+ In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen
The Greeting:
Grace, mercy and peace
from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ
be with you
and also with you.
Prayer of Preparation:
Almighty God,
to whom all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from whom no secrets are hidden:
cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit
that we may perfectly love you
and worthily magnify your holy name;
through Christ our lord. Amen.
The Gloria:
Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to his people on earth.
Lord God, heavenly King,
almighty God and Father,
we worship you, we give you thanks,
we praise you for your glory.
Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the father,
Lord God, Lamb of God,
you take away the sin of the world:
have mercy on us;
you are seated at the right hand of the Father:
receive our prayer.
For you alone are the Holy One,
you alone are the Lord,
you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit,
in the glory of God, the Father. Amen
The Collect – 2nd Sunday after Trinity
Lord, you have taught us
that all our doings without love are nothing worth:
send your Holy Spirit
and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love,
the true bond of peace and of all virtues,
without which whoever lives is counted dead before you.
Grant this for your only Son Jesus Christ’s sake,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen
Readings:
2 Kings 2: 1-2, 6-14
2 When the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. 2 Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here; the LORD has sent me to Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel.
6 Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here; the LORD has sent me to the Jordan.” And he replied, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So the two of them walked on. 7 Fifty men from the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance, facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan. 8 Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground. 9 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?” “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied. 10 “You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah said, “yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise, it will not.” 11 As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. 12 Elisha saw this and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his garment and tore it in two. 13 Elisha then picked up Elijah’s cloak that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. 14 He took the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and struck the water with it. “Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over.
Galatians 5: 1, 13-25
5 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. 16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[c] you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Luke 9: 51-62
51 As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; 53 but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. 54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” 55 But Jesus turned and rebuked them. 56 Then he and his disciples went to another village. 57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go. 58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” 59 He said to another man, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” 62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.
Homily:
Today’s Gospel passage says some very hard things to those whom Jesus encountered in his ministry. So hard that we could be tempted to think: “well if that’s how it is then I certainly can’t be a follower of Christ and I don’t know anyone else who can measure up either. But, clearly, we do all continue to do our best, so let’s take a closer look at what Jesus might be saying and how it is relevant to us.
First of all, this is an important stage in Jesus’ ministry. We have just read that he “resolutely” set out for Jerusalem. Another version of the Bible puts it as “he set his face for Jerusalem”. You know that face when usually a child has made up their mind to do something and they are not going to listen to anything you say to try to change their mind. That’s what Luke is trying to conjure up for us. Jesus knew his destiny and he knew it was time to get to Jerusalem where he would be tried, killed and then rise again.
So, Jesus, the 12 and I’m sure many others they had collected on the way, started out for Jerusalem. And as they went, Jesus sent some ahead to a Samaritan village in order to make preparations for a stop-over there. It’s a strange thing, because they did not need to travel to Jerusalem via Samaria at all and most Jews didn’t because as we know: Jews and Samaritans did not get on and the Samaritans could be quite violent towards them. As happened in this case. The ones sent ahead couldn’t find anywhere for them to stay because all the people had heard that Jesus was determined to go to Jerusalem and so they wouldn’t let him stay. The centre of worship for the Samaritans was Shechem so they were basically annoyed that Jesus was not going to fulfil his life’s mission in their centre of worship. We see that even in those days people were possessive about their own places to the extent that they failed to remember all the Old Testament prophesies which pointed to Jesus dying in Jerusalem.
Then we meet today’s first would-be follower on this crucial part of Jesus’ journey. He tells Jesus that he will follow him anywhere at any cost. Jesus is blunt. “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” He was asking the man to count the cost of following him. People like Mother Teresa were called to leave everything they owned and give up all ideas of being married and having a family to go where God sent them and amongst the people they would least want to be with except that they knew God had sent them there. He does not ask such devotion from everyone, but he does from some and we never know who that will be and at what stage in life, so it’s good to count the cost of following before starting out.
Then the second would-be follower steps forward. “Follow me” says Jesus and we imagine he looks hard at him as he says it. “Let me first go and bury my father” says the man. The commentators suggest that this man’s father was not yet dead. It was his way of saying; I have responsibilities for my family; I can only follow when I have fulfilled them – when I have buried my father. I think sometimes in our Christian journey, we know the moment is now. We may be prompted to speak to someone about something or to write a letter or to visit. If we don’t act on that prompting, the moment is literally past and we may never see the result we were meant to see. We are called to act now in God’s service.
Then our final would-be follower appears. He is also delaying: “Let me first say good-bye to the folk at home”. Jesus says to him: you can’t plough a straight furrow if you are always looking back. You can’t do what God might be telling you to do if you keep harking back to the past. Sometimes there is need for a radical change in how we do things in order for the kingdom of God to multiply and grow. We can’t do that if we are still looking back to times which we think were better. Our churches used to be fuller than they are now. Our society was very different then. How is the church going to be in our society now?
So, we have a passage where Jesus is explaining that following him is always going to be difficult. We know that in this Benefice as we negotiate 6 years without an incumbent. We know that as our most elderly people who used to do so much in and for our churches are not able to do that any more. We know that when we try to keep up with paying the bills and keeping the buildings sound. We know that when fewer people come to church for weddings, baptisms and funerals and when many of the children we meet in schools don’t know the difference between a Muslim service and a Christian baptism and their parents and grandparents do not know the words of the Lord’s Prayer without having them written in front of them.
You may have noticed that this passage is not really about disciples. The word is not mentioned very much. At the beginning we read of John telling Jesus that they stopped a man casting out demons because they were not sure that he was a follower. Then we have the ever ready-to-be-angry James and John wanting to call down fire from heaven on the rejecting Samaritan village. Jesus in both cases stopped them from making judgements on people who at first sight didn’t seem to be on their side. Maybe the picture is bigger, he is saying. Disciples are people who learn from their Master and the 12 had been with Jesus long enough to learn that love for others is the key. Today’s passage is about “following.” A follower is someone who goes where the leader goes carefully following in his or her footsteps. The leader is hopefully always there to lead but following in this case takes the follower to suffering and death. Its only by suffering and dying to ourselves that we see where our Leader is leading. Our initial decision at baptism to be a disciple involves a whole lifetime of following Jesus through this life of joys and sufferings until we like him are glorified with our Father in Heaven.
Intercessions:
Let us pray to the God of heaven and earth for the growth of the kingdom
May the Kingdom grow
in clusters of Christians all over the world;
may it grow as hearts are warmed
by encounter with the living God;
nourished by word and sacrament,
private prayer and public worship.
We pray for the Anglican Communion and for Justin and Stephen our Archbishops as we approach the Lambeth conference.
And for the church in this diocese: for Graham, Alan and Jane our Bishops.
We hold before God those who were ordained as Deacons and Priests yesterday in Norwich Cathedral and the churches where they serve particularly for Adam and Tori ordained as priests in this Deanery.
We pray for the church here in Great Hockham and for our Benefice.
We give thanks for all who have served the church faithfully over the years and those who continue with that work now.
Lord, in your mercy: hear our prayer
May the Kingdom grow
in the crowded streets of cities and towns
and in the scattered rural communities;
in all decision-making and all spending.
We pray for our Queen and the Royal Family and for all those involved in government at national and local level.
We pray for those who hold positions of authority within their chosen professions.
We pray for the rulers of the nations in their decision making and continue to pray for Russia and Ukraine that war may cease and peace be restored.
Lord, in your mercy: hear our prayer
May the Kingdom grow
in every home,
every place of work and education,
in each conversation and
in our mutual care of one another.
We pray for our witness to our neighbours and friends and for every home in these villages.
For the relationships between parents and children and for all our day-to-day responsibilities that we may do all things in the name and for the sake of Christ.
We pray for the children in our schools of Caston, Great Hockham and Thompson who are leaving to go on to Secondary school and we pray for all children and students taking important exams at this time.
Lord, in your mercy: hear our prayer
May the Kingdom grow
to bring peace and healing
wherever there is pain or sadness
to bring reassurance, comfort, courage and hope.
We pray today for …….
Lord, in your mercy: hear our prayer
In the knowledge that we must all face judgement,
we pray for those who have died,
thanking God for his loving mercy,
and entrusting our loved ones
to God’s safe keeping.
We pray particularly for the family and friends of Peter Harold John Robertson and Christine Culley who have died recently.
Lord, in your mercy: hear our prayer
As we thank God for all his blessings to us
We offer him the rest of our lives.
Lord, in your mercy: hear our prayer
Merciful Father,
accept these prayers
for the sake of your Son,
our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The Peace:
We are the body of Christ. In the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. Let us then pursue all that makes for peace and builds up our common life.
The peace of the Lord be always with you.
And also with you.
The Lord’s Prayer:
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.
Final Prayer:
Loving Father,
we thank you for feeding us at the supper of your Son:
sustain us with your Spirit,
that we may serve you here on earth
until our joy is complete in heaven,
and we share in the eternal banquet
with Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
The Blessing:
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord;
And the blessing of God Almighty,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
be among you and remain with you
always. Amen