Welcome to our service - 19 June
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 and in the church. 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.
Please join us for public worship in the church building this Sunday at 10am or 11:30am.
OPENING
Faithful One, whose word is life: come with saving power to free our praise, inspire our prayer and shape our lives. For the kingdom of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
SING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVP6nQj1a_c
Praise to the Holiest in the height,
and in the depth be praise;
in all His words most wonderful;
most sure in all His ways.
2. O loving wisdom of our God!
when all was sin and shame,
a second Adam to the fight,
and to the rescue came.
3. O wisest love! that flesh and blood
which did in Adam fail,
should strive afresh against the foe,
should strive and should prevail.
4. And that a higher gift than grace
should flesh and blood refine,
God's presence, and His very self
and essence all-divine.
5. O generous love! that He, who smote
in man for man the foe,
the double agony in man
for man should undergo.
6. And in the garden secretly,
and on the cross on high
should teach His brethren, and inspire
to suffer and to die.
7. Praise to the Holiest in the height
and in the depth be praise;
in all His words most wonderful;
most sure in all His ways.
John Henry Newman (1801-90)
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.
CONFESSION
Our God, we come in humility, confessing who and what we are.
Lord, when we avoid the hard questions that you ask;
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
Jesus, when we fail to trust you for our futures;
Christ, have mercy. Christ, have mercy.
Lord, when we cling to tightly to our possessions;
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
ABSOLUTION
May Almighty God have mercy on us,
forgive us our sins,
and keep us in eternal life. Amen.
COLLECT
Faithful Creator,
whose mercy never fails:
deepen our faithfulness to you
and to your living Word,
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
SING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQkzHwz2eLE&t=185s
I will offer up my life in spirit and truth,
Pouring out the oil of love as my worship to You.
In surrender I must give my every part,
Lord receive the sacrifice of a broken heart.
Jesus, what can I give, what can I bring,
to so faithful a friend, to so loving a King?
Saviour, what can be said, what can be sung,
as a praise of Your name
for the things You have done?
O, my words could not tell, not even in part,
of the debt of love that is owed
by this thankful heart.
2. You deserve my every breath
for You've paid the great cost,
giving up Your life to death,
even death on a cross.
You took all my shame away,
there defeated my sin,
opened up the gates of heaven
and have beckoned me in.
Jesus, what can I give…
Matt Redman: (c) 1994 Unveiled Music/Kingsway's Thankyou Music
READINGS
Galatians 3: 23 - end
Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed.
Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian.
For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.
Luke 8. 26 - 39 New International Version - UK
So they arrived in the region of the Gerasenes, across the lake from Galilee. As Jesus was climbing out of the boat, a man who was possessed by demons came out to meet him. For a long time he had been homeless and naked, living in the tombs outside the town.
As soon as he saw Jesus, he shrieked and fell down in front of him. Then he screamed, “Why are you interfering with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Please, I beg you, don’t torture me!” For Jesus had already commanded the evil spirit to come out of him. This spirit had often taken control of the man. Even when he was placed under guard and put in chains and shackles, he simply broke them and rushed out into the wilderness, completely under the demon’s power.
Jesus demanded, “What is your name?”
“Legion,” he replied, for he was filled with many demons. The demons kept begging Jesus not to send them into the bottomless pit.
There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside nearby, and the demons begged him to let them enter into the pigs.
So Jesus gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the entire herd plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned.
When the herdsmen saw it, they fled to the nearby town and the surrounding countryside, spreading the news as they ran. People rushed out to see what had happened. A crowd soon gathered around Jesus, and they saw the man who had been freed from the demons. He was sitting at Jesus’ feet, fully clothed and perfectly sane, and they were all afraid. Then those who had seen what happened told the others how the demon-possessed man had been healed. And all the people in the region of the Gerasenes begged Jesus to go away and leave them alone, for a great wave of fear swept over them.
So Jesus returned to the boat and left, crossing back to the other side of the lake. The man who had been freed from the demons begged to go with him. But Jesus sent him home, saying, “No, go back to your family, and tell them everything God has done for you.” So he went all through the town proclaiming the great things Jesus had done for him.
This the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
TALK written by Alistair Stevenson
‘More Please’ is the title of the autobiography of comedian and actor Barry Humphries (best known for playing his alter ego Dame Edna Everage). He writes that these two words, ‘More please’, were the first coherent words he said as a child.
He went on to say, ‘I have always wanted more. I never had enough milk or money or socks or sex or holidays or first editions or solitude or gramophone records or free meals or real friends or guiltless pleasure or neckties or applause or unquestioning love or persimmons. Of course, I have always had more than my share of most of these commodities but it always left me with a vague feeling of unfulfillment: where was the rest?’
Seeking pleasure for ourselves will always leave us with ‘a vague feeling of unfulfillment’. In our passage this morning from Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia, Paul is encouraging the earlier believers to consider what new life in Christ looks like and that this life can bring the fulfilment that every person longs for. These early Christians had gone back to living under the law and living under its rules and regulations. They thought the law would fulfil their spiritual hunger. Paul is exhorting the Galatians to take hold of what really will satisfy their spiritual hunger and thirst, and the things that they should seek more and more.
I love new things. I’ll admit it. It is one of my many flaws. It doesn’t even have to be brand new; I’ll take second hand if it's new to me. There is something within me that loves the excitement of getting something new. But so often, in all the anticipation, once it arrives it never lives up to the expectation. I am always left unfulfilled. It is symptomatic of the problem of the human heart. We are all longing for something that our world can not satisfy.
The question is, do we believe that Christ can bring the fulfilment that every person longs for?
In the passage Paul suggests three things that faith in Christ brings - three things can bring the fulfilment that ever heart longs for:
A new guardian
A new identity
A new future
NEW GUARDIAN
What rules dictate your life? Whether we understand it or not, every single person dictates their life by following a set of rules, usually influenced by the values that a person chooses to live by. Every person lives under some kind of guardian – a way of life that they think will safe them. Some kind of structure or rule that dictates how we live.
In his excellent book, Live No Lies, which I strongly recommend you read if you can, John Mark Comer writes this:
“On paper, everything is fine: I live in a beautiful home in a great city with the best coffee in the world. I have a job as a pastor. I’m free to teach the Way of Jesus, at least for now. Heck, my kids and I even get to walk the dog to the park and stop along the way for ice cream. Why do I feel so tired? Worn down? Not in body, but in mind? Why do I feel so battered and bruised? Why does every day feel like a battle just to stay faithful, to keep following Jesus? Here’s an idea: maybe because it is. Our generation has a low comfort level with military metaphors and faith. We prefer to think of following Jesus as a journey or lifestyle rather than a war. But our spiritual ancestors didn’t share our reticence with war imagery. They were far more adroit at naming the reality of spiritual conflict than we are today. For centuries, teachers of the Way of Jesus used a paradigm that’s been lost in the modern era, that of “the three enemies of the soul.” The world. The flesh. And the devil.”
He continues,
“But hear me loud and clear: Our war against the three enemies of the soul is not a war of guns and bombs. It’s not against other people at all. It’s a war on lies. And the problem is less that we tell lies and more that we live them; we let false narratives about reality into our bodies, and they wreak havoc in our souls.”
It is these lies, Comer suggests, that are the rules that we live our lives by. And so they become the guardians of our souls.
In our passage this morning Paul says in verses 24 and 25:
‘The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian.’
The NIV translates is as: “Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed.”
Paul is speaking here to the Jewish community. Most of us do not have Jewish heritage and therefore it is difficult to understand the role of the law in the lives of Jews.
However, every person lives under some kind of guardian. Some kind of structure or rule that dictates how we live. As John Mark Comer explains, the New Testament creates a picture of being held under the authority of three different things. The enemy, the flesh, and the world. These three different authorities rule our lives.
The way of faith in Jesus brings freedom from these things because he is our guardian. He is our rescuer and redeemer.
Secondly, a NEW IDENTITY
Our identity – that is who we are – is formed by lots of different things:
Many years ago, when my family and I visited America – Ethan in his best English accent – would quite happily go up to random American strangers and say: ‘I’m Ethan Stevenson and I’m 3’. These were clearly the most important facts about who Ethan was at the time.
But even without saying anything we all communicate something of who we are by what we look like:
In this room alone, we are all different, some of us might be from a different nation, or different age, we might have a different national citizenship, we may be of a different race, or ethnicity. We all have different coloured hair, different colour eyes, some of us are good at sports, others good at thinking, or great at understanding people.
Our differences must be celebrated because they reflect the abundant creative nature of our God. Every single one of us is made different and yet God knows every single one of us individually. The Bible says that every single hair on our head is numbered. God formed us in our other mother’s womb - we are wonderfully and fearfully made.
Our culture is obsessed with identity. It seems like the post-modern aim of life is to find your true identity - or even be able to change your identity if you don’t like the one you have. And surely that is what living in a free society is all about - that we have the choice to be who we want to be, to have the freedom to change every aspect of who we are, from our physicality to our social status. And if someone stops us from finding out who we really are and finding our identity, then our freedom is being inhibited.
Identity is a sense of self and a sense of worth. Non-western identity is, generally, rooted in family - fulfilling family responsibility (good son, daughter, husband, wife etc.) and in doing so we find our worth. Here in the West, it is generally not family orientated but instead we live in an individualist culture. My will decides and I need to be free to find my identity. Our worth is found in what we can achieve, how successful we are, or what we have or own.
The passage says: ‘There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus’.
This doesn't mean that these distinctions no longer exist or that these distinctions don’t continue. But it means that these distinctions don’t define us or shouldn’t define us. And for the Christian community these distinctions shouldn’t impact the way that we treat one-another.
It means that our identity is no longer found in our sex, our wealth, our up-bringing, or family, - it is now as children of God through faith.
Tim Keller says:
“To be born again is not to be born of family descent or human decision. Your identity is received, not achieved.”
To receive an identity from God through Christ changes everything.
Finally, a NEW FUTURE
‘And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.’
NIcky Gumble says that Paul uses an analogy from Roman law. In ancient Rome, until the age of fourteen, an heir was under the control of a tutor who had been nominated by his father. Until this age a child was treated in the same way as a slave. Usually, the heir became a free agent at the age of fourteen. Paul explains that while the people of God were under the Mosaic law, it was much like being under a tutor. They were under a form of slavery (v.3). But now they have become heirs and we have already received the promised inheritance.
This means that our future is secure. We can also start to receive the inheritance, as God’s children, today.
In the famous parable of the Prodigal Son, the youngest son takes his share of the inheritance and squanders it on wild living. He eventually returns to his father expecting his father to treat him like one of his servants. But instead, the father restores him to his rightful place as an heir. As the father calls for the best robe to be put on his son and a ring on his finger, he is restoring his son to his rightful place. To take the inheritance. Not because of anything done by the son, but because of the grace and mercy and forgiveness of the father.
God’s mission in the world is to restore his daughters and sons to their rightful position as heirs. As Paul explains in his letter to the church in Rome, we become co-heirs with Christ. Now that is an incredible truth.
And so today, I want to simply remind you that, as a follower of Jesus, you have a new guardian, a new identity and a new future. When we start to live in the light of this it changes everything.
Take hold these truths. Repeat them to yourself. Take some time to ask what having a new guardian, a new identity and a new future means for you and how you live your life. Amen
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 Sam Chubb
Lord God, we lift up to you those affected by injustice in your world. For those who have been prepped to be sent to Rwanda from the UK, we’re sorry for the experiences that each person is going through; they are human, just like us, and do not deserve the treatment they are receiving. May they know they always have a home in your shelter, and your perfect peace. May there be proper resettlement provided for them, that’s sustainable and safe. Thank you for the work of Care4Calais and how people there are fighting for justice for those affected by this, and for the result this week of the flight being cancelled. Thank you for the Church of England’s response letter and the way the Archbishop of Canterbury and senior bishops are handling the case. We pray for wisdom for them as they continue to speak out and use their faiths for the good of standing up for those affected by this injustice. We pray for the hearts of those in charge of these plans to be softened, and that a more humane approach can be taken in the handling of these cases.
As the days get warmer, we pray for those who are being affected by the heat here and around your world. May there be cool breezes that help make the temperatures that bit more bearable. For those that work in the heat, may there be grace from their employers to allow them breaks when needed. We pray for rain to fall in the countries too that are being affected by famine and drought. Thank you that the sunshine provides opportunities here to be outside on our own, with family or with friends, and that memories can be created. But also, may we not grow numb to the effects of climate change, but aim to protect your creation Lord and make purposefully sustainable choices, so that the next generations of disciples may thrive in a habitable world.
Thank you, Lord, that you long for connection with us. You’re a loving Father that chases the lost and tends to the flock. In this connection that we have with you, we pray that your Spirit will fall on us and that we may feel your presence. Break our hearts Lord for what breaks yours. Lift us out of what’s consuming our minds and bring us into a place of peaceful understanding of you. Slow our thoughts so we can see your glory and how you’re wanting to speak to us. Making space for you in our lives, so you may have your way in us.
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=a6LC8cu03Ig
THY WORD is a lamp unto my feet
And a light unto my path.
(Repeat)
When I feel afraid,
Think I’ve lost my way,
Still You’re there right beside me.
And nothing will I fear
As long as You are near;
Please be near me to the end.
THY WORD is a lamp unto my feet...
I will not forget
Your love for me, and yet
My heart forever is wandering.
Jesus, be my guide
And hold me to Your side,
And I will love You to the end.
THY WORD is a lamp unto my feet...
Amy Grant & Michael W. Smith.
1066 Copyright © 1983 Meadow Green Music/Word Music/Adm. SongSolutions CopyCare
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.
SAY:
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: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o469PRLdbHU
Will you come and follow me
If I but call your name?
Will you go where you don't know
And never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown,
Will you let my name be known,
Will you let my life be grown
In you and you in me?
2 Will you leave your self behind
If I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind
And never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare
Should your life attract or scare
Will you let me answer prayer
In you and you in me?
3 Will you let the blinded see
If I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free
And never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean,
And do such as this unseen,
And admit to what I mean
In you and you in me?
4 Will you love the `you' you hide
If I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside
And never be the same?
Will you use the faith you've found
To reshape the world around
Through my sight and touch and sound
In you and you in me?
5 Lord, your summons echoes true
When you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you
And never be the same.
In your company I'll go
Where your love and footsteps show,
Thus I'll move and live and grow
In you and you in me.
Graham Maule & John L. Bell.
Copyright © 1987 WGRG, Iona Community.
BLESSING
May the Holy Spirit who gives gifts to all people, flood your hearts with thanksgiving to God. And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.