Morning Service for Trinity 12 2022
HYMN River wash over me – H&S 80
1. River, wash over me,
cleanse me and make me new;
bathe me, refresh me and fill me anew –
river, wash over me.
2. Spirit, watch over me,
lead me to Jesus’ feet;
cause me to worship and fill me anew –
Spirit, watch over me.
3.Jesus, rule over me,
reign over all my heart;
teach me to praise you and fill me anew –
Jesus, rule over me.
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
O God, you declare your almighty power
most chiefly in showing mercy and pity:
mercifully grant to us such a measure of your grace,
that we, running the way of your commandments,
may receive your gracious promises,
and be made partakers of your heavenly treasure;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.
FIRST READING – Jeremiah 18.1-11
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him.
Then the word of the LORD came to me: Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the LORD. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it. Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the LORD: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.
HYMN Father, I place into your hands – H&S 27
1. Father, I place into your hands
the things I cannot do.
Father, I place into your hands
the things that I’ve been through.
Father, I place into your hands
the way that I should go,
for I know I always can trust you.
2. Father, I place into your hands
my friends and family.
Father, I place into your hands
the things that trouble me.
Father, I place into your hands
the person I would be,
for I know I always can trust you.
3. Father, we love to see your face,
we love to hear your voice.
Father, we love to sing your praise
and in your name rejoice.
Father, we love to walk with you
and in your presence rest,
for we know we always can trust you.
4. Father, I want to be with you
and do the things you do.
Father, I want to speak the words
that you are speaking too.
Father, I want to love the ones
that you will draw to you,
for I know that I am one with you.
GOSPEL -Luke 14.25-33
Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.
SERMON
It has been said many times over the last 10 years or so that we’re in a post-Christian era, that the Christian age is over. Christianity no longer defines people’s moral values just as it no longer defines how most people spend their Sunday mornings. A majority of the population do not now come to Church in order to get married or when their children are born. We are left to take some of the funerals – perhaps as some great symbolism of ushering out an age that has passed.
And yet when we read that passage from St Luke’s Gospel, and others which have the same message, I wonder whether we were ever a Christian nation. It seems to me that the sort of demands that Christ is making have never been contemplated seriously by more than a few individuals in any generation, let alone the whole of a nation’s population.
What Jesus is talking about, walking along the road to Jerusalem, is priorities – what comes first, very much first. He travels with a crowd, Luke calls it a large crowd, it is as if he’s saying to them, “are you sure you want to do this, are you sure you want to follow me, because my cause is hopeless, I cannot win, it will take you from family and home and all your possessions and all you value in the world – it will bring you only a cross.” The way of Christ is a way of renunciation, giving up one’s hold on the world and one’s portion of it. That was Luke’s experience, and the experience of much of Christ’s followers in the fist, second and third centuries.
This runs utterly counter to everything we have learnt and everything we teach our children. We have been prepared for the world, to struggle for our place in it, we have not been taught how to be content, how to be happy, how to be joyful. From the first we were taught that happiness is something you wait for – psychologists call it “deferred gratification” – you work now for rewards tomorrow, you work hard at school, you pass your exams, you start at the bottom and work your way up, take out a mortgage, pay into the pension scheme and save, save, save – all so that we can spend and buy and be happy in the future. I know the process, I’ve been following it for years and I taught it to my own children, by example if nothing else.
And what is the result of this? We are programmed to believe that happiness is only in the future, we’re taught to analyse what we don’t have now so that we will have something to aim for in the future. We’re not taught that we can be happy now, that we are happy, now, this very minute, that we have all that we could possibly need to be happy.
We’re taught to look for happiness in the people and the things around us, in our spouse, in our children, in our possessions. And if we are not happy we try to rearrange the world around us, change our job, move our house, change our wife or husband, look forward to our children leaving home, etc.. But what is most responsible for our state of mind, whether we’re happy or unhappy, is the thinking in our heads.
It has apparently been shown that winners of a national lottery, six months after their win, report levels of happiness not much greater than quadriplegics questioned a couple of years after their disabling accident. Everything we have ever wanted, wished for, fantasised about will make us not one jot more content, fulfilled, happy.
I guess we all know this to be true, from our own experience we know it to be so. But how do we let go, how do we free ourselves from all that binds us to what decays and turns to dust in our hands?
By constantly seeing all that is around us for what it is – temporary and worthless.
This is what the Jesuit priest and spiritual guide to many, Anthony de Mello, wrote:
“Spend some time seeing each of the things you cling to for what it really is, a nightmare that causes you excitement and pleasure on the one hand but also worry, insecurity, tension, anxiety, fear, and unhappiness on the other.
Father and mother: nightmare. Wife and children, brothers and sisters: nightmare. All your possessions: nightmare. Your life as it is now: nightmare. Every single thing you cling to and have convinced yourself you cannot be happy without: nightmare.
Then you will hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters and even your own life.
And you will so easily take leave of all your possessions, that is, you will stop clinging and thus have destroyed their capacity to hurt you.
Then at last you will experience that mysterious state that cannot be described or uttered, the state of abiding happiness and peace. And you will understand how true it is that everyone who stops clinging to brothers or sisters, father, mother or children, land or houses… is repaid a hundred times over and gains eternal life.” It is only when we stop clinging that we can truly appreciate what and who is around us – at least that’s the theory.
Of course, you won’t change, and I won’t change – we may think that one day we might be able to, one day when the world means so little to us , but Jesus was talking about now, not some future time – that’s just more deferred gratification – let go now and live, if only a little.
Christianity over, the battle for people’s hearts lost? You have to play a game to loose a game, the message of Christ was not to play the game. The Good news of Christ was to let go of all that – and live a little, look for real happiness, not just gratification – to live in the kingdom now.
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 Will you come and follow me – H&S 113
1. Will you come and follow me
if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don’t know
and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown,
will you let my name be known,
will you let my life be grown
in you, and you in me?
2. Will you leave yourself behind
if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind,
and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare
should your life attract or scare,
will you let me answer prayer
in you, and you in me?
3. Will you let the blinded see
if I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free
and never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean
and do such as this unseen,
and admit to what I mean
in you, and you in me?
4. Will you love the ‘you’ you hide
if I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside
and never be the same?
Will you use the faith you’ve found
to reshape the world around
through my sight and touch and sound
in you, and you in me?
5. Lord, your summons echoes true
when you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you
and never be the same.
In your company I’ll go
where your love and footsteps show.
Thus I’ll move and live and grow
in you, and you in me.
PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION – Jenny Walmsley
We pray for our world as it suffers from the high temperatures exacerbated by climate change. We think of the wildfires, the depleted harvests, the famines and chronic water shortages. We pray that our leaders will realise that they must work together for the common future of mankind. Do not let them destroy our world because events are not going as they might have hoped, as suggested in the reading from Isaiah, but instead let them work for the good of all so that ultimately we can all share in your righteous bounty in a just and caring world.
Lord, in your mercy Hear our prayer
We pray for Christians throughout the world, especially those being persecuted for their faith. We pray for our own churches, may everyone always receive a loving welcome and find peace there. We pray for those who lead us in our worship, for William, our rector and everyone who assists him in his work. We thank them for their constant efforts on our behalf and we thank you, Lord, for your care and compassion; may we emulate it as we share our fellowship with one another.
Lord, in your mercy Hear our prayer
We pray for the young people coping with the influences and demands of school, university, and work. Give the Year 11 and 13s the resilience and responsibility to accept their exam results this week and next, may they be guided into making the right choices for their futures. We also pray that our children and teachers will return in September stimulated and invigorated by their summer breaks.
Lord, in your mercy Hear our prayer
And now let us share a moment of silence together as we bring before you those known only to ourselves and to you Lord who are in need at this time, particularly those suffering from ill health or mourning loved ones. Let them feel your presence in their lives as we name them in our hearts and commit them to your loving care.
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
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face to shine upon and be gracious unto you.
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
The Lord God almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
the holy and undivided Trinity,
guard you, save you, and bring you to that heavenly city,
where he lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen
HYMN O praise ye the Lord NEH 427 – Laudate Dominum
1. To God be the glory! Great things he hath done;
so loved he the world that he gave us his Son;
who yielded his life an atonement for sin,
and opened the life-gate that all may go in.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord!
Let the earth hear his voice;
praise the Lord, praise the Lord!
Let the people rejoice:
O come to the Father, through Jesus the Son,
and give him the glory; great things he hath done!
2. O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood!
to every believer the promise of God;
the vilest offender who truly believes,
that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.
Chorus
3. Great things he hath taught us, great things he hath done,
and great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son;
but purer, and higher, and greater will be
our wonder, our rapture, when Jesus we see.
Chorus