Worship at Home

Welcome to Worship at home for week beginning Sunday, 6 July 2025 prepared by Ron Mapplebeck a local preacher in the Middlesbrough and Eston Methodist Circuit.

Opening prayer:

Majestic God, we feel your power in the shaking beneath our feet; we feel your presence in the buffeting of the wind; we feel your heat in the burning of our hearts; we feel your love in the silence of a glance.

Hymn:

All people that on earth do dwell

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer

Let us pray. God of each day and each moment, you call us to make choices: choices about how we will live, how we will use our time and resources. You call us to make decisions: who we will look out for, what we will commit to, who we will follow. As we come before you now, bless us with wise discernment and loving compassion, that we may serve you – and one another – after the example of Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. 

Amen.

In the midst of life's journeying we can lay down, God, and give up. In our running away from life’s roubles, we can lay down and give up. In our despair at life's events, we can lay down, God, and give up. Such is our way. But you are God; you come to us in our need, in our refusing to face life, in our despair and loneliness. When we are low and when we don't believe, we feel we cannot come to you but you persist in coming to us. Even now it could be that we come to this place as reluctant pilgrims, without enthusiasm and with too many cares. And you greet us with understanding and food and drink. You commune with us and we are expectant.

Amen.

Jesus, you sit and listen to us. But we are afraid: we crash around in our anger, breaking things and confidences, and treasured trust. Forgive us. 

We speak too quickly, without thinking. We blow in different directions not caring what damage we do; we are full of empty air being unkind and cruel; gossiping and lying. Forgive us.  We flare up and burn out. We devastate delicate and loving relationships; we crave the heat and light we cause; we seek the attention we don’t deserve. Forgive us.

Jesus, you whisper that you love us. You silence our moans, soothe our brows and bring welcome silence to our noisy lives. 

Amen.

We continue to pray about world situations which cause us great concern at present. We pray for the people whose needs are known to us, and in the silence we bring them before you … We pray for those who have gone before us, whose legacy we inherit … Loving God, you care for each and every one: hear us as we cry to you.  Lord of creation, make us your responsible partners.

Lord, speak to us now in the sheer silence. Make us aware of your presence. Help us to hear your voice. 

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 those who 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.

Reading Luke 10.1-11, 16-20

Hymn: I’m not ashamed to own my Lord (At the cross chorus)

This version has the chorus: At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light, And the burden of my heart rolled away, It was there by faith I received my sight And now I am happy all the day!

Message:

God once asked Elijah “What are you doing here”? and that begs the question“ What should we be doing here?”

What should we be doing in the name of God and Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit, through our various churches?

The Gospel reading we heard suggests what it should all be about so far as we are concerned. He commissioned 72 people to go out two by two and spread the Good News in places he was due to visit. The situation then was little different to that which faces us today: The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Don’t we just know that to be the case in many of our traditional churches!  As also was what he then said about: Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. He told them then, and tells us now, not to worry about providing ourselves with all the safety equipment we think we might need – just go and do it!  And you know what, they were absolutely amazed at the outcome – and so, equally, might we if we actually get up and do something about it! The seventy-two returned with joy and said, Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.

You see, Jesus had given them the authority to overcome evil: to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. That assurance remains with us today. It doesn’t mean we won’t suffer in our lives, it won’t ensure we don’t suffer hardships and setbacks. It does mean if we have God with us, nothing the world throws at us will separate us from his amazing and everlasting love. God demonstrates his power and glory in many different ways, in the still small voice, as he came to Elijah in his time of despair; in the authority shown by Jesus enabling his early followers to overcome all the power of the enemy. God, through Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, helps us to be both still and yet aflame as appropriate to deal with any situation we encounter. God said: What are you doing here, Elijah? God says the same to us: What are you doing here? 

Have we got our answer ready? 

He doesn’t want to hear us say we are hiding away in fear from an evil world – he wants to know, however few we are, that we are prepared to, and able to, and will take hold of his flame, and make the gentle whisper of his love known in our communities. 

What are you, what are we, doing here?

Hymn: Dear Lord and Father of Mankind

Closing prayers:

From the mountain top we leave in hope. Having known the presence of God, we go with determination, charged with our ministry, and seeking God's will in our world. 

Amen.

We say the Grace to and with and for each other: 

The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore.

Amen

Thank you for being with us today. Goodbye and God bless