Trinity 9 Holy Communion at St John’s

Communion Service’s

Hymn – Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation!
All ye who hear, now to His temple draw near;
Praise Him in glad adoration.

Praise to the Lord, who o’er all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen how thy desires e’er have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?

Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy work and defend thee;
Surely His goodness and mercy here daily attend thee;
Ponder anew what the Almighty can do,
If with His love He befriend thee.

Praise to the Lord, oh, let all that is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before Him;
Let the Amen sound from His people again,
Gladly for aye we adore Him. (by Joachim Neander – 1650 to 1680)

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 Ninth Sunday of Trinity

Almighty God,

who sent your Holy Spirit

to be the life and light of your Church:

open our hearts to the riches of your grace,

that we may bring forth the fruit of the Spirit

in love and joy and peace;

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: 9

I am speaking the truth; I belong to Christ and I do not lie. My conscience, ruled by the Holy Spirit, also assures me that I am not lying
when I say how great is my sorrow, how endless the pain in my heart
for my people, my own flesh and blood! For their sake I could wish that I myself were under God’s curse and separated from Christ.
They are God’s people; he made them his children and revealed his glory to them; he made his covenants with them and gave them the Law; they have the true worship; they have received God’s promises;
they are descended from the famous Hebrew ancestors; and Christ, as a human being, belongs to their race. May God, who rules over all, be praised forever! Amen.

This is the word of the Lord

All: Thanks be to God.

Hymn – Be Thou my vision

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
naught be all else to me, save that thou art.
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

Be thou my wisdom, be thou my true word;
I ever with thee, and thou with me, Lord.
Born of thy love, thy child may I be,
thou in me dwelling and I one with thee.

Be thou my buckler, my sword for the fight.
Be thou my dignity, thou my delight,
thou my soul’s shelter, thou my high tower.
Raise thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor vain empty praise;
thou mine inheritance, now and always.
Thou and thou only, first in my heart,
Ruler of heaven, my treasure thou art.

“True Light of heaven, when victory is won
may I reach heaven’s joys, O bright heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my heart, whatever befall,
still be my vision, O Ruler of all

Here the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew Chap: 14

When Jesus heard the news about John, he left there in a boat and went to a lonely place by himself. The people heard about it, and so they left their towns and followed him by land.
Jesus got out of the boat, and when he saw the large crowd, his heart was filled with pity for them, and he healed their sick.
That evening his disciples came to him and said, “It is already very late, and this is a lonely place. Send the people away and let them go to the villages to buy food for themselves.”
“They don’t have to leave,” answered Jesus. “You yourselves give them something to eat!”
“All we have here are five loaves and two fish,” they replied.
“Then bring them here to me,” Jesus said.
He ordered the people to sit down on the grass; then he took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven, and gave thanks to God. He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.
Everyone ate and had enough. Then the disciples took up twelve baskets full of what was left over.
The number of men who ate was about five thousand, not counting the women and children.

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

All: Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon This is a familiar story this morning

- We’ve heard it in Sun oday and really sit with what happened on that hillside.
It’s one of the most staggering displays of God’s love and power in all of Scripture.
So let’s read it again — this time, with fresh
Chapter opens with Jesus receiving devastating news:
- his cousin, John the Baptist, has been beheaded by
Matthew tells us that when Jesus heard this, he withdrew by boat to a solitary place.
Put yourself in his sandals for a
- This is grief. This is a man who needs space — to mourn, to pray, and honestly, just to rest.
Anyone who has walked with grief knows that instinct: to get away from the noise, the crowds, the demands, and just be still for a
And who could blame him?
- He’d spent his ministry surrounded — twelve disciples, constant crowds, people grabbing at him for healing, answers, and
- A moment alone was He’d earned it. He needed it.
But the crowds heard where he’d
- And on foot, from the towns, they followed him around the
Here’s where the story turns — here’s the point I really want us to
Jesus arrives at his quiet place, and instead of solitude, he finds a crowd of thousands waiting for him.
- Most of us, our hearts would
- We’d feel entitled to We might have turned the boat around.
Jesus doesn’t. Matthew tells us simply: “he had compassion on ”
- Not Not duty. Compassion.
Even while carrying his own sorrow, even at personal risk —
- the man who’d just executed his cousin was still in power
- But Jesus chooses the
He chooses to heal their sick. He gives of himself when he had every reason not to.
That’s who God
- Not a God who dispenses blessing grudgingly, when it’s convenient, when he’s got nothing better to do.
- A God who moves toward us with compassion even in his own weariness, even in his own grief.
As the day wears on, the disciples come to Jesus with a practical concern: it’s getting late, this is a remote place, and there’s a great crowd of hungry people.
- Send them away, they suggest, so they can go buy
And then Jesus says something that must have made their jaws drop:

“They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

Think about the sheer scale of the
- This isn’t 50 or 500 It’s five thousand men plus women and children
This crowd may well have numbered in the tens of
- And all the disciples can produce is five loaves of bread and two small fish.
That’s not a shortage. That’s essentially nothing, set against an ocean of need.
Notice what Jesus doesn’t He doesn’t panic. He doesn’t say, “Well, never mind then, let’s just call it a day.” He takes what little there is, looks up to heaven, gives thanks, breaks the bread — and it multiplies in his very hands, passed out through the disciples to everyone gathered there.
And they all Not a scrap each, not a polite mouthful to be sociable

— Matthew tells us they all ate and were satisfied. Filled.

And afterwards, twelve baskets of leftovers were gathered
- Twelve baskets — one for each disciple; perhaps it echoes the twelve tribes of Israel, God’s chosen people, whom he had fed with manna in the wilderness centuries before.
This was not just a magic trick to impress a
This was Jesus declaring, in the most vivid way possible: I am the one who I am the fulfilment of everything God promised his people.
Nothing is too small for me to use, and nothing is too impossible for me to overcome.
My will to bless my children cannot be stifled by circumstance — not by scarcity, not by grief, not by five loaves and two fish standing against thousands of empty stomachs.
Here’s a question worth sitting Matthew tells us Jesus looked up to heaven, blessed the bread, broke it, and gave it to the disciples to distribute. But notice the text never actually describes the multiplication itself. We don’t see loaves multiplying in Jesus’ hands before the disciples set off with the baskets. So where did the miracle happen? Was it the instant Jesus blessed the bread — or was it out there among the crowd, in the act of distribution?
I don’t think we can pin this down with certainty, and Scripture doesn’t spell it out for But sit with the possibility for a moment that the miracle unfolded as the disciples were giving the bread away — that the blessing became bread enough only as it moved from hand to hand, from person to person, out into the crowd.
If that’s what happened, there’s something remarkable being said here about The disciples didn’t get to see the full loaves and fish first, count them, and then confidently go and hand them out. They had to step out and start giving with what looked, by every rational measure, like nowhere near enough. Their obedience — their willingness

to act on Jesus’ blessing before they could see the outcome — was itself bound up in the miracle taking place.

Perhaps that’s true for us as We are so often waiting to see the provision before we’re willing to act — waiting for the bank balance, the certainty, the guarantee, before we step out in generosity or obedience. But maybe God’s miracles are found less in blessings we hoard and inspect, and more in blessings we release in faith. The multiplication happens in the giving, not in the holding on.
And yet — for all this wonder, we know the story doesn’t end with all of Israel falling at Jesus’ feet in grateful Paul, writing to the Romans, expresses his deep anguish that so many of his own people did not recognise or receive what God had done among them. Even a miracle this astonishing wasn’t enough to turn every heart.
That should give us pause. It’s not that God’s provision was insufficient — it’s that human hearts can grow so accustomed to blessing that we stop noticing it, stop being amazed, stop giving
So let me leave you with this challenge this
- Don’t let familiarity rob you of
The God who had compassion on a weary, hungry crowd two thousand years ago is the same God who has compassion on you today — in your grief, in your need, in the moments when what you have feels like nothing against what you’re
He takes what little we bring him, and he multiplies it far beyond what we could ask or imagine.
Let’s not just remember this
- Let it amaze us
And let it remind us, this week, to notice — really notice — the countless ways God is still filling your basket to overflowing.

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 Sophie our bishop and 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.

All: Amen.

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 – Amazing Grace

Amazing grace how sweet the sound
that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
was blind, but now I see.

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
and grace my fears relieved;
how precious did that grace appear
the hour I first believed!

Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come:
’tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
and grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me,
his word my hope secures;
he will my shield and portion be
as long as life endures.

Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
and mortal life shall cease:
I shall possess, within the veil,
a life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
the sun forbear to shine;
but God, who called me here below,
will be forever mine. (by John Newton, 1779)

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

Holy Father,

who gathered us here around the table of your Son

to share this meal with the whole household of God:

in that new world where you reveal the fullness of your peace,

gather people of every race and language

to share in the eternal banquet 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 – To God be the Glory

To God be the glory Great things He has done
So loved He the world that He gave us His Son
Who yielded His life an atonement for sin
And opened the life-gate that all may go in

Chorus: Praise the Lord, praise the Lord
Let the earth hear His voice
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord
Let the people rejoice
O Come to the Father
Through Jesus the Son
And give Him the glory
Great things He has done

O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood
To every believer the promise of God
The vilest offender who truly believes
That moment from Jesus a pardon receives

Great things He has taught us, great things He has done
And great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son
But purer, and higher, and greater will be
Our wonder, our worship, when Jesus we see

Final Prayers and the Dismissal

Go in faith to love the Lord.

All: In the Name of Christ

Amen