St Clement Church Community Sunday Service
Good morning
Every morning is a new day but it is also a new challenge. Each morning we have to accept, or refuse, the challenge of following Jesus Christ and let’s be honest, the cost is high. To follow Jesus, we have to live our lives as He lived His and that is not easy. And yet, to not even try, will cost us even more dearly. So, let us begin each day with the simple prayer: Dear Lord, help us to follow in Your footsteps today, no matter what the cost. Amen.
Love to you all.
Liz xx
Let us pray
Eternal God, you are our Rock, you are the firm foundation for everything we build. You give gifts to your people for the good of the Church. You equip and train your people to carry out the good works you have prepared for us in advance. As we meet today, we ask that you will provide wisdom, guidance and direction. Remind us that you are our loving ally, you are our fortress, you are our tower of strength and you are our rescuer. Everything we need is found in you. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen
Hymn: 336 Angel voices ever singing
Prayer of Penitence
The Lord is full of compassion and mercy slow to anger and of great kindness.
He has not dealt with us according to our sins nor rewarded us according to our wickedness.
Holy God Holy and strong Holy and immortal have mercy on us.
As far as the east is from the west so far, has he set our sins from us.
As a father has compassion on his children so is the Lord merciful towards those who fear him.
Bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul and forget not all his benefits.
Amen
Collect for Twelfth Sunday after Trinity
Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray and to give more than either we desire or deserve: pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Readings
Deuteronomy 30. 15 – 20 Philemon 1 – 21
Hymn: 420 O Jesus I have promised
Gospel reading – Luke 14. 25 - 33
(Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke Response: Glory to you O Lord)
Large crowds were travelling with Jesus; and he turned and said to them, ‘Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.’
(This is the Gospel of the Lord Response: Praise to you, O Christ)
Reflection
My granddaughter decided to study Economics as one of her A levels. At her first lesson she was told, ‘Everything has a cost. Everything has a benefit. In this class you will learn how to weigh the benefit against the cost, with the goal of gaining the greatest benefit at the lowest cost.’ Sounds good, doesn’t it?
Martin was not a ‘shopper.’ He didn’t enjoy strolling through store after store, admiring merchandise and looking for deals. He was very much an ‘I need ‘so and so’’ and he would go to a specific shop, look at whatever he needed, buy it and go home. Inevitably, if we were with friends who liked shopping, particularly on holiday, he would have to join in the wander. I well remember once browsing in an exclusive furniture store. Suddenly, he noticed a chair that took his fancy. He looked for a price tag, but couldn’t find one. As he was about to go and ask the price, I nudged him, ‘If you have to ask the price, you/we can’t afford it!’
There is no doubt that today’s Gospel reading is challenging.
It sounds as if Jesus is trying to get people to stop following Him. I’m not sure that I can think of any other story where Jesus is being so negative. Ten times in a few verses He uses the word ‘not’ – three of those are in the phrase ‘cannot be my disciples.’ So, why?
Jesus has seen the crowds growing behind Him and He knows that many are just tagging along to see what miracle He will do, especially if it gives them a free lunch! Others have been caught up in the ‘mob’ mentality that is surrounding Him and His disciples. So, He turns to the crowd and says, ‘Unless you are serious about following me, go away!’
Is Jesus really trying to get rid of followers? I don’t think so – He just wants them – and us – to know what is involved in being a true disciple. The cost is high, and we need to know what we’re getting into when we say we want to follow Him.
The cost of discipleship – is Jesus really saying that we should hate all those that we love? This is hard to believe, isn’t it? It is in Jewish culture too, where family is everything and loyalty to one’s family is the highest loyalty expected. So, what does ‘hate’ mean in this scenario? In Greek vocabulary (the language the Gospel of Luke is written in) ‘hate’ is not an emotion – it’s an attitude of perspective. If you consider that there are fewer than 6000 Greek words or word stems used in the New Testament compared to 171,476 current words in English plus 47,156 obsolete words and 9500 derivative words, you’ll understand that each word in Luke’s Gospel has a broad range of meaning. So, the Greek word ‘miseo’ can be translated as ‘hate’ but it also means despise, disregard, be indifferent to, or love less. So, in this instance, Jesus isn’t saying ‘hate’ your family He is saying, ‘You must love me more than you would even love your family as important as that is to you.’
So, Jesus is taking faith and commitment to a new level, requiring complete devotion from us, which means we cannot elevate ourselves or our immediate family above Him. Rather we must prioritise our relationship with Him first and foremost.
Jesus is telling us that He demands our heart’s full devotion as His only requirement for paying our eternal debt. Not 50%, 75%, or even 99.99%, but 100% of our heart, which is difficult for us because it means we must prioritise our lives in such a way that we have to submit and surrender what we often feel is vital, our ultimate control of our lives.
So, whether it be our loved ones, our finances, our time, our security or our comfortability, we must guard against serving any false idol if we profess ourselves as devout followers of Jesus Christ and not merely self-proclaimed Christians.
Is that it?
No! Not only must we be willing to put Jesus ahead of all other priorities, He raises the price even higher. ‘Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.’ We mustn’t forget, that, at this point in His ministry, His own cross wasn’t even on the horizon, yet. His listeners can’t be aware, as we are, of the connection with this challenge and the suffering Jesus would soon experience at His own crucifixion. To them, taking up one’s cross is a general expression of accepting the burden of great suffering, suffering that would surely end in death. It’s the same responsibility a soldier accepts going into war. If, following Jesus means taking up a cross, it means staying loyal to Him through certain suffering to the point of death.
Jesus must see the joyful faces around Him becoming more sombre as His words start to sink in. So, as His teaching gets harder, He turns to one of His favourite strategies – parables.
We must pay attention to the key point in these little parables and not gloss over them too quickly. In both cases, the building and the battle, Jesus indicates that the cost is too high for the resources available. No matter what accounting system you use, no matter what assets you may think you have, when it comes to following Jesus, you don’t have enough to pay the cost on your own. Your resources aren’t sufficient.
Our response must be all or nothing. All these lessons Jesus is teaching us over the last few weeks about hypocrisy, letting our fears get the better of us, placing a higher value on material wealth – boils down to – go all in, or go home.
The cost is high, but the cost of not following is even higher.
So, what does it mean to be a true disciple? What does it look like? How do we do it?
Following Jesus is an ongoing process that begins with doing the things that He did and caring about the things that He cares about.
So, to be a true disciple isn’t like Isabelle’s Economics lessons, where she learns how to get the greatest benefit for the lowest cost, rather, this is about being prepared to follow Jesus’ example no matter what the cost.
Amen
Affirmation of faith
Do you believe and trust in God the Father, source of all being and life, the one for whom we exist?
We believe and trust in him.
Do you believe and trust in God the Son, who took our human nature, died for us and rose again?
We believe and trust in him.
Do you believe and trust in God the Holy Spirit, who gives life to the people of God and makes Christ known in the world?
We believe and trust in him.
This is the faith of the Church.
This is our faith. We believe and trust in one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen
Hymn: 433 O worship the King (omitting vs 4 & 5)
Intercessions by Helen Dunbar
Dear Lord, as you look down on our church family here at St Clement, we thank you for this place in which we worship together. Thank you for the love that unites us, for the peace we enjoy today and for the hopes we have for tomorrow. We thank you too, for the health we enjoy, for the work that keeps us cheerfully occupied, for the food that sustains us, for the beauty around us that makes our lives delightful and for our friends in every corner of the world.
Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer
As a new week begins in our world, may wrong priorities be challenged and adjusted, may our societies reflect God’s concern for righteousness, true justice and responsive love, and may all leaders grow in humility, attentive to the needs of those they serve.
Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer
Father, you know both our gifts as a congregation and the needs of those in this parish, and we ask you to bless our ministry in this place. Strengthen and encourage all Church leaders and deepen our faith and sure hope. We pray for Archbishop Justin, Bishops Philip and Hugh, not forgetting our, much loved Rev Diane and her family.
We pray for the leaders of nations and all in positions of power and authority; let them hear your voice above all others and act in a way that brings about healing and reconciliation.
Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer
We ask God’s help and love for all people who have suffered abuse, for all who suffer the long-term effects of torture, war or disease. For those affected by natural disasters, that they be provided relief. We pray for the grace to forgive, and for the healing of body, mind and spirit. We pray for all the people of Pakistan suffering severe flooding in their country, who find themselves homeless and hungry; men and woman in utter despair trying to look after and protect their families.
Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer
We ask God’s blessing on all who are returning to work or school after their summer holiday; for all who are going off to start a new chapter in their lives at university, college or starting a new career and for all the apprehensive parents coming to terms with the change in their lives.
Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer
Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we pray for our Queen and the Royal Family; for members of parliament and all in authority; that they may govern our country with wisdom and understanding and for the good of your Church and all people.
Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer
We pray for our community; we pray for all who care for the sick, for our doctors, nurses and care workers, doing their very best to help all in need. We also remember those who care for their loved ones at home and for those who struggle to cope with the many tasks they have to undertake.
Comfort all those who suffer in body or mind or spirit and we think of Ken and Di, Daphne and Dave, Barrie and Sandra, Margaret, Ollie, Paul and Jan, Terry and Dot, Brian, Maureen, Annie and Terry, Lyn, Steven, Karen, and those who have no one to pray for them.
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.
The Cost of following Jesus by Deborah Ann Belka
There’s a cost in following Jesus and not everyone will go along there’s a price to be paid and it’ll cost us our whole lifelong.
There’s a non-negotiable term that we need to be prepared to make there are personal expenditures that come with an even higher stake.
There’s a cost in following Jesus and it doesn’t come from our pocket-book there’s a price to be paid and it’s one too many for us to overlook.
There’s a charge that Jesus makes if we are to follow and go with Him there’s a fee that He asks from all of us and we can’t pay it on a whim.
There’s a cost in following Jesus and we’ll repay it our whole lifelong for we must give up EVERYTHING if we truly want to go along.
The PEACE
God will speak peace to his people, to those who turn to him in their hearts.
The peace of the Lord be always with you and also with you.
Hymn: 235 Forth in thy name O Lord I go
The BLESSING
May the strength of God sustain us; may the power of God preserve us; may the hands of God protect us; may the way of God direct us; may the love of God go with us this day and forever.
Amen