MORNING Service for Mothering Sunday – 2022
HYMN – For Mary, mother of the Lord NEH161 – St Botolph
1. For Mary, Mother of the Lord
God’s holy name be praised,
Who first the Son of God adored
As on her child she gazed.
2. The angel Gabriel brought the word
She should Christ’s mother be;
Our Lady, handmaid of the Lord,
Made answer willingly.
3. The heavenly call she thus obeyed,
And so God’s will was done;
The second Eve love’s answer made
Which our redemption won.
4. She gave her body for God’s shrine,
Her heart to piercing pain,
And knew the cost of love divine
When Jesus Christ was slain.
5. Dear Mary, from your lowliness
And home in Galilee,
There comes a joy and holiness
To every family.
6. Hail, Mary, you are full of grace,
Above all women blest;
Blest in your Son, whom your embrace
In birth and death confessed.
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
God of the spirit of kindness, in the glory of earth
and sea and stars, of colour and shade and shape,
in the patterns of humour and tenderness and touch,
we celebrate your generosity.
Forgive us when we forget the gift in our every breath,
the care that sustains our every moment,
that grace that can transform our every day,
forgive our careless forgetfulness.
Set us free from the prison of grudging hearts,
mean desires, resentful spirits,
give us the courage to act with justice and generosity,
and draw us into love that does not calculate or keep scores.
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
God of compassion,
whose Son Jesus Christ, the child of Mary,
shared the life of a home in Nazareth,
and on the cross drew the whole human family to himself:
strengthen us in our daily living
that in joy and in sorrow
we may know the power of your presence
to bind together and to heal;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen
FIRST READING – Colossians 3.12-17
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
HYMN – God is love – his the care H&S 36 – Personent Hodie
1. God is love: his the care,
tending each, everywhere.
God is love, all is there!
Jesus came to show him,
that we all might know him!
Sing aloud, loud, loud!
Sing aloud, loud, loud!
God is good! God is truth!
God is beauty! Praise him!
2. None can see God above;
we can share life and love;
thus we may Godward move,
seek him in creation,
holding every nation.
Chorus
3. Jesus lived on the earth,
hope and life brought to birth
and affirmed human worth,
for he came to save us
by the truth he gave us.
Chorus
4. To our Lord praise we sing,
hope and life, friend and King,
coming down, love to bring,
pattern for our duty,
showing God in beauty.
Chorus
GOSPEL – Luke 15.1-3,11b-32
Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.” ’ So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.
“Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’ ”
SERMON
“Feeling footloose and frisky, a featherbrained fellow forced his father to fork over the farthings. He flew far to foreign fields and frittered his fortune, feasting fabulously with faithless friends. Finally, facing famine and fleeced by his fellows in folly, he found himself a feed-flinger in a filthy farmyard. Fairly famished, he fain would have filled his frame with foraged food from the fodder fragments. ‘Phooey! My father’s flunkies fair far fancier,’ the frazzled fugitive fumed feverishly, frankly facing the facts. Frustrated by failure and filled with foreboding, he fled forthwith to his family farmstead. Falling at his father’s feet, he forlornly floundered, ‘Father, I have flunked and fruitlessly forfeited family favour…’ But the faithful father, forestalling further flinching, frantically flagged the flunkies to fetch the finest fatling and fix a feast. The fugitive’s faultfinding fraternal farm foreman frowned on the fickle forgiveness his father forked out to the former folderol. His fur flashed! But fussing was futile. The far-sighted father figured, filial fidelity is fine, but what forbids fervent festivity? For the fugitive is found. Unfurl the flags! With fanfare, let the fun and frolic flow freely! Former failure is forgotten, folly forsaken. Forgiveness forms the foundation for future familial fortitude.”
In so many operas it’s the arias that we remember – those brilliant flashes of song and melody, moments of magic which stay in the mind for days and months and years afterwards. In the opera of the Gospels the parable of the prodigal son is an aria of the highest quality, and the greatest wisdom, we all know it so well that we could pretty well recite it completely. And we should know it that well, it has so much to teach us – and not just as children hearing it the first time it in Sunday school or at an assembly, it can and should inform every stage of our lives. For at different stages and on different occasions, we can see the story from each different point of view.
There are times when we may strongly identify with the younger son, off the rails and looking for a way home; at other times you may feel like the older son, dependably doing the right thing and yet receiving no acknowledgement, and no reward for our persistence; yet other times we might know what it feels like to offer love without condition – to even feel like a victim of that love. The story holds a challenge to each of its characters. Each has choices to make, and questions to face. By placing ourselves directly into the story and sympathetically allowing ourselves to feel what it might be like to be the younger son or the elder son or even the father, we might gain a little more of what the story has to offer.
Make no mistake, the parable of the prodigal son is a radical piece of Christian theology, above all it presents a God that accepts our human weakness, accepts the failings in men and women far more readily than we ourselves are apt to do. Serious forgiveness isn’t so common as we might hope – when it happens, it can stand out.
The extraordinary thing for me about the story is the relationship between the father’s acceptance and the son’s state of mind. The prodigal returns and the father goes out to meet him, he embraces him before the son ever says a word of apology or repentance or even regret. I always wondered just how far the son had to come before the father would rush out to meet him, because the important thing seems to be that the son turned towards home and began the journey – how far did he need to go? I think the answer might be in the following:
“ A son who is estranged from his father sends a note home to his mother. He want’s to return but isn’t sure he’s able, isn’t sure he can make it, he isn’t sure his father will receive him. The father reads the message and is the one to respond, “come as far as you can, I’ll come the rest of the way.”
That seems to just about sum up the situation – and the same is true for the other son. There he is standing out in the cold, watching a great party in the making. The father goes out to meet him too, but he will not drag him back into the household, he will not force a reconciliation.
I suppose the point is that the father respects the sons enough to allow them to make the most dreadful mistakes. The really radical thing is that he never stops loving them, whether they are living it up in the city, squandering what they’ve been given, or being dutiful and self-righteous and stubborn. He never changes his feelings toward them.
It could be said that we are apt to draw boundaries around the extent of our love, we implicitly or even explicitly make it known who is inside and who is outside the boundary of our love – and what it is that might make someone on one side of the boundary crossover to the other – either into our circle of love, or out of it. The radical thing about this father is that his love seems to know no boundary, it is available whenever and wherever it is wanted. And I suppose as it won’t be forced, it must only be wanted to be given. And yet even that is inadequate – love is present, whether it is wanted or not, it’s only the effect of that love, the joyful benefit of that love that the beloved can refuse. Like the air that is all around us – all the time – it is only up to us to open our lungs and breathe.
The parable doesn’t end – we never know what the brother decided to do – and I think that is as it should be – there is no end to the demands for us to forgive, to be reconciled – and when we just can’t because its just too hard, we stand, like the elder brother, knowing we’re on the outside looking in – and wishing we could cross the boundary.
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 – The king of love my shepherd is NEH 457 – Dominus Regit Me
1 The King of love my Shepherd is,
Whose goodness faileth never;
I nothing lack if I am his
And he is mine for ever.
2 Where streams of living water flow
My ransomed soul he leadeth,
And where the verdant pastures grow
With food celestial feedeth.
3 Perverse and foolish oft I strayed,
But yet in love he sought me,
And on his shoulder gently laid,
And home, rejoicing, brought me.
4 In death’s dark vale I fear no ill
With thee, dear Lord, beside me;
Thy rod and staff my comfort still,
Thy cross before to guide me.
5 Thou spread’st a table in my sight;
Thy unction, grace bestoweth:
And O what transport of delight
From thy pure chalice floweth!
6 And so through all the length of days
Thy goodness faileth never;
Good Shepherd, may I sing thy praise
Within thy house for ever.
INTERCESSIONS – Mary Hinton
In your loving kindness, O God, have mercy and hear our prayer.
We pray for our world, for peace, justice and freedom. Lord, grant vision and integrity to those to whom we give the responsibility of Government.
We give thanks for the return to her family of Nazanin and Anoosheh to his and we pray for Morad still detained in Iran.
On this special day we pray for mothers, children and family members in Ukraine and Yemen.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer
Today is Mothering Sunday, we come together to give thanks for who mother and all that they do to support, protect and nurture their families. We pray for all parents and carers and give thanks for the love they give to their family members.
Jesus knew the love of his mother and the security of his family. Lord, help us to love one another as he loves us.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer
We pray for our families and friends, loved ones and neighbours and the wider communities in which we live.
We pray for all in need of your healing touch, those who are sick, troubled or in special need.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer
Jesus, light of the world, we remember with love and thanksgiving all those we have loved who have died.
Lord, comfort and support all who mourn.
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 the Lord who brought us to birth by his Spirit, strengthen us for the Christian life. May the Lord who provides for all our needs sustain us day by day. May the Lord whose steadfast love is constant, send us out to live and care for others. And the blessing of God Almighty. the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be with us and remain with us always. Amen.
HYMN – God is love let heaven adore him NEH 364 – Abbot’s Leigh
1 God is Love: let heav’n adore him;
God is Love: let earth rejoice;
Let creation sing before him,
And exalt him with one voice.
He who laid the earth’s foundation,
He who spread the heav’ns above,
He who breathes through all creation,
He is Love, eternal Love.
2 God is Love: and he enfoldeth
All the world in one embrace;
With unfailing grasp he holdeth
Every child of every race.
And when human hearts are breaking
Under sorrow’s iron rod,
Then they find that selfsame aching
Deep within the heart of God.
3 God is Love: and though with blindness
Sin afflicts the souls of men,
God’s eternal loving-kindness
Holds and guides them even then.
Sin and death and hell shall never
o’er us final triumph gain;
God is Love, so Love for ever
O’er the universe must reign.
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord
In the name of Christ. Amen