Morning Service for Sunday 3rd May 2020

INTRODUCTION

Good morning and thank you for joining me as we worship God on this fourth Sunday of Easter.

Alleluia!  Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed!  Allluia!

HYMN: The King of Love my Shepherd

https://youtu.be/iu83WQdQ7-Y

PRAYERS

Adoration
Gracious and loving God,
we have come together
in all our different places and circumstances

to worship you, to praise you and to adore you.

We worship you as the source of all things.
Without you there would be nothing,
with you there is everything
for you are the ground of all being.

We worship you as Father and Mother,
a divine parent who cares for each of us
as your precious children,
who you nurture, teach and love,
forgiving our mistakes
and giving us eternal life.

We worship you as Christ,

The Lord and Saviour of our world:
God and man, fully divine and full human,
the Good Shepherd, the Bread of Life,
the Light of the World, the True Vine,
the Way, the Truth, the Resurrection and the Life.

We worship you as Holy Spirit,
as our Counsellor and Guide,

Dwelling within us and showing us
the way to live and love.

To you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
the ground of all being,
belongs all worship, praise and adoration forever.
Amen.

ConfessionLoving and forgiving God,
we confess our selfishness,
we confess our lack of love
for each other and for you.

We acknowledge before you
that we have said things we shouldn’t have said
and left unsaid things we should have said.
We have done things we shouldn’t have done

And failed to act when we should have acted.
We have had thoughts that are unworthy
of disciples of Jesus Christ.

Forgives us our sins, we pray,
and help us to amend our lives,
that we might love you
with all our heart, with all our soul,
with all our mind and with all our strength:
and love our neighbours as we love ourselves.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Collect for the Fourth Sunday of EasterGood Shepherd of the sheep,
by who the lost are sought
and guided into the fold:
feed us and we shall be satisfied;
heal us and we shall be made whole;
and lead us that we may be with you;
for you are alive and reign,
with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.  Amen.

READINGS

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I fear no evil;
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff -
they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;

My cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
my whole life long.

John 10: 1-10

“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.  The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.  The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice.  He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought out all his own he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.  But they will never follow a stranger; in fact they will run away from him because they do not recognise a stranger’s voice.”  Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.  All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.  They will come in and go out, and find pasture.  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” 

HYMN: In Heavenly Love Abiding

https://youtu.be/oXc04P8d654

SERMON

I have heard quite a few sermons over the years that start with the words, “we live in uncertain times.”

Well, at the moment, we are living in uncertain times.

Of course that’s always been true to one degree or another because nothing except death and taxes is certain in life.  In my own lifetime the seventies and eighties were uncertain because of the constant threat of nuclear conflict hanging over us.  The in the later 1980s and 1990s it was the threat of AIDS or unemployment due to economic recession.

Now, in 2020, there is perhaps greater uncertainty than there has been for many years because of the Coronavirus.  There is the threat that we will contract the virus every time we leave our homes and we have no way of knowing for sure if we will have mild symptoms or end up in intensive care.  Our whole way of life has been upended and we have no way of knowing when restrictions will be eased, when we will be able to socialise, go shopping for anything other than essentials, go to a restaurant or the cinema.  Some of us have no idea if our business will service the lockdown or if we will have jobs to go back to.

As Christians we have no idea when we will be able to join together to worship in our church buildings, who will join us and when we will be able to share again in Holy Communion.

We live in uncertain times, but our Scriptures for today give us something we can be certain about in the midst of all this uncertainty – that God loves us and cares for us and will always be with us.  That is what the Psalmist means when he writes, “The Lord is my shepherd” and when Jesus calls himself “the shepherd of the sheep.”

When we hear the word ‘shepherd” a lot of us, I guess, think of a certain mental image.  It will be a man, perhaps young or old, wearing a flat cap and country tweeds and carrying a shepherd’s crooked stick.  He’ll probably be accompanied by a couple of black and white collies who will round up the sheep when he whistles.  This image comes from watching programmes like ‘One Man and His Dog’ or from seeing sheep dog trials at country fairs.  When we hear the words “The Lord’s my Shepherd” this is really the type of shepherd we think about.

In the time Psalm 23 was written, and in the time of Jesus, a shepherd was a man who spent all his time with his sheep.  He lived with them in the fields, he protected them at risk of his own life from attacks by wild animals like wolves and lions; he looked after them when they were sick and did everything that he could for them.  This is still true of shepherds in that region of the world today.

This image of God as shepherd tells us something about God.  It tells us that God is with us all the time.  God is with us in times of trouble and danger, he is with us in times of sickness and frailty.  God is with us in good times and in bad.

Turning to our reading from John’s gospel, we see that Jesus said, of the shepherd, “He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”

I used to think it unlikely that sheep would come because a shepherd called and they knew his voice.  My experience of sheep had been that they are really rather stupid animals.  I think this came from quite regularly driving the unfenced road between Ingleton and Hawes and having some interesting encounters with sheep.  I remember the first time I ever drove that road and saw signs that read “Beware Lambs”.  Beware lambs?  Were they really that dangerous?  Was I in danger of being attacked if I got out of the car, like in the lion enclosure at a safari park?  Of course, it meant beware the lambs that wandered onto the road, but in my experience, it was always the adult sheep who were the problem.  They would either lie down in the road and refuse to move, or they would lurk at the side of the road and then suddenly run out.  Stupid creatures, or so I thought.  So stupid that they need dogs to round them up and take them home.

I’ve since discovered that sheep are quite intelligent animals.  In the Middle East, even today, shepherds will name their sheep and when the shepherd calls them the sheep will follow the person they know wherever he leads them.  It was the same in first century Judaea.  The shepherd would go to the sheepfold, call his own sheep by name and lead them through the village streets out into the countryside.  As verse four tells us, “the sheep follow him, because they know his voice.”

If we call ourselves disciples of Jesus Christ, then we should know his voice; but not only because we are his disciples but because his voice will help to lead us through times of uncertainty.

Of course we hear the voice of Jesus speaking to us in many different ways.  Jesus speaks to us through others, not just sisters and brothers in Christ but through people of other faiths and people with no faith at all. Jesus speaks to us through the words of hymns and prayers and sermons.  Jesus speaks to us through books and plays and films and TV programmes.  

Most of all Jesus speaks to us through the words of Scripture in general and the words of the for gospels in particular.  All genuine words from Jesus, in whatever way they come to us, will be consistent with the words of Jesus as recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Words of comfort, words of challenge, words of rebuke, words of forgives, words of promise – words of Jesus, the eternal Word of God.

In this current time of uncertainty, we need the genuine words of Jesus as much as we ever have.  Words that reassure us that no matter what happens to us in this life our eternal life is secure because Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave, bringing us the assurance of God’s forgiveness and eternal life.

We live in uncertain times but we can and must hold on to the certainty that is Jesus, Saviour and Lord of All.

PRAYERS

Gracious and Loving God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit;
we bring our prayers to you now,
confident of your love and care for us
and for all those who live upon the earth.

Lord, hear us.
Lord, graciously hear us.

We pray for your church, not just herein the UK but all over our globe.  Right now we cannot meet together physically to worship because of Covid-19, but many of our brothers and sisters find it difficult to meet together at any time to worship or practice their faith freely because of the fear of persecution, torture and even death.  May we and they know your presence and love as you enable us to come to you just as we are and wherever we are.

Lord, hear us.
Lord graciously hear us.

We pray for doctors and nurses and other heath care professionals.  We pray for essential workers in our community.  We thank you for their courage, for the risks they are taking on behalf of us all and we ask that they would know the reassurance of your presence and love.

Lord, hear us.
Lord, graciously hear us.

We pray for those who are suffering in body, mind or spirit, not just with the Coronavirus but with all the other diseases that afflict us.  May all who suffer know your healing presence within them and your loving arms wrapped around them.

Lord, hear us.
Lord graciously hear us.

It feels like we all know at least one person who has died.  We give you thanks for each and every human life and pray that you would comfort those who mourn.  We pray especially for hose who couldn’t be with their loved ones when they died and for those unable to attend their funeral services.  

Lord, hear us.
Lord graciously hear us.

We pray for the world to come when the present crisis and uncertainty has passed.  We pray not that we would return to normal, but that you would guide us and our leaders in building a fairer and more caring world, a cleaner and less polluted world, a world where people come before profits and a world where resources are shared fairly and equitably and all have enough.

We ask these prayers in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who taught us when we pray to say……

The Lord’s Prayer (which ever version you are most comfortable with)

HYMN: Lead Us, Heavenly Father, Lead Us

https://youtu.be/PGsvbqErM2A

Blessing

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
The sun shine warm upon your face,
and the rain fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the presence of Christ
where ever you are on the road.

Amen.