INTRODUCTION
Good morning everyone and I hope you are well, last week was a true celebration of St. Maxentius with two young people coming to Holy Communion and also time to eat and chat together during our barbeque and very special desserts. Many thanks to all who organised, helped and worked so hard to make it a success. Our next event is the coffee morning on Saturday 8th July.
Our Gospel reading today is from Matthew 10 and the reflection and intercessions are by myself.
God bless. – Jan B.
PRAYER OF PREPARATION
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful people, and kindle in us the fire of your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
PRAYER OF PENITENCE
The Holy Spirit fills the world and knows our every word and deed. Let us then open ourselves to the Lord and confess our sins in penitence and faith.
Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we have sinned against you, through our own fault, in thought, and word, and deed, and in what we have left undone. We are heartily sorry and repent of all our sins. For your Son our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, forgive us all that is past; and grant that we may serve you in newness of life to the glory of your name. Amen.
Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who in his great mercy has promised forgiveness of sins to all those who with heartfelt repentance and true faith turn to him; have mercy on us and deliver us from our sins, confirm and strengthen us in all goodness and bring us to everlasting life, through Jesus 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
Gracious Father, by the obedience of Jesus you brought salvation to our wayward world: draw us into harmony with your will, that we may find all things restored in him, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
THE NEW TESTAMENT READING
ROMANS 6. 12-23
Do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
THE GOSPEL
Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew. Glory to you O Lord.
MATTHEW 10. 40-42
Jesus said to the twelve: ‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple – truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.’
This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you O Christ.
REFLECTION
Today’s Gospel reading is a continuation from the teachings of Jesus that we have read over the last few weeks. He has been telling the followers all about discipleship and how he wants them to go out into the world and spread the Good News. Last week he gave us the names of the disciples and gave them instructions on what they had to do. We can learn from this as discipleship is the job of us all, to bring others to God by word or by example or just showing them care.
Doing some research about this reading I came across an analogy of a 4 x 400 metre relay race, we cheer and get excited as each member of the team takes it in turn to pass on the baton without dropping it, staying within their lane and keeping to the rules of the changeover and racing around the track. At the end our team has won and we cheer and jump up and down and hug each other; we are elated. At the medal ceremony our flag is raised we sing our anthem and everyone celebrates.
The reading today is about passing on the baton, Jesus is sending out his disciples to spread God’s word so that they may all be brought to heaven when it is time. He is telling us what we need to do, how we need to live our lives if we are to get this wonderful reward. In his teaching we call the sermon on the mount, we hear about how we should live and God’s expectations of us. God has passed the baton to Jesus who has passed it onto his disciples who now passes it onto us.
The problem with the race is that when it is over that is the end and we forget about it, but when we hand over the knowledge of God’s love it does not end, it can be kept and passed on, it will not tarnish like a trophy but will shine as a light in our lives. Amen.
Jan B.
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 Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, and is seated on the right hand of the Father; he will come again in glory 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
During the intercessions, we pray for the church, our country, our government, people in difficulty and those who have died. You can use your own prayers or if you prefer here are some on today’s theme.
We give thanks for all who have gone out in mission and proclaimed the Good News in word and deed. We remember especially those who brought the Gospel to our land. We ask you to bless our churches and ministry teams in our Turton Moorland Team and mission community and help us to be closer to you in faith. We pray for all who have never heard the Gospel and those who are afraid to commit themselves.
Lord in your mercy. Hear our prayer.
We remember all who live in a hostile environment and those who are suffering from war or lack of freedom. We ask your blessing upon all who seek to bring peace and healing to all parts of the world and all charity and missionaries who work to help those that are suffering. We remember the work of the United Nations and Amnesty International.
Lord in your mercy. Hear our prayer.
Father we thank you for our homes and families, for the love, care and security we have with them and ask for your blessing on our loved ones. We pray for others who do not have a happy life those that are lonely or not cared for, and we pray for those who live on the streets or have been taken into care.
Lord in your mercy. Hear our prayer.
Lord we give thanks for your healing love. We remember those who are suffering in mind, body or soul and we ask you to bless them. May their faith bring them courage and hope. We pray for them and those looking after them. We especially pray at this time for Rev Peter Reiss, Thomas Causton, Stephen Haslam, Sue Roberts, Colin Roberts and Stanley Schofield.
Lord in your mercy. Hear our prayer.
We give thanks that, through Christ, the way to the fullness of your kingdom is open to us. We pray for our loved ones departed and from our book of remembrance George F M Young and Nancy Walsh. We commend them to you as we do the world and ourselves.
Merciful Father, accept these prayers for the sake of your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in Heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For the Kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and forever. Amen.
THE BLESSING
May the Lord bless us and watch over us, the Lord make his face shine upon us and be gracious to us, the Lord look kindly on us and give us peace. May the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit be with us and remain with us always. Amen.
Jumbles country park