Sermon for Midnight Mass – Christmas Eve 2011 - St Mary's Lapworth
I spent much of the summer of 1987(?) at the Diocese of Southwark’s retreat house. It is known as Wychcroft and is near to Blenchingly in Surrey. I knew the place well because I had worked there for a year between school and university, but in the summer of 1987(?) I was hardly fit for work. I feeling very delicate because I was still recovering from a serious personal crisis, which had really knocked me for six in the previous year. I was also feeling delicate at that time because I girl who I liked and wanted to get to know better had just made it quite clear that she did not want anything to do with me! So altogether I was in rather a sorry state and was feeling very unsure of myself.
Well, in the middle of that rather confused summer I received a visit from a university friend. He was indeed a really good friend. He set aside a whole day to come and see me from London. I collected him from the train station and on the way home we ran some errands for the House. He met the people I was staying with. He shared our meals with us. We went for a walk – it really is a beautiful place to walk round – and he saw all the places where I used to do my work. He listened to me as I bemoaned all my troubles, and he helped repair a broken shelf in my room. In the evening I drove him back to the station and he caught the train back to London.
And afterwards I was left with an extraordinary sensation of peace. I was so grateful that he had come to visit me where I was, and had really seen and shared in all the joys and sorrows of my life at that moment. I felt understood and supported, and much more able to really be myself. It wasn’t that my troubles had gone away or that anything had been fixed or solved, but somehow I definitely felt encouraged and supported and I felt more able to face the world and get on with my life. Above all, as I said, I felt at peace.
Well this is the action of a really good friend. Someone who is prepared to set aside his own agenda to spend time with you, who is prepared to share with you all the good things and the bad things about your life. Someone who is prepared to stand with you and suffer with you, when things are tough, who is not going to run away, embarrassed, because he just doesn’t know what to say or because he can’t fix your problems.
In some ways there is something very natural about this. Hopefully we all have friends who are like this. (Or at least we all have friends who can be a bit like this on a good day!) Hopefully we ourselves are good friends to other people and behave like this with other people too. But although it is something very natural, there is also something very spiritual going on here. There is something about this kind of friendship, this kind of behaviour, that teaches us about God’s love for us. Especially it teaches us about God’s love for us in sending us the baby Jesus at Christmas time.
God loves for us is not just the distant, well meaning love of a God who is far away and utterly transcendent. No, God in his great love for us, wants to come to us, to be like us, to spend time with us, to share with us the experience of a human life and a human death here on earth. At Christmas we remember that God was prepared to set aside his power and his glory and become a human being. God took on human flesh and becomes an ordinary man, with all the limitations and vulnerabilities that implies. Today we celebrate Jesus as a new born baby, and this is an extraordinary mystery. The great and mighty God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, came among us completely helpless and dependant, just like any other human baby. And of course Jesus grows up, just like any other child of his time. He learns his father’s trade, and becomes a carpenter. He really shares with us the human experience, with its joys and its sorrows, its highs and its lows. And although Jesus, as God, cannot go against God and so cannot sin, Jesus does share with us fully in experiencing the pain and separation that arises from sin, from our sin, from our going against God, our hiding from God, our rejection of God. Indeed it is this human condition of sin, of rejection of God, that ultimately causes us to reject Jesus, and have him killed on a cross. And God in Jesus did not shirk from this. Truly Jesus did experience all the suffering and pain that arises through sin, truly he shared the full measure of the human experience, not just the good bits, not just the pleasant bits.
We call this mystery the incarnation. God takes on flesh, becomes incarnate, so as to share completely in the human condition. It is truly a mystery; we will never completely get our heads around it. But if we ponder it well, if we seek to draw close to Jesus in prayer and if we seek to imitate him in our lives, then certainly, with time, we do come to understand this mystery better. We start to see its huge value and its huge implications. We start to understand our salvation, first of all personally, then for our communities, our nations and ultimately for the whole world; the whole of creation.
In particular we can start practising love, in the way that God loves us, when he becomes human. We can try to live for other people in this same way. We try to be ready to share experiences with them, to stand by them through good experiences and bad. We try to think about their legitimate needs and concerns, and we make them our needs and concerns. And this can be very costly. Just as God had to set aside his greatness and power to become human, so we often have to set things aside or let go of our own thoughts and feelings if we are properly to take on board the thoughts and feelings of others.
This way of loving is very characteristic of the New Testament. St Paul says “To the Jews I became a Jew, in order to win the Jews...to those outside the law I became as one outside the law ...so that I might win those outside the lew. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have becme all things to all people that I might by any means win some.” (1 Cor 9: 20-23)
I have heard this way of loving describing as “Making yourself one”, being “one” with the other person. It has the quality of empathy; walking in the shoes of the other. And certainly this way of loving has extraordinary effect. It creates an understanding and fellowship that leads to unity. It allows and helps people to be who they are, to be the people God created them to be. It therefore brings peace and harmony, and aligns things with God’s will. Of course it can be very costly; it cost Jesus his life. But such costs are generously repaid by God, by the God who raised Jesus from the dead.
So this Christmas let’s remember God’s love for us in becoming human and let’s try to love others by “making ourselves one” with them.
Showing posts with label unity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label unity. Show all posts
24 December 2011
30 May 2010
Sharing in the glory of God
Sermon preached at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton at 9.45 Holy Communion on Sunday 30th May 2010 - Trinity Sunday – Year C
A shorter version of this sermon was preached at St Mary’s Lapworth at 8.30am.
Joke for Trinity Sunday – The angel Gabriel asks God, “This creation idea…are you really sure about it?” God replied, “Well I’m kind of in three minds about it.” I liked that one which comes from the Revd Kate Stow, curate at St James the Great in Shirley.
Of course on Trinity Sunday we reflect on the great mystery of one God in three persons, Father Son and Holy Spirit. In theology we think of these three persons as being of the same substance or essence. Every time we say the creed we are reminded of Jesus “Being of one substance with the Father”. We also think of these three people being so perfect and complete in their unity that we can only talk of their being one God.
And this is a deep mystery. We should not worry if, as mere human beings, we struggle to understand the inner workings of the life of God. Do we understand the inner workings of our computer or microwave oven? Probably not, but this does not stop them from being useful and important to us. Well we are certainly not going to understand the inner workings of God, but oh he certainly is important to us.
But our gospel reading does provide some indications about how this perfect unity of three divine persons comes about. It seems that everything they have and think is shared. Jesus says of the Holy Spirit, “He will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears….he will take what is mine and declare it to you…all that the Father has is mine…” So the things that the Spirit declares to us are they from the Father or from the Son or from the Holy Spirit? Well we can’t really answer that question because it seems that they are shared. They are held in common. They are forever being given back and forth between the three persons of the Trinity.
We human beings find sharing things very difficult, but sharing is an extremely important discipline for us to practice. Until recently my two daughters shared a bedroom. They had to have rules about who went to bed when, and who was responsible for different parts of the floor space, and when musical instruments could be practised. But then there had to be flexibility because having a friend round or working on some project might need a change in the rules. There has to be trust. Both must feel that their priorities are being taken seriously by the other. It requires generosity, to take on board the needs and desires of the other; to be ready to let go of our own ideas for the sake of the other.
Certainly we see this generosity is God. Jesus seems to do everything for the father. He accepts the Father’s will even in Gethsemane, where it so obviously costs him everything. Yet the Father also gives everything to Jesus. “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me” Jesus declares in Matt 28: 18. This continual giving of one to the other and back again is an important characteristic of the unity of God. It means that everything is shared.
Then when I read today’s scripture readings I was very struck by St Paul’s words, “We boast in our hope of sharing in the glory of God”. So this sharing within the life of the Trinity is not just about God, it is also about human beings; us!” We hope to share in the glory of God! This could easily seem to be an outrageous claim; as preposterous as it is presumptuous. Who can share in the glory of God, but God alone? And yet the New Testament is quite clear that God wants to share his glory, his unity, his life of mutual self giving with us. Two Sundays ago our gospel was from John 17, and Jesus prayed to the Father for all his followers saying, “…the glory you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one and we are one.” So we are called to share in the glory of God, and to share in the unity of God. And actually this is not a presumption hope because it comes at a cost. What Paul actually says is, “We boast in our hope of sharing in the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings…” because suffering leads to endurance, character and hope. Elsewhere the New Testament is very clear that this full sharing includes both sufferings and glory (e.g. Romans 8: 17, 1 Peter 5: 1)
So let’s learn to trust in the great destiny to which God calls us. Let’s prepare ourselves to share in the glory of God, to share in the mysterious unity of the Trinity. Let’s practice sharing with our brothers and sisters because this is an excellent preparation. When sufferings come, let’s seek to live them as a sharing in the sufferings of Jesus. Let’s pray that God will help us to grow in generosity, so that we can draw closer to this life of God. Amen.
A shorter version of this sermon was preached at St Mary’s Lapworth at 8.30am.
Joke for Trinity Sunday – The angel Gabriel asks God, “This creation idea…are you really sure about it?” God replied, “Well I’m kind of in three minds about it.” I liked that one which comes from the Revd Kate Stow, curate at St James the Great in Shirley.
Of course on Trinity Sunday we reflect on the great mystery of one God in three persons, Father Son and Holy Spirit. In theology we think of these three persons as being of the same substance or essence. Every time we say the creed we are reminded of Jesus “Being of one substance with the Father”. We also think of these three people being so perfect and complete in their unity that we can only talk of their being one God.
And this is a deep mystery. We should not worry if, as mere human beings, we struggle to understand the inner workings of the life of God. Do we understand the inner workings of our computer or microwave oven? Probably not, but this does not stop them from being useful and important to us. Well we are certainly not going to understand the inner workings of God, but oh he certainly is important to us.
But our gospel reading does provide some indications about how this perfect unity of three divine persons comes about. It seems that everything they have and think is shared. Jesus says of the Holy Spirit, “He will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears….he will take what is mine and declare it to you…all that the Father has is mine…” So the things that the Spirit declares to us are they from the Father or from the Son or from the Holy Spirit? Well we can’t really answer that question because it seems that they are shared. They are held in common. They are forever being given back and forth between the three persons of the Trinity.
We human beings find sharing things very difficult, but sharing is an extremely important discipline for us to practice. Until recently my two daughters shared a bedroom. They had to have rules about who went to bed when, and who was responsible for different parts of the floor space, and when musical instruments could be practised. But then there had to be flexibility because having a friend round or working on some project might need a change in the rules. There has to be trust. Both must feel that their priorities are being taken seriously by the other. It requires generosity, to take on board the needs and desires of the other; to be ready to let go of our own ideas for the sake of the other.
Certainly we see this generosity is God. Jesus seems to do everything for the father. He accepts the Father’s will even in Gethsemane, where it so obviously costs him everything. Yet the Father also gives everything to Jesus. “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me” Jesus declares in Matt 28: 18. This continual giving of one to the other and back again is an important characteristic of the unity of God. It means that everything is shared.
Then when I read today’s scripture readings I was very struck by St Paul’s words, “We boast in our hope of sharing in the glory of God”. So this sharing within the life of the Trinity is not just about God, it is also about human beings; us!” We hope to share in the glory of God! This could easily seem to be an outrageous claim; as preposterous as it is presumptuous. Who can share in the glory of God, but God alone? And yet the New Testament is quite clear that God wants to share his glory, his unity, his life of mutual self giving with us. Two Sundays ago our gospel was from John 17, and Jesus prayed to the Father for all his followers saying, “…the glory you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one and we are one.” So we are called to share in the glory of God, and to share in the unity of God. And actually this is not a presumption hope because it comes at a cost. What Paul actually says is, “We boast in our hope of sharing in the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings…” because suffering leads to endurance, character and hope. Elsewhere the New Testament is very clear that this full sharing includes both sufferings and glory (e.g. Romans 8: 17, 1 Peter 5: 1)
So let’s learn to trust in the great destiny to which God calls us. Let’s prepare ourselves to share in the glory of God, to share in the mysterious unity of the Trinity. Let’s practice sharing with our brothers and sisters because this is an excellent preparation. When sufferings come, let’s seek to live them as a sharing in the sufferings of Jesus. Let’s pray that God will help us to grow in generosity, so that we can draw closer to this life of God. Amen.
16 May 2010
Living for unity
Sermon preached at 11am at St Mary the Virgin, Lapworth
Sunday 16th May 2010, 7th Sunday of Easter - Year C
Adapted versions of this sermon were also preached at 8.30am and also at St Michael’s, Baddesley Clinton at 9.45am.
Readings: Acts 16: 16-34 John 17: 20-end
Last Thursday was the feast of the Ascension and we celebrated that in church. The Ascension is when we remember Jesus finally leaving the earth, 40 days after his resurrection, and going to heaven to sit at God’s right hand. It is a time when we think of Jesus on the throne of heaven in all his glory. We think of his final triumph through all his trials and difficulties. We remember the words of the psalmist “The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool” (Ps 110).
And the theme of the Ascension is still with us in our service this morning. There are several references to the Ascension in our hymns today. See if you can spot them! But also there things about our gospel reading, which are relevant to the Ascension. As we think about Jesus leaving this earth, so we find the need to focus on the last things that Jesus said to us before he left. And this is why our gospel reading is significant. It is sometimes described as Jesus’ “last will and testament” or his “priestly prayer”. It is the last words that Jesus says in John’s gospel before his arrest, his passion and death.
Actually these words are part of a prayer to God. And it can be hard to understand. God the Son is praying to God the Father. God is praying for God. We humans shouldn’t be too surprised if we struggle to understand it all! But it is very interesting what Jesus prays for. One of the things he prays is “Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory…” So Jesus recognises that he is returning to the glories of heaven, and wants to share those glories with us. And this is part of our Christian hope. Our life is a journey towards this great destination that Jesus wants for us, to see his glory, share his life in heaven. And we know that the journey might be long and difficult and we need to grow and develop in love, and we might need to be purified in all kinds of painful ways, but ultimately we are called to this great destiny in heaven with Christ in glory.
But the main thing that Jesus prays for is unity. First of all he prays for his disciples. Then for all those who will believe in Jesus because of witness of the disciples. So that is you and me. It is the whole church. And his pray is, “that they all may be one” and he repeats this several times in different ways. “That they all may be one.” Jesus is praying for unity among his followers. He is praying for unity in the Church.
Now we all know that unity can be very difficult. Church Unity can be especially difficult to achieve. Since the eleventh century the Church has suffered a big division between the east and the west. Since the sixteen century there has been a division between Protestants and Anglicans and the Catholics. But then it always seems that there is scope for new divisions, even within our own denomination, the Anglican Communion and the Church of England. We only have to think of questions to do with women bishops, women priests, and homosexuality to know that there are a huge range of things that can easily divide us. And if we think of our local church communities there is always scope for division. Perhaps this congregation may have be spared much division, but my former parish in Solihull suffered terrible conflicts and divisions over women priests in the mid-1990s. And then even in the smallest unit of the church our families, our marriages, there is scope for division. We all know how easily problems can occur and how difficult it is to live in unity.
And yet Jesus prays for unity, not just in marriages, or in local church communities, but for the unity of the whole church. Well this might seem completely impossible; a total pipe dream. And I think for human beings alone unity is impossible. But it is not impossible for God, and it is what God wants. Unity for human beings is achieved as a gift from God.
So how do we receive this gift? How do we put ourselves in the right position to be blessed in this way? Well I think we get some clues from the rest of Jesus’ prayer. Jesus prays, “…may they all be one. As you Father are in me, and I am in you…” So this being united is about being “in” the other. This means positioning ourselves in the other person, mindful of their needs, their priorities, their legitimate aspirations. It means empathising with them and making their hopes our own. We try to serve the good that we see in the other person, doing our best to recognise them as God created them to be, with all their good qualities, and also do our best to ignore the things we don’t like, or that are bad about them. And this approach needs to be mutual. Jesus is in the Father, but the Father is also in Jesus. This two way giving certainly contributes to unity. In two weeks time it will be Trinity Sunday and we will be thinking about the perfect unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and this complete giving of each to the other is important to that unity.
But Jesus’ prayer continues further. “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us”. “May they also be in us.” So we are called to be in God, to share in that self giving of the Father to the Son and the Son to the Father. But we need to be “in” God. We need to be attentive to God, through prayer, to listen to him and also to act according to what he wants from us. We have to be obedient to God’s will, to the path that he sets before us, so that we can walk forward and develop in line with his creation in us. To do this maybe we have to let go of some of our own devises and desires. Perhaps he have to lose some of our own ideas in order to be in God. But this being in God is part of the experience of unity.
Now when we dwell together in unity it is a very refreshing and renewing experience. The Psalmist says, “How good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity. It is like precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard…” (Ps 133). I believe that this experience of unity on earth is a preparation for heaven. It is a preparation for that glory that Jesus wants to share with us in heaven, a foretaste of heaven. So let’s seek to live “in” the other, and “in” God to experience unity and to prepare ourselves for heaven. Amen.
Sunday 16th May 2010, 7th Sunday of Easter - Year C
Adapted versions of this sermon were also preached at 8.30am and also at St Michael’s, Baddesley Clinton at 9.45am.
Readings: Acts 16: 16-34 John 17: 20-end
Last Thursday was the feast of the Ascension and we celebrated that in church. The Ascension is when we remember Jesus finally leaving the earth, 40 days after his resurrection, and going to heaven to sit at God’s right hand. It is a time when we think of Jesus on the throne of heaven in all his glory. We think of his final triumph through all his trials and difficulties. We remember the words of the psalmist “The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool” (Ps 110).
And the theme of the Ascension is still with us in our service this morning. There are several references to the Ascension in our hymns today. See if you can spot them! But also there things about our gospel reading, which are relevant to the Ascension. As we think about Jesus leaving this earth, so we find the need to focus on the last things that Jesus said to us before he left. And this is why our gospel reading is significant. It is sometimes described as Jesus’ “last will and testament” or his “priestly prayer”. It is the last words that Jesus says in John’s gospel before his arrest, his passion and death.
Actually these words are part of a prayer to God. And it can be hard to understand. God the Son is praying to God the Father. God is praying for God. We humans shouldn’t be too surprised if we struggle to understand it all! But it is very interesting what Jesus prays for. One of the things he prays is “Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory…” So Jesus recognises that he is returning to the glories of heaven, and wants to share those glories with us. And this is part of our Christian hope. Our life is a journey towards this great destination that Jesus wants for us, to see his glory, share his life in heaven. And we know that the journey might be long and difficult and we need to grow and develop in love, and we might need to be purified in all kinds of painful ways, but ultimately we are called to this great destiny in heaven with Christ in glory.
But the main thing that Jesus prays for is unity. First of all he prays for his disciples. Then for all those who will believe in Jesus because of witness of the disciples. So that is you and me. It is the whole church. And his pray is, “that they all may be one” and he repeats this several times in different ways. “That they all may be one.” Jesus is praying for unity among his followers. He is praying for unity in the Church.
Now we all know that unity can be very difficult. Church Unity can be especially difficult to achieve. Since the eleventh century the Church has suffered a big division between the east and the west. Since the sixteen century there has been a division between Protestants and Anglicans and the Catholics. But then it always seems that there is scope for new divisions, even within our own denomination, the Anglican Communion and the Church of England. We only have to think of questions to do with women bishops, women priests, and homosexuality to know that there are a huge range of things that can easily divide us. And if we think of our local church communities there is always scope for division. Perhaps this congregation may have be spared much division, but my former parish in Solihull suffered terrible conflicts and divisions over women priests in the mid-1990s. And then even in the smallest unit of the church our families, our marriages, there is scope for division. We all know how easily problems can occur and how difficult it is to live in unity.
And yet Jesus prays for unity, not just in marriages, or in local church communities, but for the unity of the whole church. Well this might seem completely impossible; a total pipe dream. And I think for human beings alone unity is impossible. But it is not impossible for God, and it is what God wants. Unity for human beings is achieved as a gift from God.
So how do we receive this gift? How do we put ourselves in the right position to be blessed in this way? Well I think we get some clues from the rest of Jesus’ prayer. Jesus prays, “…may they all be one. As you Father are in me, and I am in you…” So this being united is about being “in” the other. This means positioning ourselves in the other person, mindful of their needs, their priorities, their legitimate aspirations. It means empathising with them and making their hopes our own. We try to serve the good that we see in the other person, doing our best to recognise them as God created them to be, with all their good qualities, and also do our best to ignore the things we don’t like, or that are bad about them. And this approach needs to be mutual. Jesus is in the Father, but the Father is also in Jesus. This two way giving certainly contributes to unity. In two weeks time it will be Trinity Sunday and we will be thinking about the perfect unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and this complete giving of each to the other is important to that unity.
But Jesus’ prayer continues further. “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us”. “May they also be in us.” So we are called to be in God, to share in that self giving of the Father to the Son and the Son to the Father. But we need to be “in” God. We need to be attentive to God, through prayer, to listen to him and also to act according to what he wants from us. We have to be obedient to God’s will, to the path that he sets before us, so that we can walk forward and develop in line with his creation in us. To do this maybe we have to let go of some of our own devises and desires. Perhaps he have to lose some of our own ideas in order to be in God. But this being in God is part of the experience of unity.
Now when we dwell together in unity it is a very refreshing and renewing experience. The Psalmist says, “How good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity. It is like precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard…” (Ps 133). I believe that this experience of unity on earth is a preparation for heaven. It is a preparation for that glory that Jesus wants to share with us in heaven, a foretaste of heaven. So let’s seek to live “in” the other, and “in” God to experience unity and to prepare ourselves for heaven. Amen.
01 February 2009
Giving from our gifts
Preached at St Michael’s,
10.30am Eucharist on
Presentation of Christ in the
Last week I was talking to a lady, and she was experiencing panic in her household because 31st January was the last date for submission of an on-line self assessment tax return. Well today is 1st February, so I hope that they got the job done and can now relax. This got me thinking about tax. I don’t know about you, but I always used to think that it was very strange that people who worked for the government had to pay tax. I used to think it would make much more sense to pay government employees smaller salaries, but to pay them tax free. Would this not save all kinds of administrative costs involved in paying out money and then taxing it back in again? But as I have got older I have come to understand the wisdom of everyone paying tax. There are many administrative advantages, but it seems to me that the biggest single advantage is that government employees share in the experience of being a taxpayer. If taxes go up, because of some government policy, then they share the pain with everyone else. If taxes go down they share the benefit. If some mess up in government wastes a lot of tax payers money, then government employees are likely to be just as annoyed and frustrated by it as any other tax payer. So the additional circulation of money caused by paying government employees and then charging them tax ensures government employees and the rest of us have a shared experience of being tax payers. This common experience of paying tax helps us to understand one another. It helps the nation to build a common mind on the way that government money should be spent. In its own small way it helps us to build unity in the nation.
And we have a similar situation in our financial giving to the church. There are people, like me, who work for the church and are paid by the church, but we also give money to the church. Just like everyone else in the congregation we have to sit up and take notice when the church asks us to review our giving and perhaps to give more. So church employees face the same challenges on giving as other members of the congregation. And this additional circulation of gifts in the life of the church gives us a shared experience of giving. This helps us to understand each other and to build unity in the church.
This pattern of giving from the gifts that we have received is also evident in the Presentation of Christ in the
Mary and Joseph knew that Jesus was the Son of God. So they knew that the whole temple, and all its officials which exist for the worship and glory of God, also exist in a certain way for the worship and glory of Jesus. And yet this did not prevent them from making the sacrifice required by the law, “a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons.” In fact we are told that Mary and Joseph did everything that was required by the law of the Lord before they returned to
So even though the Holy Family received very special gifts from God, given to them for very particular purposes, they still felt the need to give gifts back to God. And so we see a circulation of gifts a bit like the circulation caused by government employees paying taxes, or church employees giving money to the church.
And this pattern of receiving gifts and then giving back goes very deep. It is central to the life of God himself. God the Father gives everything to Jesus. In Ephesians (1: 21) we read that the God has set Jesus far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and … has put all things under his feet and has made him head over all things. And yet Jesus too gives everything to the Father. In
As Christians we are called to share in the glory and holiness of this life of God, this divine life of heaven (e.g. 2 Th
Let’s give then, not just money, but of time, attention, talents and prayers. And let’s not be ashamed to receive gifts or love or attention from others, because these enrich us and allow us in turn to give more. All this giving helps goods, and money and news and experiences to circulate within the life of the church, and within the life of the wider community. This helps to build up a common life, a shared understanding. It leads to a sense of belonging and cohesiveness in the community, and it leads to unity in the church. Unity! This is perhaps God’s greatest gift to us, but we can only receive it when we are giving ourselves completely to one another.
20 January 2008
Confession for a Unity Service
Prayer of confession used at the Unity Service for Churches Together in Central Solihull on 20th January 2008, 6.30pm at Solihull Methodist Church.
Most Holy Trinity, you show us the perfect example of unity and diversity, yet we know that the church is divided and there are many failings in our unity and communion.
We confess that we fail to live by your commandments. Help us to follow the commandments of Jesus, so that we can live in him and he in us (c.f. 1 John 3:24).
Lord have mercy
Lord have mercy
We confess that our hearts are often too small to love people very different from us. Help us to grow in love, so that we can love everyone, as Jesus does.
Christ have mercy
Christ have mercy
We confess that we are far from united. Help us to be one, as Jesus and the father are one. May we be so completely one, that the world will believe that Jesus was sent by the Father. (c.f. John 17:20-23)
Lord have mercy
Lord have mercy
May Almighty God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, forgive us our sins and draw us towards the unity that He desires for His church.
Most Holy Trinity, you show us the perfect example of unity and diversity, yet we know that the church is divided and there are many failings in our unity and communion.
We confess that we fail to live by your commandments. Help us to follow the commandments of Jesus, so that we can live in him and he in us (c.f. 1 John 3:24).
Lord have mercy
Lord have mercy
We confess that our hearts are often too small to love people very different from us. Help us to grow in love, so that we can love everyone, as Jesus does.
Christ have mercy
Christ have mercy
We confess that we are far from united. Help us to be one, as Jesus and the father are one. May we be so completely one, that the world will believe that Jesus was sent by the Father. (c.f. John 17:20-23)
Lord have mercy
Lord have mercy
May Almighty God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, forgive us our sins and draw us towards the unity that He desires for His church.
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