St Clement Church Community Sunday Service
Good morning to you all, today we not only commemorate the Festival of Christ the King on the last Sunday of the Church year, but also our Patronal Festival of St Clement. Our Patronal Festival is being taken by Rev Roger Bush, this Service of the Word is for you to read at home if you’re unable to worship with us in person at St Clement.
Some of you may know this day as ‘Stir-up Sunday’ originally a day for encouraging us to be stirred up in faith, but nowadays is regarded as more of a reminder to get the Christmas puddings and cakes made!
May Christ’s love sustain you always.
Much love to you all, Rev Di and family xx
Let us pray;
Creator and Father of eternity, whose martyr Clement bore witness to you with the love he proclaimed, and the gospel that he preached:
give us thankful hearts as we celebrate your faithfulness, revealed to us in the lives of your saints, and strengthen us in our pilgrimage as we follow your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
Hymn: ‘Christ is made the sure foundation’
Our prayers of Penitence
As we anticipate the rule of Christ over all things, we recognise all that disfigures God’s world, and accept our shared human responsibility for it. Lord Jesus Christ, we confess:
The widening gap between the comfortably off and the desperately poor…. Lord, have mercy.
The deep divisions between nations, races and religions….
Christ, have mercy.
The damage inflicted upon the earth through insatiable consumer greed….
Lord, have mercy.
May Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our failings, and bring us to everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Let us pray our Collect for today
God the Father, help us to hear the call of Christ the King and to follow in his service, whose Kingdom has no end; for he reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Readings:
Daniel 7. 9-10, 13-14
Revelation 1. 4b-8
Hymn; ‘At the name of Jesus’
Gospel: John 18. 33-37
(Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John
Response: ‘Glory to you O Lord.’)
Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ Jesus answered, ‘Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?’ Pilate replied, ‘I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?’ Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.’ Pilate asked him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’
(This is the Gospel of the Lord. Response: ‘Praise to you, O, Christ’)
Reflection
Our patron saint, St Clement, was born in Rome, he received a good education, and was surrounded by luxury, but these comforts didn’t bring him joy. Paganism failed to attract him, and this caused him to ponder that there must be more meaning in life.
So when the news of Christ and his teachings began to reach the capital, Clement left his luxurious home and went to the lands where the Apostles were preaching. He was baptised by Peter and became his disciple and constant companion, sharing his sufferings with him, and shortly before his own death, St Peter consecrated Clement as Bishop of Rome.
The charitable works of Clement converted many to Christ. He once baptised 424 people in one day, and among the baptised were people of all social classes: slaves, officials, and even members of the imperial family. But the pagans, seeing the success of his preaching, denounced Clement to the emperor, accusing him of insulting the pagan gods, so the emperor banished Clement from the capital. He sent him to the Crimea, to work in a stone quarry, and many of Clement’s disciples followed after him of their own free will, preferring to share his exile rather than live without him.
When he arrived in Crimea, Clement found many Christians there, who’d been sentenced to labour under harsh conditions with little access to water. He prayed with them, and the Lord appeared to him in the form of a lamb and revealed the location of a spring, which became a river of water.
This miracle, as you can imagine, attracted a huge number of people to Clement, hundreds were converted to Christ, and there in the stone quarry, a church was built, in which Clement served as priest.
But his work there angered the emperor, and he ordered that Clement be drowned, so he was thrown into the sea by the emperor’s guards with an anchor tied to his neck.
Hence the emblem of an anchor on our church windows, and many churches have since been dedicated to St Clement, hopefully reflecting his work of being with those in need. St Clement was a person who worked among the poor and the marginalised, he saw the face of Christ in all he met, and that, is what you might call a ‘potted history’ of our patron saint.
But today, as well as celebrating our patronal festival, we also celebrate the Festival of Christ the King.
"The Alpha and the Omega," the one "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."
Powerful words from the book of Revelation. A perfect text for this last Sunday of the liturgical year, the one designated by the Church around the world as Christ the King. Though of course, the idea of Christ as King came long before the church incorporated it on the calendar.
All four evangelists recalled in their gospels the confrontation where Pilate asks Jesus the famous question; "Are you the king of the Jews?" And when Jesus tells Pilate, "My kingdom is not from this world."
Of course, with the benefit of hindsight we know it isn’t, but we know the kingdom is real.
The only reason we know of Pilate or the high priests is because they were once part of the story of Jesus. Pilate's great Roman Empire and all the other empires of the past 2000 years have risen and fallen; kings and kingdoms have come and gone. Presidents and Prime ministers have had their moments of glory.
But through all that leadership, the kingdom prevails as millions of people all over the world continue to humble themselves at the foot of the cross and bow their heads at the name of Jesus.
"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."
"The Alpha and the Omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. The words suggest completeness - the beginning and the end, the A to Z if you like, of everything.
It is an interesting choice of words for the writer of Revelation.
John lived in a time of vicious persecution. To make a public profession of faith in Jesus Christ put one in danger of, at the least, becoming a social and commercial leper, or at worst, being legally murdered as an enemy of the Roman empire.
John was on the prison island of Patmos as he wrote, and remember, in those days prison islands weren’t simply places of incarceration; they were holding cells for those awaiting execution.
In the poetic language of Revelation that we call "apocalyptic," John pictured the awful conditions as they existed in his day. He described the devastation of the forces of nature run amok; he noted the moral rot and decay that turned human beings into monsters and destroyed a society from within; he saw the disastrous results of violent conflict.
And his description still rings true today for Christians in many parts of the world.
But with eyes of faith, John saw a better day, a day in a world ruled by Christ the King - the Alpha and the Omega, the one who was, and is, and is to come, the Almighty.
And that’s the point of this Christ the King Sunday - this day is a reminder that Jesus isn’t simply some ancient rabbi who taught timeless truths, not simply some Hebrew healer who had remarkable power over disease and even death, not simply a compassionate, caring friend who reached out to those whom society rejected, but rather the God of all creation come to earth, incarnate in human flesh.
Christ is our King. And if we believe it, we should show it. But how?
A fair question, as we strive to picture the future for the Christian Church both in our local communities and further afield.
What will the future hold for us? There’s no doubt it will include the changes of daily life, the joys and sorrows of being human, but through it all we have the comfort of the faith of knowing Christ our King walks with us, and will always be alongside us through the thick and the thin.
And how has that faith been nurtured and grown? By coming to church.
History offers no parallel to the church. When the world is out of kilter, when people's minds and hearts are failing them because of fear, then the thing of supreme importance is our living Christian Church, a sanctuary of worship and service, where we come to have our faith strengthened.
And as Christians continue to suffer attack, it’s all the more important that we pray together for them and encourage folk who call themselves Christians but never come to Church, to do so.
We need to show a visible Christian presence in our community and our world, and the only way we’re going to be able to do that is to encourage others to join us.
The days are gone to be able to say; ‘I don’t have to attend church to be a Christian.’ The time has come to stand up and be counted.
When someone sees you on the way to Church and remarks, ‘say one for me while you’re there’ reply; ‘No, come and say one yourself.’
We’ve been too apologetic about our faith for far too long, we need to stand up and be counted and tell the world we recognise Christ as our King.
When we’re up against it, when that light at the end of the tunnel seems to be disappearing, it’s too easy to forget what brings us here in the first place, put our head under the covers, and stay at home instead.
I realise that I’m preaching to the converted here, because you ARE in church today, or are reading this service at home and are worshipping with us in spirt, but if you’ve ever needed an occasional reminder about why we bother to get up and get going on a Sunday morning, when it would be just as easy to worship with the Fellowship of St. Mattress or the Congregation of the Duvet, here it is.
We have the promise of Christ’s abiding presence to help us encourage others. He is, after all, our living Lord, the one who is ultimately in charge, and that’s a wonderful word of hope for us as we face whatever the future holds. It is a word of hope that says; "the right shall prevail."
Jesus wrote no books, composed no songs, drew no pictures, carved no statues, amassed no fortune, commanded no army, ruled no nation...
And yet, he who never wrote a line has been made the hero of unnumbered volumes.
He who never wrote a song has put music into the hearts of nameless multitudes.
He who never established an institution is the foundation of the Church that bears his name.
He who refused the kingdoms of this earth has become the Lord of millions.
He whose shameful death scarcely produced a ripple on the pool of history in his day, has become more powerful than the mighty waves of all the oceans since he died.
"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty." Christ the King.
Let us show the world we worship him as such, for he truly is. Amen.
Hymn: ‘Immortal, Invisible’
Affirmation of our faith
Let us declare our faith in God.
We believe and trust in God the Father, source of all being and life, the one for whom we exist.
We believe and trust in God the Son, who took our human nature, died for us and rose again.
We believe and trust in God the Holy Spirit, who gives life to the people of God and makes Christ known in the world.
This is the faith of the Church. This is our faith.
We believe and trust in one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our Intercessions this week are written by Helen Dunbar
The risen Christ is here in the midst of us; we bring our prayers to him as Lord of the Church.
Dear Lord, as we gather here today to celebrate our Patronal Festival, we pray for all Christian people, and on this special day, for the vicar and congregation of St Clement Church. Strengthen our faith Lord, in your love for each one of us. Help us to turn to you in moments of joy as well as sadness. May we be humble enough to listen to your will and to also proclaim the joy of your presence in our lives, so that others may be inspired to follow and serve you also. We pray for our friends at St Allen Church, as we go forward with them to a shared future of working together in faith and love.
Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer
Dear Lord, we pray for all clergy, and here at St Clement we ask your blessing on our much-loved Revd. Diane who continues with her relentless workload, and we ask your blessing on Ken her husband, who is a great support to her. Grant all in authority wisdom and understanding, as they consider difficult decisions within our Church.
We pray for all those in positions of power and trust; that they may govern with wisdom and integrity, serving the needs of all their people. We pray for the Church, the sign of your reign, that it may extend your welcome to people of every race and background. We pray for Christians of every denomination, that together we may come to understand the royal priesthood you bestowed on us in your baptism.
Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer
We pray for all those who follow you and stand up against injustice, for all working for peace and unity. Please Lord, pour out your spirit of reconciliation and bring an end to the suffering caused by war and violence. Give protection to refugees fleeing their homes, seeking safety in another country. We pray especially for those caught up in the war in Ukraine. Help us to remember the power of prayer in the knowledge that you are sovereign over all the world; we pray for the world’s leaders that they may not hide behind their power or abuse it, but work for the good of all humanity, particularly the poor throughout the world.
Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer
We pray for our local community, that we may show our love through our respect for each other and for our environment, gladly sharing what we have with those in need. We also remember all who do not attend St Clement Church but receive the service at home and are with us in spirit.
Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer
Bless and guide King Charles 111, who at the beginning of last week celebrated his 76th birthday. Bless all the royal family and be their light and guide in all that they are called to be and do in life; enfold them in your love now and always.
Lord, we thank you for all those who spend their lives trying to make ours better – for those in public service, for all people who commit themselves to charitable works, and for all those who help others to find you.
Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer
We pray for all who suffer in body, mind, or spirit and for those who care for them. We pray for the sick, for those who are afraid, for the homeless, for the lonely and those who have no one to pray for them. We especially pray for: Ken and Reverend Diane, May, Susan, Lauren, Lynda, Terry and Dot, Margaret, Maureen, Pam and David, Barrie and Sandra, Roger, Michael and Patricia, Rob and Alison, Stella, Jeremy, William, Jane, Anita and Stephen, Callum and Elaine, Andy, Anne, Sue and Martin, Margaret and John, Dave and Jeanette, Jane, Carrie and John Paul.
We pray for all the departed and for those whose anniversary falls at this time; we pray for Nicky Berry, Ted Collins, Sheila Warr, Elizabeth Russell and Hilary Wills.
Rejoicing in the fellowship of St Clement, St Allen, St Andrew and all the Saints.
Merciful Father, accept these prayers for the sake of your Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen
Gathering our prayers and praises into one, let us pray with confidence as Jesus taught us;
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.
Hymn: ‘Jesus Shall Reign’
The Peace
May the peace of Christ sanctify us: may he so strengthen our hearts in holiness that we may be blameless before him at the coming of our Lord Jesus with his saints. Amen.
Blessing
May God give us grace to follow his saints in faith, hope and love; and may the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among us, those whom we love, and remain with us always.
Amen.