Morning Service for Epiphany 2 2024
HYMN – Bethlehem, of noblest cities NEH48 – Stuttgart
1 Bethlehem, of noblest cities
None can once with thee compare;
Thou alone the Lord from heaven
Didst for us incarnate bear.
2 Fairer than the sun at morning
Was the star that told his birth;
To the lands their God announcing,
Seen in fleshly form on earth.
3 By its lambent beauty guided
See the eastern kings appear;
See them bend, their gifts to offer,
Gifts of incense, gold and myrrh.
4 Solemn things of mystic meaning:
Incense doth the God disclose,
Gold a royal child proclaimeth,
Myrrh a future tomb foreshows.
5 Holy Jesu, in thy brightness
To the Gentile world displayed,
With the Father and the Spirit
Endless praise to thee be paid. Amen.
PRAYER OF PREPARATION
Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from whom no secrets are hidden:
cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
that we may perfectly love you,
and worthily magnify your holy name;
through Christ our Lord. Amen
PRAYERS OF PENITENCE
Christ the light of the world has come to dispel the darkness of our hearts. In his light let us examine ourselves and confess our sins.
Lord of grace and truth, we confess our unworthiness
to stand in your presence as your children.
We have sinned:
Forgive and heal us.
The Virgin Mary accepted your call to be the mother of Jesus.
Forgive our disobedience to your will.
We have sinned:
Forgive and heal us.
The wise men followed the star to find Jesus the King.
Forgive our reluctance to seek you.
We have sinned:
Forgive and heal us.
Your Son our Saviour in humility accepted the baptism of John.
Forgive our pride and rejection of your ways.
We have sinned:
Forgive and heal us.
At a wedding in Cana Jesus changed water into wine.
Forgive our failure to let your transforming presence change us.
We have sinned:
Forgive and heal us.
May the God of love and power
forgive you and free you from your sins,
heal and strengthen you by his Spirit
and raise you to new life in Christ our Lord. Amen
THE COLLECT
Almighty God, in Christ you make all things new:
transform the poverty of our nature
by the riches of your grace,
and in the renewal of our lives
make known your heavenly glory;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen
FIRST READING – 1 Samuel 3.1-20
Now the boy Samuel continued serving the LORD under Eliʼs supervision. Word from the LORD was rare in those days; revelatory visions were infrequent.
Eliʼs eyes had begun to fail, so that he was unable to see well. At that time he was lying down in his place, and the lamp of God had not yet been extinguished. Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD as well; the ark of God was also there. The LORD called to Samuel, and he replied, “Here I am!” Then he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But Eli said, “I didnʼt call you. Go back and lie down.” So he went back and lay down. The LORD again called, “Samuel!” So Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But Eli said, “I didnʼt call you, my son. Go back and lie down.”
Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD; the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. Then the LORD called Samuel a third time. So he got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me!” Eli then realized that it was the LORD who was calling the boy. So Eli said to Samuel, “Go back and lie down. When he calls you, say, “Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.” So Samuel went back and lay down in his place.
Then the LORD came and stood nearby, calling as he had previously done, “Samuel! Samuel!” Samuel replied, “Speak, for your servant is listening!” The LORD said to Samuel, “Look! I am about to do something in Israel; when anyone hears about it, both of his ears will tingle. On that day I will carry out against Eli everything that I spoke about his house – from start to finish! You should tell him that I am about to judge his house forever because of the sin that he knew about. For his sons were cursing God, and he did not rebuke them. Therefore I swore an oath to the house of Eli, ʻThe sin of the house of Eli can never be forgiven by sacrifice or by grain offering.ʼ”
So Samuel lay down until morning. Then he opened the doors of the LORDʼs house. But Samuel was afraid to tell Eli about the vision. However, Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son!” He replied, “Here I am.” Eli said, “What message did he speak to you? Donʼt conceal it from me. God will judge you severely if you conceal from me anything that he said to you!”
So Samuel told him everything. He did not hold back anything from him. Eli said, “The LORD will do what he pleases.” Samuel continued to grow, and the LORD was with him. None of his prophecies fell to the ground unfulfilled.
HYMN – The race that long in darkness pined NEH57 – Dundee
1 The race that long in darkness pined
Have seen a glorious light;
The people dwell in day, who dwelt
In death’s surrounding night.
2 To hail thy rise, thou better Sun,
The gathering nations come,
Joyous as when the reapers bear
The harvest-treasures home.
3 To us a Child of hope is born,
To us a Son is given;
Him shall the tribes of earth obey,
Him all the hosts of heaven.
4 His name shall be the Prince of Peace,
For evermore adored;
The Wonderful, the Counsellor,
The great and mighty Lord.
5 His power increasing still shall spread;
His reign no end shall know:
Justice shall guard his throne above,
And peace abound below.
GOSPEL – John 1.43-end
On the next day Jesus wanted to set out for Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” (Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the town of Andrew and Peter.) Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and the prophets also wrote about – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael replied, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip replied, “Come and see.”
Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and exclaimed, “Look, a true Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?” Jesus replied, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel!” Jesus said to him, “Because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” He continued, “I tell all of you the solemn truth – you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
SERMON
Today is about introductions, it’s also about change and revolution. Samuel is introduced to God, or I suppose I should use the name that is written in the Hebrew, YHWH (generally given as Yahweh), because that was what the writer used – not some generic term ‘god’, but Yahweh, the sacred, special, and very personal name given to Moses when he asked the voice at the burning bush who he should say had spoken to him. In fact the incidents aren’t all that different so far as Samuel didn’t recognise the voice that called him any more than Moses did.
The story all seems to be fairly innocent, if somewhat repetitious, until we hear what it is that Yahweh wishes to communicate – nothing less than revolution, the overthrow of the current political and religious authority (they were one and the same). Eli had been, it would appear, a good enough priest and leader of his people for many years, the next chapter says 40 years when he died, but the succession was about to be disastrous, his sons were corrupt and immoral. The boy Samuel is to be the future, he will guide Israel, he will anoint its first king, Saul, and his successor David. The fate of Israel will be in his hands because it is he who will be hear the words of Yahweh.
So do we have in this story anything more than the confirmation of divine authority for a new regime? I believe so; there is something in the innocent unawareness of the young Samuel and in the wise awareness of Eli and the acceptance by both of them of how things were to be that transcends a merely political reading. This passage isn’t primarily about power, it’s about God relating to two very different people, and how both eventually get the message.
Samuel is open and uncomplicated enough to simply hear the voice of God, as physically as any human voice – indeed, he thought it was a human voice. But he cannot recognise it, his lack of experience, of awareness, prevented God’s communication with him. On the contrary Eli had known himself what it was to be spoken to by God, and knew how to respond to the invitation to listen. Unfortunately, he now heard God no longer – perhaps he had ceased to want to hear because he knew only too well how uncomfortable the message was. He was all too aware.
So God uses each, the boy and the old priest, to communicate his will – each supplies to the other what is lacking. It is a lesson we could all learn. The young, that without the understanding and the experience of age they will not know how to listen. The aged that without the freshness and openness of youth there is only decline. Those in arrogant middle age had better watch out the most because it was Eli’s sons that had caused all the trouble in the first place! They cared for neither the innocence of youth nor the wisdom of age, only the pride of power, their end was assured.
Something must be said of Jesus’ meeting with Nathanael, if only because it seems so extraordinary. To grasp any meaning from it at all we must realise the point that John is trying to get across. A recurring theme of his is people’s reaction to Jesus – do they accept him, or reject him? Do they understand who he is, or do they see him as a charlatan and a rogue. The detail of the incident is either too obscure in its symbolism to understand or just doesn’t matter. The point is that Nathanael, a rather dour and pessimistic sounding character realised that Jesus knew who he was, and so he in turn recognised who Jesus was. Phillip introduced Jesus to Nathanael as ‘the one of whom the prophets wrote’ – not terribly exciting. Instead Nathanael declares him to be the Son of God and King of Israel. In a moment of recognition he sees him clearly.
It’s a tricky thing revelation – the dawning light, the warm glow of peace, the moment of God’s presence. Whatever it might feel like – the yearning deep within, the nagging thought, the troubled sleep, it’s all too easy to get it wrong, too often people have plainly got it terribly wrong. And yet if there is not the possibility of communication, of the moment of revelation, of the ‘Samuel, Samuel’ call, then how is God to reach us in extremis?
Samuel never gets beyond hearing God merely call his name until he learns to say more than ‘Here I am,’ to go beyond into the accepting ‘speak, for your servant is listening.’ Maybe that’s the trouble – it is hard enough to say, ‘Here I am,’ let alone ‘Speak for I am listening’. To be really open to listen, open to receive what we need, so often what we need just isn’t what we want. We find it so hard to acknowledge our need, to be open enough. So we go unaided, with our burdens in tact – we just cannot say ‘Speak and I will listen.’
And maybe that’s the trouble with people like me, short on the revelation front – we just don’t say to God ‘Speak and I will listen,’ often enough. We don’t acknowledge our need, don’t expose ourselves to what God might want to say to us, we don’t want him to get personal – its all too risky – at best we stay with the ‘Here I am’. But at least that is a start.
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH
Let us declare our faith in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ:
Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures;
he was buried; he was raised to life on the third day
in accordance with the scriptures;
afterwards he appeared to his followers,
and to all the apostles: this we have received,
and this we believe. Amen. 1 Corinthians 15.3-7
HYMN – O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness NEH 52 – Was Lebat
1 O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!
Bow down before him, his glory proclaim;
With gold of obedience, and incense of lowliness,
Kneel and adore him, the Lord is his name!
2 Low at his feet lay thy burden of carefulness,
High on his heart he will bear it for thee,
Comfort thy sorrows, and answer thy prayerfulness,
Guiding thy steps as may best for thee be.
3 Fear not to enter His courts in the slenderness
Of the poor wealth thou wouldst reckon as thine:
Truth in its beauty, and love in its tenderness,
These are the offerings to lay on his shrine.
4 These, though we bring them in trembling and fearfulness,
He will accept for the name that is dear;
Mornings of joy give for evenings of tearfulness,
Trust for our trembling and hope for our fear.
INTERCESSIONS – Claire Cooper
God reaches out to us in so many ways, in the beauty around us and silence within, stirring us to action or helping us wait. Let us reach out to God now and give ourselves space to see, feel and hear the call.
Lord, as we gather here today, we pray for the nations of our world and their leaders. We continue to pray for peace in your world, and especially for those involved in the process of reconciliation and bridge-building between peoples, cultures or nations. We remember especially the people of Gaza, Israel, Ukraine and Russia. Help us wherever and whenever we can in our everyday lives to be instruments of your peace.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer.
Lord, we pray for William, the Rector of our Benefice as he is busy serving our church community. We also give thanks for Keith, Warwick and any others who lead our services. We are grateful for all the kind and generous support of those who keep our churches running, making them a welcoming place to be.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer.
We give thanks for the beautiful area in which we live and we pray especially today for those who have suffered flooding or power shortages recently due to the heavy rainfall. We also pray for those worrying about the high fuel bills and how to keep warm in the current cold spell. Help us to look out for those who may be struggling in our communities.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer.
Comfort and heal all those who suffer in body, mind or spirt. Give them courage and hope in their troubles and bring them the joy in your salvation. We take a moment to remember anyone known to us……… and ask that you support and protect them and their family, friends and carers.
We pray for all those who have lost their lives in recent weeks. We remember the family and friends who have lost loved ones recently and we ask that your presence brings them comfort, strength and hope in their grief.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer.
So now we go out with confidence in you, our loving God who leads us; you know our weaknesses and our strengths. Lord, call us, guide us, and strengthen us in your service.
Merciful Father,
accept these prayers, for the sake of your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
As our Saviour taught us, so we pray:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done,
on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours
now and for ever. Amen.
BLESSING
May he who who by his incarnation
gathered into one things earthly and heavenly,
grant us the fullness of peace and goodwill
and the blessing of God Almighty,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
be upon us and remain with us always. Amen
HYMN Brightest and best are the sons of the morning NEH 49 – Epiphany Hymn
1 Brightest and best of the sons of the morning,
Dawn on our darkness and lend us thine aid;
Star of the East, the horizon adorning,
Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid.
2 Cold on his cradle the dew-drops are shining,
Low lies his head with the beasts of the stall:
Angels adore him in slumber reclining,
Maker and Monarch and Saviour of all.
3 Say, shall we yield him, in costly devotion,
Odours of Edom, and offerings divine?
Gems of the mountain and pearls of the ocean,
Myrrh from the forest or gold from the mine?
4 Vainly we offer each ample oblation,
Vainly with gifts would his favour secure;
Richer by far is the heart’s adoration,
Dearer to God are the prayers of the poor.
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord
In the name of Christ. Amen