Morning Service for Trinity 5 2023
HYMN My God how wonderful thou art NEH410/ AMR 169 – Westminster
1 My God, how wonderful thou art,
Thy majesty how bright,
How beautiful thy mercy-seat,
In depths of burning light!
2 How dread are thine eternal years,
O everlasting Lord,
By prostrate spirits day and night
Incessantly adored!
3 How wonderful, how beautiful,
The sight of thee must be,
Thine endless wisdom, boundless power,
And awful purity!
4 O, how I fear thee, living God,
With deepest, tenderest fears,
And worship thee with trembling hope,
And penitential tears!
5 Yet I may love thee too, O Lord,
Almighty as thou art,
For thou hast stooped to ask of me
The love of my poor heart.
6 No earthly father loves like thee,
No mother, e’er so mild,
Bears and forbears as thou hast done
With me thy sinful child.
7 Father of Jesus, love’s reward,
What rapture will it be
Prostrate before thy throne to lie,
And gaze and gaze on thee.
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 and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church
is governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.
FIRST READING -Genesis 24.34-38,42-49, 58-67
So he said, “I am Abraham’s servant. The LORD has greatly blessed my master, and he has become wealthy; he has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male and female slaves, camels and donkeys. And Sarah my master’s wife bore a son to my master when she was old; and he has given him all that he has. My master made me swear, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live; but you shall go to my father’s house, to my kindred, and get a wife for my son.’…
“I came today to the spring, and said, ‘O LORD, the God of my master Abraham, if now you will only make successful the way I am going! I am standing here by the spring of water; let the young woman who comes out to draw, to whom I shall say, “Please give me a little water from your jar to drink,” and who will say to me, “Drink, and I will draw for your camels also”—let her be the woman whom the LORD has appointed for my master’s son.’
“Before I had finished speaking in my heart, there was Rebekah coming out with her water jar on her shoulder; and she went down to the spring, and drew. I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’ She quickly let down her jar from her shoulder, and said, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels.’ So I drank, and she also watered the camels. Then I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the ring on her nose, and the bracelets on her arms. Then I bowed my head and worshiped the LORD, and blessed the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me by the right way to obtain the daughter of my master’s kinsman for his son. Now then, if you will deal loyally and truly with my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so that I may turn either to the right hand or to the left.”…
And they called Rebekah, and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will.” So they sent away their sister Rebekah and her nurse along with Abraham’s servant and his men.
And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, “May you, our sister, become thousands of myriads; may your offspring gain possession of the gates of their foes.”
Then Rebekah and her maids rose up, mounted the camels, and followed the man; thus the servant took Rebekah, and went his way.
Now Isaac had come from Beer-lahai-roi, and was settled in the Negeb. Isaac went out in the evening to walk in the field; and looking up, he saw camels coming. And Rebekah looked up, and when she saw Isaac, she slipped quickly from the camel, and said to the servant, “Who is the man over there, walking in the field to meet us?” The servant said, “It is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself. And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent. He took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.
HYMN Oft in danger, oft in woe NEH 434/AMR 291 – University College
1 OFT in danger, oft in woe,
Onward, Christians, onward go;
Bear the toil, maintain the strife,
Strengthened with the Bread of Life.
2 Onward, Christians, onward go,
Join the war, and face the foe;
Will ye flee in danger’s hour?
Know ye not your Captain’s power?
3 Let your drooping hearts be glad;
March in heavenly armour clad;
Fight, nor think the battle long,
Victory soon shall tune your song.
4 Let not sorrow dim your eye,
Soon shall every tear be dry;
Let not fears your course impede,
Great your strength, if great your need.
5 Onward then in battle move;
More than conquerors ye shall prove;
Though opposed by many a foe,
Christian soldiers, onward go.
GOSPEL – Matthew 11.16-19,25-30
“But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”…
At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
SERMON
When the bishop’s ship stopped at a remote island for a day, he determined to use the time as profitably as possible. He strolled along the seashore and came across three fishermen mending their nets. In pidgin English they explained to him that centuries before their village had been converted by missionaries. “We, Christians!” they said, proudly pointing to one another.
The bishop was impressed. Did they know the Lord’s Prayer? They had never heard of it. The bishop was shocked.
“What do you say, then, when you pray?”
“We lift eyes in heaven. We pray, ‘We are three, you are three, have mercy on us”. The bishop was appalled at the primitive nature of their prayer. So he spent the whole day teaching them the Lord’s Prayer. The fishermen were poor learners, but they gave it all they had and before the bishop sailed away next day he had the satisfaction of hearing them go through the whole formula without a fault.
Months later the bishop’s ship happened to pass by those islands again and the bishop, as he paced the deck saying his evening prayers, recalled with pleasure the three men on that distant island who were now able to pray, thanks to his patient efforts. While he was lost in the thought he happened to look up and noticed a spot of light in the east.
The light kept approaching the ship and, as the bishop gazed in wonder, he saw three figures walking on the water. The captain stopped the boat and everyone leaned over the rails to see this sight.
When they were within speaking distance, the bishop recognised his three friends. The fishermen called out “Bishop”! they exclaimed, “We hear your boat go past island and come hurry hurry meet you.” “What is it you want?” asked the awe-stricken bishop.
“Bishop,” they said, “we so, so sorry. We forget lovely prayer. We say, ‘Our Father in heaven, holy be your name, your kingdom come . . .’, then we forget. Please tell us prayer again.”
The bishop felt humbled. “Go back to your homes, my friends,” he said, “and each time you pray, say, ‘We are three, you are three, have mercy on us!’”
‘You have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants’ – or rather, the untutored, the untaught, the immature, the foolish, the innocent, the childlike – the nepioi.
Believers have often been called ‘nepioi’. It refers to a quality, rather than an age – I suppose you’d call it an innocent openness, a sense of the child-like. And of course we know that not all children are innocent – or even child-like – all of the time.
A while back the Bishop of Winchester produced a strategy document for the Diocese, I haven’t seen it myself, but apparently it extolled the virtues of having a ‘vision statement’ – a declaration of where we were going, and how we were going to get there. The rather wonderful speaker we had at the Clergy conference rather poured scorn on the idea – ‘you can’t produce a vision statement,’ he said, ‘you can only receive a vision – not make one up’. Vision comes from God.
So often we forget that our faith is not about knowledge, its about vision, or rather, revelation, the things hidden from the wise are the very things of God – the knowledge of who he is and what he is like. The knowledge, or rather the experience that we are desperately searching for, and which for some of us is always just out of reach.
It was a common analogy to liken the law to a yoke, something that was a burden. Jesus says, lay down your books and your rules and learn instead from me – for with me the burdens are light, for I am like you, humble and lowly of heart.
And where do we find such vision, such revelation – usually on our knees, in the quiet, in the God directed silence, where we may look into the face of Jesus, and meet his answering gaze.
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 – Claire Cooper
Almighty God, you have called us and blessed us, led us and guided us, you have shown us so much love, care and commitment that now, in this moment, in this place, we bring to you our concerns, and our fears for others.
Lord we pray for Christians around the world that they may worship in safety. We pray for the church in this country as it faces the future of decreasing membership in so many places, alongside decreasing financial resources, and clergy spread more thinly.
We pray especially for our Benefice and William our Rector as he returns from his holiday.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer.
We pray for Leaders and their governments around the world, that they use their position wisely. We remember those nations troubled by war and dispute and pray especially for those unwillingly caught up in such tragedy in both Ukraine and Russia. We also pray for those who are trying to broker peace and understanding.
We pray for the unrest on the streets in France. May peace be forged and scars healed.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer.
As the NHS celebrates its 75th birthday, we give thanks to all those who have devoted their lives to their work in the NHS providing vital care in our country.
We pray for those who are suffering in mind, body or spirit and in a moment of quiet we remember those known personally to us…
Lord, bless all those who are suffering, be there by their side, bringing them relief and hope.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer.
We remember those we have loved, who are no longer with us and we give thanks for the joy, guidance and inspiration that they gave us, commending them to your safekeeping. We pray also for the bereaved, that they may feel your love and presence.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer.
Lord, lift from of us any burdens we are carrying, any expectations we are trying to meet that are not from you. Give us rest, and lead us to those good works that you have prepared for us to do this week, as we walk with 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:
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 Jesu, lover of my soul NEH383/AMR 193 – Aberystwyth
1 Jesu, Lover of my soul,
Let me to thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is high:
Hide me, O my Saviour, hide
Till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide,
O receive my soul at last.
2 Other refuge have I none,
Hangs my helpless soul on thee;
Leave, ah, leave me not alone,
Still support and comfort me.
All my trust on thee is stayed,
All my help from thee I bring;
Cover my defenceless head
With the shadow of thy wing.
3 Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
More than all in thee I find:
Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
Heal the sick, and lead the blind.
Just and holy is thy name,
I am all unrighteousness;
False and full of sin I am,
Thou art full of truth and grace.
4 Plenteous grace with thee is found,
Grace to cover all my sin;
Let the healing streams abound,
Make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art,
Freely let me take of thee,
Spring thou up within my heart,
Rise to all eternity.