Order of Service 19th July 2020

Order of Service 19th July 2020

BURTON JOYCE

COMMUNITY CHURCH

Sunday 19 July 2020

Working with the Nottingham North East Circuit of the Methodist Church

Lord, we come to you. Be with us in this time of worship. Amen.

Let’s begin with a hymn, Songs of Fellowship 557

Thou whose almighty word chaos and darkness heard

(Let there be light)

Prayers

Loving God, you know us, and you love us. You have given us all we could ever need; we are blessed by you. You have made the stars of the sky, the sun and the moon, the earth and all that is on it; the seas and the rivers – we are abundantly blessed by your hand. You are our mighty creator God, our compassionate God, our friend and redeemer.

Confession

We come to you in the full knowledge of our failings, that we let you down, but also realising that you are our Forgiving God, and that you will renew us and restore us. We thank you for being our Saving God.

By your mercy, we are forgiven.

By your mercy, we are cleansed and renewed.

We give you thanks for being our merciful God, for sending your son Jesus Christ to be our Saviour & the Holy Spirit as our strength and guide. Amen

Psalm 139
The Inescapable God

1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me.

5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.

7 Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?

12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you. 13 For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

17 How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with you.

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. 24 See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Reflection

‘Inescapable God’ I find the idea of the Inescapable God comforting – it means even if I try to hide my deepest darkest secrets from everyone else – even myself – I cannot hide from God, so there is no point trying.

God’s complete and utter love, surrounds us & is at work in all of us. Verse 5 is comforting: ‘you lay your hand upon me’. God has a directing hand on my shoulder, leading me to the right path, if I am willing to go.

The Psalmist writes that he is ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’. God knit him together, created his whole being. God knew him before formation; long before birth. God is all encompassing, powerful, eternal and infinite.

This is the God of grace in action: before we were born, before our parents, grandparents or even further back, God knew us & loved us & has bestowed grace on us because he loves us. God chooses us before we choose him.

The final part of the Psalm is a plea for God to search the heart & ‘lead me in the way everlasting’. The way of Christ in righteousness & steadfast love with our Inescapable God, who loves us more than we can ever measure.

Songs of Fellowship 1566

Through all the changing scenes of life, in trouble and in joy

Prayers of Intercession

• Pray for family and friends

• Pray for all key workers
• Pray for those with no food, no clean water

• Pray for those in war zones.
• Pray for those alone, afraid, depressed

• Pray for ourselves.

Lord’s Prayer

Songs of Fellowship 425 (How great Thou art)

O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder

Blessing

The God of eternity surround you. His Son Christ Jesus live within your heart. The Spirit of God guide you and give you strength. And may the peace of our Triune God comfort you now and evermore.

Go in peace, to love and serve the Lord, in the name of Christ. Amen.

[Service prepared by Deacon Helen Snowball and adapted for BJCC by Phil Colbourn]

A Short Service for Sunday 12th July 2020

A Short Service for Sunday 12th July 2020

BURTON JOYCE COMMUNITY CHURCH

Sunday 12 July 2020                                                    

working with Nottingham North East Circuit of the Methodist Church

This short act of worship has been adapted from one prepared by Deacon Helen Snowball for you to use at home. Spend a few moments with God, knowing that other people are sharing this act of worship with you 

Let us pray:

Creator God, we come in adoration to worship & praise you. God of love & wisdom, although we are apart, we are together in our love of you. Amen. 

Psalm 119 v 105-112 

105 Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path … 

111 Your statutes are my heritage forever; the joy of my heart. 

112 My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end. 

Songs of Fellowship 51 Breathe on me, Breath of God

Prayers 

We lift our hearts in worship to you, Lord, and bless your Holy name.

Your Word lights our way across the rough & stony ground. 

We reach out for your hand. 

Lead us to firmer ground where we can rest in safety. Amen

Lord, we are truly blessed: 

Set us free in Christ to live life in all its fullness. Amen

Reading: Romans 8 v 1-11
1 There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus … 

11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. 

Reflection

There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 

Being in Christ is like being in a team - Team Christ! - and that brings with it a certain amount of responsibility. A team works together for the benefit of everyone and, in Christ, that means everyone not just our Christian friends. But you’ve done that, haven’t you? You’ve all been looking after each other, phoning each other, checking; supporting, as far as you can, people in need. 

Teresa of Avila said: “Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, the feet, the eyes; you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.” 

This means that, together, we are to be as Christ on earth. It’s a tough ask, but we have his Spirit to help. Paul writes that those in Christ walk in the Spirit. The Spirit guides, leads and encourages us. The Spirit of Christ is alive in us. This is the way to live a good life, a Team Christ life.

 

I’m not sure I always live by the Spirit. No condemnation doesn’t mean we never do anything wrong. I know I fail when I think I can do it all on my own, or I’m in a bad mood, feeling selfish or just thoughtless. But Christ doesn’t give up on us and leave. Christ stays with us: abiding in us, renewing us and filling us to overflowing; strengthening, nurturing & guiding. When we feel tired or alone, we can be renewed and strengthened when we seek Christ because his Spirit is with us; he is for us, and he will always help us. 

 

Being under no condemnation, we know comfort & courage: we have comfort to share & courage to speak out; courage to live by what we believe & to stand up for what is right, as Jesus did. We are Christ’s hands and feet. Is there something he wants us to do or say, or to be thinking about? Are we ready to act as Christ here & now, in Nottingham? 

We’re all God’s got! Amen

Songs of Fellowship 21 And can it be

My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee. No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him, is mine ...

Prayers of Intercession 

We pray for family and friends and for all key workers.
We pray for people with no food or clean water & people in war zones.
We pray for the lonely, afraid or depressed and, finally, for ourselves. 

Lord’s Prayer 

Songs of Fellowship 1555 The Spirit lives to set us free

Walk, walk in the light.

Blessing

May the God of eternity surround you.
May his Son, Christ Jesus, live in your heart
May the Spirit of God guide you and give you strength
May the peace of our Triune God comfort you now and evermore. Amen. 

Go in peace, to love and serve the Lord, in the name of Christ. Amen.

 

Phil Colbourn / Deacon Helen Snowball 

Nottingham North East Methodist worship

Nottingham North East Methodist worship

The online service this Sunday is led by the Reverend Andrew Charlesworth

NNE Methodist worship Sunday 12th July 2020

Action for Children

It's Action for Children Sunday!

Action for Children is a charity that helps children, and their parents, enjoy life free from fear, pain, poverty, abuse and exploitation. Many Methodist churches up and down the country actively support Action for Children through fund raising and prayer and voluntary work

Action for Children: for safe, happy childhoods

For a special Action for Children Sunday service, you can tune in to this one from the Ceredigion Methodist Circuit and St Paul's, Aberystwyth, led by Dionne Sherwood

Ceredigion Methodist YouTube channel

God is with us - worship for 5/7/20

God is with us

Worship for Sunday 5th July 2020

Join Reverand Richard Byass with prayers and a message for this Sunday, 5/7/20
Produced by the Nottingham North East Circuit of the Methodist Church

Then follow it up by clicking into the NNE Sung Worship YouTube channel
This selection of worship songs makes a great soundtrack for your day

All available on this page:

NNE Methodist Circuit

A service for Sunday 5th July

A service for Sunday 5th July

BURTON JOYCE 

COMMUNITY CHURCH

<    Sunday 5 July 2020    >

Working in fellowship with the Methodist church, Nottingham North East Circuit

Spend time with God. 

Others share this act of worship with you.

Loving God, we meet you everywhere as we worship and we give thanks for your loving kindness to us every day. Amen

Psalm 90

Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.

Songs of Fellowship 41 Be still and know that I am God.

Prayer

It was not to the rich and famous, the powerful & influential you came but to fishermen, outcasts, sinners and ordinary people like us. And you reveal to us the things of heaven, so that we might become bearers of the good news. So, Lord, we praise you.      

Confession & Thanksgiving

Forgive us Lord, when we let you down.

Thank you that we know we are forgiven.

For all that you give us, we thank you.
For your grace and mercy, we thank you.
For your love and forgiveness, we thank you. Amen

Reading

Matthew 11 v 16-19, 25-30
Songs of Fellowship 72 Come, let us sing of a wonderful love.

Reflection

‘I’m gentle & kind. Come and rest in me, weary ones.’

Jesus is the one you should turn to, because he can help. Sometimes we feel overwhelmed by everything that is going on and it is easy to feel hopeless but we can rest in him.

‘Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.’

Live like Jesus taught us: be kind & take care of one another. Despite everything, Jesus wants us look beyond our personal needs and inclinations & care for refugee, homeless and poor.

‘I am gentle & humble in heart. You will find rest for your souls’

Let people know that if they put their trust in Him, they can find rest. This is what Jesus promises:

if we lean on him, he will help us;

if we learn from him, he will teach us;

if we come to him, we will find rest. Amen

Prayers of Intercession

For NHS & key workers: rest

For the government: humility & wisdom

For the bereaved: comfort; for the anxious: peace

For the friends and families: a hug

Loving God, we offer these prayers to you, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord & ask to know your wisdom & to hear your voice. Lead us, guide us, teach us, heal us. Amen.

Lord’s Prayer

Songs of Fellowship 97 Father, I place into your hands

Blessing

Go in peace, to love and serve the Lord. Amen.

Blues II

Blues II

You know how it is. You wait for ever and three come along at once.

But, I was just thinking ... 

There's one antidote I've found to all the anxiety and stress and that is to play through a few hymns on the keyboard. I don't do it often enough but when I do it always makes me feels better. The tunes and the words provide a salve for the soul.

I was doing this the other morning and stumbled upon, as I often do, a hymn I did not know. It was a hymn by Charles Wesley. (Shame. And me a Methodist.) The words of the second verse seemed like they might have been written yesterday. They just seemed so apt.

The hymn is Open, Lord, my inward ear. (Especially appropriate, I now see, since I'm having problems because I can't get to the hospital to have my ears cleaned out. Violins. Sympathy. Groan. Thanks.) It's 450 in that posh new hymnbook lots of Methodist churches are using these days: Singing the Faith

The second verse goes:

From the world of sin, and noise, and hurry, I withdraw;
for the small and inward voice I wait with humble awe;
Silent am I now and still, dare not in your presence move;
to my waiting soul reveal the secret of your love.

Wow, I thought. Just, wow! I couldn't have put it better myself, Charles.

I didn't know the tune so I hunted high and low to find something familiar that would fit the words. Kelvingrove fits perfectly. You may know it as the tune for Will you come and follow me if I but call your name, the John Bell & Graham Maule hymn from Wild Goose at the Iona Community. That's a great hymn too. It's 673 in Singing the Faith

So, nothing changes. Charles Wesley felt the same in the eighteenth century.

My time is in your hand, he goes on, in verse five:

you can make me understand, though I am slow of heart

 Slow down. I think that's the message. Take time out. Take time out of taking time out in lockdown and let the still, small voice speak.

Lockdown Blues

Lockdown Blues

It's been a while. We've been away on a virtual cruise in the Baltic. To be honest, I needed a break and in the world-before-coronavius we would actually have been on a Baltic cruise in June (although that seems now like some species of insanity). So we sampled the cuisine of the various ports we would have visited, more or less, as far as we were able. 

In Helsinki, we asked our son & daughter-in-law what would be appropriate (they've been to Finland a couple of times). They said elk. So we ordered venison from our veggie-box people - Yes! That was our big lockdown discovery! The veggie-box people do other things too! Like bread and milk and meat and ready meals! After about a month without any we actually had a loaf of wholemeal bread. It put a whole new spin on "Give us this day our daily bread". - So, yes, well, the venison is still in the freezer. Maybe we will do Helsinki some other time. 

We did source some Danish pastries from Tesco but only after we had (theoretically) been to Denmark twice and arrived back at Tilbury. But that's the good thing about virtual cruising, you can be flexible. It doesn't matter. It's OK. You don't have to do it today. Next week will be fine.

So. I've been working on this poster for the last month (or more). It's almost done. 

It was supposed to be a simple paint on paper job. I don't know what happened. Somehow it took on a life of its own. Maybe another month and I'll be satisfied, but no guarantees. It may end up under the desk.

Jesus wept over the City. It's how I feel alot of the time, especially now, as lockdown is being lifted and the traffic on Church Road seems worse than ever it was before. 'Seems' is the operative word in that sentence. It was like living in Paradise to be able to cross the road almost at will and for the internal combustion powered vehicle to be an endangered species. 

It was like living in Paradise. Perhaps it was fool's paradise. Somehow, I still hope it was a foretaste of the way things are going to be. And soon. We've shown we can do it if we're scared enough.

That other poster is still up on the church noticeboard in Meadow Lane.

There really is an emergency. It hasn't gone away. So please leave your car at home. For me. 

Go on. You know you want to.