Online Service

Today's Service: 22 August

Leader: Harry Bunting

This is best viewed in Landscape orientation wood

You will appreciate the sound better if you use earphones or an external loudspeaker, whatever type of device you view on.

(This service will be delivered live and in person (!) by Harry, as notified, at 10:45 a.m. in the Cockrill's garden, so think of tgose gathered at the live service as you read through this).

Opening words:

Prov 16: 3 - 'Ask the Lord to bless your plans and you will be successful in carrying them out',

Hymn 355: Jesus calls us!

Tune:St Andrew, with Intro.

1. Jesus calls us; o'er the tumult
of our life's wild, restless sea,
day by day his clear voice sounding,
saying, "Christian, follow me;"

2. As, of old, apostles heard it
by the Galilean lake,
turned from home and toil and kindred,
leaving all for his dear sake.

3. Jesus calls us from the worship
of the vain world's golden store;
from each idol that would keep us,
saying, "Christian, love me more."

4. In our joys and in our sorrows,
days of toil and hours of ease,
still he calls, in cares and pleasures,
"Christian, love me more than these."

5. Jesus calls us! By thy mercies,
Saviour, may we hear thy call,
give our hearts to your obedience,
serve and love thee best of all.

Cecil Frances Alexander (1818 - 95)

Opening prayer

Welcoming God,
we come to you with open hearts
and with open hands.
We come with our faith and hope,
and with our doubts and fears.
Send your Holy Spirit to work among us,
filling us and changing us
to become more like Jesus
We confess that we have sinned
in thought word and deed
and through what we have left undone.

We ask to be forgiven in the name of your son our saviour, Jesus Christ, who taught us when we pray to say:

The Lord's Prayer

Our Father Who art in Heaven,
Hallowed be thy name
Thy Kingdom come, 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 Amen

Joshua 24: 1 - 2a & 14 - 18

Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel together at Shechem. He called the elders, the leaders, the judges, and the officers of Israel, and they came into the presence of God. Joshua renews covenant ² Joshua said to all the people, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, has to say: . . .

¹⁴ "Now then," Joshua continued, "honour the LORD and serve him sincerely and faithfully. Get rid of the gods which your ancestors used to worship in Mesopotamia and in Egypt, and serve only the LORD.

¹⁵ If you are not willing to serve him, decide today whom you will serve, the gods your ancestors worshiped in Mesopotamia or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are now living. As for my family and me, we will serve the LORD."

¹⁶ The people replied, "We would never leave the LORD to serve other gods! ¹⁷ The LORD our God brought our fathers and us out of slavery in Egypt, and we saw the miracles that he performed. He kept us safe wherever we went among all the nations through which we passed. ¹⁸ As we advanced into this land, the LORD drove out all the Amorites who lived here. So we also will serve the LORD; he is our God."

John 6: 60 - 69

⁶⁰ Many of his followers heard this and said, "This teaching is too hard. Who can listen to it?"
⁶¹ Without being told, Jesus knew that they were grumbling about this, so he said to them, "Does this make you want to give up? ⁶² Suppose, then, that you should see the Son of Man go back up to the place where he was before? ⁶³ What gives life is God's Spirit; human power is of no use at all. The words I have spoken to you bring God's life-giving Spirit. ⁶⁴ Yet some of you do not believe." (Jesus knew from the very beginning who were the ones that would not believe and which one would betray him.) ⁶⁵ And he added, "This is the very reason I told you that no people can come to me unless the Father makes it possible for them to do so."
⁶⁶ Because of this, many of Jesus' followers turned back and would not go with him any more. ⁶⁷ So he asked the twelve disciples, "And you-would you also like to leave?"
⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. ⁶⁹ And now we believe and know that you are the Holy One who has come from God.

Reflection

Joshua and the people of Israel were at a crossroads.

They had completed the conquest of the promised land of Canaan and everything was looking rosy.

BUT some of the Israelites had started intermarrying with the people they had conquered and had slipped into their ways of worshipping a lot of Gods.

Joshua was coming to the end of his life and he could see that there was a danger of the people of Israel drifting away from the worship of God and eventually being dissipated as a nation.

So he called all the leaders of the nation together and gave them a long lecture about how much God had done for them. Then he called them to choose between worshipping the false Gods of the people who lived in the country they had conquered and the one true God.

Then he made his famous statement 'As for my family and me, we will serve the Lord' and the people vowed to follow him.

But the bible passages go on beyond the reading set for today and Joshua stressed two things:
Firstly, God might not accept their protestations that they will change and secondly, that they will have to stick to their vows and it will not be easy.

Jesus and his disciples were at a crossroads.

Jesus had been travelling around Galilee preaching and performing miracles the latest of which were the feeding of the 5,000 and the walking on the water. The crowds had continued to follow him hoping for more miracles, but Jesus decided it was time to sort the wheat from the chaff. In the previous passage v. 25 to 58 Jesus had talked about himself as the Bread of Life come down from heaven and that to be a follower of him you had to accept God's Spirit into yourself.

So we come to this passage. Apparently, when the crowd said 'This teaching is too hard' the Greek word used does not mean too hard to follow, but too hard to accept.

So Jesus added to it by saying, in effect, if you don't believe that I came from God when you can see me, then surely you will not believe it when I return to him.

Then he went on to say that what gives life is God's Spirit and you can access that life-giving Spirit through Jesus.
That was too much for many of the followers so they left.

So Jesus turned to the 12 disciples that he had called to follow him and asked them 'Do you want to go as well?

The response he got must have gladdened his heart when Peter said 'to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life! And now we believe that you have been sent by God.

Secure in the knowledge that at least his closest followers understood what was happening he was able to go forward in his ministry.

WE at Northgate are at a crossroads!

For a number of years now we have watched in dismay as our numbers have gradually reduced.

Covid has not helped and we are not sure what will happen next with the roof.

For those who do not know, the roof is going to need extensive repairs which will probably cost a substantial sum of money.

It will not be impossible to raise that amount of money from outside sources, especially if Synod support us and I have therefore been working on a paper looking at the long term viability of the church to support our application to the Synod.

The paper isn't ready yet but there are a lot of encouraging signs that the church could be viable in the future. These signs point to the church at Northgate becoming more involved in the community which would enable us to witness to the people of the town and provide sources of income to keep the church financially viable.

We must, of course, also look at the alternatives to see if God is calling us to move out of the building and take a different course of action.

We haven't got all the information yet but the time for decision making is approaching.

Whatever course we choose will not be easy. It will require a lot of hard work and commitment from ALL of us. However, it will be the younger members (under 70!) who will have to implement any course of action for the years to come and therefore it must have your wholehearted support.

So please pray that God will guide us all to make the right decision for the good of his church and our spiritual wellbeing.

Prayers of thanks and intercession

Thank you, Lord, for your unfailing love.

Thank you that even with all our doubts and fears
and worries about the journey ahead,
you are there by our side.

Where else can we turn? To whom shall we go?

Thank you that you are our rock and our salvation,
our strength and our high tower.

Thank you that as we choose to go on this journey with you,
as we make decisions and plans,
you are there, gently leading and guiding,
always present.

We praise you, Lord, for your constant love and faithfulness.

Dear Lord you know that our church at Northgate is at a crossroads.

Guide us safely into the future.
Give each one of us the guidance we need to ensure that we follow your will both as individuals and in our role in the church.

In silence we pray...........

In particular be with the leaders of the area of Northgate as they seek to raise the standard of living of its residents and show us how we can help them to achieve their goals.

Be with us and all the people of Darlington as we look to cope with the after effects of the Pandemic and the changing facets of life as we used to know it.

We think of the owners and staff of those firms that have had to close because of the Pandemic and ask you to be with them as they start to rebuild their business.