Welcome to the online service of worship for the Second Sunday after Christmas  The YouTube playlist may be found here or view below.

MAYFIELD SALISBURY PARISH CHURCH
EDINBURGH

Sunday Services of Public Worship
Online from 8.00am (onwards) Every Sunday

Sunday 3 January 2021

Second Sunday After
Christmas

Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love Divine;
Love was born at Christmas,

Star and angels gave the sign.

Worship we the Godhead
Love Incarnate, Love Divine;
Worship we our Jesus:
But wherewith for sacred sign?


Love shall be our token,
Love be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and all men,
Love for plea and gift and sign.

Christina Rossetti

AS A DIVERSE PEOPLE, THE CHURCH GATHERS TO WORSHIP ALMIGHTY GOD

Welcome  Revd Helen Alexander

Welcome to the members and friends of the congregation of Mayfield Salisbury Parish Church and to others who may be joining us in our worship online for the 2^nd Sunday after Christmas Day and the first Sunday in the New Year.

New Year can often be a time we take stock as we look back on events and circumstances that may have given us pleasure and joy as well as pain; as we recognise what we might rightly leave behind with the year that is gone; and choose what to carry forward with hope and courage into the year that’s just begun.

For Mayfield Salisbury there is the anticipation of the arrival of the Minister Elect, the Revd Dr Sandy Forsyth later this month and the hope of the new beginnings that this entails for congregation and minister alike. We wish him and his family very well as they prepare to move to Edinburgh in the coming days. 

And I send best wishes to all for 2021 in the hope that it will be a much better one for us in this country throughout the world.

I invite you all to join me now in a short period of silence in preparation for worship.

Silence

Scripture Sentences

The mighty one, God the Lord,
speaks and summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God shines forth.

Glory to God in the highest heaven,
And on earth peace among those whom he favours.

Prayer

At the beginning of a new year, bringing our thoughts and prayers before the mercy seat of heaven, seeking comfort and forgiveness for things gone wrong, and confirmation of things accomplished happily and well; seeking liberation from negativity of spirit and from preconceptions that would bind us; seeking clarity and light for each benighted mind and heart; and grace, guidance and wisdom for the days that lie ahead;

bringing the specificities of our lives, so different in circumstance yet alike in human need and longing, for the tenderness and loving kindness of God in Jesus Christ; summoning half-formed remembrances, or very present pains or pleasures to be fashioned into prayer in the faith that they will be returned to us clothed with dignity and grace; seeking grace to occupy a quiet centre within that may at first seem empty, yet by some miracle might fill with blessing for our lives and beyond them.

And so keeping silence now as we make our prayers of petition, thankfulness and hope…….

Spirit of mercy, truth and love, at work so long ago in Jesus Christ our Lord, born a child in Bethlehem who lived and died that all the world might know his grace, be pleased to work the mystery of that grace within us, among us and through us; bring to birth in us your comfort, challenge, courage, and hope, and lead us by your love into the ways of peace; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect for the Day
God of power and life and the glory of all who believe in your name, fill the world with your splendour and reveal to the nations the light of your truth; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Children’s Address  Hillary Leslie

Good morning everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year! Can you believe it is now 2021? I know it will take me a few weeks before I remember to write the date correctly!

Does anyone know the song the 12 days of Christmas? Do you think we could remember what gifts were received each day?

Now, when I was younger, I didn’t realise that the 12 days of Christmas start on Christmas day and continue after Christmas until we reach what’s known as ‘Epiphany’ in the church calendar. Epiphany celebrates the visit of the wise men, or the Magi as we also call them, to Jesus after his birth.

This moment in the Christmas story is very significant. The Magi travelled for a very long time, following a star to the place where Jesus was born. They had orders from King Herod (who was not happy about Jesus’ birth) to find the child and return to King Herod to tell him where the child was located. King Herod did not have good intentions, and desired for Jesus to be killed because he was a threat to Herod’s reign as king.

When the Magi finally reached Jesus after following the star, they were overcome with joy. They gave him gifts, but they are different to what we sing about in the 12 days of Christmas – does anyone know what the three gifts were? Gold, Frankincense & Myrrh.

When it came time for them to leave, they returned home by a different road. After encountering Jesus, they were changed. They weren’t the same as they were before meeting Jesus.

At the start of a new year, it’s a common tradition for us to think of goals and resolutions, which are ways in which to make changes in our lives and decide to do new things or stop doing old things.

I think this year we’ve all encountered big changes we weren’t expecting because of the coronavirus. We are entering into a new year having changed so much about our normal day-to-day living, and I think it’s all taught us a lot about ourselves. It hasn’t been an easy year, but looking back on it, I’m able to see the powerful way in which God has worked through all of the changes and adjustments we’ve had to make in our lives. We’ve learned how to show love to our neighbours, to find joy in small things, and find creative ways to connect with our friends and family.

I wonder if we can challenge ourselves in this new year to be changed by the birth of Jesus. Just as the Magi encountered Jesus and left changed, may we too discover what it means to be changed by the hope, peace, joy and love that Jesus has brought into the world. May we learn how to encounter God in everything this year and share those experiences with others.

Dear God,
Thank you for Jesus’ birth,
And for the light and love he brought into the world.
Help us face this new year with hope
That the peace, love and joy of Jesus
Will change us like it changed the Magi.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.

Carol   O Little One Sweet

O little one sweet, O little one mild,
Thy Father's purpose thou hast fulfilled;
Thou camest from heaven to mortal ken,
Equal to be with us poor men,
O little one sweet, O little one mild.

O little one sweet, O little one mild,
With joy thou hast the whole world filled;
Thou camest here from heaven's domain,
To bring men comfort in their pain,
O little one sweet, O little one mild.

O little one sweet, O little one mild,
In thee Love's beauties are all distilled;
Then light in us thy love's bright flame,
That we may give thee back the same,
O little one sweet, O little one mild.

O little one sweet, O little one mild,
Help us to do as thou hast willed.
Lo, all we have belongs to thee!
Ah, keep us in our fealty!
O little one sweet, O little one mild.

Words by Old German translated by Percy Dreamer (1867 – 1936)
Music harmonized by J S Bach (1685- 1750)

WE LISTEN FOR THE SPIRIT OF GOD IN SCRIPTURE

Reading    Ephesians 1: 3 – 14    NRSVA     George Ross

Reflection    Revd Helen Alexander

Come with me on a journey of imagination back in time to the closing years of the century that began with the birth of Christ. Come with me not to Bethlehem or Jerusalem, but beyond the Holy Land to one of the great cities of the Near East. It could be Alexandria or Antioch, but let’s choose as the most likely the cosmopolitan port of Ephesus near the western shores of modern-day Turkey as they meet the Aegean Sea.

Pretend you’ve a camera with a wide 21st Century long-distance lens. Approach from the sea and focus on the city’s bustling, noisy harbour full of ships from all over the known world. Sweep into the city itself that nestles in a fertile valley. Let your camera take in the houses and city streets, the vast amphitheatre, the public squares and colonnaded market places jammed with craftsmen and merchants. Come closer to the lecture halls and civic buildings, the synagogues and temples - and the crown of them all, its massive stone columns soaring towards the sky, the great temple of the Greek goddess Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World.

Now come closer still to focus on one of the busy city streets. Pick out a man with an intelligent face, walking purposefully yet thoughtfully, perhaps returning home from conducting business or watching a play. Or perhaps he has been at the assembly of followers of what they call The Way, the strange new off-shoot from Judaism that’s gathering members: Jews, Greeks, all sorts who meet to eat and drink together and to worship in the name of one Jesus Christ, crucified and risen.

The Jews of the synagogues who remain loyal to the traditions and practice of their faith will have none of it. For the other inhabitants of Ephesus, it’s one more in a plethora of religious cults. A few are interested; most shrug and continue as they are. Many cling devotedly to the goddess Artemis, despite the trouble in the relatively recent past caused by the Christian Apostle Paul whose exorcisms challenged the pagan sorcerers’ magic arts, and whose preaching against idols had enraged the artisans and silversmiths whose trade depended on the worship of the great goddess in her temple.

But our man in the street, cultured, steeped in the philosophical traditions of the Greeks as well as in the Hebrew Scriptures, has come to believe with all his heart and mind that Jesus is the promised Messiah of the Jews, the long awaited Christ; the supreme gift of life not only for Jews but for Greeks; for anyone and everyone who will take him to their hearts; for he is convinced that “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son” who is to be worshipped and adored above all gods and goddesses.

The man has reached his house. Follow him inside and see him enter a room that is crammed with parchments and papyrus scrolls. See him take his seat at a simple writing desk, light a candle, and reach for a script written in his own hand. Then watch as slowly he reads his account of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, stopping every so often to raise his eyes, to wait quietly as if in prayer, and then to return to the script.

Others too have written lives of Christ, and while he has avidly read one or two of these early gospels, his narrative is distinct. Attendance at the assembly that gathers in the city in the name of Jesus Christ, careful listening, hours of study and his own profound reflection on the glory of the mystery he believes has been revealed has enabled him produce his own creative witness with all the poetic power and mastery of metaphor and sign and symbol that is his.

He has written for those who long for truth and who scan the darkness of the world around them and in the depths of their souls for eternal light to live and even die for. He has written for those who practice the art of prayer; who are willing to take time to mediate on a single phrase: the Bread of life, the Light of the World, the Way, the Truth and the Life. He has written for those who see below the surface of things; whose longing for spiritual meaning takes them as deep as any well of water in a dusty land. He has written for those who know that the wind of the spirit blows where it wills; and blessed are they who are caught up in its gusts. He has written for those who raise a goblet of ruby red wine to their lips, and see beyond it to the life and death, the sorrow and celebration, and above all the glory of Jesus Christ. He has written for his fellow believers with their own dissentions and divisions; for Jewish opponents; and for the Greeks whose great philosophical traditions he realizes with a burst of godly genius can open up possibilities for belief in the one creative mind of God, and who, just possibly might then take the giant leap of faith in his incarnate Christ. Though he doesn’t know it he has written for millions in a world yet unknown to him.

Slowly and thoughtfully he reads to the end of his work. He could go on with much more, but then, when would he ever stop?

He looks back to where he began, with the witness of another John in the wilderness of Judea, and the baptism of Christ. For all the glory of the story that follows, something is lacking, he thinks. He lowers his head to sit quietly with little movement except his breath. This is his way of prayer.

Perhaps then – and this is pure conjecture; we have no way of knowing for sure – perhaps as he prays, words from a letter that has reached the Ephesian assembly of the followers of Christ come to his mind: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world…..With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”

 As far as I know, there is no evidence of a link between the Letter to the phesians and the Gospel According to St John, other than possibly the city of Ephesus itself, and a cosmological dimension to faith in Christ that each expresses in its own way.

Yet who knows the influences that inspired the expansive Godly mind of the writer of the Fourth Gospel? If John did indeed know the meditative letter, it’s likely that he’d have warmed to the beauty of expression in the blessing at the beginning with its talk of wisdom, truth and glory, and it’s surely not beyond the realms of possibility that this and other writing may have given the Fourth Evangelist confidence to shape his distinctive Gospel.

Come back in your mind to the man still seated at prayer in his silent room, the candle on his desk burning low. Then see him look up with the daring idea that has been crystallizing in his mind and that sums up all he has written, and see him pulling a blank parchment towards him. Now he knows how his Gospel will really begin, as memorable as the great declaration at the beginning of the letter to the Ephesians; and yet with his own style and singularly incarnational prose:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God……. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory….full of grace and truth.”

RESPONSE TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD WITHIN

Voluntary   In The Bleak Midwinter 
Gustav T. von Holst (1874-1934)    Played by Kate Pearson

Prayers   Revd Helen Alexander

As we stand at the beginning of a new year, let us open our minds and hearts in gratitude for all that has sustained and helped us in the difficult days of 2020:

‣ the support of family and friends geographically distanced or near at hand;

‣ kindness and care, sometimes from unexpected sources;

‣ the professionalism and dedication of health and care workers, teachers, public service  providers; newscasters and reporters; national and community leaders who seek the common good;

‣ faithful worship and service offered in church, and temple, synagogue and mosque;

‣ opportunities for reflection and the reprioritization of values and  concerns;

‣ new discoveries of resources within ourselves, our relationships, communities, nations and the earth.

Let us offer all these to the Lord for the continual blessing and good of all.

And as we enter this new year in which some things will change and others will remain the same to challenge as well as to support, let us pray for all who are beginning the year with fear and misgiving, loneliness and pain:

‣ those who have been bereaved this year and deprived of the usual means of saying farewell to those who have died;

‣ people who are sick, and those who in greater numbers than ever are faced with the possibility of death;

‣ people whose livelihoods are threatened or lost altogether;

‣ children who are falling behind in their learning and who go hungry for a decent meal as well as for food for their minds;

‣ people in this land and across the world who have nowhere safe to stay, and nowhere safe to go.

And let us commit them all to God’s grace and to the care of all who will seek to help.

Let us remember this United Kingdom so recently set on a divergent path from the European Union; remembering too the citizens of Europe, their lands and culture, and praying for stability and sanity in ongoing relationships with our national neighbours.

Let us remember all the nations of the earth struggling with the ongoing threat of coronavirus and its effects; praying for places where leadership is weak or self-serving, where divisions threaten prosperity and peace; where evil people seek to exploit others for their own gain; where war continues unstopped or threatens to shatter uneasy peace. And let us pray nonetheless that the angels’ song may still be heard, however faintly and that men and women everywhere may still seek the blessing and grace of hope and light that once lay in the person of the child in the manger.

Let us pray for strained relationships that we may carry with us into the new year; situations that may still burden us; hopes that may still threaten to tumble into fear. Let us pray for all we know and love: people who worry us and those who give us unparalleled delight and joy; committing all for whom we pray and ourselves in relation to them to the tender love of God who is the same yesterday, today and forever.

And rejoicing in the Communion of Saints, let us give thanks for those who have gone before us: countless souls of generations past; those whose memory we treasure; those whose influence in days gone by has made us the people we are today and whose memory will continue to sustain and guide us into the future; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Carol      In dulce Jubilo Traditional German

In dulci jubilo [In quiet joy]
Let us our homage show
Our heart’s joy reclineth
In praesepio [in a manger]
And like a bright star shineth
Matris in gremio [in the mother's lap]
Alpha es et O. [Thou art Alpha & Omega]

O Jesu parvule [O tiny Jesus]
I yearn for thee alway
Listen to my ditty
O puer optima [O best of boys]
Have pity on me, pity
O princeps gloriae, [Prince of glory]
Trahe me post te. [draw me unto thee]

O patris caritas [O father's caring]
O nati lenitas [O newborn's mildness]
Deeply were we stained
Per nostra crimina [by our crimes]
But thou hast for us gained
Coelorum gaudia [heavenly joy]
O that we were there.

Ubi sunt gaudia [where be joys]
If that they be not there
There are angels singing
Nova cantina [new songs]
There the bells are ringing
In regis curia [at the king's court]
O that we were there.

BENEDICTION   Revd Helen Alexander

Deep peace of the running wave to you
Deep peace of the flowing air to you
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you
Deep peace of the shining stars to you
Deep peace of the Son of peace to you
And the blessing of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit be with you all.

AMEN    

***

INTIMATIONS

Note: The Christmas Greeting can be found HERE

SERVICE OF INDUCTION    A service of induction for the Revd Dr Sandy Forsyth has been arranged to take place on Sunday 17th January at 4.00pm.  Due to the current lockdown restrictions, the service will be online only.   Further information to follow.

FORTHCOMING SERVICES AT MAYFIELD SALISBURY PARISH CHURCH 

Sunday 10th January -  Revd Helen Alexander
8.00am onwards Online Worship: Website
8.00am onwards Phone Worship: Dial-a-Sermon
*** NO Morning Worship in the Sanctuary

READINGS     The readings next week are Genesis 1: 1 – 5 and St Mark 1: 4 – 11.

THANK YOU     I should like to record my sincere thanks to the members of the Ministry Team and Anne Mulligan, the choristers, readers and stewards who contributed to the services online and in church throughout the Christmas Season. As my time as locum nears its end I should also like to record my appreciation of everyone whose skill and cooperation has enabled us to offer worship online and in church since the coronavirus struck in the Spring. You are too many to mention here by name but you are very much valued. In particular, the technological wizardly that the Organist Kate Pearson and Stuart Mitchell have brought to bear on their own musical skills and those of the Mayfield Salisbury Chamber Singers and Choir, and the Church Manager William Mearns’ expertise in producing the finished Order of Service week by week have been nothing short of amazing. I’m sure I speak for the whole congregation and many others who have joined in the worship over past months in thanking them all very sincerely. I know you aren’t finished yet! – and I also know you go on with much confidence and goodwill. Helen Alexander

MIDWEEK PEACE AND PRAYERS

10.00am – 11.00am every Wednesday in the Sanctuary (not 6 January)

• Have you been considering visiting the sanctuary for Five Minutes’ Peace on a Wednesday evening but are deterred by the dark and the cold?

• Are you missing Tuesday Morning Prayers?

If so, then we have good news! Mayfield Salisbury are launching a new midweek daytime initiative which will combine these two activities! During the winter months, members of the congregation will have the opportunity to spend a time of silent prayer/meditation in the sanctuary during daylight hours and also participate in worship and fellowship in communal prayers led by our Pastoral Assistant Kay McIntosh.

• 10:00 - 10:30am Prayers led by Kay McIntosh

• 10:30 - 11:00am Sanctuary open for silent meditation and private prayer

If you wish to, please feel free to bring along your own bible and pew cushion.   Come along for either or both this Wednesday.

OFFERING  The Church is very grateful to all those who continue to support it through their regular and one-off donations, now possible through standing order or the ‘give.net’ facility on the website give.net/20311853 So many members have kindly changed from Freewill Offering Envelopes to standing order that envelopes will not be distributed in future. Because of ongoing concerns regarding Covid19 it is not known when open plate offerings will recommence. If you wish to discuss the manner of your future offerings please feel free to contact me using the details shown on the last page of the Grapevine parish magazine.    Hugh Somerville

Forthcoming Deadlines

Order of service for next week: Thursday at 6.00pm.

Next Grapevine: Friday 29 January 2021 at 6.00pm.

Please send submissions to the Church Manager, William Mearns.

Phone: 0780 801 1234 or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

***

Copyright Notices

SCRIPTURE QUOTATIONS are from New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission.

All rights reserved worldwide.

Mayfield Salisbury Parish Church holds a CCLI Streaming License: #88916

Images – Some courtesy of Pixabay

***

 Social Media

www.facebook.com/MayfieldSalisbury

www.youtube.com/user/MayfieldSalisbChurch

www.flickr.com/photos/98063709@N06/

Youth Instagram: the.msyg

 www.mayfieldsalisbury.org

Scottish Charity Number SC000785