Online worship: Sunday 17 May 2020

17th May

Welcome! Please click on the play button (the triangle) in the sound file above to listen to Sunday worship from St Andrew’s and St George’s West, Edinburgh.
You can download a PDF of the Order of Service here or just follow it below:

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Preparing for Worship

‘…dailiness can lead us to such despair and also be at the core of our salvation…
We want life to have meaning, we want fulfilment, healing and even ecstasy, but the human paradox is that we find these things by starting where we are…
We must look for blessings to come from unlikely, everyday places.’

Kathleen Norris

Introit

Blessed is the man that hath not walked
In the counsel of the ungodly
Nor stood in the way of sinners:
And hath not sat in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord:
And in his law will he exercise himself day and night.

Psalm 1, vv 1 and 2
Music: Noel de Jongh (b. 1930)

Welcome and Call to Worship Spill the Beans

God of love,
as Jesus reminded his disciples
that love is always the answer, love us,
receive our response to your love,
receive our praise and our worship.

Hymn 441 (verses 1,3,4,5)

Blessing and honour and glory and power,
wisdom and riches and strength evermore
give to the Lord who our battle hath won,
whose are the Kingdom, the crown, and the throne.

Soundeth the heaven of the heavens with his name;
ringeth the earth with his glory and fame;
ocean and mountain, stream, forest and flower
echo his praises and tell of his power.

Ever ascendeth the song and the joy;
Ever descendeth the love from on high;
Blessing and honour and glory and praise, –
This is the theme of the hymns that we raise.

Give we the glory and praise to the Lamb;
Take we the robe and the harp and the palm;
sing we the song of the Lamb that was slain,
dying in weakness but rising to reign.

Tune: Bonnie George Campbell

Opening Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer

Eternal God, source of all love, we worship you this morning.
We come as we are. Some may have had a sleepless night, and come in need of rest and restoration. You know each of our needs. Give us all your Sabbath in this time of worship.

You are the giver of life and breath. Reveal yourself to us; dwell with us; and abide in us. We live because of you. We hope because of you.

Maker and giver of all, forgive us when we are too preoccupied to notice your presence in our very changed days: when we walk through holy moments and fail to recognise you. Instead we can feel abandoned in the vast sweep of life as each day rushes at us with its challenges.

Open our eyes to your presence, God of love, that we may lean on you— for you uphold all of your creation in tenderness and love.

We join in your community of love: love that is given, not earned; love that is granted, not demanded, as we pray the words that Jesus taught his disciples saying:

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us in the time of trial and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours,
now and forever. Amen

Poem ‘Psalm 121’ by Becky Durham

I lift my eyes
above the fear
above the loneliness
above the anger,
the worry, the grief.

I lift my eyes
higher than my line of sight.
And I wait.
From where does my help come?
When will my help come?
How will my help come?

I lift my eyes…
…and then
just in the time,
I know my help is here.

The Lord
unchanging
unshakable,
ever watchful,
ever faithful.

My help comes from the Lord
lover of the fearful
companion of the lonely,
soother of the angry,
quieter of the worried,
comforter of the grieving.

My help comes from the Lord,
the one who keeps me always.

Anthem

If ye love me, keep my commandments,
And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter,
That he may abide with you for ever, even the spirit of truth.

Words: St John 14, 15-17
Music: Thomas Tallis (c.1505-85)

New Testament Reading John 14:15-21 (NRSV)

The Promise of the Holy Spirit
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

Reflection

Hymn: From heaven’s attendant host you came

From heaven’s attendant host you came
to meet and mend us on your knees;
the saviour-servant, still you plead,
‘To know me, love the least of these.’

And then to show the way, you turn
to those who do not know you yet,
and those whose value none have seen
or many see but soon forget.

Within the Church, built on your word,
the call to care finds central place.
Thus humble faith and human skill
Combine, through you, as means of grace.

To this vocation now enlist
those in whose lives Christ is confessed;
inform each mind, inspire each heart,
through them may heaven and earth be blessed.

On every shoulder lay your hands
confirm the calling none deserves,
till all we say and all we do
reflect the saviour whom we serve.

John L Bell and Graham Maule
Tune: Eisenach

Prayers of Intercession with choral response Spill the Beans (adapted)

Ever loving God,
we come together in prayer
in the hope and assurance of
your commitment to us, to others,
and the life of this planet.

We pray for our world,
where the ravages of this virus
continue to be experienced in challenges to life and to livelihood.
In a world where despair itself could isolate so many,
may your Spirit empower us to reach out in love.

choral response Spirit of Life, fill us with your love.

We pray for our Church,
as it continues to respond to very changed circumstances.
What has not changed is your call
to seek out the best way to live out your love in the world.
Bless the newly inducted Moderator of the Church of Scotland.
Grant him wisdom in his leadership,
that is filled with heart and with soul.

choral response Spirit of Life, fill us with your love.

We pray for those who suffer pain and ill-health,
with their families and friends and all who care for them
in hospitals, in care homes, at home and far from home.
We pray for those, of any age, who have been left orphaned:
for families grieving lives lost
that they will know your comfort,
that they may experience your peace
even in the midst of the storm.

choral response Spirit of Life, fill us with your love.

We pray for those who do not know
the consolation of your presence in their lives,
those whose dreams have been shattered
and who now summon the courage
to seek a new direction in their lives.
Reveal yourself, O God,
So that all your children
may find their true home in you.

In your love,
in your spirit,
in your life,
we ask and we act.
Amen.

choral response Spirit of Life, fill us with your love.

Benediction (Acts 17, 1 Peter 3, John 14)

Wherever we are, we are in God.
Wherever we are, we are in Christ, and Christ is in us.
Wherever we are, the Spirit abides with us and in us.
We are upheld by God in every way.
May all see the Divine in and through us.

Sung Blessing

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.

Minister: Rosie Magee
Director of Music: Brigitte Harris
Opening Prayer: Barbara Finlayson
Poem: Mary Godden
Scripture Reader: Mary Margaret Scott
Prayers of Intercession: Margaret Macrae and Donald Macrae
Vocal ensemble: Eleanor Wilson, Caitlin McGillivray, Drew Crichton, Tim Cooper, Andrew Carvel
Piano: Tim Cooper
Communications: Alison Bruce and Susan McLarty
Service produced by Andrew Carvel

Hymn 441 used under licence from CCLI 247862

Streaming licence 351013

St Andrew’s and St George’s West Church of Scotland Edinburgh. Charity SC008990
www.edinburghnewtownchurch.org.uk