Online 1st Anniversary.
Song: Rejoice in the Lord always
Sing-along ROUND: Rejoice In The Lord Always - Dale Reichel - YouTube
Reading:
Book of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 49, verses 1 to 7.
Song:
The Books of the Bible
Books of The Bible Song - Original Full Video - YouTube
Reading:
Letter to the Ephesians, chapter 6, verses 10 to 20.
Song:
Tell me the old old story
Tell me the old old story - YouTube
This Sunday is the first anniversary of meeting online on this blog. The virtual Mayfield Wesleyan Reform Church is one year old!
In our traditional church anniversary services, there is usually emphasis on the people who went before; those who had the vision to start meeting together and found the church; those who took the bold step of buying land and erecting a building; those who over the years have laboured tirelessly to enable the building to be maintained; those who have given of their resources to enable the church’s mission to proceed. Sometimes there are named individuals who have become part of the church’s “roll of honour”, but also there are the countless unnamed people who have also contributed.
This year is the 125th anniversary of the opening of Mayfield Chapel, and later in the year (D.V.) we will be celebrating this.
But, today we celebrate our 1st anniversary, without any great emphasis on the past, and without any list of the great and good who have gone before. Instead, we are rejoicing that God has provided the means to meet together virtually, to study and worship, and to make contact with people in over 20 countries, all over the world.
About 50 years ago a British television programme called “Tomorrow’s World” was addressing the ways in which we would work in the age of computers. The main prediction was that we would have “The paperless office”.
This does not seem to have happened. In fact, there seems to be more paper around than ever before. Whilst there are ways of having books available on electronic devices, paper books don’t seem to be in any imminent danger of disappearing. I don’t doubt that the electronic versions of documents have their uses, and can be convenient, after all, I am a regular user of the internet. However, there is something satisfying about having a book in your hand, or on the desk. A paper copy of a document is often reassuring, and has a permanent feel to it, that its virtual cousin can lack.
Whatever way we choose to read, we must not forget that the reason we are reading is to get the information. The paper or the computer is not what we want, the meaning contained within the words is what we really seek; the information which the author intended to convey.
In today’s reading from the letter to the church at Ephesus, Paul describes the ways in which Christians are spiritually equipped for their mission; most of the equipping is ways in which people can be defended in their work. Christians on a mission cannot purely adopt a passive, defensive position, some of the time they need to actively engage with those who would oppose them, and Paul makes it clear that the weapon of choice is the Word of God. A good knowledge of God’s word is essential if we are to engage with those who would oppose us.
The presenters of “Tomorrow’s World” 50 years ago could not have anticipated how we live and work today. Even less could they have anticipated how we would all have spent the last 12 months, but as they did every week, they were trying to prepare us for what was to come.
Many things have changed in the last year, some for the good, others less so, but the world will never be the same. God has been with us, and provided us with the means of continuing to worship and witness. He has also provided us with the means of returning to a more familiar lifestyle in the form of vaccines and improvements in healthcare.
We must now celebrate our anniversary by considering what God has in store for us in the future, how will our lives, both Christian and secular change? What does God want us to do next?
Letter to the Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 12a:
“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword,”
Song:
Sing them over again to me.
"Wonderful Words of Life" - Hymn 286 - YouTube
Prayer:
God
of Eternity, we gather today to give thanks for the past.
We
think back to those who first had a vision of a church in this
place,
to
those who gave of their labour, their treasure, their time to make it
happen.
God
of Eternity, we also give thanks for our present and our future.
As we
gather here today we look for hope. The present is unsettling,
the future is uncertain. We hope that in the goodness of your
love that your guidance will be ever-present.
Fill
us with a vision for what we could be.
Give
us hope for our congregation and our community that lead us into your
abundance and not our scarcity.
God
of Eternity, in a time of uncertainty we so often fall into fear
and worry,
show
us the opportunities in our chaotic world,
remind
us of our priorities in relationship to you,
push
us to see how our choices matter, and then fill us with hope in a new
heaven and a new earth.
God
of our future, may we walk boldly into what may come, as a people of
faith and hope.
May
we be found faithful in the world in which we live.
Amen.
Pastor Mark Flores at the Mt. Herman Baptist Church in Bedford, VA
Song:
We have a gospel to proclaim
We Have a Gospel to Proclaim [with lyrics for congregations] - YouTube
Use the (s)word.
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