Morning Service for Trinity 17 2022

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Service

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October 8, 2022

It’s all about response. How do you respond? So much of our life is deciding our reaction to something. We aren’t in a position to dictate, we can only respond to someone else’s move.

Morning Service for Trinity 17 2022

HYMN How sweet the name of Jesus sounds NEH 374/AMR 192 – St Peter

1 How sweet the name of Jesus sounds

In a believer’s ear!

It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,

And drives away his fear.

2 It makes the wounded spirit whole,

And calms the troubled breast;

‘Tis manna to the hungry soul,

And to the weary rest.

3 Dear name! the rock on which I build,

My shield and hiding-place,

My never-failing treasury filled

With boundless stores of grace.

4 Jesus! my Shepherd, Brother, Friend,

My Prophet, Priest, and King,

My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End,

Accept the praise I bring.

5 Weak is the effort of my heart,

and cold my warmest thought;

but when I see thee as thou art,

I’ll praise thee as I ought.

6 Till then I would thy love proclaim

With every fleeting breath;

And may the music of thy name

Refresh my soul in death.

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

Almighty God, you have made us for yourself,

and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you:

pour your love into our hearts and draw us to yourself,

and so bring us at last to your heavenly city

where we shall see you face to face;

through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.

FIRST READING – Jeremiah 29.1,4-7

These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

HYMN Ye servants of God NEH 476/AMR 226 – Paderbourne

1 YE servants of God, your Master proclaim,

And publish abroad his wonderful name:

The name all-victorious of Jesus extol:

His kingdom is glorious, and rules over all.

2 God ruleth on high, almighty to save;

And still he is nigh, his presence we have:

The great congregation his triumph shall sing,

Ascribing salvation to Jesus our King.

3 Salvation to God who sits on the throne!

Let all cry aloud, and honour the Son:

The praises of Jesus the angels proclaim,

Fall down on their faces, and worship the Lamb.

4 Then let us adore, and give him his right:

All glory and power, all wisdom and might,

All honour and blessing, with angels above,

And thanks never-ceasing, and infinite love.

GOSPEL – Luke 17.11-19

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

SERMON

It’s all about response. How do you respond? So much of our life is deciding our reaction to something. We aren’t in a position to dictate, we can only respond to someone else’s move.

Jeremiah wrote to his people, recently exiled to Babylon around 597 BC and encouraged them to accept their situation as unwilling foreigners in a strange land, to make the best of it and to prosper despite their difficulties. This wasn’t just acceptance of a judgment from God, rather it was an exercise in faith that if they journeyed in faith then they would eventually return to their promised land.

“… build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce.”

They were in no position to dictate, they had been defeated and dragged to a foreign land. They had few possibilities, but they could make the best of it. They could watch and wait, they could respond by making the best of it and stave off despair by patiently waiting for change. Jeremiah judged the situation perfectly, they indeed could do nothing else and their patience was rewarded. There are times when acquiescence, going with the flow, is the right thing to do. There are times, however when it isn’t.

“Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David – that is my gospel, for which I suffer hardship, even to the point of being chained like a criminal.”

Paul in the Second Epistle to Timothy writes (if it his Paul), as a man in chains, to his trainee church leader Timothy, he has not taken a path of acquiescence; he has made his stand and will not be moved. If Paul, and many men and women like him, had ‘gone with the flow’ then the news of Christ wouldn’t have escaped from Palestine. But Paul wasn’t the acquiescing type, when he encountered opposition he worked harder, travelled further, argued more and resisted. His response to Jewish hostility and Roman force helped shape Christian faith and practice ever since.

“… was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”

Jesus cleansed 10 leapers on the road to Jerusalem, but only one was saved. It’s a subtle point, but Luke carefully tells us that the lepers, ritually impure, cast out and removed from Society, were cleansed as they made their way to the Priest as Jesus had commanded. When the Samaritan ran back and threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him Jesus tells the man, as he tells others whom he has brought back from the dead, to rise – rise as in resurrection to new life – and to go on his way, to continue his journey, because his faith has, literally, saved him. Not just healed him as in our translations, but saved him, brought him salvation. And it was all down to his response.

Martin Luther once wrote “What is worship? One leper turning back”.

It’s all a question of response, it can’t be faked, it can’t be forced or even demanded – it can’t be begged, it can’t be urged, it can’t be taught – it must just happen. Something that wells up from within, something that overflows from the heart and responds to the recognition of the grace of God.

Such a response to grace, the undeserved, unmerited, freely flowing love of God, transcends all human categories of religion, race, language or any other label you may choose – it is simply what God yearns to have from us – a response from the heart. And it doesn’t matter that the Samaritan’s the wrong religion, the wrong race or the wrong anything – his heart turns to God and he will never be the same again.

And what will our response be to what is laid before us today? What will our response be to the grace of God offered to us at this table, a renewed participation in the very body and blood of his son? What will our response be to God who held nothing back from us?

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 Jesus shall reign where’er the sun NEH 388/AMR 220 – Truro

1 Jesus shall reign where’er the sun

Does his successive journeys run;

His kingdom stretch from shore to shore,

Till moons shall wax and wane no more.

2 People and realms of every tongue

Dwell on his love with sweetest song,

And infant voices shall proclaim

Their early blessings on his name.

3 Blessings abound where’er he reigns;

The prisoner leaps to lose his chains;

The weary find eternal rest,

And all the sons of want are blest.

4 Let every creature rise and bring

Peculiar honours to our King;

Angels descend with songs again,

And earth repeat the long Amen.

PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION – Christine Hill

Almighty God, in the noise and confusion of life, we pray for peace in our hearts. In these few moments of stillness we bring before you our prayers, asking for help and guidance as we journey through life and giving thanks and praise for our many blessings.