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St Clement Church Community Fifth Sunday in Lent Service

Good morning

It’s the Sunday before Palm Sunday and yet again I find myself with a challenging Gospel reading!

Why does this reading come now? Perhaps because it is a challenge; a challenge we each of us need to prepare ourselves for Holy Week.

What do you think?

With love to you all

Liz

Let us pray

Heavenly Father, we come before you today in humility and faith. We thank you for all you have given us and the many blessings in our lives. We ask for your guidance and strength. Show us the way and fill us with courage and wisdom. Help us to remember your love and grace and to be faithful in our service to you. Give us patience and understanding to face life’s challenges with grace. We ask these things in your name. Amen

We say together:

Dear Lord, as we rise to meet each day, please let us be filled with your spirit. Wherever we go, let us spread love, joy, peace, goodness, and faithfulness. Let us desire to become more like you and to worship you in all that we do. Help us desire these things so much more than the temptations that entice us. Thank you for always going before us. In Jesus’ name. Amen

Hymn: 393 Lead us Heavenly Father, lead us

Prayer of Penitence

Jesus says, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.’ So let us turn away from sin and turn to the Lord, confessing our sins in penitence and faith.

Most merciful God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ we confess that we have sinned in thought, word, and deed. We have not loved you with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbours as ourselves.

In your mercy forgive what we have been, help us 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

Collect for Fifth Sunday in Lent

Most Merciful God, who by the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ delivered and saved the world: grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross we may triumph in the power of his victory; 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 31. 31 - 34

Hebrews 5. 5 - 10

Hymn: 461 There’s a wideness in God’s mercy

Gospel: John 12. 20 – 33

(Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John. Response: ‘Glory to you O Lord’)

Among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ Philip went and told Abdrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.

Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honour.

Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say – “Father, save me from this hour?” No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’

The crowd standing there heard it and said it was thunder. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’

Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’

He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.

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

Reflection

I wonder, have you ever ‘played’ the game of: ‘Which six people would you invite to dinner, and why?’ Or, maybe, ‘Six people in a balloon and it is falling to the earth – who would you save and who would you throw out to prevent it crashing?’ A bit dramatic isn’t it, but it always creates an interesting discussion and can get quite heated at times! I wonder why these two ‘games’ came into my mind when I read today’s Gospel reading?

‘We wish to see Jesus.’ What’s so special about that? Don’t we all wish to see Jesus? What stands out is that they are Greeks, not Jews. They have no knowledge or understanding of the Jewish history or tradition and no awareness of the promised Messiah.

So, what’s special about that? To Jesus, this is the sign, the sign that His time has come. When those outside the Jewish faith recognise something special about Jesus – His time has come; the time when He must give His life to save mankind, all mankind not just the Jews.

Jesus answers by saying, ‘Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.’ It’s His response to those who want to see Him, to the Greeks, to you, to me.

But, what’s the significance of that? That’s the secret to life. It’s the pattern of loss and renewal that runs throughout our lives and our world. Even if you’ve never thought of this as the secret to life, you’ve lived and experienced it, sometimes by choice and other times by chance. Either way, it’s there.

Look at the way this pattern is in your life. Have you ever fallen in love and committed your life to another? If so, you had to let parts of your old life go and something of your single life died so that you could be with that other person. Are you a parent? If you are, you will know that there are sacrifices to be made of yourself and your life, in order for the new life of your child to emerge and grow. We give up parts of ourselves for others. We lose things, let go of things so that other things can arise. For every choice we make, every ‘yes’ we say, there is at least one ‘no’ and probably many.

The same pattern is in nature. You can see it in the changing of the seasons, falling leaves, new blooms, the setting and the rising of the sun.

So, the secret is out. It’s everywhere. It’s a pattern of loss and renewal, dying and rising, letting go and getting back, leaving and return. It’s at the core of our baptism, and it’s what we declare in the eucharist.

Christ has died.

Christ has risen.

Christ will come again.

What in your life do you need to let go today? What might you need to leave behind? What needs to die so that something new can arise? We’ve got to know that dying is much more than our physical death – yes, it is that, but it’s also so much more. We die a thousand deaths throughout our lifetime – the loss of a loved one, a relationship, our health, opportunities, a dream; all deaths we didn’t want or ask for. Other times we choose our losses and deaths. We give up parts of ourselves for another. We change our beliefs and values so that we can be more authentically ourselves. And sometimes, there are things we need to let go of, things we cling to that deny us the fullness of life we want and God offers: fear, anger and resentment, regret and disappointment, guilt, the need to be right, approval.

Seeing Jesus, isn’t a spectator sport. It’s a way to be followed, a truth to be embodied, a life to be lived. It’s being a grain of wheat that falls into the ground and dies so that it might bear much fruit. That’s where we see Him. It’s the letting go, the emptying, the leaving behind, and the dying that makes space for new life to arise.

Jesus is human. Like us he knows what it is like to face something that seems too much, too great to even contemplate.

He admits that His soul is troubled and questions whether He should ask His Father to take away what is ahead of Him.

No – what is ahead of Him is what He came to do. He will move forward towards that bitter end so that we can have new life.

The secret to life, the pattern of loss and renewal will be unveiled every day throughout Holy Week. Perhaps this is why we have this text today, a week before Palm Sunday and the start of Holy Week. It’s our preparation for Holy Week. And where does Holy Week end? At Easter, the empty tomb, the dawn of a new day, and the renewal of life. The single grain has become the Bread of Life.

But, remember, you don’t plant a seed and go back in ten minutes or the next day, expecting to see a new shoot. Growth can be slow and the fruit of new life takes time, usually longer than we want it to take. Yet, even when unseen, unbelieved, unrecognised, the power and life of God are present and at work in the depths of our life, in the dark and hidden places. That’s the mystery of life.

So why did I start with my two ‘games?’

Well, the first one, who would you like to invite to dinner, gives one the opportunity to invite anyone, living or dead, who you probably would never ever have the chance of meeting or even seeing. ‘We wish to see Jesus.’

The second one, is much harder, particularly if you are one of the six in the balloon basket. Would you be willing to give your own life to save others?

I still don’t really know why they came to mind, suffice to say, they did!

But, just like the Greeks, I wish to see Jesus, do you?

What is my grain of wheat that needs to fall into the earth and die?

What are the things that if I lost them, I’m sure I would just die? Maybe those are the very places to bear much fruit in my life and maybe that’s where I’ll see Jesus.

How about you?

Amen

We say together in faith

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.

Amen

Hymn: 86 My song is love unknown (omit verses 4 & 6)

Intercessions

Everlasting God, your Son chose twelve disciples to work together to spread the good news of the Gospel. Help us here at St Clement, to work together for the common good. May we delight in sharing in each other’s spiritual gifts and enabling everyone to make their own contribution however small. May we always be ready to toil and not to seek for rest, to labour and not to ask for any reward, save that of knowing that we do your will.