A short service and reflection for Trinity 7

You may wish to light a candle at the start of this time of worship.

May the grace, mercy and love of God be with us all. Amen.

Collect

Generous God, you give us gifts and make them grow: though our faith is small as mustard seed, make it grow to your glory and the flourishing of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Confession

Let  us call to mind our sins, and make confession to our heavenly Father.

Have mercy upon us, Lord, as we have hoped in you.
Lord, have mercy.     
Lord, have mercy.
Bring in your justice, and break in us the power of evil.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Hear our prayer, and answer us in your righteousness.
Lord, have mercy. 
Lord, have mercy.

May God our Father deliver us from our sins, heal our hearts, and kindle within them the flame of his love,  for the sake of Jesus Christ our Saviour.  Amen.

God’s Word - 
Romans, chapter 8, verses 26 to the end :-

The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness. We do not even know how we ought to pray, but through our inarticulate groans the Spirit himself is pleading for us, and God who searches our inmost being knows what the Spirit means, because he pleads for God’s people as God himself wills; and in everything, as we know, he co-operates for good with those who love God and are called according to his purpose. For those whom God knew before ever they were, he also ordained to share the likeness of his Son, so that he might be the eldest among a large family of brothers; and those whom he foreordained, he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

With all this in mind, what are we to say? If God is on our side, who is against us? He did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all; how can he fail to lavish every other gift upon us? Who will bring a charge against those whom God has chosen? Not God, who acquits! Who will pronounce judgement? Not Christ, who died, or rather rose again; not Christ, who is at God’s right hand and pleads our cause! Then what can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or hardship? Can persecution, hunger, nakedness, danger, or sword? 

'We are being done to death for your sake all day long,’ as scripture says; ‘we have been treated like sheep for slaughter’ - and yet, throughout it all, overwhelming victory is ours through him who loved us. For I am convinced that there is nothing in death or life, in the realm of spirits or superhuman powers, in the world as it is or the world as it shall be, in the forces of the universe, in heights or depths: nothing in all creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Matthew, chapter 13 verses 31 to 33, and 44 to 52 :-

This is another parable Jesus gave them: ‘The kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. Mustard is smaller than any other seed, but when it has grown it is taller than other plants; it becomes a tree, big enough for the birds to come and roost among its branches.’

‘The kingdom of Heaven is like treasure which a man found buried in a field. He buried it again, and in joy went and sold everything he had, and bought the field. Again, the kingdom of Heaven is like this. A merchant looking out for fine pearls found one of very special value; so he went and sold everything he had and bought it.

‘Again the kingdom of Heaven is like a net cast into the sea, where it caught fish of every kind. When it was full, it was hauled ashore. Then the men sat down and collected the good fish into baskets and threw the worthless away. That is how it will be at the end of time. The angels will go out, and they will separate the wicked from the good, and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

‘Have you understood all this?’ he asked; and they answered, ‘Yes.’ So he said to them, ‘When, therefore, a teacher of the law has become a learner in the kingdom of Heaven, he is like a householder who can produce from his store things new and old.’

Thanks be to God, for this his holy word. Amen.

Reflection on the Reading

What exactly does Jesus mean when he talks about the pearl of great price? Isn’t it an act of extreme foolishness for someone to sell absolutely everything he has in order to buy a single pearl? Unless, I suppose, he had the means and the contacts to sell it on quickly at a decent profit. Then it might just make sense; but somehow I don’t think that’s what the man in the parable was intending to do.

But then again, what if there was something so important in your life that nothing else matters? It can feel a bit like that when you first fall in love, especially I guess when that falling in love is accompanied by the crashing accompaniment of teenage angst and hormones. But people can be equally single minded in pursuit of a career or ambition, I suppose, some of them, anyway.

What this does connect into, as Jesus tells the parable, is something we’re being asked or challenged to do on Tuesday nights at the Zoom bible studies Mark and Ian are doing. In five minutes to tell the story of how I became a Christian. Hmm, that’s interesting, and to be fair we’ve heard some good and challenging testimonies. But I’m not sure I could quite do that. I’m not sure I have become a Christian, or at least I don’t think I could say it happened at this time on this day in this place.
I think I am work in progress, or maybe I should say process. I like the word process. I’m not the finished article, I’m still in the process of being formed and made. I’ve always been “in the church”, from a young child. I may have drifted away in my university days and later years, but somehow I drifted back. But there has never been one moment when I gave my life to Christ, to borrow the evangelical phrase.

So does that mean I’m yet to find the pearl of great price? Yes, maybe. But there have been times along the way, some of them times when I’ve been challenged, maybe when I’ve been hurt, others when I’ve felt blessed, times when in some way the penny has dropped, and I’ve had a deeper awareness of God’s presence and God’s love, God’s call as well. What I’ve heard called “disclosure moments”.

And, of course, even where people have had that one great crashing Damascus Road moment of conversion, that never can be the whole story. There’s always more to learn, further to travel, new challenges to face. The story of faith is different for every person of faith, and it needs to be. The Holy Spirit visits us as rushing wind and tongues of flame, but also as a still small voice in the quiet moments, or a brief time of insight within a busy day. Your story of faith is yours and God’s; don’t be put off by the fact that others tell their story differently.

But the process of faith, however it develops, is always about that pearl - that the love of God individually for you, for me, is worth more than anything else we can have or own or know. It’s the one thing that makes sense of me, of who I am. And as I discover that, I become more and more the person God is calling me to be.

Statement of faith

We believe in God the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. 
We believe in God the Son, who lives in our hearts through faith, and fills us with his love. 
We believe in God the Holy Spirit, who strengthens us with power from on high. 
We believe in one God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Prayers 

Pray for world leaders in the difficult and often demanding decisions they need to make in these troubled times; pray that all who govern may do so with wisdom and integrity, and with a heart for the poor and needy. As the Covid 19 pandemic continues to gather strength in many parts our world, pray that nations may be able to act decisively and with compassion to protect their citizens. Pray for research, and that a vaccine may be found.

Pray that the Church everywhere may be truly Christ-centred, and that all we do may be according to his will, and designed to affirm the value of our neighbour, whoever he or she may be. In our own Diocese, pray for Bishop Richard, and for the communities and churches of the Bromyard Deanery. In the week of Lammas Day (Saturday) pray for farmers and fruit growers within our diocese, and all who work for them to harvest their crops.

Pray for all who are ill or in any kind of need: for those in hospitals and other places of care, and for those at home who may be struggling or anxious. Pray for all suffering directly as a result of Covid 19 virus infection, and for their care, treatment and recovery , and for the safety of all healthcare workers.

Pray for families and friends, and for the life of our communities. Pray that as people return as visitors to our communities that this may be managed safely. May we all act with care, looking out for one another and keeping safe ourselves.

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.

Blessing

May the peace of God surround and sustain us in all that we do in his name; and may the blessing of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be with us and with all those we love, today and always.   Amen.

A short service and reflection for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity

You may wish to light a candle at the start of this time of worship.

May the grace, mercy and love of God be with us all. Amen.

Collect 

Creator God, you made us all in your image: may we discern you in all that we see, and serve you in all that we do; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Confession

Let  us call to mind our sins, and make confession to our heavenly Father.

God our Father and Creator, we are the work of your hands, and yet we have wounded your love, and marred your image in us. We confess that we have sinned against you and against our neighbour. Heal and restore us for the sake of your Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

May the Lord enrich us with his grace, and nourish us with his blessing; may he hear our cry and graciously absolve us from all our offences, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Saviour.  Amen.

God’s Word - 

Romans, chapter 8, verses 12 to 25 :-

My friends, our old nature has no claim on us; we are not obliged to live in that way. If you do so, you must die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the base pursuits of the body, then you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. The Spirit you have received is not a spirit of slavery, leading you back into a life of fear, but a Spirit of adoption, enabling us to cry ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit of God affirms to our spirit that we are God’s children; and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ; but we must share his sufferings if we are also to share his glory.

For I reckon that the sufferings we now endure bear no comparison with the glory, as yet unrevealed, which is in store for us. The created universe is waiting with eager expectation for God’s sons to be revealed.

It was made subject to frustration, not of its own choice but by the will of him who subjected it, yet with the hope that the universe itself is to be freed from the shackles of mortality and is to enter upon the glorious liberty of the children of God. Up to the present, as we know, the whole created universe in all its parts groans as if in the pangs of childbirth. What is more, we also, to whom the Spirit is given as the firstfruits of the harvest to come, are groaning inwardly while we look forward eagerly to our adoption, our liberation from mortality. It was with this hope that we were saved. Now to see something is no longer to hope: why hope for what is already seen? But if we hope for something we do not yet see, then we look forward to it eagerly and with patience.

Matthew, chapter 13 verses 24 to 30, and 36 to 43 :-

Here is another parable Jesus gave them: ‘The kingdom of Heaven is like this. A man sowed his field with good seed; but while everyone was asleep his enemy came, sowed darnel among the wheat, and made off. When the corn sprouted and began to fill out, the darnel could be seen among it. The farmer’s men went to their master and said, “Sir, was it not good seed that you sowed in your field? So where has the darnel come from?” “This is an enemy’s doing,” he replied. “Well then,” they said, “shall we go and gather the darnel?” “No,” he answered; “in gathering it you might pull up the wheat at the same time. Let them both grow together till harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘Gather the darnel first, and tie it in bundles for burning; then collect the wheat into my barn.’” ’

Then he sent the people away, and went into the house, where his disciples came to him and said, ‘Explain to us the parable of the darnel in the field.’ He replied, ‘The sower of the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world; the good seed stands for the children of the Kingdom, the darnel for the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed the darnel is the devil. The harvest is the end of time, and the reapers are angels. As the darnel is gathered up and burnt, so at the end of time the Son of Man will send his angels, who will gather out of his kingdom every cause of sin, and all whose deeds are evil; these will be thrown into the blazing furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. If you have ears, then hear.

Thanks be to God, for this his holy word. Amen.

Reflection on the Reading

I was reading a very interesting article last week in my wildlife magazine about cornfield weeds, which used to be widespread but now are in many cases all but extinct. The seed we plant these days is so much cleaner, and systemic herbicides can quickly remove what used at one time to be pernicious weeds. Many of those weeds have very attractive flowers - so these days you’re more likely to see them deliberately sown onto a road verge than wild in a cornfield.

Having said that, some weeds are still hard to root out. Tall growing wild grasses of various kinds - wild oats, for example - can’t be removed with systemic herbicides, since what would kill them would kill the crop as well. So the image in today’s Gospel of letting the things you don’t want keep on growing alongside the things you do want hasn’t entirely disappeared, even in modern farming.

In the story Jesus tells, it makes for a good metaphor for how things are. People ask me now and again how I can believe in a good God, when all around we see people who act badly prospering and doing well. I’d begin my answer by saying that I believe God is good not because of what I see in the world around, but because of what I see in Jesus. John tells us that though no-one has ever seen God, Jesus has made him known; and Paul wrote that, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.” And then I might go on to mention that none of us is completely good.

But bad people do prosper, and horrific things can happen to folk who don’t seem to deserve it. The real world is all too often an unfair world. In an ideal world, no-one working to heal the sick would contract Covid 19 themselves. In an ideal world, cheats who exploit the vulnerable would be quickly caught and locked away.

But last week I was hearing a nurse describe to me quite graphically what it had felt like to catch Covid 19 and become desperately ill. Happily, she had pulled through, but it had been pretty rough. “Not something I deserved,” she told me, and I had to agree. And I also heard the story of an elderly lady who’d been rung up and told she owed back tax and was at risk of prison. A cruel scam call, but she’d been incredibly afraid and anxious, though again happily a neighbour had sorted things out for her.

People obviously asked Jesus the same question: “Why do the wicked do well? How does God let that happen?” And that’s why he told this story. Its message is that all of us stand under judgement, and that where wickedness thrives, it does so not because the hand of judgement will never fall, but because it is just for the moment stayed. There will be a time for all of us when we have to account for what we’ve done and what we’ve failed to do. And because none of us can guarantee the span of our lives, our time to turn to God is always now.

In each of us, there’s something of the fruitful crop, and something of the noxious weed. Christian growth is about rooting out the weedy and harmful stuff in our lives, to concentrate our hearts and minds on the fruitful and good: what helps and heals, and is pleasing to God.

Statement of faith

We believe in God the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. We believe in God the Son, who lives in our hearts through faith, and fills us with his love. We believe in God the Holy Spirit, who strengthens us with power from on high. We believe in one God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Prayers

Pray for the world: for world leaders that they might have a love of peace and justice, and govern with wisdom and integrity; for those who live in poverty, and the victims of natural disaster or of the violence, injustice or race hatred perpetrated by others; and for the world response to the present pandemic, especially those who are working to find a cure for this disease.

Pray that the Church everywhere may be a place of welcome and acceptance, and of forgiveness. Pray for Christians in the Philippines, and for the Episcopal Church of the Philippines. In our own Diocese, pray for Bishop Richard, and for the team of Intergenerational Missioners working around our Diocese. Pray for all our work with families and children, for those who reach out to the broken and lost, and for places of Christian pilgrimage.

Pray for all who are ill or in any kind of need, including those who are anxious, grieving or lonely. Pray for all in hospital or other places of care, especially those infected by the Covid 19 virus, for their care, treatment and recovery , and for the health and safety of those who minister to them.

Pray for families and friends, and for the life of our communities. Pray for all who are anxious about jobs and businesses at this time, and all who feel more vulnerable and fearful as restrictions are eased in the world around us. May we all act with care, looking out for one another and keeping safe ourselves.

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.

Blessing -

May God’s love surround us, God’s joy fill our lives, and God’s peace be in our hearts; and may the blessing of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, surround and sustain us now and always.   Amen.

Short Service and Reflection for Trinity 5

You may wish to light a candle at the start of this time of worship.

May the grace, mercy and love of God be with us all. Amen.

Collect 

Almighty God, send down upon your Church the riches of your Spirit, and kindle in all who minister the gospel your countless gifts of grace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Confession

Let  us call to mind our sins, and make confession to our heavenly Father.

You raise the dead to life in the Spirit: Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
You bring pardon and peace to the broken in heart: Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
You make one by your Spirit the torn and divided: Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

May the God of love bring us back to himself, forgive us our sins, and assure us of his eternal love, in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

God’s Word 
Romans, chapter 8, verses 1 to 11 :-

There is now no condemnation for those who are united with Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus the life-giving law of the Spirit has set you free from the law of sin and death. What the law could not do, because human weakness robbed it of all potency, God has done: by sending his own Son in the likeness of our sinful nature and to deal with sin, he has passed judgement against sin within that very nature, so that the commandment of the law may find fulfilment in us, whose conduct is no longer controlled by the old nature, but by the Spirit.

Those who live on the level of the old nature have their outlook formed by it, and that spells death; but those who live on the level of the spirit have the spiritual outlook, and that is life and peace. For the outlook of the unspiritual nature is enmity with God; it is not subject to the law of God and indeed it cannot be; those who live under its control cannot please God.

But you do not live like that. You live by the spirit, since God’s Spirit dwells in you; and anyone who does not possess the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then although the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is your life because you have been justified. Moreover, if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then the God who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give new life to your mortal bodies through his indwelling Spirit.

Matthew, chapter 13 verses 1 to 9, and 18 to 23 :-

Jesus went out and sat by the lakeside, where so many people gathered round him that he had to get into a boat. He sat there, and all the people stood on the shore. He told them many things in parables. He said: ‘A sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some of the seed fell along the footpath; and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil, and it sprouted quickly because it had no depth of earth; but when the sun rose it was scorched, and as it had no root it withered away.  Some fell among thistles; and the thistles grew up and choked it. And some of the seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold. If you have ears, then hear.’

To his disciples, Jesus said, ‘Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word that tells of the Kingdom, but fails to understand it, the evil one comes and carries off what has been sown in his heart; that is the seed sown along the footpath. The seed sown on rocky ground stands for the person who hears the word and accepts it at once with joy; it strikes no root in him and he has no staying-power; when there is trouble or persecution on account of the word he quickly loses faith. The seed sown among thistles represents the person who hears the word, but worldly cares and the false glamour of wealth choke it, and it proves barren. But the seed sown on good soil is the person who hears the word and understands it; he does bear fruit and yields a hundredfold, or sixtyfold, or thirtyfold.’

Thanks be to God, for this his holy word. Amen.

A Reflection on the Reading

For some reason, as I read through today’s readings last week, the phrase that came into my head was, “In Spirit and in truth,” words from John’s Gospel, chapter 4, verse 24: “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” Why should those words pop into my head, I wondered?

A second question. Is the parable of the sower aimed at the seed, or at the sower? In other words, who am I in this story? Is it about whether or not I grow, or whether or not I sow? And a third question: if, as Paul says, those who do not possess the Spirit of Christ do not belong to Christ, what exactly does it mean, to possess the Spirit of Christ?

There is clearly a connection between Spirit and truth, not only in worship but in all aspects of our daily living. One writer puts it this way: “To live a Pentecostal life means no longer hiding anything of myself from God, but letting the light of his love flood through every part of me.” He goes on to contrast this with the picture in Genesis of Adam and Eve hiding from God in the Garden, because they know they have disobeyed him. “It’s not that I am no longer sinful,” he writes. “I still get things wrong, but what’s changed is the relationship I have with the God who longs to forgive me and heal me.”

And this peace of mind gives him the courage to live the Gospel and to share the Gospel with others. Which takes me to my question about the parable - am I the seed or the sower? The short and simple answer is that I’m both, but we do tend to concentrate more on the seed when we read the story. Indeed, the explanation Jesus gives his disciples later - the second part of our reading today, is more about seed than sower, and perhaps designed to speak to a young Church living under persecution, with people falling away from the faith.

Of course, seed is useless unless it’s fruitful, and that’s what we should all aim to be. But is it the seed’s fault if it ends up on the rocks instead of in the soil? In the days before the seed drill, seed was broadcast across the poor land, and not all of it grew. And I see in this story a simple instruction to those who sow the seed, to an apostolic church, a church doing mission. Keep on sowing, and don’t be put off by the fact that not all the seed you sow grows to be fruitful. That’s in the nature of things. But if you don’t sow, then none of the seed can grow.

A good and careful sower will make sure as much of the seed as possible falls into good soil, and he’ll come back and nurture the growing crop, so as much of it as can grows well.  And that takes me to the question about what it means to have the Spirit of Christ within us. It doesn’t just mean that we’re filled with joy, it’s not just about knowing we’re saved, and no longer shackled by sin. It has an intensely practical side. Paul has a lot to say about the fruits of the Spirit - and perhaps the most important thing to say about them is that they’re all things we see in Jesus himself. And at its simplest, to follow Jesus is to be as like him as we can be - the great Shepherd of the sheep, and the great Sower too.

Statement of faith

We believe in God the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. We believe in God the Son, who lives in our hearts through faith, and fills us with his love. We believe in God the Holy Spirit, who strengthens us with power from on high. We believe in one God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Prayers 

Pray for the world, and especially for those places in our world where there is trouble and tension, and where people are unsettled, and unsure of their place, their rights or their future. Pray for those places where the resources are lacking to deal with Covid 19 and other urgent problems and threats. Pray for scientific co-operation, both to find a vaccine for Covid and to develop effective treatments and prevention strategies. Continue to pray  for wise and caring leadership in our own and every nation.

Pray that the Church everywhere may live and work and witness in the Spirit of Christ, and for all evangelists and preachers. Pray for Christians in Papua New Guinea, and for the Anglican Church there. In our own Diocese, pray for Bishop Richard, and for the churches and communities of the Bridgnorth Deanery. Pray too for Christian poets, and those who write songs and hymns.

Pray for all in need today: those who are grieving, lonely, worried or anxious, and all who are ill, including those infected by the Covid 19 virus. Pray for the care, treatment and recovery of all who are ill or troubled, and for the health and safety of all who care for them, and for all front line workers. Pray too for all who suffer from forms of mental illness, and those who offer support and care.

Pray for families and friends, and for the life of our communities. Pray for our village shops and for other small businesses in our communities. May we all act with care, looking out for one another and keeping safe ourselves.

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.

Blessing

May the God of hope fill us with his Spirit of love and peace; and may the blessing of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, surround and sustain us now and always.   Amen.

Short Service and Reflection for Trinity 4, Sunday 5th July

You may wish to light a candle at the start of this time of worship.

May the grace, mercy and love of God be with us all. Amen.

Collect

Gracious Father, by the obedience of Jesus you brought salvation to our wayward world: draw us into harmony with your will, that we may find all things restored in him, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Confession

Let  us call to mind our sins, and make confession to our heavenly Father.

Almighty God, long-suffering and of great goodness, we confess with our whole heart our neglect of your commandments: our wrong doing and thinking, the hurts we have done to others, and the good we have left undone. Forgive us, Lord, and raise us to newness of life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

May the God of love bring us back to himself, forgive us our sins, and assure us of his eternal love, in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

God’s Word 
Romans, chapter 7, verses 15 to 25a

I do not even acknowledge my own actions as mine, for what I do is not what I want to do, but what I detest. But if what I do is against my will, then clearly I agree with the law and hold it to be admirable. This means that it is no longer I who perform the action, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me - my unspiritual self, I mean - for though the will to do good is there, the ability to effect it is not. The good which I want to do, I fail to do; but what I do is the wrong which is against my will; and if what I do is against my will, clearly it is no longer I who am the agent, but sin that has its dwelling in me.

I discover this principle, then: that when I want to do right, only wrong is within my reach. In my inmost self I delight in the law of God, but I perceive in my outward actions a different law, fighting against the law that my mind approves,

and making me a prisoner under the law of sin which controls my conduct.  Wretched creature that I am, who is there to rescue me from this state of death? Who but God? Thanks be to him through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Matthew, chapter 11 verses 16 to 19, and 25 to the end

Jesus said, ‘How can I describe this generation? They are like children sitting in the market-place and calling to each other, “We piped for you and you would not dance. We lamented, and you would not mourn.” For John came, neither eating nor drinking, and people say, “He is possessed”;  the Son of Man came, eating and drinking, and they say, “Look at him! A glutton and a drinker, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!” Yet God’s wisdom is proved right by its results.’

At that time Jesus spoke these words: ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the learned and wise, and revealing them to the simple. Yes, Father, such was your choice. Everything is entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son but the Father, and no one knows the Father but the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who are weary and whose load is heavy; I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble-hearted; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to wear, my load is light.’

Thanks be to God, for this his holy word. Amen.

A Reflection on the Reading

I do sometimes feel that Paul tends to think too much. When he was on trial in Jerusalem, and speaking in his own defence, Festus, the Roman procurator or governor, interrupted him to say, “Paul, your great learning is making you mad!” Maybe Paul wasn’t always the best at expressing his thoughts in simple terms. But once you clear a way through it, our first reading shows us that Paul, like us, had a perpetual dilemma: knowing what he should be doing, he still doesn’t do it.

When lockdown started, I saw it mostly in terms of “tidy up”. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve done a lot of the stuff I wanted to. But there’s still a great pile of paper in a filing tray that needs to be sorted through and filed or binned or otherwise disposed of. That was supposed to be my very first job, and I still haven’t done it. I am entirely and completely persuaded that I need to get it done; and I’ve had plenty of time to do it; and yet it remains undone.

Jesus described the reaction of the people to his ministry and to John the Baptist by comparing them to children singing in the street. Observation of the two of my grandchildren who happen to be brothers to each other suggests that small boys can be very good at finding, or manufacturing, reasons to fall out with each other. I was trying to talk to my daughter the other day while the two lads were noisily falling out in the background. “Nothing’s ever right for them,” she sighed.

It can feel like that sometimes. The same people who dismissed John the Baptist as a madman because he fasted, condemned Jesus as a glutton because he didn’t. Is that, I wonder, because we want a religion that suits us and approves of us, rather than one that challenges us? I’m reminded of the man who, as he came out of church one Sunday, said, “Good sermon, vicar! Just for once, I thought you didn’t mean me!”

Anyway, Jesus goes on to talk about things denied to the wise and clever people, but understood by those who are humble and simple. And Paul understood it too, for all his great intellect, though it did take being struck down on the road to Damascus to break through. To make him realise that the important thing about religion isn’t knowing lots of things, like exactly how a priest should hold his hands when saying the prayer of consecration, or what colour candle is lit on the Third Sunday of Advent, or how to calculate the date of Good Friday. Nor is it to do with keeping all the rules, getting it all legally correct. No - to be religious is to be in a relationship with God.  With Jesus.

Paul knew that. My life’s a mess, he tells us. I know what to do yet I don’t do it. I know what’s good, and yet I choose what’s bad. I keep on getting stuff wrong. And I don’t seem to be able to do anything about this. Not on my own. But, he goes on to say, with Jesus I can. On my own I’m lost, but with him, I’m found; on our own, we’re destined for death, but in Jesus we have the way to life.

My yoke is easy, says Jesus, and my burden is light. In fact, as one writer on this passage says, what Jesus asks of us is both easy and hard, at the same time. Because of Jesus, we’re no longer shackled to sin, we’re set free. But whenever Jesus says “Follow me,” he’s also saying “And take up your cross to do it.”

A friend of mine has a weakness for cream cakes. “I can’t help myself,” she tells me. And that’s it exactly. That’s what Paul is saying, too. I can’t help myself. The battle to live well is a battle I can’t win. But Jesus has already won it for me. That’s what the cross stands for. And that cross is the sign of our freedom to live thankful lives, to live serving lives, to live lives that will reflect his love.
Statement of faith - We believe in God the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. We believe in God the Son, who lives in our hearts through faith, and fills us with his love. We believe in God the Holy Spirit, who strengthens us with power from on high. We believe in one God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Prayers

Pray for the world:  where there is conflict and war may God bring peace; where people are belittled, abused or exploited may he establish justice; and where people are hurt, afraid or in a desperate place, may he enable the hungry to be fed and the hurt and frightened to find solace. Continue to pray for all that is being done to combat Covid 19 and to find a cure, and for wise and caring leadership in our own and every nation.

Pray that the Church everywhere may seek constantly to live in the light and strength of Christ and to be renewed in his image. Pray for Christians in Pakistan and for the United Church of Pakistan. In our own Diocese, pray for Bishop Richard, and that all that we do and plan may be grounded in a joyful and prayerful placing of ourselves under God’s will.

Pray for all in need today: those who are grieving, lonely, worried or anxious, and all who are ill, including those infected by the Covid 19 virus. Pray for the care, treatment and recovery of all who are ill or troubled, and for the health and safety of all who care for them, and for all front line workers.

Pray for families and friends, and for the life of our communities. As society reopens pray this may be done safely and with care and thought for others.  Pray for all who have lost jobs or businesses, and for those who continue to feel vulnerable, and have either chosen or been instructed to self isolate. May we all act with care, looking out for one another and keeping safe ourselves.

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.

Blessing

May the almighty and eternal God sanctify and govern our hearts and minds in the ways of his commandments; and may the blessing of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, surround and sustain us now and always.   Amen.

Short service and reflection for Trinity 3, Sunday 28th June 2020

You may wish to light a candle at the start of this time of worship.

May the grace, mercy and love of God be with us all. Amen.

Collect 

God our saviour, look on this wounded world in pity and in power; hold us fast to your promises of peace won for us by your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Confession

Let  us call to mind our sins, and make confession to our heavenly Father.

You were sent to heal the contrite: Lord, have mercy.   
Lord, have mercy.
You came to call sinners: Christ, have mercy.                   
Christ, have mercy.
You plead for us at the Father’s right hand: Lord, have mercy. 
Lord, have mercy.

May the God of love bring us back to himself, forgive us our sins, and assure us of his eternal love, in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

God’s Word - Romans, chapter 6, verses 12 to the end :-

Sin must no longer reign in your mortal body, exacting obedience to the body’s desires. You must no longer put any part of it at sin’s disposal, as an implement for doing wrong. Put yourselves instead at the disposal of God; think of yourselves as raised from death to life, and yield your bodies to God as implements for doing right. Sin shall no longer be your master, for you are no longer under law, but under grace.

What then? Are we to sin, because we are not under law but under grace? Of course not! You know well enough that if you bind yourselves to obey a master, you are slaves of the master you obey; and this is true whether the master is sin and the outcome death, or obedience and the outcome righteousness. Once you were slaves of sin, but now, thank God, you have yielded wholehearted obedience to that pattern of teaching to which you were made subject; emancipated from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness (to use language that suits your human weakness). As you once yielded your bodies to the service of impurity and lawlessness, making for moral anarchy, so now you must yield them to the service of righteousness, making for a holy life.

When you were slaves of sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. And what gain did that bring you? Things that now make you ashamed, for their end is death. But now, freed from the commands of sin and bound to the service of God, you have gains that lead to holiness, and the end is eternal life. For sin pays a wage, and the wage is death, but God gives freely, and his gift is eternal life in union with Christ Jesus our Lord.

Matthew, chapter 10 verses 40 to the end :-

Jesus said, ‘To receive you is to receive me, and to receive me is to receive the One who sent me. Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will be given a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a good man because he is a good man will be given a good man’s reward. Truly I tell you: anyone who gives so much as a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is a disciple of mine, will certainly not go unrewarded.’

Thanks be to God, for this his holy word. Amen.

A Reflection on the Reading

Slavery played a bigger part in the history of our land and in the process that formed our modern western society than we sometimes like to think. The National Trust is wrestling with that issue just now, having discovered just how many of the great houses it administers and opens to the public have a slavery connection. The mission agency I used to work for owned slaves on Barbados, and went on owning them after the slave trade ended, until the ownership and use of slaves became illegal some thirty years later.

The fact that slavery was a fact of life for people like Paul played its part in assuring otherwise faithful Christian people that it was all right, even divinely sanctioned. As of course did the sort of unthinking racism - or perhaps I should say racial stereotyping - that allowed a white man to say that because an African looked different from him he was actually inferior, and to deduce from that that God had placed the African peoples on this earth in order to provide labour for those superior peoples who happened to have white skin. We find such views so utterly offensive now that it can be hard to comprehend that for many people they were unquestioned, and just a fact of life, 250 years ago or less.

Now in Paul’s day slavery was not like that. It was not the enslavement of one race by another. Anyone could be a slave, and any slave might become a free person. A slave could rise to a high status in society, though of course many or most would not. You became a slave as the result perhaps of being on the losing side in a war, or finding yourself grossly in debt. Or you might even choose to be a slave. The Greek word is the same for slave as for servant; to be a slave might be a neat and effective career move, like the person today whose ambition is to be a butler.

And that’s why Paul can talk as freely as he does about slavery without causing offence. Society then saw nothing wrong in the idea of one person owning another.  A slave was of course bound to obey his or her master; you would be bound to him. So choose whose slaves you are, says Paul. You were slaves to sin, but you’ve been emancipated, set free. So don’t go back there. Don’t put any part of yourself at sin’s disposal. Be instead a slave to righteousness.

Sin tends to be thought of in predominantly sexual terms these days. And as the list of things society believes it’s OK to do widens, so what gets classed as sin gets narrower. We could find ourselves honestly believing that sin has no hold on us, that really we’re doing all right, and certainly we’re no worse than the next person along. But Paul is asking us, reminding us, to take sin seriously.

The Greek word we translate as sin isn’t so much about doing things that are wrong as not getting it right. Sin is missing the mark, falling short, messing up. Our sins of commission (things we do that are bad) are well outnumbered by our sins of omission (the good stuff we somehow just don’t get round to doing). And unless we recognise that, and address it, we’re not taking sin seriously.

A slave is 100% owned, and therefore must be 100%  alert, responsive and reliable. There is an old tradition that if someone saves your life you belong to them, and Paul I guess is thinking along those lines here. The wages of sin, after all, are death (everyone knows that saying, and most don’t know where it comes from, but you do - Paul to the Romans, chapter 6). So if we are free from sin, we are free also from death, and we owe our lives and our very selves to the one who saved us. Paul knew this as a personal truth. “I am no longer my own,” he said. “I belong to Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”  Amen.

Statement of faith - 

We believe in God the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. We believe in God the Son, who lives in our hearts through faith, and fills us with his love. We believe in God the Holy Spirit, who strengthens us with power from on high. We believe in one God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Prayers

Pray for the world:  for every place that is not peaceful; for every place where people are abused, enslaved, or denied human rights and access to justice. Continue to pray for the landless and refugee peoples of our world, often very vulnerable to illnesses, including Covid 19. Pray for wise leadership here and in every nation as we try to bring this disease under control, and for all who are working to find effective vaccines and treatments.

Pray that the Church everywhere may take seriously its call to faithful service, and that we may live as those who belong to Christ. Pray for Christians in India and for the United Church of North India. In our own Diocese, pray for Bishop Richard and for the churches and communities of the Abbeydore Deanery. Pray too for all Christian counsellors, spiritual directors and confessors.

Pray for all in need today: those who are grieving, lonely, worried or anxious, and all who are ill, including those infected by the Covid 19 virus. Pray for their care, treatment and recovery, and for the health and safety of all who care for them, and for all front line workers.

Pray for families and friends, and for the life of our communities. Continue to pray for our schools, shops and all places of work. As we re-open society may we do so safely and with care and thought for others.  Pray for all who have lost jobs or businesses, and for those who remain vulnerable. May we all act with care, looking out for one another and keeping safe ourselves.

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.

Blessing

May the wounds of Christ, who bore our sins in his body on the cross, be for us healing and peace; and may the blessing of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, surround and sustain us now and always.   Amen.

A short service and reflection for the second Sunday after Trinity

You may wish to light a candle at the start of this time of worship.

May the grace, mercy and love of God be with us all. Amen.

Collect

Faithful Creator, your mercies never fail us: deepen our faithfulness to you
and to your living Word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Confession

Let  us call to mind our sins, and make confession to our heavenly Father.

Most merciful God, we have sinned in thought and word and deed. We are truly sorry, and we ask you to forgive. Help us by your Spirit to live the new life in Christ, loving you with all our heart, and our neighbours as ourselves; for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.

May the God of love bring us back to himself, forgive us our sins, and assure us of his eternal love, in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

God’s Word - Romans, chapter 6, verses 1 to 11 :-

What are we to say, then? Shall we persist in sin, so that there may be all the more grace? Certainly not! We died to sin: how can we live in it any longer?  Have you forgotten that when we were baptized into union with Christ Jesus we were baptized into his death? By that baptism into his death we were buried with him, in order that, as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, so also we might set out on a new life.

For if we have become identified with him in his death, we shall also be identified with him in his resurrection. We know that our old humanity has been crucified with Christ, for the destruction of the sinful self, so that we may no longer be slaves to sin, because death cancels the claims of sin. But if we thus died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing as we do that Christ, once raised from the dead, is never to die again: he is no longer under the dominion of death. When he died, he died to sin, once for all, and now that he lives, he lives to God. In the same way you must regard yourselves as dead to sin and alive to God, in union with Christ Jesus.

Matthew, chapter 10 verses 24 to 39 :-

Jesus said, ‘No pupil ranks above his teacher, no servant above his master. The pupil should be content to share his teacher’s lot, the servant to share his master’s. If the master has been called Beelzebul, how much more his household!  So do not be afraid of them. There is nothing covered up that will not be uncovered, nothing hidden that will not be made known. What I say to you in the dark you must repeat in broad daylight; what you hear whispered you must shout from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Fear him rather who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

‘Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet without your Father’s knowledge not one of them can fall to the ground. As for you, even the hairs of your head have all been counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than any number of sparrows. Whoever will acknowledge me before others, I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; and whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.

‘You must not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man will find his enemies under his own roof. No one is worthy of me who cares more for father or mother than for me; no one is worthy of me who cares more for son or daughter; no one is worthy of me who does not take up his cross and follow me. Whoever gains his life will lose it; whoever loses his life for my sake will gain it.
       
Thanks be to God, for this his holy word. Amen.

A Reflection on the Reading

Today’s readings are really rather difficult ones, I think. Paul’s letter to the Romans is his most theological writing, and often quite hard to unravel. What, for example, does he mean by “dying with Christ”? But Jesus himself, as Matthew presents his teaching, is also giving us some hard stuff. One of the titles we give to Jesus, especially at Christmas, is “prince of peace”. Yet here he’s saying, “I haven’t come to bring peace but a sword.” And then he goes on to speak of people set against each other, of family members set against each other. It sounds as if he’s not going to solve the world’s problems, but to add to them.

One of the moving images from last weekend’s “Black Lives Matter” demos was of a couple of black guys protecting a white far right supporter from the beating he was getting, and carrying him to safety. Like in the parable of the Good Samaritan, I guess what motivated those guys was just “This is someone who needs my help. It doesn’t matter who he is or from what tribe, if he needs help and I can give help, he’s my responsibility.” I’ve no idea what faith these people followed, if any - but what they were doing seemed to me a good and godly thing.

Now Jesus makes very clear that loving your enemy, and doing good to those who treat you badly, is fundamental to the faith he calls us to follow. It may mean - it very likely will mean - going against what the crowd decide to do. His attackers went on trying to hit that white guy even while his rescuers were carrying him away. And anyone who puts Jesus first will likely offend causes, organisations, political allies, people, friends, even family members, who feel they’re being downgraded, that they should have pride of place. Although anyone truly putting Jesus first will always be doing their best for those around them, because that’s what Jesus would want us to do.

Putting Jesus first is what Paul is referring to when he writes about “dying with Christ”. He means letting go of the life we own and can do what we want with, to live in a new way, shaped by the cross of Christ. Jesus himself says, “No-one is worthy who does not take up his cross and follow me.” This means not following the way of the world. Christians are not called on to be nice, but to be true; and we’re not promised popularity, but we are assured of our Father’s blessing.

For me the cross is a powerful image of a way of living that reaches up in praise and in prayer, that reaches out in fellowship, but also is always ready to reach down to raise up the fallen, to rescue the needy, to challenge injustice. A life that’s not content to leave things as they are, but is always wanting to proclaim how things could be, how things will be, as we are remade in the image of Christ.

This isn’t something I can do, not on my own. So I need to be joined to the example of Jesus, to the love of Jesus, to the death of Jesus, to win through. As Paul writes to the Church in Rome: “See yourselves as dead to sin, and alive to God, in union with Christ Jesus.” Amen.

Statement of faith

We believe in God the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. We believe in God the Son, who lives in our hearts through faith, and fills us with his love. We believe in God the Holy Spirit, who strengthens us with power from on high. We believe in one God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Prayers

Pray for the world:  for every place of deprivation, suffering and injustice; for all who are abused or exploited, for landless people and refugees; and for those places where the impact of Covid 19 continues to grow. Pray for wisdom and clear vision for all in places of leadership and power, and also for all who are working to find effective vaccines and treatments for Covid 19.

Pray for the Church everywhere to be cross-shaped in its witness to the world. Pray for Christians in Nigeria, and for the Anglican Church in that nation. In our own Diocese, pray for a ministry that reaches out to all and affirms the worth of each person regardless of age, gender, background or race. On World Music Day, give thanks for all church musicians and composers.

Pray for all who are in need today: for any who are grieving, for any who are lonely, worried, or anxious, and for all who are ill, including all infected by the Covid 19 virus. Pray for their care, treatment and recovery. Continue to pray for the safety of all front line workers, especially those in hospitals, health centres and care homes.

Pray for families and friends, and for the life of our communities. Continue to pray for our schools, shops and other premises beginning to re-open, and for the safely of all; also for those whose jobs or businesses are lost or at risk. Pray for all who continue to self-isolate, and that all of us may continue to act with care, looking out for one another and keeping safe ourselves.

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.

Blessing

May the cross of Christ be our guide; may we bear that cross with courage and with faith, and may all we do be done in love; and so may the blessing of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, surround and sustain us now and always.   Amen.

A short service and reflection for Trinity 1, 14th June, 2020

You may wish to light a candle at the start of this time of worship.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all. Amen.

Collect 

God of truth, help us to keep your law of love and to walk in ways of wisdom,
that we may find true life in Jesus Christ your Son. Amen.

Confession

Let  us call to mind our sins, and make confession to our heavenly Father.

Most merciful God, we have sinned in thought and word and deed. We are truly sorry, and we ask you to forgive. Help us by your Spirit to live the new life in Christ, loving you with all our heart, and our neighbours as ourselves; for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.

May the God of love bring us back to himself, forgive us our sins, and assure us of his eternal love, in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

God’s Word - Romans, chapter 5, verses 1 to 8 :-

Now that we have been justified through faith, we are at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, who has given us access to that grace in which we now live; and we exult in the hope of the divine glory that is to be ours. More than this: we even exult in our present sufferings, because we know that suffering is a source of endurance, endurance of approval, and approval of hope. Such hope is no fantasy; through the Holy Spirit he has given us, God’s love has flooded our hearts.

It was while we were still helpless that, at the appointed time, Christ died for the wicked. Even for a just man one of us would hardly die, though perhaps for a good man one might actually brave death; but Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, and that is God’s proof of his love towards us.

Matthew, chapter 9 verse 35 to chapter 10 verse 8 :-

Jesus went round all the towns and villages teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every kind of illness and infirmity. The sight of the crowds moved him to pity: they were like sheep without a shepherd, harassed and helpless. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The crop is heavy, but the labourers too few; you must ask the owner to send labourers to bring in the harvest.’

Then he called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out unclean spirits and to cure every kind of illness and infirmity. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first Simon, also called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax-collector, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, the man who betrayed him.

These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: ‘Do not take the road to gentile lands, and do not enter any Samaritan town; but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go proclaim the message: “The kingdom of Heaven is upon you.” Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. You received without cost; give without charge.’

Thanks be to God, for this his holy word. Amen.

A Reflection on the Reading

Many years ago, just before I went to theological college in 1978, we had a big mission campaign in my home church. Franciscans were coming to do the actual mission, but we were sent out first to prepare the way. Every house was visited. We had a simple questionnaire, the aim being to help the mission team decide who to prioritise when they started on the mission proper. It was a bit scary, but we did a lot of praying beforehand, and set out, each with our list of streets to cover.

I was reminded of this by the last words of our Gospel reading - “You received without cost; give without charge” - because to be honest many of the people I called on expected me to be asking for money. And on the whole they were quite prepared to give money, if only to get rid of me and with a clear conscience watch me go. “No, I’m just here to ask some questions,” I said. “Oh dear,” I could see them thinking. “This could be more complicated than we thought!”

At the moment of course I am having to ask for money. The reality of it is that our churches have no money coming in, or not very much, but there’s still money going out, including of course our parish offer to the diocese. “Why are we still sending money to the diocese?” I was asked the other day. “What do they do with it all?”

An amazing amount, is the short answer to that question. On what is quite a small budget our Diocesan Board of Finance manages to enable a lot of mission and ministry to happen, and it’s still happening, even though we’re locked down. By and large, what the parish offer pays for is mission and ministry. Put at its simplest, it pays for vicars, including me. And vicars are doing our best to keep working, and to keep doing mission, even though most of our visiting has to be done by phone or Zoom, and our services are mostly streamed or (like this one) Youtubed.

We clergy are spread quite thinly these days, but then again Jesus sent out only twelve men in our Gospel reading - and look what happened when they really got going! Of course, in today’s story they were doing exactly what I was doing back in 1978 and in the parish of Rickerscote. They were preparing the way. They had Jesus with them to do the actual mission work. It was only after Pentecost that the disciples ceased to be just disciples - learners, students - and became also apostles - folk with a story to tell, and a message to give, and a love to share.

Now asking for money could get in the way of mission. I see that. What Jesus gave, on the cross, he gave for free, for people who neither paid for it nor deserved it. In Rickerscote we had built a new church, in, I think, 1956, and many of the people I visited remembered buying a brick or two to help raise the cost of a building they’d perhaps hardly been to since, though they were glad it was there. Some of them I think resented me calling again on them - they reckoned they’d done their bit.

But, as Paul writes to the Romans, Christ died for us while we were yet sinners - in other words, while we didn’t care, while we went our own way, while we could only think of ourselves, while we didn’t deserve it. Whatever I do, and whatever I give, I can never repay such amazing love. And that’s what motivates not only my Christian preaching, but also my Christian giving - even if what I give ends up being sent to the diocese. And in any case the diocese isn’t them, it’s us (or should be): all of us doing what God calls us to do, to prepare the way, and share the love.

Statement of faith

We believe in God the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. We believe in God the Son, who lives in our hearts through faith, and fills us with his love. We believe in God the Holy Spirit, who strengthens us with power from on high. We believe in one God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Prayers

Pray for the world:  for those discriminated against because of race or language or creed; for those living under the shadow of tyranny or conflict; for those who have no land or settled place to call their own; and for all still suffering and fearful as the Covid 19 crisis continues. Pray for wise leadership and clear vision, and that efforts to find a safe and effective vaccine meet with success.

Pray for the Church everywhere to be strong in discipleship, in mission and in service. Pray for Christians in Kenya, and for the Anglican Church of Kenya. In our own Diocese, give thanks for our global mission links, for the mission done in our own churches and communities, and for our links with other denominations and other faiths.

Pray for all who are struggling or in need today: for all who are grieving and for those who are lonely, or worried, or anxious. Pray for all who are ill, including all who are infected by Covid 19,  for their care and treatment and recovery. Continue to pray for the safety of all front line workers, especially those in hospitals, health centres and care homes.

Pray for families and friends, and for the life of our communities. Pray for our schools, shops and other premises beginning to re-open, and that we may do this safely; pray those continuing to self-isolate because of other health conditions or age. 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.

Blessing

May we be on our guard, standing firm in the faith, as people of fortitude and courage; and may all that we do be done in love; and so may the blessing of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, surround and sustain us now and always.   Amen.

Service and Reflection for Trinity Sunday

You may wish to light a candle at the start of this time of worship.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all. Amen.

Theme Prayer 

O God our mystery, you bring us to life, call us to freedom, and move among and between us as wind and fire. May we so participate in the dance of the Three in One that our lives may resonate with your love, now and for ever. Amen.

Confession

Hear what Paul writes: “Be imitators of God; love as Christ loved; do not grieve the Holy Spirit; put away all anger and bitterness, all slander and malice.” So let us confess our sins to the Lord our God.

Father, you come to meet us when we return to you. Lord, have mercy:
(Lord, have mercy.)
Jesus, you died on the cross for our sins. Christ, have mercy:
(Christ, have mercy.)
Holy Spirit, you give us life and peace. Lord, have mercy:
(Lord, have mercy.)

May almighty God cleanse us from all our sin, and renew us in the fellowship of his Son, who calls us sisters and brothers, and may we know the freedom of his Holy Spirit, who declares that we are God’s children.  Amen.

God’s Word - Isaiah, chapter 6, verses 1 to 8 :-

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the skirt of his robe filled the temple. Seraphim were in attendance on him. Each had six wings: with one pair of wings they covered their faces and with another their bodies, and with the third pair they flew.  They were calling to one another, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.’

As each called, the threshold shook to its foundations at the sound, while the house began to fill with clouds of smoke. Then I said, ‘Woe is me! I am doomed, for my own eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts, I, a man of unclean lips, I, who dwell among a people of unclean lips.’

One of the seraphim flew to me, carrying in his hand a glowing coal which he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said, ‘This has touched your lips; now your iniquity is removed and your sin is wiped out.’ I heard the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?’ I said: ‘Here am I! Send me.’

John, chapter 16, verses 5 to 15 :-

Jesus said to the disciples, ‘Now I am going away to him who sent me. None of you asks me, “Where are you going?” Yet you are plunged into grief at what I have told you. Nevertheless I assure you that it is in your interest that I am leaving you. If I do not go, the advocate will not come, whereas if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin, justice, and judgement: about sin, because they refuse to believe in me; about justice, because I go to the Father when I pass from your sight; about judgement, because the prince of this world stands condemned.

‘There is much more that I could say to you, but the burden would be too great for you now. However, when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but will speak only what he hears; and he will make known to you what is to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and make it known to you. All that the Father has is mine, and that is why I said, “He will take what is mine and make it known to you.”’

Thanks be to God, for this his holy word. Amen.

A Reflection on the Readings

Christians very definitely do not believe in three Gods, but in one. And yet the Oneness of God isn’t enough to express the mystery of how God who is so utterly beyond our sight, our understanding, our knowing, nonetheless seeks to be in relationship with us, and, in ways that touch and change our hearts, demonstrates his love for us and calls us to share that love with the world.

Isaiah’s response to the revelation he had of the presence and power of God was one of abject fear, and a dread realisation of his sinfulness, of his people’s sinfulness, and of his unworthiness to be in that place at all. When I walk down the path in my garden, beetles and bugs scurry away and hide under stones. It’s a natural response when we’re faced with something too big to handle. But Isaiah’s lips are touched with a burning coal, and his sinfulness is removed. And when challenged with the words, “Who will go for us?” he replies, “Send me.”

Those words are used at most ordination services. The new deacon or priest ought to be terrified - it’s an impossible job, and a truly daunting task, for which none of us is fit for purpose: except that God makes us fit for purpose, and meets us in our weakness with his healing touch, and allows us to call him “Our Father”.

The first disciples came to see in Jesus more than just a rabbi or teacher, more than just a friend; and they came to see the cross as the decisive event in which all evil is confronted, all sin is named for what it is, and where God’s justice, a justice based in love, triumphs over the chaos of this world’s selfishness and prejudice. And as they reflected on this in the light of Easter, the movement that would become the Church was born in the fiery gift of the Holy Spirit. Nowhere in Scripture are we clearly told that God is Trinity, “three in one and one in three” as one of our hymns puts it, but Trinity is the best way the early apostles could find to talk about what they had experienced. All the fullness of God is completely present in each person of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But in each person God makes himself and his love known to us in a distinct and special way. The Son is not the Father, the Father is not the Spirit, yet each is wonderfully and completely God.

Yet even that is not enough. If it was, then we would have God precisely defined, identified, systematised. And we don’t, we can’t. Today does not honour a doctrine that says all there is to say about God, that has God all wrapped up. It is just our best way to talk about the ways in which God reveals himself to us, declares his love for us, and - though he is an unknowable mystery, before whom our natural and sensible response should be one of abject fear - declares that he is for us, that we can make our home in him, and that we are called and chosen in his service.

Statement of faith

We believe in the Father, the Creator, who lit the world and breathed the breath of life for us. We believe in the Son, Jesus Christ, who by his cross saved the world, stretching out his hand to his people. We believe in the Holy Spirit, who ranges over the world, and plants seeds of yearning in our souls. We believe in the Trinity of love, God above us, and beside us, and beneath us, the one who is from everlasting to everlasting. Amen.

Prayers

Pray in our world for those nations, like our own, aiming to lift restrictions gradually and with care, that we may be able to do this safely and begin to      re-open our economies. Pray for those nations where Covid 19 is still increasing in severity, especially where resources to combat the disease are lacking. Pray for co-operation among nations, both in the cause of welfare, peace and justice, and in the search for a vaccine and treatments for Covid 19.

Pray that the Church everywhere will be ready to hear God’s call to active and loving ministry. Pray for the churches of Mexico, and for the Anglican Province of Mexico. In our own Diocese, pray for all who are involved in safeguarding, ensuring that children, young people and vulnerable adults can work, worship and share fellowship safely and securely.

Pray for all who are 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 all front line workers, and especially for all who work in hospitals and care homes, for their safety and health.

Pray for families and friends, and for the life of our communities. Pray for our schools; pray also for all who are continuing to self-isolate because of other health conditions or age. 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.

Blessing

May God the Father, who made all things, embrace us for ever in his creative love; may God the Son, our Servant King, bear our burdens of grief and sin and shame; may God the Holy Spirit inspire and enthuse our life together; and so may the blessing of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, surround and sustain us now and always.   Amen.

A short service and reflection for Pentecost, 31st May 2020.

You may wish to light a candle at the start of this time of worship.

Alleluia! Christ is risen.
He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Collect

Holy Spirit, sent by the Father, ignite in us your holy fire;
strengthen your children with the gift of faith,
revive your Church with the breath of love,
and renew the face of the earth,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

God’s Word - Acts, chapter 2, verses 1 to 21 :-

The day of Pentecost had come, and the disciples were all together in one place. Suddenly there came from the sky what sounded like a strong, driving wind, a noise which filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them flames like tongues of fire distributed among them and coming to rest on each one. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them power of utterance.

Now there were staying in Jerusalem devout Jews drawn from every nation under heaven. At this sound a crowd of them gathered, and were bewildered because each one heard his own language spoken; they were amazed and in astonishment exclaimed, ‘Surely these people who are speaking are all Galileans! How is it that each of us can hear them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites; inhabitants of Mesopotamia, of Judaea and Cappadocia, of Pontus and Asia, of Phrygia and Pamphylia, of Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene; visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes; Cretans and Arabs - all of us hear them telling in our own tongues the great things God has done.’ They were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What can this mean?’ Others said contemptuously, ‘They have been drinking!’


But Peter stood up with the eleven, and in a loud voice addressed the crowd: ‘Fellow-Jews, and all who live in Jerusalem, listen and take note of what I say.  These people are not drunk, as you suppose; it is only nine in the morning!
No, this is what the prophet Joel spoke of:  “In the last days, says God, I will pour out my Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters shall prophesy; your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.  Yes, on my servants and my handmaids I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy.  I will show portents in the sky above, and signs on the earth below - blood and fire and a pall of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before that great, resplendent day, the day of the Lord, shall come. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord on that day shall be saved.”

Thanks be to God, for this his holy word. Amen.

A Reflection on the Reading

When “sharing the peace” first began to happen at services of Holy Communion, we eagerly espoused this in my home church, because we were quite modern and go-ahead, or so we thought, anyway. We did it, though, in an awfully nice and safely Anglican sort of way. The Vicar would stand at the chancel step, and the two churchwardens would come forward, receive the peace solemnly, and then just as solemnly pass it on by shaking hands with the end person on each pew, who would then pass it along the pew. It was a little bit like taking the collection in reverse. Even so, it was too much for Vera, who never came on a Sunday again, but only to the midweek service where dangerous things like passing the peace didn’t happen.

I may well speak about the Peace some other time; suffice for now to say that the way we did it then at St Peter’s does for me neatly encapsulate the way we often deal with the Holy Spirit, who is of course the most troublesome and hard-to-handle person of the Trinity (apart, that is, from the other two). Luke’s account of the gifting of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is profoundly chaotic for the most part. The disciples had been praying for this promised gift, but it still knocked them off their feet. Luke speaks of wind and fire, uncontrollable, dangerous things. The disciples are sent spinning out onto the city streets, no longer exactly in control of their own selves, so full of joy that it overflowed from them, so full of joy that the more sceptical of the passers-by decided they must be drunk. That probably happened a lot at Pentecost, which was the harvest festival of the grape harvest. But the disciples had been filled not with the wine of the grape, but with the New Wine of the Holy Spirit.

We’re not very keen on chaos for the most part, and we like our religion orderly and manageable. So we surround the Holy Spirit with doctrines and liturgies, so as to keep him (or her, as “spirit” is feminine in Hebrew) safely in a box. And, though there are of course Pentecostal Christians who do a lot of hand-clapping and arm-waving and smiling, and indeed there is the charismatic movement within our own church and the other mainstream churches, which is a bit the same way inclined, for the most part we seem to manage to keep the Holy Spirit where he or she belongs, as a fairly brief footnote to God, in the lower third of the Creed.

But today forces us to think again. The Church was born Pentecostal. Charismatic simply means “gifted”, and church history begins with the gifts of the Spirit, showered liberally on the disciples of Jesus as they prayed. Nor is the Holy Spirit somehow different from (and more troublesome than) the Father and the Son: the Spirit is the Spirit of the Father, the Spirit of Jesus, the sheer life changing love of God so profoundly present not only around but within the disciples that day that they could no longer help themselves, they had to get out there and tell the world what God had done for them, what God would be doing for everyone.

And out of that chaotic event came order, for folk on the streets all heard that message in their own language. How should we interpret this strange and unusual event? For me, I see it terms of challenge. We shouldn’t impose limits on who is to hear and receive God’s word. No-one is barred, all are invited in. And what began that day in Jerusalem among Jews - yes, from different places, but all of them Jews - would leapfrog that boundary wall too. God intends and desires the language of his love to be heard and received and understood by people everywhere.  People have always wanted to own their own god or gods - but the Holy Spirit came to people who were ready to be owned by God; that’s what their praying had been about. They were placing themselves into God’s hands, to be used by him.

And if what that led to seemed a bit chaotic, chaos isn’t always bad. For example, our countryside has been getting too tidy of late, and when there’s too much tidiness, things die. It’s years since I last heard a yellowhammer; they used to be along all the scruffy hedgerows when I was a child. Pentecost reminds us that true religion, religion that will change the world, can never be us keeping God safely tucked into a corner of our tidy life, and must always be us engaging with, offering ourselves to, the God who is hugely, uncontrollably alive, like wind and fire.

A Statement of Faith

We believe in the living God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For Jesus said, ‘Those who are thirsty, come to me and drink. If you believe in me, streams of living water shall flow from within you.’ He spoke of the Spirit his disciples would later receive, the Spirit to be given, once he had been glorified.            from John 7.37-9

Prayers  -  

Begin this time of prayer by simply being silent before God, confessing our sins before him, and seeking the healing and renewing power of his Spirit.

Pray for the world, for peace where there is conflict, for healing where people are hurting, for relief and comfort where people are afraid. Pray that leaders of the nations may govern with wisdom, discernment and integrity. Pray for a spirit of co-operation as scientists and epidemiologists continue to work to battle the continuing threat of Covid 19.

Pray for the Anglican Province of Melanesia, and in our own Diocese for Richard our Bishop and for the churches of the Ross and Archenfield Deanery. And pray for the Church in its mission and service in all the world, and for a joyful, obedient and purposeful openness to the Holy Spirit among all of us.

Pray for all who are worried, grieving or in need today: for those struggling with isolation and loneliness, and separation from loved ones. Pray for all who are ill, including all who are infected by Covid 19,  for their care and treatment and recovery. Continue to pray for the safety of all front line workers, in hospitals and care homes, in transport, and in essential and emergency services of all kinds.

Pray for our own families and friends, and for the life of our communities. Pray for our schools as they plan for the possibility of children returning. Pray we may 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.

Blessing

May the Spirit, who hovered over the waters when the world was created, breathe into us the life he gives.  Amen.
May the Spirit, who overshadowed blessed Mary when the eternal Son came among us, make us joyful in the Lord’s service.  Amen.
May the Spirit, who set the Church on fire upon the Day of Pentecost, bring the world alive with the love of the risen Christ. Amen.
And may almighty God bless us, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and always. Amen.

A short service and reflection for Easter 7, Sunday 24th May 2020

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.