Printable services for those unable to attend St C

St Clement Church Community Trinity 3 Service 25.6.23

Good morning to you as we celebrate our Trinity 3 service, within which we acknowledge that it is Armed Forces Day and also the joyous occasion of Patrick and Jowan’s Baptism, what a busy Sunday!

This Service of the Word is if you’re unable to worship with us this Sunday in person, but will be with us in spirit at home.

Much love and prayers and may Christ’s love sustain you always.

Rev Di and family xx

Let us pray;

Heavenly Father, we commend to your gracious care and keeping
all the men and women in our Armed Forces at home and abroad.
Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; and give them courage to face the perils that beset them; and help them to know that nothing can separate them from your love; in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hymn; ‘Dear Lord and Father of Mankind’

Our prayers of Penitence

As we celebrate the holiness and goodness of God, we remember the shadows in our own lives:

Father God, we confess that we often take the gifts of your creation for granted, and use them chiefly to further our own interests….

Lord, have mercy.

Saviour Christ, we confess that we easily fall into temptation and forget to seek your forgiveness….

Christ, have mercy.

Holy Spirit, we confess that we often close our minds to your influence, and fail to bear good fruit in our lives…

Lord, have mercy.

May Almighty God have mercy upon us, forgive us our failings, and bring us to everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Let us pray our Collect for the 3^rd Sunday of Trinity

God our Father, 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.

Readings:

Jeremiah 20. 7-13

Romans 6. 1-11

Hymn; ‘O praise ye the Lord’

The Gospel Reading

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew (10. 24-39)

Glory to you, O Lord.

Jesus said; ‘A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!

‘So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?

Yet not one of them will fall to the ground unperceived by your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

‘Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.

‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ.

Reflection

Oh dear, that isn’t the best gospel reading to have on such a joyful day as we baptise Jowan and Patrick into our church family was it! Apart from the comfort of telling us that ‘even the hairs on our heads are all counted’ I was soooooo tempted to look for something else!

But hey-ho, we’ll give it a go....and place the reading into the context of the times it was written for.

In the year 70 A.D., the city of Jerusalem was destroyed by Roman forces after a failed attempt by some Jewish zealots, to expel the hated Romans from the Holy City. The Roman soldiers swept through the city with all their power and force, thousands of the city’s inhabitants died, and those who managed to survive this first-century holocaust were left homeless and in despair. The temple, the very one that Jesus’ disciples had marveled at, and that Jesus said if it was destroyed he would rebuild in three days, was demolished. The only thing left of the temple to this day is what we now call; “the wailing wall.”

To those first-century Jews, the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. was literally the end of their known world, but they regrouped and decided that the one thing the Romans couldn’t destroy was their faith, and that even without their beloved temple, they would make sure their faith was kept alive. Except, there was a fly in the ointment, and it came at the hand of their very own people.

Because for the last thirty years or so, there’d been a growing movement within Judaism based on a Galilean peasant named Jesus, the one who was crucified. At first, his followers simply called their religious expression; “The Way.” Now, they’re starting to be called “Christians” because they believe this Jesus to be the longed-for Messiah, the Christ. Some Jews hoped this movement would die a natural death, unlike that of its founder, but no, it was growing in numbers.

Jesus’ followers had expanded their borders by taking their message to the Gentiles, and something had to be done if Judaism was to survive.

So in the years following 70 A.D. Jewish Christians not only suffered at the hands of pagan persecution, but were also oppressed by the Jewish leadership as well.

It had become a very hateful world to those who put their faith in Jesus. Some family members believed in Jesus and others didn’t, and in the process, families were torn apart. And it’s to these Jewish Christians that Matthew, a Jew, is writing his gospel and sharing these words of Jesus. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.” The people who heard these words knew exactly what Jesus was talking about because it was happening to them. At that very moment, because of their devotion to Jesus, many of them had been cut off from the rest of their family.

So now, now that we are removed from all this by twenty centuries of time, history, and evolution of life and faith, we may sit here a bit resentful that this passage is still in the Bible.

After all, there are just some subjects that ought to be left alone, and this one is at the top, setting families against each other when instead they should be standing together in common solidarity.

But even if Matthew hadn’t recorded it, this passage would still be in the New Testament because Luke puts it in his gospel as well, and Luke is a Gentile writing to other Gentiles. So what does that mean? It means the early Christian church took to heart what Jesus said. These strange, and seemingly hurtful, words meant something very important to them.

But what are we to make of such a harsh pronouncement, and where, please, is the good news in it? Family loyalty and relationships threatened, a painful subject indeed. But maybe it would be helpful for us to understand where Jesus was when he was saying these things.

He was on the way to Jerusalem, the very city that a few decades later will be destroyed. He knows there’s a cross with his name on it, so it’s a lonely journey despite the fact that he is surrounded by his friends. There are those who try to engage him in conversation. “Let me first go and bury my father,” one man says to Jesus, perhaps hoping Jesus would be impressed with his loyalty to his family? “Follow me,” Jesus responds, “and let the dead bury their own dead.”

What in the world does that mean? How can the dead bury the dead?

Is Jesus suggesting that those who do not follow him are dead? Could be, especially when you consider that Jesus now defines God’s family as those who believe in and follow him. Besides, you see, there is no indication that the man’s father has actually died. The man may be using his family loyalty just as an excuse not to follow Jesus to the cross, and Jesus accepts no excuse for a lack of commitment to his way.

And, of course, we are familiar with the time Jesus was teaching and his family came to get him, to take him home for some much-needed rest and recuperation. When word has reached him that his mother and his siblings have come to see him, he answers by saying, “Who is my family?” And then he defines his family as those who follow his heavenly father. So, where, please, is the good news today?

Well, I’m pretty sure Jesus doesn’t despise our families, but he does re-define the word family, doesn’t he? Our families are important to us, family is who we are, and we couldn’t change that if we wanted to. Even the gospel writers give us Jesus’ family tree. It was important to them that we see where it was Jesus had come from.

But I’m not so sure that his lineage was so important to Jesus, because he talked about his mother and brothers, his sisters and aunts and uncles and cousins, as being those who give their devotion to his heavenly father. And that is why, when a person is baptised into the faith, we say that we are brother, we are sister, in Christ.

We are kin, we are family you and I, if we believe in Jesus and follow him. We are family because we are one in Christ Jesus, and Jesus says that this kinship is the most meaningful and eternal of all.

So Patrick and Jowan, as you are baptised today, welcome to our family, our kinship. We’re an odd bunch maybe…..but in the eternal scheme of things – and in the eyes of the kingdom of heaven – I can honestly say we are what family is all about. Amen.

Hymn; ‘For all the Saints’

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 are written by Liz Davies

Everlasting God, we come before you this Sunday morning in love and fellowship, whether in our own homes or gathered together here in our little church of St Clement. Hear us now as we bring before You our cares and needs.

We pray for Your Church throughout the world, for Christians everywhere, worshipping in their own homes, meeting in small house groups, in rural and town churches and in great city cathedrals. Grant that we and all your people may grow in faith and show in our lives the love we see in Jesus.