Hymn – I Watched the Sunrise (Close to Me)
1, I watch the sunrise
Lighting the sky
Casting its shadows near
And on this morning
Bright though it be
I feel those shadows
Near me
- But you are always close to me
Following all my ways
May I be always close to you
Following all your ways, Lord
- I watch the sunlight
Shine through the clouds
Warming the earth below
And at the mid-day
Life seems to say
I feel your brightness
Near me
- For you are always close to me
Following all my ways
May I be always close to you
Following all your ways, Lord
- I watch the sunset fading away
Lighting the clouds with sleep
And as the evening closes its eyes
I feel your brightness near me
- For you are always close to me
Following all my ways
May I be always close to you
Following all your ways, Lord
- I watch the moonlight
Guarding the night
Waiting ’til morning comes
The air is silent
Earth is at rest - Only your peace is near me
- Yes, you are always close to me
Following all my ways
May I be always close to you
Following all your ways, Lord
- Yes, you are always close to me
Following all my ways
May I be always close to you
Following all your ways, Lord (by Kathryn Crosweller
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 Fifth Sunday of Trinity –
Almighty and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church
is governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
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: 7
- I do not understand what I do; for I don’t do what I would like to do, but instead I do what I hate.
- Since what I do is what I don’t want to do, this shows that I agree that the Law is right.
- So, I am not really the one who does this thing; rather it is the sin that lives in me.
- I know that good does not live in me – that is, in my human nature. For even though the desire to do good is in me, I am not able to do it.
- I don’t do the good I want to do; instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do.
- If I do what I don’t want to do, this means that I am no longer the one who does it; instead, it is the sin that lives in me.
- So, I find that this law is at work: when I want to do what is good, what is evil is the only choice I have.
- My inner being delights in the law of God.
- But I see a different law at work in my body – a law that fights against the law which my mind approves of. It makes me a prisoner to the law of sin which is at work in my body.
- What an unhappy man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is taking me to death?
- Thanks be to God, who does this through our Lord Jesus Christ! This, then, is my condition: on my own I can serve God’s law only with my mind, while my human nature serves the law of sin.
This is the word of the Lord
All: Thanks be to God.
Hymn – A New Commandment I Give Unto You
Here the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew Chap: 13
- “Now, to what can I compare the people of this day? They are like children sitting in the marketplace. One group shouts to the other,
- “We played wedding music for you, but you wouldn’t dance! We sang funeral songs, but you wouldn’t cry!’
- When John came, he fasted and drank no wine, and everyone said, “He has a demon in him!’
- When the Son of Man came, he ate and drank, and everyone said, “Look at this man! He is a glutton and wine drinker, a friend of tax collectors and other outcasts!’ God’s wisdom, however, is shown to be true by its results.”
- At that time Jesus said, “Father, Lord of heaven and earth! I thank you because you have shown to the unlearned what you have hidden from the wise and learned.
- Yes, Father, this was how you were pleased to have it happen.
- “My Father has given me all things. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
- “Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest.
- Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you will find rest.
- For the yoke I will give you is easy, and the load I will put on you is light.”
.This is the Gospel of the Lord.
All: Praise to you, O Christ.
Sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Trinity
- There’s a version of you that you intend to be.
- wake up meaning to be patient, disciplined, generous, faithful.
- by evening, I look back and wonder who was actually driving.
- Paul knew that feeling so well he wrote it down:
“I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. “
- That’s not a new believer’s confession.
- That’s Paul — church planter, apostle, author of half the New Testament — describing a war inside himself. His mind delights in God’s law; something else in him takes him prisoner anyway. This isn’t a bad day. It’s the human condition.
- Notice what Paul doesn’t conclude.
- Not ‘ ‘Therefore I must try harder.”
- He hits the wall every honest person eventually hits:
- effort alone can’t fix what’s broken in us,
Matthew Chap:11 shows the same disease just a different coat.
- Jesus looks at the crowds and tells a strange little parable: children in the marketplace, complaining that nothing pleases them.
- John came fasting “He has a demon, they said.”
- Jesus came feasting with sinners
“Look at this glutton, this friend of sinners.”
- Nothing satisfies, because the real problem was never the flute or the
It’s a heart Looking for reasons to stay unmoved.
When we can’t fix ourselves, one very human move is to start Looking at everyone else.
- And then, right in the middle of naming that hardheartedness, Jesus prays out loud:
“I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. “
- doesn’t thank the Father, for reaching the impressive people the ones with their moral performance together.
- He thanks the Father for revealing truth to those with nothing to offer, no argument to win, no reputation to protect.
- The “wise” in this sense are still trying to dance their own way into God’s favour,
- The Little children have simply stopped pretending they can manage it.
- They come with empty hands.
That’s exactly where Romans 7 leaves us, wretched, empty-handed. And it’s exactly where Jesus wants to meet us:
“Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and / will give you rest, Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for / am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. “
Not “Come once you’ve won the war.”
- He says, come, all who are weary. Come with the divided will, the hypocrisy you hate in yourself, the exhaustion of trying to please a crowd that can’t be pleased. Come mid battle.
- A yoke isn’t for the unburdened — it’s for pulling weight.
Jesus isn’t offering a burden-free Life.
- He’s offering to share the Load, to walk at our pace, bearing what we cannot bear alone.
- That’s the answer to Paul’s cry. Paul doesn’t say,
“I fixed myself.” He says,
“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
The deliverance is given, not generated.
- So here is the good news, if you’re tired of that war tired of resolving and failing, tired of judging others because you can’t fix yourself:
- You’re not re Quired to win the battle before you’re allowed to come to Jesus
- It’s the other way.
- You come first weary, divided, honest and the rest is given to you there, under his yoke, in his company.The struggle doesn’t simply vanish.
Instead
- “There is therefore now no condemnation “
- So, if you came in here divided against yourself, doing the very thing you hate, weary of the gap between your intentions and your hands
- hear this: you don’t have to close that gap before you come.
- Come as you are, heavy laden.
- Take his yoke. Learn his gentleness.
- And find what your own effort could never manufacture: rest for your soul.
- Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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 Family
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.
Hymn – And Can It Be That I Should Gain
- And can it be that I should gain
An int’rest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain?
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, should die for me?
Refrain:
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, should die for me!
- ‘Tis mystery all! Th’Immortal dies!
Who can explore His strange design?
In vain the firstborn seraph tries
To sound the depths of love divine!
‘Tis mercy all! let earth adore,
Let angel minds inquire no more.
Refrain:
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, should die for me!
- He left His Father’s throne above,
So free, so infinite His grace;
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race;
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free;
For, O my God, it found out me.
Refrain:
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, should die for me!
- Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quick’ning ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free;
I rose, went forth and followed Thee.
Refrain:
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, should die for me!
- No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him is mine!
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Refrain:
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, should die for me! (by Charles Wesley- 1707 to 1788)
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 Grant, O Lord, we beseech you,
that the course of this world may be
so peaceably ordered
by your governance,
that your Church may joyfully serve you
in all godly quietness;
through 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 – The King of Love My Shepherd is
- The King of love my shepherd is,
whose goodness faileth never;
I nothing lack if I am his,
and he is mine for ever.
- Where streams of living water flow,
my ransomed soul he leadeth,
and where the verdant pastures grow,
with food celestial feedeth.
- Perverse and foolish oft I strayed,
but yet in love He sought me,
and on his shoulder gently laid,
and home, rejoicing, brought me.
- In death’s dark vale I fear no ill
with thee, dear Lord, beside me;
thy rod and staff my comfort still,
thy cross before to guide me.
- Thou spread’st a table in my sight;
thy unction grace bestoweth;
and O what transport of delight
from thy pure chalice floweth!
- And so through all the length of days
thy goodness faileth never:
Good Shepherd, may I sing thy praise
within thy house for ever. (by W. Baker – 1821 to 1877)
Final Prayers and the Dismissal
Go in faith to love the Lord.
All: In the Name of Christ
Amen
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