{"id":21117,"date":"2023-08-06T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-06T08:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/urc\/sunday-worship-6-august-2023"},"modified":"2023-08-06T09:30:00","modified_gmt":"2023-08-06T08:30:00","slug":"sunday-worship-6-august-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/sunday-worship-6-august-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Worship 6 August 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Sunday Worship from the United Reformed Church<\/strong>
for Sunday 6 August 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Today\u2019s service is led by the Revd Andy Braunston.<\/em><\/p>\n

 
Call to Worship<\/strong>
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Come and wrestle with the Ancient of Days; feel God\u2019s presence in your minds and bodies, knowing that you will be forever changed by the struggle.  
We long to see God, face to face.<\/strong>
 
Come and struggle with the Risen Lord, who will heal your wounds, and never let you – go even when we struggle with Him throughout the night.  
We long to see God, face to face.<\/strong>
 
Come and grapple with the Holy Spirit who marks us His own, who blesses us with all good gifts and whose presence lights our way even in the dark of night.  
We long to see God, face to face.<\/strong>
 
Hymn    <\/strong>Who Would True Valour See<\/em>
              John Bunyan (1628-1688) BBC Songs of Praise
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Who would true valour see,
let them come hither;
one here will constant be,
come wind, come weather;
there’s no discouragement
shall make them once relent
their first avowed intent
to be good pilgrims.
 
Whoso beset her round
with dismal stories,
do but themselves confound,
her strength the more is.
No lion can her fright:
she’ll with a giant fight,
but she will have the right
to be a pilgrim.<\/p>\n

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Hobgoblin nor foul fiend
can daunt his spirit;
he knows he at the end
shall life inherit.
Then, fancies, fly away;
he’ll not fear what men say;
he’ll labour night and day
to be a pilgrim.
 
Prayers of Approach, Confession, and Forgiveness<\/strong>
 
O Most High,
we bring You our praise this day,
we see You face to face:
in the world around us; in flower and tree;
in wind and wave; in sunshine and rain;
in those we know and love, in friend and stranger.
 
Jesus, Enfleshed Word,
we bring You ourselves this day,
longing to see You face to face,
we cling to You knowing You hold us fast.
Yet we know, that all too often, we try to let go of You,
we struggle against what is good for us,
turning our back on You, and looking away from Your face.
But Your arms are always held wide open in welcome.
 
Holy Spirit, Abiding Presence,
we feel You amongst us this day,
helping us to see Your face,
enabling us to love even when love is a struggle,
helping us to love ourselves when we\u2019d prefer to hate,
inspire us, Holy One, to return to You,
to hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for You,
even as we struggle.  Amen.
 
Words of Assurance<\/strong>
 
Like a mother eagle who tends her young;
like a father who runs to welcome home the estranged;
like a rock upon which we stand,
God is loving and faithful, and forgives all our sins.
God loves and forgives you,
so have the strength to love and forgive yourself. Amen
 
Prayer of Illumination<\/strong>
 
Dear Lord, 
often we struggle to hear Your voice 
in the competing sounds of our world.
Speak to us now as we hear Your word read and proclaimed,
that as we listen You will inspire us,
that as we struggle You will strengthen us,
and as we respond You will lead us.  Amen.
 
Reading<\/strong>       Genesis 32: 22-31<\/em>
 
The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.  He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.
 
Hymn<\/strong>    Come O Thou Traveller Unknown<\/em>
Charles Wesley 1742  sung by Maddy Prior & The Carnival Band
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Come, O thou Traveller unknown,
whom still I hold, but cannot see!
My company before is gone,
and I am left alone with thee.
With thee all night I mean to stay
and wrestle till the break of day.<\/p>\n

I need not tell Thee who I am,
my misery and sin declare;
Thyself hast called me 
by my name,
look on Thy hands, 
and read it there;
but who, I ask Thee, who art Thou?
Tell me Thy name, and tell me now.
 
In vain Thou strugglest to get free;
I never will unloose my hold;
art Thou the Man that died for me?
The secret of Thy love unfold;
wrestling, I will not let Thee go,
till I Thy name, Thy nature know.
 
\u2019Tis Love! \u2019tis Love! 
Thou diedst for me,
I hear Thy whisper in my heart;
the morning breaks, 
the shadows flee:
pure, universal Love Thou art;
to me, to all Thy mercies move;
Thy nature and Thy name is Love.
 
The Sun of Righteousness on me
hath rose with healing in His wings,
withered my nature\u2019s strength; from Thee
my soul its life and succour brings;
my help is all laid up above;
Thy nature and Thy Name is Love<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Reading<\/strong>       Hosea 12: 2 \u2013 6<\/em>
 
The Lord has an indictment against Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways, and repay him according to his deeds. In the womb he tried to supplant his brother, and in his manhood he strove with God. He strove with the angel and prevailed, he wept and sought his favour; he met him at Bethel, and there he spoke with him. The Lord the God of hosts, the Lord is his name! But as for you, return to your God, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.
 
Sermon<\/strong>
 
They say we can choose our friends but not our families.  
We may argue with our families but they don\u2019t stop being related to us. We can fall out, cease communication, only see them at the great events of birth, marriage and death, but they still remain our families \u2013 even if they wound us or we wound them.  We have people we used to be friends with, but we don\u2019t have people who used to be our brother, or father, or mother, or sister.  Blood, they say, is thicker than water.  Maybe that\u2019s why families are complex; no matter how hard we try we\u2019re still related to them. No matter how they, or we, behave, those bonds are there. Friendships change and, sometimes, end; families endure in all their complexity.
 
Our readings today give a glimpse of an ancient family feud and an experience of struggle which still speaks to us. Jacob and his brother Esau had a troubled relationship. They struggled even in their mother\u2019s womb. Jacob deceived their father, Isaac, to get his blessing and inheritance thus denying it to his brother Esau. Jacob struggled throughout his life \u2013 he had to strive with his father-in-law Laban in order to marry Rachel and, in today\u2019s reading he strove against an unknown traveller against a background of family conflict and tentative reunion. Jacob had been away for 20 years in Mesopotamia; the last time we saw Esau and Jacob together in the text Esau was plotting to kill his brother as he\u2019d been cheated out of his inheritance. Now Esau was rich and powerful as was Jacob \u2013 he\u2019d done well with his years away. 
 
When Jacob left, all those years beforehand, he\u2019d negotiated a deal to come back in safety but that agreement was about to be put to the test. Jacob sent messengers ahead with extravagant gifts to Esau in order to test the waters. The messengers returned and told Jacob that his brother is coming to meet him \u2013 but with 400 men.  Quite an honour guard and, given their family dynamic, Jacob was anxious.  Assuming his brother was hostile Jacob divided his family and retainers into two groups so that if attacked one half could flee to safety. Jacob pleaded with God for safety and trusted in both his prayers and his preparations. Half his family, stock, and retainers withdrew. Night came and then this strange scene happened where Jacob wrestled through the night with a stranger.  
 
The wrestling continued and neither would let the other go; eventually it\u2019s clear that Jacob was wrestling with God \u2013 the refusal to tell Jacob His name is the clue. (In the Old Testament God does not reveal His name simply telling Moses \u201cI am who I am\u201d or \u201cI will be who I will be\u201d. To let another know one\u2019s name is to allow another to have power over you and God doesn\u2019t play that game.)  The stranger changed Jacob\u2019s name to Israel just as God changed Abram\u2019s name to Abraham. The encounter left Jacob forever wounded and the story continued with a reconciliation with Esau.
 
This idea of wrestling with God is one that has entertained the imaginations of Jews and Christians for millennia. Our reading from Hosea is an early Jewish attempt to interpret the story. Hosea ministered 800 years before Jesus in the northern Jewish kingdom of Israel.  He\u2019s a bit of a prophet of doom foretelling destruction if the people don\u2019t turn back to God.  In today\u2019s passage Hosea identifies the Jewish people, Israel, with Jacob \u2013 whose name was changed into Israel.  Just as Jacob fought in the womb with his brother and with God as an adult, so the people have rebelled against God and fight against Him. Just as Jacob prevailed against God so we can prevail by obeying God by holding fast to love and justice.  
 
Much later, Luther saw this story as one of wrestling with God \u2013 not surprising given the troubles Luther had with the Church in his attempts to reform it. Calvin saw the story as a vision for all of us about the wrestling we have to do in life \u2013 the Lord, he said, exercises us with various kinds of conflicts. God tries our strength through these struggles. Calvin thought that it was, like Jacob, with God\u2019s own self that we wrestle in order to be tested and strengthened.  Charles Wesley, in his hymn Come O Thou Traveller Unknown <\/em>saw the figure that Jacob wrestled with as Christ. Wesley captures Jacob\u2019s desire to know God \u201cThe secret of Thy love unfold; wrestling, I will not let Thee go, till I Thy name, Thy nature know.\u201d
We know all too well that the life of faith, like families, is hard!  Just as we struggle with families, learning to keep the peace, find ways to challenge and disagree without wounding deep bonds, finding ways to be ourselves against another\u2019s wrath we also struggle with faith.  We can see throughout our history of the struggle to follow Christ can be difficult; whether that\u2019s Christians in Roman arenas or meeting in secret in Iran, North Korea, or Saudi Arabia now.   But for us it\u2019s hard to \u2013 not has hard as where the Church is persecuted \u2013 but we still do a lot of wrestling and some wounding.  Sometimes that struggle is to be true to ourselves and our faith:
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