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Services whilst we are closed due to Corona virus

St Clement Church Community Sunday Service

Good morning to you all.

Due to possible Covid contact our church building is closed from Saturday afternoon until Wednesday 25^th but we share this Service of the Word in our own homes.

With very heavy hearts we worship together bearing the loss of Martin from our lives. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

We hold Liz, the family, and each other in our thoughts and prayers as we grieve our loss.

Please keep yourselves safe when you go out, a few members of our congregation have tested positive for Covid, and with so many people in Cornwall at the moment we are all at risk.

This order of service and the intercessions were prepared earlier in the week before Martin’s passing.

Much love and may Christ’s love sustain us always.

Rev Di and family xx

Let us pray;

God of constant mercy, who sent your Son to save us: remind us of your goodness, increase your grace within us that our thankfulness may grow, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Our prayers of Penitence

Let us confess our failings to the Lord:

When our deeds do not match our words:

Lord, have mercy.

When we let evil go unchallenged, and are afraid to speak the truth: Christ, have mercy.

When we are preoccupied with ourselves, and give little attention to others:

Lord, have mercy.

When we trust in earthly treasures more than in God’s unfailing care:

Christ, have mercy.

May our almighty and merciful Lord grant us pardon and forgiveness of all our failings, time for amendment of our lives and the grace and strength of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Let us pray our Collect for the 12^th Sunday after Trinity

Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than either we desire or deserve: pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord.

Amen.

Readings

Joshua 24. 1-2a, 14-18

Ephesians 6. 10-20

Gospel of John 6. 56-69

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

Jesus said; those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.

This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live for ever.’ He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?’ But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, ‘Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?

It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. And he said, ‘For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.’

Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, ‘Do you also wish to go away?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’

(This is the Gospel of the Lord. Response: ‘Praise to you, O, Christ’)

Reflection

In chapter 6 of John’s Gospel Jesus begins to reveal who he is to the people.

At the beginning of the chapter He feeds the five thousand with bread that will nourish their physical bodies, and then goes on to try and explain the significance of the bread to his followers.

He seeks to move the crowd’s understanding from the significance of bread as food for the physical body, to one that gives an understanding of himself.

But whilst the people are willing to receive bread to eat, they find what Jesus has to say less acceptable. In today’s Gospel, Jesus is teaching in the Capernaum synagogue, but his listeners become offended by his words, and many disciples leave and no longer associate with him.

But the response of those disciples known as the twelve is different.

Jesus asks them if they too want to leave him, and speaking for the group, Peter answers, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

All heard the same teaching by Jesus, but there were opposite reactions.

Some rejected what Jesus said and deserted him, others welcomed his words. The same man, the same message, but opposite reactions.

Why is that we might wonder?

The disciples who left heard what Jesus said as a threat to their way of life, their accepted ideas, or even their grip on reality.

Those disciples who continued faithful heard what Jesus said as a challenge to their way of life, their accepted ideas and reality.

And although they didn’t completely understand or feel comfortable about what he said, they were intrigued by his words and by him.

“Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

Peter says this as spokesman for the twelve disciples and I don’t imagine him saying it in an over-eager way, or in a voice that’s too serious.

I think he says it with a gentle sense of irony, with a slight smile on his lips, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

It’s as though Peter says to Jesus, “You’re not exactly what we pictured as the Messiah, but that’s all right, because we recognise you’re far more than that.”

But perhaps it’s no wonder that those other disciples dropped out and went home when Jesus asked folk not simply to listen to his words, or follow his example, but to also eat his flesh and drink his blood.

Well, it does sound a bit like cannibalism, doesn’t it?

Down through the ages attempts have been made to tame the words of Jesus about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. But none of these attempts have ever enjoyed lasting success.

The fact is, that what Jesus says is amongst his bluntest and most shocking statements, hence some of his disciples were scandalised.

Consider, for example, what he says about eating his flesh. Most of our English translations grow fainthearted at this point, and it’s certainly not a good thought for us vegetarians…….

But to accept what Jesus said and to act on it, meant that his disciples had to die to their old way of life, so of course they’re all scared stiff, and many of them pull back and no longer have anything to do with him.

Of course, Jesus never asks of his disciples, or any of us, what he hasn’t already done himself.

After all, something in him died when he chose to come and live among us in our mortal lives, committing himself to us forever.

And this unbreakable commitment has its echo in our commitment to him. Other options have been rejected; we are dead to them because we have no place else to go. Christ is one with us forever.

There’s always something specific about a commitment, and when we talk about commitment to people, we mean committing ourselves to people of flesh and blood, which is how Christ demonstrates such commitment to us.

He takes for his own our flesh and blood, through human birth he is born, and through human death he dies.

He accepts for himself our condition, thereby entering into a new relationship with us, and I think it’s not too much to say that in Christ, God marries humanity, and the two become one flesh.

When we break bread and (albeit by intinction at the moment) share the wine of the Eucharist in our church at St Clement, the mystery of Christ’s flesh and blood is revealed to us by our faith.

But the Eucharist is more than a moment out of the week that’s set aside as holy, it’s meant to be our model for how we live our lives every day. We should go beyond the celebration of the Eucharist and see the flesh of Christ in the poor, and seek justice for them.

We should see the flesh of Christ in the rich, and pray that wealth does not destroy them.

We should see the flesh of Christ when we look in the mirror at ourselves, and say that this is the flesh that God has married, we are one with him.

And we should certainly see the flesh of Christ in each other as we come together as a united, bereaved family, to mourn the loss of Martin from our lives. Amen.

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 were written earlier in the week by Liz before Martin’s passing, I have changed them slightly from the original.

Let us pray:

Everlasting God, we come before you in this time of prayer to give thanks for all you have done for us. We thank you for the cool of the morning, for the power of the sun, for refreshing rain and for the beauty of our county, Cornwall. Help us to be aware of your presence, to hear your voice and to be ready to obey and do your will.