an emotional feeling towards someone in need, although compassion is where it must begin.  True love moves from compassion to action.  I’m sure the Priest and the Levite both felt some sort of sympathy when they passed the man’s body at the side of the road.  But neither of these men really loved him.  It was only the Samaritan who truly loved him because he took the time and made the effort to help him.  That’s what God’s love is like.  God didn’t just say to us, “I love you.”  That would have done us no good.  No, God showed His love to us practically.  He came and fed the hungry.  He healed the sick and welcomed the stranger.  Above all, He willingly went to the cross and died so that we could be released from the guilt and power of our sins.  God showed His love to us in action!  That’s why if we are to show God’s love we must take action.  Sure there is only so much we can do.  Sure our resources our scarce.  But if we are looking and if we are willing, God will present each of us with fellow travellers that we can help along life’s journey.  God’s love is practical it’s not just an emotional feeling.
 
Reflect    What are you doing to practically share the love of God?
 
Conclusion
 
The Parable of the Good Samaritan is a lesson in love. 
 
It shows us that eternal life is not something we earn it’s a gift of God gives us.  That gift is Jesus Christ.  The miracle is that when we receive God’s love it motivates us to love God back and to love other people the way He has loved us.
 
It reminds us that there can be many obstacles to loving others.  We need to ask God to show us these and help us to remove them.
 
It teaches us that the objects of our love are to be all people without exception no matter what their colour, class or creed.  Even if we think they deserve their troubles, even if we consider them to be our enemy.  God loves everyone and so must we.
 
It demonstrates the nature of God’s love.  It is practical action that springs from compassion.
 
May God help us to think about these lessons and may we ask Him to apply them to our lives, Amen.
 
Prayer
 
Gracious God, you call us to love you with all our hearts and minds and souls.  You challenge us to love our neighbour as ourselves.  You tell us through Christ that the whole law is summed up in one single commandment; to love.  It all sounds so easy, so straightforward, but we know in reality it is so very difficult.
 
Gracious God, forgive us the feebleness of our love.
 
Too often we love only ourselves, our every thought for our own welfare, our own ends, our own esteem, our own pleasures.  Too often we reserve our love for the exclusive few – our families, our closest friends, our own colour, class, creed or clan.  And too often we are forgetful of others, indifferent to them, even hostile.
 
Gracious God, forgive us the feebleness of our love.
 
Yet worse than that, even when we think we love we are sometimes deceiving ourselves.  We are impatient with other’s mistakes.  We are slow to give help when it is needed, especially if it means putting ourselves out.  We are envious of others good fortune, more concerned with our own well-being than that of those around us.
We are careless in what we say and self-centred in the way we think, ever prone to take offence, bearing grievances and harbouring resentment, even distorting and deceiving in order to get our way or to avoid facing truths we would rather ignore.
 
Gracious God, forgive us the feebleness of our love.
 
All too easily our love is destroyed.  Instead of holding fast through difficulties, we automatically find ourselves believing the worst, feeling ourselves betrayed, giving up on love instead of  working to nurture it.
 
Lord of all it is hard to love, especially when love is thrown back in our faces, or when those we are faced by seem unlovely or when love is costly or demanding.  We confess we wonder at times whether love is the right way at all, or simply a naïve illusion, a pleasant but foolish fantasy.
 
But you have shown us the way of love, made flesh in Christ- love that came to our world despite rejection, that reaches out to us in all our unloveliness, that was willing to pay the highest price and make the ultimate sacrifice.  And through that love you offer life, not only to us but to all people, a life that can one day be free from all things that divide and hurt and frighten us.
 
So now, take the little love we have – nurture, deepen and expand it until we have learned what love really means, until your love flows through our hearts, until love is all in all.
 
Take a moment now to include your own prayers…
 
Closing Words
It’s been a joy and privilege to share with you again today.  Thanks again for logging on.  I hope you’ve felt challenged at the reality that we need God’s help to overcome the prejudices in our own hearts and to do all we can to stand against such things wherever we encounter them in society. 
Given the government announcement last Thursday that churches may now reopen from the 29th June we are currently hoping we can begin church services on Sunday 6th July.  This will be subject to confirmation from our denomination.  There will be more details to follow.  Please do pray for our church leadership as we pray and plan for holing our services in a socially distanced way.
 
I hope you can tune in again on Sunday morning as we reflect more deeply on the role the Holy Spirit plays in producing spiritual fruit in our lives.  I also want to say a big thank you for all your support and prayers for my mum and family at this difficult time.  To close let me share the benediction, after which I invite you to say the grace together…
 
Benediction
Go now, with your trust in Christ
who quenches your soul’s thirst with the wine of God’s love.
Do not be silent about God’s faithfulness,
when in need, take shelter in God’s provisions
and keep your hearts honest.
And may God rejoice over you and call you “My Delight”;
May Christ Jesus bring out the best in you, to his glory;
And may the Spirit equip you all with gifts for the common good.
We leave here to love and serve
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all now and for evermore, Amen.”
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

7th June 2020 APC    Trinity Sunday – “One yet 3, it’s a mystery”
 
Welcome and Introduction
Good morning everyone and welcome to our Sunday morning service.  Today is another special Sunday in the Christian Year.  Today is Trinity Sunday.  It’s the day we deliberately set aside time to reflect on the mystery revealed in scripture that God is One, yet He is made up of 3 persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  This is what orthodox Christians have believed right from the beginning of the Christian church.  But why do we believe this and what difference does it make anyway?  Well that’s what we’ll be considering this morning.  But before we do that let’s talk to God, let’s pray…
 
Opening Prayer
Great and loving God, we greet you this day with praise and wonder.  We greet you as the creator of the ends of the earth, sovereign over space and time, greater than we can ever imagine.
Gracious and living Christ, we greet you this day with joy and thanksgiving.  We greet you as our Lord, our friend, our Saviour.
Mysterious and mighty spirit, we greet you this day with awe and worship.  We greet you as our guide and inspiration, our source of strength and comfort, a living inner reality.
Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we greet you this day and we praise you that you are here to greet us and everyone, today and every day, here and everywhere.
Help us to meet with you and grow closer to you through this time of worship.
Help us to glimpse your glory and make it known through all we say and do to the glory of your name, Amen.
Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name,
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day, our daily bread, And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us,
And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil,
For Thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory,
For ever and ever, AMEN.
 
Bible Readings
 
Deuteronomy 6 v 4-5
 
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
 
2 Thessalonians 2 v 13-17
 
13 But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as first fruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 14 He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
15 So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.
16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace give us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.
 
God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, so what?
 
Today is Trinity Sunday.  It’s the day that we reflect on the Orthodox Christian teaching that there is One God, who is made up of 3 persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. 
But how can this be?  Well, if we’re honest, the first thing that must be said is that this Christian teaching of the Trinity is a mystery.  One theologian Jim Packer describes it like this - “the doctrine of the trinity confronts us with perhaps the most difficult thought that the human mind has ever been asked to handle.”
Having said that, while the Christian teaching of the trinity is a mystery that is impossible to completely understand, it is still a teaching that is true and that matters. 
It is true because although there is no individual verse in the bible that categorically proves it, the unfolding picture that we find as we read from Genesis to Revelation, is of a single God who demands to be understood in a Trinitarian manner.  Let me give you a few examples of what I mean by that.
To begin with, both the Old and New Testaments clearly teach that God is one.
So we read in Deuteronomy 6 v 4 “Hear Oh Israel, the Lord our God is one.”
In the New Testament, Mark 12 v 29-30 records Jesus quoting these same verses when someone asks him the question, “what is the greatest commandment?”
In response Jesus says, “The most important one is this, Hear Oh Israel the Lord our God is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
I could quote you many other verses, but these alone are sufficient to show you that both the Old and New Testaments teach us that there is only one God.
 
But the bible also teaches us that within this One God there is a plurality of 3 Persons.
 
In the OT this is only hinted at dimly:
 
E.g. in Gen 1 v26 we read, “Then God said, let us make man in our image.”
 
And similarly in Gen 11 v7 we read The Lord said, “Come let us go down and confuse their language.”
 
These verses show evidence of plurality within the One God within the OT.
 
However, in the NT, the lights of the Trinitarian nature of God shine more brightly and clearly.  The NT speaks of the 3 personal agents of Father, Son and Holy Spirit working together in a team to bring about salvation.
St. Paul reflects this Trinitarian nature of God in the closing of his second letter to the Christians in Corinth.  He writes, “May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”  
We repeat these words of Paul at the end of every service because they remind us that the God we worship is a Trinity.
 
But while the NT highlights the distinction of the three persons within the Trinity, it also clearly identifies each person of the Trinity as being God.
 
So in Acts 5 v 3-4 we read that lying to the Holy Spirit is lying to God.
In John 1 v1 The Word (Jesus Christ) is described as being God and in many of his letters, Paul identifies the Father as being God when he writes “Grace and peace to you from God our Father.”
 
So we see that the message of the bible is a mystery.  It teaches us that God is one.  Yet it also teaches us that within that One Godhead there are 3 distinct but co-equal persons.  Father, Son and Holy Spirit who work together in the One God’s great plan of salvation.
 
So are people right in accusing us of worshipping 3 Gods?  Are they right in saying that the doctrine of the trinity just doesn’t make sense so therefore it can’t be true?  No, I think they are wrong.  I think we are right to believe in the Trinity because this is how the bible reveals to us who God is.  Yes, I would agree that it is a mystery.  But I think we are right to believe that there is one God who is made up of 3 persons, the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit.
And finally, so what?  Why does the teaching that God is a trinity matter?  Well there are a number of possible answers to that question but let me leave you with a few to consider this morning.
 

1. It should lead us to bow.

Well, firstly, I think the very fact that the trinity is a mystery helps to keep us humble.  It makes us realise that our human minds can never fully understand everything about the universe or everything about the nature and the mind of God.  Humility is important because it helps us to remember to give God the respect that He deserves.  It reminds us that every time we come into His presence we should bow in respect of His greatness.
I want to encourage you to take some time this week to get alone with God and to think about Him in His Trinitarian nature.  I hope that as you do that it will cause you to appreciate just how awesome and how amazing God is because His 3 in 1 nature is beyond our full comprehension.  Then in response, let me encourage you to worship Him as Father, Son and Spirit by talking and singing to Him about His greatness and nature that is beyond our full understanding.
 
2      It should lead us to balance.
A second reason the trinity is important is that it helps us to maintain a healthy balance within our Christian lives.
The doctrine of the Trinity reminds us that in all our worship and witness as a church we need to give equal thought and honour to each person of the Trinity.
We need to be wary of neglect.  For example, often we honour the Father as Creator and for sending His Son and we honour the Son by focusing on the cross, resurrection and His High Priestly role in heaven.  But what about the Spirit?  Do we not often neglect Him and His ministry?
For example, we dishonour Him when we treat Him as an ‘it’, or ‘force’ rather than a personal ‘He.’
We dishonour Him, by denying His ability to do anything, including miracles.
We dishonour Him when we don’t think about the gifts he gives to us and when we don’t allow some of those gifts to be used in the life and witness of the church.
We dishonor Him when we don’t leave the door open for God to speak to us or do things among us in miraculous ways.
Yet in giving due honour and respect to each person of the Trinity, we need to remember that they always work together in everything. 
So we need to be careful that we don’t become guilty of worshipping three Gods or that we don’t worship one person of the Trinity above the others.  For example it could be argued that in some Christian circles that the Holy Spirit is given undue precedence over the Father and the Son. 
So in giving each person their place within the Godhead and acknowledging their complete unity, we thank God that His Spirit points us towards the Son who in turn moves us to contemplate the love of the Father.
To be honest, I don’t know exactly how we maintain the correct balance in all of this because of the inherent mystery in the Trinity.  At best, we need to be conscious that the Lord is One, yet three, and seek to hold the tension between the unity of the Godhead in everything while also giving expression to the diversity of roles of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
In light of this, the second thing I want you to do this week is to sit down and ask yourself, “Do I think about God in a Trinitarian way?  Am I neglecting any person within the Trinity?  Am I focusing on one person of the trinity too much?  What can I do to correct this imbalance in my thinking and practice?”
 
3      It should lead us to bind.
 
Lastly, the doctrine of the Trinity challenges us to do everything in our power to maintain right relationships with other people and especially our brothers and sisters in Christ. 
You see, despite the differences of the 3 Persons within the Trinity they always act as One.  The father, the Son and the Holy Spirit enjoy a perfect loving relationship with each other.  Through Christ we are invited to join in that relationship.
Since all human beings are made in the image of God ideally we too were meant to experience life in loving relationship with other people and especially our Christian brothers and sisters.  We were meant to complement one another and to live in harmony together.
Jesus said that our greatest witness is the love that we have for one another and our unity in diversity.  It’s only as we strive to love and forgive one another and to worship and work together in community that we can truly reflect the nature of our God.
That’s why it’s been great to be able to maintain our connections through these online services and zoom meetings during the lockdown.  But it’s also why it’s essential that as soon as the lockdown has ended that we join together again to worship and work together. 
One of the reasons we have all struggled so badly with the restrictions imposed by lockdown is because this way of life goes against everything that God is in Himself and everything that he has created us to be.  It is when we love, care for each other and do life together as human beings, that we most clearly reflect what God is like and can most fully enjoy the life he has given us.
Its only when all people are loved and treated equally that the beauty and character of God is reflected.
So please put the 26th July in your diary and join us for our return to worshipping together.  It will be socially distanced of course, but it will be a step in the right direction of how God intends us to live.
And as we return to worship and work together let me encourage us all to do all that we can to love one another and to be united.  That will include using and sharing all our gifts and abilities and joining with all the other churches in our town as well.
It will mean treating all people with equality and respect and celebrating the dignity of difference.
So the final thing I want you to do this week is to ask yourself – How can I better reflect the wonderful unity and diversity that exists within God in my relationships with other people inside and outside the church?
Conclusion:
There is One God who exists in three co-equal persons of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  This is a mystery that should lead us to worship all three persons equally and to do all in our power to maintain our love and unity with other people, and to ensure that all people are treated with equal respect and dignity.
 
Prayer
Loving God, we bring before you the sick and suffering of our world, all those wrestling with illness in body, mind or spirit. 
Lord in your mercy, hear our payer.
We pray for those afflicted in body – enduring physical pain, overwhelmed by disabling disease, waiting for an operation or further treatment and fearful of what the future might hold, or living with the knowledge of terminal illness.
Lord in your mercy, hear our payer.
We pray for those disturbed or troubled in mind – those whose confidence has broken down, those unable to cope with the pressures of daily life, those oppressed by false terrors of the imagination, those facing the dark despair of clinical depression.
Lord in your mercy, hear our payer.
We pray for those afflicted in spirit – those who feel their lives to be empty, or whose beliefs are threatened or who have lost their faith, or who worship gods of their own making with no power to satisfy, or whose hearts have become bitter and twisted, and their minds dark.
Lord in your mercy, hear our payer.
Living God we thank you for all who work to bring help, wholeness and healing to the sick – doctors and nurses, surgeons and medical staff, psychiatrists, counselors, clergy and therapists.  Support and strengthen all who share in the world of healing, all who strive to bring relief, all who minister to others.
Lord in your mercy, hear our payer.
Grant them your wisdom and guidance, your care and compassion, your strength and support.  Equip them in all they do and bring wholeness through them.
Lord in your mercy, hear our payer.
Finally we pray for your church in the healing ministry you have called it to exercise, an inner healing of body mind and soul which only you can offer.  Grant that your people everywhere may be so filled with your Holy Spirit, and so touched by the grace of Christ, that they may share effectively in the wider work of healing, through their life and witness bringing wholeness to broken people and a broken world.
Lord in your mercy, hear our payer.
Take a few moments now to bring your own prayers to God…
Lord, thank you for the gift of prayer.  Please continue to teach us to pray. In the name of Christ we ask it, Amen.
 
Closing Words
It’s been a joy and privilege to share with you again today.  Thanks again for logging on.  I hope you’ve felt inspired and challenged as we’ve reflected on the mystery that God is one yet 3.  Currently we are planning to reopen on Sunday 26th July.  Please do pray for our church leadership as we pray and plan for holing our services in a socially distanced way.
I hope you can tune in again on Wednesday morning as we reflect more deeply ion the role the Holy Spirit plays in our lives. 
 
I want to thank Alison and the choir for all their inspirational singing.  You will be able to enjoy their latest piece “Christ Triumphant, ever reigning” in a moment.  But first, let me share the benediction, after which I invite you to say the grace together…
 
Benediction
So now we leave this space of worship
And while so much of the road ahead is uncertain,
So much of life a mystery,
we know some things that are as solid and sure
as the ground beneath our feet,
and the sky above our heads.

We know God is love.
We know Christ’s light endures.

We know the Holy Spirit is there,
found in the space between all things,
closer to us than our next breath,
binding us to each other,
until we meet we again,

So go in peace and may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all now and for evermore, Amen.”
 

3rd June 2020 APC        “The work of the Holy Spirit”
 
Welcome and Introduction
Good morning everyone and welcome to our midweek prayers and reflections.  Last Sunday was Pentecost.  A special day in the Christian calendar when we celebrate ‘the great beginning of the Church’, the day the Holy Spirit first came to confused and frightened disciples. Since that first Pentecost, every day is a Holy Spirit day because if we have trusted in Christ to forgive us for our sins, the Holy Spirit now lives within us.  But why is that so special and why has God given the Holy Spirit to us for our day to day lives?  Well that’s what we’ll be considering this morning.  But before we do that let’s talk to God, let’s pray…
 
Opening Prayer
Living God, we rejoice today again as we contemplate the gift of your Spirit and the way you have breathed new hope, new faith and new life into so many people throughout the centuries.
But we also remember today, that not everyone responded gladly when you first sent your Spirit and not everyone welcomes his presence today.
In the apostles day there was scorn, ridicule and disbelief, suggestions that the apostles were drunk or even out of their minds.  So too today some people are sceptical or even antagonistic when people experience the work of your spirit in ways that are miraculous or not easily explained.
Lord have mercy.
Living God, forgive us that we too can be guilty of a similar response.  Instead of welcoming the spirit we greet him with cautious and suspicious hearts.  Instead of opening our lives to the spirits movement we close our minds to anything which challenges our long held preconceptions.  Instead of gladly receiving your spirits gifts we barricade our souls against change.
Lord have mercy.
Living God, you warn us to test what we think is the spirit and ensure it is of you; and there are times when we need to do that, when it is right to be aware of misplaced enthusiasm and false prophecy.  Yet save us from ever quenching, obstructing or frustrating your spirit.  Forgive us for all the times we have done that, and open our lives now to your Holy Spirits life-giving breath, so that we may live more truly as your people.
Lord have mercy.
So Lord, please teach us this morning more about why you have given us your spirit and how he can help us. So may we become more attuned to His still small voice in our lives.  In the name of Christ we pray, Amen.
 
Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name,
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day, our daily bread, And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us,
And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil,
For Thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory,
For ever and ever, AMEN.
Bible Readings
 
Ezekiel 36: 25-27
5 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
 
Galatians 5:  16-26
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[a] you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
 
Reflection               “The Work of the Holy Spirit”
Intro:
Have you ever had something that could do lots of things that you never realised until someone showed you?  Maybe it was the day your son or daughter showed you how to use the webcam on your laptop in order to Skype your grandchildren.  Maybe it was the time a friend showed you how to use a special feature on your food mixer or a neighbour pointed out another use for your power washer.  During the lockdown so many of us have learned how to ‘zoom’ on our phones and laptops.
Life is full of magical moments when we discover how something we’ve owned for a long time can actually do things that we never realised.
That’s the experience many of us have with the Holy Spirit.  We may know that God has given Him to us as His most precious gift.  We may accept that He lives within us.  But perhaps no one has ever sat down and explained to us all that the Holy Spirit can and wants to do in our lives.
This morning I want to highlight from the bible, some of the reasons God has given us His Holy Spirit and some of the things He wants to do for us in our lives.
Last Sunday we learned how Jesus told His disciples that the main reason He and the Father would send the Holy Spirit was so that He could bring Christ’s presence to all believers everywhere in the world at the same time.  It’s important that we restate that this morning because this is the foundation that we must always keep in mind when we are thinking or talking about any aspect of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives.  Whatever specific area of His work we are looking at we must never separate that from the Spirit’s overarching purpose of bringing Christ’s presence to us and in us.
The Holy Spirit’s main work or main role if you like, is to make us so aware of Christ’s presence with us that 3 things keep happening in our lives.
Those 3 things are that we enjoy an on-going personal relationship with Christ, that we continue to be personally transformed by Christ and that we become more and more certain of all that we are and have in Christ.  Let’s look at each of these aspects of the Holy Spirit’s work for a few moments:-
 

1. The Holy Spirit helps us experience a personal relationship with Christ:

You know there’s all the difference in the world between knowing about parenting children and actually being a parent.  There’s all the difference in the world between hearing about your boyfriend’s family and actually meeting them in the flesh.  It’s the same with Christianity.  There is a vast difference between hearing about Jesus week by week in church and actually talking to Jesus every day because He is your best friend.  It is the Holy Spirit who brings us from being a person who simply hears about Jesus into a person who actually knows Jesus personally.
The Holy Spirit begins that process by showing us our sin and helping us to understand that because of that sin we are in danger of being judged by God because He is righteous.  Thankfully, the Holy Spirit doesn’t leave us in limbo.  After He has shown us our sinfulness, He then begins to help us understand how Christ has made a way for us to escape the judgement of God and experience His forgiveness. 
I don’t know how those of you who are married or going out initially got together.  I don’t know whether you had a few family members or close friends behind the scenes doing a bit of match-making.  That’s how it was for me and Emma.  We were both invited separately to a friend’s wedding.  But rather than simply focusing on their own big day, these two friends strategically placed us beside each other at the same table hoping that Cupid would work his magic.  And as the man says, “The rest is history”- 18 months later we were engaged!
That’s what the Holy Spirit does.  Once He has shown us our sinfulness and made us feel our need to have that sin forgiven, He begins to help us to see a beauty in Christ that we have never seen before.  He begins to help us understand how Christ’s death and resurrection have made it possible for us to be cleansed by God and accepted by Him forever.  Eventually that pull or ‘call’ of the Spirit of Christ is so strong that He causes us to repent and place our faith in Christ.  For some people that change of mind and that believing in Christ can be a sudden experience, one that is characterised by a very significant and visible turn around in their lives.  But for many people, particularly those who have grown up in a Christian home, that turning from sin to Christ is a very gradual, almost imperceptible process.  Nevertheless, in either case it soon becomes clear that the Holy Spirit has given that person a new heart- He has implanted within them a new life, with new desires and new motivations that are God-focused and people focused.  To use spiritual terminology the Holy Spirit has regenerated these people.  They have been ‘Born Again’ by Him.  And at that moment when someone repents and believes and is regenerated, they are also joined to Christ spiritually and permanently.  In that sense the Holy Spirit is like the glue that unites us to Christ forever.  To have Christ’s Spirit is to be joined to Christ now and forever.
Once we have been joined to Christ by the Holy Spirit, He stays within us and encourages us to stay in touch with Christ.  He does that by giving us a desire to talk to God as we would talk to a loving parent.  He also gives us a new desire to read the bible because it is God’s word to us.  As we read the bible, we soon find that the Holy Spirit brings its words to life for us so that we now hear them as the words of Christ speaking to us, encouraging us, warning us and teaching us how to live.  In these ways, the Holy Spirit enables us to enjoy a similar friendship with Jesus that the disciples had with Him when he was on earth.  That includes having a desire to express our devotion to Christ in worship as well as facing the challenge of choosing to follow Him in ways that may be difficult or costly.
So the Holy Spirit enables us to experience a personal relationship with the living Christ.  He does this by drawing us towards Christ, joining us to Him and encouraging us to maintain our friendship with Christ through worship, prayer and reading scripture.
 
2      The Holy Spirit helps us to become more like Christ:
Part of having an on-going relationship with the Lord Jesus is that He wants to teach us and help us to live in new ways that are more in line with what God wants.  This includes focusing more on the needs of others than ourselves, as well as learning to work together and serve one another.  This is the second thing that the Holy Spirit does for us as He brings the Spirit of Christ to us day by day.  The Holy Spirit teaches us and helps us to become more like Jesus.
He does this in a number of ways.  First the Holy Spirit helps us to understand the teachings of God and of Christ that we discover in the bible.  You see the Holy Scriptures are writings that are inspired by the Holy Spirit.  They are a record of God’s dealings with His people down through the centuries from the beginning of time.  They include 4 biographies of the life and teachings of Jesus written by his closest friends.  They also contain the teachings of Jesus passed on to a number of the early churches through His closest friends, the apostles.  It is the Holy Spirit who helps us to understand these scriptures and who helps us to apply their teaching to our daily lives.  As we pray and ask Him for help He also gives us the power that we need to change in our attitudes and actions so that little by little, every day we begin to put off ways that are not Christ-like and we begin to put on ways that are Christ-like.  This process of change will be a lifelong process and it will be a constant battle.  It will be something that will require effort on our part but also something that without God’s help we will not be able to achieve.  Just as a farmer must plough and sow, fertilise, spray and harvest, so too we will only become more like Christ if we are willing to make the effort to read the bible and if we are willing to put into practice what it teaches.  A farmer also knows that unless God sends the sun and the rain at the right times that all her efforts will have been in vain.  So too we must also pray and ask God the Holy Spirit to give us the power to obey the things that we have learned through reading the bible.  Part of this process may also mean that on specific occasions we need to ask Christ through His Holy Spirit to overcome the power of evil in someone’s life.  At other times we may need to ask Him to deliver us from evil in whatever ways the devil may try to oppose us as we seek to live for God.
Part of becoming more like Christ will involve being given and being willing to use the gifts and abilities that Christ gives us in order to help each other and in order to bring the love of Christ to other people through our words and through our actions.  It is always within this context of becoming more like Jesus in ministering to others and in spreading the gospel that we should look at the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to every Christian.  If you want to look at them at some time, these gifts of the Holy Spirit are listed in 4 passages in the bible- 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4 and 1 Peter 4.  Personally I don’t think that these passages are an exhaustive list of all the gifts and abilities that God gives to people.  In a sense it does not matter what gifs God has given us.  What is important, is to remember that He has given us all gifts and talents in order that we use them.  Therefore it is essential that we stop and think about the gifts and talents that God has given us.  It’s important for us to ask the questions, “What gifts and talents has God given me?” and “How am I using those gifts?”
It’s also vital to remember that these gifts are given to us so that we can help and complement one another just as the different parts of the body do.  They are not given to us just to make us feel good about ourselves or to make us think that we are better, more spiritual or more important than someone else.
In all these ways - helping us to appreciate and understand the bible, giving us the power to put its principles into practice, delivering us from evil and giving us gifts to serve one another and bring Christ’s love to others, the Holy Spirit ministers to us just as Christ ministered to His disciples when on earth.  In this way the Holy Spirit helps us to become more like Jesus little by little every day as we seek to live according to God’s ways and bring Christ’s love to others.
 

1. The Holy Spirit assures us of all we are and have in Christ:

I don’t know whether you’ve ever had a sinking feeling in your stomach because you were unsure about something.  Maybe you’ve stepped onto a plane and thought, “Did I turn the oven off?”
Maybe you’ve been told that your company is going to have to make some redundancies and you don’t know if that’s going to include you.
Perhaps you’ve thought you did well in an important exam but you are still waiting for the results to be sure.
Living with uncertainty and fear is something that can be very unpleasant and extremely stressful.
That’s why the third main job of the Holy Spirit in bringing Christ’s presence to us, is to give us an ever increasing assurance of all that we are and have in Christ.  He does that by subjectively giving us an inner sense that we belong to God-something that as one Scottish lady explained it, “Is easier felt than telt.”
He does this by giving us a desire to talk to God and call Him “Father.”
He does this by helping us to understand and believe what the bible teaches us about all the things that God has given us in Christ.  And what does the bible promise us about these things?
Well, it teaches us that because of what Christ has done we can be sure that God loves us.  What greater love could God have for us than to take the judgement we deserved upon Himself in the person of His Son?
It teaches us that because Christ is both human and Divine He was able to live a perfect human life.
It teaches us that when we trust that Christ died on the cross, that the perfect righteousness of Christ is put down on our account and a declaration is made in the courtroom of heaven that we are not guilty forever.
It teaches us that when He died on the cross Jesus took the punishment for sin that we deserve so that we could escape that judgement.
It teaches us that through His resurrection Jesus has conquered the devil and death and that now that we are joined to the risen Christ by His Spirit we can overcome sin in our lives.  Sure we will never be perfect and we will constantly have to struggle against sin.  But we can make progress, we can be better and one day we will be perfect.
It teaches us that one day, either when we die or when Christ returns we will be transformed.  We will share in Christ’s resurrection experience and we, along with all who love Him, will be allowed to share in His reign of the new Heaven and the New earth forever.
It teaches us that through Christ God has adopted us into His worldwide family and treats us as His very own sons and daughters.
It teaches us about the Christian characteristics that the Holy Spirit will begin to form in us- like the fruit of the Spirit, loving other Christians and having a desire to do what is right.  As we see these things developing in our lives it gives us assurance that the Holy Spirit is indeed active in our lives.
It teaches us that despite our weaknesses and our many failures God will never show us the door and tell us to get out!
It is the Holy Spirit who helps us to understand these things and helps us to remember them.  Through these and other scriptural teachings the Holy Spirit assures us that we are loved by God and reminds us of all the spiritual blessings that we have in Christ both now and in the world to come.
Ultimately it is this knowledge that will bring us real peace.
 
Conclusion
Having the Holy Spirit for many of us can be like having a precious possession whose abilities and potential we have never fully grasped.  So why has God given Him to us and what can He do for us?
Above all He has been given to bring Christ’s presence to us and so that Christ’s presence might be in us.
He does that so that 3 things will happen in our lives continually:-
We will be drawn into and experience daily a personal relationship with the risen Christ.
We will be transformed day by day so that we become more like Christ. 
We will be reminded and reassured of all the spiritual blessings that God has given us in Christ.
May God help us to understand and forever appreciate all that He has done for us, is doing for us and will do for us through the gift of His Holy Spirit.  And to Him be all the glory, Amen.
 
Prayers for others
Heavenly Father, we want to thank you for all of the work of our outgoing Moderator, Dr William Henry over this past year.  We pray that you would help him to settle back well into his congregational responsibilities despite the continued disruption to church life.
 
We remember the Clerk of the General Assembly, Rev Trevor Gribben and the Deputy Clerk, Rev Jim Stothers as they prepare themselves for meetings of the Standing Commission of the General Assembly during this week. Lord, even though the full General Assembly cannot meet, please give guidance to this Commission in its work.  Help them to determine the best way forward on some essential items of business, and give them wisdom in considering how the church may manage its work through the current restrictions.
We pray for our new Moderator the Rev David Bruce, his wife Zoe and their family and ask that you will encourage and guide them as they start the task of leading our denomination in the year ahead. 
Give David great wisdom and sensitivity as he responds to invitations to represent the church’s views on a wide variety of issues in the media this week.  What we ask for David, we also pray for PCI’s Press Officer, Mark Smith as he prepares press releases, and offers advice to those asked for comment on behalf of the church.  Lord may whatever is said, and how it is said, reflect well on you in our country and wider world.  Through this public witness, may people be attracted to you and your church rather than repelled.
We pray for Conveners of PCI Councils and Committees who may be speaking to reports this week.  Give them clarity in presenting their work for decision, and grant that these decisions would honour God, and assist the church in fulfilling its calling in the world.
We remember those responsible for the management of the finances of the church, both treasurers in congregations and PCI’s Financial Secretary, Clive Knox and the Committees he supports. Lord we ask that the financial capacity of the church to continue its work would not be curtailed during the current crisis.
We pray for the vital work of the Council for Social Witness, and specifically its work in Residential Homes which may be vulnerable to COVID-19 infection. Lord thank you for the dedicated and skilled work of staff in PCI’s care homes, and for their dedicated Christian witness.
We remember the work of the Council for Global Mission, and specifically in its current support for Global Mission Workers, some of whom have returned to Ireland while others remain in their overseas locations. Father, we ask that you will keep our overseas staff safe, healthy and in good spirit, despite being far from home.
We pray for the work of the Council for Mission in Ireland acting in support of the Home Mission, Irish Mission, Chaplaincy and other aspects of the Church’s outward face at home. Lord we ask that the important work of reimagining PCI’s mission in light of current events will bear fruit in coming years.
As the first of the new Moderator’s online worship services will be available this Sunday morning, we pray for the team working on these services each week, including the technical people, musicians, readers and other participants. Lord, we pray that you would be honoured through these services each week.
Take a few moments in quiet now to pray for yourself and other people who come to mind…
 
Closing Words
It’s been a joy and privilege to share with you again today.  Thanks again for logging on. 
 
I hope you are beginning to experience the benefits of having the Holy Spirit living inside you more and more each day.
 
This Sunday coming is Trinity Sunday.  We will reflecting on the mystery that God is 3 yet 1 and why it even matters.
 
Please continue to look out for everyone who is in need and if there is any way that I can be of help to you or anyone else please let me know.  I want to say a big thank you to Kate O’Sullivan who has recorded a beautiful rendition of Amazing Grace on the Baritone which you can listen to at the end of today’s broadcast.  So stay logged on for that.  For now, let me share the benediction, after which I invite you to say the grace together…
 
Benediction
Our worship has not ended it has only just begun for God is with us every moment of every day.  Go then and offer the worship he desires – act fairly, love kindness and walk humbly with God every step along your way.
 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all now and for evermore, Amen.”