+ 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 – 4th Sunday after TrinityO God, the protector of all who trust in you,
without whom nothing is strong,
nothing is holy:
increase and multiply upon us your mercy;
that with you as our ruler and guide
we may so pass through things temporal
that we lose not our hold on things eternal;
grant this, heavenly Father,
for our Lord 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:
Amos 7: 7-177 This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand. 8 And the LORD asked me, “What do you see, Amos?” “A plumb line,” I replied. Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer. 9 “The high places of Isaac will be destroyed and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined; with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.” 10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel: “Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words. 11 For this is what Amos is saying: “‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land.’” 12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. 13 Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.” 14 Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. 15 But the LORD took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 16 Now then, hear the word of the LORD. You say,
“‘Do not prophesy against Israel and stop preaching against the descendants of Isaac.’ 17 “Therefore this is what the LORD says: “‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be measured and divided up, and you yourself will die in a pagan country. And Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land.’”
Colossians 1: 1-14 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ: Grace and peace to you from God our Father. 3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— 5 the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel 6 that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. 7 You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, 8 and who also told us of your love in the Spirit. 9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Luke 10: 25-37 25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” 27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’” 28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” 29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?” 30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ 36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” 37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.
Homily:
Last week I began by saying that I had shot myself in the foot by choosing to celebrate St Thomas’ Day and then realizing that I had preached on the Gospel passage set for the day only the week after Easter. Today, our Gospel passage is the Good Samaritan and we looked at that together only during Advent as one of the stories Jesus told.
I know we have looked at the characters of the priest, the Levite and the Good Samaritan but I would like to begin today by looking at the other person in our story: the Teacher of the Law. It did not take Jesus very long in his three-year ministry to offend the Teachers of the Law or Pharisees as they were also known. A Pharisee was known as “The separated one”. He spent the whole of his time studying the Jewish Law as we find it in the first 5 books of the Old Testament. There were in fact 630 different laws which applied to every area of life. We are familiar with some of the ones about Sabbath observance. Work was not allowed so that would include cooking meals and even lighting a lamp. Life could be saved on the Sabbath but treatment to alleviate suffering could not be given.
This Teacher of the Law was trying to trick Jesus. “What do I have to do to inherit eternal life?” was not a simple question for the Jews who had to remember to keep 630 religious rules. Jesus often turned questions around on people. To the man who spent his whole life interpreting the Law, Jesus said: “What does the Law say?”
The City of Jerusalem today contains many people who are there because it is a place where they can express their faith in (to us) extreme and sometimes violent ways. I will always remember visiting the Temple Mount: the place where the Temple once stood. It is a holy site for Jews, Muslims and Christians. There is now a Mosque on the site and only Muslims are allowed to go in. The Mosque is built over an exposed rock where Muslims believe that Mohammed ascended to heaven. Jews believe it is where Abraham sacrificed Isaac and that of course, as well as the fact that Jesus prayed in the Temple, makes it special to Christians too. We were told that if we prayed at the site using prayer books or Bibles, they would be taken off us by guards carrying guns.
Then I remember walking the Via Delarosa, the way of the Cross. Our tour leader prayed beautiful prayers at each station on the walk and it was a very special time. At one point, we sang a hymn and there was a young orthodox Jew dressed in black with a black felt hat and long twirled side-burns who ran past us with his fingers in his ears so that he did not hear the words of a Christian hymn. And at times, we the Christian pilgrims were not much better. There was a jostling to see the holy sites and a pushing to get to the front at the expense of older and more disabled pilgrims.
Here in our churches every Sunday, we practise our faith together: we use the words and prayers and music which will sustain us when we leave here. At the end of every Communion service, there is a little prayer that changes according to the Sunday of the year. It is the one which comes right before “Almighty God, we thank you for feeding us ….. “
I was struck by the words of the prayer we shall use today:
“Eternal God, comfort of the afflicted and healer of the broken, you have fed us at the table of life and hope: teach us the ways of gentleness and peace, that all the world may acknowledge the kingdom of your Son.”
Something happens in our churches which, first of all, affects us and then we take out into the world. I love that line: “you have fed us at the table of life and hope, teach us the ways of gentleness and peace”. When we eat a meal, our bodies are satisfied and if we eat the correct food, our bodies are properly nourished and everything works in the way it should. Our symbolic food of the bread and wine which become the Body and Blood of Jesus gives us everything we need to go out into the world. What we have received gives us something to give to others.
The final words of the Communion service are: “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord”.
This is not some hard-line observance of our faith where we have to push others aside if they don’t believe what we believe. It is not something that has to be guarded with guns and by excluding others. We don’t have to put our fingers in our ears to protect us from the words of others. Nothing will destroy our faith because it has become part of our DNA just like what we eat becomes a part of us.
Every time we eat during the week between services we can thank God for all He has given us and remember that He will be with us in a very special way the next time we receive the bread and wine.
The Teacher of the Law was a very closed man who helped people into a more and more intricate and involved way of expressing and living a life of faith. We are called to open up our lives to others. We are called live lives of peace and goodwill in a world where there is war and strife. When we look at our own country this week, we see the downfall of a Prime Minister and the news broadcasts, the newspapers and the history book in the years to come will analyse this period in our national life. We begin to see and will continue to see the good and the not so good parts of Boris Johnson’s time as Prime Minister. We will have our opinions, obviously, but as Christians, as all the turmoil of the formation of a new government with a new leader goes on, we are the ones who have a strong core of faith in God and also in humanity which is fed by who we are and what we do and above all, who we believe in.
Intercessions:Holy God, you have called us to meet and pray together.
We pray for those called to lay and ordained ministry in our Church and for those at present testing their vocation. We pray, particularly, for all those who have been ordained as Deacons and Priests at this season. We pray for those within our own diocese who were ordained recently, particularly for Adam and Tori, curates at the Fountain of Life and Swaffham in this Deanery.
We pray for Graham, Alan and Jane our Bishops, for the church here in Stow Bedon and for all the churches in this Benefice that you would help us to serve you in every person and situation we meet.
Lord, in your mercy: hear our prayer.
We pray for those called to serve you in positions of authority and influence within our world, that all may work for the common good, not for selfish ambition. We continue to pray for the nations of Russia and Ukraine that peace may be restored. We pray for Elizabeth our Queen, our Prime Minister and for all who serve in government both at local and national level. For these villages and all who live and work within them. For our schools in Caston, Great Hockham and Thompson and the residents and staff at Thorp House.
That all would see true greatness as service and true strength as humility.
Lord, in your mercy: hear our prayer.
We pray for those called to marriage, and those called to the single life, for those couples preparing for their weddings in these churches in the near future. For parents and grandparents, sons and daughters, for acceptance of what we cannot change and strength to live the Christian life in our present situation.
Lord, in your mercy: hear our prayer.
We pray for those whose lives are full of disappointment, disillusion and discontent, for all those who struggle with great perseverance in difficult circumstances. For those whose lives were and are still being changed by Covid and lockdowns.
We pray for your strength, encouragement and direction. We pray for the sick and for those in trouble: especially we pray for …..
Lord, in your mercy: hear our prayer.
We pray for those called, through death, into eternal life and freedom from all their pain and suffering. We remember the family and friends of Christine Culley whose funeral takes place here tomorrow and Gary Messent. Receive them with mercy and welcome them into your kingdom.
Lord, in your mercy: hear our prayer.
We thank you , Holy God, for your promise that where two or three are gathered in your name you will grant their requests.
Merciful Father,
Accept these prayers
for the sake of your Son,
our Saviour Jesus Christ.
The Peace:We are the body of Christ. In the one Spirit we were all baptized into o
ne 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:Eternal God,
comfort of the afflicted and healer of the broken,
you have fed us at the table of life and hope:
teach us the ways of gentleness and peace,
that all the world may acknowledge
the kingdom of your Son 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