Parish of

St Fagans and Michaelston-super-Ely

Service for

4th Sunday after Trinity

FB broadcast

5th July, 2020

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“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest."

Matthew 11.28

If you have an object of devotion - eg an icon, a cross or an open Bible - place it in front of you, as this service begins. And perhaps also light a candle beside it.

Introduction Welcome to this service of Morning Prayer, for Sunday 5th July, which in the church calendar, is the 4th Sunday after Trinity. Welcome to those watching live on Facebook, to those who will see this on video later, on Facebook or via the website. Welcome also to those who are following the text of this Order of Service, and worshipping quietly within their own homes.

Opening prayers:

The Lord be with you and also with you.

We meet in the presence of God who knows our needs, hears our cries, feels our pain, and heals our wounds.

In our worship today, we bring to God some of those times in our lives, when things seem not to be going right, when there are worries that we feel helpless to resolve, when just to keep going at all sometimes feels like a struggle. We can say this honestly to him, because Jesus knows how hard things can be for us, and yet those are the times when he is closest to us, beside us, with help and comfort, to see us through.

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Be with us, Spirit of God; nothing can separate us from your love. Breathe on us, breath of God; fill us with your saving power. Speak in us, wisdom of God; bring strength, healing and peace.

Our first hymn speaks of this:

Hymn: God is Love: let heav'n adore him; God is Love: let earth rejoice; let creation sing before him, and exalt him with one voice. He who laid the earth's foundation, he who spread the heav'ns above, he who breathes through all creation, he is Love, eternal Love.

God is Love: and he enfoldeth all the world in one embrace; with unfailing grasp he holdeth every child of every race. And when human hearts are breaking under sorrow's iron rod, then they find that selfsame aching deep within the heart of God.

God is Love, and, though with blindness sin afflicts our human hearts, God's eternal lovingkindness holding, guiding, grace imparts. Sin and death and hell shall never o'er us final triumph gain; God is Love, so Love for ever o'er the universe must reign.

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Confession

We come to God as one from whom no secrets are hidden, to ask for his forgiveness and peace.

We confess to you our selfishness and lack of love: fill us with your Spirit. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

We confess to you our fear and failure in sharing our faith: fill us with your Spirit. Christ, have mercy. Christ, have mercy.

We confess to you our stubbornness and lack of trust: fill us with your Spirit. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

May the God of love bring you back to himself, forgive you your sins, and assure you of his eternal love in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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 finally lose not the 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

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Psalm: 31 . 1 – 6

1 In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness.

2 Incline your ear to me; make haste to deliver me.

3 Be my strong rock, a fortress to save me, for you are my rock and my stronghold; guide me, and lead me for your name’s sake.

4 Take me out of the net that they have laid secretly for me, for you are my strength.

5 Into your hands I commend my spirit, for you have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.

6 I hate those who cling to worthless idols; I put my trust in the Lord.

Gospel Reading:

Matthew 11. 16-19, 25-30

[Jesus said], ‘But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market-places and calling to one another, “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.” For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He has a demon”; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!” Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.’ At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one

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knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’

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

Reflection

In the last few weeks, since Trinity Sunday, we have been following the gospel readings, as prescribed for us by the Church in Wales lectionary. And (if you’ve been following them) you will have realised that we have been working our way through the central chapters of Matthew’s gospel, where Jesus talks firstly to his disciples about what it’s going to be like to follow him and to try to be true to the faith they were discovering in themselves; secondly he speaks bluntly in public places, to challenge the hypocrisies of those who claimed authority as religious leaders, and to name and shame injustice, where he saw it. Activities which made him no friends among the authorities, and set them quickly on to the path of deciding to destroy him. Today’s gospel passage reveals Jesus’s sheer frustration with people’s stubbornness of heart, that they cannot or will not accept the words of his teaching or the reproof that comes with it. The reading might well have carried a subtitle “What are you to do, when it feels like you can’t win?”.

John the Baptist, before he was arrested and killed, had preached to many crowds of people, naming and shaming the wrongdoing of his day, and calling people back to God’s way, to lead just and worthy lives, which would honour the faith they professed to hold; but because John himself was a rather wild and ascetic character, they had written him off and ignored him. Jesus came, preaching the same message, eating and drinking and accepting hospitality in all

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the normal ways, and people criticised him for not being ascetic enough, as they imagined a prophet ought to be. What were John or Jesus to do, then, when it seemed neither of them could succeed in winning over hearts and minds? In the end, of course, it was by their lives, and then by the Resurrection of Jesus from death itself, that the lives of others were utterly transformed for ever, and God’s truth was revealed and proclaimed.

I find myself able to take some comfort from this, for all the times when I feel as if nothing is working out; when no matter how hard I try, other people seem resolutely to ignore whatever it is I want them to hear, or they refuse to agree with me, or my wonderful well-intentioned plans just come to nothing; or something else happens, to stop me completely in my tracks; or to cut across family or friends’ lives completely, in a bad way, and there’s nothing I can do to prevent it happening, or to help them. At such times, I feel at best helpless, and at worst, that I must somehow have let them down, because I’ve been too preoccupied with my own affairs. I start to doubt what use it is to have a faith, or to pray, because it doesn’t seem to do any good, or maybe my faith isn’t strong enough to overcome the darkness of despair. At such times, it is a comfort to realise that Jesus did know what this feels like, because he had a similar experience, and he knows its taste.

Julian of Norwich, in one of her revelations, also describes such an experience, although her working out of the meaning of the vision unfolded for her over some twenty years. In the vision, she saw a kind and compassionate lord and his devoted servant, to whom he gives an instruction; the servant rushes off immediately to his master’s bidding, but then slips and falls headlong into a deep pit, where he is hurt by the fall, and quite unable either to get out of the pit, to complete the task, or even to be able still to see anything outside the pit, even his master, although the master has in fact seen everything that happened, and continues to watch over him

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with great love. Our first reaction is to wonder why the servant appears to have been punished, when all he was trying to do was his master’s will, and why the master does not act to rescue and restore him. Doesn’t God care that we have tried so hard to do the right thing, and serve him in our lives? What use is it to him, that we are stuck in the pit, and unable to do anything to serve him? But at a deeper level, what Julian sees is that, even though the servant is blind to it for a while, in fact the master’s love towards him never wavers; the servant has not done anything wrong, and ultimately will receive his reward, and will abide for ever in the lord’s loving presence. Although for a while, the servant can see only pain and apparent failure, the greater reality is that nothing has been lost, even by his fall. All that matters in ultimate terms has remained constant and true throughout, and will prevail, in God’s timescale.

It’s a hard thing to grasp. But it is to us, when we feel like that – bowed down and despairing – that Jesus then says ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.’ Note that he doesn’t say he will remove the suffering, or the causes of our despair; he won’t just banish all that is wrong from the world, and take our burdens away. But what he has done is to yoke himself to us, in the midst of the world’s darkness, while we were still sinners”, and he offers to lift from us the weight of trying to carry it all on our own. It’s as if he comes down into the pit to be there alongside us, and nothing will ever separate us from him.

All that is asked of us is to recognise and accept his offer – with humble and thankful hearts – so that the channel of God’s grace can be opened to flow through us, for “We are your people, God, giving and loving, wherever we are, whatever it costs, for as long as it takes, wherever you call us” (prayer of Barbara Glasson, President of the Methodist Conference). The Iona Community has a similar prayer, which includes the lines “You found out what we were doing Lord, And you interfered…. You promised us nothing …You gave us

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no resources, Apart from ourselves… And the Holy Spirit to make us restless until we changed. Then, just when we’ve got it right, As to where we should go and what we should do … You come like a beggar to our back door, saying ‘This is the way. I am the way’”

Is this reassuring? I hope so – though sometimes perhaps it is hard to accept that, even if we put our own lives in order and follow Jesus with every part of our being, still we may have to spend time in places, where we must cope with the experience of the pit. But the one thing we may for ever hold on to, is Jesus’s promise of today’s gospel, that in him we will find rest for our souls. And ultimately, there is nothing else that we could ever need?

The next hymn speaks of this, with total assurance ….

Hymn: What a Friend we have in Jesus

What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! what a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer!

Have we trials and temptations, is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged: take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness: take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy-laden, cumbered with a load of care? Jesus only is our refuge: take it to the Lord in prayer! Do your friends despise, forsake you? Take it to the Lord in prayer; in his arms he'll take and shield you, you will find a solace there.

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Prayers [with additions from the Weekly Sheet]

We pray for God’s faithfulness to be known in our world…. Faithful God glorify your name.

In a world of change and hope, of fear and adventure; ….. Faithful God glorify your name.

In human rebellion and obedience, in our seeking and in our finding;…… Faithful God glorify your name.

In the common life of our society, in prosperity and need;….. Faithful God glorify your name.

As your Church proclaims your goodness in words and action; ………. Faithful God glorify your name.

Among our friends and in our homes; ……… Faithful God glorify your name.

In our times of joy, in our days of sorrow; …….. Faithful God glorify your name.

In our strengths and triumphs, in our weakness and at our death;… Faithful God glorify your name.

In your saints in glory and on the day of Christ’s coming; Faithful God glorify your name.

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Merciful Father, accept these prayers for the sake of your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. Let us pray with confidence as our Saviour has taught us

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

Notices – and Junior Church contributions

Thank you for participating in the service this morning. Do join us if you can on Wednesday evening as usual, at 7.00pm for the Parish Zoom group – informal chat and sharing of ideas. See the Weekly Sheet for details. We look forward to welcoming you again next Sunday at 1030 for the next live streamed service.

Final Hymn: 1 Forth in thy name, O Lord, I go, My daily labour to pursue, Thee, only thee, resolved to know In all I think, or speak, or do.

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2 The task thy wisdom has assigned O let me cheerfully fulfil, In all my works thy presence find, And prove thy good and perfect will,

3 Thee may I set at my right hand, Whose eyes my inmost substance see, And labour on at thy command, And offer all my works to thee.

4 Give me to bear thy easy yoke, And every moment watch and pray, And still to things eternal look, And hasten to thy glorious day;

5 For thee delightfully employ Whate'er thy bounteous grace has given, And run my course with even joy, And closely walk with thee to heaven.

Ending:

The Lord bless you and watch over you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord look kindly on you and give you peace; and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit be upon you, and remain with you, always. Let us bless the Lord: Thanks be to God.

CCLI No: 1943392