Welcome to our service - 15 November
This service sheet can be used individually or with households.
We would encourage you to say (or even sing) hymns and songs out loud.
Prayers, other liturgy or readings can be said out loud or silently, corporately or individually.
If you are able, we would also like invite you to join us for our main Sunday service, 10am, live on Zoom. Even if you have never been to St Gabriel’s before we would love you to join you. Please get in touch with the vicar Alistair (vicar@saintgs.co.uk) and he will send you the Zoom details.
Due to the lockdown there will be no service in the church at 11:30 am. You are invited to come to church at the same time for private prayer between 11:30 - 12:30.
SERVICE
Opening
Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven.
Alleluia.
SING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXBsCkIxVRU
Amazing grace - how sweet the sound -
that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
was blind, but now I see.
'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
and grace my fears relieved;
how precious did that grace appear
the hour I first believed.
Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
'tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
and grace will lead me home.
When we've been there ten thousand years
bright shining as the sun,
we've no less days to sing God's praise
than when we've first begun.
John Newton (1725-1807)
CONFESSION
Christ calls us to share the heavenly banquet of his love with all the saints in earth and heaven. Knowing our unworthiness and sin, let us ask from him both mercy and forgiveness.
Lord God,
we have sinned against you;
we have done evil in your sight.
We are sorry and repent.
Have mercy on us according to your love.
Wash away our wrongdoing and cleanse us from our sin.
Renew a right spirit within us
and restore us to the joy of your salvation,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
ASOLUTION
Almighty God,
who in Jesus Christ has given us
a kingdom that cannot be destroyed,
forgive us our sins,
open our eyes to God’s truth,
strengthen us to do God’s will
and give us the joy of his kingdom,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
COLLECT
Heavenly Lord,
you long for the world’s salvation:
stir us from apathy,
restrain us from excess
and revive in us new hope
that all creation will one day be healed
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
SING:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h10GlC47Ut8
Shout for joy and sing,
let your praises ring;
see that God is building a kingdom for a King.
His dwelling place with men, the new Jerusalem;
where Jesus is Lord over all.
And we will worship, worship,
we will worship Jesus the Lord
We will worship, worship,
we will worship Jesus the Lord.
2. A work so long concealed,
in time will be revealed,
as the sons of God shall rise and take their stand.
Clothed in His righteousness,
The church made manifest,
Where Jesus is Lord over all
And we will worship, worship,
we will worship Jesus the Lord
We will worship, worship,
we will worship Jesus the Lord.
3. Sovereign over all,
Hail Him risen Lord.
He alone is worthy of our praise.
Reigning in majesty,
ruling in victory,
Jesus is Lord over all.
And we will worship, worship,
we will worship Jesus the Lord
We will worship, worship,
we will worship Jesus the Lord.
Dave Bilbrough © 1983 Thankyou Music
READINGS
Jonah 3 New International Version UK
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.’
Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, ‘Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.’ The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:
‘By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.’
When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
Luke 11:29-32 New International Version - UK
As the crowds increased, Jesus said, ‘This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom; and now something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now something greater than Jonah is here.
TALK by Catherine Stevenson: Jonah 3
As we read chapter 3 of Jonah, it’s clear that we could have got to this point much sooner. If Johah had obeyed God’s command at the very beginning of chapter 1, we would have got straight to this point in the story, where Jonah comes to speak to the people of Nineveh.
In chapters 1 and 2 we see the results of Jonah’s rebellion against God. He refuses to follow God’s command and instead runs away, gets on a boat going in the opposite direction to Nineveh and hopes to escape from God. But of course, that’s not possible and things go badly wrong. As Alistair said last week, Jonah goes on a downward trajectory both physically and spiritually as he attempts to separate himself from God and God’s will. Things get so bad in fact, that he calls out to God in desperation from the belly of a great fish. And then, there is redemption. When Jonah ignores God, he experiences God’s righteous judgement, but when he turns to back God, he experiences his incredible compassion, love and grace. God is quick to forgive, to redeem Jonah and give him a second chance. We worship the God of second chances. This is really important for Jonah as he undertakes his mission in Nineveh. He goes into the city, having just experienced both the judgement and grace of God.
So as we get back to chapter 3, we hear God restating his command to Jonah in chapter 1. Chapter 3v1 says, “Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.””
Then if we go back to chapter 1, we see that God says to Jonah, “preach against it [the city], because its wickedness has come up before me.”
If we break down what God asks Jonah to say, we see that Jonah’s message should cover the following issues:
1. He should “preach against it” - this was the act of proclaiming God’s judgement on the city and it’s people
2. He should explain why - “because of it’s wickedness” (this Assyrian city was known for it’s violence and brutality)
3. He should explain that the judgement is coming from God - “its wickedness has come up before me”.
It’s then interesting to see what Jonah actually says when he gets to Nineveh. Verse 4 says; “Jonah began…proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.””
And that’s it. Jonah gives an eight word sermon - in fact in Hebrew it’s only five words - and as far as we know, that’s all he says. He fulfils the first requirement of the message by preaching against the city, telling them that they’re going to be destroyed. But he fails to make clear the reason for their impending doom, mentioning nothing of their wickedness, and he does not say this judgement is coming from God, because he has seen the wickedness. It almost feels like Jonah is doing the bare minimum to obey God. And when we understand how he feels about the Ninevites it’s perhaps not surprising that he’s being so obtuse. He genuinely doesn’t want them to understand, because he doesn’t want them to repent, and experience God’s forgiveness and grace. He wants the Ninevites to be destroyed.
We know from both Assyrian and biblical sources that the Assyrian army had invaded and destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel. A carved limestone mural in the palace in Nineveh depicts the king overseeing a battle in the northern kingdom and commanding his troops as they flog and torture their Jewish captives. These people were brutal, violent and evil. Jonah’s people had suffered at their hands and he wanted them to get their comeuppance. Even though he himself has just benefited from the loving grace of God, Jonah is fearful that if the Ninevites repent, God might forgive them too.
Two weeks ago Alistair gave the analogy of Jonah preaching to the Ninevites, as being the equivalent of someone being airlifted into 1930’s Germany and proclaiming ‘Down with the Third Reich’. The king of Nineveh was like the ancient Assyrian version of Hitler, and Jonah was being asked to proclaim judgement, so that he might be given the opportunity to repent, and to receive God’s complete forgiveness and grace. Perhaps in those terms, we can understand Jonah’s reluctance to fulfil his role.
But despite Jonah’s short, obtuse sermon, the Ninevites get it. They are so ready to repent that they fill in the gaps for themselves. In verse 5 it says, “The Ninevites believed God.” It’s interesting that it doesn’t say they believed Jonah. They instinctively know that the judgement was coming from God, because of the evil things they had been doing, and they respond in full repentance. Their belief results in action; in fasting and putting on sackcloth.
Similarly, when Jonah’s warning reached the king, he responds immediately in repentance, taking off his robes and getting down from his throne - both symbols of his authority - and displaying his repentance and submission to God in physical ways.
In verse 8 the king declares: ‘Let everyone give up their evil ways’. The Hebrew word translated here as ‘give up’ is ‘shuv’ (pronounced ‘shoov’) and it comes from the image of walking. A judgement is given that you are going the wrong way, so to ‘shuv’ is to turn and go the other way. The prophets used this word as a metaphor for how we relate to God. The prophets were to tell the people when they are doing the wrong things, or going the wrong way. And then call people to ‘shuv’, to turn and go the right way.
So the king of Nineveh says, “let everyone give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
I think we struggle with this language in our culture today. Judgement is not often a popular idea. People say ‘if God loves us, why does he judge us? It’s so harsh.’ We can easily present this idea that judgement is the opposite of love. But you don’t have to be religious to see that our world is messed up. It’s messed up because 7.8 billion people are making daily decisions, big and small, based on what they think is best for them; based on their own ideas of what’s right and wrong. And if God looked down on all that mess and pain and suffering, and said to himself ‘Ah look at them, they’re hurting each other, but it’s ok, they’re just humans, I’ll leave them to it.’ would that really be loving? The opposite of judgement is not love, it’s apathy.
Imagine you passed a playground and saw three 10 year olds pushing a 6 year old around and calling him names, and you just walked on by thinking, ‘ah well, kids will be kids’. Would that be loving? Absolutely not! It’s not an easy or comfortable thing to do, but intervening is the loving thing to do. It’s loving to the kid who’s being bullied, it’s a loving example to others around who may have seen but been too scared to step in, and it’s loving to the bullies, because if this pattern of behaviour continues unchecked, they’re probably going to make a mess of their own lives further down the line.
Judgement is if fact an expression of love. Judgement and love are two sides of the same coin.
Without someone stepping in and telling them what they’re doing is unacceptable - pronouncing judgement if you like - bullies may never understand that their actions are wrong. Without God sending a clear message to the Ninevites, pronouncing judgement on them, they may have never known that their actions were wicked and evil. One of humanities big problems is that we decide that we are the best judges, and we as individuals have the authority to decide what is right and wrong. I have in the past found myself thinking, ‘this is so unfair, I haven’t done anything wrong’, but what I really mean is that I haven’t done anything wrong according to my own flawed and sometimes hypocritical standards. If we are honest, we are not the best judges - and that’s why God tells us not to do it. There are undoubtedly areas of God’s judgement that I find really hard, but in those moments I need to believe that his judgement is better than mine, and that he is uniquely qualified to be the judge.
Preacher and writer, Tim Mackie suggests that without a God of judgement, there is no hope for our world because judgement leads us to grace.
In verse 10 of Jonah 3, we see that the goal of God’s judgement is to bring about a change of direction.
Verse 10 says, “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.”
God saw the evil going on in Nineveh, so in his love he stepped in to pronounce judgement. Judgement came so that the people might ‘shuv’, might change direction and stop their violence and wickedness. And when God saw that the people had changed, he relented and revealed his grace. God’s not out to destroy us, he’s out to show us when we’re going the wrong way, so that we can turn and go the right way, and experience his incredible grace.
God longs for us to receive that grace, but we will only know the full impact of it, if we know the judgement that comes first. Grace is meaningless without it. Jesus is the ultimate embodiment of God’s grace. His death on the cross made a way for us all to experience complete forgiveness. But we will only know the indescribable power of this act of grace, if we first understand the judgement that came upon Jesus in our place.
As we draw to a close, I’d like us spend a short time reflecting on two questions.
1. Are we like Jonah? Is there someone in your life who has injured you in some way, so that you do not want them to experience God’s grace? Could you ask God to soften your heart and equip you to be a channel of his forgiveness and grace to that person?
2. Are we like the Ninevites? Are there any areas of your life, or patterns of behaviour, which you know are wrong? Are you willing to change direction and ask for God’s grace? This may mean stepping down from your throne, like the king of Nineveh, and accepting God’s loving judgement, so that you can experience his incredible grace.
THE APOSTLES’ 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;
he 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
O LORD, HEAR MY PRAYER,
O Lord, hear my prayer:
When I call answer me.
O Lord, hear my prayer,
O Lord, hear my prayer:
Come and listen to me.
Jacques Berthier/Taizé.
Copyright © 1982 Ateliers et Presses de Taize (France).
PRAYERS - written by Sue James
So we turn to God in prayer. Our God who is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Our bible reading this morning tells us of how the people in Nineveh were convicted by what they heard and turned to God
We think of ourselves at this time of pandemic and our own turning to God in this situation.
We use this morning the biblical form of the prayer of lament.
This follows the form of:
a cry to the Lord, a pouring out of trouble
a confession of trust in him
a prayer for deliverance
Sovereign Lord, we cry out to you at this time for our nation and the nations of the world as our lives are affected by this virus. We cry out to you in the face of escalating sickness and death
We cry out to you:
for those who are in hospital
those who are suffering the loneliness of isolation
those who have lost jobs or businesses
for those who are anxious and afraid
Lord in your mercy,
Lord hear our cry
Gracious God, in the midst of this pandemic we turn to you, you are our Rock, our Refuge, our Hiding Place.
You bring us your peace and fill our despairing hearts with joy and strength.
Nothing can separate us from your unfailing love and kindness,
Lord we pray that we as a nation may turn to you at this time.
Deliver us from the hold of this virus
Sustain and support the anxious and fearful,
Be close to those who are ill, afraid or in isolation.
Give strength and sustaining power to medical staff who are exhausted
Lord in your mercy,
Lord hear our cry
As hope of a vaccine has come to light this week
We ask God to guide those involved
Lord, bless the work of the scientists as they continue their research
Guide those who will have the responsibility of delivering the vaccine that those in most need may be served first
We pray that ways may be found to deliver the vaccine in the poorest countries with limited health provision
Lord in your mercy,
Lord hear our cry
Following the elections in America we pray for that nation:
Lord, we pray for wisdom for Jo Biden and his team
as they try to bring people together in unity
as they face the challenge of halting the spread of the virus
as they attempt to bring in measures to counter climate change
we ask that you will bless their efforts and multiply their successes
Lord in your mercy,
Lord hear our cry
We focus on our local community of Greystones
As we seek to bless the community we live in - the invitation now is to focus on one person or place in the community that you would like to speak a blessing over, whether it is an individual, someone’s home, a place of work, a school or a doctor’s surgery or something else
Please take the opportunity to speak out a blessing where you are now
Lord in your mercy,
Lord hear our cry
We pray now for anyone we know who is in particular need
In a moment’s silence we hold those people in the compassion and love of the God who longs to draw all people to himself
We take a moment now…
Lord in your mercy,
Lord hear our cry
Finally we pray for ourselves
Lord, we find the story of Jonah challenging.
In this story we recognise our own timidity,
Our own reluctance to obey.
Our own unwillingness to speak out
Lord you pour out your abundant grace upon us
Help us to open our hearts to your compassion
And to be a blessing to all those we meet
Lord in your mercy,
Lord hear our cry
Amen
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 for ever.
Amen
SING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16KYvfIc2bE
In Christ alone my hope is found.
He is my light, my strength, my song;
this Cornerstone, this solid ground,
firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace, when fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my all in all,
here in the love of Christ I stand.
2. In Christ alone! - who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
scorned by the ones He came to save:
till on that cross as Jesus died,
the wrath of God was satisfied -
for ev’ry sin on Him was laid;
here in the death of Christ I live.
3. There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain:
then bursting forth in glorious Day
up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory
sin's curse has lost its grip on me,
for I am His and He is mine -
bought with the precious blood of Christ.
4. No guilt in life, no fear in death,
this is the power of Christ in me;
from life's first cry to final breath;
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
can ever pluck me from His hand;
till He returns or calls me home,
here in the pow’r of Christ I'll stand!
Words: Stuart Townend
Music: Keith Getty
© 2001 Kingsway's Thankyou Music.
OFFERTORY - Take a moment to consider how you are going to continue to give to the life of the church and support other aid agencies and mission organisations.
Yours, Lord, is the greatness, the power,
the glory, the splendour, and the majesty;
for everything in heaven and on earth is yours.
All things come from you, and of your own do we give you.
SING:
ALMIGHTY SOVEREIGN LORD,
Creator God,
You made the heavens and the earth.
You’ve spoken to the world,
Yourself the living Word,
You give us eyes to see Your kingdom.
So stretch out Your hand, O God,
In signs and wonders,
We rest our faith on Your almighty power.
Stretch out Your hand, O God,
To heal and deliver. We declare,
We declare Your kingdom is here.
Stir up Your people like a mighty wind,
Come shake us, wake us from our sleep.
Give us compassion, Lord,
Love for Your holy word,
Give us the courage of Your kingdom.
Why do so many stand against You now,
Bringing dishonour to Your name?
Consider how they mock,
But we will never stop
Speaking with boldness of Your kingdom.
Phil Lawson Johnston.
Copyright © 1987 Thankyou Music.
FINAL BLESSING:
May God,
who kindled the fire of his love in the hearts of the saints,
pour upon you the riches of his grace. Amen.
May he give you joy in their fellowship
and a share in their praises. Amen.
May he strengthen you to follow them in the way of holiness
and to come to the full radiance of glory. Amen.
And the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among us and remain with us always. Amen