We were pleased to have our former minister, the Rev’d Roger Baker, lead our worship last Sunday morning who chose as his theme “Be still and know He is God”. Having served in the Tamworth and Lichfield Circuit for many years and now in retirement, it was good to have him back with us and he was warmly welcomed by our steward Sue Fox. After his call to worship from Psalm 46, we sang our opening hymn “Be still, for the presence of the Lord, the Holy One is here”. Rod Smith played the organ.
After our prayers of praise, adoration and thanksgiving we said the Lord’s Prayer together. There followed two bible readings, the first from Psalm 46, read by Rod Smith, where we responded with alternate verses. The second from Matthew eleven, read by Norma Buckley, where Jesus says to the people “Come to Me and Rest”.
In his sermon Roger preached on these words of Jesus where he said, “Come to me all of you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest”. Many of us are tired and weary with physical, emotional and mental fatigue but Jesus is here for us to give us his strength and support through difficult times. There are three things offered to us through Christ and his love for us. He said simply “Come, Take and Learn”. Roger examined these three headings in detail saying Jesus was inviting us to come alongside him saying “come just as you are and find in me rest from the busy, messy stuff in our lives”. Second he invited us to “take my yoke upon you”. Jesus was a carpenter who most probably made yokes for the oxen of his day and he invites us to submit to his choice which will lead us to the place of rightness in our lives. As Jesus shared our yoke we are led into the place of rest. Third, we are never too old to learn from Jesus. He knew God’s word, he prayed, he stopped often and re-focussed on God’s unfailing love. In Jesus we have our example and he will say calmly “Come, Take and Learn”.
We celebrated the sacrament of Holy Communion the minister being assisted by Jill Harrison. Our morning’s worship was a time of great blessing.