Sunday 20th September 2020

Sunday 20th September 2020

BURTON JOYCE 

COMMUNITY CHURCH

A short service for use at home: 

Sunday 20th September 2020 

Prepared for Burton Joyce Community Church by Phil Colbourn. 

The hymns are chosen mostly from the church hymnbook Songs of Fellowship 

If you don't have a copy of the hymnbook at home, you can often find a video of the hymn on Youtube with the words displayed on video. Also, you can find the Bible readings online at several websites. Search for the specific chapter and verse (e.g. Exodus16, 1-15)

Spend a few moments with God knowing that others share in this time of worship with you. 

WELCOME

We start with this well-known Graham Kendrick hymn

HYMN: Songs of Fellowship 664. 

Beauty for brokenness

PRAYER AND PRAISE

Praise God for the daylight. Praise God for the sunlight

Praise God for the morning. Praise God for the noonday

Praise God for our sleeping and our uprising

Praise God for all that is good and full of grace. Amen

CONFESSION

We confess, O Lord, our brokenness [Silence]

We confess, O Lord, our need [Silence]

Blessed be our God the Almighty, Creator & Lord of all!

You give us your life and you give us your love

You have given your very self to us and so we love you 

And we long to thank you with our lives. Amen

In our service this week, we continue to think about Israel escaping from slavery and oppression - the Exodus - and to ask what it has to say to us, if anything, in our circumstances today. Our next hymn picks up on the theme of following or walking with God into an unknown future

HYMN: Songs of Fellowship 599. 

When we walk with the Lord (Trust and obey)

READING: EXODUS 16: 1-15

Manna from heaven

REFLECTION

I have to admit that Trust & Obey (When we walk with the Lord) has never been my favourite hymn, perhaps because I am a bit of a rebel. Certainly, we cannot go around trusting everybody & anybody. The world does not work like that, unfortunately. We have to know who we are putting our trust in. It is about relationship. Do we know this person well enough to trust them? Do I know God well enough? 

We have been rescued from the darkness of despair and, in the story, we are following this month of the Exodus, we are about to leave Elim and travel to Sinai but there is a desert in between. We are a month or so into the journey and everyone is grumbling. “Are we there yet?” No. Not by a long way. The journey has to come before the destination. “Do we have to cross the desert?” Yes, because it’s the best way from A to B. “But, Mummy, Daddy, I’m hungry!” 

God, like a parent, is patiently building a relationship of trust with the children. “Yes. I know. I understand. Here, have some of these to keep you going.” And God gives glory in exchange for grumbling. God gives beauty for brokenness. 

But, wait a minute. Where’s this bread you promised? (Mr Kellogg must have copyrighted this moment.) Flakes for breakfast? God works silently and secretly through the darkest hours of the night to provide us with what we need but we do not recognise it. It is not what we are expecting. We are disappointed. But, luckily, Moses is alert to what God is doing. Moses does trust God so he looks around and says, “Look! It must be this. This is what God has provided.”

In his reflection for today in the Nottingham North East Circuit home service, Revd John Wiseman says: Despite our reservations, despite our doubts, despite our fears, we are called to have faith and to journey forwards. It may not be as ‘the church’ we knew & loved, indeed the ‘new normal’ suggests that very little will be as we knew and loved. Be open to God's new vision breaking in upon us. Amen

Jesus says, I am the bread of life and, whatever else today's reading tells us, it reminds us that God always provides for his people and this is something we celebrate in our next hymn

HYMN: Songs of Fellowship 284. 

Jehovah Jireh, my provider

INTERCESSORY PRAYERS 

We pray for... 

The stories that have dominated our news headlines over the past week

Our local community 

Our church family
Those dear to us 

And, finally, we join our voices to say The Lord’s Prayer together 

The Lord’s Prayer: Our Father 

Let's continue in prayer as we turn to our final hymn. This is a favourite with many people and plumbs the depths of our relationship with God. Do we trust God enough to walk with Jesus into an unknown future?

HYMN: Songs of Fellowship 79. 

Dear Lord and Father of mankind

CLOSING PRAYERS 

As fell the manna down

The bread we break, 

is it not the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, broken for us?

This cup we bless, 

it is a sharing in the blood of Christ, poured out for many.

The blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit be with us, and all we love and pray for, this day, everywhere and always. Amen.