Printable services for those unable to attend St Clement Church

St Clement Church Community Sunday Service 30.10.22

Good morning to you all as we commemorate All Saints and All Souls, whether in your own home or our church building.

During the service in Church folk will be coming up to the altar to light a votive candle in memory of a loved one, I suggest if you’re reading this service at home you might light a candle too?

May Christ’s love sustain you now and always.

Much love and God Bless,

Rev Di and family xx

Let us pray;

Father in heaven: we give thanks for the communion of saints, and we thank you that our loved ones who have gone before us now share in their witness. May this be our comfort and support on our earthly pilgrimage, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hymn: ‘ Dear Lord and Father of mankind’

Our prayers of Penitence

The lives of the saints encourage us to persevere as Christ’s followers, even though at times we may stumble on our journey. Therefore let us confess those failings to almighty God:

When we falter in faith or perseverance….

Lord, have mercy.

When we lack courage or commitment….

Christ, have mercy.

When we fail to show forgiveness or humility….

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 of holiness, your glory is proclaimed in every age: as we rejoice in the faith of your saints, may we follow their example with boldness and joy, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Readings:

Daniel 7.1-3, 15-18

Ephesians 1. 11-end

Hymn: ‘We have a gospel to proclaim’

Gospel Luke 6. 20-31

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

Response: ‘Glory to you O Lord.’)

Then Jesus 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.

‘But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

(This is the Gospel of the Lord. Response: ‘Praise to you, O, Christ’)

Reflection

This Sunday, many church communities are commemorating All Saints Day. Here at St Clement, we follow our usual custom; we also commemorate All Souls, as this gives us the opportunity, united in solidarity and prayerful support of each other, to remember our departed loved ones, at rest with all the saints in glory.

The gospel for this All Saints’ Day comes from the Sermon Jesus preached on the Plain as told by Luke.

The Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel may be more familiar, but what Luke gives us appears more provocative because it seems to be a series of blessings followed by that of woes. It’s a sort of;

‘Blessed are you who are poor, who are hungry, who weep, and who are hated by all, because you’ll get something better when the great day comes.

But woe to you who are rich, who are full, who laugh, and who are liked by all, because when the great day comes, you’ll find yourself desolate.’

These contrasts are enough in themselves to make us feel a bit uneasy, but then come some verses that must rank high on the list of Bible passages all of us like to zip through as though they weren’t there.

Jesus goes on to say; “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”

And if these calls to doing good, blessing, and prayer aren’t challenging enough, Jesus then says; “If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer also the other; and from anyone who takes away your coat, don’t withhold even your shirt.”

In both the Sermon on the Mount and that on the Plain, Jesus presents this as a charter for God’s kingdom. But what’s really going on here?

As always, to appreciate this teaching, we must be aware of the social context in which Jesus and the people around him find themselves.

For instance, in that place and time, slaves were reprimanded by a slap with the back of the right hand to the right cheek of the slave. To strike an equal, however, you would have used your fist and hit him, usually on the left cheek.

Now, if someone treated you as a slave and struck you on the right cheek, and you turned to him your left cheek, that forced the hitter to treat you as an equal, and it exposed the injustice of regarding you as something less.

Thus such advice challenged the entire system of domination.

While Luke’s version of “offer the other cheek also” does not distinguish between left and right, Matthew’s does.

If you were in debt to someone, that creditor might seize your coat, even though doing so is against the Hebrew Scriptures, and this would leave you without covering in which to sleep the cold night away.

But if that should happen said Jesus, then give your greedy creditor the shirt off your back as well even if it leaves you naked. People would, of course, be shocked to see you naked and the creditor would be put to shame once you’d explained to the general public just what happened to your clothes.

What Jesus advocated wasn’t attacking your opponent, nor bowing to injustice, but that the circumstances of the moment were used to expose the injustice of the oppressor’s power over you.

But how can this way of Jesus be lived out in circumstances that people encounter today? Here are some examples I’ve found;

Consider this story from Brazil. Small pockets of land that belonged to peasant farmers was being seized by the authorities to be sold to international corporations. During the fracas, which involved the military, some of the farmers protested and were imprisoned in a local town.

So their friends decided that if their land was taken, they’d react in the same way and would also be arrested, so they marched to the town and filled the judge’s house, demanding that they also be jailed.

The judge finally sent all of them home, including the prisoners.

And in another circumstance, a squatter community in South Africa found their shelter infested with lice. The authorities refused to fumigate the area, so the squatters carried bags and bags of lice-infested blankets to the administrator’s office and dumped them on her floor. And as you can imagine, the shelter was immediately fumigated.

But my favourite story is this; some years ago, the late Bishop Desmond Tutu was walking by a building site on a temporary pavement that was the width of only one person. A white man appeared on the other end, recognized Tutu, and said, “I don’t give way to gorillas.” Tutu stepped aside into the gutter, made a deep sweeping gesture, and responded, “Ah yes, but I do.”

The way that Jesus taught and lived out, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” inspired both great and ordinary saints to live such a life of faith.

On this All Saints’ Sunday, we remember all who have lived and died in faith and are joined to the whole company of heaven.

Saints aren’t just those who’ve had churches and colleges are named them, or whose likenesses appear in stained glass windows. Though these saints of course, are recognized, and have their own days in the liturgical calendar on which they’re remembered and their faith and witness celebrated. But today, on this great festival, we also remember those from our congregation, our own family members and friends, even those whose names we might have forgotten, but are not forgotten by God.

On this day, the saints who are still living remember those who are in the great cloud of witnesses cheering us on in our life’s race, and we should rejoice that our names are written in heaven with them. Amen.

Hymn: ‘How sweet the name of Jesus sounds’

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 Daphne Hawkins

In the power of the Spirit and in union with Christ let us pray to the Father.

Merciful Father, give us a sense of your presence as we gather in our little church, and unite us with those who cannot be with us but share in our worship. Grant us gratitude as we remember your goodness, penitence as we remember our sins and joy as we remember your love.