Sunday Service 1st September

1/9/24 Menstrie Communion: Be True

Jeremiah 29: 1-14, John 13: 31-38

Welcome to our meditation for 1st September.

When things are not looking good, and it looks like things will not be good for a while, then what should we do?

This was the dilemma of Jeremiah in our passage today,, where the people were going into exile, and Jesus who knew the disciples were facing his death...

Let me read them, from Jeremiah 29: 1-14. And John 13: 31-38

Let us pray

O God,

we rejoice in your care for us,

for the opportunity to join together in worship wherever we are.

That it doesn’t matter if we are suiting on pew seats, or at home on a sofa, or lying in a bed, we can be a community together sharing the stories of our faith.

We give thanks for the people who took the time to record your stories so that we could be encouraged by them, challenged by them, inspired by them.

May we savoir what they are trying to say to us, may we learn from them how you act in our lives

and through them may we continue to be reminded of your love for us, and our duty to share Your love with others.

We give you heartfelt thanks for all the blessings of family and friends and community that you give us..

But we are also sorry that we often take these gifts for granted,

that we do not honour the commitment of time and energy that others put into our lives,

that we ignore the needs of others, while to often being solely focused on our own often petty worries

.

Forgive us, Gracious God, and may we truly take that forgiveness to heart.

With a new commitment to learn and grow from our mistakes may you give us the initiative to share our hope far and wide.

This we ask in name of Christ, our Lord, and in his name we share the words he taught us to say.

Our Father,

Which art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy Name.

Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil;

For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever.  Amen.

Sermon

Sometimes things just don’t look good.

In our main passage today things were definitely not looking good.

There was a King called Jehoiakim who was being threatened by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar.

Jehoiakim had two choices, fight or negotiate.

Jeremiah told him to negotiate, but other prophets

(probably sponsored by Egypt who wanted Israel as a buffer zone between Babylon and themselves)

were telling Jehoiakim that God was on his side.

Hadn’t he read the story of David and Goliath?

It didn’t matter how big the Babylonian army was, God’s army was bigger, all he had to do was stay faithful and they would defeat the Babylonians.

Well the battle didn’t last long and Jehoiakim was killed, and his son Jehoiachin was put in his stead...for about three months...and then Nebuchadnezzar thought it was only a matter of time before Jehoiachin revolted and so he invaded again and took him into exile with a lot of the leaders of the country.

Things looked miserable.

It was hard to imagine things getting any worse.

What were they supposed to do?

Or what about that last supper?

Can you imagine what that meal must have been like for Jesus?

He already knew that Judas had betrayed him and was setting up an ambush for him.

It would only be a matter of time before Peter betrayed him three times, this is the guy who was supposed to be the rock on which the church would be founded, and the rock was going to crumble.

The rest of the disciples would run away.

Within a couple of hours Jesus would be tortured and then humiliated and then crucified.

Things looked miserable; it would be hard to imagine things getting worse.

What was he supposed to do?

I don’t know if you have noticed this, but things aren’t going great in the Church of Scotland.

We are still going through a process of downsizing, or linking and uniting churches, of putting more and more responsibilities on fewer and fewer people.

It seems to me that sometimes the national church thinks the answers to these things are creating more and more policies.

Health and Safety policies, Safeguarding Policies, Whistle-blowing policies, Terrorism policies, Conflict of interest policies.

I always suspected that the answer to all the Church of Scotland’s problems would be more administration.

Meanwhile our numbers keep on going down.

Things do look a bit miserable and it is hard to imagine things getting worse.

What are we supposed to do?

I tell you what the answer isn’t.

The answer isn’t going back to the past.

In Jeremiah’s day there were prophets galore telling the people that they just needed to go back to the past.

In the past God was there for them, in the past God had done miracles, in the past life had been a lot easier.

We need to fight to get everyone back to Jerusalem,

we need to concentrate on getting the worship in the temple sorted out,

we need to have a blind faith that God will see us take on impossible odds and win.

Wasn’t that what worked for Kings David and Solomon.

A strong hand in power, a military might that kept the people safe and bought fear to the enemies,

a strong temple that guided the people to be one in faith, trusting in God, trusting in the king who had been appointed by God.

Go back to the things that worked.

I am sure that in Jesus head there was a huge temptation to go back to the past,

to listen to all those voices that told him he was the new king of Israel.

Do what the leaders of the past had done, raise up an army, defeat the enemy on the battleground, create an empire for God.

Destroy your enemies before they destroy you.

Hadn’t that worked with David who defeated all his enemies,

hadn’t that worked with the Maccabees who took on the might of Alexander the Great and saved Israel from being a sub religion of the Greeks?

The truth is I am not too sure what the strategy of the Church if Scotland is to get us out of this mess.

I know there is a temptation in many to become hard-line, to go back to the values of the 1950’s and 1960’s when the church was at its highest numbers.

To be more judgemental on those who are different, to attack those who we disagree with, to go down fighting.

To separate ourselves from the world and become a sub-culture that is pure and exclusive.

The temptation is to find a single action that we think will change everything.

Like getting a praise band, that will bring the numbers up...remember when the church had the school orchestra, the church was packed that night...,

or having more Biblical preaching (whatever that may mean), that will get the numbers up, remember when Billy Grahame came to Glasgow, he had thousands come to listen to him...

or supplying the needs of all the community, that will get the numbers up, remember when all the schools were church schools, if we go back to being the church everyone relies on then that will bring the numbers up.

I remember a sermon I heard a long time ago. It was an hour long sermon, and out of the whole hour I remember one sentence.

God doesn’t call us to be successful; he calls us to be faithful.

That’s what Jeremiah is saying to God’s people.

Be true to God’s nature of love wherever you are.

Don’t long for past glories, or the future dreams.

Live God’s love in your heart today.

Show God’s love to your neighbours, no matter how strange or weird their culture may seem in that foreign land you are in.

I think that was what Jesus was telling himself, and trying to share with his disciples at that last supper.

Jesus, the disciples, had to be true to God’s nature of love wherever they were.

Not to yearn for the power of the kings so that they could bring in God’s kingdom.

Instead just live God’s love in their hearts each day...that would be what brought in God’s kingdom.

Show God’s love to their enemies, no matter how hard and terrifying they may seem.

And I think that that is God’s word for us today.

Don’t be envious of the church of yesterday with all their numbers, trust me they had a lot of flaws in their system,.

Don’t be worried for the church of tomorrow, for God will guide them.

But today, in our homes, in our streets, in our churches, be true to God’s love.

Show God’s love to all of those whose lives we meet.

The people in exile never imagined that they would return home.

As Jesus hung on a cross the disciples never imagined that the message would spread throughout the world.

We can’t imagine what God will be able to do with our faithfulness.

But that’s OK...

as long as we are faithful and show God’s love, then God will do the rest.

(offering first)

Let us pray

Heavenly Father

We come to you now in prayer, seeking you with our whole being,

offering prayer for the welfare of Menstrie and Alva, the churches you have called us to.

We pray for those who consider these places to be home,

and also those who feel they are in a period of exile, of being lost and isolated.

We pray that we care for these places, for as we care for them, so we care fro ourselves.

Remind us that when one is suffering, the whole community, the whole community is less than it could be.

May we share in the distress of those in our communities who are struggling just now.

Those who find their lives in turmoil, those who find past mistakes are catching up with them, those who find they are in the middle of an unexpected storm not of their own making.

May we make a home for the wanderer, the lost, the confused.

Help us to be welcoming to all, as you are welcoming to us.

Place upon our hearts individuals who would find joy by our interaction.

But our thoughts and our prayers go wider.

To those places in the world where the community, or communities are in tension, where diversity is feared, where histories are used to create hatred and division.

We pray for all of those who seek to create a new tradition where people can meet in hope, where neighbours can meet in trust, where communities can meet in peace.

We pray for your church across the world as she interprets the Biblical stories for people who may not even know they are looking for you.

Help us to be truthful to your intent,

and to allow space for your Spirit to bring healing and purpose.

We now come with prayers yet unspoken

in the silence, we bring our gratitude for blessing given...

in the silence, we our concerns…

Silence

Loving God,

we are so grateful for the opportunity of prayer,

for corporate and individual opportunities of relationship with you.

We listen for your Word this day.

Amen.