Morning Service for the Seventh Sunday of Easter 2023
HYMN Hail the day that sees him rise NEH 130 – Llanfair
1 Hail the day that sees him rise Alleluya!
Glorious to his native skies; Alleluya!
Christ, awhile to mortals given, Alleluya!
Enters now the highest heaven! Alleluya!
2 There the glorious triumph waits; Alleluya!,
Lift your heads, eternal gates! Alleluya!
Christ hath vanquished death and sin; Alleluya! Take the King of glory in. Alleluya!
6 Lord, though parted from our sight, Alleluya!
Far above yon azure height, Alleluya!
Grant our hearts may thither rise, Alleluya!
Seeking thee beyond the skies. Alleluya!
7 There we shall with thee remain, Alleluya!
Partners of thine endless reign; Alleluya!
There thy face unclouded see, Alleluya!
Find our heaven of heavens in thee. Alleluya!.
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
Let us confess our sins in penitence and faith,
firmly resolved to keep God’s commandments and to live in love and peace with all.
Almighty God, our heavenly Father,
we have sinned against you
and against our neighbour
in thought and word and deed,
through negligence, through weakness,
through our own deliberate fault.
We are truly sorry 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 grant that we may serve you in newness of life
to the glory of your name. 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
O God the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ
with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven:
we beseech you, leave us not comfortless, but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us
and exalt us to the place where our Saviour Christ is gone before,
who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
FIRST READING – Acts 1.6-14
So when they had gathered together, they began to ask him, “Lord, is this the time when you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” He told them, “You are not permitted to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the farthest parts of the earth.” After he had said this, while they were watching, he was lifted up and a cloud hid him from their sight. As they were still staring into the sky while he was going, suddenly two men in white clothing stood near them and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come back in the same way you saw him go into heaven.”
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called the Mount of Olives (which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath dayʼs journey away). When they had entered Jerusalem, they went to the upstairs room where they were staying. Peter and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James were there. All these continued together in prayer with one mind, together with the women, along with Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
HYMN Come let us join our cheerful songs NEH 349 – Nativity
1. Come, let us join our cheerful songs
With angels round the throne.
Ten thousand, thousand are their tongues,
But all their joys are one.
2. “Worthy the Lamb that died,” they cry,
“To be exalted thus!”
“Worthy the Lamb,” our hearts reply,
“For He was slain for us!”
3. Jesus is worthy to receive
Honour and power divine;
And blessings more than we can give,
Be, Lord, forever Thine.
4. Let all creation join in one,
To bless the sacred name
Of Him who sits upon the throne,
And to adore the Lamb.
GOSPEL – John 17.1-11
When Jesus had finished saying these things, he looked upward to heaven and said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, so that your Son may glorify you – just as you have given him authority over all humanity, so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him. Now this is eternal life – that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent. I glorified you on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me at your side with the glory I had with you before the world was created.
“I have revealed your name to the men you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have obeyed your word. Now they understand that everything you have given me comes from you, because I have given them the words you have given me. They accepted them and really understand that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I am praying on behalf of them. I am not praying on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those you have given me, because they belong to you. Everything I have belongs to you, and everything you have belongs to me, and I have been glorified by them. I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them safe in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one.
SERMON
Jesus said, “and now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.”
This morning’s Gospel reading was the beginning of the end of Jesus’s farewell discourse to his disciples, his long soliloquy preparing them for his death and for his glorification, and their future. In the speech Jesus deals with his relationship to God and his relationship to the disciples and their relationship to the world. Jesus speaks of him and the father being one, he then, a little later, talks of the disciples being one and then he says that he is one with the disciples, “I in them and you (that’s God) in me, that they may be perfected into one, that the world may know that you sent me, and have loved them just as you have loved me.”
It is this unity that is usually the topic of encouraging sermons – the extraordinary generosity of God, the overwhelming love of God. All the barriers are broken down, between Jesus and the Father, between Jesus and his disciples – there is unity.
There is, however, one barrier that remains, and that is, if anything, greater than before, the division between God and the world. The father, Jesus, the disciples, all exist one in the other – but the world is other, outside, hostile, over and against, a foe and an enemy.
And that is how it must have felt to be one of the disciples – danger all around, rejection from family and friends, ostracised by neighbours and community. We see on our TV screens from all across the world what happens when a community decides who is in and who is out. And being out is entirely uncomfortable – and dangerous. Those defined as outsiders often band together tightly for safety and for necessary fellowship. For the early Christians who had thrown their lot of in with the gospel the unity of their community, and their unity with their Lord and God, was a matter of life, and death. So fear of the world (all that is not of Christ) and rejection of the world was only natural – and as the persecutions came, even more reasonable and sensible.
However, just as John highlights the gulf between the world and God so he makes it very clear that it is the disciples who are to bridge that gulf. Jesus had gone from the Father to the world – but he had been rejected. John began his Gospel by saying “he was in the world, and though the world has made through him, the world did not recognise him. He came to that which was his own but his own did not receive him.” But those who did accept him, and believed in his name, not only did he give them the right to become children of God, but he also called them to share in a task.
They were to take all that Jesus had taught them, all that they knew Jesus to be, all that they had experienced from Jesus and of Jesus – they were to take it all to the world. The same world that had crucified Jesus, that did not understand Jesus, that had persecuted and rejected Jesus, they were to take Jesus to this world all over again, and keep on taking him there until the end of time.
They, of course, do not go alone, unaided, they were not abandoned – but that story is for next week, for Pentecost.
The disciples, despite their own rejection and persecution, never gave up on the world – how could they – their Lord died for the world. The task of loving the world into salvation was passed on to the disciples – and from them to us, their inheritors. It is a proposition of pure hope, hope over experience, but hope is a very gift from God, and a sure sign of the Spirit’s presence.
Yes, John saw boundaries, Christ and his church on one hand and the evil world on the other, but he also saw that the people Jesus called “the children of God” were his bridge to the world. It is our job not to emphasise the boundaries that divide us but to put down the welcome mat, put the kettle on and throw wide the door and say “come in and find a home with us.” That’s why the word welcome isn’t an optional part of the Christian vocabulary – it’s at its very heart.
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 Jesu the very thought of thee NEH 385 – St Botolph
1 Jesus, the very thought of thee
With sweetness fills my breast;
But sweeter far thy face to see,
And in thy presence rest.
2 Nor voice can sing, nor heart can frame,
Nor can the memory find,
A sweeter sound than thy blest name,
O Saviour of mankind!
3 O hope of every contrite heart,
O joy of all the meek,
To those who fall, how kind thou art!
How good to those who seek!
4 But what to those who find? Ah, this
Nor tongue nor pen can show;
The love of Jesus, what it is
None but his loved ones know.
5 Jesu, our only joy be thou,
As thou our prize wilt be;
Jesus, be thou our glory now,
And through eternity.
PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION – Sheila Forbes
Almighty God, may our prayers ascend to you just as Jesus Christ, your son, was taken up to heaven. As we celebrate the Ascension of our Lord Jesus let it inspire in us feelings of joy and hope rather than fear and separation as we await the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Everlasting God, may your light shine in our church community, and as you work among us, bless us with your presence. Bless William, our Rector , and his teams as they work in this Benefice. We offer you the gifts that you have given us in your service.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Creator God, we pray for our troubled world, its peoples and their leaders. We pray for those caught up in war, hatred and violence; especially the innocent victims of these evils, and also of those who are persecuted for their beliefs and following of Jesus Christ, our Lord. May peace abound and righteousness flourish, that we may vanquish injustice, suffering and wrongdoing.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Bountiful God, May our homes, schools, shops, offices and communities become places where your glory is seen and experienced in our ordinary everyday routines. May we have the insight to recognise Christ in the face of someone we meet today and give us an opportunity to brighten their day with a smile or a word.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Loving God, we pray for all those in need; for those who are filled with guilt; who are broken hearted; who are confused and afraid, or saddened by a breakdown in relationships. We pray for all suffering from illness, particularly those requesting our prayers and give joyful thanks for those on the road to recovery . (names of those on the prayer list)
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Merciful God, We pray for all who have died; especially those who have encouraged us in our faith by their example. As we pray for them, may they in turn continue to pray for us that we may stay true to our faith and give the same kind of example ourselves to others (remembering the recent departed including Ray Hills and others).
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Faithful God, as we go out into the coming week, make us mindful that we should constantly pray for your world and your people, just as Jesus, your son, prayed for his disciples before returning to you.
Merciful Father,
accept these prayers, for the sake of your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
As our Saviour taught us, so we pray:
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
The love of the Lord Jesus draw you to himself,
the power of the Lord Jesus strengthen you in his service,
the joy of the Lord Jesus fill your hearts;
and the blessing of God Almighty,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
bless you and keep you, always. Amen
HYMN See the Conqueror mounts in triumph NEH 132 – Ebenezer
1 See the Conqueror mounts in triumph,
See the King in royal state
Riding on the clouds his chariot
To his heavenly palace gate;
Hark! the choirs of angel voices
Joyful alleluyas sing,
And the portals high are lifted
To receive their heavenly King.
2 Who is this that comes in glory,
With the trump of jubilee?
Lord of battles, God of armies,
He has gained the victory;
He who on the cross did suffer,
He who from the grave arose,
He has vanquished sin and Satan,
He by death has spoiled his foes.
3 Thou hast raised our human nature
In the clouds to God’s right hand;
There we sit in heavenly places,
There with thee in glory stand;
Jesus reigns, adored by angels;
Man with God is on the throne;
Mighty Lord, in thine ascension
We by faith behold our own.
4 Glory be to God the Father;
Glory be to God the Son,
Dying, risen, ascending for us,
Who the heavenly realm has won;
Glory to the Holy Spirit;
To One God in persons Three;
Glory both in earth and heaven,
Glory, endless glory be. Amen.