The Rev’d Roger Baker led our worship last Sunday morning. Roger was welcomed by our steward, Sue Fox. He called us to worship and we sang the great hymn by Charles Wesley “O for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer’s praise, the glories of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace!” This was followed by prayers of thanksgiving, praise and confession.
There were two bible readings. The first from Psalm 72 led by Sue Fox, where the congregation read alternate verses, and the second from Luke, chapter four, read by Rod Smith, who also played the organ for the service. In this chapter, Luke tells the story of Jesus reading from Isaiah in the Nazareth synagogue and the listeners marvelled at his eloquence as he said, “this passage of scripture has come true today!”
“Jesus turned the world upside down”, said Roger. “He shook up the serenity of those in authority in the synagogue and he continues today to turn the world upside down. His presence and teachings turned the world of the chief priests upside down. They looked for an all-conquering Messiah and here was Jesus, the son of Joseph, the carpenter and his wife Mary, from their village, saying he was the Messiah”. It was not the rich and those of high standing that he came to serve, but the poor, the downtrodden and the prisoner. How could he do this? He said the poor were the ones who would get the good news as he turned all the leadership and their traditions upside down as he said the poor would be the ones who would receive salvation. This was an upside down vision of what the world is. “What is our vision for the world?”, asked Roger. Jesus shakes us up in the cosy little world we live in as he sends us to help those in need. We constantly need to speak up against the injustices of the world, as we are called to be upside down people in our troubled world.