You may wish to light a candle at the start of this time of worship.
Alleluia! Christ is risen.
He is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Theme Prayer
Risen, ascended Lord, as we rejoice at your triumph,
fill your Church on earth with power and compassion,
that all who are estranged by sin may find forgiveness and know your peace,
to the glory of God the Father. Amen.
Confession
Through Jesus our risen and ascended High Priest, we can approach the throne of grace with confidence, ready to confess our sins. Let us keep a moment of silence, and ask God to hear us and heal us.
Father, creator, you welcome your people into eternal glory. Lord, have mercy:
(Lord, have mercy.)
Jesus our Saviour, you plead for us at the Father’s side. Christ, have mercy:
(Christ, have mercy.)
Holy Spirit, you are promised to us, to fill us with love and to open the eyes of faith. Lord, have mercy:
(Lord, have mercy.)
May almighty God cleanse us from all our sin, and make us ready to receive his Spirit and to take his message of love into all the world. Amen.
God’s Word - John’s Gospel, chapter 17, verses 1 to 11 :-
Jesus looked up to heaven and said: ‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you. For you have made him sovereign over all mankind, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. This is eternal life: to know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
‘I have glorified you on earth by finishing the work which you gave me to do; and now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory which I had with you before the world began.
‘I have made your name known to the men whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours and you gave them to me, and they have obeyed your command. Now they know that all you gave me has come from you; for I have taught them what I learned from you, and they have received it: they know with certainty that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.
‘I pray for them; I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, because they belong to you. All that is mine is yours, and what is yours is mine; and through them is my glory revealed. I am no longer in the world; they are still in the world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you have given me, that they may be one, as we are one.’
Thanks be to God, for this his holy word. Amen.
A Reflection on the Reading
The event known as the Ascension is described only by Luke. On Ascension Day, last Thursday, we heard how the disciples saw their Lord taken away from them into the clouds. Luke uses that story to close his Gospel, and then to open his second book, the Acts of the Apostles. We might find ourselves thinking that it’s just a sort of stylistic device; but this is very clear from all the Gospels and from other witnesses too, the letters of Paul for example, that for a while after Easter Day Jesus was physically present with his disciples, but then he wasn’t. And he had said to Mary Magdalene in the garden on that first Easter morning that he would at some point ascend to the Father. The message she took to the disciples spoke of “My Father and your Father” - a promise that through the death and resurrection they - and we too - had been brought into a new relationship with God.
So, however the Ascension itself happened, the important thing is that it did, and it’s also important that we take to heart what the disciples did next. They prayed. Prayer should be something that underpins every aspect of Christian life, that flows through everything we do. Too often it’s a nod to God at the beginning or the end of the day, or at the start of a church meeting, or it’s maybe the emergency button to be pressed when something goes wrong. I used to work in a coal mining parish, and I remember an old miner telling me, “When you hear a pit prop crack, you won’t find any atheists down there!” Well, it occurs to me that this present period of enforced shutdown does give us an opportunity to pray purposefully, or maybe to plan prayerfully.
That’s what the disciples did in the period between Ascension and Pentecost. That’s what Jesus told them to do - well, he told them to wait to receive the gift of the Spirit, but I’ve no doubt he meant them to wait prayerfully, and it’s clear that that’s what they did. In Acts chapter 1 we read that all the disciples were “with one accord constantly at prayer.”
Some years ago the present Archbishop of Canterbury called for the ten days between Ascension and Pentecost to be a period of prayer, prayer with mission in mind, prayer to realign ourselves with what God is calling out from us, and what he is desiring for his world. That call for ten days of prayer spread around the world and was taken up by every Christian denomination, under the banner of “Thy Kingdom Come”. Today we’re almost halfway through these ten days, and if you haven’t already been using the prayer prompts I’ve been sending round, please do join in for the rest of this week, in prayer that joins us together, and seeks the presence and the power of God.
For some years now I’ve been editing the Prayer Diary for our diocese - not because I’m brilliant at praying, because I’m not - but because I do believe prayer is important, as a discipline, as something that can help establish a sense of common purpose in mission and service, and because we need to be placing ourselves before God regularly and faithfully, and seeking his presence in our lives. Jesus himself prayed constantly, and our Gospel reading shows us the closeness of his own relationship with the Father, and that those who pray “belong to God”.
Notice I haven’t said anything about asking for stuff! Of course, we do do that when we pray, and we should, but ultimately prayer is about finding out what God wants from us, rather than asking him to bless our own proposals or fulfil our own desires. Prayer is not my campaign speech to God, or my shopping list, and much of the best prayer hardly involves words at all, just that we be still before God - waiting on him, listening for his word, open to his presence. That, I think, is what the disciples were about as they waited there in the Holy City. And that’s what “Thy Kingdom Come” is about too: that we wait in prayer to discover what God is wanting to do with us, and for us, and through us.
Statement of faith
Let us proclaim the mystery of our faith:
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, who was revealed in the flesh, attested by the Spirit, seen by the apostles, proclaimed to the nations, believed in throughout the world, and taken up to glory. Amen.
Prayers
At this time when all the world is vulnerable, and many are afraid, pray for those who are most at risk, and especially for the poor, the homeless, and the many in our world who live as refugees. Pray that aid to the poorest in our world will be sufficient to enable them to counter the threat of Covid 19. Pray that all world leaders may have the vision and courage they need, and that the search for a vaccine and effective treatments will meet with success.
Pray that the Church everywhere will be constant in prayer and ready to do the will of God in these testing times. On Anglican Communion Sunday pray for Archbishop Justin and for staff in the Anglican Communion Office, and in our own diocese for all who work in Communications. On the day that would normally commemorate John and Charles Wesley, pray for the Methodist Church locally and throughout the world.
Pray for those in need today: for all who grieve, for the worried and anxious, and for those who are struggling with isolation and loneliness. Pray for all who are ill, including all who are infected by Covid 19, for their care and treatment and recovery. Pray for the safety of all front line workers, and especially for all who work in hospitals and care homes.
Pray for families and friends, and for the life of our communities. Pray for our schools as they plan for the possibility of children returning. May we continue to act with care, looking out for one another and keeping safe.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Prayer for today and Blessing
May the light of Christ, rising in glory, banish all darkness from our hearts and minds. Amen.
May Christ our King pour upon us his gifts, and bring us to reign with him in glory. And may almighty God bless us, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.
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