Welcome to our service - 8 November - Remembrance Sunday
This service sheet can be used individually or with households.
We would encourage you to say (or even sing) hymns and songs out loud.
Prayers, other liturgy or readings can be said out loud or silently, corporately or individually.
If you are able, we would also like invite you to join us for our main Sunday service, 10am, live on Zoom. Even if you have never been to St Gabriel’s before we would love you to join you. Please get in touch with the vicar Alistair (vicar@saintgs.co.uk) and he will send you the Zoom details.
Due to the lockdown there will be no service in the church at 11:30 am. You are invited to come to church at the same time for private prayer between 11:30 - 12:30.
SERVICE
Opening
We meet in the presence of God.
We commit ourselves to work in penitence and faith for reconciliation between the nations, that all people may, together, live in freedom, justice and peace.
We pray for all who in bereavement, disability and pain continue to suffer the consequences of fighting and terror.
We remember with thanksgiving and sorrow those whose lives, in world wars and conflicts past and present, have been given and taken away.
SING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xfv9OI59_7o
O Lord, the clouds are gathering,
the fire of judgement burns.
How we have fallen!
O Lord, You stand appalled to see
Your laws of love so scorned
and lives so broken.
Men: Have mercy, Lord,
Women: have mercy, Lord.
Men: Forgive us, Lord,
Women: forgive us, Lord
All: Restore us, Lord;
revive Your church again.
Men: Let justice flow,
Women: Let justice flow,
Men: like rivers,
Women: like rivers;
All: and righteousness
like a never-failing stream.
2. O Lord, over the nations now,
where is the dove of peace?
Her wings are broken,
O Lord, while precious children starve,
the tools of war increase,
their bread is stolen.
Have mercy, Lord...
3. O Lord, dark powers are poised
to flood our streets with hate and fear.
We must awaken!
O Lord, let love reclaim the lives
that sin would sweep away,
and let Your kingdom come!
Have mercy, Lord...
4. Yet, O Lord, Your glorious cross
shall tower triumphant in this land,
evil confounding;
through the fire, Your suffering church
display the glories of her Christ,
praises resounding.
Have mercy, Lord...
Graham Kendrick (c) 1987 Make Way Music/Thankyou Music
CONFESSION
Let us confess to God the sins and shortcomings of the world; its pride, its selfishness, its greed, its evil divisions and hatreds. Let us confess our share in what is wrong, and our failure to seek and establish that peace which God wills for his children:
Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned in thought, word, and deed. We have not loved you with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbours as ourselves. In your mercy forgive what we have been, help us to amend what we are, and direct what we shall be; that we may do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
ASOLUTION
Almighty God, have mercy upon us, pardon and deliver us from all our sins, confirm and strengthen us in all goodness, and keep us in life eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
COLLECT
Almighty Father, whose will is to restore all things in your beloved Son, the King of all: govern the hearts and minds of those in authority, and bring the families of the nations, divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin, to be subject to his just and gentle rule; who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen
ACT OF REMEMBRANCE
Let us remember before God, and commend to his sure keeping those who have died for their country in war; those whom we knew, and whose memory we treasure; and all who have lived and died in the service of mankind.
SILENCE
Almighty and eternal God, from whose love in Christ we cannot be parted, either by death or life: hear our prayers and thanksgivings for all whom we remember this day; fulfil in them the purpose of your love; and bring us all, with them, to your eternal joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
ACT OF COMMITMENT
Let us pledge ourselves anew to the service of God and our fellow men and women: that we may help, encourage and comfort others, and support those working for the relief of the needy and for the peace and welfare of the nations.
Lord God our Father, we pledge ourselves to serve you and all mankind, in the cause of peace, for the relief of want and suffering, and for the praise of your name.
Guide us by your Spirit; give us courage; give us hope; and keep us faithful now and always. Amen.
SING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihhvm6eLWZI
Make me a channel of Your peace.
Where there is hatred
let me bring Your love;
where there is injury,
Your pardon, Lord;
and where there's doubt,
true faith in You.
Oh, Master,
grant that I may never seek
so much to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved, as to love with all my soul.
2 Make me a channel of Your peace.
Where there's despair in life
let me bring hope;
where there is darkness, only light;
and where there's sadness, ever joy.
Oh, Master....
3 Make me a channel of Your peace.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
in giving to all men that we receive;
and in dying
that we're born to eternal life.
Sebastian Temple (c) 1967 Franciscan Communications
READINGS
Jonah 2 New International Version - UK
From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said:
‘In my distress I called to the Lord,
and he answered me.
From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help,
and you listened to my cry.
You hurled me into the depths,
into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled about me;
all your waves and breakers
swept over me.
I said, “I have been banished
from your sight;
yet I will look again
towards your holy temple.”
The engulfing waters threatened me,
the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.
To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
the earth beneath barred me in for ever.
But you, Lord my God,
brought my life up from the pit.
‘When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you,
to your holy temple.
‘Those who cling to worthless idols
turn away from God’s love for them.
But I, with shouts of grateful praise,
will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
I will say, “Salvation comes from the Lord.”’
And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
John 14:15-27 New International Version - UK
‘If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you for ever – the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me any more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.’
Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, ‘But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?’
Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
‘All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
This is the word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
TALK by Alistair Stevenson JONAH 2
Today we continue our series in Jonah and come to the second chapter. Last week we suggested that Jonah is a book full of satire and humour. That it should cause us to laugh but if we are willing, our laughter will turn to reflect deeply on the very core of our values and identity.
We’re also making sure that we don’t get distracted by the fish or whale and make it the focus of the story as many children’s stories do. The fish is a red herring - it has a walk-on part - or a swim on part at least.
Jonah has been on a downward trajectory. He went down to Joppa, he went down into the depths of the ship, he laid down and fell into a deep sleep and now he finds himself down in the depths of the sea. Since the beginning of his rejection of God's calls on his life, he distances himself from God and the consequences of his decision has caused his downfall. Jonah’s life is going downwards and it won’t stop until he reaches rock bottom. And so, in the sea, his disillusion turns to despair and only then he turns to God.
Author and theologian Richard Rohr suggests this: “Religion is populated by people who are afraid of hell. Spirituality begins when we have been through hell”.
It is in the belly of this fish that Jonah experiences, what you might describe as, an encounter with death itself. Notice verse 2: ‘out of the belly of Sheol I cried’. The Hebrew word Sheol is used over 60 times in the Old Testament and is translated in a number of ways including the grave or pit but mostly it's simply translated as hell. Here in our story, it is true to say that Jonah went to hell and back. So much so that in verse 4 he has been driven from the sight of God. He says:
The engulfing waters threatened me,
the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.
To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
the earth beneath barred me in forever.
He would struggle to go any lower than this point. This was a death-like experience - he is surrounded, captured. Death has a complete hold on him. It may be why Jesus chooses to pay reference to the story in Matthew 12:40 to describe his own death. Matthew says: ‘For just as Jonah was for three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth.’
The author Selwyn Hughes describes his own wilderness experience in his book ‘My Story’ where he tells of a year of his life in his early ministry. He writes: ‘What troubled me most was that I had begun to lose my desire for prayer and my appetite for the Scriptures. I still read my Bible, but it did not seem to speak to me any more… I wondered whether I should give up all thoughts of pursuing the ministry… At times it felt like being in a spiritual wrestling match without knowing who was wrestling with me – God or the devil.’
Later he defined the ‘wilderness experience’ as a prolonged or deeply intense period of trial and testing in which a particular providential purpose was being worked out. So often, if not always, this is the pattern for the Christian life.
What we see in the story of Jonah is that the way down, turns to be the way back up. Was Jonah’s trip to the belly of the whale vital to his equipping to then be ready to preach God’s message in Nineveh? Was his experience of near death and departure from God crucial to his ability to be used by God?
John Flavel puts it in a nutshell ‘When God prepares to fill a soul He first makes it empty. When He intends to enrich a soul He first makes it poor. When He intends to exalt a soul He first makes it sensible to its own miseries, wants and nothingness’.
Now there is a tension here that I think we need to sit with and not just brush over; and it’s an uncomfortable one. Does God cause Jonah to be in the belly of the whale? For us, does God cause us to go to those places of darkness and distress? Jonah definitely seems to think so, he says in the passage: ‘You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas,’. So was God ultimately responsible for Jonah ending up in this whole mess? Is it God’s fault that Jonah made bad decisions and ran from God? No, of course not. God’s not responsible for Jonah’ sin. Just like in the story of Joseph in Genesis, God was not responsible for the actions of Joseph’s brothers that cause him to be sold into slavery. But he used that situation to guide Joseph to the most incredible place of responsibility where through God he saved a nation from famine.
When we go through times of hardship and pain, sometimes it is not our fault; sometimes it is. I don’t believe that God orchestrates it but also I don’t think that God is surprised when it happens. He’s not caught off guard and often it gives Him the space to work it out redemptively for His purposes, maybe more so than if it hadn’t happened.
The story could have finished in the whale. Jonah dies, he gets what’s coming to him - the consequences of his bad decisions and rejection of God. But there is gospel in this story. When Jonah hits bottom and he’s swallowed up by the consequences of his silly, foolish, selfish behaviour, the God of Israel turns that vehicle of death into this amazing vehicle of grace.
In Jonah’s desperate desire to distance himself from God he finds himself in physical and spiritual darkness but it is in that place that he prays and experiences the mercy of God.
One author describes this as ‘Severe Mercy’ - that's a good description of what’s going on there. Jonah realises that God is working out ‘severe mercy’ in his life.
Often we look at life’s circumstances, either of ourselves or of others and we use these as a reliable indicator of how God feels towards us. What Jonah sees is that his circumstances have nothing to do with God’s commitment to him. His being in the belly of the fish is not a reliable indicator of God’s feelings or commitment to him. It is that epiphany that caused him to look to God once again.
The difference between those who follow Jesus and those who don't is not whether or not they will go through times of challenge, hardship and difficulty but how they deal with those times when they're in the midst of them.
The scholar Tim Mackie writes this:
‘most of us have this default assumption that we invited God into our lives to give us smooth passage to our chosen destination, and hopefully with a little comfort and security and safety along the way. What stories like this... show us is that if your idea of God is that His greatest priority is to make you safe and comfortable and happy - if you hold up that idea of that’s who God is... - your whole life experience is going to expose how naïve that view of God is. And that’s not the God presented to us in the Scriptures. In the Scriptures, God’s highest priority is to call a people to Himself and to mould and shape their character so that they come to understand the truth of who they are as creatures made in the image of their creator and come to discover the truth that they’re not God and that we make really poor captains of our own ship because we conveniently make the ship sail to whatever is best for me, even at the expense of others.’
You will remember a couple of weeks ago on stewardship Sunday that Catherine spoke to us about a Jesus shaped hole in people's lives. The reality is that people, and particularly in a place like Greystones, don't think they need God. Their life is going pretty good without him. There's no hole there so why would they need God to fill it? I know a lot of people out there who are just not convinced that they need Jesus in their lives and it's likely that we’re not going to be able to convince them otherwise. They are sailing towards Tarshish with no hint of a storm. But I believe that it's the role of Christians to continue to be present with these people because they're going to get to that point in their lives when they enter the storms of life - when they hit rock bottom and it is those moments when we stand with them as people of Jesus and point to Jesus.
As we draw to a close I want to offer a few thoughts about prayer. Prayer is a key narrative theme throughout the book of Jonah. Chapter 2 and most of chapter 4 are prayers - Jonah talks to God. Despite Jonah’s many failings at least he prays. Here in chapter 2 Jonah cries out to God and God hears his cry. It’s in Jonah's most desperate state that he is now ready to speak to God and hear God speak. Remember that even in the midst of the storm, it is the pagan sailors who cry out in prayer. Jonah’s prayers are remarkably absent. Likely because, in his running from God, the last thing he wanted to do was speak to Him.
What is noticeable about Jonah’s prayer is that every phrase is from the Psalms. This is learnt and taught prayer. Prayer that is at the core of who he is. Liturgy that has been a part of him for many years that he now draws on. So often this is the case that when we are at our lowest point, when we don’t know what to say, we draw from prayers, liturgy and song that is learnt. Having grown up going to churches where there was very little liturgy, in more recent years I have grown to appreciate its need. Liturgy doesn’t rely on our emotions being steady, or us feeling right with God, or even whether we actually want to pray. Liturgy gives us a rhythm, structure and words when we don’t want to pray and when we ourselves don’t have the words to pray. Those who have sat with family or friends who are close to death can probably speak of having experienced this first hand. It is often prayers learnt and remembered, sometimes even from childhood, that people draw from to cry out to God.
Jonah’s prayer is also a prayer of remembrance. He is still in the belly of the fish. He hasn't escaped. He's still in that place of death but suddenly he remembers and as he does so he gives thanks. Suddenly Jonah's whole perspective changes and he now looks to the source of all hope in the midst of his hopelessness. The one who can redeem and restore him in his place of despair he gives a shout of grateful praise.
Today is Remembrance Sunday. It is a day when we remember and give thanks for those who gave their lives in war and particularly the two great ways of the first half of 20th century. The connections then to this passage are evident. In our remembrance we look back to mourn but also to give thanks. To see how God was at work. But remembering should also help us not to make the same mistakes again. However, when we look at the world we can see it is still very broken and as humans we continue to make the same mistakes. As Christians our role is, in the midst of the continued failure of humans, to point ourselves and others to Jesus. To say: life is hard, but God is good. We’ve messed up, but God is full of mercy.
So how do you respond when life hits rock bottom? Who do you turn to and how do you support others who are in that place? As a community of God’s people here at St Gabriel’s may we point to Jesus. May we demonstrate that God is not distant in the depths of human experience - instead he is there, present, ready to bring us back out and make us new. Amen
THE APOSTLES’ 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. Amen
O LORD, HEAR MY PRAYER,
O Lord, hear my prayer:
When I call answer me.
O Lord, hear my prayer,
O Lord, hear my prayer:
Come and listen to me.
Jacques Berthier/Taizé.
Copyright © 1982 Ateliers et Presses de Taize (France).
PRAYERS - written by Christine Carney
Heavenly Father,
Help us to show our love for you by our obedience to your commands. When you called Jonah to go to Nineveh to preach he ran in the opposite direction. Forgive us, Lord, when we ignore your call or put it aside for later because we are busy. Help us to hear your voice and to respond positively to whatever you are asking us to do.
We thank you for your grace, your loving acceptance and forgiveness of each one of us. In his distress, from the depths of the sea, Jonah called out to you for help and you answered him. At the start of this ‘national lockdown’ we call out to you, Father, for healing for our nation and for all the nations especially the poorest. We pray for healing for those who are sick and for encouragement and peace for those who minister to the sick, those who are fearful and anxious, those who are in financial difficulty, those who fear for their jobs or businesses and those who live alone.
We cry out to you for wisdom for Boris Johnson and our government and for leaders of other nations in the decisions they have to make as they balance health and the economy. We pray too, Lord, for wisdom for all those involved in the Brexit negotiations and that an agreement will be reached.
On this Remembrance Sunday 2020 we remember all those who have lost their lives fighting for our country and all those who have died this year from coronavirus. We pray for healing for soldiers who have been injured, for those recovering from anxiety and trauma and comfort for the families of those who have lost loved ones. We pray for peace and justice in our world.
We commit the American presidential election to you and pray for the best result for the American people and for calm on the streets of America. We pray for wisdom for the French and the Austrians after the recent acts of terror and we pray for your protection, Lord, on young Muslim men, that they won’t be attracted to militant Islam.
Finally we commit to you the Church family. We pray for Liz, Steve and Martha as they mourn the loss of Gillian Cartledge. Please comfort them, and bless Gillian’s funeral on Thursday 12th November which will be on Zoom. We thank you for the small groups that Alistair has put us into for prayer. Help us to continue to support and encourage one another through this lockdown. We ask your blessing on those studying the Jonah Bible studies and on the Tearfund Quiz. We pray that St. Gabriel’s will be a beacon of hope in the darkness. Amen
LORD’S PRAYER
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your Kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those
who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours
now and for ever.
Amen
SING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MmRGSEG2LM
Light of the world
You stepped down into darkness.
Opened my eyes, let me see.
Beauty that made this heart adore You
Hope of a life spent with You
Here I am to worship,
Here I am to bow down,
Here I am to say that You're my God
You're altogether lovely
Altogether worthy,
Altogether wonderful to me
2. King of all days
Oh, so highly exalted
Glorious in heaven above
Humbly You came
To the earth You created
All for love's sake became poor
Here I am to worship…
I'll never know how much it cost
To see my sin upon that cross (rep.)
Here I am to worship…
Tim Hughes ©2001 Thankyou Music
OFFERTORY - Take a moment to consider how you are going to continue to give to the life of the church and support other aid agencies and mission organisations.
Yours, Lord, is the greatness, the power,
the glory, the splendour, and the majesty;
for everything in heaven and on earth is yours.
All things come from you, and of your own do we give you.
SING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g4p3v06lhk
Restore, O Lord,
the honour of Your name!
In works of sovereign power
come shake the earth again,
that men may see,
and come with reverent fear
to the Living God,
whose Kingdom shall outlast the years.
2. Restore, O Lord,
in all the earth Your fame,
and in our time revive
the Church that bears Your name,
and in Your anger,
Lord, remember mercy,
O Living God,
whose mercy shall outlast the years.
3. Bend us, O Lord,
where we are hard and cold,
in Your refiners fire;
come purify the gold:
though suffering comes,
and evil crouches near,
still our Living God is reigning,
He is reigning here.
Graham Kendrick and Chris Rolinson (c) 1981 Thankyou Music
FINAL BLESSING:
God grant to the living grace, to the departed rest, to the Church, the Queen, the Commonwealth and all people, unity, peace and concord, and to us and all God’s servants, life everlasting.
And the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be with you all and remain with you always.
Amen