Easter 3 Sunday 23rd April

Hymn – Alleluia, alleluia, give thanks to the risen Lord;

Preparation

The night has passed, and the day lies open before us; let us pray with one heart and mind.

Grace mercy and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you

All: And also with you.

This is the day that the Lord has made.

All: Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

We have come together in the name of Christ to offer our praise and thanksgiving to hear and receive God’s holy word, to pray for the needs of the world, and to seek the forgiveness of our sins, that by the power of the Holy Spirit, we may give ourselves to the service of God.

All: We say Sorry

Jesus says, ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is close at hand.’

So let us turn away from our sins and turn to Christ, confessing our sins in penitence and faith.

All: 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 to us the joy of your salvation;

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

May the Father of all mercies cleanse us from our sins, and restore us in His image to the praise and glory of His name through Jesus Christ our Lord.

All: Amen.

Blessed is the Lord,

All: For He has heard the voice of our prayer;

Therefore shall our hearts dance for joy

All: And in our song will we praise our God.

Blessed are you, Lord our God, creator and redeemer of all;

to you be glory and praise for ever.

From the waters of chaos you drew forth the world, and in your great love fashioned us in your image. Now, through the deep waters of death, you have brought your people to new birth by raising your Son to life in triumph.

May Christ your light ever dawn in our hearts as we offer you our sacrifice of thanks and praise.

Blessed be God, Father Son and Holy Spirit.

All: Blessed be God for ever.

Hymn – All Heaven Declares

Collect for the Third Sunday of Easter

Almighty Father,

who in your great mercy gladdened the disciples

with the sight of the risen Lord:

give us such knowledge of his presence with us,

that we may be strengthened and sustained by his risen life

and serve you continually in righteousness and truth;

through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,

who is alive and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.

All: Amen

.Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead.

All: And Christ shall give you light.

You have died and your life is hid with Christ in God.

All: Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead.

Set your minds on things that are above,

not on things that are on the earth.

All: And Christ shall give you light.

When Christ our life appears

you will appear with him in glory.

All: Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.

Hymn – Be Still for the Presence of the Lord

Our First Reading is taken from – Acts Chap: 2

14 Then Peter stood up with the other eleven apostles and in a loud voice began to speak to the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, listen to me and let me tell you what this means.

36 “All the people of Israel, then, are to know for sure that this Jesus, whom you crucified, is the one that God has made Lord and Messiah!”

37 When the people heard this, they were deeply troubled and said to Peter and the other apostles, “What shall we do, brothers?”

38 Peter said to them, “Each one of you must turn away from your sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins will be forgiven; and you will receive God’s gift, the Holy Spirit.

39 For God’s promise was made to you and your children, and to all who are far away – all whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

40 Peter made his appeal to them and with many other words he urged them, saying, “Save yourselves from the punishment coming on this wicked people!”

41 Many of them believed his message and were baptized, and about three thousand people were added to the group that day.

This is the Word of the Lord

All: Thanks be to God

Here the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to – Luke Chap: 24

13 On that same day two of Jesus’ followers were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem,

14 and they were talking to each other about all the things that had happened.

15 As they talked and discussed, Jesus himself drew near and walked along with them;

16 they saw him, but somehow did not recognize him.

17 Jesus said to them, “What are you talking about to each other, as you walk along?” They stood still, with sad faces.

18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things that have been happening there these last few days?”

19 “What things?” he asked. “The things that happened to Jesus of Nazareth,” they answered. “This man was a prophet and was considered by God and by all the people to be powerful in everything he said and did.

20 Our chief priests and rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and he was crucified.

21 And we had hoped that he would be the one who was going to set Israel free! Besides all that, this is now the third day since it happened.

22 Some of the women of our group surprised us; they went at dawn to the tomb,

23 but could not find his body. They came back saying they had seen a vision of angels who told them that he is alive.

24 Some of our group went to the tomb and found it exactly as the women had said, but they did not see him.”

25 Then Jesus said to them, “How foolish you are, how slow you are to believe everything the prophets said!

26 Was it not necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and then to enter his glory?”

27 And Jesus explained to them what was said about himself in all the Scriptures, beginning with the books of Moses and the writings of all the prophets.

28 As they came near the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther;

29 but they held him back, saying, “Stay with us; the day is almost over and it is getting dark.” So he went in to stay with them.

30 He sat down to eat with them, took the bread, and said the blessing; then he broke the bread and gave it to them.

31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he disappeared from their sight.

32 They said to each other, “Wasn’t it like a fire burning in us when he talked to us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?”

33 They got up at once and went back to Jerusalem, where they found the eleven disciples gathered together with the others

34 and saying, “The Lord is risen indeed! He has appeared to Simon!”

35 The two then explained to them what had happened on the road, and how they had recognized the Lord when he broke the bread.

This is the Word of the Lord

All: Thanks be to God

Benedicitus

Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel,

All: who has come to his people and set them free.

He has raised up for us a mighty Saviour,

All: born of the house of his servant David.

Through his holy prophets God promised of old

All: to save us from our enemies, from the hands of all that hate us,

To show mercy to our ancestors,

All: and to remember his holy covenant.

This was the oath God swore to our father Abraham:

All: to set us free from the hands of our enemies,

Free to worship him without fear,

All: holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.

And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High,

All: for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,

To give his people knowledge of salvation

All: by the forgiveness of all their sins.

In the tender compassion of our God

All: the dawn from on high shall break upon us,

To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,

All: and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

All: Glory to the Father and to the Son

and to the Holy Spirit;

as it was in the beginning is now

and shall be for ever.

Amen.

Sermon – Reflections on St. George

As I’m sure you know, today is Saint George’s Day, England’s patron saint. But what exactly do we know about him? Well, the exact details of his life remain a mystery.

But firstly, let’s look at a few myths about who Saint George was:-.

St. George Wasn’t English

St. George might be hailed as a national hero, but he was actually born – in the 3rd century AD – more than 2,000 miles away in Cappadocia (modern day Turkey).

He is thought to have died in Lydda (modern day Israel) in the Roman province of Palestine in AD 303. It is believed that his tomb was in Lod and was a centre of Christian pilgrimage.

He Wasn’t a Knight Either

Although George is often depicted in popular culture as a knight in shining armour, the truth is less fanciful.

Whilst St. George was depicted from the 11th century as a chivalric knight or a warrior on horseback, it is more likely that he was an officer in the Roman army.

St. George Was a Martyr.

Like many saints, St. George was described as a martyr after he died for his Christian faith.

It is believed that, during the persecutions of the Emperor Diocletian in the early 4th century, St. George was executed for refusing to make a sacrifice in honour of the pagan gods.

He Never Visited England

Although St. George never visited England, his reputation for virtue and holiness spread across Europe and his feast day, the 23rd April, was celebrated in England from the 9th century onwards.

He became popular with English kings. Edward I (1272-1307) had banners bearing the emblem of St. George (a red cross on a white background) and Edward III (1327-77) had a strong interest in the saint and owned a relic of his blood. But the St George cross was not used to represent England until the reign of Henry VIII.

The Dragon Was Added Later

The story goes that S.t George rode into Silene (modern day Libya) to free the city from a dragon who had a taste for humans, but it’s a story which post-dates the real George by several centuries.

Images of George and the dragon survive from the 9th century, 500 years after his death. Originally these may simply have been representations of the battle between Good and Evil. But the story was developed and popularised in the Middle Ages in a compendium of stories about saints’ lives, The Golden Legend.

St. George Was a Saint for 1000 years Before looked at as Our Patron Saint.

St. George was canonised in AD 494 by Pope Gelasius, who claimed he was one of those ‘whose names are justly revered among men but whose acts are known only to God’.

A feast day of St. George has been celebrated in England for hundreds of years on 23 April, which was possibly the date of his martyrdom. Following the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, St. George’s Day became one of the most important feast days in the English calendar.

St. George Represents Those We Honour

The Order of the Garter (founded by Edward III in 1348) is the highest order of chivalry in the country and Queen Elizabeth II is at the helm as Sovereign of the Garter. To this day St. George’s cross still appears on the Garter badge and his image is the pendant of the Garter chain.

In 1940 King George VI created a new award for acts of the greatest heroism or courage in circumstance of extreme danger. The George Cross, named after the king, bears the image of St. George vanquishing the dragon. The image of St. George also adorns many of the memorials built to honour those killed during World War One.

In the window of a card shop I was encouraged to buy, and presumably send, a St. George’s Day card.

All very odd. .

Because I’m sure if you asked even a handful of English men and women when their patron saint’s day was, they wouldn’t have a clue. But then the advertising industry are ever mindful of opportunities to sell us stuff, as we’ve seen with the commercialisation of Christmas, and now even Easter, though that in the popular mind I suspect that has more to do with chocolate than the Resurrection.

Compare this with St. Patrick, St. David, and St. Andrew. I think such universal lack of knowledge would not be matched in Ireland, Wales, or Scotland. We only have to think of the huge St. Patrick’s Day parades in Ireland, Birmingham, and New York, or the wearing of daffodils or leeks in the button hole on St David’s day, to realise that England’s patron saint is, well, shall we say, a little less popular.

Which is a shame.

I suspect one of the reasons is that actually not much is known about him, and his links to England at least date only from the period after the Crusades. He is greatly venerated by the Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches, and though demoted by the Roman Catholic calendar of saints in 1963 to optional veneration, I’m sure that you’ll be delighted to know that he was reinstated in the year 2000. He is the patron saint of – wait for it – Aragon, Canada, Catalonia, China, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Montenegro, Palestine, Portugal, Russia, and Serbia, so we can scarcely lay exclusive claim to him. He is also patron saint of many cities as diverse as Moscow, Beirut and Genoa, and the patron saint of everything from soldiers and scouts to helping those suffering from leprosy and plague. He obviously has universal appeal. But, most importantly, what can he say to us today?

Well, as far as being patron saint of England, in our increasingly diverse society, a Greek-speaking Christian Turk who lived in Palestine and joined the Roman army and was beheaded for refusing to persecute Christians, who as a group would have come from all over the Mediterranean and therefore contained many nationalities, well, as a patron saint of multi-cultural and multi-lingual England he seems peculiarly appropriate. He is not only representative of what it means to stand up for Christian beliefs, and pay the ultimate price, but also of the diversity and inclusiveness of the kind of Christianity which sees all fellow Christian men and women as brothers and sisters, wherever they hail from.

Now cast your mind back to that long list of countries of which George is patron.

How many of those would we feel safe in being a Christian?

China and Russian immediately spring to mind, but are not alone.

Persecution of Christians continues all round the world.

What we in England take for granted, toleration, is not a given in many, many parts of the world.

So, as we pray freely in Ansley here today, it is as well for us to remind ourselves on St. George’s Day of what it means to be able to participate so freely in this country in this most intimate and personal encounter with our risen Lord. However sketchy are the precise details of George’s life, what he stands for is in a sense far more important. Dragons and maidens and the rescuing of maidens from dragons has everything to do with myth but nothing to do with martyrdom. George refused to persecute Christians, and for that he lost his life. He joined a long line of martyrs which stretched behind him, and which stretch forward to us today, and to whose number many will be added in the future. He would not compromise, and he did what was right.

Which is why I for one am proud to call him the patron saint of England.

Heavenly Father give us the bravery of St. George to stand up for the truth and the glory of God that we have seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

Give us the strength to overcome in our lives and in the world, all that is contrary to your rule of justice and love. love. Help us to be good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind: let the oppressed go free, and proclaim the good news of God’s favour and Jubilee.

Amen.

Hymn – Abide With Me

1 Abide with me: fast falls the eventide;
the darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

2 Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away.
Change and decay in all around I see.
O thou who changest not, abide with me.

3 I need thy presence every passing hour.
What but thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who like thyself my guide and strength can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, O abide with me.

4 I fear no foe with thee at hand to bless,
ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if thou abide with me.

5 Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes.
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven’s morning breaks and earth’s vain shadows flee;
in life, in death, O Lord, abide with me. (by Henry Francis Lyte (1793 to 1847)

Time of Silence …..

We Say Together:

The 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.

All: Amen.

Prayers and Intercessions

We pray for God to fill us with his Spirit.

Generous God,

we thank you for the power of your Holy Spirit.

We ask that we may be strengthened to serve you better.

Lord, come to bless us