Sunday 26th November

I was a prisoner because of my faith and you wrote to me and kept me going; I was a street child in Brazil
and a hungry down-and-out in Nottingham and you fed me and found another way for me to live; I was
displaced from............

A prayer of approach
You, Lord, are our shepherd, our care is your concern. When we are lost, you look for us, when we are hurt
and afraid, you reach out to us. When we go astray and hurt each other through selfishness, greed and
thoughtlessness, you pull us up short and remind us we are part of your flock. And as our care is your
concern, so care for others is our calling.
In the security of that love we come to learn from you, to let your compassion flood our hearts and renew
our commitment to serve. We come to prepare ourselves for all the demands of love that await us in the
world, and to pray that you will work in us to reveal the presence of your kingdom. Amen.

StF331 King of Kings, Majesty

PRAISE & CONFESSION  
Creator God, we come in worship and praise to be refreshed and renewed and to offer our lives once again
to you.
May the knowledge of your presence fill our hearts with joy.
Generous God, we thank you for the gift of this day, and the opportunities it brings to make your love
known.
May the sweetness of your love fill our hearts with compassion.
Discerning God, in our searching and our questioning, in our thirst for you, in our need to know you more
deeply.
May the depth of your knowledge fill our hearts with peace.
Redeeming God, in our sadness, in our shame when we have fallen short, when we have failed to respond to
the needs of others, when we have refused to recognise your face in our sister or brother,
May the strength of your forgiveness fill our hearts with healing,
God of all joy, compassion, peace and healing, give us a fresh sense of your vision for all humanity. Fulfil
your purpose in us that we might understand your need of us in the need of the world.

Ezekiel 34:11-16 New International Version
11 “‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. 
12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue
them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. 13 I will bring them out from
the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on
the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. 14 I will tend them in a good pasture,
and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and
there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will tend my sheep and have them
lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. 16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the
injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.

​
Matthew 25:31-46 New International Version The Sheep and the Goats
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 
32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a
shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance,
the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something
to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed
clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give
you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and
clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of
​mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for
the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me
nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I
was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or
​in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

​Sermon
There was a man who had a dream – He dreamt a parable. He dreamt he was a ‘Billy-goat.
He knew Goats to be special. Sometimes people confuse them with sheep. But sheep, he thought, are really
stupid. Goats are more intelligent. Sheep produce wool, but goat hair is far stronger. Goats produce a much
better milk, than sheep. Goats can run faster than sheep and can climb higher
One day Billy Goat was climbing up a high mountain with his family, higher than he had ever climbed
before, so high that he could look out and see the future.
There on a cloud he saw lots of human beings.
Some were wearing red clothes; some were wearing blue.
In front of them was another human being, shining white.
He said to the blue people who were on his left:
‘Come and live with me in my father’s city.
For I was victim of famine in Africa and you helped care for me;
I was a prisoner because of my faith and you wrote to me and kept me going; I was a street child in Brazil
and a hungry down-and-out in Nottingham and you fed me and found another way for me to live; I was
displaced from the land of my birth and you welcomed me and gave me refuge; I was trying to bring peace
to the world through political change and you supported me.’
They all said, ‘When did we know you were sick or imprisoned or a hungry street-child or down-and-out,
asylum seeker, or a peace seeking politician and come to your aid?’
He said, ‘When you did it to for them; it was like you did it to me.’
Then he turned to the people in Red who also called him, ‘Lord’, but the situation was much less happy.
They had kept themselves pure and had not helped the sick, the down-and-outs, the people imprisoned, the
children on the street, or anyone else for that matter. There was no room for them in the city.

Just then it started to rain and the vision went away. Billy goat and his family were left to ponder what they
had seen.
Nanny, who was standing beside Billy, said,
‘I know. If I am a human being in my next life, I shall pretend I see the shining one in everyone I see. I shall
help all those needy people like I’m helping him. That way he will reward me with a place in his father’s
city.’
Billy was thinking about that when from the other side Nanny’s sister – they always used to argue – said,
‘No, no, no! Don’t you see it was all a surprise. They didn’t pretend to care for people because they saw the
shining one in them. They cared for people because they were people. They did it naturally. It was their
way. Only later were they surprised to learn that they had also cared for him.’
That made Billy think still further. He spent so much time thinking that when the others skipped off down
the mountain – as only goats can do – He made his way slowly.

As he passed one of the ridges covered with bushes, he heard a cry. As he got closer, he saw a sheep, a ram
caught in the thicket.
‘Stupid sheep!’ he thought.
He was about to walk on past when something made him stop. He had strong horns, he thought. He could
free that poor sheep. He climbed to the ridge and began to push and pull and finally the ram was free.

Off the freed sheep trotted into the setting sun. Then something strange occurred. As Billy watched the ram
make its way across the valley, it seemed to change into a small child. It then began to grow up and by the
time it reached the stream at the bottom of the valley was fully-grown. It stumbled across the stream. At
one point it was fully submerged. Then it climbed up into the sun, just a silhouette, until finally all Billy
could see was the figure of a fully-grown man standing out against the red sky, shaped like a cross on the
horizon.

Billy turned to move on, to return to the pastures below. As he reached a resting-place, he looked out.
There were goats; there were sheep. He lay down with his head on a great stone. His body was filled with
light and he knew that he knew. He knew that he knew the truth.

The man who had dreamt the dream opened his eyes. Someone had come into HIS room, into His LIFE,
someone had turned on the light. It was time to get up. It was time to begin a new day and live and share
the truth.

The same truth has been given to us and part of living out that truth involves each of us seeking to ensure
that this church is indeed a place of welcome, a place where justice for the least is sought and practiced - A
place where the captives are freed; where the tears of those who weep are understood; where those who are
hurting encounter the love and care of God’s people; where human spirits can take wing and fly - Where
those who seek meaning to their lives can discover it in us. No pressure there then! But let me simplify it.

The American sociologist, pastor and author, Tony Campolo, tells about the time his mother called and told
him that Mrs. Kilpatrick had died. He says, I’m 50 years old, but when you’re Italian and your mother calls
and tells you to do something, you do it.

Mom called me up & said, `Tony, Mrs. Kilpatrick died & you need to go to her funeral.’He says, Mrs.
Kilpatrick lived just down the street from me when I was a little boy growing up in the streets of
Philadelphia.

So on the day of her funeral he went to the funeral home. Arriving a few minutes late, he rushed through the
door, sat down & then saw that he was the only one there, except for one little woman in front of him.

Then he looked at the coffin & suddenly realized that the man inside the coffin was not Mrs. Kilpatrick. He
was in the wrong chapel. He said that just as he was about to stand up and leave, the woman turned around,
touched him on the hand and asked,  Did you know him?

Tony Campolo asks, What would you do if you were in a situation like that? If you were the only one who
came to the funeral of this grieving woman’s husband, what would you say? He said, I stayed there for the
whole funeral service.
Then, since I was the only one there, I even felt compelled to go to the graveside service and stand there
with the widow. When that was over & we were riding back together, I turned to her and said, ’Mrs. King, I
want to be your friend, but I must be honest with you, I really didn’t know your husband.’

Tony Campolo said, She reached out for my hand and gripped it tightly and speaking softly and slowly,
said, ’That doesn’t matter. You’ll never know what your being here has meant to me.’

All of us here today absolutely know that there are people all over this world who are hurting. Maybe not
quite in the same way, but many are waiting for someone to reach out to them and to touch their lives.

I am reminded this morning that in the ordination service of its ministers the Methodist church urges those
ministers to remember their call. But here’s the thing. The Methodist Church believes in the priesthood of all
believers. So people like Liz and I are merely representatives of this priesthood of believers Therefore, in
the light of this gospel passage, let’s be reminded this morning that each of us, in being a follower of Jesus,
is called, in the lives we live to:
Declare the Good news.
Serve the needy.
Care for the sick
Welcome the stranger
Seek the lost.
Be encouraged that in the working out of our call, we do indeed meet Jesus! And God’s mercy, God’s justice
and God’ love is made known in the world and Christ is praised. Halleluah, Praise the Lord, Amen

StF481 The Lords my Shepherd, I shall not want

Intercessions
Lord Jesus, your justice embraces all people and calls us into a mutual fellowship of love and care.
Challenge your church to live out this concern in acts of compassion and liberation…
As we do to and for others, so we serve you.
Christ our King, give to governments and all who rule a deep concern for the needs of their people.
Give us an openness to welcome the stranger in peace and hospitality….
May we share of our wealth and our poverty.
Lord Jesus, in you the thirsty find refreshment, the hungry are fed, the naked are clothed and the prisoners
are visited.
Leave no one ignored and abandoned….
Extend the boundaries of our concern beyond the those who are easy to love.
Christ our King, the sick, the lame and the infirm hold a special place in your concern.
Give us grace to ensure that the care that is needed is provided.
As your faithfulness endures from age to age bless with the strength and determination to care for others all
our days.
Lord Jesus, you wept at the tomb of Lazarus and restored a little girl to life. Bring all the faithful departed to
eternity with you.
May we with them come to be with you in Paradise.
In your precious name we pray. Amen..

StF337 There is a higher throne

The Lords 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.
 Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours
now and for ever.
Amen

StF323 I will sing the wondrous story

Blessing
Christ awaits us in the world, hungry, homeless, lonely and afraid.
So, let us go to love, cherish, tend and care for him,
in all whom we meet.
And may the blessing of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be with us this day and
always. Amen.