Sunday, May 17, 2020

Worship for Sunday may 17th 2020


Sunday, May 17th   2020
Welcome to Worship
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We continue our study in the book of Jonah today looking at Jonah’s sermon to the people of Nineveh and their surprising response.  Let us allow God to surprise us with his grace as we worship today

Call to worship

God is the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
He is the good shepherd and our Heavenly father
He is a friend of the poor,  he is my fortress, a mighty rock and refuge.
He is the God who hears, the God who saves
Let us worship God
  
Jonah reminds us that that love is stronger than hate, and mercy is greater than vengeance.
We are grateful that you have revealed your love for us in so many ways. If we were to count them they would be more than the grains of sand on a beach.  Yet sometimes we like to keep your blessing to ourselves.  Sometimes we think sharing will mean we truly have to live up to the message we proclaim and we are not sure we can do that.  You call us…and sometimes…we duck under the table, hoping you didn’t notice us. You call us…and sometimes…we grab a stapler and a stack of papers…trying to look too busy to do any more. You call us…and sometimes we just say, “No!” Give us the grace to say “Yes” to your call…
Forgive us when we are reluctant disciples, and renew our desire to follow you even if, like those first disciples, it means having the direction of our lives completely changed. Forgive us when we forget that we do not have to do everything in our own power when challenged to take risks of faith. But we can depend on your power and grace. Holy Spirit, breathe new life into us now, as we can only offer true worship and provide faithful discipleship when we are empowered by you.
Hear the Assurance of Pardon (2 Corinthians 5:17-18)
If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, with whom we are reconciled through Christ. 
Thanks be to God!

Let us say the lord’s prayer together
Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be your name
Your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. And Lead us not into temptation
And deliver us from evil.
For yours is the Kingdom, the power and the glory. Forever and ever amen

Opening Songs
2.      How great thou art
 
If you are with others share your highs and lows for the week. If you are doing this with just you and God, pause and ponder the things of your week that you are grateful for:  the people you know and love, the company you have shared….

Don’t forget the low points – what have you struggled with this week?



The children speak about what they have been doing in lockdown and getting back to school next week means   


Bible Readings:

  Jonah3:1-10 read by Anne Tristram
Matthew 21:28-32  read by Barbara Stewart

Brett’s Message:  Jonah a whale of a tale
 The story so far. God calls Jonah – who runs in opposite direction, taking boat as far away as possible. So God sends a storm which threatens the boat and the sailors wonder why and see God’s and in storm and wonder if someone is to blame. Finally decide maybe Jonah is the problem - and he agrees and asks to be thrown overboard to save the boat. As he sinks he is swallowed by a big fish good sends to rescue him.  To Jonah the fish doesn’t feel like an answer to prayer but like a grave and so he prays for God to rescue him.  chapter 2 is Jonah's prayer where he tells of his woes but ultimately commits himself to stop running from God. The chapter finishes with the wonderful line Gods answer is to get the fish to spit Jonah out on the shore.

God calls Jonah again – the same as chapter 1 to preach to Nineveh but there is a slight difference – in Chap. 1 he was to preach against the city, in chapter 3 he is to preach to it.
This is the first little hint there is hope for Nineveh.
If there is hope for a wayward prophet who should know better, there is hope for Nineveh and there is hope for you and me.
Jonah goes and preaches and there are surprising results from Jonah’s preaching - the whole City turns to God. Not because he is a great preacher. Clearly Other factors are at work.  This means our Success or failure is not the result of our effort alone -Jonah succeeded when he was an unwilling and ungracious preacher.  Farmers can be the best farmer – but if you get no rain as they have had in HB – your results will be bad. Or business people cannot take the blame if their business fails – for who expected a virus to shut down the economy. What can we do to cooperate with God to maximise our chances of success?
Nineveh where Jonah preached was a large city.  120 000 people – with a huge wall you could drive two chariots a breast on with the inner city wall about 6/7 round.  Jonah says it is a 3-day journey through the city but this probably includes the villages around the edge of the walled city (or maybe it was slow because it was congested with people)
Nineveh is the modern Mosul in Iraq and an Inscription at Mosul says - “The palace of Esarhaddon, great king, mighty king, king of the world, king of Assyria, son of Sennacherib, king of the world, king of Assyria, descendant of Sargon (II), king of the world, king of Assyria.”
When Jonah first walked into the city he would have walked past the armed guards and chariots, the piles of skulls that were to warn traitors and invading armies what happens to those who defy the Assyrians.  Jonah walked into the city one day and would have seen the ordinary people, the women and children yet these do not seem to have softened his heart towards the city and its people.
Jonah proclaimed his 7-word sermon- “In forty days Nineveh will be destroyed!”  (in Hebrew it is only 5 words).  It is not a turn or burn sermon – it is burn only. I think it is probably the worst sermon in the history of preaching (even if it is one of the most effective ever.)
This sermon goes viral – passed from person to person until even the king and his nobles hear and everyone responds with humility and prayer.  The King pass an edict calling on people to fast and pray, to put on sackcloth and to reform their ways.
IN our Wednesday study group, we have been studying Exodus and in chapter 5 we read of Moses speaking to Pharaoh.  Pharaoh asks some reasonable questions Ex 5 .2  “Who is this Lord? Why should I listen to him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord; and I will not let Israel go.”
We see none of that – for reasons we cannot see and are not told – the people respond with faith turning to God.  Jonah’s sermon doesn’t even mention God – He doesn’t say how the city will be destroyed or by who? Yet everyone turns to God or as V5 says The people of Nineveh believed Elohim.  - The God most high”
It seems to me that there a 2 little hints at why they respond in this way
1.  That Jonah is preaching at all.   They treat Jonah’s message as a warning not a final judgement.  If they respond right perhaps a different outcome is possible.  We know that if the Dr says your blood pressure is up or the Accountant says your business is broke you have to decide if that is the final word or if you still have options. You can pray and fast but also change behaviour by changing your diet or your spending habits or start seeking new customers.
V 9 hints at this when they say “Perhaps God will change his mind; perhaps he will stop being angry, and we will not die!”
The only ground on which their faith rested on was the fact of God sent someone to warn them instead of destroying them at once; this suggested the thought of a possibility of forgiveness.
They had no assurance that they would be saved but they had hope.  As Christians we have hope but we also have the promises of God.  If the only verse you know is John 3:16 it tells us “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  We have the Love of God and the gift of a saviour.  This is no clutching at straws but part of our sure hope and confidence in the face of every trial.
2.            The second sign of Hope is hidden in the word Jonah used for the city being “destroyed”.
It literally means being over turned, which can mean Destroyed but it can also mean transformed (by faith and repentance).
Their response to grasp these branches of hope that were being offered to them and acting by praying and turning from their sin.
Jonah is a book full of surprises.  A runaway prophet, a fish, a pagan city that turn to God.  It reminds me that we often don’t see the plan of God –who would pick the Assyrians to believe in God?  Who would pick Jonah to find God in the belly of a fish (in the worst of circumstances).
Who sees the plan of God in the things we are going through?  Will this covid 19 situation end in our destruction or in our blessing?  Perhaps the answer to that question is how we respond as a church and as a society.  Will it be bad news or good?  It might be too early to tell yet. Can we grasp the signs of hope, can we respond in faith and love? Or will we respond in fear and depression?  I know I was pretty disappointed we weren’t allowed be back into church this week – but then I thought maybe God has more to do – can I still grasp the branches of hope God offers?
In v7-8  The king makes an edict with 4 parts. To fast and pray, to wear Sackcloth and to change their ways.
No one is to eat anything; all persons, cattle, and sheep are forbidden to eat or drink.All persons and animals must wear sackcloth. Everyone must pray earnestly to God
It is pretty funny that the animals have to join the fasting and sackcloth.  The Ninevites really wanted God to get the message.  God may not feel sorry for fasting people but might have sympathy for fasting animals – who can resist a sad faced dog or cat? I know if we were eating and our Labrador gave its big hungry eye look no one could resist or the sound of bleating hungry calves would move the most hardened person or God.
The edict also required moral change v8  “Everyone must pray earnestly to God and must give up their wicked behavior and their evil actions.”   Prayer and sackcloth are good – but action is better. Especially when the judgement is caused by their actions.  It seems prayer without repentance is a waste of time.  There are lots of great scriptures about this for example Isaiah 58:6 -9
The kind of fasting I want is this:  Remove the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice, and let the oppressed go free. Share your food with the hungry and open your homes to the homeless poor. Give clothes to those who have nothing to wear, and do not refuse to help your own relatives.
“Then my favor will shine on you like the morning sun, and your wounds will be quickly healed. I will always be with you to save you; my presence will protect you on every side. When you pray, I will answer you. When you call to me, I will respond.
Jonah 3 finishes in V10  the comment “God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them;” 
What a surprise – but in the book of Jonah everything is a surprise. Jonah didn‘t see the storm as God’s gift to get him back on track. Jonah didn’t see the fish as God’s rescue plan. Jonah didn’t see God saving the Assyrians from destruction as a lesson to him that God’s love reaches to everyone not just the Israelites or those already God’s followers.
We should not be surprised by God’s grace.  WE are to see the hints of God’s grace everywhere but as Christians also have the clearly stated promises of God in the scriptures.  Jonah learnt that God’s love was bigger and broader than he thought.  Jonah learnt that God’s plans are wiser than he thought.
Jonah 3:10 reminds us that we have a God who sees what we do – our response is important.  Famous verse is 2 Chron 7:14 which say our first response should be prayer:
 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
This prayer is based on the confidence of God’s promises but also on God’s Son, our saviour and intercessor Heb. 4:15 says
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Our Prayer is then to be joined with our action – doing what is right, showing mercy and kindness. Responding in faith and obedience to the things God tells us to do or we know we ought to do.
Let us allow God to surprise us as we respond to the situations we face with faith and love, with prayer and repentance.
 
Is there other connections between your bible readings and your highs and lows for the week?
·         Was there a word, sentence, or phrase that stood out to you in the readings today?

 The video has a wonderful introduction of the story of the man whose words became the basis for this hymn

 
Pray for those who shared their highs and lows giving thanks for the blessings and asking for God’s help with the struggles.

A further Prayer
 Written and spoken by Ron Sim
Let us pray

God of healing and of caring, as we start to return to a new normality after this time of lockdown and separation caused by this pandemic, we pray that you will keep people safe and that the kindness and care which developed stays in our hearts and actions.
So many people have reassessed their lives and recognized the importance of personal wellbeing and a calmness in their lifestyles.  Lord give them the ability to withstand the pressure of materialism and understand your desire for them, that peace comes from faith, kindness and love
Lord God as people in this land of Aotearoa New Zealand start to come out of this pandemic, we pray for those folk in disease ravaged locations where fear is rife, medical equipment is sparse and over crowding negates the option of social spacing.   We pray that your awesome love will enter the hearts of these folk and bring a calm to replace panic.
As people see the conflict between commercialism and social safety and both sides fear for the future, remind them that a future in you provides a security that transcends all else,
Father to those people who have lost family or friends but haven't been able to grieve in the comfort and physical presence of others because of social distancing rules or fear of infection, be present  and show them you are the source of comfort and enduring love and through that give them peace.
Lord I pray that you lift up those who have put their own health and safety at risk to help others.  These people show the true meaning of love, faith and kindness.  Lord bless them and keep them safe.
Gracious Lord as we struggle with the domination of covid 19 don’t let us forget those that still struggle with chronic illness, family dysfunction, adjustment to loss or the pressure of insidious bullying.   Give them the strength to carry on and surround them with a calm and peace in the knowledge that you have a plan for their lives.
Father as our leaders, international, national or local, make decisions at this time, guide them to do so for the good of the people not as politically motivated point scoring. 
Gracious Lord place your hand upon us,
your spirit within us
And your love around us until we can come together again in our spiritual home of St Columba's
 Amen




 




Say this to one another – (and yourself)

The Lord bless you and keep you;
May the Lord be kind and gracious to you;
the Lord look upon you with favour and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24ff

Go now in peace, Go now in peace. May the love of God surround you, Everywhere, everywhere, you may go.


NOTICES

Help during the health crisis:  We are wanting to be able to offer help where we can and where it is needed.  For example, this might be to pick up some groceries and leave them at the door of someone who feels unable to be in contact with people at that time.  It might be a ride to an appointment.  If you wish your name to go onto a list of those willing to help please let anyone Brett or the church office know.  Please note - in order to protect everyone, you must be in good health yourself to be involved in this.
  The Prayer Team: If you or someone you know would benefit from having some prayer support we have a prayer chain so please feel free to send your requests to office@stcolumba-taradale.org.nz and the team will spring into action. (You can be assured of confidentiality). 

Zoom Meeting after worship (BYO cuppa and chat)

We are having a get together on Zoom on Sunday after worship at 10:30am.
You can also use your regular phone and dial in the numbers below and add the meeting id when asked.


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Married with Children. my wonderful wife is Sue. I have 2 sons Paul in Gisborne David In Napier