'Domestic embarrassment' - 16 January

Worship at Home - Sunday 16 January 2022
This short act of worship has been prepared for you to use at home by the Methodist Church. We invite you to spend a few moments with God, knowing that other people across the Methodist Connexion are sharing this act of worship with you.

StF 101 Before the world began John L. Bell (b. 1949) and Graham Maule (b. 1958)

Prayer
As your people, O God, we come to give you thanks and praise. You reveal yourself to us in creation, in the life, death and rising of Jesus and in the continuing work of the Spirit in our lives. We hear and reflect on your self-revelation in the life of Jesus, and of the impact his life had on those around him.
We know that we do not always live up to the challenge of Jesus’s story. So, in silence, we reflect on our failings as individuals, on our failings as a church and on our failings as a society.
Silence
We know that in Jesus God says to us ‘Your sins are forgiven.
Living God, in Christ you make all things new.
Transform the poverty of our nature
by the riches of your grace,
and in the renewal of our lives
make known your heavenly glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(MWB collect for the day)

​Reading from the Old Testament Isaiah 62.1-5

​Gospel Reading: John 2.1-11

​Time to Reflect
In today’s gospel reading Jesus and his disciples find time to join his mother for a celebratory event. When the crisis emerges, he is reluctant to help but the end result is, it seems, excellent wine. It is a sign (v11). It is striking that Jesus’ first recorded ‘sign’ in John’s gospel is about domestic embarrassment, when others are typically about life-changing conditions (think of Bartimaeus or Lazarus).
This is a story about the way God is revealed in Jesus, a central theme of the Sundays after Epiphany. Here, and elsewhere, a feature of God’s self-revelation in Jesus seems to be exuberant generosity.
Perhaps the messages for us include the notion that it is not for us to judge what God can or should do for us. God is not bound by what we think is proper, or for that matter by what we think is fair. We do not and cannot control God. God’s good gifts are sometimes unexpected and beyond our comprehension.
Another message could be about responding in the moment to the need we can see. That certainly seems to be what Jesus did at this wedding in Cana. Even though his hour had not yet come (v4), he responded to the host’s need and to his mother’s plea. What might be our response to God’s unexpected generosity?
Take a time to sit quietly

​A time of prayer
Let us pray for the church and the world.
For the church around the world in uncertain times. With the Methodist Prayer Handbook on day 16 especially for the Church of Bangladesh, the Church of Pakistan, and the Methodist Church in Sri Lanka and for the Methodist Church in Ireland. For the congregations we know. That all our words and actions may accord with God’s will for us and for all people.

For the world, for all in positions of power and influence, . that they may strive for justice and for peace. For our own country and neighbourhood.

For those in need, for those fleeing conflict, for prisoners, for those who are sick or awaiting diagnosis or treatment. For those know to us. Draw near to all in need with your saving love and bring healing and hope.

For ourselves that we may follow the example of all your saints and of those who brought us to faith. . Bring us with them into the fullness of your eternal joy.

​Lord’s Prayer
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your Name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours. Now and for ever.
Amen

​Listen to this version of StF 35 The Trumpets Sound, the Angels Sing. Author: Graham Kendrick, b. 1950.Copyright: © 1989 Make Way Music, admin Music Services in the Western Hemisphere​.  Recorded by St. George's-in-the-Pines | Anglican Church​.

​A prayer of blessing
May Christ the Son of God, born of Mary,
fill us with his grace to trust his promises
and may the blessing of God, Spirit, Son and Father, be with us and those for whom we pray, this day and always. Amen.
(adapted from MWB) ​
Original Materials by Dudley Coates

We are grateful to all the Ministers and Local Preachers from around the Connexion who have contributed to Worship at Home. This resource is administrated by Ministries: Vocations and Worship in the Connexional Team.
For more worship resources see
The Bible (methodist.org.uk)
Singing the Faith Plus (methodist.org.uk)