Who am I? At-one-ment with self

Text of the Week: Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. Luke 4:1-2

Welcome to our services today and a special welcome to any worshipping with us for the first time. Today we reach the mid-point of Lent when tradition has it that you can have a break from your fast and a mini-celebration! What better way to do that than to celebrate the one who brought us into the world this Mothers Day! Jesus did not have a break from his fast. Today’s reading from Fresh from the Word is Luke’s account of the temptations. It marks the start of the fourth week of readings on at-one-ment. We began with a look at the human dilemma, recognising how much brokenness there is in the human condition. At the heart of our Christian faith is the conviction that Jesus Christ puts us together again and puts us together with God. In the last three weeks we have explored what that at-one-ment means as we have looked at being At One with God, At One with Others, and At One with Creation. Our final set of readings takes us back to the human dilemma of brokenness and makes it very much more personal: at the heart of our Christian faith is the conviction that Jesus Christ puts us together again as we accept that we are accepted by God and At One with Self.

Welcome and Call to Worship

Praise and Worship with Hy-Spirit

Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer

Saying Thank You

Mothers day theme – thank you to Mothers – those who have been mother to us

Paul commends Timothy to be thankful to his grandmother and to his mother,

What’s in a name … ?

What’s your mother’s name – is there a meaning to it?

Timothy’s grandmother was Lois and his mother was Eunice.

Eunice - The name Eunice is a Greek baby name. In Greek the meaning of the name Eunice is: Good victory, joyous victory. she conquers. Famous bearer: In the bible Eunice was a woman noted for being without hypocrisy.

Possibly derived from Greek λωιων (loion) meaning "more desirable" or "better". Lois is mentioned in the New Testament as the mother of Eunice and the grandmother of Timothy. As an English name, it came into use after the Protestant Reformation.

English form of the Greek name Τιμοθεος (Timotheos) meaning "honouring God", derived from τιμαω (timao) "to honour" and θεος (theos) "god". Saint Timothy was a companion of Paul on his missionary journeys and was the recipient of two of Paul's epistles that appear in the New Testament.

Reading 2 Timothy 1:1-7

1 1-2 I, Paul, am on special assignment for Christ, carrying out God’s plan laid out in the Message of Life by Jesus. I write this to you, Timothy, the son I love so much. All the best from our God and Christ be yours!

To Be Bold with God’s Gifts

3-4 Every time I say your name in prayer—which is practically all the time—I thank God for you, the God I worship with my whole life in the tradition of my ancestors. I miss you a lot, especially when I remember that last tearful good-bye, and I look forward to a joy-packed reunion.

5-7 That precious memory triggers another: your honest faith—and what a rich faith it is, handed down from your grandmother Lois to your mother Eunice, and now to you! And the special gift of ministry you received when I laid hands on you and prayed—keep that ablaze! God doesn’t want us to be shy with his gifts, but bold and loving and sensible.

The Message

A Hy-Spirit Song

Activities for all over 3

It’s been a thought-provoking Lent series in Fresh from the word –

Today’s reading from Fresh from the Word is Luke’s account of the temptations. It marks the start of the fourth week of readings on atonement that great Christian doctrine that is the simplest of words to understand when it’s broken up into its constituent parts as it is in the headings to the readings from Fresh from the Word.

at-one-ment.

We began with a look at the human dilemma, recognising how much brokenness there is in the human condition. At the heart of our Christian faith is the conviction that Jesus Christ puts us together again and puts us together with God.

In the last three weeks we have explored what that at-one-ment means as we have looked at being At One with God, At One with Others, and At One with Creation.

Our final set of readings takes us back to the human dilemma of brokenness and makes it very much more personal: at the heart of our Christian faith is the conviction that Jesus Christ puts us together again as we accept that we are accepted by God and At One with Self.

What do you do with your ‘self’?

We can sometimes be so  taken with the challenges of the Christian faith to put others first that we forget the second of the commandments

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your strength

And you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.

Do you love yourself.

What about that inner self.

The self that no one else knows.

Last Sunday I did as I usually do and joined in the last quarter of an hour of Hy-Tec here in church. It’s a lovely way to finish a Sunday with their time of worship.

I often find it moving singing a worship song and then gathering around the table, linking hands and sharing prayers. Often very moving and very powerful prayers from the heart – in amongst the fun and the laughter too.

As I came in everyone was sat quietly watching a video – it was clearly a video reflection on the temptations.

I arrived at day 23.  I quickly worked out that each day was a different picture – and as each day passed Jesus in the wilderness got more and more haggard in appearance as he faced the awfulness of that wilderness experience.

The fast taking its toll then as the days reached the late 30’s the black and white pencil drawings there in the distance was a figure, coloured, looking real – it was the tempter – who held up a stone with the temptation to turn the stone to bread,

A high vantage point with the temptation to worship the devil and take charge of the world in all his power

And the high point of the temple with the temptation to throw yourself down.

Then came the question Adrian asked of the youngsters.

When you heard the Bible passage read earlier how did you visualize the devil?

How do you visualize the devil when you hear the reading read?

Let’s try …

Reading: Luke 4:1-13

Is it with a cloak and horns?

A traditional figure?

How did the artist visualize the devil?

The youngsters got it/ They noticed. Adrian then drew attention to it.

The figure that comes to tempt Jesus is drawn by the artist as the figure of Jesus himself from the very start on day 1 when all was well and he was fine and he was great.

The suggestion was that the temptation is from within ourselves.

It’s that part of ourselves that draws us to do the very things that God does not want us to do.

That’s the awful reality of temptation.

Think of the temptations in that way and there is a struggle going on within ourselves.

In that struggle we often put on masks.  We give the impression to others all is well.

The very last pictures were of jesus being cared for by the angels – being cared for by God.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was passionate about his Christian faith. When the nazi regime took over in Germany and began the Nazification of the German church Bonhoeffer became a leading figure in the Confessing Church.

But they had to go underground. He wrote a commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, the Cost of Discipleship and elxplored how important it was to keep to the teaching of Jesus – love for God, love for neighbor, love for enemy too.

He joined the official state civil service which gave himt he right to travel around the county – secretly he visited churches, taught, prayed and preached among them.

he grappled with his conscience and came to the conclusion that while he remained true to his pacificst convitions he felt it important to seek to assassinate Hitler.

He was involved in the so-called bomb plot. The bomb went off. But Hitler was unharmed.

Bonhoeffer  was among many who were rounded up and imprisoned.

In the last week of the war when many were released, the order went out that all who had been involved in the bomb plot should be executed. So it ws that Bonhoeffer was executed.

But he had continued to write and reflect and teach from prison.

Soon after the end of the way the first edition of his Letters and Papers from Prison was published.

It quickly became a best seller and his thinking on Chriswtian faith and the need to seek social justice and work foir peace inspired a generation and still inspires many to this day.

As the Letters and Papers from Prison were re-issued they were expanded. Among them were powerful hyumns and prayers and poems in which he studied himself and reflected on himself.

One of his finest poems grapples with this very sense  of inner temptation, struggling with ‘self’.

Who am I by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Who Am I? by Deitrich Bonhoeffer

Who am I? They often tell me

I stepped from my cell’s confinement

Calmly, cheerfully, firmly,

Like a Squire from his country house.

Who am I? They often tell me

I used to speak to my warders

Freely and friendly and clearly,

As thought it were mine to command.

Who am I? They also tell me

I bore the days of misfortune

Equably, smilingly, proudly,

like one accustomed to win.

Am I then really that which other men tell of?

Or am I only what I myself know of myself?

Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,

Struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing my throat,

Yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds,

Thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness,

Tossing in expectations of great events,

Powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,

Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,

Faint, and ready to say farewell to it all.

Who am I? This or the Other?

Am I one person today and tomorrow another?

Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,

And before myself a contemptible woebegone weakling?

Or is something within me still like a beaten army

Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?

Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.

Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am thine!

This is the brokenness of self.

This is the at-one-ment with self that is so important.

By the end of the temptations Jesus is surrounded by the love of God in that ministry of angels – he knows through that struggle inner struggle that he is accepted by God, that he is within the love of God and he can therefore being his ministry.

The good news of the faith is thast through such struggles we are surrounded by the love of God – through the inner struggles we are accepted by God.

Maybe as Lent unfolds that sense of peace that comes from accepting that we are accepted goes to the heart of the faith that can transform our lives.

28 Amazing grace

Whoever I am …

Prayer and Worship with Hy-Spirit

Prayers of Concern led by Janet P

Holy God,

When terror strikes at the heart of our community,

You are there.

When individuals turn against others in misunderstanding and hatred,

You are there.

When we put aside all thoughts of our own safety and well-being to help others,

You are there.

In the times of starvation and want,

You are there.

In the times of confusion and doubt,

You are there.

In the times when all hope seems lost and we don't know which way to turn,

You are there.

When the frail and lost find comfort,

You are there.

When the young and eager find learning,

You are there.

When our daily lives shine the light of love on those around us,

You are there.

Holy God,

Whatever our age and ability,

Whatever our need and skill,

Whatever situations come our way,

Help us to remember

You are there.

Amen

A Hy-Spirit song

Words of blessing