St Clement Church Community Third Sunday in Lent Service

 

 

Good morning

This Lent, more so than previous ones, is turning out to be a time when I am finding myself more and more challenged when I read the Gospels. Stories that I know so well are suddenly not so straight forward, there’s more to them than I had really thought about before.

Lent is an ideal time to look at our Gospel readings, enjoy them, but then read them again and see whether there is more in there than just the story.

With love to you all

Liz

 

Let us pray

 

Heavenly Father, we gather in your presence today with open hearts and minds, ready to worship and praise your holy name.                                                          We ask that you bless this time of worship so that we may be uplifted and inspired by your presence.                                                                                         Fill us with your love and grace, and help us to honour you in all that we do.

Amen

                                                                                                                              

 

We say together: 

 

Father God, in this time of worship today, we are gathered under your care and protection. Thank you for your loving kindness that never fails us. We thank you for all those worshipping with us, wherever they may be, that you will guide our thoughts and actions to bring you glory. Strengthen us and fill us with your peace. May we love and serve each other as Jesus has shown us. Fill us with the Holy Spirit to do your good work on earth.

Amen

 

Hymn:  339   Be thou my vision

 

Prayer of Penitence

 

The gospel calls us to turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ.                                   As we offer ourselves to him in penitence and faith, we renew our confidence and trust in his mercy.

 

Father eternal, giver of light and grace, we have sinned against you and against our neighbour, in what we have thought, in what we have said and done, through ignorance, through weakness, through our own deliberate fault.                                                                                                                   We have wounded your love, and marred your image in us.                                               We are sorry and ashamed, and repent of all our sins.                                                                   For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, who died for us, forgive us all that is past; and lead us from darkness to walk as children of light.

 

Collect for Third Sunday in Lent

 

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; 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 forever.

Amen

 

 

 

Readings:                                                                                                                              

 

Exodus 20. 1 - 17

1 Corinthians 1. 18 - 25

 

Hymn: 333 All my hope on God is founded

 

Gospel: John 2. 13 - 22

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

Response: ‘Glory to you O Lord.’)

 

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.                           In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money – changers seated at their tables.                                                                     Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.                                                                                 He told those who were selling the doves, ‘Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a market – place!’                                                     His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’                                                                                                                   The Jews then said to him, ‘What sign can you show us for doing this?’                   Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’                                                                                                                                        Then they said, ‘This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?’                                                                     But he was speaking of the temple of his body.                                                                      After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

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

 

Reflection

 

Business as usual – I’m sure that we have all used this expression at some point in our lives. In fact, I suspect we think it more often than we are aware. Think about it … have you ever pushed the auto-pilot button and life becomes mechanical.                                                                                          You go through the motions. You show up but you’re not really there. That’s business as usual.                                                                                               How about this? Have you ever smiled that ‘I’m-good-and-everything-is-fine’ smile but behind that smile there is an emptiness, you feel hollow, and your heart is breaking? That’s carrying on business as usual.                           Or, maybe you wake up in the morning and you are as exhausted as you were when you went to bed the night before. Business as usual.

Have you ever felt like you are just not yourself? Nothing seems right?  Boredom overcomes creativity. There is no enthusiasm, wonder or imagination. It’s just business as usual. 

Sometimes we look at life and the world and it all seems in vain. We’re busy, but we’re not really getting anywhere. There’s no depth or meaning, it’s just business as usual. Business as usual can happen anywhere: in friendships, marriages, parenting, work, church.

 

Today’s Gospel reading is one of those stories where we need to set aside a couple of things, things that don’t belong, things that distract, before we can really understand what is happening.

 

This story isn’t simply about Jesus getting angry. Jesus gets angry. I get angry. You get angry. It’s ok to get angry. That misses the point. It’s not about the animals or the moneychangers being in the temple. Jesus surely knows they’re there. He has grown up as a faithful Jew going to the temple. He doesn’t turn up that day and say, “Wow! There are animals and moneychangers in here. I didn’t know this. This is wrong.” The animals and moneychangers have always been there. That’s how the system works. It is business as usual for them to be there.

Jesus goes to the temple that day for one purpose: to throw out and overturn business as usual.

 

There are times when we need the tables of our life overturned and the animals thrown out. It’s just so easy to fall into the trap of business as usual.

Going back to where I started – the things I described are not the problem. They are the symptom in the same way that the moneychangers and the animals in the temple are the problem. They’re the symptoms of something deeper going on. The problem is not so much in the temple as in the human heart.

It's that deeper issue that gives rise to business as usual. Sometimes it’s about fear. We’re fearful about what is happening in our life or the uncertainty about the future and we want some type of security and predictability so we can go on doing the same old things.                                               Business as usual is predictable and steady but it creates only the illusion of security. Sometimes business as usual is a symptom of our grief and sorrow. Something has been lost. We can’t get back the life we want so we cling to business as usual because it’s familiar and we want some stability. Other times we’re so busy (the vicar and I know all about that) that life turns into one task after another, one appointment after another, a never ending to do list, and it’s business as usual.                        Maybe we’ve taken people, relationship, and things for granted. Maybe we’ve lost our sense of gratitude, wonder or mystery.

That’s not a criticism or judgement of me, you or anyone else. It’s just stating a fact of what often happens to us. What does business as usual look like in your life? In what ways is it business as usual for you today?

 

There are thousands of reasons and ways in which we fall into business as usual. But, there is one thing we need to get back to – forgetfulness. Business as usual is born of forgetfulness. We forget that we really are the temple of God’s presence. We forget that all of creation is the residence of God. We forget that whatever direction we turn, there is God’s face gazing upon us. As soon as we forget these things about ourselves, each other, or the world, life becomes business as usual.

 

That’s what happens in the temple. They don’t see themselves or one another as the true temple of God. It’s all about the human temple, the animals and the money. They’ve forgotten that God is more interested in them than in their festivals and that God wants them more than their offerings.

 

When we forget that we are the temple of God, life can easily become a sense of transactions. Relationship and intimacy are lost. Priorities get rearranged. Making a living replaces living a life. Life becomes a marketplace rather than a place for meeting the holy in ourselves and one another. It’s business as usual.

That’s what Jesus is overturning and driving out of the temple.

 

In St John’s Gospel this happens at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry. The Word becomes flesh, water becomes wine, and now the temple is becoming human. And it doesn’t stop there. Throughout the rest of John’s Gospel we hear how Jesus will be interrupting business as usual. Over and over again, Jesus interrupts, disrupts, overturns and throws out business as usual.                                                                                        Business as usual is destructive of our lives and relationships. It destroys our ability to see and participate in the holy that’s already present in and among us.

Regardless of who we are, what we’ve done or left undone, or how we see or judge our life, we are the temple of God and there is one who stands in the temple of our life interrupting business as usual.                                     So, what does the temple of my life, of your life need today. What tables in our lives need to be overturned? What animals need to be driven out.

 

It is not about what needs to happen so that we can become holy or become the temple, but so that we can see that we are already the temple and claim what is already ours.

Jesus doesn’t make us into something we’re not. He calls us back to who we’ve always been.

He is talking of the temple of our body.

Amen

 

Let us declare our faith

 

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty,                                                                  maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.

 

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father,                                                                                           God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God,                                             begotten not made, of one Being from the Father.                                                              Through him all things were made.                                                                                        For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made man.

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried.

On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures;

He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

 

We believe in the Holy Spirit,

The Lord, the giver of life,

Who proceeds from the Father and the Son.

With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified.

He has spoken through the prophets.

We believe in one holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.  Amen                                                                                                                 

 

Hymn: 357 Father hear the prayer we offer

 

Intercessions by Helen Dunbar

 

In the knowledge that God cherishes us, let us pray to him now.

 

Dear Lord, during this period of Lent give us a new awareness of your presence in our Church here in St Clement and teach us the humility that all our gifts come from you, to be used in the service of your people and in the spreading of the Gospel. Live in us through all our small acts of sacrifice and help us to be cheerful in all we do and say during this Lent and always.

 

Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer

 

Dear Lord, we thank you for our Local and Church community here in St Clement. We ask your blessing on our neighbours and friends and for all the people we share our daily lives with. We pray for all those who are lonely or distressed, for those isolated because of ill-health, and for all those who find life difficult. Help us to be aware of those around us and teach us to be good neighbours and true friends.

 

We pray for the world wide Church and all Church leaders, for Archbishop Justine, Bishop Hugh and for our much loved Revd Diane and her family.

Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer

 

We pray for King Charles and Queen Camilla and all members of the Royal family. Lord, guide them and give them strength to cope with the many difficult situations they are facing at present and may our love and compassion towards them give them the strength they need.

 

Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer

 

Our thoughts and prayers go to all those people who are made homeless and destitute because of wars and terrorism. We pray for those who suffer terrible atrocities and for all those who have lost family members, and in some cases their entire family. We pray that the troubles in Ukraine, Israel and Palestine will come to an end and the suffering will cease.

 

Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer

 

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 those suffering 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 especially remember Ken and Revd Diane, May, Susan, Lynda, Angela, Terry and Dot, Margaret, Maureen, Pam and David, Barrie and Sandra, Rupert and Linda, Alison and Rob, Jan, Anita and Stephen, Michael and Patricia, Jeremy, Stella, Alison, Linda, William, Callum and Elaine, Jay, Andy, and those who have no one to pray for them.

 

Father, we call to mind all those we have known and loved who lived among us and now have died. We pray for all who have made that journey unnoticed and alone. We ask that they may all know your mercy and the everlasting peace and joy of heaven.

 

We remember those whose anniversary falls at this time - Tony Hams, Jeff Smith, Charlie Stribley, Michael Fairbairn and John Polkinghorne.

 

Rejoicing in the fellowship of St Andrew, St Clement and all your saints, we commend ourselves and all Christian people to your unfailing love.

 

Merciful Father: accept these prayers for the sake of your Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen

 

Gathering our prayers and praise into one, let us pray with confidence as our risen Lord has 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

 

Business as Usual

 

Whether it’s raining or fine                                                                                                  it’s business as usual.                                                                                                      Whether one’s happy or sad,                                 

Excited, bored or depressed                                                                                                      it’s business as usual.

 

Whether things are going well                                                                                                 or one is hiding the pain                                                                                    

it’s business as usual.      

Autopilot or just blank,

no thought of what one’s doing,

it’s business as usual.

 

Why?

 

Why do we cling to the norm

as though it’s our safety net?

Why do we constantly think

that business as usual

is all things are or can be?

Why are we so afraid that

turning over the tables,

casting out the animals,

will send us into a spin

of endless chaos and pain?

 

If our good Lord can do it,

why can’t we

disrupt, interrupt our safe

business as usual so

that we can be followers,

true followers of our Lord,

and the temple of our God?

 

Why?

 

 

The Peace

 

God is love and those who live in love live in God and God lives in them.

 

The Peace of the Lord be always with you.

 

Hymn: 234 Christ whose glory fills the skies

 

Blessing

 

May the love of Jesus Christ bring us wholeness,                                                                         the grace of God the Father grant us peace,                                                                the breath of the Holy Spirit instil passion                                                                             and the unity between them                                                                                                   give us strength for this and every day.

 

Amen