Online worship: Sunday 2 August 2020

2nd Aug

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:

Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Preparing for Worship

It’s a long way off but inside it
there are quite different things going on:
Festivals at which the poor man
is king and the consumptive is
healed; mirrors in which the blind look
at themselves and love looks at them
back; and industry is for mending
the bent bones and the minds fractured
by life. It’s a long way off, but to get
there takes no time and admission
is free, if you purge yourself
of desire, and present yourself with
your need only and the simple offering
of your faith, green as a leaf.

‘The Kingdom’ by R. S. Thomas

Welcome

Call to Worship Spill the Beans

Remembering when we could gather as a congregation,
we worship now in our own homes.
Remembering how Jesus drew the crowds,
we worship knowing he draws us still in solidarity.
Remembering how Christ fed the hungry,
we worship now for food for the soul,
each one of us a part
of that glorious noisy throng.

Hymn 719 The one who longs

The one who longs to make us whole
is waiting to embrace
our broken lives, so we can know
the power of healing grace.
God’s love surrounds our suffering,
and keeps us through the night;
God helps us bear our deep despair
till we see morning light.

The one who saves us from ourselves
is waiting to release
our hearts from chains of self-reproach
and failure to find peace.
When harmful habits leave us bruised,
distraught by inner pain,
God comes to us through trusted friends,
and helps us hope again.

The one who understands our need
accepts us as we are;
and, like a loved one, welcomes us
when we have wandered far.
God never says we come too late
to be forgiven, free,
but promises we can become
the self we’re meant to be.

Words: Edith Sinclair Downing (1922-2016)
Tune: Kingsfold

Opening Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer

Lord God, all creation speaks of your glory.
You are at work in the seeds that grow into flowers and fruits.
You are present in both summer rains and sunshine.
Let our gratitude be great, and our worship be sincere.
You listen out for the laughter of children and their delight in your world.
Help us be filled with child-like wonder.

We come to this time together with different needs:
some of us wrestling with problems that threaten to overwhelm us,
some with joys to share,
some of us hungering for what you alone can provide.
Loving God, you meet each of us wherever we are, and wherever we are at.

Merciful God, the story of Jacob shows your willingness to enter into the messiness of our human struggles.

We confess that too often we tighten up, hold on to our own desires. Forgive what is wrong, strengthen what is right, and guide us in the right way.
Help us to wrestle with the conflicting values and pressures that confront us.
Help us loosen our grip and come to you open-handed and open-hearted,
open to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

Lord, Jacob wrestled and asked for a blessing.

We, too, ask for blessing in these strange and unchartered days
when the world seems so out of joint.
Help us to see glimpses of your kingdom in the making.

You encourage us to stand strong,
to seek the blessings that you have provided for us,
to recognize the many ways that you are with us,
giving us strength and courage.

Help us receive your blessings and, in turn, be a blessing to others.

We ask these things in the name of Jesus Christ our Saviour who taught us to pray 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.

Old Testament Reading Genesis 32:22-31 (NRSV)

The same night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had.

Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.”

So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

New Testament Reading Mark 8: 22-26 (NRSV)

They came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to Jesus and begged him to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Can you see anything?” And the man looked up and said, “I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.”

Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Then he sent him away to his home, saying, “Do not even go into the village.”

Hymn 718 We cannot measure how you heal

We cannot measure how you heal
or answer every sufferer’s prayer,
yet we believe your grace responds
where faith and doubt unite to care.
Your hands, though bloodied on the cross,
survive to hold and heal and warn,
to carry all through death to life
and cradle children yet unborn.

The pain that will not go away,
the guilt that clings from things long past,
the fear of what the future holds,
are present as if meant to last.
But present too is love which tends
the hurt we never hoped to find,
the private agonies inside,
the memories that haunt the mind.

So, some have come who need your help
and some have come to make amends
as hands which shaped and saved the world
are present in the touch of friends.
Lord, let your Spirit meet us here
to mend the body, mind, and soul,
to disentangle peace from pain
and make your broken people whole.

Words: John L. Bell (b. 1949) and Graham Maule (1958-2019)
Tune: The banks o’ Doon

Reflection Peter Millar

Anthem In the bulb there is a flower

In the bulb there is a flower;
in the seed, an apple tree;
in cocoons, a hidden promise:
butterflies will soon be free!
In the cold and snow of winter
there’s a spring that waits to be,
unrevealed until its season,
something God alone can see.

There’s a song in every silence,
seeking word and melody.
There’s a dawn in every darkness,
bringing hope to you and me.
From the past will come the future,
what it holds, a mystery,
unrevealed until its season,
something God alone can see.

In our end is our beginning;
in our time, infinity;
in our doubt, there is believing;
in our life, eternity.
In our death, a resurrection;
at the last, a victory,
unrevealed until its season,
Something God alone can see.

Words: Natalie Allyn Wakeley Sleeth (1930-1992)
Tune: Hymn of Promise

Prayers of Intercession

Loving God hear us now as we pray for others in the name of Christ.

This summer feels like no other, the usual patterns of living so disrupted.
With holidays derailed, may there still be opportunities for rest for the weary and for children to experience joy and care-free living.
May we build a country and a world where every child has enough nurture and nourishment to grow healthy and strong.
Be with those who are unsure about their future – especially mindful of young people whose study and career plans have been thrown off course.

Lord in your mercy: Hear our prayer

Lift up those who feel bowed down, those who feel they are limping along.
May they feel supported and strengthened by love.
Bring your healing to those who are hurting in body, mind or spirit.
Lay your hand for the second time, the third time and more
upon those who are sick or grieving,
For those who struggle with you, we pray that they find themselves, through finding you.

Lord in your mercy: Hear our prayer

You know the anxiety that surrounds us.
Lockdown restrictions are easing yet in some places being re-imposed.
Guide the policy and practice of governments and others in charge
and may we each take our responsibilities seriously for the good of all.
We pray for wisdom for those who take decisions which affect patterns of work and support for those affected by those decisions.

Lord in your mercy: Hear our prayer

Lord, yours is a peaceable kingdom. We pray for those throughout the world enduring violence or injustice of any kind, that they find relief, justice, and the blessing of peace. That truth may prevail over lies, and peace over warfare.

Lord, we thank you for each fragment of your kingdom you grace us with. Together, enable us to piece together a view of your bigger picture both within us and around us. So that in our actions as well as our words we proclaim – ‘your kingdom come’.

We ask all this in the name of Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Benediction Jan Richardson

May God,
who comes to us
in the things of this world,
bless your eyes
and be in your seeing.

May Christ,
who looks upon you
with deepest love,
bless your eyes
and widen your gaze.

May the Spirit,
who perceives what is
and what may yet be,
bless your eyes
and sharpen your vision.

May the Sacred Three
bless the path before you and
lead you on.

Sung Blessing The Lord bless you and keep you

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
Reflection: Peter Millar
Reader: Ann Hindle
Vocal ensemble: Frances Cooper, Eleanor Wilson, Caitlin McGillivray, Drew Crichton, Tim Cooper, Andrew Carvel
Piano accompaniment: Tim Cooper and Drew Crichton
Communications: Alison Bruce and Susan McLarty
Service produced by Andrew Carvel

Image: Jacob wrestling with the angel by Rembrandt (1606 – 1669) / Public domain

Hymns 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