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This script is not as broadcast. Some segments of the programme were spoken unscripted; sometimes the text below represents the intentions of the presenters rather than the actual words spoken.

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KRISH - Good morning!

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MUSIC: Dance The Night (From Barbie The Album) Dua Lipa - Mark Ronson/Andrew Wyatt/Dua Lipa/Caroline Ailin - Atlantic Records

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The movie Barbie was an unlikely smash hit. It鈥檚 the first film directed by a woman to make over a billion dollars. It held the number one must-see slot from New York to Nairobi to Newcastle and globally it was the highest grossing movie of the year.听 It has already won multiple awards including the brand-new Golden Globe for cinematic and box office achievement, and with the Oscars just around the corner, there may well be a few more to come.

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RACHEL - Surprisingly for a movie about a toy doll, it was a hit with all ages. It not only turned the world pink but it raised fascinating questions about identity, gender roles, self-sufficiency and love.听 And theologians and Christian leaders have been busy drawing parallels with the听 Gospel which we鈥檒l explore in our worship today.

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KRISH - In today鈥檚 service, recorded at MediaCityUK here in Salford for this the Sunday before Valentine鈥檚 Day, we use what has become the cultural phenomenon of Barbie as a jumping off point for our worship. For underlying the Barbie story there are a wealth of narratives found in the bible, from creation to fall, and the greatest question of all 鈥� where do we look for love and for our own sense of identity?听 鈥� Who am I? Am I enough? What was I made for?

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RACHEL 鈥� I鈥檓 Rachel Gardner, youthwork specialist, and I鈥檓 here with Dr Krish Kandiah, theologian, broadcaster and leader of a national refugee charity. Welcome to this special Barbie-themed service of worship and reflection.

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MUSIC Dua Lipa as above

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Our opening prayer asks God for his help in all this.

RACHEL: PRAYER 鈥揟hank you God for the power of human imagination and creativity in film and the arts, which invite us to explore who we are and what we鈥檙e made for. Help us this morning to embrace the wonder of being made in your image, for a life of love and purpose. AMEN

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Krish - . Who am I? Our first song celebrates the idea that we are children of God.

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MUSIC: Who You Say I Am - Hillsong Worship - Ben Fielding/Reuben Morgan - Hillsong (HIL HILLSONG MUSIC PUBLISHING AUSTRALIA,HILLSONG MUSIC PUBLISHING UK

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Krish 鈥� Rachel, why do you think the Barbie film has been such a global smash hit? - discussion follows

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Verses from Psalm 139

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KRISH:听 One of the highlights of Greta Gerwig's film comes in the second half, when Gloria (America Ferrera) delivers a monologue on the impossible double standards of being a woman. Ferrera described it as 鈥楥athartic and Truthful鈥�

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Extract

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MUSIC: What Was I Made For? (From The Motion Picture 'Barbie' - Billie Eilish - Universal Music Operations Ltd

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RACHEL: Billie Eilish鈥檚 song from the Barbie film 鈥榃hat am I made for?鈥� It has been nominated in the Oscars for Best Original Song, and Billie dedicated another award she received for the song at the Palm Springs International Film Festival to "anyone experiencing hopelessness". Accepting the award, Eilish spoke of her personal experience of feeling "existential dread".

听 I struggled with issues like Billie鈥檚 when I was a teenager and in my early twenties too. For many it鈥檚 almost an inevitable part of going through adolescence, but听 鈥� the incessant comparisons to friends, celebrities and influencers on social media can make such conversations feel really unsafe, for boys and girls - nowadays.

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Krish: Both of us is going to preach a short sermon this morning relating to a passage of scripture.听 Rachel will preach on psalm 139.

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RACHEL:

(鈥淔earfully and wonderfully made鈥�) Psalm 139 is one of the most popular go-to passages in the Bible about identity and self-worth. David, the isolated young shepherd boy who became a King, writes that he is 鈥榝earfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, I know that so well.鈥�

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By the time David was writing, God had already made millions of people. 3,000 years on, and God is still making people, all unique, all wonderful, all awe-inspiring in their own ways. Interestingly, these famous words are not uttered by God. They鈥檙e David鈥檚 words as he talks about what he knows about God, and what that tells him about himself. 鈥榊ou know me, God,鈥� he鈥檚 saying, 鈥楤ecause you saw me, even before anyone else on planet earth knew I鈥檇 begun.鈥�

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We鈥檙e not mass produced. We鈥檙e not all called Barbie, or Ken... or even Alan.We鈥檙e- you and me. Fearfully and wonderfully made by an Artist who does things very well. Who creates a masterpiece when he created you.

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But, how easy is that to really know this?

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A 14 year old girl in my church community told me recently, 鈥業鈥檓 ugly. I鈥檓...nothing.鈥�

鈥榃hat?鈥� I cried. 鈥楴othing could be further from the truth.鈥�

鈥楤ut it鈥檚 true,鈥� she insisted, quietly. 鈥業鈥檓 ugly.鈥�

How do you respond? I didn't know what to say so I said this:

鈥楬ow do you know?鈥� I asked

Taken aback with such a weird question, she said, 鈥楬ow do I know what?鈥�

鈥楬ow do you know you鈥檙e ugly?鈥�

鈥業 just am. I know it.鈥�

I paused. 鈥業 don鈥檛 know that.鈥� I said. 鈥楪od doesn鈥檛 know that. You're not ugly. You're fearfully and wonderfully made.听 God knows something different.鈥�

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God knows...

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David, although an author of many of the best loved songs in the Bible, didn鈥檛 live in some utopia. In fact, some people think that David wrote this Psalm when he was being accused of something he didn鈥檛 do. He鈥檚 concerned for his safety, and he鈥檚 also really distressed that his character is being slandered. It鈥檚 like he鈥檚 saying,鈥業f they think that I could do that, then they have no idea who I am. But you God, you know me.You see me.You search my heart and even when you know it all, you love me anyway.鈥�

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This painful situation does something for David. It helps him to see with clarity and certainty how his identity is held securely by a God who sees and knows the real him. And doesn鈥檛 just know him, loves him.

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Have you ever wondered why David says, 鈥榝earfully' about how God made him? We tend to use this word to mean being full of anxiety - something I wrestle with. But when David uses this, he鈥檚 not saying God is full of anxiety when he made us. He鈥檚 saying God is full of heart; focused, loving, all his attention directed towards one small human life.

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That鈥檚 what makes this so incredible. This is God, the biggest being in the universe, taking profound delight in watching over the smallest being; a tiny baby, growing in a human body.

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What changes everything for David isn鈥檛 his discovery of a belief, or a positive thinking meme he can hook his self-esteem on, he discovers God. In seeing God, he sees the miracle of his existence, his identity and worth. And he knows that the only hope he has of knowing, every day of his life that he is fearfully and wonderfully made, is in staying close to this God who knows him.

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As we listen to this next song, all about God鈥檚 greatness, remember that this is the God who is focused on you. Who knows you and loves you, deeply and without condition.

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MUSIC: How Great Thou Art - In Harmony - Aled Jones/Russell Watson - Traditional - BMG Rights Management (UK) Ltd - STUART HINE TRUST, INTEGRITY MUSIC

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Prayers and comment from young people at St Luke's Church, Blackburn.听听

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Rachel: Another theme raised in the Barbie movie, and linked to the question of identity, is that of adequacy and the common feeling that we are just not good enough.

Krish 鈥� Let鈥檚 listen to how Ken, played by Ryan Gosling, puts it in the movie:

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MUSIC: I鈥檓 Just Ken - Barbie The Album - Ryan Gosling - Mark Ronson/Andrew Wyatt - Atlantic Records - UNKNOWN PUBLISHER,WARNER-BARHAM MUSIC LLC,SONGS OF UNIVERSAL INC,UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING INTERNATIONAL LTD,UNIVERSAL/MCA MUSIC LIMITED,CONCORD COPYRIGHTS,CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC,SONGS OF ZELIG,HIFI MUSIC IP ISSUER L.P.,KOBALT MUSIC SERVICES AMERICA INC,KOBALT MUSIC PUBLISHING LTD

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Krish: I wanna know what's like to love, to be the real thing Is it a crime? Ken sings this song 鈥� again a potential Best Original Song winner at the Oscars in March -听 bare-chested revealing his sculpted body and six-pack, but they are not enough. Professor Cathy听 Richards, a clinical psychologist working in Edinburgh told me about the effect of body image on young minds:

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PROFESSOR CATHY RICHARDS听

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Music: Just As I Am - My Savior - Carrie Underwood - Charlotte Elliot - Capitol Nashville

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READER A reading from 1 Corinthians Chapter 13:

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听Krish: We just heard the most famous passage in the Bible about love, one that is read at most weddings I鈥檝e been to, but was actually written by a man who never married - the Apostle Paul. In fact it wasn鈥檛 written to inspire couples considering matrimony at all, but rather to protect a community that was falling to pieces. And by that I mean soap opera levels of dysfunction: parents sleeping with the same partners as their children, lawsuits between those attending the same church and more. It sets out the highest ideals of love and yet it was written in the middle of the darkest relational turmoil imaginable.听 Although it is almost exclusively applied now to romantic love, it was originally supposed to shape all human interaction.听

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These paradoxes remind me of the afternoon of my 20th wedding anniversary.听 I cycled home early from work to find something strange and rather chaotic going on in my garden. It was a hot summers day, and my bright orange T-shirt was drenched with sweat. But all around me friends and neighbours were dressed up. Our children had on their smartest clothes, and our youngest foster child was grinning from ear to ear while holding a red rose in his hand and sporting a snappy waistcoat. Then my wife walked in wearing the dress her mum had made for our wedding. She looked amazing. It was one of the best surprise parties ever. But it always makes me cringe a little when I see photos of that afternoon 鈥� my wife in her pristine white wedding dress, and me in my sweaty orange cycling gear.

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Those photos are a bit like the eulogy in 1 Corinthians 13. They suggest that love is most beautiful when it spans our differences, when it can bring together those who don鈥檛 seem to have anything in common. Love doesn鈥檛 care what we look like on the outside because what we wear is not who we are. Love is most powerful not when life is easy, but when it is hard, not when everyone is getting along swimmingly, but when there is surprise and chaos.

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But it can also make us feel adequate. Paul describes the love we all seem to want but all fail to give. We are a far cry from the personification of love he presents.

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Perhaps the only person who has ever truly embodied love as described here, who perfectly exhibited all these qualities all the time, is Jesus. Jesus鈥� love for others was so perfect, he made others feel inadequate and they killed him for it. But Jesus鈥� death overturns all that 鈥� he died to take away our inadequacy.

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I recognise some of those feelings of inadequacy that the Barbie movie presents. As a teenager I remember wanting to be taller, whiter, faster, cleverer, more popular, half of a power couple. But I found those things elusive 鈥� impossible even. It wasn鈥檛 until I became a Christian that I discovered that true contentment isn鈥檛 found in the checklist society presents us with. It鈥檚 found when we realise that God loves us perfectly and accepts us just the way we are.

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In the next song, we hear echoes of the surprise the great hymnwriter Charles Wesley felt when he discovered this wonderful truth for himself.

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Music: And Can It Be - Celtic Hymns [Vol 1] - Elevation Music - Elevation - Absolute Label Services

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Krish: In a few moments we鈥檒l come to our prayers, but to lead into that here鈥檚 the experience of someone who has come to depend on prayer 鈥� not out of choice but necessity. Abi Aston-Payne is one of those who lost the love of her life after only a year of marriage. He had a cardiac arrest on a perfectly ordinary day. it completely changed her life:

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ABI ASTON-PAYNE comments听

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Music under: Just As I Am - Piano Hymns - Gordon Mote - Gordon Mote - Spring Hill Music Group (CHP)

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Lord God, bless us with love. May we experience from those around us love that is patient and kind and does not envy boast or provoke; love that is honouring forgiving and self sacrificing; love that delights and rejoices, that protects and听 trusts, that hopes and perseveres.

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Lord God

Having received your perfect love,听

May we offer it freely to all those around us whatever their background or beliefs.

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We pray especially today for those whose love is unrequited. For all those who have lost the love of their lives.听

For all听 those who have never found the love of their lives.听

For all those who have experienced merely the semblance of love, and not the true thing.听

For all those who are alone or scarred or broken.听

May they know your perfect love and gracious comfort.听

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Music: Dua Lipa (see above)

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Upsum from both presenters about Valentine's Day and St Valentine and him challenging social norms of the time.听

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