蜜芽传媒

OPENING ANNOUNCEMENT蜜芽传媒 Radio 4. On this Sunday before St Patrick鈥檚 Day, Sunday Worship from Northern Ireland, is led by Dr Helen Warnock, the Principal of the Belfast Bible College, an interdenominational theological college and the Reverend Cheryl Meban听 听Presbyterian chaplain to the Ulster University in Belfast. The service begins with the hymn 鈥業 heard the voice of Jesus say, come unto me and rest听听
Music听 : I heard the voice of Jesus say (KINGSFOLD; traditional, arr R Vaughan Williams)Verses 1-2The Choir of Manchester CathedralCD: The Complete New English Hymnal (Priory)
Cheryl: Good morning and welcome. I鈥檓 here at Glenburn House in Dunmurry, in South Belfast. In 1982 My father, who was principal of Belfast Bible College, relocated the college to this spot. Glenburn means 鈥渟tream in the valley鈥�. And the Glenburn river runs right by this lovely old house, appropriate, I think on this fourth Sunday in Lent听 when we are considering how Jesus reaches out to the thirsty. The college and community here of live-in and commuting students serves to equip people to share the living water of God鈥檚 love, to drink deeply of the life God gives, through theological study, worship and shared community life, and service to the wider community. Through this time of pandemic, the patterns of interaction and learning have changed, but the river continues to flow.
Helen: Yes all of us have been and continue to be impacted by the pandemic. And here at Belfast Bible College,听 we too are learning how to live through this most unusual time. when our engagement with theology has never felt so relevant and life-giving. You will notice the motif of water flowing its way through our service this morning. and so, we hope this space together will usher some welcome refreshment. So, we pray together :听
Faithful God, particularly on this Mothering Sunday when many of us may feel isolated, bereft and deserted, as if in a wilderness, waiting for our relationships, our hugs, our gathered communities to be revived, you are here, in the wilderness, as you were silently present with Jesus in his own desert experiences. We draw near now to the River of Life, to drink deeply from your loving presence, to be nourished, refreshed and cleansed, inside and out by the drink that you give. May our love flow faithfully and persistently through our lives and our world. Faithful River, flow through us. Amen.听Cheryl:听The Psalmist wrote: As the deer longs for water, so my soul longs for you 鈥� my tears have become my food听
Music : Psalm 42 - As the deer longs for streams听 (Irish Traditional)Kiran Wimberley and the McGrathsCD: Celtic Psalms Vol 1 (Essential Christian)
Cheryl: The ancient psalmists sing of us quenching our spiritual dehydration in the presence of the living God. The Gospel-writers too, see God quenching our thirst 鈥� though in the fourth Gospel, it鈥檚 initially not water, but wine that is given to slake our parched souls.听
Reader: John 2:1-10听 A wedding took place in Cana of Galilee.听Jesus鈥� mother was there,and Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding as well.听When the wine ran out, Jesus鈥� mother told Him, 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 have any wine.鈥濃�淲hat has this concern of yours to do with Me, woman?鈥澨� Jesus asked.听鈥淢y hour has not yet come.鈥濃�淒o whatever He tells you,鈥� His mother told the servants.Now six stone water jars had been set there for Jewish purification.听Each contained 20 or 30 gallons.鈥淔ill the jars with water,鈥� Jesus told them.So they filled them to the brim. Then He said to them,听鈥淣ow draw some out and take it to the chief servant.鈥滱nd they did.When the chief servant tasted the water (after it had become wine),he did not know where it came from鈥攖hough the servants who had drawn the water knew.He called the groom and told him,鈥淓veryone sets out the fine wine first, then, after people have drunk freely, the inferior.听 听But you have kept the fine wine until now.鈥滳heryl: The water containers were huge jars set out so that people could perform their ritual washing, in order to satisfy the religious rules 鈥� all very sensible and no doubt good hygienic practices鈥� Though it鈥檚 no accident that this Gospel goes on immediately to tell us the story of Jesus鈥� challenging and overturning the abuses of religious practices in the temple in Jerusalem.听
Helen: So back in Cana, when Jesus turns the water for ritual washing into wine, he is signifying a way of relating to God which is not merely a surface action, but rather something deeper, from the skin out 鈥� it is something that we drink deeply of, it nourishes our body 鈥� every cell, from the inside-out, And not only a means of sustenance and refreshment but also a catalyst to听 and marker in celebration. This is the kind of life that Jesus offers us听 鈥� a听 deep life, a life of purpose, refreshment and joy.
Music听 听Arioso from Cantata BWV 156 (JS Bach)David RussellCD: Air on a G String Baroque Masterpieces (Telarc)
Cheryl: When religious practices have the effect of focussing on outward appearances, external signs of purity, - or reducing relationships and spiritual wellbeing to transactions and accounting, - we end up excluding the very people God wants to bless, including ourselves - and our forms of worship have then lost their way.听听
This story, which isn鈥檛 told in the other Gospels, has, at its core, a sign or miracle designed, as John鈥檚 miracles do, to tell us something crucial about who Jesus was and what his life was about. This is the first of those signs. And the sign is this: a transformation from disaster to abundance, from failure to feasting.
Helen: The hosts of the wedding party ought to have provided enough to drink for everyone, but they haven鈥檛,- the wine has run out - and it鈥檚 a social disaster that looks like it will be used to shame the family for years to come. But it strikes me shame is not the garment God wishes to clothe his people in, rather he clothes us with respect in dignity and belonging听
Music:听 I heard the voice of Jesus say听 verse 3
As people of faith, we, like the wedding hosts, ought to be offering abundance to our guests听鈥� offering sustenance, refreshment and joy!
This has been a hard year of navigating life through a pandemic鈥� it is easy to feel like the reserves are gone. Maybe we, need to hear afresh that Jesus is in the work of transformation 鈥� transforming situations, removing the lack and abundantly providing, renovating shame to joy, ushering in life- life-giving听transformation.
Cheryl:听The wine had been finished. The hosts have failed in their hospitality. Something has to change., And what this Gospel tells us is that Jesus is the one to bring the change 鈥� to make the wedding a place full of generous hospitality and joy again. But he doesn鈥檛 do it alone.
Firstly, his mother Mary, concerned for the well-being听of this host family, pesters Jesus to do something 鈥� to save the hosts鈥� terminal embarrassment and to bless the wedding 鈥� and perhaps the marriage - with the joy of abundant wine for the celebrations. Jesus pushes back against her request for help, but she doesn鈥檛 give up 鈥� and despite him saying it鈥檚 not his time, she confidently tells the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them. And so, Mary 鈥� a woman with little status in the community, and the nameless but obedient servants, become indispensable to the blessing God gives this wedding family. 鈥�
Helen 鈥� This transformation that Jesus ushers in, is in response to the invitation of his Mother, an invitation to get involved. We don鈥檛 just fill bottles; we serve people听 with what Jesus gives us. Our faith, our theology, our faithful living is shared in activity with him and is indeed intended to听 refresh the whole world!
Cheryl: What can we see in our world that we want God to do something about today? Where do you see need? And as you see, do you feel helpless, without status, like Mary and the servants? Can we follow Mary鈥檚 example of asking persistently? Or the servants鈥� example of doing unexpected and radical things to turn a crisis into a blessing? How can we transform our closest relationships with mothers and sons and daughters to move from rules and restrictions to freedom and grace?
Reader: Lord, on this day that we stop and consider the actions of听 his mother. How her prompting, her invitation changed a situation and ushered in joy. So, in the midst of this most unusual times, we ask that you would refresh mothers, our mothers. We are thankful for their love, their investment but also we acknowledge their struggles, their humanity and ask will you come and be present in their lives.听 But we also ask that you transform our lives, our world too. Amen
Music :听 听Like a mighty river flowing (OLD YEAVERING; No毛l Tredinnick)The Choir of Wells CathedralThe English Hymn, Vol. 1 - Christ Triumphant听 (Hyperion)
Cheryl: As we follow this motif of water this morning鈥� we notice how The fourth Gospel, John鈥檚 Gospel begins with the Word through whom, in Genesis all is created, who broods over the waters. Then the Gospel leaps forward to John the Baptist, who baptises with water, and who baptises Jesus. It tells us about the people Jesus invites to Come and see, the disciples who follow him.听
Music: The Lark Ascending (Vaughan Williams)The London Philarmonic Orchestra/HaitinkCD : Vaughan Williams Symphony No 5 &c听 (Warner Classics)
And then we get the first of his Signs, as the Gospel text calls them. The first is the changing of water into wine. The Gospel wants to establish Jesus as being the Word of God in flesh, so it has Jesus doing in micro form what God does globally every year 鈥� Jesus changing water into wine,听 echoing the actions of God through the gift of rain watering vines鈥�people harvesting and trampling grapes, then the chemistry of fermenting the juice to make wine.听
Helen: So, at one level the sign can be seen as a sign of who Jesus is 鈥� God in flesh; at another level, it is a sign of what God is doing through Jesus 鈥� refreshing and transforming ritual and form into fulness of life.听
Cheryl:听The next chapter gives us a conversation between Jesus and a Pharisee, Nicodemus, who comes to Jesus by night. Nicodemus is in the dark, so to speak, about the nature of the life God wants to give people. And Jesus says we must be born 鈥渙f water and the Spirit鈥澨�
Helen: Jesus is not negating the importance of the normal, physical things, like water, but pointing to the fulness of life and relationship with God that is on offer. The examples of the听 story at Cana and the turning of tables at the temple in Jerusalem, tell us he鈥檚 wanting to ensure that everyone can access this life, this relationship.
Cheryl: After the conversation with Nicodemus, the righteous religious leader, the story takes us with Jesus to the home of heretics 鈥� the Samaritans, with whom Jews would have no social interaction. Jesus stops at a well in the town of Sychar when a woman comes to draw water, a woman to whom life has been hard and cruel.
Reader: Jesus said to her, 鈥榃ill you give me a drink?鈥櫶� (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)The Samaritan woman said to him, 鈥榊ou are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?鈥� (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)Jesus answered her, 鈥業f you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.鈥欌�楽ir,鈥� the woman said, 鈥榶ou have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?鈥橨esus answered, 鈥楨veryone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.鈥�
Music: O come everyone that thirsteth (Mendelssohn)Janet Naker/Gwyneth Jones New Philarmonia Orchestra and Chorus听CD: Mendelssohn 鈥� Elijah (EMI)
Cheryl: So, in the middle east, in the midday heat, Jesus is sitting by a well 鈥� and he doesn鈥檛 have a bucket. Sometimes in our lives, it seems as if Jesus is a nice man, or God is a kind old grandfatherly figure, wellmeaning, but powerless to help even听 himself, still less to do anything to change the stuff we are having to deal with.听
Music: Grave e Cantabile from the Seven Last Words from the Cross (Haydn)The Julliard QuartetCD Haydn The Seven Last Words of Christ (Sony Classical)
Helen: I wonder what the woman who came to the well thought of him. She knew that a Jewish man of his day wouldn鈥檛 have spoken to a Samaritan, or an unchaperoned woman not in his family. But Jesus does speak. And not to talk down to her, to issue commands or demean her. Instead, he asks her for help.听
Cheryl: In the wedding at Cana, it was Mary asking him for help. Now he turns to a Samaritan woman and asks HER!
Helen: I wonder what Jesus was thinking. Perhaps He recognises his own human frailty and the opportunity this woman has to bless him by giving him a drink. Life has treated her harshly 鈥� 鈥� she has had five husbands, and whether they died, or divorced her, justly or unjustly, she is now dependent for her home and her future upon a man who offers her even less security.听
Cheryl: How can it be that a woman like this is still being talked about two thousand years later?听
Helen: Because Jesus saw the value in her and gave her the living water welling up within her that overflowed to bless her whole community, and continues to bless us, all this time later.听
Cheryl: In John chapter 7, Jesus stands on the steps of the temple and, echoing a prophecy in Ezekiel 47, claims to be the true temple, the source of rivers of life:
Reader: On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, 鈥楲et anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.听 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.鈥� By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.
Helen: This promised flow of healing water doesn鈥檛 come without cost. The Fourth Gospel tells us that at the tomb of his friend Lazarus, Jesus sheds tears.
Music:听 Drop, drop slow tears (Gibbons)City of Birmingham Symphony ChorusCD:听 Favourite Hymns (Sony)
If all the references to water up to this point were designed to show that Jesus is bringing something more than natural, something spiritual, the death of his friend Lazarus may be the turning point of the Gospel. Here Jesus weeps. Sheds tears. Is fully, Truly human. And it is from his humanity, his brokenness and grief, that the fulfilment of his promise is to be poured out to the world.
Music:听 Wir setzen uns mit Tr盲nen nieder from the St Matthew Passion (Bach)The Monteverdi Choir /English Baroque/John Eliot GardinerCD: Bach : St Matthew Passion (Archiv Production)
Cheryl: The next time John鈥檚 Gospel uses water is at the last supper before Jesus鈥� crucifixion. Instead of focusing听on bread and wine, John notes how Jesus is washing the disciples鈥� feet. Transforming the Passover meal to a sign of pouring himself out in personal love, humble service, prefiguring the death he will suffer.听
The wine he then drinks in the fourth Gospel is the wine vinegar offered to him on a sponge on a stick 鈥� sponges on sticks were used to clean bottoms. John鈥檚 Jesus is utterly defiled, drinking the dirt of the worst of human violence and abuse. And a Roman spear pierces his heart, from which water and blood both flow.听
Helen: How can it be? Is this bloody, fleshy human beingWho pours out his life to wash the stinking feet of others,听Is this the well from whom true well-being听is drawn,听is this the spring in whose life eternal life springsis this the听 fountain whence the healing stream doth flow?听God help us, feed us, quench our thirst.
MUSIC : Guide me, O thou great JehovahThe Huddersfield Choral SocietyThe Hymns Album (Parlophone)
Reader: Lord we ask that you refresh us, that you would bring us life in abundance.听
We give thanks for our colleges, schools and universities, praying for students and staff that听 the flow of your听 听gracious may be extended throughout the the earth.
And on this day when motherhood is celebrated, we听 pray for mothers, thanking听you for the life they have given us and embarking on motherhood for the first time and experiencing the mix of new feelings of inadequacy, protection and love.. And as we recognise O God how you care for us as as a mother, may we take refuge in the shelter of your wings.听
We pray for all who are thirsty, thirsty because of a lack of physical water of thirsty for love and affection, respect or recognition, thirsty for you, the Living God- may their needs be satisfied.
On this Sunday before St Patrick鈥檚 Day, we pray for our own country and all other nations, especially those where oppression and violence are common, that the world may come to know that peace you alone can give.
And we remember too all whose lives have been changed by coronavirus and its results and for those who care for them, asking that they may know your help and support.
We remember the new mothers May you refresh these mothers.听
We remember mothers who are now experiencing the care and attention of their sons and daughters as they now receive care in their sickness and need.听
These and all our prayers we offer in the name and for the sake of Jesus听Christ
Together: Our Father in Heaven听Hallowed be your NameYour Kingdom ComeYour Will be Done on earth as in heavenGive us this day our daily breadAnd forgive us our sinsAs we forgive those who sin against usAnd lead us not into temptationBut deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours,听Now and ever Amen听
Helen:听May the generous gift of Jesus Christ our Lord, the eternal love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit flow in, through and around us today and for ever. Amen
MUSIC听 :听 The King of love my shepherd is听 (DOMINUS REGIT ME; JB Dykes)The Choir of Westminster AbbeyCD: Favourite Hymns from Westminster Abbey
Organ:听 听Chorale Prelude on Erbarm鈥� Dich mein听 (JS Bach)Simon PrestonCD; Bach the Organ Works (Deutsche Grammophon)