Questions or Answers - Gary Long

​Do things sometimes turn out more complicated than you thought?
​Do you come to church to be given questions or answers?
Have you ever found that asking the right question is more important than trying to find the answer? 

​Opening Prayer
We come to worship our wonderful God, through Christ Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Abba – Father, Amma – Mother,

• We come to find your forgiveness and your love.
• We come to share our joy and our faith.
• We come together to experience your power in our lives.

Fill our worship with the power and love of your Spirit infilling our lives and over-spilling in exuberant joy.
Send the gifts of your Spirit today so that we may build each other up
to better grow your Community of Love within this congregation and in this place.
In the name of our Lord, Jesus the Christ
Amen.

​StF 272 From heaven you came, helpless babe

Prayer: Praise
Eternal and loving God,
Mother and Father of all that is: you are the source of all life the origin of all wisdom the well- spring of all grace,

Your days are without end your creation is infinite your loving mercies without number, your boundless goodness reaches to the depths of our being.

We depend on you: we remember your gracious care of us, your unsparing love for us, and to those who have gone before us.

We tell your story in every generation: God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, God of Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel, God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

You are our God, ahead of us, leading us, guiding us and calling us, God of a pilgrim people, your Church.

You are the Lord God, the all-wise, the all-compassionate, the all-loving. To you we lift up our hearts. We worship you, one God for ever and ever. Amen.

​Confession
Let us pray.
God of mercy, hear us as we confess our sins. For the sin that has made us slow to learn from Christ, reluctant to follow him, and afraid to bear the cross:
Lord, have mercy,
Lord, forgive.

For the sin that has caused the poverty of our worship, the formality and selfishness of our prayers, our neglect of fellowship and the means of grace, and our hesitating witness for Christ:
Lord, have mercy,
Lord, forgive.

For the sin that has led us to misuse your gifts, evade our responsibilities, and fail to be good stewards of your creation:
Lord, have mercy,
Lord, forgive.

For the sin that has made us unwilling to overcome evil with good, tolerant of injustice, quick to condemn, and selfish in sharing your love with others:
Lord, have mercy,
Lord, forgive.

SILENCE

Have mercy on us, O God, in your constant love; in the fullness of your mercy wash away all our guilt, and cleanse us from our sin.​

Create in us a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within us. Give us the joy of your help again and strengthen us with a willing spirit. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just. He will forgive us, cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and renew us in his love. Therefore to all who truly repent this is his gracious word: 'Our sins are forgiven.'
Amen. Thanks be to God.

​StF 471 Lord, I come to you

​Introduction to reading
Do you come to church to be given questions or answers?
Have you ever found that asking the right question is more important than trying to find the answer?
When someone has a problem my first instinct is to solve it for them. But I have found, by experience, that is seldom the best thing to do. Sometimes people do want things sorted for them but often they just need to talk. Or to get to the solution themselves. Asking the right questions is generally the most powerful way to find out what they want.
Today we are doing questions! See if you find yourself asking any questions as you read this passage from from Mark.

Reading: Mark 8:27-38

Message
Do things sometimes turn out more complicated than you thought?
They do for me. I play table tennis. As I am now retired I thought I would help out in the running of the local league. They recently asked for volunteers to fill a vacancy as League Secretary. I have plenty of experience of taking minutes, preparing agendas and so on, so I put my name forward. There were no other volunteers and so I was 'elected'.
I should have looked more carefully! There is a role of 'Minutes Secretary' so all the things I thought I would be doing are already being done by someone else. My new role was much different, and more challenging, than what I thought I volunteered for.
This passage – very familiar and seemingly straightforward at first glance - is actually full of ambiguity and challenge.
We will go through the passage and look at what it might mean and how it might be understood. Then a a brief run through of some of the many questions that face us from the passage.
'What do people think of me?' Jesus asks.'
The disciples say that the people's answer is that Jesus is a prophet. Is this really all the disciples said in reply to this question? I’m speculating here, but I wonder if the disciples also offer Jesus some of the harsher answers they’ve picked up during their travels: “Some people say you’re a fraud. A heretic. A demon. A madman.” “Some folks think you’re a traitor to Rome.” “Actually, a lot of people don’t care who you are.”

Who do you say I am?
The disciples own, Peter's, answer is that Jesus is the Messiah. With his second question, Jesus asked his followers to put aside other people’s interpretations, and say what they thought. It’s not enough, he implies, to recite the creeds, the traditions, the theologies, the abstractions. It’s not sufficient to rely on other people’s answers. At some point, our faith must become personal. Intimate. Description must yield to commitment. Who do you say that I am?

What did Peter mean by Messiah?
There were different interpretations, ways of understanding that title at the time. The basic meaning is 'Anointed One' - someone consecrated by God for a particular task. This would include being given the power and authority to get the job done. But, did the task cover physical or spiritual deliverance? Was it to take place as part of history or as the 'end times'?
Jesus calls himself 'Son of Man' or [lower case] son of man.
Again the phrase has different meanings. They range from 'a human being/everyman', me – or as the Queen might say 'one', to a semi-divine being with authority from God [For example in Daniel 7:13–14 where 'one like a son of man' receives authority, glory & sovereign power]. But the phrase is less politically charged than Messiah. There is less, 'baggage' in meaning – but still some. Jesus explains the meaning for him. Jesus possibly reflects the suffering servant from Isaiah 53 in his understanding.
'Take up your cross.'
What did this mean to Jesus' followers before his crucifixion? People bore crosses to execution, but clearly he didn't expect everyone to actually carry a cross through their daily living. It may have been a metaphor for carrying burdens through human life. But probably implied more than just that.
​
Life and Soul.
The same Greek word is translated either 'life' or 'soul' within a few verses in our reading. So how does the different translation affect our understanding. Clearly the translators, because they had to to, made a decision. What does 'save life' and 'lose it' mean in this context? I believe the purpose of passage is to set out clearly the choice Jesus is putting before his disciples & hearers – and us! What is expected of them, what might happen to them and to give them the chance to respond positively. And, as we read it today the choice is put before us.
We will now consider a few questions which may have an implication for our lives.

• How do you mainly see Jesus? Human, divine, both? Prophet, Messiah, Christ, Son of God, Son of Man, God?

• 1. Who we think Jesus is will determine how far we’ll go in following him.
  2. How large or tiny a cross we'll bear in his name.
  3. How fearlessly we’ll profess him to a world that needs the love and healing he offers.
  4. How humbly we’ll repent of the church’s failures, and begin again to be Christ’s hands and feet to those in need.
  5. How boldly we’ll dedicate ourselves to sharing the paradoxical gospel of the cross, the resurrection and the ascension.
• What kind of Messiah do you want?

• 1. Would you prefer a Messiah who aligns more easily with your social background, your political stance, your cultural expectations, your spiritual goals?
  2. Is the Jesus you follow a Jesus who dislikes the same people you dislike?
  3. Values the same comforts you value?
  4. Cherishes the same life goals you cherish?
  5. Or is he the Jesus who once made Peter flinch in shame?
  6. The Jesus of humility and surrender? Self-denial and sacrifice? Death and resurrection?
• What voices in your life try to deflect you from the Way of Jesus?

• 1. There are so many calls on our time, so many expectations. So many different priorities.
  2. Like Peter, sometimes our limited understanding can lead us away from the Way – from following Jesus.
  3. Sometimes we need to take a step backwards, or sideways, out of the main flow of our life so that we can consider which of those calls are helping us know and love God better. Which are helping us love others better. And which are not.
• In what ways might you be called/challenged to 'take up your cross' in your life today?

• 1. This is a question which no-one but you can answer.
  2. Often, we shy away from the obvious needs in front of us.
  3. But sometimes we take on too much. It can be right to leave it to someone else.
  4. There are times when addressing the immediate need means that we don't get round to trying to stop the problem from happening in the first place. We give money to help poverty overseas, but don't support efforts to change the unfair trading conditions that cause it.
  5. We need to pray carefully and ask God so that we take up the right burdens for us.
• Is the totally self-giving love of Jesus something into which I could fully commit myself?

• 1. Maybe you have been fully committed for years. Maybe, like me, you need to re-commit yourself from time to time.
  2. So, I ask you today to take some time this week to reflect on committing yourself fully for the first time, or re-committing yourself, to the wonderful God we know through Jesus. Whose Spirit we can know in our lives day by day. Amen.

StF 563 O Jesus, I have promised ​

​Prayers for Others: responding to the call
Loving and Gracious God, Mother and Father of all that is: Having heard the gospel proclaimed, having heard your call, we come to you, together as your children. We come as those called by you, not for our sake only, but for the sake of all our fellow men and women. We come to pray for the church, those we know and love, and the world.
For the world we ask:

• that your love, justice and mercy will inform the judgement of those in high office.
• that wisdom and compassion is granted to anyone who has to make decisions affecting the lives of others.
• that those who lives are driven by hate may have their lives touched and transformed by the love of Jesus.
• We especially pray today for the struggle in Afghanistan.
• We bring before you the COP26 summit asking that you grant wisdom and courage to those making decisions affecting the future of our planet.
  Lord of life, hear us in your love.

For those we know and love we ask:

• that you will call them closer to you and that they will respond to that call.
• that you will comfort and support those who hurt.
• that you will bless them with joy and hope.
  Lord of life, hear us in your love.

For the church we ask:

• for the grace to keep us faithful to our calling.
• to be saved from a shallow understanding and weak commitment

into the profound depths of your love.

• for a new and more powerful calling
  to take us to the next stage of our journey with you.
  Lord of life, hear us in your love.

For ourselves we ask:

• that you will guide us in our lives as individuals and in our common life as a congregation.
• That you will fill us with your Holy Spirit to share your love and spread your message to those we meet.
  Lord of life, hear us in your love.

As you challenge us with your call, we commit ourselves to respond, to act, to love our neighbour.
And so, out of the Father's glorious riches may he strengthen us with power through his Spirit in our inner being, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith.
And I pray that, being rooted and established in love, we may have power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. And to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that we may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

​Lords Prayer – Modern
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 forever. Amen.

​StF 476 One more step along the world I go

​BLESSING
May the God who raised Jesus from the dead fill you with new life, May the love of Jesus fill every moment of your existence, May the Holy Spirit breath her power into every fibre of your being. Amen.