Let us quietly join in prayer
Loving God, keep us from drifting away when you lovingly want us around you. Free us from our choices that confuse and distract our attention to opportunities of your divine grace.
Amen.
STF 455: All my hope on God is founded
All my hope on God is founded;
he doth still my trust renew.
Me through change and chance he guideth,
only good and only true. God unknown,
he alone, calls my heart to be his own.
Human pride and earthly glory,
sword and crown betray his trust;
what with care and toil he fashion,
tower and temple, fall to dust.
But God’s power, hour by hour,
is my temple and my tower.
God’s great goodness aye endureth,
deep his wisdom, passing thought;
splendour, light, and life attend him,
beauty springeth out of nought.
Evermore, from his store
new-born worlds rise and adore.
Daily doth the almighty giver
bounteous gifts on us bestow;
his desire our soul delighteth,
pleasure leads us where we go.
Love doth stand, at his hand;
joy doth wait on his command.
Still from earth to God eternal
sacrifice of praise be done,
high above all praises praising
for the gift of Christ his Son.
Christ doth call, one and all:
ye who follow shall not fall.
Bible Readings
Genesis 12:1-9
The call of Abram
12 The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 ‘I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.’
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.
6 Abram travelled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’ So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
8 From there he went on towards the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.
9 Then Abram set out and continued towards the Negev.
Matthew 9:9-13
The Calling of Matthew
9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Matthew 9:18-26
Jesus Raises a Dead Girl and Heals a Sick Woman
18 While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.
20 Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. 21 She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”
22 Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.
23 When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, 24 he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. 25 After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. 26 News of this spread through all that region.
Reflections on the readings
There is a mystery within the Psychological make up of God’s humanity. The aspect of emotional attachment is quite important. Whether one’s table is full, or another is struggling to imagine a miracle of visitation for a basic provision in this life. Matthew, the disciple of Jesus, provides us with a model of pastoral ministry. In this model, everyone requires emotional attention. And quite often, I am not sure whether you find yourself good at this. For example, as you go about your daily routine, is there anything that draws your attention either by natural intuitions, or circumstantial defaults? How effective are you at being attentive? There are people so enclosed and engrossed in this life, that if anything dangerous was to happen within their surroundings, they wouldn’t know until they heard it in the breaking news.
This was not so to Matthew who sat behind a booth or a tax toll station. Matthew might have been in deep thought processing the traumas and work-related stress of the day. Matthew might have been at the edge of quitting his career when Jesus was passing by and came into his life at the right time. The dinner that night turned out by default or design, into a high psychological therapeutic platform not only for him, but also to his friends in the tax collection business who had joined Jesus and Matthew on this occasion. The table set by Jesus for Matthew turned into an evangelistic catalyst tool for Matthew’s friends.
To the public watching all this drama, who saw Jesus as just an entertainer to sinners, who were perhaps being implicated with serious financial and human rights crimes. They stood condemned in the eyes of the public.
John 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned,
but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
There are perhaps many people out there who might want to be part of your prayer group, bible study, attend your worship group and even join you during a Sunday service. But there may be something about your attitude that puts them off. The table of Jesus has been made open, but you are standing out on the way, you do not go in and neither do you go out. Jesus came to remove that condemnation that made people feel unwanted, rejected, excluded, ignored, invisible, and side-lined. Like our patriarchal Abram, God is calling out for you, separating you from a people who if they remain around you, you will never be blessed, you will never get to know God, and you might miss the Abrahamic covenant blessings. God continues to call some people out of groups, that stop them knowing the knowledge of God and experience his abundant grace. Hear the word of God coming to you today saying.
“Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.’
Will you take risk with God in this important journey of your spiritual life.
Intercessory prayers,
let us pray,
Pilgrim God, from long ago you have called the people to leave and arrive, to move and to settle down.
Thank you for the ministers, preachers and lay workers who are spreading the gospel in the in the Northampton Methodist Circuit, around our District and the Connexion. for the communities we lead, and the mission work we undertake, to those who find themselves on the edge of our society.
We do remember those serving as volunteers in humanitarian agencies, those in peace keeping missions, in countries torn by conflict, war, and violence abroad, Thank You for the unsung saints of our own lives who have crossed our paths just when we needed each other. Today we bring our prayers to those who find themselves at a difficult stage of their journey. For those anguished, questioning, trembling, doubtful, in endless, unfulfilled waiting, God, bear with them.
We pray for those at times of change and transition, not knowing what lies ahead –
approaching retirement, beginning a new relationship, entering their first appointment, preparing to move home, or to a new work environment, and those applying for a new job, summoning courage for a lonely decision. God, come close as you came to Abraham, go ahead, and come behind, make camp with your people, and lead on. Gracious God, when we call on you in the day of trouble, you deliver us. So, we call on you in these moments of prayer, naming in silence the people for whom we carry a special concern today (Short silence). As we waver, so we trust.
Amen.
The Lord's Prayer
Please use the version that you prefer
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.
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be your name,
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done,
On earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
As we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
And deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power
and the glory are yours
Now and for ever.
Amen.
STF 459 Captain of Israel
Captain of Israel’s host, and Guide of all who seek the land above, beneath your shadow we abide, the cloud of your protecting love; our strength, your grace; our rule, your word; our end, the glory of the Lord.
By your unerring Spirit led, we shall not in the desert stray; we shall not full direction need,
nor miss our providential way; as far from danger as from fear, while love, almighty love, is near.
Blessing
As you leave this place, lift your eyes to the Lord! The one who sent Jesus Christ, as the captain of your salvation. Keep your going out and your coming in, from this time on, and forevermore. Go now in peace, with God’s blessing, in the name of Christ.
Amen.
