St Clement Church Community 3rd Sunday before Advent Service

St Clement Church

Third Sunday before Lent Community Service

Good morning to you all

Blessings and woes are certainly my life – aren’t they yours? But it is the ‘see saw’ of life that makes us who we are.

We get things right and we get things wrong. Things go right and things go wrong.

What matters is how we react to these situations so that instead of just being a ‘see saw’ they give real meaning to our lives.

My love to you all

Liz

This is the day that the Lord has made.

This is the day when He can be found.

God of all, breath of life,

Living water, Saviour, friend.

Come as the hungry, feed on His Word.

Come as the thirsty, drink of His Love.

Come as the faithful, worship the Lord. Amen

We say together:

Here we are Lord; your people, your Church meeting together in your presence. We welcome each other and we welcome You. Make Yourself known to us in new ways through our worship, our prayers, and our understanding of Your Word today. Amen

Hymn: 375 I danced in the morning

Our Prayer of Penitence:

Seek the Lord while he may be found,

call upon him while he is near.

Let the wicked abandon their ways

and the unrighteous their thoughts.

Turn back to the Lord, who will have mercy;

to our God who will richly pardon.

Lord God, we have sinned against you; we have done evil in your sight.

We are sorry and repent.

Have mercy on us according to your love.

Wash away our wrongdoing and cleanse us from our sin.

Renew a right spirit within us and restore us to the joy of your salvation, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

The Collect for the Third Sunday before Lent

Almighty God, who alone can bring order to the unruly wills and passions of sinful humanity: give your people grace so to love what you command and to desire what you promise, that, among the many changes of this world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where joys are to be found; 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:

Jeremiah 17. 5 - 10

1 Corinthians 15. 12 - 20

Hymn: 297 Lord Jesus Christ, you have come to us

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 the 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 our Lord. Praise to you, O Christ)

Reflection

Well, I don’t know about you, but today’s gospel reading really does cause me some problems.

I have to confess that I would rather be comfortably off, may be not rich (but I wouldn’t mind that) than be poor. I’d rather be comfortably full than hungry. I’d rather laugh than cry. I’d rather folk spoke well of me than I be hated, excluded, reviled and defamed. Well, wouldn’t you?

Is it just I who have problems with today’s reading?

Let’s be honest, today’s gospel doesn’t sit well with the values of the capitalist society in which we live. It’s a hard gospel to hear for anyone who has been taught, or come to believe, that happiness is the primary goal in life.

It’s interesting that in our prayers we pray for the poor, the hungry, the persecuted and yet, Jesus says that they are blessed. What about those to whom Jesus says, “Woe to you?” Why don’t we pray for them? If we took to heart today’s reading, shouldn’t we pray for them?

For the rich in bondage to their assets, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy.

For all who are full and successful but have no satisfaction and meaning, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy.

For all who laugh or avoid the pain of their life, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy.

For all who seek or find their identity and value in being well spoken of by others, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy.

I wonder – do we not pray for them because they look and sound happy, and let’s be honest, isn’t happiness the goal for most of us?

I wonder if we don’t pray like that because we don’t want to face those aspects in our own lives.

Now I wonder, what if the goal of life is not happiness but meaning? What if the gospel of Christ is not just another programme for happiness. What if blessings and woes are guideposts for living a life of meaning?

Now, I don’t mean that Jesus and the gospel are opposed to our happiness, rather, I am suggesting that there is something deeper and more lasting than happiness. Happiness is circumstantial, dependent on what is or what is not happening. We’ve all experienced that. One day we are happy and another day we’re not. Circumstances change.

Isn’t that what today’s Gospel says? Those who are hungry will be filled and those who are full will be hungry. Those who are laughing will cry and those who are crying will laugh. This is true in each of our lives, about blessings, and woes.

Jesus is describing the pattern of our lives. Think how often we cycle back and forth between days of blessings and days of woes and you’ll find every one of them in your life: poverty, hunger, crying, to be spoken ill of, richness, fullness, laughing, to be spoken well of … this is how life goes.

It's easy and tempting to set blessings and woes in opposition, to see one better than the other, and to wonder which category we fall into … Jesus isn’t giving greater emphasis to either. Luke tells us that ‘Jesus stood on a level place.’ He is asking us to look beyond the circumstances that happen day to day and find meaning in every day.

Don’t forget that today’s gospel happens in the context of healing. “A great multitude of people … had come to hear and to be healed of their diseases, and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured.” Maybe that context of healing is the context in which we need to hear and understand the blessings and the woes.

What if blessings are not a reward and woes are not a punishment? What if blessings and woes are not categories of two different kinds of people? What if there are aspects in each of our lives to which Jesus says, “Blessed are you?” What if there are aspects of our lives to which Jesus says, “Woe are you?” And what if both are said with a desire for our wholeness and intended for our healing?

Look at poverty, hunger and crying in your life today. Look at the richness, fullness and laughing in your life today. Listen to what others are saying about you.

The question isn’t “Which one of those am I?” The question is, “In what ways are all of those part of my life and what do they mean for me today?”

What are the blessings and woes telling or showing you? In what ways do they enlarge and enliven your life, and in what ways do they narrow and constrict your life? Do they align with and support the values you claim to hold and the life you want to live, or do they impede and contradict the life you want to live and the way you want to be?

The answers to those questions and many, many more are insights that open our eyes and heart to a life of meaning and wholeness. They are insights that help us discern the life that wants to enter the world through us. But, it takes more than insight. We also need courage to live a life of meaning in the world, and endurance to do so in the face of opposition from others as well as ourselves.

That’s difficult and often painful work, and asks a lot of us. Is it worth the effort? Well, listen to what today’s gospel says: “Power came out from Jesus and healed all of them.”

So, ‘woe to us’ who only want to be happy – life is so much more.

Amen

Our affirmation of faith

Do you believe and trust in God the Father, source of all being and life, the one for whom we all 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: 357 Father hear the prayer we offer

Our Intercessions by Daphne Hawkins

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

Most merciful Father, we thank you that we can come together in our little church in your divine presence to share with you our praise and prayers. Grant us gratitude as we remember your goodness, penitence as we remember our sins and joy as we remember your love.