URC Daily Devotions Sunday Service for 24th October 2021 – Dorothy Courtis

United Reformed Church Daily Devotions


Service for Sunday 24^th October 2021
Dorothy Courtis

 
Introduction
 
Hello. My name is Dorothy Courtis and I’m a lay preacher in East Anglia, a member and elder at Wortwell URC in the Waveney Valley Ecumenical Partnership.
 
Call to Worship
 
We lift up our eyes to the hills— from where will our help come?
 
Our help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
 
God will not let your foot be moved; God who keeps you will not slumber.  The One who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
 
Our help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
 
Our help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
 
The Lord will keep you from all evil; the Eternal One will keep your life.  The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and for evermore.
 
Our help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
 
Hymn:      O Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness
John S B Monsell, The Choir of St Lawrence, Sydney

 
O worship the Lord
in the beauty of holiness!
Bow down before Him,
His glory proclaim;
with gold of obedience,
and incense of lowliness,
kneel and adore Him:
the Lord is His Name!
 
2: Low at His feet lay
thy burden of carefulness,
high on His heart
He will bear it for thee,
comfort thy sorrows,
and answer thy prayerfulness,
guiding thy steps
as may best for thee be.
 
3: Fear not to enter
His courts in the slenderness
of the poor wealth
thou wouldst reckon as thine;
truth in its beauty,
and love in its tenderness,
these are the offerings
to lay on His shrine.
 
4: These, though we bring them
in trembling and fearfulness,
He will accept
for the Name that is dear;
mornings of joy give for
evenings of tearfulness,
trust for our trembling
and hope for our fear.

Sermon
 
Names matter. In the episode from Mark, we meet a man who doesn’t really have a name – and yet he’s been remembered by his non-name for millennia!  Blind Bartimaeus. Which is strange, because after he met Jesus, he wasn’t blind any more.
And as for Bartimaeus:  ‘Bar # Timaeus’ son of Timaeus – his Dad’s name – but after meeting Jesus he is in a vibrant, living relationship with God his Heavenly Father through His Son Jesus.
 
This man, whose old non-name has stuck through the centuries, became a new creation with a new life to live through his encounter with Jesus.
 
It was the custom in the early church – as it was in monastic life – for the person coming to baptism – to new life in Christ – to receive a new name, appropriate for the new life.
 
We’ve been through a baptism of suffering, dislocation, and huge change as a result of the Covid pandemic. When you come through such – or other life-shaking events like the death of a loved one through cancer, the tragedy of dementia, our own experience of major illness – we’re not the same when we emerge at the end. We’re changed.
 
Some of those changes happen so gradually, we don’t notice. Others happen overnight. Even slow-moving monoliths like the church can change – we’ve witnessed the way Zoom has become a household word (like Hoover and Google!) as ministers and congregations have found new ways to ‘gather’ for worship and support one another.
 
Whether we like it or not, we’re not the same as the church or the people who stepped into the unexpected and unpredictable river of suffering and change that has been our experience of the pandemic.
 
And each experience has been unique because each of us is unique, each of our churches and their situations in their communities is unique.
 
So who are we now?
 
Did we simply choose to live up to our old names, our old reputations? If blind Bartimaeus had, he’d still be sitting begging on the roadside! Or have we received fresh insight, welcomed the transformation and upheaval of change, leapt to the opportunity of leaving behind the dusty cloak and focus on business as usual, and followed where Jesus is going in our community, our world, today? Or have we opted out? Simply sat and watched? ‘We’re fine as we are’ as one church leader devastatingly said to me. Do we come out of the fiery furnace (to mix scripture stories!) more alive, more loving, more truly Jesus-following than when we went in?
 
As a child of the post-second world war era, it was quite common to ask, ‘What did you do in the war, Daddy?’ In years to come, I wonder will we see the evidence of what our churches did during the pandemic in those that survive and thrive? I’m sure a lot of praying went on, either alone or more organised by the churches, yet I was reminded firmly by a friend, overwhelmed by the practicalities of moving house on her own for the first time in many years, ‘Sometimes you need more than being assured of people’s prayers!’ I know a lot of practical, loving action went on in our communities. Did the church shine as a beacon of hope and help during this time? Did we even look after the vulnerable members of our congregations – those without laptops and mobile phones, unable to join in online?
 
And if we didn’t help, do we have any right to preach to them afterwards?
 
Hymn:      Will You Come and Follow Me?
John L. Bell (b. 1949) and Graham Maule (b. 1958)
                               

Will you come and follow me
if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don’t know
and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown,
will you let my name be known,
will you let my life be grown
in you and you in me?
 
2 Will you leave yourself behind
if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind
and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare
should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer
in you and you in me?
 
3 Will you love the ‘you’ you hide
if I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside
and never be the same?
Will you use the faith you’ve found
to reshape the world around,
through my sight & touch & sound
in you and you in me?
 
4: Lord, your summons echoes true
when you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you
and never be the same.
In your company I’ll go
where your love & footsteps show.
Thus I’ll move and live and grow
in you and you in me.

Affirmation of Faith
 
The risen Christ is the Saviour of all people.
Those joined to him by faith
are set right with God
and commissioned to serve
as God’s reconciling community.
Christ is head of this community, the Church,
which began with the apostles
and continues through all generations.
 
Intercessions
 
Yours is the earth, O Lord God – and we have spoiled and polluted it. We have wasted Your wonderful gifts out of greed and ignorance and we ask Your forgiveness for what we have done – and for what we are not doing now to put it right.
 
We ask Your blessing and guidance and support for all those who are working to reclaim and protect the environment, those whose hearts are committed to working to staunch the climate emergency that we find ourselves in, to cleanse and restore our oceans, and prevent the extinction of the precious creatures You created.
 
Inspire workers, Lord. The need is great. But more than that, touch the hearts of those in powerful places – whether in government or in big business, the influencers and the decision-makers. Turn their hearts to You and to Your concerns for the earth and its people.
 
Let justice roll, and a new attitude of good stewardship.  Turn hearts from war and conflict. End the arms trade which fuels conflict in places least able to afford it. Protect the weak and vulnerable from the blind and uncaring mighty and aggressive. Bless peacemakers everywhere – at negotiating tables, in governments, and in homes and workplaces.
We need peace and a rebuilding of our world along lines of care for the weaker in society, justice and integrity – not a return to the old ways but a flourishing of a new and better way. Lord, as Your people, we ask that the new normal be Your new way for our country and our world.
For You care – about the big matters of national and international import, and about the individual cares and troubles we all suffer.
 
So with confidence in Your loving attention and practical concern, we bring You our prayers for our friends and families – for those especially on our hearts this morning…
 
And we bring You our prayers for ourselves…
Thank You that You hear all our prayers and that You do indeed work together all things for good for those who love You.
 
Thank You for hearing our prayers, in Jesus’ Name, Amen
 
Offertory
 
Our Lord invites us to express our love and care for the world by giving of ourselves and our money. We do this in His name and to His glory.
 
Father God,
You offer us so many ways to give back to You – in money, our time…
Sometimes though we feel we have so little to give – but like the widow’s mite that Jesus commended, You welcome and accept what we bring, however small it seems to us.
Accept all that we offer to You, Lord, for we offer it in love and gratitude for all that You offer us, in Jesus’ Name,
Amen
 
Hymn:      One More Step Along the World I Go
Sydney Carter

One more step
along the world I go,
One more step
along the world I go;
From the old things to the new,
Keep me travelling along with you:
 
2: Round the corners
of the world I turn,
More and more
about the world I learn;
All the new things that I see
You’ll be looking at along with me.

And it’s from the old I travel to the new;
Keep me travelling along with you.

3: As I travel
through the bad and good,
Keep me travelling
the way I should.
Where I see no way to go,
You’ll be telling me the way,
I know.
 
4: Give me courage
when the world is rough,
Keep me loving
though the world is tough;
Leap and sing in all I do,
Keep me travelling along
with you:

5: You are older than the world can be,
You are younger than the life in me;
Ever old and ever new,
Keep me travelling along with you:
 
Blessing
 
Bless us, Lord, as we move forward into the life You have planned and prepared for us. Give us new courage and strength, lots more love and plenty of forgiveness.  Bless us and those we love and pray for, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
 
Sources and Thanks
 
Call to Worship adapted from Psalm 121 by Andy Braunston.  Affirmation of Faith from the Presbyterian Church of the USA.  All other liturgical material by Dorothy Courtis.
 
Thanks to Graham Handscomb, Esther Watson, Sue Cresswell, Geoffrey Roper and Lorrain Webb for reading various spoken parts of the service.
 
O Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness – John S B Monsell, The Choir of St Lawrence, Sydney
Psalm 34: 7 – 11 – Sung by Back Free Church, Loch Tuath, Tune: Land of Rest
Will You Come and Follow Me? – John L. Bell (b. 1949) and Graham Maule (b. 1958). Words and Music: © WGRG, Iona Community, Glasgow G2 3DH  Scotland.     BBC Songs of Praise
One More Step Along the World I Go – Sydney Carter, © 1971 Stainer & Bell, 23 Gruneisen Road, London N3 1DZ  from the Worship Collection Volume 3
 
Opening Organ Piece – Lobt Gott Ihr Christen (“Praise God ye Christians”) by Johann Gottfried Walther (organ of The Spire Church, Farnham – 2020)
Closing Organ Piece – Trumpet Voluntary in D by John Baston (organ of Basilica Santo Spirito, Florence, Italy – 2016)
 
Both pieces played by and received, with thanks, from Brian Cotterill http://briancotterill.webs.com