Worship on 19 September 2021

Sunday, Trinity 17

Jostling for Position

Call to Worship

At this time, in this place, let us worship God – with open ears ready to listen, and hearts ready to receive, minds willing to be challenged and attitudes given to God. Come, let us worship God as one.

Lord God, you call us to live our best lives – for you, with you, in you. We may sometimes pause to smell the coffee or the roses, but we are often too busy to take time to be aware of you – that you are with us, in us, and in those around us. Quieten our hearts now to recognise you in this place today. Help us to reach out to one another with love, care and compassion,so that we can all live our best life for you.

Amen

God who loves little children, we adore you. We drink in the wonder of your presence, the specialness of our relationship with you. You are far beyond our understanding, your love is greater than our greatest dreams. We worship you, our Lord and our God.

Amen

Hymn: The Servant King

1. From heaven you came helpless babe

Entered our world, your glory veiled

Not to be served but to serve

And give Your life that we might live

This is our God, The Servant King

He calls us now to follow Him

To bring our lives as a daily offering

Of worship to The Servant King

2. There in the garden of tears

My heavy load he chose to bear

His heart with sorrow was torn

‘Yet not My will but Yours, ‘ He said

This is our God, The Servant King

He calls us now to follow Him

To bring our lives as a daily offering

Of worship to The Servant King

3. Come see His hands and His feet

The scars that speak of sacrifice

Hands that flung stars into space

To cruel nails surrendered

This is our God, The Servant King

He calls us now to follow Him

To bring our lives as a daily offering

Of worship to The Servant King

Confession

Our response is – Lord, please forgive me, and teach me my rightful place in you.

Lord, please forgive me, and teach me my rightful place in you.

Let us consider how we jostle for position in our lives. …

Lord, please forgive me, and teach me my rightful place in you.

Jesus said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be last.”
Lord for the times I’ve put myself first, or argued with people,
because I think I know better or that I am better …

Lord, please forgive me, and teach me my rightful place in you.

For the times when I don’t want to be a servant
because I think I can do greater things…

Lord, please forgive me, and teach me my rightful place in you.

When I don’t recognise Christ in those around me
because I’m too busy looking out for myself …

Lord, please forgive me, and teach me my rightful place in you.

When I don’t understand what people mean, perhaps not understanding their feelings of fear …

Lord, please forgive me, and teach me my rightful place in you.

When I jostle for position, rather than being happy where you put me …

Lord, please forgive me, and teach me my rightful place in you.

Assurances

You challenge us, Lord, when we do wrong.
You get us to focus by using questions,
even though you know the answers.
Your image is present in each one of us.
When we confess our sins,
you are always there to forgive us.

We stand now, humbly in your presence. Forgiven.
Acknowledging that you, Oh Lord, are the greatest.  Amen

Thank you, Lord, that we can always find our place in you.
Thank you that we belong to you,
and no one can take that away from us.
We are secure in your loving arms.
We need never be afraid to ask you anything.
Thank you for the times we can meet blessing with blessing.

Amen

Collect for the day

O Lord, we beseech you mercifully to hear the prayers of your people who call upon you; and grant that they may both perceive and know what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil them; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Amen

Psalm 54

1    Save me, O God, by your name
and vindicate me by your power.

2    Hear my prayer, O God;
give heed to the words of my mouth.

3    For strangers have risen up against me, and the ruthless seek after my life;
they have not set God before them.

4    Behold, God is my helper;
it is the Lord who upholds my life.

5    May evil rebound on those who lie in wait for me;
destroy them in your faithfulness.

6    An offering of a free heart will I give you
and praise your name, O Lord, for it is gracious.

7    For he has delivered me out of all my trouble,
and my eye has seen the downfall of my enemies.

First Reading

James 3.13 – 4.3,7–8a

Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Hymn: Breath on me Breath of God

1. Breathe on me, Breath of God,

Fill me with life anew,

That I may love what Thou dost love,

And do what Thou wouldst do.

2. Breathe on me, Breath of God,

Until my heart is pure,

Until with Thee I will one will,

To do and to endure.

3. Breathe on me, Breath of God,

Till I am wholly Thine,

Until this earthly part of me

Glows with Thy fire divine.

4. Breathe on me, Breath of God,

So shall I never die,

But live with Thee the perfect life

Of Thine eternity.

Second Reading

Mark 9.30–37

They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, ‘The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.’ But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.

Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’ But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’ Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’

Some thoughts about jostling for position

Jostling for position

Sometimes when we strive for that great improvement, we jostle people about, don’t we? I am sure you can think of times when you jogged someone’s elbow to get closer to something you really wanted. For those who know about these things, I understand it is a common occurrence at the bar. I have even heard of little old ladies at the big sales nudging people out of the way with their umbrellas. For those of you who have run races competitively, you know about the jostling that happens when you are in the pack, and it can even happen among the front runners, which you may have seen at the Olympics.

I admitted playing lacrosse as a schoolboy a few weeks ago, and in that game there is a lot of jostling when you are going after a loose ball, and sometimes even when you are standing still waiting for something to happen. We have seen it on television when we watch the match of the day – either the Euros or the World Cup, or just when we are watching our favourite teams or even children at the local school. As two race toward the ball they are jostling each other for position to retrieve the ball and perhaps make the killer pass which ends up in a goal, one way or another.

Haven’t we all played that game? Haven’t we all striven to that point that we might have done just about anything to succeed?

That game is not just on the sports field. There are games being played out in board-rooms across the world, where one faction will do just about anything to get its way. We can even see it in Parliament when the questions in Prime Minister’s Question Time are being asked and answered. The innocent question about the schedule is asked and then the real question to expose some vulnerable aspect of the government is asked. Such a question raises an MP’s profile – to jostle the PM a little bit in the hope that there may may be a fall from the height of power so that that pesky MP might be able to step on that fallen political comrade to rise closer to the prize he covets.

People are jostling each other all the time because they believe their position is the only right one, and they want to force everyone to their way of thinking. We may have even seen this happen in our own homes with siblings and parents. I am sure we have all seen this in films, whether it is a business plan or a political stratagem, the proponent will use all manner of arguments to convince others, and sometimes they apply all sorts of ploys, “lies, damned lies and statistics” as someone has said. We even see some force their will on others by threats – the exposure of some peccadillo, a fist raised – what people would call “a gun to the head”.

The scale of the jostle changes, doesn’t it? – depending on how important people hold things. For the athlete, is the gold medal the prize beyond all others? Or does the true athlete realise that it is only how the game is played that matters? I mentioned this when I spoke at Purton when the Olympics were in full flight. We spectators were looking for wins and medals, weren’t we? That is how we were valuing ourselves. However, there are only three medals available in each of the disciplines. Whether it is on a bicycle or in a canoe, the commentators and everyone at home were wanting a gold medal. In the boxing ring or on the judo tatami, our wish was for our man or woman to land the killer blow – to take out every opponent and be the last one standing just like on the cover of this worship sheet. But I have to ask – What happens to the competitors lying in the dust?

As you know, I am a rather an odd fellow. – Rather than the win, I want to see a “beautiful game” played out before me, just as I want the game I play to be beautiful. Don’t we all want to see the best performance win in any competition, but most of all at the Olympics where the whole world gathers to see the best of the best and where we compete wholeheartedly, hoping for the best performance of our lives?

In the midst of the Olympics, we saw some who did not play that divisive, hurtful game of winning at all costs. I applauded those Olympic athletes who gave a heart-felt smile to congratulate their opponents on the completion of the events – like the woman archer whose arrow missed the mark but she smiled and walked over to her competitor to wish her joy, or Djokovic’s embrace of Zverev when he won so convincingly. I want to be able to do this at every moment of every day in my life. – Don’t you? Wouldn’t this be heaven on earth when the beautiful game of life is played to the rule of love? But heaven has not yet come to earth, has it? We still jostle for position and too often fail to keep the rule of love in our lives.

What do you think is going through the mind of Ali in the picture on the cover of our worship sheet today? Is he thinking about loving his opponent? Or is he proclaiming his greatness over the prostrate figure of his opponent? Has he spurned the humanity lying at his feet and even his own humanity in his triumph? What would we be doing in this situation? Would we be giving a hand to lift our opponent up, or would we be dancing around in our own little world being “the greatest”? Such a private dance does not speak of our playing any “beautiful game”.

Sadly, the picture tells me the latter story, the dance of the selfish greatest, but it does not mean it has to be the case. We can compete completely, yet still remain true to our rule of love which the Lord commanded. The game is the game and it comes to an end, but we live on after the final whistle, don’t we? We are athletes in a race to salvation which includes all our activities in life.

Have we been jostling or playing by the rules of the game, the rules of our Lord?

I would like to leave you with one last thought. If we are to play life to the rule of love, we might jostle people around us to do good things, maybe to love those around them, perhaps even to love our enemies. Let’s hope we can all play the game of life to the rule Jesus taught all his disciples, remembering we are counted amongst that number. That jostling toward love is the only jostling we should accept. Perhaps then we can proclaim that we are the greatest when we jostle and raise our opponents in love. The kingdom of heaven is here when the position we jostle for is that of loving one another.

Amen

Hymn: Brother, sister, let me serve you

1. Brother, sister, let me serve you;

let me be as Christ to you;

pray that I may have the grace to

let you be my servant too.

2. We are pilgrims on a journey,

and companions on the road;

we are here to help each other

walk the mile and bear the load.

3. I will hold the Christ-light for you

in the nighttime of your fear;

I will hold my hand out to you,

speak the peace you long to hear.

4. I will weep when you are weeping;

when you laugh I’ll laugh with you;

I will share your joy and sorrow,

till we’ve seen this journey through.

5. When we sing to God in heaven,

we shall find such harmony,

born of all we’ve known together

of Christ’s love and agony.

6. Brother, sister, let me serve you;

let me be as Christ to you;

pray that I may have the grace to

let you be my servant too.

Prayers

Let us pray for the world, thanking God for his goodness to all humankind.

Let us pray for countries, communities and individuals jostling each other. May they see what is truly good in life and strive to benefit each other, living lives of care.

Let us pray for our politicians as they jostle. Let their struggles be for their people, not themselves. May they nudge each other to do the good for themselves as for others.

Hymn:

God forgave my sin in Jesus’ name.

I’ve been born again in Jesus’ name

And in Jesus’ name I come to you

To share his love as he told me to.

He said ‘Freely, freely you have received;, freely, freely give.

Go in my name, and because you believe others will know that I live.

All pow’r is giv’n in Jesus’ name

In earth and heav’n in jesus name

And in Jesus’ name I come to you

To share his pow’r as he told me to.

He said ‘Freely, freely you have received;, freely, freely give.

Go in my name, and because you believe others will know that I live.

God gives us life in Jesus’ name

He lives in us in Jesus’ name

And in Jesus’ name I come to you

To share his peace as he told me to.

As we leave

In all that we do this week, let us take that moment to look into the eyes of the people around us. They are all part of our community, so let us pray that God will bless them as they go about their lives, lives they share with us.

Let us go out into the world
to shine with the love of God,
to listen with the ears of Jesus,
and to speak words of kindness and hope to everyone we meet.

Amen