St Clement Church Community Trinity 2 Service

St Clement Church Community Trinity 2 Service 14.6.26

Good morning to you as we celebrate the 2^nd Sunday of Trinity.

We are holding a Eucharist in our church building at 10.15, this Service of the Word is for those who can’t be with us in person, but will be worshipping with us in spirit.

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

Rev Di and family xx

Let us pray;

O Lord, open our eyes to see what is beautiful, open our minds to know what is true, and our hearts to seek what is good, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hymn: ‘‘All my Hope on God is Founded’

Our prayers of Penitence

Let us examine our lives in the light of St Paul’s teaching about the nature of love: ‘Love is patient, love is kind, is not envious, or boastful, or arrogant or rude. Does not insist on its own way, is not irritable, or resentful and does not rejoice in wrongdoing…..’

We confess to God that our attitudes and behaviour often fall short of these standards:

Most merciful God, we confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart, nor have we loved our neighbours as ourselves. We ask that in you forgive what we have been, help us to amend what we are, and direct what we shall be; that we may do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with you, our God. Amen.

Let us pray our Collect for the 2^nd Sunday after Trinity

Faithful Creator, whose love and mercy never fails: deepen our faithfulness to you and to your living Word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Readings:

Exodus 19.2-8a Romans 5.1-8

Hymn: ‘Lead us Heavenly Father, Lead us’

Gospel: Matthew 9.35-10.8

(Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew

Response: ‘Glory to you O Lord.’)

Matthew 9.35-10.8

Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.’

Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax-collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: ‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.

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

Reflection

I’ve had a hobby for a while now, of collecting humourous literal translations of foreign languages into English. In today’s gospel Jesus sends the disciples out on their travels, so in keeping with my hobby I thought I’d also begin today’s sermon with a few signs English Disciples might have to cope with when travelling abroad in this day and age;

In an airline ticket office in Copenhagen, there is this promise: “We take your bags and send them in all directions.”

A Swiss restaurant announces to its customers that; “Our wines leave you with nothing to hope for.”

An Acapulco hotel posts a sign assuring its customers that; “The manager has personally passed all the water served here.”

But my current favourite is a sign spotted in Paris. One of the city’s finer hotels invites its visitors to; “Please leave your values at the front desk”

Gosh! On a serious note though, just imagine that, having values that small you could put them away in an overnight bag and just collect them again when leaving.

Over the past few years, this sacred place has witnessed the funeral services of many members of our much-loved community. People whose values went all the way to the core of their inner being, they lived by them every day of their lives, no way would they have fitted into an overnight bag.

As life’s experience and thought is layered to our core, their core was love, and reflecting on that got me thinking; What is the core of our church? What have been the core values that have sustained this church for hundreds of years?

I’d suggest today’s Gospel contains some clues.

Matthew wrote: “Jesus went about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Good News of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples; ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.’

The verses serve a transitional purpose. They offer a final summing up of Jesus’ ministry while opening up a new line of discussion — that the mission and message must continue to be spread throughout the land; Teaching, preaching and healing.

If we think back on the history of our church there have been thousands of Sundays during that time, each Sunday witnessing worship, preaching and teaching. And I hope this place is equally known for healing. We may not have experienced spectacular miracles as they did when Jesus walked the earth, but we have shown the value spoken of in the next line; ‘Jesus had compassion for them.’

The author Tom Black wrote; ‘The church was to be a hospital for sinners, not a sanctuary for saints.’

During our time here in this place, I think we have held true to that value. We are here to have compassion, not to condemn.

Every church has a choice of whether to be inclusive or exclusive. We can become a sanctuary for saints where purity reigns, or we can be a hospital for sinners where everyone is welcome. It seems to me that the word “inclusive” more describes the ministry and example of Jesus than the word “exclusive.”

We’re called to be a church of compassion, shepherds of Christ’s flock, and workers for his harvest. And true, us ‘labourers’ are few, and sadly, are getting fewer. The years of history of our church will be over and done with unless we continue to call new disciples to take up the gospel message and carry it to a new generation.

Another author I admire, Dennis Folds, tells the story of a damaged Jesus in London. The city had been devastated by the bombings during World War 2. The bombs that dropped on the city struck and destroyed buildings of every kind: office buildings, factories, homes, museums, government buildings, churches.

Soon after the war ended, a group of German students, through a deep desire to return Christian love to those who had lost so much, volunteered to go to London to help rebuild a church that had been severely damaged by German bombs. As work progressed, they became greatly concerned about a large statue of Jesus Christ, whose arms were outstretched and beneath which was the written inscription from Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all you who labour and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.”

The students had great difficulty trying to restore the hands, which had been completely destroyed. They tried and tried, but nothing seemed to successfully replace Jesus’ outstretched hands.

Finally, after much work and much discussion, they decided to let the hands of Jesus remain missing and they changed the written inscription to read this way: “Christ has no hands but ours.”

It’s our job to be a disciple-making church, we are Christ’s hands, his values, his reflected love to all we shall meet this coming week and beyond. May our hands, and our values signal the way to him and this wonderful place. 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 are written by Liz Davies

Holy God, St Matthew reminds us of the privilege of being disciples of Christ. We know that we have to be his hands and share in the labour for a plentiful harvest. Help us as we labour to achieve this, when we are tired and weary, teach us to say to ourselves that when we suffer, we are following in the footsteps of Jesus.