Clean Your House! (Baptism)

Light Reflective Music

Bible Enters (Organ)

Welcome / Intimation (Rev. Bosch)

I greet you in the Name of God the Father, who loves you and keeps you safe - in the care of Christ Jesus. May it be that we receive mercy, peace and love.

Intimations, Funerals, Baptisms (remember to share this before Sunday Worship)

Warm welcome to the family of Alesha who will be baptized today…

Funeral: Late Andrew Ritchie, 29th of May (Thursday) in church at 12:00

Annual Stated Meeting, 1st of June (Sunday) after Sunday worship

Kirk Session Meeting, 2nd of June at 19:00 in church

Communion will be on Sunday the 8th of June

Stewardship Month Workshop (Open invitation), open invitation on the 18th of August

Flower Fund Box, Janice … , Thank you, Fund is a “add-on”

London Trip an success, Lorelei received her ZA Passport and Lucien was registerd.

Testomony (Try to identify someone.)

Call to Worship: (2 Kings 6: 15-17)

Minister: God open our eyes!

All: So that we may see.

Minister: God open our eyes!

All: So that we may realise you are here.

Let us worship God!

Hymn: Come people of the risen King

Declaration:

Blessed be the name of the Lord now and evermore.From the rising of the sun to its setting, the Lord’s name be praised. Let us pray:

Prayer of Approach and Confession (Rev. Bosch)

Heavenly Father, We come before You, broken and frail. Our hearts carry wounds, our souls bear scars. We are broken, Lord, weighed down by sin. Our lives reflect flaws, our choices fall short of your greater Will. We confess our sins, our failures, our pride. We need You, Jesus, our Savior and King. We admit our need for Your endless love. Jesus, our Savior, You are our only hope. We plead for Your forgiveness, cleansing our souls. Forgive us, Lord, for straying from Your path. Cleanse us through Your boundless grace. Through Baptism, we die to self and rise in You. Thank you that we may experience your sacrement today in the presence of the HS. Jesus Your blood washes us, making us whole. You restore our connection to the Father’s heart. Draw us near this morning, restoring our connection to You.

We seek You earnestly, longing for Your peace. Fill us with Your Spirit, guiding our steps. Empower us to walk boldly in Your truth. Your healing power mends our deepest hurts. We seek You, Lord, longing for Your touch. Fill us with Your Spirit, renew our strength so that we may leave this place proclaiming Your healing love.

Inspire us to tell of Your healing, Your mercy, and Your grace. May our lives reflect the glory of Your name. In the holy name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Hymn: CH 619 & 620 Spirit of the Living God

(Children enter.)

Children’s Address: Jesus cleans us!

Hymn: Our God is a great big God

(Children exit.)

Reading: Numbers 5: 1-4 / Mark 5: 1-20 (Calum Wilson)

Numbers 5: 1-4: Unclean People 5 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp everyone who is leprous or has a discharge and everyone who is unclean through contact with the dead. 3 You shall put out both male and female, putting them outside the camp, that they may not defile their camp, in the midst of which I dwell.” 4 And the people of Israel did so, and put them outside the camp; as the LORD said to Moses, so the people of Israel did.

Mark 5: 1-20: Jesus Heals a Man with a Demon 5 They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. 2 And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. 3 He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, 4 for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. 6 And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. 7 And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” 8 For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9 And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” 10 And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, 12 and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” 13 So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea. 14 The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. 15 And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. 16 And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. 17 And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region. 18 As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. 19 And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” 20 And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.

Sermon: (Rev. Bosch)

Keep the community clean. The princeple in our OT/Numbers reading is to uphold cleanliness. This means if someone is found to be unclean that person should be placed outside of the community’s boundries. The reason is for the health and wellbeing of that community. There is nothing new about such an arrangement, because we still do this in Scotland. If someone, for example, is found guilty of a crime that person is placed in prison for the purpose of protecting the specific community. In other words, to keep the community clean.

What, if then, you and I find ourselves to be that person kicked out the community? What if we are not eligible to function in the community? What if we are not allowed to live in our own community, because of some kind of disease or crime?

The second reading from Mark tells of a person that lived outside the boundaries of his community. He was likely kicked out. Understandable his community pushed him out because he was simply mad. He was taken over by demons our reading says. The man had no sense of self. He was not a “I” or a “me” but rather a “we” or a “they” even worse the man was a “multitude”. Considering the health of this man, we can not underestimate his severe mental, spiritual and physical state. He was exstremely ill! The illness was of such an extent that “whatever was in the man” causes two thousand pigs to drown themselves.

This man was truly lost, unclean, disorientated, with no sense of purpose or direction (The only focus activity that he was involved in was self-harming). Understandable, his own community could not allow such a man to live in their mits.

Whereas, his community had to push him away, Jesus connected with him. The NT reading in essense is about God connecting. Jesus connecting. Christ forming a bond with a very disturbed person. Jesus giving life, hope, direction and “a sense of self” to a true lost person.

The result of Jesus connecting with this man lead to his health being restored. He became whole, one in himself, centred in his own identity and having once again a sense of self (I/Me). The realisation of the man’s own wellness was firmly based upon his connection and bond with Christ.

When we know/realiase we are broken, distored and lost in ourselves and in our sitsuation the reading suggest to seek the Lord. We can say to become curious about the qualities of the Lord Jesus. We could also say by starting to ponder the spiritual exsistance of Christ. Figuretively speaking run and fall down before the Lord with the expectation that His Holy Spirit is very close ready to bring healing or an outcome. The HS is indeed close and ready to make whole, to give a sense of self and to centre on one’s own identity, based upon the connection with the Lord Jesus Christ.

The new life that the man received from Christ was of such extent that He wanted to follow Jesus. The realisation that he is no longer distored in himself, made him want to follow this Health-Provider. The essensial part in this reading is that Jesus did not allow Him to follow Him. We hear often the Theology stipulating the importance of following Jesus. In the case of this reading, Jesus did not want the man to follow him, rather he wanted the man to go home. He wanted the man to go back to his community. He wanted the man to restore the many broken relationships in his own community. I can imagine it might have been easier for him to follow Jesus, rather then to go home to the many people that cast him away. Jesus then did not just asked Him to go home but also to tell of the goodness of Christ. The fresh theology states, do not follow Jesus rather go back home and tell about Jesus.

“Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” 20 And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.

When we experience the grace and goodness of Jesus remember to tell and share his goodness. It might even be that we should go home to our friends and families for the purpose of reconnect and revealing the goodness of God.

When we approach the fond this morning, to experience the sacrament of Baptism we have the opportunity to see cleansing power of Jesus. Jesus cleanse us (He cleans us.) and then makes us part of his community. The church is his community the body that functions in this world to the glory of Him and His reign. Let us approach the fond with expectation and a prayerful heart. Amen.

Play Music

Baptism:

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt 28: 18-20)

Statement:

When Jesus was baptized in the waters of the Jordan, the Spirit of God came upon him. His baptism was completed through his dying and rising again. Our baptism is the sign of dying to sin and rising to new life in Christ. It is Christ himself who baptizes us. By the Spirit of Pentecost, he makes us members of his body, the Church, and calls us to share his ministry in the world. By water and the Holy Spirit, God claims us as his own, washes us from sin, and sets us free from the power of death. In this sacrament, the love of God is offered to each one of us. Though we cannot understand or explain it, we are called to accept that love with the openness and trust of a child. In baptism, Alesha Sophie Borthwick is assured of the love that God has for her, and the sign and seal of the Holy Spirit is placed upon her.

(Parents approach…)

Statement:

Parents: In presenting your child for baptism, desiring that she may be grafted into Christ as a member of His body, the church, do you receive the teaching of the Christain faith which we confess in the Apostles Creed? We do.

(Place on Slides Please.)

Congregation: Will the congregation please stand. Let us affirm the faith.

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Prayer:

We thank you, gracious God, for your gifts of water and the Holy Spirit.

(Pour the Water in font)

Send your Holy Spirit upon us and upon this water, so that, Alesha Sophie Borthwick, being buried with Christ in baptism, may rise with him to newness of life; and being born anew of water and the Holy Spirit may remain for ever in the number of your faithful children; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be all honour and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

Declaration and Baptism:

Alesha, God knows you by the name, and loves you. As a sign of hope and grace I baptise you in the name of God the F, S and H. Amen.

Blessing:

May the blessing of our Heavenly Father be with you every day. Amen.

Sing Hymn 796: (Whilst showing the baby to the congregation.)

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen.

Promise: Parents: Do you promise leaning on the grace of God, to teach our child the truths and duties of the Christian faith; and by prayer and example to bring her up in the life and worship of the Church? We do.

Congregation: Do you welcome Alesha; and do you renew your commitment, with God’s help, to live before all God’s children in a kindly and Christian way, and to share with them the knowledge and love of Christ? We do.

(Place this on slides:)

Say together: We will nurture one another in faith, uphold one another in prayer, encourage one another in service.

Prayer:

God of love, we rejoice again to receive your grace in Word and Sacrament. We have heard your call and are made new by your Spirit. Guide and guard Alesha all her days. God of grace, in whose church there is one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, help us to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to profess with our whole lives the one true faith, and to live in love and unity with all who are baptized in his name, through Jesus Christ our Lord…

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 debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Hymn: CH 97 - O God, you search me and you know me

Prayer for Others (Stephen Dixon):

Heavenly Father, We lift up all those who are walking through difficult times right now.

May your boundless love envelop them, bringing comfort to their weary hearts.

Grant them the strength to face each challenge with courage and resilience.

Surround them with compassionate friends, family, and community to share their burdens.

Illuminate their path with hope, reminding them that no storm lasts forever.

Ease their pain, whether it be physical, emotional, or spiritual, and restore their peace.

Guide their steps, showing them your purpose even in the midst of trials.

Let them feel your unwavering presence, a steady anchor in turbulent seas.

We pray for families who are reliant upon funding and the support of outside organisations. Thank you for so many striving to help those in need.

Provide families, moms and dads, with wisdom to navigate their struggles and faith to trust in your plan.

May they find moments of joy and grace, even in the darkest hours.

We ask all this in your holy name, trusting in your endless mercy.

Amen.

Offering (The person at door duty brings the plate to the table.)

Prayer of Thanks

Hymn: CH 153 - Great is thy faithfulness

Rethink and Blessing (Rev. Bosch)

When we know we are broken, distored and lost remember to seek the Lord. Become curious about him and His qualities. Go with the expectation that His Holy Spirit is close ready to make whole, to give a sense of self and to centre one’s own identity upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the presence of the Holy Spirit, may the peace of God, which is beyond all understanding, 

guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus. Amen

Sing/Play Amen (Organ)

Bible Exits (Organ)