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Virtual worship - 10 January 2021

The Christian Way: Week 2 – Step Down


Welcome. 

Welcome to worship today with the Bradford North Methodist Circuit. In our service, we are continuing with the series begun last Sunday on ‘An Exploration of The Christian Way’, and our theme for today is ‘Step Down’ as we explore what it means to let go of something that we have held on to and sustained for a period of time. Also as part of our service today, I will be inviting you to join in with the words of the Methodist covenant promise. The Covenant Service – a tradition which goes back to the earliest days of the Methodist movement in the eighteenth century - marks an important part of the Methodist calendar, and usually takes place at the start of the New Year in early January, although some churches like to use the start of the Church Year in September instead. The words of the covenant promise act as a reminder of our Christian commitment to continue in Christ’s way through the bad and the good. And so, these words of reaffirmation include the phrase, ‘Let me be employed for you or laid aside for you’ – words which echo the challenge of our theme of ‘letting go’.

Whilst the words of the covenant promise are in the first person singular, to experience saying them alongside the body of the congregation with one voice together can be a powerful expression of how we are called into the body of Christ’s Church. Together, we are members of this one body, the Church; and today, we are invited to say them as a single voice with members of the churches in Bradford North Circuit as they follow this service either online or in print.

Song

Will you come and follow me (StF 673) (or use a hymn of praise such as Lord of creation, to you be all praise, StF 449, H&P 699)

Opening prayers and the Lord’s Prayer

Loving God, help us to understand what it means for us to say that
‘You are our God and we are your people’.
‘You are our God’
You are everything to us. You give us all we need.
If we build our lives on you and your loving promises we shall have life in all its fullness.
But we confess, forgiving Parent, we often forget to put you first to be open and trusting with you.
This new year, help us to make a fresh start and keep our resolution to put you first.
‘We are your people.’
You write your law of love on our hearts and we know we belong to you.
You sent your Son Jesus Christ to call us to you and make us one with you.
As your people of love we long to serve you in the world,
praying and caring for those who cry out to you in need.
We pray for: the poor and powerless, those caught up in war or disaster
For all those struggling with the effects of the Covid pandemic
And especially for those who are ill or sorrowful.
Our God, with the help of your Holy Spirit may we, your people, live together in love and joy and peace, to the glory of your name as we pray and work for your kingdom. Amen

(The Lord’s Prayer may be said.)

Introduction to the Bible readings

When I was at theological college one of the essays I had to produce was in answer to the question ‘Did Jesus intend to establish a church?’ I’ve rooted it out to have a look at again – my tutor, Jimmy Dunn, had put on it ‘a beautifully clear and nicely nuanced discussion’ - although it still didn’t get me a first! - mainly because I hadn’t tackled what he thought was the implied negativity of the question, that is to say, that the church was a mistake. In other words: what Jesus did was great, but what we ended up with was the church! That is an extreme view but with some truth in it. We have to remember that any understanding of the church we have is so coloured by how we see the church today and in history. The church, like a good essay, has the potential to be beautiful and nuanced; it occasionally has been, but a lot of the time has not.

Of course, it might be argued that a commitment to live the common life of the Christian Way might be very different to being part of an institution. I think if you were to do a survey of people who are not involved with a church you would probably find a good number of them who were happy to subscribe to the principle of loving one another, but not very happy with the institution of the church as an expression of it: that the church is too structured, too inflexible, too caught up in arranging its own affairs and so not relevant to life today. And yet wherever human beings come together in groups there does seem to be the need to bring structure and order to the way they do things together. Of course, some people are suited to organisational roles, and those tasks are necessary and helpful if they give our routines a rhythm rather than a rigidity. But if we are to talk about roles and responsibilities, I think we need to ask ourselves what roles are really needed. Are we just seeking to fill some posts in church life for the sake of it? Are we really trying to use people’s passions or just pigeon-holing the people, fitting round pegs into square holes? How can we really be free to serve Christ in our world today?

Throughout church history there have been examples of people breaking out of the confines of the church because they felt that God was wanting them to reveal something more of his Kingdom, which was not showing in the church. John Wesley was motivated in this way, to reach places and people which the established church simply ignored, and so started a movement of people called Methodists. Today the Methodist Church is a structured organisation with a national Conference, Districts and Circuits. The Methodist Church of Great Britain is described as a ‘connexion’ and it is that sense of connectedness which underpins Methodist life and witness. And after all it is important that as Methodist people living in a connected church that we are accountable in what we do. But we also need to check that what we are doing is pushing the boundaries of what it means to be the church and not just fiddling around in the centre: to make sure we are saying something vital about the content of faith and not just the structures of the church.

Part of the problem is that ‘church’ isn’t a well-used term in the gospels. In fact, it only appears twice, both of them in Matthew’s gospel as a record of Jesus’ words; and both of them we are going to hear now as our gospel reading this morning. The word we hear much more in the gospels on the lips of Jesus is ‘Kingdom’ (‘Kingdom of heaven’ or ‘Kingdom of God’) and church quite clearly plays at best a smaller part in this bigger picture. The church is not the Kingdom, although sometimes, when the church is at its very best, it may reveal something of the Kingdom.

Let’s take time now to listen to the two passages from the gospels which make use of the term ‘church’ (‘ecclesia’ in the original language of the New Testament, Greek)

Gospel reading: Matthew 16.13-20 and 18.15-22

In the first of these passages, Simon Peter is told by Jesus, ‘You are a rock, and on this rock foundation I will build my church.’ There is a mandate for authority and leadership here, but the spelling out of this statement is one that has led to disagreements amongst Christians over the centuries. It is to Peter that the keys of the kingdom of heaven are given. Given my own propensity to mislay keys on a regular basis - and having had colleagues over the years who (mentioning no names) frequently seem to do the same - I would want to think hard before giving keys to anyone, myself included. The New Testament does give authority to certain positions in the church – making mention of deacons, elders, presbyters and bishops who are appointed for purposes of teaching and good order, and whilst we may choose to respect the office, we are all too aware that those who hold them are without exception prone to mistakes, failure and abuse of the office.

Indeed, Peter himself, in whom Jesus trusted so much, didn’t prove up to the mark, when later he denied Jesus after his arrest, and ran away whilst his Lord was being taken on the path of crucifixion and death. Yet we also know that Peter was forgiven his shortcomings and restored in his position. And this seems to me to be the key point in the discussion as our second bit from Matthew’s gospel makes clear. There is a way of doing things for the sake of good order - of who should be involved and when - but the key thing (the key to the kingdom, if you will) lies in the underlying principle of the passage, that good news of forgiveness needs to be found within the community of the church. For without it, the church cannot truly function in the name of Christ.

Positions and offices, roles and responsibilities, are all very well, but in the end the only true authority lies in showing the same mercy to others which God has shown to us in forgiving what is wrong in our lives. This is to be a key mark of the church of Jesus Christ. This seems to me to be the key when speaking about responsibilities within the church. Responsibility is about living responsively; it’s about being responsive; it’s about making a response to God and to those around us. Taking on responsibility isn’t about obligation, making onerous demands of ourselves, fulfilling burdensome duties. But taking on responsibility is about relationships and taking those relationships seriously; seeking to build up those relationships and in this way live responsibly as Christians playing our part in Christ’s church. It is about learning to trust one another, recognising that sometimes – often? – we do not trust others enough. It also means that sometimes we will recognise that God is giving us a task to do; but at other times we will equally need to be prepared to lay that task aside and leave it in the hands of others. This is sharing in the body of Christ. The Christian life is not about keeping power and control to ourselves, but it is about recognising when the time is right to hand on our responsibilities to others for the sake of the Kingdom.

So let’s take up the challenge of roles and responsibilities in the church (in the sense of both picking up and letting go), that in the sort of things we do, and through the kind of people we are, we may reveal something more of Christ and his Kingdom, and his message of Good News. Amen.

To think about or talk about

1. Is the church too much of an institution today? How can boundaries be pushed in rediscovering Methodism as a movement? Can you name examples of where and how this might be happening?

2. What is the place of good order in the church? Or should ‘anything go’? If we can agree that good order is necessary how is it best implemented? What sort of organisational structure is required?

3. What roles are really required in the life of the church? How do we see our role in the Kingdom?

4. In considering what we might let go of, is it helpful to think of responsibilities in terms of growing relationships rather than duties or obligations?

A poem for reflection:

A covenant of love
is made between two people
who are committed to each other
and want to share their lives with each other.
Each enters into the covenant
with the intention of giving all
to a lifelong relationship.
All is done in good faith
and with the best of motives.
But relationships break down
and promises are not always kept
and commitments become a burden
and the covenant is shattered.
God’s covenant with us
is based on grace and love.
Our side of the covenant
may often be broken
by our behaviour,
by our neglect,
by following our own wilful ways,
by direct disobedience,
or by desertion.
But God continually renews
the covenant with us,
as forgiveness is offered,
repentance accepted
and behaviour is understood.
For when we make our commitment
to this covenant,
God’s conditions and promises
are written in our hearts,
so that we can never completely forget them –
even if we don’t always remember
the vows that we made.

©Marjorie Dobson

Song 

Let love be real (StF 615) (or use a hymn of commitment such as O Thou who camest from above (StF 564, H&P 745))


Covenant commitment (from the Methodist Worship Book)

Sisters and brothers in Christ, let us again accept our place within this covenant
which God has made with us and with all who are called to be Christ’s disciples.
This means that, by the help of the Holy Spirit, we accept God’s purpose for us,
and the call to love and serve God in all our life and work.
Christ has many services to be done: some are easy, others are difficult;
some bring honour, others bring reproach;
some are suitable to our natural inclinations and material interests, others are contrary to both;
in some we may please Christ and please ourselves;
in others we cannot please Christ except by denying ourselves.
Yet the power to do all these things is given to us in Christ, who strengthens us.
Therefore let us make this covenant of God our own.
Let us give ourselves to him, trusting in his promises and relying on his grace.
Eternal God,
in your faithful and enduring love you call us to share in your gracious covenant in Jesus Christ.
In obedience we hear and accept your commands; in love we seek to do your perfect will;
with joy we offer ourselves anew to you.
We are no longer our own but yours.

I am no longer my own but yours.
Your will, not mine, be done in all things,
wherever you may place me,
in all that I do and in all that I may endure;
when there is work for me and when there is none;
when I am troubled and when I am at peace.
Your will be done when I am valued
and when I am disregarded;
when I find fulfilment and when it is lacking;
when I have all things, and when I have nothing.
I willingly offer all I have and am to serve you, as and where you choose.
Glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
you are mine and I am yours. May it be so for ever.
Let this covenant now made on earth be fulfilled in heaven. Amen.

Song: 

Lord, your church on earth is seeking (Singing the Faith 410, Hymns and Psalms 774 – Lord, Thy church on earth is seeking) 

Blessing: 

The blessing of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be with you this day and throughout the year ahead. Amen.

Thank you for joining us in this time of worship today. May you know the presence of God with you, as you walk his way.

Credits: Opening prayer, from Open With God by Christine Odell, downloaded from theworshipcloud.com with permission to use in worship. Poem by Marjorie Dobson, downloaded from theworshipcloud.com with permission to use in worship. Text of the Methodist covenant promise taken from The Methodist Worship Book, 1999, copyright The Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes.






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