Ardoch and Blackford Parish Churches
Sunday 23rd August 2020
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Order of Service – Sunday 23rd August 2020
Welcome to Service and First Hymn
Hymn: I the Lord of Sea and Sky
Prayer
Who is he?
A man from long ago?
A story in a book?
An idea of better times to come?
A way to live our lives?
Who do you say I am?
A way to live our lives?
A guide through a troubled world?
A philosophy to teach us?
Who is he?
How do we describe the Son of Man?
Not rich,
not warlike,
not angry or loud,
not a ruler,
or a tyrant.
Who is he?
What can we say about the Son of Man?
Who comes among us,
lives with us,
hurts with us,
feels with us,
dies with us,
loves with us.
Who is he?
He is Christ!
The messiah,
God incarnate.
Our saviour,
our guide,
our light,
our life.
Our everything!
Amen
Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever.
Amen.
Reading
Our reader this morning is Phyllis McLeod and she is reading from Matthew Ch 16 v 13-20
Hymn: Courage Brother do not stumble
St Machar’s Cathedral, Aberdeen
Whose Questions?
“Who do people say I am?”
It was your question, Jesus!
Your question to us,
not mine to you or anyone else!
It was you who asked what people are saying about you,
who they think you are.
I had the feeling it was a leading question;
a loaded question;
not really the question you were heading towards.
Of course people think you’re like another John,
preaching repentance and talking to crowds
out in the wild places.
Or Elijah—with your command over natural forces
and the miracles you’ve done.
Or Jeremiah—not being popular with the authori-ties
and not appeasing people.
But you’re more than a prophet
and greater than any other teacher.
And you don’t care much what people make of you.
You do your work with a passion.
“But who do you say I am?”
Your question, remember!
Not one I was asking you.
What kind of answer did you expect?
We could all echo what our people had been say-
ing…
you’re like John, yes, like Elijah, like Jeremiah…
but more, more than any of them.
But not one of us said anything.
Except me, opening my mouth as usual,
and still remembering what you’d said
about how it is what comes out of us that shows us up.
The thing is, it felt like it didn’t come from me,
well, not just from my own thinking,
but something bigger, deeper,
sudden but so sure.
You are the Messiah.
You are the Son of the living God.
And you confirmed I could not have known it,
said it, from my own ordinary human knowing alone.
But you had more to say.
“Who do you say I am?”
Jesus, I never asked you that question!
Whether I wanted to hear it or not,
you told me who you say that I am.
“Simon,” you said, “you are Peter—‘the rock’.”
And I wanted to say I am no rock, Jesus!
I am no foundation stone for any building!
I am no starting place for a community!
Why would you trust me with a set of keys,
let alone the ones that open doors
to your Kingdom and to heaven?
Why would you give me the authority,
the responsibility,
to make choices on earth that will be echoed in heaven?
But if I can be so sure of who you really are,
how can I doubt what you say of who I really am?
That’s a whole other question, Jesus…