Service Sheet (pdf)
Call to worship:
Come and worship the Lord:Cry, Holy, holy, holy!
Come and praise the name of our God:
The whole earth is full of his glory!
Song
We begin with HP 9/StF 55 Immortal, invisible, God only wise, praising God in his glory.Prayers
We worship you, God of all:high above us, your glory more than we could bear to see.
You have formed and shaped our world;
and we look up and see the grandeur of the mountains,
the power of the seas,
the distant stars,
the long-lived trees, and we marvel.
Yet your love is also poured out upon the lowliest of creatures,
insects that live but a day,
sea creatures never seen by human eyes,
plants we deem nuisance weeds,
and even upon us, who should be tending your earth,
but so often think it is all about us
and, in grasping things for ourselves,
fall far short of your plan for us.
We grasp at the hem of your garment
and ask your forgiveness.
Fill us, we pray, with love for our earth
and all who share it with us
that we might be more truly your people,
living in your ways.
God of all glory,
be present in our worship
that we might come closer to you
and you to us.
Amen.
Reading
Our Old Testament reading (Isaiah 6:1-8), speaks of Isaiah having an encounter with God in the Temple. Clearly this is not a first-time meeting with God; some of Isaiah’s prophecies are recorded before this in the order of the book that bears his name. Yet it is an experience that takes Isaiah from the political realities of his day into the presence of the Most High God. Uzziah may be King of Israel at the time, but God is King over all, and Isaiah is able to see his reality in the context of God’s reality.Song
HP 7/StF 11 Holy, Holy, Holy, reflects Isaiah’s experience in the Temple that day.Reading
Our Gospel reading (Luke 5:1-11), tells of Jesus teaching the crowds and calling on the fishermen to act with faith to land a large catch of fish. Although Peter is reluctant, he does what Jesus tells him, and comes to a new understanding of who Jesus is.Sermon
If you are familiar with Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice you will know that Mrs Bennett is often a source of amusement to those around her. At one point she takes offence with Mr Darcy for saying there are fewer people for Elizabeth to observe in their country setting than there would be in London, and in her eagerness to score a point she announces: ‘we dine with four and twenty families.’ Her remark simply shows up her ignorance of the varied society of the city, and that she actually doesn’t know what she is missing. Both Isaiah and Peter in our readings today come to faith encounters and realise that they didn’t know what they were missing until it was revealed to them.Why was Isaiah in the Temple? Was he there as a worshipper? Did his vision happen while other things were going on around him? Was he a priest who experienced his vision in the middle of his work? Did his vision come about because he was offering a sacrifice or praying, or did it break in upon more mundane activity?
We know very little about the prophet, because his focus was to tell us not about himself but about his message. What we do know is that he was married with sons (Isaiah 7:3 and 8:3), that his wife was known as a prophetess (Isaiah 8:3), and that he was high up in the society of that time because in chapter 7 he goes in to see King Ahab (the grandson of King Uzziah, in whose final year Isaiah saw his vision in the Temple).
In the midst of Israel’s political situation as a small nation sandwiched between other more powerful kingdoms, Isaiah had a vision of God as the One who is over all that happens in our world and even in our worship. God was present in the Temple, the focus of Israel’s worshipping life, and his throne was high and lofty in that place.
This was not Isaiah’s first encounter with God; Isaiah would have been brought up to worship God and to follow his commandments, seeing these things as what set the Israelites apart from other nations. The Temple would have been the focus of worship and sacrifice, just as the Palace would have been the focus of political life. Yet Isaiah has a new vision of God which sends him off in a new direction. Far from having achieved anything by his belonging to the people of Israel, his position in society or even his worshipping life, he sees that these are nothing. He feels unworthy of God coming close to him, and feels he needs cleansing from sin.
There are similarities here with Paul looking back on all the reasons he had to feel he could put “confidence in the flesh” – being an Israelite, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee, a faultless observer of the Law (Philippians 3:4-8). But all these count for nothing not because they are bad things in themselves, but because they are not enough and could tempt us to put our faith in them instead of in God. Isaiah and Paul could have spent their whole lives being satisfied with what they had achieved when there was so much more waiting for them.
Simon Peter, too, has an encounter with Jesus which makes him realise how much more there is to life than he has been aware. It is probably not his first encounter with Jesus, because he is willing to have Jesus use his boat to help him speak to the crowd, and then to listen to Jesus and do what he says, even knowing that he knows far more about fishing than Jesus does. However, this encounter changes him and makes him willing to become a disciple of this Rabbi, and to look for something deeper than learning Scriptures or debating with other rabbis. Peter leaves behind a successful family business as a fisherman to live a life with Jesus who has provided him with more fish than he has ever caught before – yet it is not about numbers of fish, personal wealth or status, but the person of Jesus. Peter knows that Jesus is concerned about something completely different, and he is willing to leave behind all that has been familiar, to travel into the unknown with this man who has made him question the things that have brought him satisfaction up till this point.
Have we had that kind of encounter with God? Have we had a sense of God’s greatness and our smallness? Have we come to a deeper understanding of who Jesus is and how he wants us to respond?
If we have had one encounter, are we open to another, to take us deeper still? Do we cling to our encounter as being all there could be to know of God, and fear to let go so that we might be open to something yet greater?
Are we willing to let go of what has been important to us, what has given us meaning up till now, so that we can receive this new thing?
This was not an easy thing for Isaiah. Instead of having a high standing in society he was now to stand outside it, offering criticism, speaking God’s word to people who did not want to listen. If you carry on reading chapter 6, you will see that his message was a hard one to deliver and a hard one to hear. Peter was to leave what he had known and go off and be faced with more than he could have imagined, and part of that was persecution.
It is not easy for us, either, to accept that what we have known of God thus far is not all there is to know. Especially if we have a story to tell of an encounter that has changed us, it can be difficult to leave it behind and walk with God into the new thing he wants to share with us. It takes humility to realise that what we think we know is not all there is to know, and that God has so much more to show us than we will ever be able to take on board. He can only reveal himself to us at a pace we are able to understand and accept.
It takes humility, too, to accept that what someone else has seen and experienced of God is not pushed aside by our encounter, but with our encounter it forms something of the wonderful greatness that is God, that is more than one person or group can grasp alone.
So open yourself to God right now, and offer him all your story with him thus far, and tell him of your willingness to be taken on another step of the journey, to go deeper, to learn more, and when you have encountered, to speak up and out with boldness as Isaiah and Paul did.
And may he provide you will all you need to be his follower and his presence in the world.
Song
We sing HP 216/StF 345 And can it be? thinking about those moments of encounter that free us up into a new relationship with God.Prayers
In the quiet, bring that hymn before God and ask if there is any area of your life where he wants to free you into a new way of being with him.Take your time about this and simply enjoy his presence with you for a while before moving on.
Holy God,
we come to you and ask your blessing upon us and those we love;
we pray for those who struggle;
those who grieve;
those who are exhausted.
We pray for those struggling to pay bills, knowing that worse is to come.
We pray for those who run foodbanks, drop-ins, self-help groups and all who try to help their neighbours.
We pray for those who wait for news.
We pray for those in danger, that they might see rescue coming.
We pray for those who wait for the end of life, that they might be at peace.
We pray for those who celebrate new life, that they might be filled with joy.
We pray for those making new beginnings, that they might be given the strength they need.
We draw all these prayers together as we say the Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever, Amen.
Song
We sing our final hymn HP 236 Hark, what a sound, and too divine for hearingBlessing
We hold one another in our hearts, in our homes, at Allerton, in other churches, as we bless one another with the words of the grace:The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
be with us all, evermore,
Amen.
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