Worship at home - by Ruth Lewis for week beginning Sunday 23rd August 2026

Hello This is Ruth Lewis , a Local Preacher from Middlesbrough Methodist Churches calling you to worship. 

Let us come and worship God. Let us love and honour God. Let us praise and talk with God. Let us sing and laugh with God. Let us learn and move with God. Let us rest and be still with God. Let us live our lives with the God who came to live with us on earth, and show us the wonders of his love.

Hymn StF 330 Joy to the world

Prayers:

  Lord God our heavenly Father we adore you and thank you that you came and brought joy to the world.  Your spirit is not confined to any buildings, barricades or structure we try to shape. Your spirit can be found here, where we are now. Your hope cannot be captured in any stone, wood, or artefact we might make .Your peace cannot be overcome by any anxiety in our souls. You are our joy, and we adore you, God, Creator, Saviour and Friend.

We thank you that even when we doubt, or  question you, or get things wrong, you still forgive us and call us to follow you and serve you.

 Amen.

Our reading is from Reading: Matthew 16:13-20

Responding to the reading [ With thanks to Vine at Home]

Jesus asks his disciples a simple question: "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"

The answers come quickly: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets.

People have opinions about Jesus. They always have. Some see a wise teacher. Some a

revolutionary. Some a healer. Some a moral example. Some the Son of God. Then Jesus asks a second question: "But who do you say that I am?"

Everything becomes quieter. The conversation is no longer about public opinion or

theological debate. It becomes deeply personal.

Peter answers: "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."

Jesus blesses him, not because Peter has worked it all out, but because this insight is

itself a gift of grace. Yet what is striking is what happens next. The very same Peter who recognises Jesus so clearly will, only a few verses later, misunderstand him completely.

Later still, he will deny even knowing him.

Peter is capable of profound faith and profound failure, and Jesus calls him anyway.

Perhaps that is one of the most hopeful truths in this passage: discipleship is not about

achieving perfect understanding. Even Peter, the rock on whom Jesus says he will build

his community, spends much of the Gospel getting things wrong.

Faith is less about certainty than about relationship. What about us? How do we hear this

conversation today? Jesus is not saying: ‘can you explain every doctrine?’ or ‘can you defend every belief?’, but "Who do you say that I am?"

Our answer may change as we grow, or depending on the kind of week we have had. The

Christ we encountered as a child may not be the Christ we encounter in grief, or joy, or old

age. Our understanding deepens. Questions emerge. Certainties soften. Love expands.

That is not a sign that faith is failing, but it may be a sign that faith is maturing. Jesus does

not ask us to stop asking questions. Instead, he invites us into a lifelong conversation.

Each stage of life brings us back to the same question, but with new experiences, new

wisdom, and new humility.

Who is Christ for you today? The one who comforts? The one who challenges? The one

who walks beside you? The one who overturns your assumptions?

Perhaps the answer is all of these, and more. The journey of discipleship is not about arriving at complete certainty. It is about continuing to walk with Christ, allowing our hearts, minds, and lives to be shaped by the One who is always greater than our understanding.

May you have the courage to keep asking honest questions, the humility to keep growing

in faith, and the joy of discovering Christ anew in every season of your life. May the grace

that first called Peter continue to call you—again and again—into a deeper relationship

with the living God.

Here is a lovely hymn about where we can find Jesus in today’s world.

Hymn StF 672 Where can we find you Lord Jesus our Master

A final prayer:

 Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might. Help us turn to you, for a different model of majesty, an alternative conversation about power, a commitment to love and  peace, always. Help us  to follow in your way, this week, by the love in your Spirit  and to serve you always.  Lets say together the Lord’s Prayer: Our Father

Amen

Hymn StF 331 King of Light

 "King of Kings, Majesty" was written by British author and song writer Jarrod Cooper, published in 1996.  It is performed here by The London Fox Singers.

Video background by Thawathai Seangsai from Pixabay.