Ministers: Rev. Jennifer Booth and Rev. John Tait
Organist: Iain Mackinnon
Opening Voluntary
Voluntary in A Minor. Samuel Wesley (1766-1837)
Welcome and Intimations
Call to Worship
(based on PsaIm 90)
Lord you have always been our home,
through every generation ever known.
Before the hills or earth were made,
You are the eternal God alone.
From dust we came to dust return
For in Your clear eternal sight
A thousand years pass as a day,
Or a few hours in the night
At each day’s dawning, make us glad;
Fill us with Your love all our days.
And we will sing aloud for joy,
And offer You our eternal praise!
Hymn 533 Will you come and follow me
1 Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don’t know
and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown, will you let my name be known,
will you let my life be grown
in you and you in me?
2 Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer
in you and you in me?
3 Will you let the blinded see
if I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free and never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean, and do such as this unseen,
and admit to what I mean
in you and you in me?
4 Will you love the ‘you’ you hide
if I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same?
Will you use the faith you’ve found
to reshape the world around,
through my sight and touch and sound
in you and you in me?
5 Lord, your summons echoes true
when you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you
and never be the same.
In your company I’ll go
where your love and footsteps show.
Thus I’ll move and live and grow in you and you in me.
Prayer of Approach ending with the Lord’s Prayer
First Thought – Jennifer Booth
Hymn 547 What a friend we have in Jesus
1 What a Friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
everything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
oh, what needless pain we bear,
all because we do not carry
everything to God in prayer!
2 Have we trials and temptations,
is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged:
take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful,
who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness:
take it to the Lord in prayer.
3 Are we weak and heavy-laden,
cumbered with a load of care?
Jesus is our only refuge:
take it to the Lord in prayer;
Do your friends despise, forsake you?
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
In his arms he’ll take and shield you;
you will find a solace there.
Scriptures: Reader, Stewart Lowe
Mark 10: 17-31 The rich and the kingdom of God
17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. ‘Good teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’
18 ‘Why do you call me good?’ Jesus answered. ‘No one is good – except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: “You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honour your father and mother.”20 ‘Teacher,’ he declared, ‘all these I have kept since I was a boy.’
21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. ‘One thing you lack,’ he said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’
22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23 Jesus looked round and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!’
24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, ‘Who then can be saved?’
27 Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.’
28 Then Peter spoke up, ‘We have left everything to follow you!’ 29 ‘Truly I tell you,’ Jesus replied, ‘no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields – along with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.’
Hebrews 4: 12-16
12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Jesus the great high priest
14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to feel sympathy for our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Sermon – John Tait
Hymn 187 There’s a wideness in God’s mercy
1 There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,
like the wideness of the sea;
there’s a kindness in his justice
which is more than liberty.
2 There is no place where earth’s sorrows
are more felt than in God’s heaven:
there is no place where earth’s failings
have such kindly judgement given.
3 For the love of God is broader
than the grasp of mortal mind;
and the heart of the Eternal
is most wonderfully kind.
4 If our love were but more simple,
we should take him at his word;
and our lives be filled with glory
from the glory of the Lord.
Doxology – spoken together
To God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Spirit, praise be done;
may Christ the Lord upon us pour
the Spirit’s gift for evermore.
Prayer of Dedication for the Offering
Prayers for the World
Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer
Hymn 192 All my hope on God is founded
1. All my hope on God is founded,
all my trust he will renew;
safe through change and chance he guides me,
only good and only true:
God unknown,
he alone
calls my heart to be his own.
2. Human pride and earthly glory,
sword and crown betray God’s trust;
though with care and toil we build them,
tower and temple fall to dust.
But God’s power,
hour by hour,
is my temple and my tower.
3. God’s great goodness lasts for ever,
deep his wisdom passing thought:
splendour, light and life attend him,
beauty springing out of naught.
Evermore,
from his store
new-born worlds rise and adore.
4. Day by day the mighty Giver
showers gifts on us below;
his desire our souls delight in,
pleasure leads us where we go.
See love stand
at his hand,
joy awaits at his command!
5. Still from earth to God in heaven
sacrifice of praise be done;
high above all praises praising
for the gift of Christ his Son.
Hear Christ call
one and all:
those who follow shall not fall.
Benediction
Threefold Amen
Closing Voluntary – Prelude in A Minor. Francesco Durante (1684-1755)
INTIMATIONS
Sunday Services – We are pleased to welcome Rev Jennifer Booth and Rev John Tait from South Leith church to lead our service this morning.
Next Sunday, 17 October, the service will be led by Rev Rob Mackenzie from Leith St Andrew’s church.
Thank you to all who brought Harvest gifts for the Foodbank last Sunday.
The Moderator of the General Assembly, Lord Wallace, is visiting Edinburgh Presbytery this month. A special service welcoming him to Leith will take place next Sunday, 17 October, at 7pm in South Leith Church. A warm invitation is open to all the Leith congregations.
Opening the Church – The church building and garden are open to all on Friday mornings between 10 am and 12 noon. If you are able to help with the rota for this please speak to Tim Bell.
Church Magazine – Contributions for the next church magazine are welcome; please send to the church office by Tuesday morning next week (12/10)
National Giving Day – Thank you to everyone who has donated to this appeal for church funds. If you would still like to donate, you can do so up till the end of October, indicating ‘Giving Day’ on the envelope or bank transfer.
Newspapers – Enough newspapers have now been collected, thank you.
Prayer for this Sunday evening – Visit the Church of Scotland website to hear the prayer
Kirk members invited to join in prayer this Sunday | The Church of Scotland
“Where do we find grace to help us in our time of need?
“The Letter to the Hebrews does not quite frame the question in that way. However, the Letter answers the question and points us to ‘Jesus, the Son of God’ as the One who acts on our behalf and who will bring us into the gracious presence of God.
“Our time of need is now, and the needs of the world are plenty. In such a time as this, we turn to the great high priest who has faced and endured all that we face and endure. We do so knowing that the One who has endured all will enable us to ‘approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need’.”
We pray:
Living God,
Have mercy on us
And grant to us grace in time of need;
For we are those who struggle
And know our weaknesses all too well.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.
Living God,
Have mercy on us
And grant to us grace in time of need;
For we know the struggles of the world
And the pain that so many bear.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.
Living God,
Have mercy on us
And grant to us grace in time of need;
For You know us and You love us
And You reach out to us in the place where we are.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.
Living God,
Have mercy on us
And grant to us grace in time of need;
For You call us to love our neighbour
And to bear one another’s burdens on the way.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.
Living God,
Have mercy on us
And grant to us grace in time of need;
For we make bold to approach the throne of grace
And do so in the assurance that You will hear our cry.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.