Uppermill 13th Aug

CALL TO WORSHIP

God calls us to grow in faith and love. Growing often brings storms: expected and unexpected. We can be fearful that we can’t cope. We may find it difficult to hear God’s gentle voice. We call out in our distress: ‘Lord save me!’ But God is always with us; let us worship the Lord!

StF 50: Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise.

A GATHERING PRAYER

God who loves us through and through, who continually calls us to grow up to be like Jesus: hear our calls for help in times of growing pains. When we are troubled and our hearts become fearful, give us your deep peace that we may be trusting and courageous. Amen.

A PRAYER OF ADORATION

Lord, we would come to you over the stormy seas of our lives. Beset by waves of worry and doubt, we hear your call and set our feet upon the waters. Help us to focus on you now, trusting to your promises in the face of all distractions. Amen.

A PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Lord, many are the storms that surround us. There are political storms within our world, and our nation; humanity is tossed to and fro by conflict, need and want. There are storms within our families, and within ourselves; we disagree, we fight, we wound one another; we do not know which way to turn. Our weather has changed; all over the world we witness storms in nature such as we have never seen. In the face of all this, we confess our fear, our lack of courage, our faltering faith. You tell us to trust in you, but we are battered by danger and doubts, fears within and fears without. We fall. We are overwhelmed. We fail. Help us, Lord, to fix our eyes on you. We are of little faith, but great is your faithfulness and saving grace. We look to you and reach for the hand outstretched to save. Amen.

ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS

How weak we are, how doubting; we fail you in every way. Yet how constant is your love in forgiving us every day. How wonderful your outstretched hand, along life’s stormy way; how wretched is our little faith, yet you forgive…always. Amen.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father who art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name,

Thy Kingdom come,

Thy will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven,

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our trespasses,

As we forgive those who trespass against us,

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory,

For ever and ever Amen.

StF 455: All my hope on God is founded.

READING

1 Kings 19: 9-18

9 There he went into a cave and spent the night.

The Lord Appears to Elijah

And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

14 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

15 The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. 16 Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha, son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. 17 Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. 18 Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.”

Matthew 14: 22-33

Jesus Walks on the Water

22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

29 “Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

StF 610: Best of all is God is with us.

SERMON

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, ‘We are so afraid of silence that we chase ourselves from one event to the next in order not to have to spend a moment with ourselves, in order not to have to look at ourselves in the mirror.’

The question we are asked is why are we so afraid of silence?

In the Old Testament reading, God keeps asking Elijah “what are you doing”. He has just had a contest with the prophets of Baal and won.

He’d had prophets killed and because of this Queen Jezebel threatened to kill him.

So, what did he do? What would you do? he chose to run away, and I guess on the surface it seems sensible thing to do with the queen wanting to take his life.

How does Elijah handle this? He goes and hides, in a cave on Mount Horeb.

After such an amazing victory for God he chooses to hide away. The threat on his life had overcome him.

But now Elijah hears God telling him to come and stand on the mountain.

In a sense to come out of the darkness of the cave and into the light.

When Moses stood on Mount Horeb, God gave him the ten commandments accompanied by earthquake, wind, and fire.

Perhaps Elijah is expecting something similar – that God will appear and rescue, vindicate and maybe even praise him.

But there is only the sound of silence.

Silence until God speaks again, the same question – ‘What are you doing here?’ – making it clear that what Elijah needs to do is go back and get on with his work.

His job now is to anoint different kings and make Elisha a prophet after himself.

We need to see also at this point Elijha believes he is alone that all the other believers of God had been killed or had turned to worship Baal.

He felt alone,

isolated.

Over these last few difficult years, people have suffered the effects of stress, when life’s pressures become unmanageable.

From Covid-19 to the cost-of-living crisis, many people have found life very tough.

Elijah would have sympathised! He faced enormous stress as he coped with the consequences of his calling to be a prophet, and the story of his flight to Mount Horeb could be read as the account of a breakdown, perhaps even PTSD.

But it is the unexpectedly silent presence of God that breaks through his suffering and begins the healing.

What does that have to say to us?

Life can throw tough stuff at us, even or especially when we are being very faithful in our service to Christ.

We can hope for the strong appearances from God, clear guidance from above when we call for help.

But sometimes it is only when we slow down enough to catch up with ourselves. when we are still enough, for God to get a word in edgeways. You know keeping busy can be a way of distracting ourselves, a way of avoiding the truth we don’t want to see.

SOS – three letters that mean ‘Help!’ when it’s tapped out in Morse code or scrawled on a beach.

There’s no real agreement on what they stand for, but everybody knows what they mean.

We hope we never have to use them, but everyone needs help sometimes. Can we send an SOS to God?

Jesus loved to get away on his own to pray “he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.”

The point is when you are completely on your own with God, you can speak to him honestly from the depths of your heart, speaking of you concerns and worries.

Jesus often removed himself. To be quite to slow down and reflect, pray, and commune with the Father, isn’t that an example for use?

Should we not slow down to listen to God?

It is this closeness to God, knowing who he was that enables Jesus to walk on water.

He encouraged Peter to do the same but when Peter sees the wind he starts to panic. I know this feeling exactly and I am sure you do, sometimes, when things start to go wrong, we take our eyes of Jesus, As we focus on the situation around us. We begin to sink.

In the middle of this Peter prayers a panic prayer “Lord save me”.

Now even though this is a panic prayer, it is definitely a cry from the heart.

What happens?

“immediately Jesus reached out his hand a caught him.

Jesus reached out and caught him as he sank. Even though Peter had endangered himself by taking a risk he couldn’t handle, Jesus was still there for him.

As I look back on some of my panic prayers that I have prayed, it is wonderful to see the ways in which some of them have been answered, I must stress not all have been answered in the way I had hoped.

One of my first thought when reading today’s passage, was how did the disciples think Jesus was going to meet them on the other side? Was he going to walk around the lake? It’s around 53 kilometres around 32 miles. I suppose it would be walkable, but it’s a fair way.

It is interesting that they immediately obey Jesus, setting out across to the other side. I wonder are we so ready to obey immediately when Jesus asks to do something?

Are we willing to step out in our live, move into uncomfortable places.

Walking on water means (according to the American Christian author, John Ortberg): facing our fears and choosing not to let fear have the last word;

Working out what our calling is can often be stressful. We may consider ourselves too old to have anything of value to give.

At times we call on God for help and need to hear the quiet voice of guidance.

How do we pray in silence? How do we recognise it is the voice of Jesus calling us.

When It appears, the wind is against us as we made our way through life.

Don’t be afraid isn’t that what we want to hear, there are so many things in this world that can be frightening, challenging. Wouldn’t it be nice if we heard these words of Jesus to each of us. Do not be afraid.

It was in the quiet of the early morning that Peter called to Jesus and heard Jesus saying to him to get out of the boat and to walk to him on the water. Peter, has spent time with Jesus, seen many marvellous and amazing things but he is still filled with a mixture of faith and doubt. He is like all of us as we experience the push-pull factor of faith and fear.

Why did Peter leave the relative safety of the boat?

Why step onto the water?

We know that Peter is a little impulsive, after the resurrection when the disciples were out fishing and Jesus was on the shore, what does Peter do, he can’t wait to get to Jesus he jumps in the water to get to Jesus.

But on the lake that day Peter begins to sink his faith wavers and the result is he begins to fear the waves more than what Christ offers.

Jesus can often call us to step out of our boat, out of our comfort to take the plunge. To call us to step into choppy waters to take the risk, to trust the Jesus will be with us.

How do we know if Jesus is calling us to step out into the unknown?

If, having slowed down enough to be still and silent and to listen, and we believe we hear Jesus’ voice, how do we know it is real?

If it leaves us experiencing an increase of hope, love, and faith, then there is a very good chance that it is truly his voice, and we should always test this by talking with our Christian friends.

If the voice leaves us feeling confused, tied up in knots, and our hearts sinking, we can probably assume that this is not the voice of Jesus.

Sometimes we don’t so much hear a voice but have a sense of the reassuring presence of God with us – and that might just be enough.

And that Jesus would climb into our boat and the wind and troubles die down.

As Jesus and Peter climb back into the boat, “those who were in the boat Worshipped Jesus” saying “truly you are the Son of God”.

The incident finishes with the disciples giving a cry from the heart.

What we need to understand how important this is, these men were Monotheistic Jews, who knew the commandment that they should worship

God alone, when they worship Jesus, they are recognising Jesus maybe for the first time the Jesus really is the Son of God.

In whatever situation you are in today, you can take reassurance that Jesus is in control.

You may not always have the comfort of understanding what Jesus is doing or even why he is letting life be this way, but you do have the comfort of knowing that Jesus is with you.

So, we to can say from our hearts “Truly you are the Son of God”.

Amen

OFFERING DURING HYMN

StF 370: Breathe on me breath of God.

PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING AND INTERCESSION

Lord, we thank you for the story of Peter faltering amid stormy seas, because it is reassuring to us when we do likewise; and we praise you for walking on those rough waters, for it teaches us that you are in the storm with us, as you were with Peter and those disciples still in the boat; and you are the one we can trust to save us when we sink. Help us to keep our eyes on you in stormy times, for you alone will prevent us from going under. Your arm is strong to save, however weak our faith may be. Amen.

Lord God, we come before you to pray for all those people for whom taking risks is a way of life. Lord, reveal yourself to them and keep them safe. We pray for our emergency services – paramedics, the police, the fire service – all who daily face difficult situations as they seek to help to protect us and make our world a safer and more peaceful place. Lord, reveal yourself to them and keep them safe. We pray for people who work in troubled areas – the armed forces in war zones, those who bring humanitarian aid into areas of natural disaster, and many more. Lord, reveal yourself to them and keep them safe. We pray for people who take risks in your name, Lord Jesus – those who take your word where it is most needed – and for people who grapple with faith and doubt. Lord, reveal yourself to them and keep them safe. Amen.

StF 545: Be, thou, my vision.

BLESSING

Loving God, you know us through and through. You know our hopes, our fears, the things that get us going, and those that make us freeze. Give us the courage to put our anxious, fearful thoughts and feelings aside, to listen to you. And to get out of the boat, each one of us with eyes fixed always on you. Amen.