Amos 7: 1-9
God is building ahouse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lCoVYriZb0
Matthew 5: 13-16
The next hymn (below) is set to the tune Leoni.
Tune: Leoni
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x_Lom_8_Dw
A little bit of salt will quickly show its worth;
A little bit of faithfulness will change the earth.
God, make us worth our salt — a church that's glad to be
The change that you desire in each community.
A lamp that's in a house gives safety, warmth and light;
It's set upon a table where it shines so bright.
God, make your church a light that bravely takes a stand
To bring your love and justice into all the land.
A garden is a place where so much beauty grows,
Where flowers bloom and food is raised and water flows.
When worship leads us out to care for the oppressed,
O God, you say we're like a garden at its best.
When worship leads us out to love and serve the poor,
To welcome in the immigrant at our own door,
O God, then we'll be called "repairers of the breach,"
And we your church will be "restorers of the streets."
It's tempting to remain well-hidden, quiet, bland —
Yet, God, you make us salt and light to change this land.
You send us out to love, to build and to repair,
Till peace and justice flourish here and everywhere.
Carolyn Winfrey Gillette (born 1961)
It is about 60 years since I started going to church. In that time, I must have heard thousands of sermons. I have been in the congregations of many learned and telented preachers, the learned and the experienced, and yet I can remember only a few. Only one really stands out in my memory. Perhaps you may expect that it was delivered by one of the greats, a learned name from amongst the preachers of the era. Well you would be wrong. The sermon was delivered by a Methodist local preacher in Pately Bridge Methodist Church, sometime in the mid 1970s. A group of us from the Methodist Society at university had gone to Ramsgill Youth Hostel for our annual retreat, and we were at Sunday worship. I’m afraid that I do not remember the name of the preacher, but his trext was “I will set up a plumbline against my nation Israel”. He told a story of how he had been building a wall, and had enlisted the help of a friend who knew what he was doing. The day was set, the stone delivered, and his friend appeared. “Where’s your plumbline?” was his the first question. “Why do we need a plumbline?” he asked, “We’re only going up a few feet!” “We can’t build a wall without a plumbline, even if we are only going up a few feet” came the reply.
The preacher then went on to explain how important a standard was in our lives, however high we were planning to go.
Many years ago, I wanted to wallpaper my bathroom. Against my father’s advice, I opted for a wallpaper called “Tiling on a roll.” My bathroom at the time was extremely small, every piece of wallpaper had to be fitted round one fitting or another. I really did use a plumb line on every single piece of wallpaper. I was congratulating myself on how good it looked, right up until I put the last piece of paper in to the last corner, when it was clear that the tile courses were about 1cm out of alignment! The job looked good until I had something to compare it with.
Jesus tells us that we are to be salt and light to the world.
Salt changes things. Years ago, I was an officer on a Boys’ Brigade camp, and asked a boy to make the porridge. We munched our way through some rather tasteless, slightly sweet, wallpaper paste. I asked the boy how much salt he had added, and he said “None”. The reason for the tastelessness was revealed.
If you went to a friend’s for a meal, and you said after the meal “That was lovely salt”, they would think that you were trying to be funny. But the small amount of salt has made a big difference to the meal.
We are called on to change things, we are called on to give the world its flavour. We are to improve the world, to stop people’s lives from being poor insipid shadows of what they ought to be. If we don’t do these things, if we fail to give the world its flavour, then the salt has lost its savour, it is only fit to be thrown away. Quite an indictment of us.
When I was at school, we put on a performance of Macbeth. In one scene, Lady Macbeth comes on stage rubbing her hands together with blood on them. Backstage, we had a tin of red paint which the actor had to dip hands in for this scene. Unfortunately, we had several tins of paint, and it was dark so it was inevitable that one night, the wrong tin would be used. It was only when on stage, in the light, that the error could be seen. Only when there was light could mistakes be seen. We are called on to be the light that enables the world to see its mistakes.
We often become disheartened that we cannot do much in the face of overwhelming evil. But, in darkness, even a very small amount of light will shine out. In a photographic darkroom, when a roll of sellotape is unrolled, a glow is visible. If a sugar cube is crushed, a blue glow can be seen. A small amount of light will change darkness.
We are called on to be the salt, the light, the plumbline.
When I moved to Grimsby I came across a saying that I had never heard before “An ounce of help is worth a pound of sympathy”
There is a story of a businessman who was moving his stock on a cart which broke a wheel and the stock fell down and was broken. As usual at such events, a crown gathered and people stood round saying how sorry they were. An elderly man pushed his way through the crowd, looked at the scene, took his wallet out and opened it . He took £5-00 out and gave it to the businessman saying “I’m sorry £5-00,” and looked at the crowd saying “How sorry are you?”
Little deeds of kindness,
little words of love,
Make our earth an Eden
like the heaven above.
Julia A. Carney, (1823 – 1908)
Brighten the corner where you are
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gb4wTEmtGU
Prayer:
Father, we thank you for your witnesses in the past, and we remember those who are your witnesses today. We thank you for those who have gone to lands other than their own. Help them to understand the people they live among, to be true to you and by the way they live and the words they speak tom point men and women to Jesus Christ.
We think of all bible translators, especially those putting languages into to a written form for the first time. Help them in their task, so that through the written testimony provided by scripture men and women may come to faith in Jesus Christ.
We think of all ministers of the gospel. By the way they live, the words they speak, and the love they have for people, may they be a living demnonstration of your love and power.
We think of those who suffer opposition or persecution because of their witness to you. Keep them faithful, so that their patience is suffering may point people to the suffering and patience of Christ.
Father, we are your people, and you appoint us all to be your witnesses before the world; it is we who provide the evidence on which the world judges. May we provide the evidence that is needed, so that others may come to believe in you, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Jesus bids us shine
No comments:
Post a Comment