TRINITY 4 – SUNDAY 27TH JUNE 2021

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

We hope you got the message last week that the team Christian Aid walk has been postponed. Due to Covid restrictions, it could not run as the social event we hoped, so we have moved it to the 11^th September, those who have already registered shouldn’t have to re- register but if anyone can now take part because of the change of date then please do. Contact your church Christian aid rep or our Team administrator Chris Sutcliffe.

Well for us at St. Maxentius it is our patron’s day, in the past we’ve had a barbeque and puddings and a lovely social gathering in the church grounds, today Rev Robin will take our service, but we’ll have to miss the fun afterwards, as we’ve said many times, hopefully next year, fingers crossed.

Today’s reflection is by Rev Robin and intercessions by Mike Haslam, many thanks to them.

Jan B

PRAYER OF PREPARATION

God is spirit; let us worship him in spirit and truth

The Lord is with us. Let us praise his name together

PRAYER OF PENITENCE

My God, for love of you I desire to hate and forsake all sins by which I have ever displeased you; and resolve by the help of your grace to commit them no more; and to avoid all opportunities of sin. Help me do this, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 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, 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.

THE NEW TESTAMENT READING

2 CORINTHIANS 8, 7-15

Now as you excel in everything–in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you–so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking. I do not say this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love against the earnestness of others. For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.

And in this matter, I am giving my advice: it is appropriate for you who began last year not only to do something but even to desire to do something– now finish doing it, so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means. For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has–not according to what one does not have. I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance. As it is written, “The one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little.”

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

THE GOSPEL

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

MARK 5, 21-43

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat* to the other side, a great crowd gathered round him; and he was by the lake. Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly, ‘My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.’ So he went with him.

And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. Now there was a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.’ Immediately her haemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ And his disciples said to him, ‘You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, “Who touched me?” ’ He looked all round to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.’

While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, ‘Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?’ But overhearing* what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, ‘Do not fear, only believe.’ He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. When he had entered, he said to them, ‘Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.’ And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, ‘Talitha cum’, which means, ‘Little girl, get up!’ And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

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

REFLECTION

It’s a miracle! A woman cured of haemorrhages, and a young girl brought back from the dead!

We’ve perhaps come to expect that sort of thing from the pages of the New Testament, but what about now, what about in our own lives?

I suppose for most people miracles are things to hold in reserve, a last resort when all else fails: “only a miracle can save him now”! And even that’s just a way of saying there’s nothing left to do – for a lot of people a miracle is not a possibility, it’s just a way of saying that there is no possible solution. We don’t really believe that such things happen – but to hope for a miracle, even if we believe it to be impossible, is better than to abandon hope altogether. And yet, there they sit, in the pages of the NT: miracle after miracle — 37 of them in the gospels, some others elsewhere in the NT. We read them, but what are we to make of them?

There are some common characteristics shared by most of the NT miracle stories, two in particular.

Firstly: whatever the ‘events’ are, they do not conform to the normal run of human experience; there’s always something odd about them. They’re extra-ordinary – super-natural – inexplicable; and above all else they induce a response of wonder among those who witness them.

Secondly: in miracles (or through them, or because of them) a claim is usually made for a particular disclosure of God – a disclosure of his power, or his love, perhaps. They become signs of God actively working within creation. Signs and wonders that continued to be displayed within the life of the early church, among the first Christians.

So where are they today? Has the magic run out? Have we lost the art? Or do we just not believe like they used to do in those early days?

Perhaps we simply don’t see miracles anymore? So many things can be explained by science (or sociology, or psychology, or medicine…) – perhaps ‘explanation’ has got in the way of ‘revelation.’? Perhaps we really are blinded by science?

Today, when we are confronted with the extraordinary or the inexplicable, we simply assume that it hasn’t yet received its scientific explanation; that science hasn’t yet got around to explaining it, but will do so in the end. We often leave no room for the unexpected or the unaccountable.

And yet we are surrounded by wonders. We talk easily about ‘miracles’ of modern science, but we look no further, no deeper, than that. We no longer look for the hand of God in things that cause us to wonder – except in football, that is!

Perhaps we would be better off looking around at the things that today cause us to stop and think, to stop and wonder, things that seem to defy normal explanation – and try to discern the hand of God in them.

Rev Robin Usher

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH

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.

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.

Everlasting God we are gathered together in love and fellowship, hear us now as we bring before you our cares and our needs.

And so we pray for your church throughout the world, for Christians everywhere meeting in small house groups, in rural and town churches and in great city cathedrals. We pray for our churches in the Turton Moorland Ministry, and especially those in Belmont and here in Bradshaw where we celebrate the festivals of our patron saints at this time. Keep us ever mindful of your saints and make us more worthy to follow in their footsteps.