St Clement Church Community Sunday Service 13.2.22
Good morning to you all as we celebrate our 3rd Sunday before Lent Sunday service, whether in your own home or our church building.
After our service in church there will be a presentation by members of the ‘On the Way’ team which will last for about an hour, so please be prepared for a later finish than usual, we’ll sustain ourselves with tea and biscuits…..
A ‘first’ for us today will be singing our hymns with recorded organ music only (rather than a choir accompaniment.) Bring your best voices!
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 3rd Sunday before Lent
Eternal God, whose Son went among the crowds and brought healing with his touch: help us to show his love as we gather together, and by our lives as they are transformed into the image of Christ our Lord. Amen.
Readings:
Jeremiah 17. 5-10
1 Corinthians 15. 12-20
Hymn; ‘Crown Him with many Crowns’
Gospel: Luke 6. 17-26
(Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke.
Response: ‘Glory to you O Lord.’)
He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
‘Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
‘Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
‘Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
‘But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
‘Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
‘Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.
‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
(This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ.)
Reflection
Whenever I meet up with clergy colleagues who trained for ordination alongside me, we often end up reminiscing about the tutors we had in college. Our favourite is The Reverend Doctor Stephen Dawes, one time Canon Theologian of Truro Cathedral.
For 3 years it was poor Stephen’s role to teach us preaching. He’d say that “preaching is not taught, it is caught” but that didn’t stop him from trying to teach us students from various denominations, to become preachers, the poor soul! He could be kind when he evaluated our efforts, but he could also be very blunt. So much so, he’d make Alan Sugar from The Apprentice seem friendly.
Once, after a fellow student very nervously preached a ten minute sermon in about 2-1/2 minutes, Stephen said; “Those words were absolutely incredible! But before you sit down preening yourself, I mean incredibly (beep, beep) fast! Slow down will you, we didn’t hear a thing!”
But Stephen could also offer great advice. One day, he told us; “Don’t get in the way of the gospel. Don’t try to make it pretty. Just tell the story and let the gospel speak for itself.”
It is tempting, sometimes, when preparing a sermon to make the gospel say something that isn’t there, and that’s when I remember Stephen’s words. And I remembered his advice this week as I considered the day Jesus came down from the mountain and addressed those who were gathered.
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you, for your reward will be great in heaven.”
In the Gospel of Matthew, these words are part of “The Sermon on the Mount.” But in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus doesn’t deliver this sermon up on the mountain top. He comes down among the people; the hurting, broken, and rejected people of the day, and tells them that there is hope for them.
It’s called “The Sermon on the Plain” and it turns all the injustices of this world upside down. The poor will be rich, the hungry will be fed, the grieving will one day laugh again.
But then Jesus turns his attention to the powerful, the popular, the beautiful people of that day. Just beyond the crowd of hurting people who’d come to be healed by Jesus, there were the social elite and the religious leaders — and Jesus had a message for them, too.
“Woe to you who are rich now,
because that’s as good as it’s going to get for you.
Woe to you who are full now, because one day you will be hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now, because one day you will experience pain.
Woe to you who are popular now, because one day you won’t be.”
There was only one sermon that day. There was only one crowd.
But there were a myriad of responses; because the poor felt encouraged, but the wealthy felt judged.
The hungry went away hopeful, but the well-fed went away worried about the future.
And it occurred to me that, every time a minister delivers a sermon, there’s never just one audience present, or just one sermon preached. And when we leave this place today, every one of us will have heard a different sermon. That’s something else that Stephen told us; that we are responsible for what we say, but not for what people hear.
Because as you listen, something will catch your interest, or something might offend you, or something might you wonder. But what would Jesus have us take with us from this Plain Sermon of so long ago?
Whether our lives are fractured or whole; whether we are filled with delight or filled with despair, I believe that Jesus would have us one message with four parts…for all of us.
The first message has to do with wealth. Believe it or not, we live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. By the world’s standards, we are rich, yet many of us struggle to pay for our living. But sometimes that’s caused by the wide gap between our needs, what we actually need to get by, and our wants, what we’d like to have, to own, and it can fill us with all kinds of frustration and resentment.
Wealth can be either a blessing or a woe. It can bring us joy or it can bring us conflict. The one thing it can’t bring us is eternal life. And yet we seek financial security and belongings as if those can really make us secure. And Jesus says they can’t, but he can.
The second message of this text has to do with hunger. I find it fascinating how we in the wealthy western world are so fixated on food…including me. I even buy magazines dedicated to it. We are obsessed with food. We’re supposed to eat to live, but we live to eat, very few of us here in this privileged place know what hunger feels like. Food can be a blessing or a woe. But there are a lot of different ways to be hungry. The need for spiritual food is often never addressed. Jesus says come to him, and never be hungry again.
And then there’s the issue of laughing and weeping. I officiated a wedding last month, and the people in the wedding party were so happy, they cried. I officiated at a funeral last week, and in the midst of the family’s sadness and grief, there was laughter.
But sometimes, the most heartbroken people walk around with smiles on their faces because they don’t want people to know of their pain. “How are you today?” “Oh, I’m fine.” But they’re not fine. Emotions can be a blessing or a woe, because we’re seldom honest about how we’re feeling. Jesus says he is with us always, through every step of our lives, not only sharing in the joys, but the sadness’s too.
Finally, there’s the issue of being accepted or persecuted for what we believe. We’re well aware that there’s places in this world where people are persecuted for their faith in Christ.
But often in this country, Christians keep their faith to themselves. Is it because we don’t want to offend anyone, or don’t want to be rejected because we’re church-attending Christians. “Faith is a private matter” we say. So we shut up. Religious convictions can be a blessing or a woe. We do our best to walk the Christian walk through life, but we shouldn’t be afraid to talk the talk either.
I don’t know if all of this is what Jesus had in mind when he delivered that Sermon on the Plain 2000 years ago.
What I do know is that he has come to this place, to enter the lives of the humble and the proud, to touch the lives of the weeping and the laughing…he has come to bring us a single message, and it’s this: we are blessed, because he, Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour loves us.
He is the salvation of our lives, by the sharing of communion, by living our lives in faithfulness and trust in him, our needs and wants are met.
And if that’s all you hear in this sermon today, it will be enough for me.
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; ‘Blest are the Pure in Heart’
Our Intercessions this week are written by Helen Dunbar
God is creative and good; seeking his rule, as our priority, will mean that everything else falls into place.
Let us pray to the God who knows us so well and understands our needs.
Lord, in all the concerns of parish life, and in the great issues facing the whole Church, may we never lose sight of your priorities but see everything through the eyes of compassion, with honesty and integrity.
We pray for Church leaders, Archbishop Justin, Bishop Philip, and our suffragan Bishop Hugh; family members and friends whose influence has led us to worship here this morning.
We give thanks for the fellowship we find in this Church, which supports us as we seek to put our faith into practice in our daily lives.
Strengthen us Lord, in your service, so that we, in turn, may be an encouragement to others.
Here, at St Clement we pray for Rev Diane and her family and ask God’s blessing upon them; guide her in all the many duties she has to undertake.
Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer
Lord, in the local issues of this community, and in the difficulties and dilemmas on the world stage, may we look for the face of Christ and fix our attention on his underlying values of love, justice and mercy.
Lord, in all the minor squabbles and major rifts of family life, may we know the assurance of your promise to be with us always, and your power to transform and renew.
Lord in the shock of sudden illness and pain, and in the wearing endurance of long-term weakness, give your peace and tranquillity, your healing hope.
Lord in your mercy: hear our prayer
We pray for our beloved Queen who this week, celebrates 70 years on the throne and also the start of celebrations to mark her Diamond Jubilee will begin; we ask God’s blessing on her and all members of her family. Give them health and strength, wisdom and courage, so that they may continue to carry out their many duties.
We pray for our friends and loved ones. We pray for those who are sick in body mind or spirit and for the uplifting of those in hospital or residential care. Pour your blessings on all those who care for the vulnerable.
We pray for those who face a life changing decision, for those who will make sacrifices for the sake of their families. For families where love is breaking down and for the children of broken homes. We pray for those in debt and in housing need and the turmoil that brings.
We give thanks for the wisdom that can be found from grandparents and for those who can only look on and worry about their family. Hear their prayers, Lord.
Keep safe all family members who may find themselves in dangerous places and pray for all who are lonely and separated. We pray for the pain of bereavement. May your Holy Spirit bring healing to all in need.
Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer
In the quietness of our hearts we bring before you those whom we know are in need of your loving care:
We pray for Ken and Diane, Daphne and Dave, Ollie, Max, Margaret, Sandra and Barrie, Brian, Rob and Alison and Val.
We remember all those who have died in the faith of Christ, please God, surround them with your loving arms and give them peace and everlasting joy in your heavenly kingdom.
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; ‘Praise my Soul the King of Heaven’
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.