Sunday Worship 16 March 2025
Today’s service is led by the Revd Fiona Bennett
Welcome & Gathering
Hello! It is good to be sharing worship with you today on this second Sunday in Lent. I am Fiona Bennett a URC minister based at Augustine United URC in Edinburgh We gather together to worship God…
Call to worship
We are on a Lenten journey from a wilderness to a garden. A journey of pruning and planting, of seeking and discovering. God of transformation and new life, in our Lenten journey we offer you our worship and praise.
Hymn Will You Come and Follow Me?
John Bell and Graham Maule ©1987 WGRG, Iona Community, Govan, Glasgow G51 3UU, Scotland GIA Publications OneLicence # A-734713 Performed & Produced by Justin Stretch of St Lawrence Church, Chorley and used with his kind permission.
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?
Will you leave your self 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?
Will you let the blinded see if I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free and never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean and do such as this unseen,
and admit to what I mean in you and you in me?
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?
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 and footsteps show.
Thus I’ll move and live and grow in you and you in me.
Opening Prayer
Holy Loving One, as we journey with Jesus through this season of Lent,
we remember the wilderness, where the seeds of his calling took root
as he planted wholeness, rather than egotism;
watered with integrity, rather than achievement;
nourished with love, rather than fear.
We give thanks for Jesus’ wise choices;
we praise the Spirit’s abundant growth;
we worship you, Holy Source of all Life.
As we travel through Lent, may we grow in Jesus’ image:
planting seeds of wholeness and turning away from egotism;
watering with integrity and turning away from achievement;
nourishing with love and turning away from fear.
That we may be strengthened by your wisdom,
flourish as we trust your abundance,
and blossom in your loving companionship.
We unite our prayers together in the Lord’s Prayer or Jesus Prayer, using a form of words which are worshipful for us…
Hymn Through the love of God Our Saviour
Mary Peters (1847) Public Domain played and sung by Gareth Moore of the Isle of Man Methodist Church.
Through the love of God our Saviour, all will be well.
Free and changeless is his favour, all, all is well.
Precious is the blood that healed us, perfect is the grace that sealed us,
strong the hand stretched forth to shield us, all must be well.
Though we pass through tribulation, all will be well.
Ours is such a full salvation, all, all is well.
Happy, still in God confiding, fruitful, if in Christ abiding,
holy, through the Spirit’s guiding, all must be well.
We expect a bright tomorrow, all will be well.
Faith can sing through days of sorrow, ‘All, all is well.’
On our Father’s love relying, Jesus every need supplying,
in our living, in our dying, all must be well.
Reading Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.” But the word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.” He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness. Then he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.” But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him. When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,
Reading St Luke 9:28-43
Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” —not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.
Hymn Holy Wisdom Lamp of Learning
Ruth C. Duck, 1995 © 1996 The Pilgrim Press OneLicence # A-734713 OCP Session Choir
Holy Wisdom, lamp of learning bless the light that reason lends.
Teach us judgment as we kindle sparks of thought your Spirit sends.
Sanctify our search for knowledge and the truth that sets us free.
Come, illumine mind and spirit joined in deepest unity.
Vine of truth, in you we flourish; by your grace we learn and grow.
May the word of Christ among us shape our life, our search to know.
Joined to Christ in living, dying, may we help the Church convey
witness to the saving gospel, bearing fruit of faith today.
Holy God, the hope of nations, tune us to your righteous will,
as the symphony of ages claims our best, our finest skill.
Shape our search for peace and justice through prophetic deed and word.
Christ, conduct us, set our rhythm, that God’s praise be ever heard.
Sermon Faith – the Long Game
Have you ever seen a Sequoia tree? They are amongst the most massive trees on the planet. Thought to have originated in California, giant sequoias are among the oldest living organisms on Earth with the oldest known giant sequoia considered to be 3,200–3,266 years old.
Sequoia trees regenerate through seed cones, which they don’t produce until they are about 12 years old. Each cone takes 10-20 months to grow and can remain close for 20 years. It takes heat, sometimes a forest fire, for the cones to open and the seeds to come out to germinate. Sequoia tree grow very slowly. If you were to plant one, you could not see it fully grown in your life span. A sequoia planted today may help the health of the earth for future generations, but for today the planting is an act of faith; faith in a long game which will play out after the planter is dead and gone. Sequoia trees remind us of the long game of faith.
The two Bible stories we heard today are also about the Long Game of Faith. Abraham and Sarah had responded to God’s call. Left their home country and travelled, all in the hope of a promise which met some of their deepest desires. They had no children. Now today we recognise that not every person or couple need to have children to be happy or complete. In the time and nomadic culture of Abraham and Sarah having children was survival. The basic and core infrastructure which enabled them to survive was their tribe and mortality rates were high. Having children in your tribe was key to survival.
Abraham and Sarah had no children. The sadness, failure and shame which went with that must have been huge. So, God offering them an adventure with the reward of children would have sounded like water on droughted land, even if it did seem a bit incredulous. They left their home country and journeyed… but still no pregnancy. Still no child.
The story we heard today is of Abram and God cutting a covenant together. A covenant was an agreement between two parties sealed in the precious blood of an animal. In the covenant God gave Abram a visible sign of God’s promise (very like rings in a wedding ceremony). The visible sign was to give Abram courage to keep trusting, keep journeying, keep faith in God, even though it would be some time before he and Sara had a child of their own.
In the covenant God planted for Abram a sequoia tree of promise. The story we heard from Luke’s gospel showed the disciples (and Luke’s readers) that Jesus’ life and story is part of a much longer story, planted many, many years before. Appearing on the mountain with Jesus was Moses – who lead the Abraham and Sarah’s descendants out of slavery to become a new people in a promised land.
And also with Jesus was Elijah – who steered Abraham & Sarah’s descendants back to be the people God called them to be. In the midst of Moses & Elijah was Jesus – who would free people and opened the way to God’s Realm on Earth and beyond. Like a sequoia cone opened in a forest fire, in Jesus death and resurrection the Realm of God took root and began to grow, opening to all, in faith.
The story revealed that Jesus was part of the same long story of faith which included Moses and Elijah, and offered the disciples (and us as readers) a visible sign of promise, which would become more tangible (for everyone across time) in the cup offered at the last supper to seal the new Covenant.
Within the life of Jesus, the story of the transfiguration offers the disciples a visible sign to carry in their minds and hearts before they experience the religious and civil authorities closing down the threat he posed to their authority. It was a moment, rich in insight yet beyond explanation (quite confusing by Peter’s reaction), for them to remember and hold onto when Jesus was discredited and killed.
Just as it was for Abraham and Sarah, for the people who followed Moses and the people forging a nation who Elijah spoke with, there are time when being people of faith and the journey of faith and promise feels very long and uncertain. There are times when being a follower of Jesus can feel like an uphill struggle. When money seems to be the most powerful voice in the world, it can feel hard to have faith in God’s way of justice.
When we witness or experience dehumanisation or degradation, it can feel hard to have faith in God’s way of love. When fear and violence dominate and devastate, it can be hard to have faith in God’s way of peace.
Having faith in God’s way often does not bring immediate change. Trusting God’s promise does not make life easy or pain-free, but it is trusting in God’s long game, those sequoia seeds of hope planted in faith. And along the way God, like in the Covenant with Abraham and the transfiguration with the disciples, in the familiar bread and wine, we are reminded that despite how things may sometimes seem the sequoia seeds of God’s promise can be trusted to grow and that justice, love and peace – God’s realm of abundant life for all – is present and real today and always.
Hymn All My Hope on God is Founded
Joachim Neander; Translator: Robert Bridges (1899) Public Domain Sung by the choir and congregation of St Mark’s Church, Philadelphia
All my hope on God is founded; he doth still my trust renew,
me through change and chance he guideth, only good and only true.
God unknown, he alone calls my heart to be his own.
Mortal pride and earthly glory, sword and crown betray our trust;
though with care and toil we build them, tower and temple fall to dust.
But God’s power, hour by hour, is my temple and my tower.
God’s great goodness e’er endureth, deep his wisdom, passing thought:
splendour, light & life attend him, beauty springeth out of naught.
Evermore from his store newborn worlds rise and adore.
Daily doth the almighty Giver bounteous gifts on us bestow;
his desire our soul delighteth, pleasure leads us where we go.
Love doth stand at his hand; joy doth wait on his command.
Still from earth to God eternal sacrifice of praise be done,
high above all praises praising for the gift of Christ, his Son.
Christ doth call one and all: ye who follow shall not fall.
Prayers of the People
God of hope,
with Abraham and Sarah we pray
for all in our world who are searching for a home,
for security and supportive community.
We think of people across our world today
who are refugees due to war, violence and climate change.
May your long story of hope strengthen them and transform our world.
God of hope, may your Kingdom come
may your will be done on earth as in Heaven.
God of love
with Moses we pray for all in our world
who are held in bondage by addiction, abuse, poverty,
oppressive laws, and cultural norms.
May your long story of love
strengthen them and transform our world.
God of love, may your Kingdom come
may your will be done on earth as in Heaven.
God of justice
with Elijah the prophet we listen for your voice
calling humanity today to be the community and the people
you created us to be, where all life can flourish.
May your long story of justice strengthen them
and transform our world.
God of justice, may your Kingdom come
may your will be done on earth as in Heaven.
God of peace
with Jesus we pray for all who are working in our world today
for change through non-violence, vulnerability and grace.
In our daily lives and in the long story of our world,
may your way of peace steer us towards your Realm
where all will know abundant life.
God of peace, may your Kingdom come
may your will be done on earth as in Heaven.
Offering and Dedication
As we receive our offerings we sing
The Doxology
Words: Thomas Ken, 1637-1711 (altered) Music: Louis Bourgeois, c. 1510-1561 Public Domain, sung at Augustine United Church, Edinburgh
Praise God from whom all blessing flow
Praise God all creature here below
Praise God above, You heavenly host
Praise Maker, Christ and Holy Ghost.
Hymn Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer
William Williams (1745) translator Peter Williams (1771) Public Domain, BBC Songs of Praise
Guide me, O my great Redeemer, pilgrim through this barren land;
I am weak, but you are mighty; hold me with your powerful hand.
Bread of heaven, bread of heaven, feed me now and evermore,
feed me now and evermore.
Open now the crystal fountain, where the healing waters flow.
Let the fire and cloudy pillar lead me all my journey through.
Strong Deliverer, strong Deliverer, ever be my strength and shield,
ever be my strength and shield.
When I tread the verge of Jordan, bid my anxious fears subside.
Death of death, and hell’s Destruction, land me safe on Canaan’s side.
Songs of praises, songs of praises I will ever give to Thee,
I will ever give to Thee.
Blessing
May the blessing of God almighty
Creator, Christ, and Comforter
be with us this day and everyday,
Amen.