Welcome to our service - 29 January
This service sheet can be used individually or with households.
We would encourage you to say (or even sing) hymns and songs out loud.
Prayers, other liturgy or readings can be said out loud or silently, corporately or individually.
If you are able, we would also like invite you to join us for our main Sunday service, 10am, live on Zoom. Even if you have never been to St Gabriel’s before we would love you to join you. Please get in touch with the vicar Alistair (vicar@saintgs.co.uk) and he will send you the Zoom details.
Notices
Please don’t hesitate to ring Alistair (07769 213 581) if you have any questions or would like support.
SERVICE
As we gather today,
we gather around Jesus, the Word become flesh, who made his dwelling in our physical world.
As we gather, we bring our physical selves too, not just thoughts, hopes and dreams, but also our hands, our feet, our bodies - bringing our whole beings; symbols of our whole lives.
As we pause to be thankful for all that God has provided, may we respond in worship, offering the whole of our selves as a sacrifice of praise,and may our gratitude grow our generosity today. Amen.
SING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekVLG-p8Xsc
Lord Jesus Christ, you have come to us,
you are one with us, Mary's son;
cleansing our souls from all their sin,
pouring your love and goodness in:
Jesus, our love for you we sing -
living Lord!
2 Lord Jesus Christ, now and every day
teach us how to pray, Son of God;
You have commanded us to do
this in remembrance, Lord, of You:
into our lives
Your power breaks through -
living Lord!
3 Lord Jesus Christ, you have come to us,
born as one of us, Mary's son;
led out to die on Calvary,
risen from death to set us free:
living Lord Jesus, help us see
you are Lord!
4 Lord Jesus Christ, I would come to you,
live my life for you, Son of God;
all your commands I know are true,
your many gifts will make me new:
into my life your power breaks through
living Lord!
Patrick Appleford (c) 1960 Josef Weinberger Ltd
CONFESSION
The sacrifice of God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart God will not despise. Let us come to the Lord, who is full of compassion, and acknowledge our transgressions in penitence and faith.
Father eternal, giver of light and grace, we have sinned against you and against our neighbour,
in what we have thought,
in what we have said and done, through ignorance, through weakness, through our own deliberate fault.
We have wounded your love,
and marred your image in us.
We are sorry and ashamed,
and repent of all our sins.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, who died for us,
forgive us all that is past;
and lead us out from darkness
to walk as children of light.
Amen.
ABSOLUTION
May the Father of all mercies cleanse us from our sins,
and restore us in his image
to the praise and glory of his name,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
COLLECT
God of heaven,
you send the gospel to the ends of the earth
and your messengers to every nation:
send your Holy Spirit to transform us
by the good news of everlasting life
in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
SING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUCBb3YHFPc
My soul finds rest in God alone,
My Rock and my salvation;
A fortress strong against my foes,
And I will not be shaken.
Though lips may bless and hearts may curse,
And lies like arrows pierce me,
I'll fix my heart on righteousness,
I'll look to Him who hears me.
O praise Him, hallelujah,
My Delight and my reward;
Everlasting, never failing,
My Redeemer, my God.
2. Find rest, my soul, in God alone
Amid the world's temptations;
When evil seeks to take a hold
I'll cling to my salvation.
Though riches come and riches go,
Don't set your heart upon them;
The fields of hope in which I sow
Are harvested in heaven.
O praise Him…
3. I'll set my gaze on God alone
And trust in Him completely;
With every day pour out my soul
And He will prove His mercy.
Though life is but a fleeting breath,
A sigh too brief to measure,
My King has crushed the curse of death
And I am his forever.
O praise Him…
Oh praise Him, Oh praise Him
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Stuart Townend and Aaron Keyes
©2007 Thankyou Music
Deuteronomy 6.1-5
“These are the commands, decrees, and regulations that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you. You must obey them in the land you are about to enter and occupy, and you and your children and grandchildren must fear the LORD your God as long as you live. If you obey all his decrees and commands, you will enjoy a long life. Listen closely, Israel, and be careful to obey. Then all will go well with you, and you will have many children in the land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, promised you.
“Listen, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.
Matthew 22.36-40
“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
TALK – taken from Chapter 4 of ‘e-booklet’: Deuteronomy: Wellness God’s Way from ‘Burning Heart’
You can also watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydfv7Q38mOM
What children pick up
I’ve recently become a father for the first time. It’s a rollercoaster ride, with lots of joys and a few challenges. One of the great early joys has been when our baby (Beatrice) started to recognise my voice. She turns and smiles when she hears me, which melts my heart.
Friends with older children tell me that this responsiveness of children to their parents is a scary joy too though. As they get older children not only respond to their parents, they also pick up on and copy what we do. One of my friends was a bit alarmed when his daughter started constantly checking her toy phone – apparently because that’s what he does!
This dynamic of children picking things up from their parents is one that Moses was well aware of. In Deuteronomy 6, he imagines a scene where a child turns to their parents and asks: “What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the LORD our God has commanded you?”32
Sharing our faith with our children is one of the primary responsibilities of parents, and it was the same in Moses’ day. It seems the law was supposed to be such a part of daily life that children would pick up on it and be asking their parents for an explanation of what it’s all about.
What is the meaning of the law? It’s an intriguing question - how would you answer it? Would you talk about rules and regulations? Would your answer be positive or negative? What do you think?
That is the question we’re going to explore in this chapter, as we unpack Deuteronomy 6 to 11. These chapters are the opening half of Moses’ longest sermon in this book. The sermon began with the ten commandments (in chapter 5) and will finish by moving onto the details of the law in chapters 12-26.
We’ll skip for now some of the harder parts of these chapters that address God’s commands to the Israelites to drive the Canaanite nations out of the promised land. Most of us really struggle with those commands, and so I want to wrestle with them separately in the next chapter in this e-booklet. That will also allow us to focus here on exploring that question: ‘what is the meaning of the law?’
What is the meaning of the law? Moses’ answer
The answer Moses tells parents to give their children in Deuteronomy 6 reinforces some of the surprises of Deuteronomy so far. It’s not focused initially on rules but starts instead with the people’s relationship with God. He speaks about who God is, what he’s done for them, and how they are supposed to respond.
Crucially, it begins with story: “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Before our eyes the LORD sent signs and wonders—great and terrible—on Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household. But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land he promised.”33
This is a story of God’s greatness, and of his love and grace. Only then do we move to what they are supposed to do in response, as the answer continues: “The LORD commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the LORD our God.”34 The crucial point is that obedience is a response to grace. It is not the way of obtaining or earning grace but the natural overflow of a thankful heart.
Even once the call to obey is introduced, it is further explained as actually being for their sake – not God’s. The parents carry on that, they should obey “so that we might always prosper and be kept alive.”35
The meaning of the law is that God loves them and wants to bless them, and so calls them into a relationship and obedience to him.
Understanding the Law as Christians
Many of the details in our relationship with God are slightly different for us. They were under the old covenant of the law, and we are part of the new covenant in Jesus. Yet this little parent-child role play shows us that the law was always about more than just rules and regulations. It had a meaning. It had a purpose.
This meaning and purpose to the law is what makes everything we read here so relevant to us as Christians today. The law was always rooted in Israel’s relationship with God. It was supposed to show them that that relationship started with God’s grace. The call to obedience was then supposed to be their response, and the way of nurturing and protecting their relationship with God.
This dynamic of grace, obedience and relationship is exactly the same for us as Christians – and that means that we too can learn so much from what we read here.
The greatest commandment
I want to unpack all this a bit more by focusing on another verse for most of the rest of this chapter. It is one of the most famous verses in the whole Old Testament - Deuteronomy 6 v4-5: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
This verse is sometimes called the “Shema” which is the Hebrew word for ‘Hear’ (its first word). To this day many Jews recite it daily. When Jesus was asked what he thought the greatest commandment was he responded by quoting this verse - which all explains why it’s so famous and well loved. It also shows us that this central call remains the same for us as it was for them.
This command is much more challenging and controversial than first meets the eye. It comes at the start of the section we’re looking at in this film, and in many ways acts as a sort of ‘theme sentence.’ It introduces and summarises everything that will follow in the next 6 chapters.
Commanded to love
Once again, this is rooted in relationship. The Shema begins with a reminder and call to ‘hear’ who God is, and then continues by calling us to love God in response. Yet this isn’t simply an invitation to relationship, like God asking us out on a date - it’s a command.
For all its familiarity this is an aspect of the greatest commandment that actually really jars with our modern ideas and preconceptions. For most of us in our culture today, love is primarily an emotion, a feeling. We think that love is something that we “fall” into – or out of. You can’t control who you love. Or can you?
God commands us to love him – and actually as we’ll see later, he then also commands us to love each other. Immediately our understanding of love is made to shift from something passive to something deliberate and active. Love is not something involuntary, but something we can choose and decide to do. The greatest commandment is this: to love the Lord your God.
When we talk about “love” our minds usually go straight to romance. I think that a better illustration here though might be the love that parents have for their children. As I’ve been discovering, love for children is both a delight-filled joy, and hard work. It’s a love that requires quite a lot of effort - all the crying and the nappies and the sleepless nights!
I do all this because I love my daughter. It flows out of the relationship that is already there, just as in this verse God starts with who he is, and the fact that he is already in relationship with them. At that point though my love for Beatrice needs to go beyond just emotions and feelings. I have to choose to act on it. I choose to change that nappy, to drag myself out of bed, or whatever it may be. Love for a baby is very pro-active, and actually impacts on everything in my life – even my sleep is no longer my own!
Of course, the benefits of being a father far outweigh the costs. When Beatrice smiles and laughs and (in her own baby way) loves me back, my heart leaps and melts. With God that is even more true, and the benefits to us of loving God are far greater than the challenges.
Parenting is actually usually used the other way round as an illustration of our relationship with God – he is our Father. That is because God is the one who makes all the running, who loves us perfectly, even in the midst of far worse than nappies and sleepless nights.
Even so, I think this illustration of parenthood is still helpful here – because it is the one relationship where in our culture love is still synonymous with hard work and effort. It shows us what it means to choose to love someone pro-actively and deliberately - as God calls us to do in this verse.
Big words
The pro-active and deliberate nature of our love for God is reinforced by the words that immediately follow the call to love God
– heart, soul and strength. Each word is full of meaning, and ‘bigger’ in Hebrew than in English.
The first word is levav (ֵל ָבב ), heart. As in English, Hebrew uses ‘heart’ metaphorically. As well as speaking of our emotions and feelings though, it also refers to our understanding – our minds and intellect and will. This covers every thought, every feeling, every hope and every dream. As David sang in the psalms: “let all my inmost being, praise his holy name.”37
Do we use ‘all our inmost being’ and all the actions that flow out of it to love God? Because that is what this means. What do you spend your time thinking about? Dreaming about? What do you to when you wake up in the morning, or you’re at a loose end during the day? Are you like my friend that I mentioned at the start (and often me too!), reaching for your phone and catching up on your social media, or do you turn your mind and heart to God? Do you love God with all your heart.
Then, we’re told to love God with all our soul. In Hebrew, the word is nephesh (ֶנ ֶפשׁ ). It essentially means our whole being – all of who we are. For instance, in Genesis 2, when God breathes life into the first person, we are told they became a ‘living nephesh’ – usually translated ‘living being.’
Another common translation of nephesh is actually simply as ‘life.’ It basically covers everything – all that we are. Our nephesh is everything that makes me ‘me’ and you ‘you’ - love God with all of it.
This makes me think of the English phrase “to devote your life to... .” We think of heroes and stars who we’d say devoted their lives to civil rights, or justice, or even football. To love God with all your nephesh means something similar. It means to devote your life to loving God.
When you put that together with what it means to love God with all your heart, there doesn’t seem to be much room left for anything else. This is a call to love God with everything we’ve got.
Yet, there’s a third bit. We are told to love God with all our strength or energy. This one is the hardest of all to translate. The word is me’od ”and it literally just means “very.” “Love God with all your very ,) ְמ ֹאד( doesn’t seem to make much sense though – hence the translation ‘strength.’ Strength carries that same sense of emphasis as ‘very.’
You could maybe think of this like writing “LOVE GOD WITH EVERYTHING YOU’VE GOT!” This is not the place for feeble or half- hearted God-loving - this is full-throttle, high energy, loving God to the max. Which is big!
This is also extraordinarily challenging – do I do that? Can I do that? What would it look like if I did – if you did? What if everything about you was like this and you really did love God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your strength?
Putting God first
It’s not just the size and scope of this commandment that makes it so challenging. It’s also the priority that loving God is given. I’ve already mentioned that this call to love God opens and summarises this section of the sermon and the book, a sort of ‘theme sentence.’ Pretty much everything Moses goes on to say in the next six chapters is then about making their relationship with God their first priority - and of course, Jesus then highlighted this as the most important command of them all.
This is the big one. If this is the greatest commandment, then this is bigger than ‘don’t steal’ or ‘don’t’ lie’ or ‘don’t murder.’ It’s bigger than ‘love your neighbour.’ This is the most important calling on your life - more important than your career, or your morals. This is more important than staying true to yourself. This outranks your responsibility to your family.
Is that really what Jesus was saying?
Well...yes.
For us today that is explosively counter-cultural. Instinctively we’d put all those other things I’ve just listed above loving God. To reverse that order, to put loving God first, would actually seem wrong to many people.
Loving God and loving our neighbour
One reason we struggle with the priority that is given to loving God here is that we worry that prioritising God de-prioritises people. Ironically though, nothing could be further from the truth.
Have you ever wondered why when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, he also told us what the second one was too?38 He wasn’t asked what the second commandment was – but he told us anyway.
I think the reason is that to love God and to love your neighbour are inextricably interwoven. Jesus didn’t want people to forget that – he wanted to emphasise a fact that is stated again and again in the Bible, that to love God necessarily also means loving our neighbour. As we love God more, we will find that, far from loving our neighbour less, we love them more too.
Life-changing love
This is one key example of a basic pattern and assumption that we find everywhere in Deuteronomy. It is that to love God also means following in his ways and keeping his commands. Another example comes as Moses begins to sum up this section in chapter 10 , he asks: “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you?”39
The answer Moses gives weaves together relationship and obedience as though they’re same thing. They’re told: “to fear the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD’s commands.”40
I think of it like the sun. The sun is not just the source of light and warmth on a summer’s day. It is also the source of so much more. From plant life to the seasons, almost everything in the natural world can be traced back to the energy and power of the sun. For us as Christians, it should be like that with our relationship with God. Our love for God is the source and inspiration for how we go about everything in life.
Unexpectedly we begin to realise that love for God is actually one of the greatest forces for good in the world. The church today (as ever) has all kinds of flaws and problems, and yet it still shows us this in action. For instance, a recent report found that in the Church of England alone there were 33,000 social action projects running, from food banks to debt counselling.41 What a huge positive impact on our nation that represents!
There are differences between the details of what this looked like for ancient Israel, and what it looks like for us. Many of the individual commands God gave Israel were specific to them or designed to prepare the way for Jesus. Therefore, as we’ll explore more when we dive into the details in chapters 12-26, they don’t all apply directly to us.
This dynamic of our faith and love for God overflowing into every part of life is the same for us today though. As Paul wrote to the Colossians: “whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.”
Even at this point though, you may still ask: why? Why is this all so important? Why is God so insistent about the importance of loving him, and following in his ways? This can come across as a bit needy – why does God need my love, my obedience, so much?
The answer is that God doesn’t. Because he loves us, God does want us to love him back – but he doesn’t need us to. But we do. We need to love God, for our own good.
This is a surprising theme that comes out again and again in Deuteronomy. As we saw at the start of this chapter, part of Moses explanation of the meaning of the law is that the call obedience is given “so we might always prosper.”43
As I pointed out in the first chapter in this e-booklet, one of the refrains of Deuteronomy is “that it may go well with you.”44 God calls them – and us – to love him, and in loving him to obey him, for our own good.
The Promised Land
For the ancient Israelites this was quite concrete and tangible because it was tied to God’s gift of the promised land to them. As the land isn’t part of our relationship with God in Jesus, we can often skim over the bits of the Old Testament that focus on it. Yet the land gives us the most beautiful picture and illustration of the blessings of following in God’s ways.
As Christians we can often struggle to get our heads around what it means for God to bless us. The idea of God’s blessings can seem very intangible, until we find an image like this, that we can more easily grasp.
Imagine the people of Israel, scarred and downtrodden by slavery in Egypt, and wearied by decades of wandering in the wilderness. Now imagine them as they then come into their inheritance – a land of beauty and abundance, described as a land “flowing with milk and honey.” This is finally a land of their own, a land of safety and rest under the protection of our mighty God.
In that picture, you can see a glimpse of God’s heart and desire to bless you, and of the blessings of relationship with him.
Even in Deuteronomy though there’s a hint of an even greater inheritance. Moses tells the people that the Levites – his tribe, the chosen tribe – don’t have a physical inheritance in the land. He explains that this is because “the LORD is their inheritance.”45
Our inheritance
The Levites were promised an even greater inheritance than the gift of the land – God himself was their portion. For us in Jesus, the Lord is now our inheritance too. We can have a relationship of love and intimacy with God that goes beyond what even Moses had, as by the Holy Spirit we experience what Paul called “the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”
We can know this supreme and most glorious joy in all creation, next to which everything else in life pales like rubbish in comparison. That is why we must love God – because not to do so is to forsake light and joy and beauty, for darkness and desolation.
Prayer
Lord God, would you refresh my vision of you. Meet with me now and fill me afresh with your Holy Spirit, and help me to love you with all my heart, all my soul, and all my strength. Come Holy Spirit. Amen.
THE APOSTLES’ CREED
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth
I believe in Jesus Christ,
his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand
of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen
O LORD, HEAR MY PRAYER,
O Lord, hear my prayer:
When I call answer me.
O Lord, hear my prayer,
O Lord, hear my prayer:
Come and listen to me.
Jacques Berthier/Taizé.
Copyright © 1982 Ateliers et Presses de Taize (France).
PRAYERS - written by Christine Carney
Heavenly Father, we confess that it is hard to love you with all our heart and soul and mind, and to love our neighbour as ourselves. We fail in this every day. Please help us to see your presence in the beauty of your world and to desire to grow in our love for your day by day. Forgive our selfishness and show us opportunities to show your love to those around us: our family, friends, neighbours, colleagues and those we meet in the street.
Thank you for Alistair and Catherine and all their hard work and commitment to St. Gabriel’s. Please bless them richly as a couple and as a family with Ethan, Isabella and Benjamin. Thank you for our new focal ministers, the PCC and all involved in the leadership of this Church.
We thank you for the Alpha Course and the lovely group of people who are coming along to that. We pray, Lord, that you will be at work in the lives of each one of them drawing them closer to yourself.
Thank you for ‘At the Table’ on Sunday evening and for all Rachel’s preparation and input. Thank you too for those who cook and for those who come to eat. Please bless each one and the fellowship they have together. Thank you for the youth group which follows on a Sunday. Please bless and inspire those who lead it – and we pray that each child will feel welcomed, loved and accepted in that group – and that good friendships will develop.
We continue to pray for ‘Cuppa and Cake’ and thank you for those who bake the cakes and those in the community who come and value that time of conversation and fellowship.
Father, we commit to you the cost of living crisis – and pray for your provision for all those who are struggling to make ends meet and to feed their families.
We thank you for our National Health Service and we commit to you, Lord, all those within it and in other areas of work who are going on strike at the moment. We pray for wisdom for Rishi Sunak and our government in responding to these – and we pray for justice and fairness for all.
Heavenly Father, we continue to cry out to you for a peaceful and just end to the war in Ukraine. We pray for a change of heart for President Putin and for safety for Ukrainian civilians and all those who have fled the country.
We pray for peace elsewhere in the world: between Israel and the Palestinians, in Brazil, in Peru and we pray for a fair and just election in Nigeria. Amen
LORD’S PRAYER
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.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours
now and for ever.
Amen
SING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsJdmhTRSm4
FAITHFUL GOD, faithful God,
All sufficient One, I worship You.
Shalom my peace,
My strong Deliverer,
I lift You up, faithful God.
Chris Bowater.
Copyright © 1990 Sovereign Lifestyle Music.
OFFERTORY - Take a moment to consider how you are going to continue to give to the life of the church and support other aid agencies and mission organisations.
Yours, Lord, is the greatness, the power,
the glory, the splendour, and the majesty;
for everything in heaven and on earth is yours.
All things come from you, and of your own do we give you.
SING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQlFHIRFGGU
MAY THE PEACE OF GOD our heavenly Father,
And the grace of Christ the risen Son,
And the fellowship of God the Spirit
Keep our hearts and minds within His love.
And to Him be praise for His glorious reign,
From the depths of earth to the heights of heaven.
We declare the name of the Lamb once slain:
Christ eternal, the King of kings!
May this peace which passes understanding,
And this grace which makes us what we are,
And this fellowship of His communion
Make us one in spirit and in heart.
Stuart Townend & Keith Getty Copyright © 2006 Thankyou Music
FINAL BLESSING:
May God, who in Christ gives us a spring of water
welling up to eternal life,
perfect in you the image of his glory;
and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
be upon you and remain with you always.
Amen
This Sunday you can also watch the sermon here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydfv7Q38mOM