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               St Clement Church Community Sunday Service 31.7.22

 

 

Good morning to you all as we celebrate our 7th Sunday of Trinity service.  This Service of the Word is for you to read at home if you’re unable to attend St Clement in person on Sunday.

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

Rev Di and family xx

 

Let us pray;

Almighty God, you have created the heavens and the earth and made us in your own image: teach us to discern your hand and in all your works and your likeness in all your children; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Hymn: All people that on Earth do dwell’


 

Our prayers of Penitence

As we celebrate the grace and goodness of God, we remember our failings and weaknesses:

 

When we have lived by our own strength, and not by the power of your resurrection.    In your mercy, forgive us and help us.

 

When we have lived by the light of our own eyes, as faithless and not believing.         In your mercy, forgive us and help us.

When we have lived for this earthly life alone, and doubted our home in heaven.            In your mercy, forgive us and help us.

 

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

 

 

Let us pray our Collect for the 7th Sunday after Trinity

Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things:

graft in our hearts the love of your name, increase in us true religion,

nourish us with all goodness, and of your great mercy keep us in the same; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God now and for ever.

 Amen.  

 

Readings:

Ecclesiastes 1. 2, 12-14

Colossians 3. 1-11

 

Hymn; Be thou my vision’  

 

Gospel: Luke 12. 13-21

(Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke. 

Response: ‘Glory to you O Lord.’)

 

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’

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

Reflection   

Wouldn’t it be good if we came to church every Sunday in the very best of moods!  With our week having gone well, all is looking rosy, so when someone asks us how we are, we can genuinely respond by saying, ‘Fine, thank you,’ really mean it, life is good, and we’ve come to church firing on all cylinders.

But that’s not the way life usually is, is it? And when we come to church we of course, bring our life with us. Perhaps the arthritis in our joints is kicking up again, or we can’t remember where we’ve left our glasses. Or maybe the grandchildren have run us ragged all week and we’ve still got the rest of the school summer holidays to get through.  Or perhaps there’s always too much month left at the end of our money.

And with of all this, and then some, we come to church.  So it’s not surprising that sometimes when we get here, we’re not in the best of moods.

In our gospel today, they weren’t in church, but Jesus was confronted by a man who was in a really bad mood.  Even though Jesus didn’t identify himself as a counsellor, it was natural for people to be drawn to him for advice, after all, “Come to me, all you who are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” sounds like an invitation to me.

“Teacher,” the man blurts out to Jesus, “tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” And he doesn’t even use the magic word, please! 

But his very comment gives us some insight into his situation. Obviously, this man is one of the younger sons in the family, the custom in that day was that the inheritance was left to the eldest brother, all of it. It may not seem fair, but that’s the way it was.

If any of the younger brothers received anything, it would be through the generosity of the oldest, and evidently, in this situation, the eldest brother doesn’t feel so inclined.

The man who calls out to Jesus from the crowd has no influence or power in his family’s situation and he wants Jesus to do something about it. Why Jesus? Why not hire a lawyer? Because the man wants an arbitrator, he knows he has no legal rights and so is appealing to Jesus on a moral and ethical basis.

Jesus may respond to the man’s request in the negative, but quickly follows it up with a story about a greedy farmer. It’s usually called the parable of the rich fool.

I think the most interesting thing about this story may not be the story itself; but its context.

It’s the first in a series of stories that reveal how all of us tend to forget who the earth belongs to, and how we ought to live on it.

Included in the series is the story about a young man who claims his father’s inheritance and squanders it on loose living, only to return in shame, begging that he be allowed to live out the remainder of his days as a servant. We know him as the prodigal son.

But my favourite in the series, isn’t told as a parable, but is an event, where Jesus and his disciples are in the temple watching as people come by and give their offerings. Eventually, a poor widow comes to the temple offering plate and drops in two tiny coins and Jesus praises her to high heaven. You’d have thought she had paid for the whole temple’s MMF all by herself!

 “This poor widow has put in more than all the others,” Jesus tells his disciples, “for they have given out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she has to live on.”

But looking at the pattern woven in the whole series isn’t just an interesting but pretty useless exercise in biblical hermeneutics if you can’t sleep one night, it shows us that it’s not by accident Luke strings the stories together as he does.

There’s a definite purpose in his doing so.

Everywhere Jesus went he saw people who were greedy and selfish, people who had forgotten that God owns the world, people who didn’t realise that we are his servants and therefore are to live sensitively, caringly, and generously with others.

And when Jesus does find one who is a worthy steward of God’s benevolent grace, she turns out to be the most unlikely of them all. And, moreover, she’s not a character in one of his parables, Jesus sees her great sacrifice and praises her for her tremendous generosity.

For a study in contrast, let’s go back to our gospel story. The farmer is most fortunate, his lands have produced abundantly to the point that all his barns are full. “What should I do?” he asks himself. The only logical answer he can muster is to tear down his barns and build larger ones. That way he can take early retirement, pay off his credit cards, not to mention his hefty mortgage, join the country club, and live the good life.

What the farmer doesn’t consider, and obviously has no way of knowing, is that God has a claim on his life, that very night. Then to whom would the farm and the crops and the massive barns belong?

That’s the way it is, Jesus says, with those who live only for themselves and aren’t thoughtful of God, and God’s creation. 

When it comes to the things they possess, life ends, if not soon, eventually, and what good will all their stuff be then?

The point of the parable seems simple and straightforward enough. Don’t let greed take us over.

Easily enough, because of our human nature, greed can become our goal in life. Give it free reign, and it can become the god we serve.  We should always remember that our life isn’t measured by how much stuff we have, nor should we be possessed by our possessions.
I try not to do this very often, that is, refer to the jargon we had to study at college, or throw a Greek lesson at you. But sometimes it’s worth the effort to think about it.

We were told that the Greek word used in the story for fool is aphron. It comes from the word phrones, which means “mind” or “thought.” In the Greek, putting the a or alpha in front of the word forms a negative.  Therefore if phrones is “mind” or” thought,” aphron means “no mind, no thought.”

So this man is a fool because he gives no mind to God, and has literally no thought of God. A fool is one who never thinks about God, never considers that God is the giver of all good things, and who has no desire to repay God for his bounty by sharing it with others. A fool builds bigger barns for crops that will decay and come to nothingness.

The story of the rich farmer is only found in the Gospel of Luke. When Luke recounts a parable, he likes to tell the point of the story at the beginning. This time he does it by recording what Jesus said, and the point is pure and simple: “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”

The greatest failure in life, is the failure to see the distinction between what we have, and what we are.

So, what sort of mood were we in when we came to church this morning?

If it wasn’t what we know it should be, or we want it to be, it might just be because we’ve slipped into the trap of thinking that our value in God’s eyes is based on what we have, and not on who we are.

So, we should remember that above all else, each of us is a child of God, we belong to the One who gives us all we have and all we are. 

It’s the most valuable lesson in all the world.  Amen.

 

 

 

 

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.

 

Hymn; All creatures of our God and King’ 

 

 

Our Intercessions this week are written by Helen Dunbar

 

Let us pray to God our Father, knowing that we are all precious to him.

 

Dear Lord, we pray for all young people in our families and communities. May they grow up knowing love and hope, valuing life and respecting others. Give them courage and resilience as they face changes in their lives and help them to see opportunities in all the challenges that stretch out before them.

Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer

 

We pray for political leaders and for all in positions of power who are working to shape our society. Let them be guided by the example of Jesus putting understanding and compassion ahead of self-interest and material gain and working for a better world.

 

We pray for the peace makers and the relief workers and all who strive, directly or indirectly, to bring about change in the lives of the poor and oppressed. Our thoughts turn to the desperate plight of the people of Afghanistan who continue to suffer at the hands of an evil oppressive regime invading their country.

Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer

 

We pray for all members of the Royal Family and especially our beloved Queen.

Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer

Lord, strengthen your Church to go forward in faith and unity to continue the work of Christ here on earth.

We pray for all ministers, for Archbishop Justin, our own bishops, Phillip and Hugh, and for our own dear Revd Diane and her family.

We pray for Tamsyn and Mark who were married at this Church on Wednesday.

Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer

 

We pray for our country and for freedom from poverty and social injustice, freedom from crime and the fear of crime, and for peace on our streets.

We pray for schools and colleges coming to the end of another academic year, for families as summer holiday approach, for those who will travel and for those for whom holidays away are an unattainable dream.

Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer

 

Father, we thank you for your wisdom and truth, your understanding and generosity. We acknowledge our total dependence on you, and praise you for providing us with all we need.

 

Comfort and heal all those who suffer in body, mind or spirit, give them hope in their troubles and bring them the joy of your salvation, we remember Ken and Diane, Daphne and Dave, Rob, Terry and Dot, Barrie and Sandra, Jenny, Ollie, Margaret, Brian, Gavin, and Paul and Jan.

Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer

 

We pray for the recently departed and we remember Mark, dearly loved brother of Patrick, who has sadly passed away. Lord, be with Patrick and all his family at this difficult time.

We pray for all those whose anniversary falls at this time and we remember Phyllis Davey.

 

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; Now thank we all our God.’  

 

 

The Peace

We are the body of Christ.  In the one Spirit we were all baptised into one body.  Let us then pursue all that makes for peace and build up our common life.  May the peace of God be always with us. 

Amen.

 

Blessing

May God the Holy Trinity make us strong in faith and love, defend us on every side and guide us in truth and peace.  And may the presence of God watch over us, the power of God protect us, those whom we love, and may we never forget that wherever we are, God is with us always, to the end of the age.  

Amen.

 

 




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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