Week Commencing Sunday 14th March

Week Commencing Sunday 14^th March 2021

Mothering Sunday

Call to worship

Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. Exodus 20:12

I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. Ephesians 3:14, 15

Opening Hymn (Piano)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JahFRDrSCs

Opening Prayer

Lord God, our Heavenly Father: for our families and homes we thank you

For your love and care we thank you

For everything you give us we thank you

Make us thoughtful at home,

Make us helpful to our parents

And above all teach us to love you more day by day:

For Jesus sake. Amen

Hymn (Guitar)

You now clothe me with Your righteousness,
Hide me in the shadow of Your wings.
And even in my darkest days,
Your light will guide my way.
Hallelujah to the King of grace

Father me…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL1CmJCL6KU

Prayers

The following are prayers and thoughts to help you reflect about mothers and our Heavenly Father. Here are the words of a hymn written by our own Judith Simmons:

HYMN FOR MOTHERING SUNDAY

We thank God that our mothers

Give us the gift of life.

We know they’ll always love us

In happiness or strife.

If we are bad and thoughtless

We always have their care.

And when we’re sad or lonely

They always will be there.

We praise God that our mothers

Can make our house a home.

But we forget to thank them

For all that they have done.

For everything they give us

For all the gifts they share.

Our thanks must be more joyous

For all their loving care.

We thank you too our Father

For all the care you give.

Just like our loving mothers

You help our lives to live.

And when we come to love you

We know you will be true.

As to our loving mothers,

We can come home to you.

(Dedicated to the memory of Phil Marwick. ABC Sunday School Superintendant).

You might like to take time to thank God for your own mother. For many that will be giving thanks in remembrance of your mother’s life. Take time to do that now.

Here are some prayers to help you if you are a mother, a grandmother or even a great grandmother. If you are none of these, then they can still be used to pray for mothers known to you:

Please reflect on Deuteronomy 6:4-9

1. Thank God for families

‘…so that, your children and their children, after them may fear the Lord your God…and so…enjoy long life’ (vs 2)

Time and again in the Old Testament, God chooses to deal with families, not individuals. Praise God that family matters for Him. Then thank Him for this particular family and for the life that they share together.

Then pray that this parent would enjoy…

2. A love for God

‘…Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength’ (vs 5)

It’s God, not our children, who should occupy first position in our hearts. Pray that this parent would resist the temptation to turn their child into an idol. And pray that their love for God would be teaching their child an important but counterintuitive lesson: You’re not the centre of the universe.

3. Focus on God’s commands

‘…These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts’ (vs 5)

Pray that this parent would keep God’s commands on their heart and in their head through the day- his call to be loving, patient, selfless, truthful, gentle, self-controlled, forgiving and repentant. Pray that these qualities would make a difference to the way they parent, in all the mundane busyness: the school run, washing up, disciplining, bathtime, sports practice…

4. Time to teach

‘…Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home…’ (vs7)

Pray that this parent would appreciate that their greatest responsibility to their child is not securing them a good education, or developing their talents, but teaching them about Jesus. Ask God to help this family to start- or sustain- regular times of reading the Bible and praying together.

5. Whole- life devotion

‘…and when you walk along the road…’ (vs 7)

Pray that this parent would find creative ways to bring Jesus into all aspects of family life. It can be easy to give the impression that God is only for Sunday mornings: but pray that this parent would display the truth that all of life belongs to God, and every moment can be used to enjoy and worship him.

(From ‘Five things to pray for the people you love’ Rachel Jones).

Reading. Matthew 20:20-28.

20²⁰ Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favour of him.

²¹ “What is it you want?” he asked.

She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.”

²² “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?”

“We can,” they answered.

²³ Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.”

²⁴ When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. ²⁵ Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. ²⁶ Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ²⁷ and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— ²⁸ just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Hymn (Piano)

There in the garden of tears
My heavy load He chose to bear
His heart with sorrow was torn
'Yet not my will but Yours' He said
This is our God…

Come see His hands and His feet
The scars that speak of sacrifice
Hands that flung stars into space
To cruel nails surrendered
This is our God…

So let us learn how to serve
And in our lives enthrone Him
Each other's needs to prefer
For it is Christ we're serving

This is our God…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4FtZ9XzZag

Sermon. “A Mother’s Ambition”

When our children were very young my wife and I were faced with choices for their welfare. We had to ensure they were healthy and take them for their jabs. We wanted to keep them safe. Clothe and feed them. As they got older we thought about giving them a good start in life. Their education. The development of skills. The opportunity to perhaps learn to play a musical instrument. Involvement in sports. We wanted the best for them. In these ways we had ambitions for our children. And we still want the best for them.

The real question is “What is best for our children? What should be our ambition for them?” How we answer that question says a lot about what we value most in life.

Our reading in Matthew’s Gospel deals with these kind of questions. Here we have a mother’s ambition for her two sons. Salome wants Jesus to reserve special seats for James and John. Salome wants her sons to be promoted and rule with Jesus. One at his left and one at his right, in the coming Kingdom.

What can we say about this ambition?

Well in one way there is something good about her request. It reveals a measure of faith. Jesus has already said that when he returns, He and his followers will rule from thrones in His Kingdom. Salome had heard about this and wanted her sons to have a slice of the action! At least she is taking Jesus words seriously. Jesus’ Kingdom is important to her.

The command “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” should be our number one priority in the way we live our lives. I saw that priority in the way my mother lived her life before my brother, sister and me. When things were tight financially she talked to us about verses like that and how the Lord had provided for us. And when we faced difficulties at school; if we had problems learning something; or when we were picked on for being different- you know; working hard and not swearing or fighting for example. She encouraged us to keep going. That God knew. He would help us and make us strong and we could trust him for our future. And we listened because we saw that’s the way she lived her own life. 

However Salome really didn’t understand about the ways of the Kingdom. Jesus says “You don’t know what you are asking” and “Can you drink the cup I will drink?” There is a cost in following Jesus. You can’t have a crown in the Christian life without a cross. Salome and her sons underestimated the cost. If you are known as a Christian at school or at work there are some people who will mock or ignore you. You will not be allowed to be part of their group. Jesus was popular- when he healed people, especially early on, but after that first period of popularity the opposition against him grew, many of his followers left because of what he taught, and in the end his closest disciples let him down and he was treated unjustly by all. That was the “cup” Jesus had to drink of. All His true followers share in that bitter cup to some extent. So don’t worry if you’re feeling the cost of being a Christian at the moment, God is preparing you for something greater. He could use James and John powerfully in the early Church once they learnt to follow despite the cost. And though at the end John was exiled and James was executed, they now have their greatest reward. They are with Jesus in heaven and experience eternal joy. The Bible teaches we must share in his sufferings if we are to share in his glory. This is especially the case for those the Lord uses to lead His people.

Salome’s request is concerned for her sons’ glory, not the glory of God. She and her sons want God’s kingdom on their terms and in their way.

There was a mother in the Old Testament called Rachel (Genesis 27). She had 2 sons Esau and Jacob. Esau was only concerned about food and feeding his stomach. Rachel preferred Jacob. In those days the eldest son would get his father’s special blessing for his life. This should have belonged to Esau because he was the eldest, but Rachel got Jacob to trick his father Isaac. Esau was a hairy man, and Rachel encouraged Jacob to put goat skins on his smooth arms and neck, so Isaac would think he was blessing Esau- but actually He was giving that special blessing to Jacob. That is deceit. It’s trying to get God’s blessing in the wrong way. According to what we want, on our terms.

But God is the king of the Kingdom. And if we belong to Him we are to obey His will, not ours. Jesus says to Salome that the places she wants for her sons have been “prepared by my Father”. In other words it’s up to God who He gives these thrones to. It’s not up to us to tell God what to do here. Rather we submit to Him. We obey Him. We do things His way.

Sometimes you get people in the Church who want to make a name for themselves. They’re more interested in their own glory than God’s glory. They want to be popular. So instead of teaching what God says should be taught, the things we find in God’s Word the Bible, they leave out the difficult or challenging bits. They just like to say what people want to hear so they are popular.

The whole idea of trying to use God for what I can get out of Him; God will make me rich, God will make me famous, God will make me successful, God will give me what I want- is wrong.. Rather we ask “What does God’s Word teach?” What sort of person does He want me to be? How does He want me to act? It’s about His glory, not ours.

Well when the rest of the disciples heard about Salome’s request they were not at all happy about it. Perhaps they wished they’d put in their requests first!!

Jesus makes it crystal clear. His followers are not to think like the world. God’s Kingdom is not about lording it over others or trying to control them. It’s not about seeking status or position. It’s about service. The Christian’s ambition is to be a servant (even a slave) Serving God yes, but also serving others. Looking to serve others in their need, just as God Himself has served us. This example of service is supremely shown in Jesus “Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be held on to, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness (Philippians 2:6,7).

Jesus has served us. Jesus bore our sins on Himself that we could be forgiven freely and accepted as God’s children. He gave his life as a ransom. Sometimes terrorists take people hostage. They ask for a ransom, a large amount of money if the people they are holding hostage are to be set free. In a similar way, we were held hostage by terrorists called the devil and sin. Jesus death is a ransom that has been paid so we can now be freed from their power over us. This is how Jesus has served us. He died to set us free.  And Jesus continues to serve us. He prays for us and gives us the Holy Spirit to help strengthen us to do what is right and good.

Allow me to bring you back to our first question. “What is the best ambition we can have for our children?” That they come to know Jesus Christ and learn to follow Him in a life of service. In their marriages, their families, their work and in the church family. This is to be every Christian’s ambition.

Here’s a poem written by someone who saw Christ’s servant heart in their mother:

The Fruit of the Spirit

My mother is a Christian

In every important way;

The fruit of the Holy Spirit

Is displayed in her every day.

My mother is filled with kindness,

With love and joy and peace;

Her patience and her goodness

Inspire and never cease.

She follows our Lord Jesus

With faithfulness and more;

She’s gentle and has self- control,

She knows what prayer is for.

Thanks mum for being a Christian,

And showing me how to be;

I’ll follow your example for all eternity

Prayer

Thank you Lord Jesus for giving your life to serve us, help us to give of ourselves in order to help meet the needs of others. Amen

……………………………………………………….

Hymn