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St Clement Church Eighth Sunday after Trinity Community Service

Good morning and a warm welcome to this morning’s service.

This last week has been a perfect example of how even the best-laid plans can be turned upside down in an instant. You think you know what is happening each day but when it comes, things change in an instant.

How do we cope or do we? Can we ‘think on our feet’ and adapt?

What do you do?

With love to you all

Liz

Let us pray

Lord of all, as we gather to worship You, we ask for hearts open to Your presence. Fill this place with Your Spirit and our souls with Your peace. Let every song, prayer and word spoken glorify You and draw us closer in communion with You and each other. In Your holy name, we worship.

Amen

We say together

Dear Lord, we ask your help in being a light in every place you have given us to walk. Give us care and wisdom as we live and work with one another. Help us to look to another’s needs, before our own, and to always be ready to serve those around us. Even in every dark and broken place, for the times we feel like we are barely making it through, give us Your joy Lord, your grace, and the powerful presence of Your peace. Amen

Hymn: 205 Christ is made the sure foundation

Prayer of Penitence

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your merciful love; turn your face from my sins and blot out my guilt; create a pure heart in me and renew an upright spirit deep within me.

Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Amen

Collect for Eighth Sunday after Trinity

Almighty Lord and everlasting God, we beseech you to direct, sanctify and govern both our hearts and bodies in the ways of your laws and the works of your commandments; and through your most mighty protection, both here and ever, we may be preserved in both body and soul; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Amen

Readings:

Jeremiah 23. 1-6

Ephesians 2. 11 - 22

Hymn: 439 Praise to the holiest in the height

Gospel: Mark 6. 30 – 34, 53 - 56

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

Response: ‘Glory to you O Lord’)

The apostles returned from their mission. They gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught.

He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest awhile.’

For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.

And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves.

Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them.

As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat.

When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.

And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the market-places, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched were healed.

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

Reflection

Five weeks before their wedding Kay and Gord were told that it couldn’t take place in the venue that they had booked. It was a special place, where they had become engaged and Kay particularly was devastated. They managed to book somewhere for the reception but where could they have the ceremony?

Kay suddenly had an idea. ‘Gord, you’re a volunteer fire fighter and you love it. Ask the Fire Chief if we can be married there.’

‘But what if a shout comes in?’

‘You don’t go!’

So, Gord asked the Fire Chief and he agreed.

On the day the five fire engines were parked outside and the station was set out with a hundred chairs.

All went well; the couple were married and the guests left for the reception leaving the couple for some more photographs.

Yes, you’ve guessed it, the bell went off. Gord looked at Kay but the look on her face made him stand still. Firemen raced to pull on their gear and three engines raced away.

A few minutes later a shout went up. ‘All hands go, the fire’s getting out of control!’

Gord looked at Kay. For a moment her look said everything but then her face changed and she said, ‘Go!’ He raced to grab his gear and leapt onto the last engine leaving.

Kay made her way to the reception where everyone enquired where Gord was. She explained.

Several hours later, a figure appeared in the doorway. A cheer and applause erupted – Gord was back.

Looking at him, Kay felt great pride in the man she had married. She realised that his love of being a fireman was part of what she loved about him, and far from spoiling the day, the shout had made it very special.

Do you ever read the Gospel and think that it sounds just like you – that it is describing your life?

Well, today’s reading very much scored a hit with me!

How many times do I plan things - to go out somewhere, have a ‘quiet’ day, buy something major, get some work done on the house, only to have it completely ‘blown of the water’ because circumstances change or someone wants me to do something and as Martin used to say, ‘Have you not yet learnt the two-letter word?’

My life seems to be a catalogue of ‘interruptions.’ However a planned day is intended, it rarely follows as I expect or hope it will!

The disciples have returned from their teaching, healing, and casting out demons, mission and are eager to tell Jesus of their exploits.

He realizes that they are tired and need time to talk to Him and rest, so He decides that they need a quiet place away from everyone where they can rejuvenate their spirits and bodies and get something to eat. So, they take a boat across the lake to the other side, leaving the crowds behind. Or so He thinks. But, the crowds see them go and rush round the lake to get there before the boat.

Jesus’ expectations are unmet. There is no quiet and there is no rest. There is only a great crowd of people, lost like sheep without a shepherd, interrupting what He has planned. Hasn’t that happened to you? The circumstances may be different, but we all know what it’s like to have life interrupted.

What’s the saying – ‘The best-laid plans of mice and men …?’

We all live in the tension between our plans and interruptions, our expectations and the unexpected, life as we want it to be and life as it happens. Every one of us could tell a story about that.

It happens in small ways and in large ways. It’s the baby waking up early from what you think will be a quiet hour or a day that had nothing on the calendar that turns into day of one thing after another. It’s taking a new job only to find that you’re not doing what you planned. It’s the diagnosis that interrupts retirement plans. It’s a shattered dream, a divorce, a death.

Our life plans get interrupted in a thousand different ways and the unexpected happens all along the way of life.

I wonder what that looks like for you today. What are the plans and expectations that you have for your life and what are the interruptions or unexpected happenings with which you are dealing?

Where is God in all of that for you?

When our life plans are interrupted, it’s easy and tempting to work even harder to make it happen, reinforce our boundaries, blame others, rage about things not working out, or pray that God will make it all go the way we want. But, Jesus doesn’t do any of that. He doesn’t turn the boat around when He sees the crowd. He doesn’t get angry or resentful. He doesn’t blame or complain. He doesn’t ignore or deny the interruption. He simply deals with what is.

We often hold our plans and the interruptions in opposition, as if it is one or the other. But what if it’s always both? What if one is not necessarily better or more important than the other? What if we could equally cope with the plans and the interruptions? What if we trusted that God’s spirit is present and in both?

I admit that, at times, I get thoroughly annoyed when my carefully laid plans are scuppered by something unexpected, some interruption. ‘I can’t do that now because …’ Why not? Does the interruption nullify the plan or do I just need to stop, think, and readjust?

Everyday life is where God shows up. It’s where we learn about ourselves. It’s a school of love. It teaches patience and offers opportunities to soften our hearts and act with compassion. How we relate to another mirrors our relationship with God. We learn to forgive. We practise faithfulness and hope amidst the uncertainty of life.

Faithfulness is about being as intentional and caring toward the interruptions as we are to our plans. Isn’t that how Jesus lived? That’s what we see in today’s Gospel reading and throughout His life. He is constantly present and faithful to whatever and whoever is before Him, whether planned or unexpected. That’s not just tending to the lives of others. That’s how we tend to our own lives. That’s how Jesus tended to His life. He knows the spirit of God “blows where it chooses.” That means we are always to be discerning the movement of the spirit in our lives, in plans and interruptions alike.

What if the fringe of Jesus’ cloak is always being made available to us?

Yes, we have hopes and desires for ourselves and for our lives but let’s not lose sight of God who also has hopes and desires for our lives.

Interruptions or opportunities – that is the question!

Amen

Let us declare our faith in God

We believe in God the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named

We believe in God the Son, who lives in our hearts through faith, and fills us with His love.

We believe in God the Holy Spirit, who strengthens us with power from on high.

We believe in one God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Ame

Hymn: 354 Eternal Father, strong to save

Intercessions by Helen Dunbar

Let us pray for the Church and for the world and let us thank God for his goodness.

May the Spirit pray through us as we try to put into words the longings of our hearts for the Church and for the world.

Father, we thank you for all who have helped us to pray and to grasp something of your great love and power. We ask your blessing and empowering for all who teach and minister in your name; we ask for our Sunday worship to be an overflowing of our daily walk with you. An expression of our deepening love.