Sunday Worship 3rd August 2025
for Sunday 3 August 2025
Photo Credit Jp Valery | Unsplash.com
Today’s service is led by the Revd Andy Braunston
Welcome
I’ve never had the courage to respond “everything” when asked how much money someone left after they died; though I was once tempted when some long-lost relatives, who’d ignored the deceased for 40 years, turned up at the funeral and asked! Our readings today, however deal with the foolishness of valuing wealth and possessions which don’t last and are like evaporating morning mist in the face of death. My name is Andy Braunston and I am the United Reformed Church’s Minister for Digital Worship. It’s my pleasure to be leading worship for you this morning. I live in the beautiful island county of Orkney off mainland Scotland’s far north coast where I am a member of the Peedie Kirk, URC and from where I regularly travel to Thurso to lead worship in our congregation there too. Let’s worship God together.
Call to Worship
Come and seek wisdom together, you that are low and high, rich and poor. We come from East and West, North and South, to encounter the Living God. Come, let our mouths speak wisdom; may the meditations of our hearts lead to understanding. We come to hear the Wisdom of the Ages,
made known to us in Jesus Christ. Those who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches surround us. we trust in the Holy Spirit, our guide and goal, who teaches us to share our resources with the poor and needy.
Hymn Great God Your Love Has Called Us Here
Brian Wren (born 1936) © 1975, 1995 Stainer & Bell Ltd OneLicence A-734713
Organ: Newcastle URC, Vocals, Mary Ann McVicar
Great God, your love has called us here,
as we, by love for love were made.
Your living likeness still we bear,
though marred, dishonoured, disobeyed.
We come, with all our heart and mind
your call to hear, your love to find.
2 We come with self-inflicted pains
of broken trust and chosen wrong,
half-free, half-bound by inner chains,
by social forces swept along,
by powers and systems close confined,
yet seeking hope for humankind.
3 Great God, in Christ you call our name
and then receive us as your own,
not through some merit, right or claim,
but by your gracious love alone.
We strain to glimpse your mercy seat
and find you kneeling at our feet.
4 Then take the towel, and break the bread,
and humble us, and call us friends.
Suffer and serve till all are fed,
and show how grandly love intends
to work till all creation sings,
to fill all worlds, to crown all things.
your life to live, your joy to share.
Give us your Spirit’s liberty
to turn from guilt and dull despair
and offer all that faith can do
while love is making all things new.
Prayers of Approach, Confession, and Grace
You have called us here, great God,
to remind us we were made in Your love
and reflect Your image in our world.
You call and receive us as Your own,
not through our goodness but through your gracious love alone.
You have called us here, Lord Jesus, to seek hope
despite our self-inflicted wounds,
the social forces that sweep us up,
and the powers and systems of evil which can overwhelm us.
Forgive us, good Lord,
when we place our trust in what our wealth can by,
our security in our possessions,
and our happiness in the things that entomb us.
You have called us here, Most Holy Spirit,
to free us from all that drags us down,
to remind us to serve creation, to turn from guilt and despair,
to reclaim faith and remember that love makes all things new. Amen
Prayer for Illumination
Enable us, O God, to seek out wisdom in all that is done under heaven,
and now, as we listen to Your word read and proclaimed,
help us not to chase after wind but follow Jesus Christ,
Your word made flesh. Amen.
Reading Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23
Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. I applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given to humans to be busy with. I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun, and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind. I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to my successor, and who knows whether he will be wise or foolish? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. So I turned and gave my heart up to despair concerning all the toil of my labours under the sun, because sometimes one who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by another who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. What do mortals get from all the toil and strain with which they toil under the sun? For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest. This also is vanity.
Reading Psalm 49:1-12
Hear this, all you peoples; give ear, all inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor together. My mouth shall speak wisdom; the meditation of my heart shall be understanding. I will incline my ear to a proverb; I will solve my riddle to the music of the harp. Why should I fear in times of trouble, when the iniquity of my persecutors surrounds me, those who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches? Truly, no ransom avails for one’s life; there is no price one can give to God for it. For the ransom of life is costly and can never suffice that one should live on forever and never see the Pit. When we look at the wise, they die; fool and dolt perish together and leave their wealth to others. Their graves are their homes forever, their dwelling places to all generations, though they named lands their own. Mortals cannot abide in their pomp; they are like the animals that perish.
Hymn Sing for God’s Glory
Kathy Galloway © 2003, WGRG, Iona Community OneLicence A-734713
Performed by the Cantus Firmus Trust and used with their kind permission.
Sing for God’s glory
which patterns & colours creation,
makes all things new and roots change at the heart of salvation;
both day and night,
sound, silence, symbol and sight,
offering earth’s glad adoration.
2 Sing for God’s power
that shatters the chains that would bind us,
searing the darkness of fear and despair that would blind us,
touching our shame
with love that will not lay blame,
reaching out gently to find us.
3 Sing for God’s justice
disturbing each easy illusion,
tearing down tyrants and putting our pride to confusion;
lifeblood of right,
resisting evil and slight,
offering freedom’s transfusion.
4 Sing for God’s saints
who have travelled faith’s journey before us,
who in our weariness give us their hope to restore us;
in them we see
the new creation to be,
Spirit of love made flesh for us.
Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
Sermon
Our reading from Ecclesiastes is one of the very few passages in the book which is well known with its striking opening “vanity is vanity”. This book is part of the collection of Old Testament books referred to as ‘Wisdom Literature’ Its title simply means Teacher. The Rabbis ascribed the book to Solomon but the presence of some Persian words, and some others clearly influenced by Aramaic, mean scholars think it was written at some point between 450 and 180 BC – so it is later than Solomon.
The Teacher looks at life and its unhappiness concluding we should enjoy the simple pleasures of daily life such as eating, drinking, and taking enjoyment from work as these are all God’s gifts. In today’s passage the Teacher is clearly unhappy, maybe bothered by his own mortality. The word translated as “vanity” comes from the Hebrew hevel meaning mist or vapour. Humans, like the steam from cooking or the morning mist, are here only for a moment. Efforts to secure advantage through wealth or pleasure are, like the mist, fleeting. The Teacher knows that one can’t take wealth with us when we die; we leave everything behind.
The Teacher appears to be very wealthy – like the powerful in our world now. The thought of leaving all that he’s toiled for behind seems to make him despair. Maybe the Teacher had come to realise he was looking in the wrong places for happiness and security; maybe his realisation that wealth and success is, after all, passing is being worked out in these verses. He does, later in his work, hold that the best we can have is to eat, drink, and enjoy life rather than hoard. There is much in contemporary society that would agree we should slow down, be more mindful, and enjoy the good things of life rather than be forever rushing to accumulate yet more wealth and possessions which ultimately don’t satisfy and, like our modern diets, always leave us wanting more.
Our Psalm today also deals with these themes of mortality and wealth. This ancient poet reminds us of the obvious – we will all die; mortals and animals, the wise and the foolish, have the same end. In v12 the Psalmist notes that the one who has riches without understanding will perish. Perhaps the poet meant that the significance of death differs; those who trust themselves and their wealth will perish as dust in the ground, but those who have lived in God’s grace, using their blessings wisely, live on in God’s new realm.
There’s a tension in our lives between the need to save for the future – rainy days, retirement, providing for self and dependents – and passages like this one in St Luke’s Gospel where Jesus tells us to be wary of greed and that life is not about an abundance of possessions. We might, like Joseph in his message to Pharoah, be prudent and save in times of plenty to see us through lean years. Instead, Jesus calls us to be “rich toward God”. This might mean following God’s laws, caring for the poor and marginalised, and giving a fair share to those without access to the world’s resources. Barns need to be emptied to give the contents to the poor.
The rich man in the parable stores wealth for himself but does not share it with those in need; and, of course, he can’t take his wealth with him when he dies. The rich man only speaks of himself; I have no place to store my crops…I will pull down my barns and build larger ones…I will store all my grain and my goods…I will say to my soul…” But he does not exist as an individual but in communities of people which need each other. The self-centred rich man can’t see beyond his own needs and desires and ignores those he must serve. The rich guy, no doubt believing he’s a self-made man, disregards God’s providence in his good fortune. He also forgets the fact that life always ends in death. Giving no thought for what comes next is a preoccupation of our contemporary world too. The rich man made idols of his possessions; something we continue to do.
The reality of mortality is sobering but should not lead us to despair; instead, we should be looking to make life count. In Ecclesiastes this is about attending to the good things of life, in St Luke it’s about being rich in God. Instead of trusting in money or wealth we are to trust in God. Instead of storing up an excess we are to use our resources to alleviate suffering. Believers are often tempted to think that the good things in life they have are rewards from God for being faithful – of course they then think that those who don’t have good things must have been unfaithful. This ‘prosperity gospel’ is a heresy which must be resisted. The witness of Scripture is that we are blessed in order that we may be a blessing. The fact we are blessed is an accident of birth or circumstance (or do we really believe that God destined so many to be poor and destitute?).
So what might we do with these passages? Our economy works through the lie of us needing more. The car industry wants us to buy a new car every few years, electronic goods often come with built-in obsolesce, after a while our computers and phones can’t accept the software updates, and we must renew the equipment. Trends in fashion and interior design lead us always wanting to look good and to have the finest things in our home. It’s not really our fault, we’re trapped in social movements and system we don’t fully own. Yet Jesus, standing in the tradition of the Old Testament teachers, knew that wealth and possessions are not to be prized. They distract us from God, and are given solely that we might use them wisely. So, we must balance a set of responsibilities – to ourselves and our families, to the poor and needy we see and those we don’t. We fulfil this in part through our taxes but in societies which want Scandinavian levels of public service with American levels of taxation there will be a need to do more; foodbanks, women’s refuges, development charities at home and abroad all need our support. Giving is good for us, enables us to be rich toward God, and reminds us that we can’t take anything with us at the end.
Let’s pray
Gracious God, teach us what is truly valuable in our world,
that we let go of our wealth and become rich toward You, Amen.
Hymn Sing to the Lord a Joyful Song
John Samuel Bewley Monsell (1811-1875) | Little Flower Music.
Sing to the Lord a joyful song,
lift up your hearts,
your voices raise;
to us his gracious gifts belong,
to him our songs of love and praise.
2 For life and love,
for rest and food,
for daily help and nightly care,
sing to the Lord, for he is good,
and praise his name, for it is fair.
3 For strength to those
who on him wait
his truth to prove, his will to do,
sing to our God, for he is great,
trust in his name, for it is true.
4 For joys untold, that from above
cheer those who
love his sweet employ,
sing to our God, for he is love;
exalt his name, for it is joy.
5 Sing to the Lord of heaven and earth,
whom angels serve and saints adore,
the Father, Son, and Spirit blest,
to whom be praise for evermore.
Affirmation of Faith
We live in a world where economic growth is prized, wealth accumulated by a few, and security is found in possessions. But Jesus reminds us: “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.”
We live in a world where the rich get richer and insulate themselves against life’s harshness, leaving the poor to starve in the cold. But Jesus reminds us: “one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
We live in a world where the earth itself is pillaged, the poor dispossessed, the air we breathe polluted, the climate warmed, and where many more species will become extinct. But Jesus reminds us to be “rich toward God.”
Instead of abiding in pomp and selfishness we are called to live with the values of the Kingdom, where the hungry shall be fed, the poor lifted up, and the earth honoured. And Jesus reminds us to “take care” and “not store up treasures for ourselves.”
And so we work for a world where resources are shared wisely and widely, where the earth is valued and cared for, where the hungry and thirsty are fed and well nourished, for Jesus tells us to seek first the Kingdom of God and God’s righteousness. Amen.
Offertory
In our world we are valued for what we have and for what our money can buy we are told to amass an ever-greater number of possessions, and to ignore those with less. In the Kingdom of God, however, we know we value people for who they are not what they have; we share our resources seeing ourselves as stewards not owners of them; we must work for a just and more equal division of resources. And so we give.
We give to charities and causes,
we give to the work of God in this place and across our nations,
we give as an expression of our faith, and as an act of discipleship;
we give of our time, our talents and our treasure.
Let us pray.
Giving God, bless all the gifts given in this place, that as we share and use them, we do as heralds of Your coming Kingdom. Amen.
Intercessions
In a world ever chasing wealth and possessions we bring our prayers to the One who calls us to share what we have.
O Most High,
we bring to You places of war and terror in our world. (pause)
Bless those seeking to be peacemakers,
give strength to those who cling to life despite the odds,
give hope to children that they may grow up in a better world,
and change the hearts of those wedded to war, power, and terror.
God, in your mercy…hear our prayer.
O Risen Lord,
We bring to You our dangerous cultures and ways of life. (pause)
You owned almost nothing yet changed the world,
change our hearts that we may reject love of money,
use our resources more fairly,
that hunger and poverty is banished,
and the earth, itself, is healed.
God, in your mercy…hear our prayer.
O Holy Spirit,
We bring to You all that is wounded in our world, and in our lives. (pause)
You give us the power to change;
to make this world more just;
give us the grace to listen to You and follow where You call,
that we may not be afraid to be heralds of the coming kingdom.
God, in your mercy…hear our prayer.
Eternal Trinity of love,
we bring to You all those we worry about. (longer pause)
Give grace, peace, hope and love, and make us agents of change.
God, in your mercy…hear our prayer.
As Jesus taught, so we have the courage to pray, Our Father…
Holy Communion
Long ago, the Apostle Paul wrote to the fledgling church in Corinth advising them about life, faith and worship. In the first letter we have from him to those early Christians we read:
For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when He had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way He took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
Since then, Christians have shared bread and wine to proclaim Christ’s death, to unite ourselves with Him as we are gathered up into His presence, and to receive sustenance for our souls and bodies.
Over the years much ink has been spilled reflecting on what Jesus meant when He said “this is my body” and “this is my blood”. Many images have been used to explain this ritual: meal, sacrifice, sign, sacrament, thanksgiving, communion, mission, and mystery.
When we come to Communion we come to meet Jesus our host who serves us and feeds us with his own self.
When we come to Communion we sit at the Lord’s own table where all are welcome.
We come to be fed with Peter who denied knowing Jesus, with the disciples who deserted Jesus in his hour of need and with Judas who betrayed Jesus.
We eat and drink with all who have gone before us, – great saints and dreadful sinners – and are united with them, and with our Risen Lord, through time and space. With them we sing of God’s glory.
Holy, Holy, Holy
Reginald Heber (1783-1826) (Public Domain)
The Cathedral Choir of St Andrew, Sydney, Australia and used with their kind permission
Holy, holy, holy!
Lord God Almighty!
early in the morning
our song shall rise to thee;
holy, holy, holy!
merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons,
blessèd Trinity!
2 Holy, holy, holy!
all the saints adore thee,
casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
cherubim and seraphim
falling down before thee,
which wert and art and
evermore shalt be.
Lord God almighty!
all thy works shall praise thy name
in earth and sky and sea;
holy, holy, holy!
merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons,
blessed Trinity.
Yes, Lord You are holy and call us to holiness in life.
From of old You called a people to be Your own,
set them apart from other nations,
taught them through precious Law
and righteous prophets to be a light to humanity.
Again and again, they turned away from Your path.
In the bitter years of exile, you reformed them,
teaching them to sing Your song in strange lands.
Through the years of national renewal
and in the bitterness of occupation,
You urged them to be faithful.
In the fullness of time, you raised up, from them, Jesus of Nazareth,
Your anointed One, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh,
Your embodied self, to shine in our gloom.
Jesus, You, taught the crowds, healed the sick,
delivered the possessed, and proclaimed Your coming Kingdom.
The powers of evil rejected, tried, tortured, and killed You,
but You were not left in the grave to rot and were raised on high.
You sent the Holy Spirit, who seeks us out with such care and cost
to urge us to live lives of holiness.
For these great gifts we praise You;
for your care and self-emptying love we thank You,
and now we see You have prepared this meal for us,
offering not just bread and wine but Your very self,
that we may healed, filled, and made new again.
Most Holy Spirit, come upon us now,
set this bread and wine apart from all common use,
that it may be, for us, the body and blood, of our Saviour Jesus Christ,
and that we might be, for Him, his body and blood in our world.
All this we pray, Eternal One, through, with, and in, Jesus,
our suffering and risen Lord,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, now and forever, Amen.
The table is set, the meal is ready. Let us eat and drink as Jesus taught,
welcoming the poor and outsiders to our table. May their absence here remind us of the wounds this meal seeks to heal; may their presence truly transform us into the body and blood of Christ which we share.
Amen!
Music for Communion Welcome All You Noble Saints of Old
Robert J Stamps © 1972, Dawn Treader Music
Sung by members of the English Speaking Catholic Mission in Zurich
Welcome all you noble saints of old,
as now before your very eyes unfold.
The wonders all so long ago foretold:
In God there is a table set for all,
in God there is a table set for all.
2 Elders, martyrs, all are falling down:
prophets, patriarchs are gath’ring round.
What angels long to see now we have found.
3 Who is this who spreads the vict’ry feast?
Who is this who makes our warring cease?
Jesus, risen Saviour, Prince of Peace.
Post Communion Prayer
Living One, You have fed us with Your own self
and united us with You in the heavenly places.
Send us from this place filled with Your Spirit,
eager to do Your will, sharing what we have,
seeking to be your light in the gloom. Amen.
Hymn Now Thank We All Our God
Martin Rinkart (1586-1649) translated by Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878)
BBC Songs of Praise
with hearts and hands and voices;
such wonders he has done!
in him the world rejoices.
He, from our mother’s arms,
has blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love,
and still is ours today.
2 O may this bounteous God
through all our life be near us,
with ever joyful hearts
and blessèd peace to cheer us;
and keep us in his grace,
and guide us when perplexed,
and free us from all ills
in this world and the next.
3 All praise and thanks to God
the Father now be given,
the Son, and him who reigns
with them in highest heaven,
the one eternal God,
whom earth and heaven adore,
for thus it was, is now,
and shall be evermore.
Blessing
May the One who loved you since before the ages began,
the One who taught you how to live with honest simplicity,
and the One who calls You to find security in Him not possessions,
give you the power to love, live, and trust
in the values of the coming Kingdom.
And the blessing of Almighty God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
be with you, now and evermore, Amen.