Morning Service for Lent 2 2024
HYMN – New every morning is the love NEH238 – Melcombe
1 New every morning is the love
Our wakening and uprising prove;
Through sleep and darkness safely brought,
Restored to life, and power, and thought.
2 New mercies, each returning day,
Hover around us while we pray;
New perils past, new sins forgiven,
New thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven.
3 If on our daily course our mind
Be set to hallow all we find,
New treasures still, of countless price,
God will provide for sacrifice.
4 The trivial round, the common task,
Would furnish all we ought to ask,
Room to deny ourselves, a road
To bring us daily nearer God.
5 Only, O Lord, in thy dear love
Fit us for perfect rest above;
And help us this and every day
To live more nearly as we pray.
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
Our Lord Jesus Christ said: The first commandment is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is the only Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Amen. Lord, have mercy.
Father eternal, giver of light and grace,
we have sinned against you and against our neighbour,
in what we have thought, in what we have said and done,
through ignorance, through weakness,
through our own deliberate fault.
We have wounded your love and marred your image in us.
We are sorry and ashamed and repent of all our sins.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, who died for us,
forgive us all that is past and lead us out from darkness
to walk as children of light. Amen
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, you show to those who are in error the light of your truth,
that they may return to the way of righteousness:
grant to all those who are admitted into the fellowship of Christ’s religion,
that they may reject those things that are contrary to their profession,
and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same;
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
FIRST READING – Genesis 17.1-7,15,16
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.” Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.
God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”
SECOND READING – Romans 4.13-25
For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.
For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”)—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So numerous shall your descendants be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Therefore his faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.” Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.
HYMN – ‘Take up thy cross.’ the Saviour said NEH 76 – Breslau omitting starred verse
1 Take up thy cross, the Saviour said,
If thou wouldst my disciple be;
Deny thyself, the world forsake,
And humbly follow after me.
2 Take up thy cross; let not its weight
Fill thy weak spirit with alarm;
His strength shall bear thy spirit up,
And brace thy heart, and nerve thine arm.
4 Take up thy cross then in his strength,
And calmly every danger brave;
‘Twill guide thee to a better home,
And lead to victory o’er the grave.
5 Take up thy cross, and follow Christ,
Nor think till death to lay it down;
For only he who bears the cross
May hope to wear the glorious crown.
6 To thee, great Lord, the One in Three,
All praise for evermore ascend;
O grant us in our home to see
The heavenly life that knows no end.
GOSPEL – Mark 8.31-38
Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
SERMON – Dr Keith Atton
Today’s first two readings are about having faith and, indeed, justification by faith – being put right with God by faith– is a key Protestant belief and was crucial for Martin Luther. This was contrasted with doing good as a sort of scoring system; I will be put right with God by doing more and more good deeds or in Luther’s time giving more and more money to the Roman Church for the re-building of St Peter’s, Rome. At the extreme, an Anglican W.E. Gladstone, a late nineteenth century Prime Minister, gave the impression to the editor of his diaries, M.R.D. Foot, that the diaries were an aid memoir for his arrival before St Peter; when questioned he would be able to justify his transfer to heaven by recounting day by day his good deeds. However, both faith and living that faith in action day by day are surly both needed. If we profess our faith on Sunday but do not express that faith in love of neighbours in daily life, is it really our faith?
Politicians sometimes make big policy announcements. This can gain them popularity. Equally big announcements of the cost of their project and the taxes needed to pay for it, are often missing. It is left to officials to square the circle of insufficient budgets to carry out the policy. A Latin teacher friend of mine many years ago agreed to fill in the paperwork for his grandmother to get some social security benefit. Even as a classics graduate, he found it very difficult to fill in. He wondered if his grandmother would have managed, if he had not been able to do it for her. Do some officials make it difficult to claim to cover for a lack of money? If you were an official, what would you or I do if there was an insufficient budget to carry out a policy?
At a local level, I remember an official put in charge of special needs provision for a Local Authority. He lasted some fifteen months; special needs pupils were provided for as required by the policy of the time and the budget was overspent by more than £1,000,000 in the money of 30 plus years ago (equivalent to £3,000,000 today). If you were in charge, what would you do? Would it be any different if your family depended on your income?
Recently there has been a focus on the treatment of some sub postmasters by officials in the Post Office. I must declare a personal interest in this because my father was a sub postmaster for thirty eight years six months. I remember the consternation when the post office ledger did not balance with the money in the till at the end of the week; as I am sure everyone is aware now, any discrepancy must be paid by the sub postmaster. Other than those who worked in the firm responsible for the computer system, who hid the unreliability of it and those who knew at the Post Office, who else was responsible? Were the rest at the Post Office just doing what they had always done – prosecute those who appeared to be acting fraudulently? Were the civil servants and politicians just doing their jobs? Were the prosecutors, the judges and juries, who found sub postmasters guilty, just carrying out their roles to the best of their ability? What would you or I have done if we had known the sub postmasters were being wrongly accused?
Recently our Archbishop has come in for very considerable criticism in some sections of the press over the subject of immigration; he has strongly criticised the government’s plan to send some illegal immigrants to Rwanda. It is not the first time he has been accused of not supporting the government, but then his role is neither to support nor oppose the government, but to express the gospel message as it relates to the issues of the day whether this makes him popular or not. Of course, he may not apply Jesus’ gospel of love and forgiveness correctly, but in trying to do so, the Archbishop follows the example of Jesus, as it appears in today’s gospel reading. This is a message for all of us, in matters both great and small. The cost of doing so may also be very great – even the greatest possible as in Jesus’ case – or very small indeed or somewhere in between. In spite of the cost of discipleship can each of us live a life of love and forgiveness and make choices based on love and foregiveness whatever the cost?
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 – Let all mortal flesh keep silence NEH 295 – Picardy
1 Let all mortal flesh keep silence
And with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly-minded,
For with blessing in his hand
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
Our full homage to demand.
2 King of kings, yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth he stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
In the body and the blood:
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heavenly food.
3 Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
That the powers of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away.
4 At his feet the six-winged seraph;
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the Presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry,
Alleluya, Alleluya,
Alleluya, Lord most high!.
INTERCESSIONS – Jenny Walmsley
As we move into the season of Lent we pray that you, Lord, will give us the strength to reexamine our lives and focus on those attributes that we can use to add value to our communities and the lives of those around us and not merely on what we can “give up” during Lent. Help us through prayer, the Lent course and contemplation to reach a closer understanding of our Faith and help that Faith grow and develop.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer
We pray for those whose every effort must be directed towards surviving, for those living in war zones, in refugee camps and in areas devastated by drought, floods and fires. We also pray that our leaders understand the pressing need to prepare globally for the long term future of our planet and not just concentrate on enhancing their power with no thought for the consequences. We remember Alexei Navalny who courageously fought for democracy and we think of those in Gaza, Israel, the Ukraine and Russia, please give them hope and their leaders compassion.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer
We pray for our Church, our archbishops, bishops, clergy and the vast army of lay people without whom society as we know it could not exist. Inspire us to give without any thought of receiving in return, to be eternally grateful for our families, friends and neighbours and, particularly during this Lent period, to acknowledge the needs of others before our own.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer
We pray for the sick especially for John Bowen and Anne Richardson, may they and their families find hope and comfort in your presence, may their anxieties be lessened and their pain diminished. We pray for those who have died recently, remembering Joan Hayes whose funeral was on Thursday, and we thank you for all the joy their lives have given us as we commend them to your safe keeping.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer
In conclusion, as you did with Abraham, we ask you to instil into our vulnerable souls the belief that all things are possible with your creative love if we have Faith.
Teach us to channel that perfect love, that knows no borders or boundaries, to cast out all the fear and selfishness that divides us one from another so that everyone can experience their birthright of hope, security and peace.
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
Christ the Son of God perfect in you the image of his glory and gladden your hearts with the good news of his kingdom; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be upon us and remain with us always. Amen
HYMN – The God of Abraham praise NEH 148 – Leoni omitting starred verses
1 The God of Abraham praise
Who reigns enthroned above,
Ancient of everlasting days,
And God of love:
To him uplift your voice,
At whose supreme command
From earth we rise and seek the joys
At his right hand.
4 There dwells the Lord our King,
The Lord our Righteousness,
Triumphant o’er the world and sin,
The Prince of Peace:
On Sion’s sacred height
His kingdom he maintains,
And glorious with his saints in light
For ever reigns.
6 Before the great Three-One
They all exulting stand,
And tell the wonders he has done
Throughout the land:
The listening spheres attend,
And swell the growing fame,
And sing in songs which never end
The wondrous name.
7 The God who reigns on high
The great archangels sing,
And ‘Holy, holy, holy’ cry
‘Almighty King!’
Who was, and is the same,
And evermore shall be:
Eternal Father, great I AM,
We worship thee.’
8 The whole triumphant host
Give thanks to God on high:
‘Hail, Father, Son and Holy Ghost’
They ever cry:
Hail, Abraham’s God and mine!
(I join the heavenly lays)
All might and majesty are thine,
And endless praise.
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord
In the name of Christ. Amen