Morning Service for Trinity 10 2024

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Service

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September 4, 2024

John's crowd ask the wrong questions, they are looking for grapes on a gooseberry bush. They think they have seen a miracle, or heard of one, and they want more. Jesus must put them right. He doesn't talk in physical terms, the physical is only there to reveal the spiritual. He talks in metaphor because there is no other language to use. The food of which he speaks stands for an experience which his hearers have not had and cannot understand.

Morning Service for Trinity 10 2024

HYMN Awake, my soul, and with the sun NEH 232 – Morning Hymn

1 Awake, my soul, and with the sun

Thy daily stage of duty run;

Shake off dull sloth, and joyful rise

To pay thy morning sacrifice.

2 Redeem thy mis-spent time that’s past,

Live this day as if ’twere thy last:

Improve thy talent with due care;

For the great day thyself prepare.

3 Let all thy converse be sincere,

Thy conscience as the noon-day clear;

Think how the all-seeing God thy ways

And all thy secret thoughts surveys.

4 Awake, awake, ye heavenly choir,

May your devotion me inspire,

That I like you my age may spend,

Like you may on my God attend.

5 Praise God, from whom all blessings flow,

Praise him, all creatures here below,

Praise him above, ye heavenly host,

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 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

We recall our Lord’s command to love and in a moment of silence we confess

the many ways we fail to keep his command:

Most merciful God,

Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
we confess that we have sinned
in thought, word and deed.
We have not loved you with our whole heart.
We have not loved our neighbours as ourselves.
In your mercy forgive what we have been,
help us to amend what we are,
and direct what we shall be;
that we may do justly, love mercy,
and walk humbly with you, our God. Amen

May the God of love and power
forgive us and free us from our sins,
heal and strengthen us by his Spirit,
and raise us to new life in Christ our Lord. Amen.

THE COLLECT

Let your merciful ears, O Lord,

be open to the prayers of your humble servants;

and that they may obtain their petitions

make them to ask such things as shall please you;

through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.

FIRST READING – 2 Samuel 11.26 – 12.13a

When the wife of Uriah heard that her husband was dead, she made lamentation for him. When the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son.

But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD, and the LORD sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds; but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. He brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his meagre fare, and drink from his cup, and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was loath to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared that for the guest who had come to him.” Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man. He said to Nathan, “As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die; he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”

Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from the hand of Saul; I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added as much more. Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, for you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Thus says the LORD: I will raise up trouble against you from within your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbour, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this very sun. For you did it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.” David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”

HYMN Forgive our sins as we forgive NEH 6 – St Bernard

1. ‘Forgive our sins as we forgive,’

you taught us, Lord, to pray,

but you alone can grant us grace

to live the words we say.

2. How can your pardon reach and bless

the unforgiving heart,

that broods on wrongs and will not let

old bitterness depart?

3. In blazing light your cross reveals

the truth we dimly knew:

what trivial debts are owed to us,

how great our debt to you!

4. Lord, cleanse the depths within our souls,

and bid resentment cease;

then, bound to all in bonds of love,

our lives will spread your peace.

GOSPEL – John 6.24-35

So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

SERMON

John’s crowd ask the wrong questions, they are looking for grapes on a gooseberry bush. They think they have seen a miracle, or heard of one, and they want more. Jesus must put them right. He doesn’t talk in physical terms, the physical is only there to reveal the spiritual. He talks in metaphor because there is no other language to use. The food of which he speaks stands for an experience which his hearers have not had and cannot understand.

“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

This is a high claim, a ridiculously high claim. It is no accident that at the end of this section John tells us that many disciples turned away and returned home. What is this sufficiency we told we can have? Clearly it is not physical, we will still need to eat and drink. Jesus really wasn’t talking about manna from heaven. He is claiming that what he says and what he does can be relied upon, can be the foundation of a more human and a more complete life. This is what belief means, not the swallowing of impossible to verify statements, but a way of life, a set of ideas that inform us as to what is important and how we might be more content, happier and useful people.

In the end it is about what Jesus can do to sustain one’s life, and there is no way to know that until it has been tried. This is not as glib as it sounds, how faith is worked out in any human life is as varied as there are lives lived. It does not avoid life in all its challenges and deep sadness and suffering – Jesus’s own life and death show us that clearly enough. But life lived in the context of the presence of the God carries the possibility of resurrection and transformation on a daily basis. On a daily basis we are urged to hope more, trust more, love more.

Is belief in Jesus at panacea – an answer to all of life’s problems? No, but it is a way to go through life, though not around life.

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/AMR 390 – 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!

PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION

As we pray this morning we have the Southport Community on our minds. The senseless attack on children attending a holiday club is beyond understanding. We pray especially for the families of the little girls who were murdered. Please comfort them as they grieve and try to come to terms with their loss. We ask that the children and adults in a critical condition will survive their injuries and we also pray for the other children who were injured. Many who were involved in the incident will be struggling with the horror that they witnessed on Monday. Families and friends of the victims, members of the public, the police and emergency services will be traumatised by this attack. Please bring healing and peace into this community and protect it from further senseless violence.