MORNING Service for Mothering Sunday 2024
HYMN Be still, for the presence of the Lord – H&S 13
1. Be still, for the presence of the Lord, the holy one is here;
come bow before him now with reverence and fear.
In Him no sin is found, we stand on holy ground;
be still, for the presence of the Lord, the holy one is here.
2. Be still, for the glory of the Lord is shining all around;
he burns with holy fire, with splendour he is crowned.
How awesome is the sight, our radiant King of light;
be still, for the glory of the Lord is shining all around.
3. Be still, for the power of the Lord is moving in this place;
he comes to cleanse and heal, to minister his grace.
No work too hard for him, in faith receive from him;
be still, for the power of the Lord is moving in this place.
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 – Who put the colours in the rainbow? H&S 112
1. Who put the colours in the rainbow?
Who put the salt into the sea?
Who put the cold into the snowflake?
Who made you and me?
Who put the hump upon the camel?
Who put the neck on the giraffe?
Who put the tail upon the monkey?
Who made hyenas laugh?
Who made the whales and snails and quails?
Who made hogs and dogs and frogs?
Who made bats and cats and rats?
Who made everything?
2. Who put the gold into the sunshine?
Who put the sparkle in the stars?
Who put the silver in the moonlight?
Who made Earth and Mars?
Who put the scent into the roses?
Who taught the honey-bee to dance?
Who put the tree inside the acorn?
It surely can’t be chance!
Who made seas and leaves and trees?
Who made snow and winds that blow?
Who made streams and rivers flow?
God made all of these!
GOSPEL – John 19.25-27
Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.
SERMON
Today is Mothering Sunday, please note, it is not Mother’s Day, that is a day for people to celebrate their mother, it began in America after a one woman campaign by a lady called Anna Jarvis. It was declared a holiday by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914, it is always the 2nd Sunday of May. Anna Wilson was so disgusted at the commercialisation of her idea that she regretted starting the whole thing.
Only Ireland, the UK and Nigeria celebrate Mothering Sunday on the 4th Sunday of Lent. It comes from the Introit for the day ‘Laetare Hierusalem’ –
“Rejoice Jerusalem, Rejoice ye with Jerusalem; and be ye glad for her, all ye that delight in her: exult and sing for joy with her, all ye that in sadness mourn for her; that ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations”
This lead into Psalm 122 ‘I was glad when they said unto me, We will go into the house of the Lord.’
From those cues, this Sunday became a time for people to return home, perhaps to visit their ‘mother church’, but also their own mothers. A break from Lenten abstinence, it was a day of celebration.
But the term ‘mothering’ is important because it indicates that the day is about caring for others. Everyone can mother – only some us have the privilege and pain of becoming a mother.
Our gospel reading is a case in point – it is John’s unique vignette of Jesus asking his best friend to take care of his mother, and vice versa. They were to care for one another. Blood relationship is not the only link that can join people, it may not even be the strongest – the desire to care for someone is surely the true qualification for mothering.
The gospel for the day was traditionally the feeding of the 5,000. John’s account in which we hear that it was a child, who gave the food he was carrying to the disciples to give to Jesus – it was probably his lunch, packed by his thoughtful mother. His sacrifice enabled everyone else to eat. It is all highly symbolic, and a powerful analogy of how one small gift can be multiplied by the power of simple grace. It is said that the measure of the size of a gift is how much the giver has left, this child had nothing left, nothing was held back.
It is a long way from Mark’s account of the feeding as an encouragement to the disciples to provide for the people, as in the old story of the prophet Elisha; and it was in stark contrast to the uncaring Jerusalem political and religious elite. But John’s version serves this day well, where up and down the land children are attempting to provide breakfast-in-bed for their mothers, with varying degrees of success!
The reading from Colossians is a wonderfully well crafted piece of Pauline theology. It sums up his teaching on how to live a happy, fulfilled, and above all, Christian, life. The previous verses do the work, they talk of stripping off the old ways as in taking off an old set of clothes, with the accumulated dirt and grime that went with them, and putting on the new self, with its new characteristics. The image of a candidate for baptism may be in Paul’s mind, stripping off the old nature with those old clothes and putting on a new mind and new way of life with the white fresh clothes of the newly baptised.
In our passage the new characteristics tell us what the Christian life should be like – they make demands that cannot be avoided. There are 5 virtues listed of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, balancing the 5 vices of anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language, previously condemned to be stripped away. These virtues elsewhere are attributed to God or to Jesus – they are certainly Christlike. Added to these, and given its own complete phrase, is forgiveness. And what holds them all together is simply given as agape – love. And the result of all this is peace, the peace of Christ, which we do not cause to happen, but let happen – in other words, we are not to get in the way of it – ‘let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which you were called in the one body’. This peace is part of our calling to unity.
In the midst of these wonderful words relating to behaviour come words about worship, teaching, admonition and singing. The Christian community is to be distinguished not only by the quality of its life in the world but also by its regular worship, not only by specially loving relationships but also by its vocal worship of God. Being thankful is mentioned three times in this short passage; gratitude is to be a part of the distinctive life that sets the Christian community apart from the world.
Paul concludes that the intention behind everything, all of the above, must and can only be the Name of Jesus – simply put, what Jesus would want us to do and to be. This is not self-improvement for its own sake, this is living as Jesus taught – in the kingdom of God which can be now and will be to come.
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 – Brother, sister, let me serve you H&S 18
1. Brother, sister, let me serve you,
let me be as Christ to you;
pray that I may have the grace to
let you be my servant, too.
2. We are brothers on a journey,
we are sisters on the road;
we are here to help each other
walk the mile and bear the load.
3. I will hold the Christlight for you
in the night-time of your fear;
I will hold my hand out to you,
speak the peace you long to hear.
4. I will weep when you are weeping;
when you laugh I’ll laugh with you.
I will share your joy and sorrow
till we’ve seen this journey through.
5. When we sing to God in heaven
we shall find such harmony,
born of all we’ve known together
of Christ’s love and agony.
6. Brother, sister, let me serve you,
let me be as Christ to you;
pray that I may have the grace to
let you be my servant, too.
INTERCESSIONS – Val Etteridge
Dear Lord we pray first for ….., our mother church and ask for your blessing on William, our rector and Keith and Gill and Dick, our church wardens and all who contribute to the church and worship at the services held here. We pray for this benefice and ask that we may be like a family and in this community and find strength and help in our lives. We pray too for the whole Christian Church and ask that you will give guidance, wisdom and tolerance to all in any authority and heal divisions and differences and unite the whole Christian family.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We thank you for our world, often we call it mother earth. We praise you for its wonder and beauty and its bounty. We ask your forgiveness for the damage we have and are inflicting on this planet and pray that you will reach the hearts of men and teach us all how to care and share fairly the bounty and expertise you have given us in this creation.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We remember the king and royal family and all statesmen, ministers, judges and leaders in this world. They are faced with much responsibility and difficult decision making. We ask that they act with wisdom and compassion for the good of all their people and peace is brought to all nations.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We thank you for our mothers and for all their love and kindness to us and for those special bonds created. Dear Lord to mothers you have given the great privilege of being a child’s first provider, carer, teacher and example, be with mothers when life is difficult, when they are weary, make them strong and give patience and understanding.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Dear Lord we pray next for all mothers who are suffering because of loss, separation, illness, disability or death of their children. We think especially of mothers in Gaza, Israel, Ukraine and Russia. We pray for all affected by war and unrest and the mothers who live in fear, despair and poverty, those who are homeless and hungry and those mothers who see their children suffering day by day.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We name in the quiet the sick known to us…….O God be with them and may they know a presence bringing comfort and relief. We remember those who have died recently and Lord the mothers that are no longer with us. We give thanks for their love to us and ask on this Mothering Sunday, blessings for our mothers and for all in our lives whose faith and care have helped us. We ask you now to go with us into the coming days and be our help and guide in whatever situations we will meet.
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 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 I the Lord of sea and sky H&S 47
1. I, the Lord of sea and sky,
I have heard my people cry.
All who dwell in dark and sin
my hand will save. (bar rest)
I who made the stars of night,
I will make their darkness bright.
Who will bear my light to them?
Whom shall I send?
Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night.
I will go, Lord, if you lead me.
I will hold your people in my heart.
2. I, the Lord of snow and rain,
I have borne my people’s pain.
I have wept for love of them.
They turn away. (bar rest)
I will break their hearts of stone,
give them hearts for love alone.
I will speak my word to them.
Whom shall I send?
Chorus
3. I, the Lord of wind and flame,
I will tend the poor and lame.
I will set a feast for them.
My hand will save. (bar rest)
Finest bread I will provide
till their hearts be satisfied.
I will give my life to them.
Whom shall I send?
Chorus
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord
In the name of Christ. Amen