APC 9th Dec 2020 “Mind your Head!” (Part 3) Welcome and Introduction Good morning everyone and welcome to our Midweek worship. Today we continue with the third part of our new Wednesday Morning Series for Advent called, “Mind your Head!” But first let’s take a moment to pause and to talk to our heavenly Father, let’s pray… Opening Prayer Lord Jesus Christ, you came to our world sharing our humanity, identifying yourself with us, expressing through actions and self-sacrifice your love for all. Teach us to follow in your footsteps. Yours was the way of service, compassion and reconciliation. Despite the rejection of so many, you saw the best in people, the good, the worth that others overlooked. Teach us to follow in your footsteps. You loved all, without prejudice, without passing judgement, without any strings attached. Teach us to follow in your footsteps. Lord Jesus Christ, you come to our world each day, but to do that fully you need our cooperation, our willingness to be used for your purpose. Teach us to follow in your footsteps. You need us to speak for you, to act for you, to show your love and share your life. Teach us to follow in your footsteps. You need us to take that way of service, to break down barriers, to bring people together. Teach us to follow in your footsteps. You need us to take the way of the cross- valuing people for what they are, offering them trust and encouragement, helping them to believe in themselves Teach us to follow in your footsteps. Lord Jesus Christ, you came to our world to establish a new Kingdom, a new era, a new dimension to life. Help us through who we are and all we do to bring that Kingdom nearer. Teach us to follow in your footsteps. Join me as we say the Lord’s Prayer thoughtfully and sincerely together… 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. Psalm 42 and 43 1 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” 4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One[d] with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng. 5 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. 6 My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar. 7 Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. 8 By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me-- a prayer to the God of my life. 9 I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?” 10 My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?” 11 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. 1 Vindicate me, my God, and plead my cause against an unfaithful nation. Rescue me from those who are deceitful and wicked. 2 You are God my stronghold. Why have you rejected me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy? 3 Send me your light and your faithful care, let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. 4 Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God. 5 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. Reflection “Address your feelings - ask, Why?..” Today is the 3rd part of our series ‘Mind your head’ as we reflect on how we might care for our emotional and mental well-being. In the first part of the series we discovered that it’s normal for all of us to get discouraged at times especially when we experience loss, or become socially and physically isolated from the people we love and the things we love to do. It’s no wonder then that this pandemic is causing emotional trauma for so many of us. So it’s important that we go easy on ourselves during these difficult days and look out for each other. Then last week we thought about how we might help ourselves when we are feeling down. We discovered that one of the best things to do is not to bottle up our feelings but to be open and honest about them with our spouse, a close friend or colleague. We also reflected on how important it was to be completely honest with God, even if we feel angry or frustrated at the circumstances, He has allowed in our lives. Today I want to consider how, as well being honest about how we are feeling when we are suffering from depression, we also need to address those feelings. What do I mean by that? Well in a nutshell it means that when we are discouraged we need to speak to ourselves. This is what the Psalmist who wrote Psalm 42 and 43 does. He begins this process of addressing his feelings by asking himself, “Why?” Three times in these two Psalms the writer expresses exactly the same words. He says, “Why are you so downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him my Saviour and my God.” You know, one of the greatest dangers of depression is that we can begin to wallow in self-pity. We can feel so sorry for ourselves that we may even begin to enjoy being miserable. Frankly the only way that we can overcome this danger is to stop listening to ourselves and start talking to ourselves. One of the best places to start is to ask ourselves, “Why?” “Why am I depressed?” As we do that, we may soon discover that there is a perfectly good reason for why we feel the way we do. It may be that we are putting ourselves under too much pressure. It may be that our circumstances are particularly stressful. It may be that a bereavement, a chronic illness or even a new medication is affecting our mood. Maybe we will discover that our distress is based on a misunderstanding or that we are over-reacting to a situation. Maybe someone has hurt us and with God’s grace we need somehow to let go and forgive. Maybe we just need to start getting out into some daylight and get a bit more exercise. So can I gently ask you?... Reflection Are you feeling low at this time? Take some time to reflect on the question, ‘Why?’ Ask God to speak to you in the quiet. Take a note book and pen and write down some of the things that come into your mind as you are listening to God. Once you’ve finished, read through some of the things that you have noted down. How do they make you feel? It’s my prayer that as you engage in this process of asking why that you will begin to see that often there can be reasons for your depression. Reasons that will help you to accept and not be too hard on yourself. Reasons that might help you to find a way forward. Let’s pray… Prayer Lord, this has been a very difficult time for all of us. We can’t understand why you have allowed the enemy to create such misery in our world through this Pandemic. We can’t understand why it’s gone on so long despite our best efforts and despite all our prayers. We understand there are many lessons for us to take from this difficult period of history. In many ways it has shown us how often we forget you. We’ve realized how much we take for granted and how often we forget to say ‘Thank you’. We’ve been reminded of our own fragility, our own mortality and that life is very much a preparation for the life that is to come. We’ve seen how the environment has been able to breathe and to recover from the way our lifestyles have damaged it. We’ve had time to reflect on who and what really matters to us. But Lord, these lessons and so many others have been tough. Many people are really feeling the strain. So we pray today for everyone who is feeling discouraged and depressed. Help us to see the signs in our friends and family. Give us wisdom to know how to look after ourselves and to know how best to support one another. May no one feel so isolated that they contemplate taking their own lives. We pray for all who are sick or who have been bereaved. Comfort them with your presence and bring healing to their minds and bodies. We thank you for all who provide care in so many different ways for those who are suffering. Give them strength, patience and wisdom in all that they do. Help them as they care for others to look after themselves and may they find family, friends and work colleagues to be a source of real encouragement. Give us wisdom to know how we might best support those who are grieving. Comfort each one in their loss and enable them to find hope and new purpose in life even though it may never be the same as it was. We pray for our government in all the difficult decisions they have to make. Give them wisdom, perseverance, sensitivity and fairness. We pray that infection rates will remain at manageable levels and that our new freedoms will allow all of us to regain our sense of emotional well-being. As we enjoy those freedoms help us to do so wisely and safely. May the times we enjoy together with family and friends be special and bring us great joy. We thank you for all those who have been working so hard behind the scenes to produce vaccines that are safe. Lord, grant wisdom to all those involved in planning the logistics of how the vaccination program will be rolled out. We pray that through these efforts that you will enable this virus to be eradicated from our world. Grant that very soon we will all be able to return to life as we know it with all the freedoms and pleasures it affords us. And when that day comes may we never forget those in our world who still struggle just to make ends-meat, or whose lives have been torn apart by conflict. Lord may we not return to a life of selfish-living but a life of thankfulness for all you have given and a life of doing all we can to improve the quality of life for others. This we ask in Jesus’ name, Amen. Closing Words It’s been a joy and privilege to share with you again today. Thanks again for logging on. I do hope you found this morning’s service an encouragement. It was wonderful for those of us who were able to meet again in church last Sunday. This Sunday we are planning to celebrate Holy Communion together. On your way in you will receive a sealed package that we have purchased containing bread and grape juice, so there will be no risk whatsoever. Could I also ask you to take extra care if the weather is icy on Sunday. Thankfully Mary is back home safely after her fall on Sunday and she would like to thank everyone for all their help. We will inspect and salt the car park and steps as usual, but please do still take extra care at this time of year entering and exiting the church premises. We do hope as many of you as possible will be able will join us. Just remember to tell Aleida that you are coming by Friday evening at the latest to enable her to organise the socially-distanced seating plan. The service will start at the normal time of 10.00am. Please use the hand sanitiser on the way in and on the way out and please wear your face coverings as usual. We will have a Christmas animation for the children and pre-prepared crafts for them to do which will have been sitting for in church 3 days before the service. We’ll be lighting our advent candle and reflecting on the theme of ‘Joy’. We’ll also have some beautiful recorded carols from our virtual choir. So please do plan to join us. If you are unable to, don’t worry because there will be a recorded online service at 10am as normal with candle lighting, kid’s animation, the same prayers and reflections and the some beautiful carols form our virtual choir. We have also planned some wonderful services for remainder of December. On Sunday 20th there will be a service of 9 lessons and carols. On Christmas day we are planning to facilitate two services with a deep clean in between to facilitate as many people as possible. One will be at 9.30am and the second will be at 10.45 am. If you would like to attend one of our Christmas morning services and you have family or friends joining you, please do let Aleida know as soon as possible so that we can provide everyone a slot. Finally Aleida will be leading the service on Sunday 27th December to give me a little break. For those of you who can’t attend any of these services an alternative will be provided online at 10am as usual. Arklow Presbyterian Church has a longstanding relationship with Springboard. This year because of Covid restrictions Springboard are unable to receive and deliver the Christmas hampers that we provide for struggling families. But we would still like to support them as a church by giving them a donation. I know there are many good causes that we have been announcing in recent weeks. Please don’t feel guilty or pressurized that you have to support all of these. But if you have supported Springboard in the past and would like to do so again, then you can transfer a donation directly into the church bank account using the details on our website. Simply mark it for the “Springboard Appeal”. Alternatively you can contact our treasurer Aleida van der Flier to arrange a payment mechanism that is more suitable for you. In a moment, I will lead you in a Benediction after which I will invite you as always, to say the grace together… Benediction Remember Jesus said, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest…” So go now as Christ’s followers and be a good listener, a refuge for all those who feel tired, anxious, afraid or discouraged. 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.”
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