Communion Service’s for the First Sunday of Trinity – Communion – St. John’s
Hymn –
- Fight the good fight with all your might;
Christ is your strength, and Christ is your right;
Lay hold on life, and it shall be
Your joy and crown eternally. - Run the straight race through God’s good grace;
Lift up your eyes, and seek his face.
Life with its way before us lies;
Christ is the path, and Christ the prize. - Cast care aside; upon your Guide
Lean, and his mercy will provide;
Lean, and the trusting soul shall prove
Christ is its life, and Christ its love. - Faint not, nor fear, his arms are near;
He changes not, and you are dear;
Only believe, and own it true
That Christ is all in all to you.
The Greeting
Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
All: And also with you
The Peace
We are the body of Christ.
In the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body
Let us then pursue all that makes for peace
and builds up our common life.
The peace of the Lord be always with you.
All: And also with you.
Let us offer one another a sign of peace.
(Please turn to those around you, offering your hand, and say
‘The peace of the Lord be with you’)
Prayer of Preparation
All: 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.
Prayer of Penitence
Our Lord Jesus Christ said: The first commandment is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our Cod is the only Lord. You shall love the Lord your Cod with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’
The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
All: Amen. Lord, have mercy.
God so loved the world
that he gave his only Son Jesus Christ
to save us from our sins,
to be our advocate in heaven,
and to bring us to eternal life.
Let us confess our sins in penitence and faith,
firmly resolved to keep God’s commandments
and to live in love and peace with all.
All: Father eternal, giver of light and grace,
we have sinned against you and against our neighbour,
in what we have thought,
in what we have said and done,
through ignorance, through weakness,
through our own deliberate fault.
We have wounded your love
and marred your image in us.
We are sorry and ashamed
and repent of all our sins.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ,
who died for us,
forgive us all that is past
and lead us out from darkness
to walk as children of light.
Amen.
Almighty God,
who forgives all who truly repent, have mercy upon you, pardon and deliver you from all your sins, confirm and strengthen you in all goodness, and keep you in life eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
All: Amen.
Collect for the First Sunday of Trinity –
O God,
the strength of all those who put their trust in you,
mercifully accept our prayers
and, because through the weakness of our mortal nature
we can do no good thing without you,
grant us the help of your grace,
that in the keeping of your commandments
we may please you both in will and deed;
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
Our First Reading is – Romans Chap: 4
13 When God promised Abraham and his descendants that the world would belong to him, he did so, not because Abraham obeyed the Law, but because he believed and was accepted as righteous by God.
14 For if what God promises is to be given to those who obey the Law, then faith means nothing and God’s promise is worthless.
15 The Law brings down God’s anger; but where there is no law, there is no disobeying of the law.
16 And so the promise was based on faith, in order that the promise should be guaranteed as God’s free gift to all of Abraham’s descendants – not just to those who obey the Law, but also to those who believe as Abraham did. For Abraham is the spiritual father of us all;
17 as the scripture says, “I have made you father of many nations.” So the promise is good in the sight of God, in whom Abraham believed – the God who brings the dead to life and whose command brings into being what did not exist.
18 Abraham believed and hoped, even when there was no reason for hoping, and so became “the father of many nations.” Just as the scripture says, “Your descendants will be as many as the stars.”
19 He was then almost one hundred years old; but his faith did not weaken when he thought of his body, which was already practically dead, or of the fact that Sarah could not have children.
20 His faith did not leave him, and he did not doubt God’s promise; his faith filled him with power, and he gave praise to God.
21 He was absolutely sure that God would be able to do what he had promised.
22 That is why Abraham, through faith, “was accepted as righteous by God.”
23 The words “he was accepted as righteous” were not written for him alone.
24 They were written also for us who are to be accepted as righteous, who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from death.
25 Because of our sins he was given over to die, and he was raised to life in order to put us right with God.
This is the word of the Lord
All: Thanks be to God.
Hymn – Guide me O My great Redeemer
1 Guide me, O my great Redeemer,
pilgrim through this barren land;
I am weak, but you are mighty;
hold me with your powerful hand.
Bread of heaven, bread of heaven,
feed me now and evermore,
feed me now and evermore.
2 Open now the crystal fountain,
where the healing waters flow.
Let the fire and cloudy pillar
lead me all my journey through.
Strong Deliverer, strong Deliverer,
ever be my strength and shield,
ever be my strength and shield.
3 When I tread the verge of Jordan,
bid my anxious fears subside.
Death of death, and hell’s Destruction,
land me safe on Canaan’s side.
Songs of praises, songs of praises
I will ever sing to you,
I will ever sing to you.
Psalter Hymnal, (Gray)
Here the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew Chap:9
9 Jesus left that place, and as he walked along, he saw a tax collector, named Matthew, sitting in his office. He said to him, “Follow me.” Matthew got up and followed him.
10 While Jesus was having a meal in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and other outcasts came and joined Jesus and his disciples at the table.
11 Some Pharisees saw this and asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such people?”
12 Jesus heard them and answered, “People who are well do not need a doctor, but only those who are sick.
13 Go and find out what is meant by the scripture that says: “It is kindness that I want, not animal sacrifices.’ I have not come to call respectable people, but outcasts.”
18 While Jesus was saying this, a Jewish official came to him, knelt down before him, and said, “My daughter has just died; but come and place your hands on her, and she will live.”
19 So Jesus got up and followed him, and his disciples went along with him.
20 A woman who had suffered from severe bleeding for twelve years came up behind Jesus and touched the edge of his cloak.
21 She said to herself, “If only I touch his cloak, I will get well.”
22 Jesus turned around and saw her, and said, “Courage, my daughter! Your faith has made you well.” At that very moment the woman became well.
23 Then Jesus went into the official’s house. When he saw the musicians for the funeral and the people all stirred up,
24 he said, “Get out, everybody! The little girl is not dead – she is only sleeping!” Then they all started making fun of him.
25 But as soon as the people had been put out, Jesus went into the girl’s room and took hold of her hand, and she got up.
26 The news about this spread all over that part of the country..
This is the Gospel of the Lord.
All: Praise to you, O Christ.
Sermon for the First Sunday of Trinity
Nirvana’s 1991 anthem “Come As You Are” opens the sermon, and for those of us doing youthwork at the time, the grunge scene wasn’t background music — it was the soundtrack to the lives of young people they were trying to reach. The flannel shirts, the torn jeans, the studied indifference that masked something much rawer underneath. Interestingly, the word ‘grunge’ first appeared in American English slang around 1965 meaning sloppiness or dirtiness, and by 1988 it was being applied to Seattle musicians — though many of the bands it described rejected the label. Nobody wanted to be defined by their dirt.
And yet the song that became the anthem invited exactly that. “Come As You Are” is full of contradictions: come as you are, but also as you were; come as a friend, but come armed; take your time, hurry up. It doesn’t quite add up — and perhaps that is precisely why it resonated. Because most of us don’t quite add up either. We contain contradictions. We show up with our histories and inconsistencies, our half-kept promises, and somewhere underneath it all we still hope to be welcomed. The readings say: you will be.
The Call of Matthew (Matthew 9:9–13)
This moment in Matthew’s Gospel is almost breathtakingly simple. Jesus walks past a tax collector’s booth and says two words: “Follow me.” Matthew was written off by polite society — a collaborator, a cheat, someone who had sold his soul to the Roman occupiers. And yet there is no interview, no probationary period, no requirement that Matthew first get his affairs in order, prove himself worthy, or sort out his contradictions. Just an invitation and a response.
The scandal deepens as Jesus sits down to eat with Matthew and his rather colourful circle of friends. The religious leaders mutter: “Why does your teacher eat with sinners?” Jesus answers them with a quote from Hosea: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” The implication is sharp: those who sit comfortably in the certainty of their own righteousness have placed themselves — sadly — just out of reach.
The Interruption That Wasn’t (Matthew 9:18–26)
Something wonderful then happens. A synagogue ruler — a respected, named man — comes and kneels before Jesus in desperate faith. His daughter has died. “Come,” he says, “put your hand on her, and she will live.” Jesus gets up and goes with him. But on the way, he is sidetracked. A woman who has been bleeding for twelve years — ritually unclean, socially invisible, too afraid to ask for help directly — simply reaches out and touches the hem of his cloak. She just reaches out and hopes.
Jesus stops. He turns. He finds her in the crowd and says: “Take heart, daughter. Your faith has healed you.” The key insight is this: Jesus is also on his way to something urgent, and yet he doesn’t forget the original errand. He ministers fully to the woman in front of him, and then continues to the synagogue ruler’s house and raises the girl from the dead. The interruption was not a distraction — it was part of the journey. He holds both things simultaneously, and neither is diminished.
Notice how he addresses both women: the powerful ruler’s child and the nameless, excluded woman. He calls them both the same thing: daughter. Both beloved. Both worth stopping for. There is no hierarchy of worthiness here — only need, and faith, and Jesus turning towards it.
Faith Before Works (Romans 4)
Paul, writing to the Romans, reaches back to Abraham to show that this has always been how God works. The Law did not justify Abraham — it hadn’t been given yet. Circumcision did not justify him either — faith came first. He was counted righteous simply because he believed. And he believed against all the evidence: his body was as good as dead, and the promise of God looked, by every human measure, impossible. And yet Abraham did not waver. He was fully persuaded that God could fulfil what he had promised.
This is the pattern of all faith. Not earned reward. Not the prize at the end of a list of qualifying achievements. Faith is the outstretched hand of someone who has nothing to offer, reaching towards a God who has promised everything. It is the woman at the hem of the cloak. It is the desperate father on his knees. It is Matthew getting up from the tax booth. It is Abraham counting stars.
The Invitation
Grace does not wait for us to be ready. We so often live as though God’s invitation is conditional — as though we need to sort ourselves out first, become more consistent, less contradictory, before we can really step forward. But Jesus walks straight past that logic. He sits with sinners. He stops for the woman everyone else steps around. He turns towards the reach of a hand in a crowd. And the promise, Paul tells us, comes by grace — guaranteed not by our performance but by God’s faithfulness.
Come as you are. As you were. As he wants you to be — even if those three things don’t quite add up yet. Reach out, however tentatively, however hidden in the crowd, however much you don’t feel worthy. He will turn around. He always does.
“I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Not our best efforts — mercy, freely given, freely received.
Amen.
Prayers of Intercession
During the intercession this response is used:
Lord, m your mercy
All: Hear our prayer.
Prayers for King Charles
Through this tritium of prayer we ask God’s continuing blessing on our new King Charles
Prayer
O God, to whom every human power is subject,
grant to your servant our sovereign Charles
success in the exercise of his high office,
so that, always revering you and striving to please you,
he may constantly secure and preserve
for the people entrusted to his care
the freedom that comes from civil peace.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
All: Amen
Prayer for the Royal
Almighty God, the fountain of all goodness,
we humbly beseech thee to bless
Queen Camilla, William Prince of Wales, the Princess of Wales, and all the
Royal Family:
Endue them with thy Holy Spirit; enrich them with thy heavenly
grace; prosper them with all happiness;
and bring them to thine everlasting
kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
All: Amen.
In the power of the Spirit and in union with Christ, let us pray to the Father.
Almighty God, our heavenly Father,
you promised through your Son Jesus Christ to hear us when we pray in faith
Strengthen all your Church in the service of Christ, that those who confess your name may be united in your truth, live together in your love, and reveal your glory in the world.
Bless and guide Charles our King; give wisdom to all in authority; and direct this and every nation in the ways of justice and of peace; that we may honour one another, and seek the common good.
Give grace to us, our families and friends, and to all our neighbours, that we may serve Christ in one another, and love as he loves us.
Comfort and heal all those who suffer in body, mind, or spirit; give them courage and hope in their troubles and bring them the joy of your salvation.
Hear us as we remember those who have died in the faith of
Christ……; according to your promises,
grant us with them a share in your eternal kingdom.
Rejoicing in the fellowship of St. Laurence, St. John, St. Wilfred, St. Michel and all your saints, we commend ourselves and the whole creation to your unfailing love.
Merciful Father,
All: Accept these prayers
for the sake of your Son,
our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Heavenly Father,
you have promised through your Son Jesus Christ, that when we meet in his name, and pray according to his mind, he will be among us and hear our prayer: m your love and mercy fulfil our desires, and give us your greatest gift, which is to know you, the only true God, and your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
All: Amen.
The Eucharistic Prayer
The Lord is here.
All: His Spirit is with us.
Lift up your hearts,
All: We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
All: It is right to give thanks and praise.
It is indeed right,
it is our duty and our joy,
at all times and in all places
to give you thanks and praise,
holy Father, heavenly King,
almighty and eternal God,
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord.
For he is your living Word;
through him you have created all things from the beginning, and formed us in your own image.
All: To you be glory and praise for ever.
Through him you have freed us from the slavery of sin, giving him to be born of a woman and to die upon the cross;
You raised him from the dead and exalted him to your right hand on high.
All: To you be glory and praise for ever.
Through him you nave sent upon us your holy and life-giving Spirit, and made us a people for your own possession.
All: To you be glory and praise for ever.
Therefore with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we proclaim your great and glorious name, for ever praising you and saying:
All: Holy, holy, holy Lord,
God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Accept our praises, heavenly Father,
through your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ,
and as we follow his example and obey his command,
grant that by the power of your Holy Spirit
these gifts of bread and wine
may be to us his body and his blood;
who, in the same night that he was betrayed,
took bread and gave you thanks;
he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying:
Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you;
do this in remembrance of me.
In the same way, after supper he took the cup and gave you thanks; he gave it to them, saying: Drink this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.
All: To you be glory and praise for ever.
Therefore, heavenly Father, we remember his offering of himself made once for all upon the cross; we proclaim his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension; we look for the coming of your kingdom, and with this bread and this cup
we make the memorial of Christ your Son our Lord.
All: Christ has died: Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
Accept through him, our great high priest, this our sacrifice of thanks and praise, and as we eat and drink these holy gifts in the presence of your divine majesty, renew us by your Spirit, inspire us with your love and unite us in the body of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
All: To you be glory and praise for ever.
Through him, and with him, and in him, m the unity of the Holy Spirit,
with all who stand before you in earth and heaven, we worship you, Father almighty, in songs of everlasting praise;
All: Blessing and honour and glory and power be yours for ever and ever.
Amen.
Let us pray with confidence as our Saviour has taught us
The Lord’s Prayer
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.
Breaking of the Bread
We break this bread to share in the body of Christ.
All: Though we are many, we are one body, because we all share in one bread.
All: Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world.
Have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world,
Have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world,
Grant us peace.
Giving of Communion
Draw near with faith
Receive the body of our Lord Jesus Christ
which he gave for you,
and his blood which he shed for you-
Eat and drink
in remembrance that he died for you,
and feed on him in your hearts
by faith with thanksgiving.
Amen
Post Communion Prayer
All: Eternal Father,
we thank you for nourishing us
with these heavenly gifts:
may our communion strengthen us in faith,
build us up in hope,
and make us grow in love;
for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
The Blessing
May the Father who created you in love,
the Son who redeemed you by grace,
and the Holy Spirit who empowers you with truth,
go with you into the world.
Walk in unity, live in peace,
and bear witness to the love that holds all things together.
All: Amen.
Hymn – How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him
Final Prayers and the Dismissal
Go in faith to love the Lord.
All: In the Name of Christ
Amen
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