I bore you on eagles' wings

Evening Praise

Welcome and Call to Worship

408 I come with joy

Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer

Exodus 19:1-9

At the third new moon after the Israelites had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day, they came into the wilderness of Sinai. They had journeyed from Rephidim, entered the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in front of the mountain. Then Moses went up to God; the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, ‘Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.’

 So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. The people all answered as one: ‘Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.’ Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord. Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, in order that the people may hear when I speak with you and so trust you ever after.’

Psalm 103 – the Congregation

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

   and all that is within me,

   bless his holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

   and do not forget all his benefits—

who forgives all your iniquity,

   who heals all your diseases,

who redeems your life from the Pit,

   who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,

who satisfies you with good as long as you live

   so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

   and all that is within me,

   bless his holy name.

The Lord works vindication

   and justice for all who are oppressed.

He made known his ways to Moses,

   his acts to the people of Israel.

The Lord is merciful and gracious,

   slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

   and all that is within me,

   bless his holy name.

He will not always accuse,

   nor will he keep his anger for ever.

He does not deal with us according to our sins,

   nor repay us according to our iniquities.

For as the heavens are high above the earth,

   so great is his steadfast love towards those who fear him;

as far as the east is from the west,

   so far he removes our transgressions from us.

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

   and all that is within me,

   bless his holy name.

As a father has compassion for his children,

   so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him.

For he knows how we were made;

   he remembers that we are dust.

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

   and all that is within me,

   bless his holy name.

As for mortals, their days are like grass;

   they flourish like a flower of the field;

for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,

   and its place knows it no more.

But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting

   on those who fear him,

   and his righteousness to children’s children,

to those who keep his covenant

   and remember to do his commandments.

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

   and all that is within me,

   bless his holy name.

The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,

   and his kingdom rules over all.

Bless the Lord, O you his angels,

   you mighty ones who do his bidding,

   obedient to his spoken word.

Bless the Lord, all his hosts,

   his ministers that do his will.

Bless the Lord, all his works,

   in all places of his dominion.

Bless the Lord, O my soul

   and all that is within me,

   bless his holy name.

1 Peter 1:3-9 and 2:9-10

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading,

kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God

through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you rejoice,

even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials,

so that the genuineness of your faith

—being more precious than gold that, though perishable,

is tested by fire—

may be found to result in praise and glory and honour

when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Although you have not seen him, you love him;

and even though you do not see him now,

you believe in him

and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,

for you are receiving the outcome of your faith,

the salvation of your souls.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,

God’s own people,

in order that you may proclaim

the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness

into his marvellous light.

Once you were not a people,

   but now you are God’s people;

once you had not received mercy,

   but now you have received mercy.

38 Praise my soul the king of heaven

I bore you on eagles’ wings

It’s been great to share our art exhibition again this year. If you haven’t been round to look at the pictures already then do make sure you don’t miss the opportunity!

In the corridors the U3A class have shared paintings on the theme of wings. I was talking to one of the ladies about her picture only this week. It’s a small painting in a box frame to the left as you start the exhibition in the cross corridor.

It’s actually a painting of a painting.

She explained that she belongs to St Nicholas’ church and each year someone from the church family is invited to paint a design on the paschal candle. Lit for the first time on Easter Sunday it then stands in the church for the rest of the year and is lit at services and on special occasions.

This year she had painted the candle – hard to paint on a cylinder and on wax. You have to wipe it down with white spirit she explained and then you can paint on it with Acrylics.

She had chosen to paint a very simple dove of peace and then to paint the letters of the word Peace down the candle.

Having completed the candle that is now in use through the year she then painted a painting of the painting.

And that is in our corridor.

Peace – a simple message as the light of the risen Christ comes into our world.

We took the opportunity on election day to open the doors of the church as Jacqui who has shared her pictures in church with us sat in church to look after them. It was great to see people having a look into the church.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could have someone in church through the day on the day of the election – welcoming people into church, and simply being in church in quiet prayer.

With the work the youngsters have done, an eagle in flight that Judi has shared from Moffatt, my eye has fallen again and again on the installation the youngsters did with Mary.

If you haven’t already, have a look at some of those wonderful texts that speak of wings. You are invited to reflect on those verses and then put your name on a feather and add it to the painting under the wings if you feel in need of the shelter of the God who cares for us ceaselessly or on the rising wing if you feel you are rising up with eagles.

Is it an invitation or a statement.

I want to pick out four thoughts from Exodus 19 – a reading that sets the scene for some of the readings this week from Fresh from the Word.

I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.

40 years ago when we moved to Harden just outside Bradford we got to know the Dales Minister who was based in Grassington but toured the Congregational Churches of the Yorkshire Dales. George Curry was a wonderful character who had in his younger days served in mission work among the Inuit peoples of Canada. He had a love of the wild and rugged places and especiall the wild and rugged places of the Isle of Skey. He would go there each year with his camera in the days before digital photography and take the most wonderful black and white photographs of eagles.

The most majestic of birds they soar high above the most rugged and wildest terrain and have a strength that has moved countless generations.

This is not an invitation.

This is not a promise for the future.

This is a reminder of the God who has been in our lives to restore and to refresh and to renew.

I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.

Our gathering around the Lord’s Table to share in the Lord’s Supper is a time of remembering. What is it we remember? The night on which Jesus was betrayed – yes indeed and his body broken for us and his blood shed for us.

But more than that let us remember the way God has been in our lives in the past that is behind us. Those moments when God bore us on eagles’ wings and brought us to himself.

May be a time of recovery after illness, a time of comfort after sorrow, a time of peace after distress.

Let’s bring to mind those moments when God bore us on eagles’ wings and brought us to himself.

God brings us to himself for a purpose – he gives us care and love and peace and blessing not just for ourselves but so that that can make a difference to other people.

That leads me to my second phrase – that we need to hold on to here in this place around this table as we gather together in his name.

you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.

What should I call you? It’s a question people often ask.  And it was asked of me again this week. They call me ‘the minister’ of the church, I said, but I answer to lots of other things as well, most of them polite!

Are you a priest? Is a question I am also asked. And this time I am a bit more careful.  It would be easy to say, no I am not a priest: we don’t set people aside to be priests in our way of being church. Our way of being church is rooted in the Bible and in the New Testament the word ‘priest’ is not used of a particular role in the church.

Instead Peter picks up on this verse from Exodus and he reminds us that we are all, everyone of us who follows in the footsteps of Jesus, we are all called to be a priestly kingdom.  It’s often described as the priesthood of all believers.

A priest is a bridge builder – who brings God’s presence into people’s lives and brings people into God’s presence – a priest brings the blessing of God’s forgiving love from God to people and brings people into the presence of God in his wonderfully rich forgiving love.

And that’s our task. Each one of us

We are be a priestly kingdom – we seek to bring the good of God into the life of the world around us.

In small ways, in big ways, in all that we do.

Some task!

That takes some commitment.

And that’s what we mark here at this table as well.

What binds us together is the new covenant that is in Christ’s blood. This is a covenant meal, a celebration in which we delight in the covenant God makes with us.

A covenant is a two way thing – it is an agreement, a partnership, a relationship between us and between God and us too.

So this is the commitment we are called upon to make – the commitment the people of God made long ago.

The third of the phrases that caught my eye in this passage.

The people all answered as one: ‘Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.’

That’s our commitment – what is it the Lord has spoken? Read on to Exodus 20 and you come to the 10 commandments.

They are summed up by Jesus in the two great commandments.

This is what God has spoken, this is what we are called to do.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” 

 You shall love your neighbour as yourself

It was at the table that Jesus shared a new commandment

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’

That’s the word God has spoken. That’s what we must do. In pastoral care through our church family, at work, at home, with family, with neighbours – with those it’s hard to get on with.

This is what God has spoken. This is what we are called to do.

I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.

you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.

‘Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.’

Do you find things scary?

I do!

Though over the years I have forced myself to go on the ghost train in a fun fair.

Do you thind things scary?

The future is a scary place.

There are so many uncertainties in our world.

There are so many uncertainties in our own personal lives.

There are so many uncertainties.

So what is certain?

When he came into Jerusalem the fine buildings of the city looked certain – but Jesus knew not a stone would be left on another.

What is certain?

Heaven and earth will pass away …

Here around the table we are together in the presence of Christ remembering his body broken his blood shed for us. But we are also very much in the present – living now – in the presence of the Christ who is with us.

But we also look forward.

We look to a heavenly banquet – there are those words that I quote so often from the archaic language of the AV

After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

²⁶ For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.

It hangs in the air and has a mystery about it.

But one thing is sure Christ Jesus will come to take us to be with him in the glory of God’s presence.

It was at the table he said those most wonderful of words.

Do not let your hearts be troubled.

Believe in God, believe also in me. 

In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places.

If it were not so,

would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 

And if I go and prepare a place for you,

I will come again and will take you to myself,

so that where I am, there you may be also. 

That’s the promise in the final set of words from Exodus 16 I want to share this evening.

I am going to come to you

That’s the certainty we hold on to!

Let’s look back and give thanks

I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.

Let’s share the blessing of God’s forgiving love with all around us

you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.

Let’s commit ourselves to love God, to love our neighbor

‘Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.’

And let’s be sure as we hear again the word of God in the words of Jesus

I am going to come to you

… to restore and renew to be with you forever.

504 Church of God

Prayers of Concern

Offering and Dedication

399 Come, risen Lord

The Lord’s Supper

Communion Offering &

Dedication

611 Lord, now let your servant

Words of Blessing