ST. MAXENTIUS WORSHIP AT HOME – Epiphany – Sunday 2nd January 2022

Here below we have an outline of our service for you to follow at home if you can’t be with us. Choose a quiet reflective space and to make it more meaningful have a cross, bible and candle to make your sacred space.

INTRODUCTION

Happy New Year everyone, I hope you had a lovely and peaceful Christmas and that we are looking forward to a more settled year. We have faced so many disappointments throughout the past two years but we look forward with hope and faith for what is to come. The wise men had the faith and hope to follow the star and so must we in these difficult times, but let’s be positive and look at all the wonderful things and people we do have and thank God together at this Epiphany time.

At our Carol service we focused on Luke’s Gospel which did not include the wise men so today is the time to welcome them and marvel at their story.

The reflection today is by Peter and the intercession by Joyce Armstrong thank you to them for their help and support.

Jan B.

PREPARATION PRAYER

PRAYER OF PENITENCE

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 neighbour as ourselves. In your mercy forgive what we have been, help us to 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.

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 sins of the world: have mercy upon 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

O God, who by the leading of a star manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth: mercifully grant that we, who know you now by faith, may at last behold your glory face to face; 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.

THE OLD TESTAMENT READING

ISAIAH 60. 1-6

Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

Lift up your eyes and look around; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far away and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses’ arms. Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you. A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God

THE GOSPEL

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John. Glory to you O Lord.

JOHN 1. 10-18

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” ’) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

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

REFLECTION

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” – a sentence many of us have heard often; this is how John describes the birth of Jesus, that God took human form and lived on earth. But the people who knew, who were granted to know that this had happened, were a strange group. The young woman chosen to be the mother and her fiancé, her elderly relative Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah, and then the shepherds out on the hills and the Magi from the East; scholars have written much on who exactly the shepherds might have been, whether the night-watch doing the toughest and least-well-paid work, or maybe thy are the people who would most accept the true Shepherd; and history has labelled the Magi as Kings, astrologers, religious leaders from a different faith, whatever – they were definitely foreign.

These Magi, saw something unusual in the Created Order of things, a star of some kind that was not part of the normal night-sky. Whatever it was, it was enough to make them embark on a massive journey of exploration. The shepherds were astounded by the wonder of an angel and then a heavenly choir, and they too responded “Let us go and see”. And the rest of the world slept on and woke up and went about its business.

Matthew wrote his gospel primarily to people who had Jewish descent, but he included the arrival of foreign, Gentile people who discovered the truth, not from Scriptures but from a natural phenomenon, or maybe an unnatural phenomenon.

One of the deepest paradoxes of our faith is that God – Almighty God, the Creator, the Lord – is with us, has shared his life with us, yet has also given us the freedom to take no notice, and in fact most people take up that freedom, though Paul calls it bondage to sin, blind because we are enslaved to sin and need release. This is a troubling paradox – our human complacency.

And a second deep paradox is that the mercy of God ultimately triumphs over the judgement of God – “grace upon grace” as John puts it; “For God so loved the world ..” But that does not mean we take this for granted – it means we should “go and see”, we should make the spiritual journey that the Magi made, maybe prompted by the beauty of the Creation, maybe motivated by academic curiosity, maybe startled by something unusual or unexplained, maybe challenged by the example of someone’s witness. As we start a New Year, let us commit to making the time to go and see, and our response should be one of worship and wonder and praise.

Rev Peter

THE CREED

I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

INTERCESSIONS

Lord, Jesus Christ, you promised that those who seek will find, and in the pilgrimage of the magi we find proof of that promise. So now we bring you our prayers for all in our world, known and unknown to us, who, in different ways, are searching.

Light of the world, shine in our darkness.