Psalm 117: Praise the lord, all nations. His love for us is strong and his faithfulness eternal were the opening words of our morning service led by Rev. Mark Lawrence and welcomed by Rosalind. After prayers of thanks and pleas for forgiveness, Mark spoke to the children. He demonstrated his toy – a drone! Then contrasted this man-made, battery-reliant machine with the total reliability of God. Penelope and Emma took up our offerings before the children moved next door to make preparations for our Harvest Festival.
After prayers for persecuted Christians, our nation and the people on our hearts we repeated the Lord’s Prayer. Gerry Maxwell read to us from Matthew 18 – the unforgiving servant. Mark then talked about the sentence in the Lord’s Prayer: Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. God knows us completely and is full of mercy. Our forgiveness is not earned but given through the grace of Jesus as summarised in Isaiah 53 v4-6. He forgave his executioners even as he was completely innocent. But his teaching is clear. We must forgive others if we are to be forgiven. Mark illustrated this with Kim, a child who was napalmed in the Vietnam War. She has completely forgiven the perpetrators. Faith, love and forgiveness are more powerful than napalm.
We remembered Jesus’ sacrifice that paid for our sins as Mark served Holy Communion, assisted by Margaret Maxwell. Our final hymn – Blessed assurance – and a blessing concluded our worship.