Greenfield 7 Nov 2021

Order of service

Welcome

Let us open our hearts, our minds, and our eyes

to see the generous gifts of God,

and respond with praise and thanksgiving.

HYMN

57 Let all the world in every corner sing

Prayers (led by me)

Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

one in three and three in one, we adore you –

for you are light in our darkness

you are the calm in our turmoil

you are the wealth in our poverty

the meaning in our pointlessness

the hope in our despondency

the meaning in our being.

For all of this and so much more,

we worship you.

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ,

we come to you in sorrow for our selfishness,

in regret for our greed,

in despair over our blindness and deafness

to the needs of those around us.

With penitent hearts we seek your forgiveness,

and you’re blessing to make us more generous,

more giving, more able to see, and more willing to listen.

Amen.

Our God of generosity forgives those who truly repent.

Our God lifts the burdens from our hearts

and the blindness from our eyes

and sets us free to be the people we are called to be.

Amen.

HYMN

46 What shall I do my God of love

Readings

Hebrews 9: 24-28 (member of Church)

24 For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. 25 Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. 26 Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

Mark 12: 38-44 (member of Church)

Warning Against the Teachers of the Law

38 As he taught, Jesus said, “Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, 39 and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. 40 They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.”

The Widow’s Offering

41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.

43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

HYMN

138 Seek ye first the Kingdom of God

Sermon

May the words from my mouth and the thoughts from our hearts be acceptable to you, O LORD, our rock, and our defender.

Ask for three volunteers and give each a – returnable! – £5 note. Tell everyone that volunteer one is a millionaire; volunteer two earns about £30,000 per year (the UK average); and volunteer three has no regular income or job and receives on average about £300 a month. If each person gives their £5 note to a good cause (collect in the £5 notes!) – who is the most generous and why? Today’s worship is about what it means to live and give generously. In many cases it doesn’t need to be about money.

Our millionaire may use his skill as a surgeon in Africa for 2 months a year to help the needy.

Can you think of one generous thing you have seen someone do, or heard about someone’s selfless action recently?

I think over the last two years we have seen such an outpouring of a generous caring spirit during this pandemic.

During this time, we have seen all types of people giving of their time, efforts, and expertise to aide in any way they can from retired medical people to people taking food to the needy.

The Nursing home were the staff isolated themselves with the elderly in their care, to protect them from Covid.

The compassion shown over this time has been amazing.

These days we are told How to keep healthy:

Eat the right things, get enough sleep, exercise all these things will keep us healthy.

There is a great amount of information on how we can keep our heart healthy. All this fuss is about keeping something that weights less than a pound, but when you consider the heart beats around 100,000 times a day that is in average lifetime 2.5 billion times.

But more than this it is the heart of human life. Without it your body will cease to work.

Jesus had a lot to say about the heart, he uses it as a metaphor for our inner life.

Jesus tells us that it is the centre and the source of the whole inner life, our thinking, feeling, and what we do in life.

This is the main concern of God. He wants each one of us to have a healthy spiritual heart.

In (1 Samuel 16:17) God tells him “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart”

So, God tells us that it’s more important to have a healthy spiritual heart over it being just healthy one.

God wants us to be aware of our situation and attitude in life and through the words of Jesus he warns us that we need to be aware of the risk we face if we become complacent.

I once had a job, and when I joined the company the MD chatted to me, and I always remember he said to me “I want to ensure there is always work for these people in the future”. Very impressive.

The only problem was some years later the company became part of a bigger concern, and he was put on the board of executives, his concerns for the workforce diminished, were everyone became just a number. He had lost his initial desire to provide for the workforce that would not only to benefit himself but those around him. I did at one meeting with him remind him of our first conversation.

There is a great potential of hypocrisy this is always a danger in life, it is the temptation to be concerned about position, platforms, titles, and honours as we progress through life. All these things can be a temptation leading us to think we are better than others

For us as Christians it is crucial that we need to be guarded and vigilant it is so very easy to slip into living a life where we end up praying to impress, rather than praying from the heart.

In our reading from Mark, Jesus criticises the leaders of his day because their hearts were not right, as we read, we see their concerns are all about the outward appearance rather than their spiritual health, it says, in the message translation verses 38-40. “Watch out for the religion scholars. They love to walk around in academic gowns, preening in the radiance of public flattery, basking in prominent positions, sitting at the head table at every church function. And all the time they are exploiting the weak and helpless. The longer their prayers, the worse they get. But they’ll pay for it in the end.”

The things mentioned here point to their love of being held in high regard receiving honour from all the people as they make a great show of their position puffed up with pride. Can we sometimes be like this? Do we meet people and feel we are in some way superior to them?

We need to be on guard ourselves, examine our motives when dealing with others.

We need awareness of what and how we live, the point Jesus makes about the religious scholars of his day is that they are missing the fact that God is not concerned about status and show, he is concerned about the condition hearts. Their motivation.

When Jesus sees the poor widow giving her small offering, he makes it clear God is not concerned about the size of your wallet, his concern is about the size of your heart.

What we give, and the way we give reflects our spiritual life and how we regard God. We can go back to Genesis with Cain and Abel as an example of offerings to God, the fact that Abel’s gift was pleasing to God, we can ask why was this? it was because Abel’s gift was from his firstborn livestock the very best, he could offer.

In comparison to Cain’s, sacrifice was given from what he had grown, perhaps keeping the best for himself, and giving second best to God.

We don’t know but Cain’s gift may have been much larger than his brother’s.

But by comparison the gift that Abel gave which was the best of what he had was a gift from the heart.

Cain’s gift may have been greater, but his heart was not in it.

In our reading, we find Jesus challenging the assumption that the larger the gift the more pleasing it would be to God.

What can we take from this? Firstly, we can find encouragement, that it’s not only the rich who can please God through giving.

He also challenges the rich and tells us today, that it is not enough simply to give gifts. Jesus is looking for generous and sacrificial hearts.

What we give, and the way in which we give it, is a reflection of our spiritual health. Jesus is not actually criticising rich people who give large amounts of money, but critical of the reason. There is nothing wrong with wealth, it is our attitude to it, understanding all we have is a gift from God.

In our reading Jesus points out that the poor widow who gave “two small copper coins, worth very little” had put in more than the others.

Why is this? It is because Jesus sees her heart and the fact even though she had put in very little. She had given far more than she could afford. She gave all she had.

Others may look at the outward appearance: Jesus looks at the heart. It is not the amount that matters it’s more the attitude of the heart that matters to God.

If we look at what had happened prior to our reading from Mark’s Gospel, the scene we see this morning takes place just after Jesus has made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and in the last few chapters before his death. The crowds love him, but the religious teachers are threatened and now begin, in earnest, to try to find ways to trip him up so that they can silence him. But Jesus continues to speak out. Jesus is critical of the greed he sees in Jerusalem and its Temple.

There is far more to the spiritual heart, its not what we put in the collection plate each week, its how we move and interact with those around us.

Today where can we see generous living and giving? In the supermarkets now there is usually a section where you can leave a bag of shopping that goes to the local food bank. Food banks first appeared in the US in the 1960s. In the UK, they were rare until the early part of the 2000s, becoming much more widespread after the economic collapse of 2008. According to the Trussell Trust, more than 14 million people in the UK – including 4.5 million children – are now living in poverty. And there are more than 1,200 food bank centres in the UK offering support they usually offer about three days of food at a time. Trussell Trust is founded on Christian principles, and bases what it does on Jesus’ words in Matthew 25.35-36. 35 For I was hungry, and you gave me food, I was thirsty, and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked, and you clothed me, I was sick, and you visited me, I was in prison, and you came to me.’

If you have a TV, you are aware of all the demands on your attention to give to everything from save the donkey, to save the children, but we can become swamped, we see so much that the desired impact on us is lost.

But when does giving stop? We have heard the saying ‘charity begins at home’ is often used to limit what we give or what we do. But, as the 17th-century clergyman Thomas Fuller said, ‘Charity begins at home but should not end there.’

Now it seems I have spoken primarily about money this morning, but I believe it is giving of oneself for the sake of others is just as important.

We are called to give generously why?

Because we who believe in the risen Christ who has given and continues to give generously to each of us.

So, it comes down to a couple of questions.

Do you realise how much God loves you?

Do you believe that Jesus shed his blood so that you could receive total forgiveness?

In today’s reading from Hebrews Paul writes about the greatest once and for all event of all time.

The event that changed the course of history and has the potential to change everyone’s life. That is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

We need to remind ourselves that Christ is our high priest, the teacher who gives us grace and favour, and although he’s not on earth, he is in heaven. as we heard from Hebrews this morning.

Paul tells us because of this he has brought us into the presence of God in a way that could never be done on the earth by human efforts.

What does he mean by that?

The old Israelite ritual of sacrificing innocent animals—pouring their blood on the altar and sprinkling the people—is now a thing of the past for us.

This priesthood was bound by the law and spoiled by disobedience. Aaron and his sons performed religious rituals, but their sacrifices never completely dealt with sin, and had to be for ever repeated.

The new covenant is based on grace—God’s free forgiveness. God has accepted the sacrifice of Jesus to atone for all sin. Now we can obey God out of love—because his law is in our hearts, not in a book or on tablets of stone.

Now the perfect priesthood and sacrifice of Jesus has made a new and permanent peace between God and us through this new covenant. Jesus has achieved the real reconciliation.

We serve the risen Christ, we who believe in him need to give generously of our time and resources out of love and not duty, what more can we do for the one who’s ultimate sacrifice has created a bridge between God and man allowing his love to be poured on us abundantly.

Because of this we also need to give abundently to those in need around us.

Amen

HYMN

705 Take my life and let it be

Prayer of Thanksgiving and intersession (Me)

Gracious God, for all you have poured out upon us:

we give you thanks.

For your Word that has inspired and fed your people; for those

who had vision to record it, skill to translate it and presence to share it:

we give you thanks.

For your love that has surrounded and enfolded us, that has

given us joy, confirmed our faith, nurtured our love and given us

enduring hope in the gift of the promise of eternal life:

we give you thanks.

To you be all praise and glory, for ever and ever.

Lord, we come to you the creator of all,

Here the prayers we bring before you now, join us together that the world may come to believe.

Grant each one of us here today that we may humbly serve you: that the love of Christ will be seen within us.

We ask that you will, strengthen all who share God’s word and those who minister Christ’s word for your people. Give your people the courage to proclaim your Gospel.

We pray for those who hold authority in the nations of the world, that they will make decisions that will be of benefit to all people. Guide them in the way of justice and peace.

We pray that you make us alive in our community, that we can share our faith with those around us. Help us to share each other’s joys and burdens.

Lord look with kindness on our homes and families, bless us and keep us under your wing secure in the knowledge that you love us. Grant that your love will grow in our hearts.

Help us to show compassion for those who suffer from sickness, grief or trouble. And in a moment of silence, we bring them to you now……………………………………………….

We also remember those who are no longer with us and bring them to you in our hearts…………………….

Heavenly Father,

You have promised to hear what we ask in the name of your Son,

We pray you accept and answer our prayers,

Not as we ask in our ignorance, nor as we deserve in our sinfulness,

But as you know and love us in your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN

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 them that 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

Amen.

HYMN

753 All praise to our redeeming King

Blessing

Generous God, make us generous.

Make us generous in joy,

and generous in love.

Help us to remember what we have done today.

Remind us, every day,

that we need to share our love for you with others,

that we need to give and live generously –

for you are generous God, our God.

Be with each one of us and all whom we love,

this week and always.

Amen.

The Lord bless us and keep us,

the Lord make his face shine on us,

and be gracious to us,

the Lord turn his face towards us and give us peace,

and the blessing of God almighty,

the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,

be among us and remain with us always. Amen.