Sunday Worship 25 May 2025

May 25, 2025 colind

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Today’s service is led by the Revd Fiona Bennett

Welcome & Gathering

Hello. My name is Fiona Bennett the minister at Augustine United Church in Edinburgh. I am delighted be with you sharing in your worship this morning.

Call to Worship

The Risen Christ is amongst us
breathing new vision into our imaginations;
breathing new hope into our hearts,
breathing new purpose into our actions.
Risen Christ, with all that is in us, we raise our voices to praise you!

Hymn Womb of Life & Source of Being
Ruth Duck © 1992 GIA Publications, Inc. OneLicence # A-734713. Sung by Heather Price at the St George in the Pines Anglican Church, Banff, Canada

Womb of life, and source of being,
home of ev’ry restless heart,
in your arms the worlds awakened;
you have loved us from the start.
We, your children, gather ’round you,
at the table you prepare.
Sharing stories tears and laughter,
we are nurtured by your care.

Word in flesh, our brother Jesus,
born to bring us second birth,
you have come to stand beside us,
knowing weakness, knowing earth.
Priest who shares our human struggles,
Life of Life, and Death of Death,
risen Christ, come stand among us,
send the Spirit by your breath.

Brooding Spirit, move among us;
be our partner, be our friend.
When our mem’ry fails, remind us
whose we are, what we intend.
Labour with us, aid the birthing
of the new world made new,
ever singing, ever praising,
one with all, and one with you.

Mother, Brother, holy Partner;
Father, Spirit, Only Son:
we would praise your name forever,
one-in-three, and three-in-one.
We would share your life, your passion,
share your word of world made new,
ever singing, ever praising,
one with all, and one with you.

Gathering Prayer

From deep within us to the farthest reaches of space
the Risen Christ is present.
Resurrection God, as daylight lengthens and buds swell,
promising greening and hope, we give you thanks for the new life
you are birthing in our world and our hearts.

God of eternal resurrection,
may your Spirit breathe new life into our lives this day:
to melt with your love that which is frozen in fear or apathy;
to transform with your courage, that which is dead and not life-giving;
to release with your grace, all which ensnares and oppresses;
that in the breath of your Spirit,
we would awaken to your Realm present amongst us
and live as your disciples and witnesses.

We unite our prayers together in the Jesus’ Prayer or Lord’s Prayer using the form or words which are most worshipful for us…Our Father…

Hymn Lord of Life We come To You
Catherine Walker (b1958) © St Mungo Music OneLicence # A-734713. Performed by Aileen Sim, Morven McNeil, and Rebecca Barnard of Macduff Parish Church and used with their kind permission.

Lord of life, we come to you.
Lord of all, our Saviour be,
Come to bless and to heal
With the light of your love.

Through the days of doubt & toil,
in our joy and in our pain,
guide our steps in your way.
Make us one in your love.

Reading Acts 16:9-15

During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them. We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days. On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.” And she prevailed upon us.

Hymn Spirit of the Living God
Daniel Iverson (1890-1977) 1982 Fred Bock Music Co., Inc. OneLicence # A-734713. Performed by Emmaus Music and used with their kind permission.

Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.
Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.
Melt me, mould me, fill me, use me.
Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.

Reading St John 5:1-9

After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.” Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” At once the man was made well, he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a sabbath.

Reflection – Changing Direction

Often around May in Scotland the air temperature seems to warm (a bit) and gardens require more attention as new growth ramps up. I am always in awe at how plants react to warmth, water and soil to grow and become.

If you think about it most growth or change is a response to an encounter… vinegar encounters baking soda and reacts with fizz (releasing carbon dioxide); seeds (if kept dry) lay dormant for a long time, until they encounter water, soil and warmth; a chest infection remains until your immune systems encounters antibiotics and is strengthened; we understand there is only one way of making white sauce, until we live with someone outside our family! On a more serious note we may think there is only one way of living or loving, until we encounter others who live and love differently.

Encounters create the opportunity for change and growth.

Today’s readings are stories of people who encountered Jesus and through those encounters the journeys of their lives changed direction.

I would like to invite us today to reflect on these encounters and through them to hear (through the words of a hymn) the invitation to grow and change the directions of our lives and world through encountering Jesus today.

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?

I think this is possibly one of our best known modern hymns. It expresses Jesus’ invitation to understand our lives as a journey in faith with him; a journey to be and become the people and the world God dreams for us to be.

Our readings today offer us stories about people whose journey’s of faith changed direction once they encountered Jesus.

As a Pharisee, Saul was already on a journey with God, but he encountered Jesus and his journey took a very different direction.

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?

Paul was committed to spreading the news of Jesus wherever God sent him. The story we heard from the books of Acts is only one episode in a larger set of Pauls’s adventures.

When they got to the city of Philippi, we are told that Paul & Silas remained for some days. We don’t know what they were doing in those days, but on the Sabbath they headed out of the city to pray by the river. There they met a group of women already gathered to pray.

I believe if there was no synagogue in a settlement, a river or place of water is what could serve as the place to pray, because it enabled people to ritually wash and cleanse themselves.

Lydia was one of that crowd of women. She came from Thyatira (today that’s in Turkey) and was a seller of purple dye which was considered a luxury item. Purple dye was made from snails, very expensive to produce and extremely popular as the colour of the Roman Emperor.

The Lord opened Lydia’s heart to Paul’s message and there, in the river, she and her household were baptised. Which she follows with offering hospitality.

Like Paul, Lydia had already been on a journey with God, but when she encountered Jesus through the words of Paul, her faith journey took a clear shift in direction.

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?

This story fills me with questions of wonder which I would like to offer us to mull on:

Paul & Silas left Troas immediately in response to Paul’s dream. So after that fast action of departing, I wonder what they were thinking as they hung about in Philippi for some days?

Can we think of times in our lives and in the life of our world, when we have felt a strong sense of call and acted quickly, but when things haven’t fallen into place easily or swiftly, have wondered if we have done the right thing?

The Sabbath came and Paul & Silas followed the familiar ritual of going somewhere to pray. I presume that this was because there was no synagogue for them to access.

I wonder what the places of water could be for us today? Places outside formal worship spaces where people go to pray? I wonder what opportunities for encounter those places may hold for us and how those encounters could change our direction as individuals, local churches and as a denomination?

I wonder if Paul & Silas expected to meet a group of women? Are we open to being changed by those we least expect today?

I wonder if Lydia, as a foreigner herself and a trader, was more open to listening and to hearing the strange message of these foreign travellers – Paul & Silas?

I wonder if our world is not more open and able to hear Jesus’ Gospel than we believe, if only we dare to encounter it and share?

I wonder what Lydia was like and how she coped with the male dominated world around her as a trader? (This was a woman who made the decision to have her whole household baptised. She sounds like a powerful figure.)

I wonder at Lydia’s response of hospitality. It is the strong and beautiful response of Middle Eastern culture, (from which we in the western world have much to learn) but I also wonder if in her baptism, Lydia now saw herself and Paul & Silas as part of one family, one kin with the significant commitment of support and help of kinship which we see across the book of Acts? To have the powerful Lydia as your kin, could be perceived as God looking after Paul and Silas in the midst of their vulnerable travels.

I wonder how God cares for us as we journey through life and new encounters?

And finally in response to this story, I wonder, as we journey through life with God, when and how we have encountered Jesus in different ways, through different people and places, and how those encounters have changed the direction of our travel?

In the story of the Sheep Gate there is a man with an illness who has been beside the pool for 38 years. There was a legend that when an angel stirred up the water, folk could get into it and be healed of illness.
The man in the story has never made it into the pool. This man too was on a journey of faith, but his journey has not involved much distance for a very long time. Faith, perhaps desperation, had brought him to the Sheep Pool but there he stayed for nearly as long as the people wandered through the wilderness with Moses.

Then Jesus wandered into his life; Paul met the risen Jesus, Lydia met Jesus through Pauls’ words, but this man met Jesus face to face.

Jesus knew he had been lying there for a long time and he asked him: Do you want to be healed? …What a question to someone sitting by a pool for healing! The man replied: Sir there is no one to put me into the pool and while I am getting in, another steps in front of me.

There is a frustration in the man’s response that there is no one to support him to move forward on his journey.

I wonder if you can think of times when we as individuals, churches, as a denomination have felt our journey of faith has stalled and we have been stuck by a pool with no one to help us, for a very long time?

Interestingly Jesus’ response to the man is not to lift him into the pool nor says: I’ll cure you! Instead he gives the man what he says he lacks; the ability to move and get himself to the pool or wherever he needs to go.

‘Stand up, pick up your mat and walk.’

From this encounter with Jesus the life of the man who had sat by the pool had the opportunity to turn in a significantly new direction.

I wonder if we can think of ways in which encounters with Jesus have given us what we lacked, in order to journey on?

I wonder what God may be saying to us and giving us (even from very unexpected places) what we need to start out in a new direction on our journey of faith?

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.

Hymn Will You Come and Follow Me?
John Bell & Graham Maule ©1987 WGRG, Iona Community, OneLicence # A-734713. Performed by Joy and Ruth Everingham and used with their 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 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.

Prayers of the People

Holy One, Jesus asked the man by the Sheep Pool,
‘Do you want to be made well?’
We bring to you places in our lives and world
which are in need of healing.
We pray for courage for humanity, to pick up our mats
and walk towards the healing you set before us.

We bring to you the earth as temperatures rise and species disappear;
Holy One, grant us the courage to pick up our mats
and walk together towards healing and justice for the earth.
We bring to you places in the world which are disfigured
by the violence of war; Holy One, grant us the courage
to pick up our mats and walk together towards peace and healing
for war torn lands and societies.

We bring to you people who are suffocating from poverty;
Holy One, grant us the courage to pick up our mats and walk together towards a culture of generosity and systems of equity.

We bring to you people who are ill in body and in mind and all who care for them; Holy One, grant us the courage to pick up our mats
and walk together with all who are ill towards a community of support, shared resources and wholeness for all.

Jesus you ask us: Do we want to be well? Grant us the courage to receive the strength and opportunities you offer to follow your way,
that all may be healed and know abundant life.
These prayers we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen

Offering & Dedication

Please sing the doxology and the offering is collected.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
Praise God all creatures here below!
Praise God above you heavenly host!
Praise Maker, Christ and Holy Ghost.

Prayer of Dedication

Holy One, all that we have and all that we are are gifts of your love.
We thank you and offer ourselves to you
for the building of your Realm of love and justice
in our lives and throughout the Earth.

Hymn I the Lord of Sea and Sky
© 1981, Daniel L Schutte, New Dawn Music OneLicence # A-734713. Sung by Chris Brunelle and used with his kind permission.

I, the Lord of sea and sky,
I have heard my people cry.
All who dwell in dark and sin
my hand will save.
I, who made the stars of night,
I will make their darkness bright.
Who will bear my light to them?
Whom shall I send?

Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night.
I will go, Lord, if you lead me.
I will hold your people in my heart.

I, the Lord of snow and rain,
I have borne my people’s pain.
I have wept for love of them.
They turn away.
I will break their hearts of stone,
give them hearts for love alone.
I will speak my words to them.
Whom shall I send?

Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night.
I will go, Lord, if you lead me.
I will hold your people in my heart.

I, the Lord of wind and flame,
I will send the poor and lame.
I will set a feast for them.
My hand will save.
Finest bread I will provide
till their hearts be satisfied.
I will give my life to them.
Whom shall I send?

Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night.
I will go, Lord, if you lead me.
I will hold your people in my heart.

Blessing

May the blessing of God Almighty;
Creator, Christ, and Comforter,
be with us all today and every day. Amen.

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Sunday Worship 25 May 2025

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