CALL TO WORSHIP (Responsive)
Min: The Lord is risen!
ALL: He is risen indeed!
Min: This is the day that the Lord has made
ALL: We will rejoice and be glad in it.
Min: The Lord be with you!
ALL: And also with you
Hymn 6082 Spirit of truth ad grace
PRAYER OF APPROACH
AND THE LORD’S PRAYER (‘debts’)
THOUGHT FOR ALL AGES
‘Untie a yellow ribbon’
Hymn 97 O Lord, you search me and you know me
PRAYER OF CONFESSION (Unison)
O Lord our God,
you know us better than we know ourselves.
As we come before you now, we share a deep need, for we are all lost without your grace.
Search us, O God, and know our hearts;
test us and know our troubled thoughts.
Forgive our wrongs. Give us true repentance.
Transform us by your Spirit so that we may live for your glory, and learn to serve each other more and more each day, until, through the grace of Jesus Christ,
we come at last to heaven. AMEN.
(A short silence will be kept)
ORGAN PRELUDE
OLD TESTAMENT LESSON: Jeremiah 1:4-10
4Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,
5“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” 6Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.”
7But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a boy’; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you, 8Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.”
9Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me, “Now I have put my words in your mouth. 10See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”
EPISTLE: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (NKJV)
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
GOSPEL READING: St Luke 4:21-30
21Then he began to say to them,
“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
22All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.
They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”
23He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’
And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’”
24And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. 25But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; 26yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.
27There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”
28When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
DOXOLOGY
Hymn 815 Praise the God who reigns above
SERMON
‘Resisting the call
... a healthy instinct?’
Hymn 252 As a fire is meant for burning
OFFERING
PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING
AND INTERCESSION
Hymn 513 Courage, brother! do not stumble
BENEDICTION
NOTICES
-
Next Sunday, at 9.45 a.m., a JOINT SERVICE, incorporating the Sacrament of Holy Communion, will be held in Braemar Church. There will be NO service in Crathie Kirk that day.
-
Following the joint service, the KIRK SESSION will meet briefly for an update on any progress being made with the proposed Upper Deeside Churches’ Flood Restoration Project.
-
The PARISH GUILD will meet in Crathie Kirk Hall this Wednesday, (2 p.m.), for a presentation on ‘Old Aberdeen’,
- < >
‘APPROACHING JESUS’: On Monday 15th February, at 7.30 p.m., a six week Lenten Study Series, based on St Matthew’s Gospel, and offering ‘an honest and thoughtful look at Jesus through the eyes of the people who approached him’, will begin at Garden House, Morven Way, Ballater. On alternate weeks the group will meet in Braemar. For more information contact Gordon Cowie (55080) or Lesley Taylor (41132).
FURTHER REFLECTION
Protesters turn up on the fringes like satellites revolving around the system. But prophets and poets lead us into a new world, (going) beyond simply yelling at the old one.
Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical
If there is anywhere on earth a lover of God who is always
kept safe, I know nothing of it, for it was not shown to me.
But this was shown: that in falling and rising again
we are always kept in that same precious love.
Julian of Norwich
The Parish of Braemar and Crathie
31st January 2016
Welcome to Worship!
Whether you are a first-time visitor,
a regular participant, or a returning friend,
we are glad you have been able to join us today.
We trust that you might sense something of
the peace and presence of God amongst us.
‘Within these walls let no-one remain a stranger’
CCL. 185285 www.braemarandcrathieparish.org.uk SC012075