Join with the congregation of Fountainhall Church for morning worship at 10:30 live from the Sanctuary. We are a congregation of the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian). We are progressive, inclusive, and community-focused.
www.queenscrosschurch.org.uk
All right change The For h For That’s Spe Good morning morning May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all as we we worship together this morning whether you’re a firsttime visitor a regular participant or a returning friend whether you’re here in the sanctuary or watching online we’re glad you’re able to join us today we
Trust you might send something of God’s presence here today and don’t forget everybody in the sanctuary is welcome to join us for Refreshments after the service so we’ve got a few inations um in your order of service I’ll remind you that there is worship Jubilee Cafe and
Worship tonight at the center and that instant neighbor is always still looking for donations so we we did a lot over the Christmas period but they will always still be looking so don’t forget to keep bringing those I’m just going to mention a couple of other things some of
You got Stars at the door today some of you may know what those are about and I know you were given um a little bit of information I always offer people people a star word at the beginning of the year some people love them some people hate
Them they are a word that on which I invite you to just pray about during the year keep it put it somewhere that you can see it put it somewhere that it reminds you and just think about maybe what God’s trying to say to you through that word it’s funny how many people
Come and often tell me what their word is either because they hate it or because they go oh this is just right for me but whatever you think about the word you’ve got please do take time just to think about it see what God is saying
To you and I suspect by the end of the year it might mean more to you than it maybe does today the other thing that I want to mention is the evaluation sort of stuff we’re going to do at the beginning of February I know Duncan mentioned it last
Week and um we’re going to use a kiss analysis so no nothing that’s going to be a CO impact we are talking about what we keep improve stop and start and basically we’re just trying to give you lots of notice that we’re going to be doing this in February we want
We’re going to be there’ll be forms going out they’ll be in the sanctuaries they’ll be emailed out there’ll be lots of different ways to get them but they will basically encourage you to think about what you’ve experienced since the Union what do you think has been really
Good and we should keep doing what do you think we’re doing but it could do with some improvement what’s happening that you think should stop immediately because it’s a waste of time and what ideas do you have of what kind of things we could start doing now I’m going to say now
That you might put this great big long list I’m not saying we’ll do all of them we’re not going to do absolutely everything because but that gives us a basis on which to build our decisions so that we’re not just saying we think this is what’s going well we think this is
What’s going badly we are able to actually have a look at what people are saying so it’s really important that you tell us what you’re thinking good bad or indifferent tell us what you think is working and is not working it’s as important to hear what’s good as what is
Not good um and I think sometimes we hear a bit you know people come and give constructive criticism should I put it that way um and that is always valid but it’s also important that we say actually I like this I like that I don’t like that and there will be as with
Stars there will be differing opinions we won’t all agree on everything but it will give us a way to start assessing our way forward as a union we’re s we’re seven we’ll be eight months into it by the time we do hand these things out the beginning of February and I it’s really
Important just that you’re starting to think about what kind of things youth would like to comment on that um there will be spaces on the sheet feel free to use extra pages you are welcome to do them anonymously if you wish to put your
Name on it and so we can follow up fine but we are not asking you necessarily to put your name to it it’s more about getting an overall feel of what people think so I hope that will become clearer and we’ll talk a little bit more about
It as we’re coming up to it it’s only a few weeks away that say halfway through January already um so but we will have more information on it but just somebody asked me if I would expand a little bit on it so they have some idea what sort
Of to expect and I hope that’s been a little bit more helpful and if there are specific areas you want me to expand on tell me and then I’ve got another few weeks to do it right let’s come to our call to worship we’ve come together into the presence of our our
Lord so let us quieten our hearts and Minds put aside our concerns and distractions open ourselves to Listen for God’s voice for the word God has for his people so come and see come and listen come and worship come and leave your worries at God’s feet come and bring your joy and your
Celebrations come and leave behind the pettiness and trivia of Life come and find peace come and hear what God has to say to you today come and see God let’s sing our first hymn it’s number 489 come down oh love divine See My heart Glor Sh To GL Holy Let’s join our hearts together in prayer let us pray welcoming Lord we thank you that you invite us to come and see that we can draw closer to you in this time we worship you knowing that you want us here we are honored in your sight and you have become our
Strength help us to come with Open Hearts and Minds eager to spend time with you longing to learn more about you wanting to take more of who you are out to the world we know that sometimes you call us and we don’t listen sometimes we know you want to
Hold Us close and care for us but we push you away we’re sorry for those times when we’re just too busy to remember you we have been made whole in you and you invite invite us to walk with you fresh each day thank you for wiping the Slate clean
And forgiving us and calling us back again may we hear your word today and put it to put it into practice in our own lives this we pray in jesus’ name and in his name I invite you to join me in saying the Lord’s prayer Our Father 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 debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but Deliver Us from Evil for
Thine is the kingdom the power and and the glory forever amen so when you were slightly younger may you have ever have you ever played a game called Follow the Leader mhm did cross my mind today that we could have a go at that and then I
Thought no somebody will climb under a chair or over a chair and maybe we’re not quite as young as we all used to be and it might be a bit more um the risk assessment might be a little bit more dangerous but the other game that’s perhaps a little bit less controversial Simon
Says Yes you all know about Simon says yes yeah excellent let’s have a go I’ll be looking over as well so Simon Says put your hands on your head Simon Says put your hand down touch your nose Simon didn’t say that it’s so easy isn’t it okay let’s go let stand
Up you see you were paying attention there a Simon Says put one hand in the air Simon Says wave it all about put it down there’s less of you falling for it you can put Simon says you can put it down now isn’t it strange how we instinctively follow instructions even
Though it’s not necessarily we know it’s that we’re supposed to be saying Simon says but we still even when it doesn’t say that we just do it and sometimes it’s important to think about where our instructions have come from or what’s what it’s telling us to do and if I was
To say everybody do a forward role I I suspect even if Simon said that you’d all be looking at me going on your bike it’s important that what we’re being asked to do we actually assess that as well that we don’t just say okay the minister
Said you’ve all got brains you can think for yourselves as well sometimes we hear what Jesus tells us to do in the Bible and part of us is going not sure about that but he does say things like love God love your neighbor and we hopefully
Follow what he says I have done it sometimes with the children where I said Jesus says and you’ve got to find actions for all the things that Jesus tells you to do Jesus says heal people it’s really fun trying to think up some actions for those sort of
Things he also said let the little children come come to me don’t stop them but then elsewhere we read that we are all God’s children we should not be a barrier to anybody else and we should not be a barrier to ourselves sometimes we are our own worst
Enemies aren’t we sometimes we do things and we don’t want to but today I just want to think about what it means to hear God’s call to think about what it means to follow Jesus and to do what Jesus tells us to do in encourages us to share the peace
With each other so let’s start by doing that share the peace with each other by saying peace be with you our first reading today is from the first book of Samuel chapter 3 veres 1 to 10 now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under
Eli the word of the Lord was rare in those days Visions were not WID spread that time that time Eli who Mo that down see if that helps is that better speak speak at that time Eli whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see was lying down in
His room lamp of God had not yet gone out and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord where the Ark of God was then the Lord called Samuel Samuel and he said here I am and ran to Eli and said here I am for you called
Me but he said I did not call lie down again so he went and lay down the Lord called again Samuel Samuel got up and went to Eli and said here I am for you called me but he said I did not call you my son lie down
Again now Samuel did not yet know the Lord and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him the Lord called Samuel again a third time and he got up and went to Eli and said here I am for you called me then Eli perceived that the Lord was
Calling the boy therefore Eli said to Samuel go lie down and if he calls you you shall say Speak Lord for your servant is listening so Samuel went and lay down in his place now the Lord came and stood there calling as before Samuel Samuel and Samuel said speak for your
Servant is listening Amen I am the will As I am just as I Am broken [Applause] I reading is from John 1 verse 43-50 the next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee he found Phillip and said to him follow me now Philip was from bider city of Andrew and Peter Philip found Nathaniel and said to him we have found him about whom Moses
In the law and who the prophets wrote Jesus Son of Joseph from Nazareth Nathaniel said to him can anything good come out of Nazareth Philip said to him come and see when Jesus saw Nathaniel coming towards him he said of him here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no
Deceit Nathaniel asked him where did you come to know me Jesus answered I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you Nathaniel replied Rabbi you are the Son of God you are the king of Israel Jesus answered do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the Fig
Tree you will see greater things than these thanks be to God for this Reasons from his holy word amen both of our readings today speak of people being called to do God’s work Samuel hears God calling and shows his willingness to listen once he understands who’s talking to
Him and then Jesus calls some people to be his disciples and they react in varying different ways in both cases they respond but there are significant differences in the ways that they are called I’d like to focus on some of those today because perhaps it can help
Each of us to discern our own call from God because I do believe that every Christian is called by God to do something to be something to serve a purpose but there’s not just one way that God speaks to us there are different ways that we will hear him and
There are different ways that we will respond and I can tell you there’s certainly been times in my life where my response has been no not on your life and eventually I’ve had to do what God wants but we all have to listen in our own way and respond as we feel
Comfortable so the first significant thing that strikes me in the readings is that they were doing different things when they were called Samuel was asleep when he heard God’s voice calling him the disciples were going about their business on a daily on an ordinary day just getting on with life not expecting
Anything special to happen it reminds us that God can call us at any time and in any place to do his work we might be asleep or awake at home in our beds or out and about alone or with other people the second difference is that
Samuel is a boy when he has experiences his calling and the disciples are adults and we sometimes need to be reminded that we’re never too young or too old to be used by God there is no magical age at which Excellence suddenly emerges and success comes knocking with God you are never too
Young or too old to be blessed or to be a blessing to others Mozart learned to play the piano I believe at age four composed his first piece at age five and at eight roast his first Symphony how many of us had achieved something similar in our before we’d gone into double
Digits I suppose if we asked our parents we may be did Michelangelo was doing some of his best work when he was 87 there is never a better time to seize the day than now they heard their calls in different ways Samuel Heard a Voice from Heaven the disciples met Jesus and
Responded to the man they met now I think it’s fair to say that Nathaniel is not all that Keen on the idea but Phillip Jesus said to philli follow me Philip said yes and I’ll bring a friend Nathaniel come and see so think for a moment about how you
Would feel if one of your friends says to you come and see would that generate some excitement about what it is you’re being invited to perhaps curiosity maybe gratitude that they thought of you to invite come and see I suppose it depends somwhat on the
Tone of voice come and see or come and see the words can be simple and warm issuing an invitation not just to see something but also to be part of something come and see these words this invitation form the heart of not simply this opening scene but much of John’s
Gospel John’s story is structured around encounters with Jesus again and again from those early disciples to the Pharisee named Nicodemus to the Samaritan woman at the well to the man born blind to Peter and pilate and eventually Thomas people throughout John’s gospel encounter Jesus and John structures his story this way I
Think to offer us a variety of possibilities in terms of the kind of people to whom Jesus reaches out and the kind of responses they offer and how we might respond as well it’s all very well saying that if Jesus was to walk up to us tomorrow and
Say come and follow me yes absolutely we’d be on board or would we would we recognize where that call came from but across the pages of John’s gospel there are women and men Jews and Gentiles rich and poor powerful and vulnerable people of all shapes and sizes and varieties that Jesus meets and
To each one in one way or another he says the same thing come and see come and see God do a new thing come and see as your future opens up in front of you come and see the grace of God made manifest and accept ible and available to
All and in response some take up that invitation and follow others are puzzled or confused or simply don’t believe in jesus’ offer some not only follow but invite others to do likewise even in the space of these few verses we heard we have folk who run the gamut from eager to downright skeptical
To the point of almost being insulting can anything good come come out of Nazareth and yet each is invited some by Jesus some by each other to come and see Jesus and to follow him God who spoke to Samuel directly the spirit that inspired Phillip who reached out through his
Efforts to others and who overcame even the skepticism of Nathaniel and met him in the person of Jesus Christ is still offering all kind of people all over the world an invitation to come and see and creating in them a desire to do just that come and see such warm easy hospitable
Words they say that people will come to church if you ask them say you can come on a Sunday one in about 50 will say yes if you say would you like to come with me this Sunday you’ll get an awful lot better response on Sunday the 20th of August
1940 a 25-year-old Swiss Protestant theology student named Roger Lou schs marash rode a bicycle into a nearly abandoned rural V rural Village in France and he’d come from Switzerland looking to buy a house and in the tiny impos Hamlet of T he found one that seemed perfect the farm was for sale its
Building solid but neglected and another feature made the property especially compelling to this young man it stood only a few miles south of the German demarcation line so Roger the young theology student was looking for a place as he would later say to start a life of prayer alone
But the life of prayer he pursued there over the course of the next 65 years would touch millions of lives this was August 1940 and he was watching the war in Europe with increasing sorrow and he felt that his Christian faith obliged him to find a way to help
Jews and other refugees who were fleeing Nazi persecution into neutral Switzerland it grieved him to see Christians fighting against Christians again and he yearned for reconciliation and so he began with that impoverished Farm where he welcomed refugees hid them fed them and sent them safely on their way three times a day he
Prayed what grew in that spot in rural burgundy is one of the greatest spiritual Awakenings of the 20th century at the end of the war three more young Protestant men came to L at TZ the beginnings of an unusual ecumenical community that is ingrown to include more than a hundred Brothers
Today Anglican Lutheran reformed Roman Catholic Orthodox and others and through their Simplicity and their persistent emphasis on reconciliation openness creativity and trust and through their commitment to serve and live amongst the poorest people on Earth the brothers of Taz have helped countless numbers of people to sense the outpouring of the holy spirit
In their lives one man’s vision and his invitation come come and see come and be part of it and this has grown an immense Community who’ve made a difference to Millions an invitation to come and see and be an active part of what God is still doing in and through Jesus and the
Community of disciples who’ve chosen to follow him so we come and we remember the one who takes the generosity of a child and shames those who have forgotten how to share into creating a feast and finding the wealth there is in generosity just by taking what they had and offering it to their
Neighbors we come and find love among Community we come to encounter the one who was found in the midst of a storm that not even God is immune from and who faced it and named it and found a pieace within it that brought them all safely through the night
Come face your fears and find peace come and see the one who brought life back to the Brokenhearted offering a new beginning to that which had ended who found a way of restoring relationships bringing people back alive into community and Resurrection For Those whom life had excluded
Imagine what is possible in a world that allows that to happen so come and see as children of God In The Name of Christ and by the power of the holy spirit amen we’re going to sing hym 97 oh God you searched me and you know me it’s a paraphrase of Psalm
139 and uh I could say it’s one of my favorites it’s currently one of my favorites they’re constantly changing but this I I love the way this phrases the psalm and the music that with it as well so hymn 97 oh God you search me and you know Me To Will You are my understanding Sh Cre Before we come to our prayers for others um I’d like to announce a funeral the funeral for Reverend James Stewart former minister of Kirk of St Nicholas is on Wednesday the 17th of January at 12:00 noon at the Kirk of St Nicholas I’d also like to ask you to
Keep in your prayers the families of two people whose funerals I will be conducting at various points Brian Stewart and Jim Fowley let’s pray thank you Lord that you have always welcomed us you invited us to come and see to come and see your goodness to
Come come and see your kindness to come and see your generous hospitality and to come and see your miracles to come and see the freedom we have in you freedom to be the people you have called us to be and to invite others to come and see
Too as we bring our prayers for others to you now we are aware of our inadequacies to help to more to do more but we come to you nonetheless trusting in your power and your love we see the needs around us and for them we pray we pray for those who feel that
Others do not understand their ways or their Outlook who are concerned they are only seen as troublemakers that they may come to realize that it is only through relationships and talking and listening that we come to know each other more fully we pray for those who are trying to
Understand who they are or how they’re changing that they may come to know that they are loved by you they are held in your hands this day and every day ageless God we pray for those for whom years are advancing that they might find our present world and their communities free of
Fear that they might find ways to reach out to those who do not understand them and whom they themselves do not understand we pray that as life becomes more difficult with aching bones and failing senses and they put greater strain on doing even the smallest things
That they may find the help they need and your peace and strength to support them each day we pray for those grieving loss loss of a loved one loss of ability loss of a relationship may they know all is not lost and listening God we pray for all
Who listen for teachers that they really hear what their pupils are saying for parents that their children may never feel neglected for doctors and nurses that they may hear the real concerns for counselors that they may understand for politicians that they may will make wise decisions and for ourselves that we
Might truly reflect Jesus we pray for all in and around this Community of Faith that we may always remain open and receptive to the call to trust in God’s will for us we pray that the knowledge of God’s love will grow strong in our hearts
Leading us to use our Our lives our body and our soul For Your Glory in jesus’ name amen and our closing hymn is number 251 I the Lord of sea and Sky Am CHR I Am if you me I will Hold I I Amly I will hold Your My Heart is I and now may the everpresent God be in your speaking and in your thinking be in your lives and on your lips be in your hearts and in your soul and may the blessing of God Father Son and Holy Spirit be with each one of you and those
Whom you love near and far away now and Always Hallelu For I For H