Sunday Worship 20 July 2025
Today’s service is led by the Revd Angela Rigby
Welcome and Opening Prayer
Hello and welcome to our worship service. My name is Rev Angela Rigby. I’m a URC minister, and I’m currently serving churches in Kent. Let us begin with a word of prayer. Let us pray.
Holy God, help us to draw close to You today. Whether we are sitting quietly, doing something with our hands like colouring or crocheting, or stimming and moving about, God, we pray that you would open our hearts and minds to Your living Word that nourishes and inspires. Amen.
Call to Worship
Are you tired of the lying, cheating and scheming running rampant in this world? Are you worn down by the gaslighting and fearmongering?
Can you hear God calling us? Let us draw near to God and seek nourishment. We are like olive trees, flourishing in the house of God.
We trust in God’s unfailing love for what You have done, God, we will always praise You and hope in You.
Hymn 10,000 Reasons
Matt Redman 10,000 Reasons © 2011 Thankyou Music (PRS) (admin at IntegratedRights.com) OneLicence # A-734713 Sung by members of the City Church, San Francisco.
Bless the Lord O my soul, O my soul, worship His Holy name.
Sing like never before, O my soul, I’ll worship Your Holy name.
The sun comes up it’s a new day dawning,
it’s time to sing Your song again.
Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me,
let me be singing when the evening comes.
Bless the Lord O my soul, O my soul, worship His Holy name.
Sing like never before, O my soul, I’ll worship Your Holy name.
You’re rich in love and You’re slow to anger.
Your name is great and Your heart is kind.
For all Your goodness I will keep on singing;
ten thousand reasons for my heart to find.
Bless the Lord O my soul, O my soul, worship His Holy name.
Sing like never before, O my soul, I’ll worship Your Holy name.
And on that day when my strength is failing,
the end draws near and my time has come;
still my soul will sing Your praise unending –
ten thousand years and then forevermore!
Bless the Lord O my soul, O my soul, worship His Holy name.
Sing like never before, O my soul, I’ll worship Your Holy name.
Prayer of Adoration
God, who plays with dust and whose breath gives life, we praise you for your creativity and honesty, for your sincerity and kindness. We praise you that you are just, righteous, and kind.
Jesus, our Saviour and friend, the one who set the table, washes feet, and invites us to the meal that he has prepared, we are amazed that the one who defeated the destructive power of sin and death, calls us to dine with him as friends and find rest.
Holy Spirit, who reveals God’s Word, we thank You for forming our character more and more into the likeness of Jesus, so that God’s love is further revealed in our world.
Godhead – three in one – Parent, Son and Holy Spirit – we thank you for drawing close to us. Amen
Confession and Pardon
God, sometimes we can forget that you are just, righteous and kind.
Sometimes we choose words that hurt people and divide neighbours.
We forget your creativity. We forget we carry your image and your breath.
We forget that the table is Christ’s and that He is our host.
We sometimes cling to our friend Jesus and try to form an exclusive clique with people we find easy to get along with. We forget the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us, in our churches and in our world. We get too busy or look for distractions. We become afraid. God, we are sorry.
Help us to focus on your breath within us, to respond to the destructive forces in our world with your creative nature and hospitable character.
Help us to be the ones inviting others to the table of Christ. Make us quick to make room. Help us to work with the Holy Spirit already at work around us and through us. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
Hymn As it is in Heaven (The Lord’s Prayer)
Matt Maher © 2007, Thankyou Music (PRS) (Kingswaysongs) One Licence # A-734713. Performed by Orchard Enterprises
The rocks are crying out for your glory to come down
and the whole world waits for You.
The people who walk in darkness have seen a light of Your holiness
and the whole world waits for You, for You.
I will sing, sing a new song. I will sing, sing a new song.
I will sing, sing a new song to the Lord.
Let Your Kingdom come. Let Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
Ev’ry heart proclaim the mercy of Your name on earth as it is in Heaven.
Let it be, let it be, be done unto me. Let it be, let it, be done unto me.
Let it be, let it be, be done unto me. Let it be, let it be, be done unto me.
Prayers of the People
God, we pray for people in the hospitality. We pray for people who work in the kitchens of restaurants and cafes. We pray for the people who clean rooms and work in the laundry rooms of hotels. We pray for those who greet us at concerts, sporting events, cinemas, theatres, ice skating rinks, theme parks and other places of entertainment. We pray for those who clean our church buildings and for those who serve refreshments at our church gatherings.
God, we pray for those who are forgotten. We pray for victims and survivors of trafficking. We pray for those fleeing persecution and seeking asylum. We pray for people who are in prison – adults and young people. We pray for victims and survivors of crime, especially the crimes that often are underreported. We pray for people whose homes are not a place of safety. We pray for those who have no place to call home. We pray for the ‘quiet ones’ in our local churches and communities who can sometimes be overlooked.
God, we lift up to you those people and situations known to us, who are in need of You at this time.
silence kept for personal prayers
God, we pray that you will draw close to all the people we have been praying for and that the Holy Spirit will work within these situations to bring wholeness and peace.
We offer all the prayers spoken and unspoken to You in the name of Jesus. Amen
Offertory Prayer
God loves us, and we each respond to God’s love in different ways. We may offer our time, our skills, foodbank donations, or our money. We may give to a local church or charity. How ever you give and respond to God’s love, let us offer all these gifts to God in prayer.
Loving God, we bring these our gifts, in thanksgiving for all that you have given us; asking that we may be servants of others and witnesses to your love. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen
Hymn Beauty for Brokenness
Graham Kendrick © 1993 Make Way Music OneLicence # A-734713 BBC Songs of Praise
Beauty for brokenness hope for despair.
Lord, in your suffering world this is our prayer
Bread for the children, justice, joy, peace.
sunrise to sunset Your kingdom increase!
God of the poor friend of the weak,
give us compassion we pray.
Melt our cold hearts, let tears fall like rain.
Come, change our love from a spark to a flame
Lighten our darkness breathe on this flame
until your justice burns brightly again,
until the nations learn of your ways,
seek your salvation and bring you their praise.
Reading Amos 8:1-12
This is what the Lord God showed me—a basket of summer fruit. He said, ‘Amos, what do you see?’ And I said, ‘A basket of summer fruit.’ Then the Lord said to me,
‘The end has come upon my people Israel;
I will never again pass them by.
The songs of the temple shall become wailings on that day,’
says the Lord God;
‘the dead bodies shall be many, cast out in every place. Be silent!’
Hear this, you that trample on the needy,
and bring to ruin the poor of the land,
saying, ‘When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain;
and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale?
We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,
and practise deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
and selling the sweepings of the wheat.’
The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
Shall not the land tremble on this account,
and everyone mourn who lives in it, and all of it rise like the Nile,
and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?
On that day, says the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon,
and darken the earth in broad daylight.
I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation;
I will bring sackcloth on all loins, and baldness on every head;
I will make it like the mourning for an only son,
and the end of it like a bitter day.
The time is surely coming, says the Lord God,
when I will send a famine on the land;
not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord.
They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
but they shall not find it.
Reading St Luke 10:38-42
Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’
Hymn God of Freedom, God of Justice
Shirley Erena Murray © 1992 Hope Publishing Company sung by members of the Franklin United Methodist Church Massachusetts OneLicence
God of freedom, God of justice, you whose love is strong as death,
you who saw the dark of prison, you who knew the price of faith –
touch our world of sad oppression with your Spirit’s healing breath.
Rid the earth of torture’s terror, you whose hands were nailed to wood;
hear the cries of pain and protest, you who shed the tears and blood —
move in us the power of pity restless for the common good.
Make in us a captive conscience quick to hear, to act, to plead;
make us truly sisters, brothers of whatever race or creed –
teach us to be fully human, open to each other’s needs.
Sermon
Around the time of Wimbledon tennis, some of the Kent farms open up for people to come and pick their own strawberries. Sometimes they even hold open-air events featuring folk music. For two months, if the crops are good and the weather has been kind, there is the picking of guitars and the picking of strawberries. With the last of the strawberries though, we know that we have one more month of decent weather, before autumn starts to arrive and the outdoor celebrations turn cold.
But quite a few towns in Kent are towns of two haves: the haves and the have nots. The wealth divide can be quite shocking. A council estate could be less than a mile away from several homes worth £6 million each. It’s a reminder that not everyone is able to go pick their own strawberries.
Our reading from Amos was a warning. The people of Israel were experiencing a time of relative peace and prosperity, yet instead of using that time to ensure everyone’s needs were met, the divide between the wealthy and the poor was growing. Despite the peoples’ worship services, the peoples’ worship had gone cold. Sure, their worship looked the part on the outside, but underneath, God could see what was going on. Through Amos, God charges the people with several offences, but in today’s reading, God was angry at the merchants for using worship as an opportunity to cheat people, especially the poor and needy. The result – despite their worship services and wealth – there would be a famine of hearing God’s word. Although the bellies of the wealthy might be full, because of their lack of compassion on the poor, they will search for God’s word but not find it.
According to the Office of National Statistics for the UK, the wealthiest 10% are estimated to hold around half of all wealth, mostly in the form of private pensions and property. Whilst on average wealth increases with age, factors such as gender, illness or disability, ethnicity and even sexuality can negatively impact wealth. During political debates, politicians like to say that people should pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, but we are reminded that the Bible encourages people to look out for one another in community, rather than rely on this relatively modern self-reliance motto.
After years of austerity from one brand of government, the recent Spring statement and subsequent announces by another brand of government has left many groups like the Joint Public Issues Team (www.jpit.uk) concerned that the policies being pursued will increase the amount of people experiencing poverty by 250,000, including 50,000 children. At the time I am writing this, there is hope that the UK Government will be bold and ambitious with its Child Poverty Strategy.
For local churches and individuals who want to raise their awareness, you can have a look at the Joint Public Issues Team website and newsletters. On their website you can also find out more information about the Let’s End Poverty campaign. You may also think about small steps you can make as a church to bring people together in your community, reaching across the usual divides if you can. Just bringing people together can make a big difference.
You may be wondering what our gospel reading has to do with justice and wealth inequality. Isn’t the story about Mary and Martha about the importance of listening to Jesus? Well, yes and no.
Hospitality is a big theme throughout the gospel of Luke. Do we respond to God’s word by making space for one another and welcoming folks often on the margins? In Luke chapter 10, we read of a lawyer who heard the word of God, but doesn’t know what it means to love their neighbour. We hear the story of a good Samaritan who demonstrates a correct response to God’s word by putting love in action. Here – we have two women. One who is active, providing for their guests. Another who is listening to Jesus speaking, and not just listening but she is defying her society’s gender roles by taking the position of a Rabbi’s student. A defiance that Jesus encourages, as he encourages both women to learn as any disciple would.
Jesus is not telling Martha off for being busy in the kitchen. Rather he is inviting her to do the minimum and then come and spend time with her guest. In doing so, Jesus sets a precedence on how he and his messengers should be welcomed – prioritise spending time with them over abundantly providing food and drink. The emphasis is on hearing the word of God.
In Amos’ day, people focussed on the mechanics of worship rather than seeking God’s word and living out God’s justice and kindness. Here, we see Jesus encouraging his followers not to fall into the same trap of focusing on the mechanics of hospitality at the expense of hearing the word of God through the guests.
Although we didn’t read Genesis 18, there is a well-known story of Abraham and Sarah welcoming three strangers, and in doing so hearing an important, long-awaited message from God. That story is the reason people often talk about entertaining angels unawares. To see the potential of a message from God in every person we meet can be quite a challenge, but I wonder if it is a challenge we are meant to accept?
This gospel story of Mary and Martha challenges us to rethink how we welcome people and free them from so called fixed societal roles. Jesus invitation to Martha is an invitation to us all. Are we so focused on worship like the people in Amos’ day that we neglect to focus our time and attention on listening to God and living God’s word out? Can we hear Christ’s invitation to come and find rest?
As I was preparing this service and reflecting on this story, I realised that we don’t actually hear from Mary. I wondered – what might Mary say to her sister? So I wrote a poem, trying to put into words what Mary might be wanting to say.
Mary’s Voice
Jesus cleaned house already;
there’s nothing more to do.
Come take your place beside him;
find rest (if you want to)
You could
Come and have a laugh with him
as he tells a joke or two.
Heard the one about the camel?
Missing sheep? (Right now, that’s you.)
Just come and sit beside him
(with me – I’m already here).
Come listen to his tales of
all our awkwardness, my dear.
Stories of brothers and dads,
of landowners and farmhands,
of fig trees awaiting fruit,
of mustard seeds claiming land,
of the kin-dom of God – that
inside you and me is found.
The kin-dom grows around us,
breaking through the hardest ground.
Sister, he feels at home here
with all the things that you do.
One thing’s still missing – the best –
Martha, my sister, that’s you.
So come and sit beside him;
there is nothing more to do.
Jesus cleaned house already.
Come, let him care for you.
Friends, may we all respond to Jesus’ invitation to spend time with him today. Heeding the warnings of Amos, that our time hearing God’s word turns into love in action, seeking justice and a fairer society for all in our community. Amen.
Hymn Let us Build a House
Marty Haugen © 1994, GIA Publications, Inc. OneLicence. Frodsham Methodist Church Cloud Choir accompanied by Andrew Ellams
Let us build a house where love can dwell and all can safely live;
a place where saints and children tell how hearts learn to forgive.
Built of hopes and dreams and visions, rock of faith & vault of grace.
Here the love of Christ shall end divisions:
All are welcome, all are welcome,
all are welcome in this place.
Let us build a house where prophets speak, and words are strong and true,
where all God’s children dare to seek to dream God’s reign anew.
Here the Cross shall stand as witness and as symbol of God’s grace;
here as one we claim the faith of Jesus:
All are welcome, all are welcome,
all are welcome in this place.
Let us build a house where love is found in water, wine and wheat:
a banquet hall on holy ground where peace and justice meet.
Here the love of God, through Jesus, is revealed in time and space;
as we share in Christ the feast that frees us:
All are welcome, all are welcome,
all are welcome in this place.
Let us build a house where hands will reach beyond the wood and stone
to heal and strengthen, serve and teach, and live the Word they’ve known.
Here the outcast and the stranger bear the image of God’s face;
let us bring an end to fear and danger:
All are welcome, all are welcome,
all are welcome in this place.
Let us build a house where all are named, their songs and visions heard
and loved and treasured, taught and claimed as words within the Word.
Built of tears and cries and laughter, prayers of faith and songs of grace,
let this house proclaim from floor to rafter:
All are welcome, all are welcome,
all are welcome in this place.
Blessing and the Grace
This week, starting today, may we be found at Christ’s table
May we be quick to make room for all to come to Christ’s feast.
May we be blessed by His living word, His love, and His grace.
Let us share the words of the Grace together.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all, evermore. Amen