Welcome: –

Call to Worship: –    

  The Slavery Abolition Act 1833, which abolished slavery throughout the British Empire (with the exceptions “of the Territories in the Possession of the East India Company“, the “Island of Ceylon” and “the Island of Saint Helena“; the exceptions were eliminated in 1843), came into force the following year, on 1^st August 1834.

  Initially, only slaves below the age of six were freed.  Enslaved people older than six years of age were redesignated as “apprentices” and required to work, 40 hours per week without pay, as part of compensation payment to their former owners.  Full emancipation was finally achieved at midnight on 31 July 1838.

(“Emancipation”. Black Presence: Asian and Black History in Britain 1500-1850. The National Archives)

  Each year, the 1^st August is a National Holiday many Nations with a History of the use of slaves as the workforce, such as Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Belize, Canada, and Jamaica, where celebrations take place to commemorate Emancipation Day.  Other Nations in the Caribbean region such as Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla, The Bahamas, Bermuda, and the British Virgin Islands have festivals in or around the first week of August to celebrate the anniversary of emancipation of slaves.

(https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Emancipation_Day)  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emancipation_Day)

  Emancipation Day is not celebrated in Australia, because the British Parliament decided that slaves were not to be part of the Australian colonies.  It could, of course, be argued that the convicts, indigenous peoples, and South Pacific islanders were uses as virtual slave labour for decades.  However, officially there were no slaves sent to Australia.

  I have included a Wikipedia reference if you wish to follow up on the topic of slavery in Australia.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Australia)

  Slavery was an abhorrent practice that contributed to the social and moral decay of many African Tribes and Cultures, and, rightly so, the cessation of this practice within the British Empire should be celebrated.  Yet, we should remember that each time we gather for worship, we, too, celebrate our emancipation from slavery.

  Recall what Paul wrote to the Church in Rome:

“Though at one time we were slaves to sin, you have obeyed with all your heart the truths found in the teaching you received.  You were set free from sin and became slaves of righteousness.  (Romans 6: 17 & 18) 

  We gather together in worship to offer our praise of God for emancipating us from a life of bondage to sin.  Amidst the trials and troubles of each day, let us not forget what God has accomplished in the World through his Son Jesus Christ.  As we gather here today, let us celebrate our freedom in Christ.

Prayer of Praise  

(from Psalm 145: 8 & 9, 14 – 21) 

The Lord is loving and merciful,

Slow to become angry and full of constant love.

He is good to everyone,

And has compassion on all He made.

All living things look hopefully to God,

Who gives them food when they need it.

He gives them enough

To satisfy the needs of all.

The LORD is righteous in all He does,

Merciful in His acts.

He is near to those who call to Him,

Who call to Him with sincerity.

He supplies the needs of those who honour Him,

He hears their cries and saves them.

He protects everyone who loves Him,

But sends the wicked to their doom.

I will always praise the LORD;

Let all His creatures praise His holy name.  Amen.

You are invited to listen to, or join in singing 2 songs.

The first song is :’Thou will keep him in perfect peace’  (Scripture in Song volume 1 number 89)

Composer anonymous

The second song is ‘Seek ye first the Kingdom of God’  (Scripture in Song volume 1 Number 96)

Karen Lafferty

Prayer of Confession 

(Uniting in Worship 1 p 582 & 582 from numbers 6, 7, 8 & 9) 

Merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you,

We have sinned in what we have thought and said,

In the wrong we have done,

And in the good we have not done.

We have sinned in ignorance,

We have sinned in weakness,

We have not done your will,

We have followed the desires of our hearts.

We have rebelled against your love,

We have not loved our neighbours.

We confess the things we try to hide from you,

We confess the things we hide from others,

We confess the things we hide from ourselves.

We confess the worry and heartbreak that we have caused others.

We confess our failure to heed the cry of the needy.

We confess those things which we cannot forgive in ourselves.

Merciful God, have mercy upon us,

Forgive us and renew us,

Grant in us an obedient and faithful heart,

So that our life brings honour and glory to you,

Through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.  Amen.

Assurance of Forgiveness 

(from Romans 8: 29 & 30) 

We are no longer separated from god, we re God’s children, put right with himself through our faith in the saving work of His son, Jesus Christ.  Having confessed our sins, we have the assurance that god has listened and that god has forgiven us.

Thanks be to God.

Prayer of illumination 

(from Uniting in Worship Book 1 number 13 & 14 p599) 

  Prepare our hearts, O Lord, to be guided by your Word and the Holy Spirit, that in your light we may perceive your mercy and grace, that in your truth we may find freedom, and that in your will we may discover peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Bible Readings

Isaiah 55:

1  The LORD says:

“Come, everyone who is thirsty – here is water!  Come, you that have no money – buy grain and eat!  Come!  Buy wine and milk – it will cost you nothing!  2  Why spend money on what does not satisfy?  Why spend your wages and still be hungry?  Listen to m and do what I say, and you will enjoy the best of all.

3  Listen now, my People, and come to me; come to me, and you will have life!  I will make a lasting Covenant with you and give you blessings I promised to David.

4  I made him a leader and commander of Nations, and through him I showed them my power.

5  Now you will summon foreign Nations; at one time they did not know you, but now they will come running to join you!  I, the LORD your God, the holy God of Israel, will make all this happen; I will give you honour and glory.”

6  Turn to the LORD and pray to Him now that He is near.  7  Let the wicked leave their way of life and change their way of thinking.

This is the Word of God.

Praise to you Almighty God.

Matthew 13:

44  The Kingdom of Heaven is like this.  A man happens to find a treasure hidden in a field.  He covers it up again, and is so happy that he goes and sells everything he has, and then goes back and buys that field.

45  Also, the Kingdom of Heaven is like this.  A man is looking for fine pearls,  46  and when he finds one that is unusually fine, he goes and sells everything he has, and buys that pearl.

This is the Gospel of our Lord.

Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.

You are invited to listen to, or join in singing the hymn ‘Ye servants of God’  (TiS215) 

Charles Wesley

Sermon

“Jesus!  Son of David!  Have pity on me.”  Mark 10: 47 (NEB)

  Shakespeare, in his play “Romeo and Juliet”, has Juliet saying the lines:

“What’s in a name?  That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”.

  Juliet argues that it does not matter that Romeo is from her family’s rival house of Montague, what is important is the person who he is.  The names of things do not affect what they really are.

  John Clites, in his comments on Juliet’s lines, states that this “means that what we call something is not important – its essence remains the same regardless of what we call it.”

  That may have been the understanding that Shakespeare wanted to impart to his audience.  However, in a particular circumstance, someone’s name may be of critical importance in projecting an understanding about that person’s character; in other words, their essence may, in reality, be tied up directly with their name.  For them to be known by any other name would not provide another person with a clear understanding about their essence.

  Blind Bartimaeus, was in the habit of sitting by the roadside just outside an entrance to the city of Jericho, begging for whatever change people could drop into his bowl as they passed by .  He was there on the day that Jesus was passing through Jericho on his final journey to Jerusalem.  Upon hearing that Jesus was passing by, and desiring of getting the attention of Jesus in the hope that Jesus could cure him, as we understand he had heard of Jesus doing elsewhere, Bartimaeus called out to Jesus.  It is very important to not gloss over the actual words that Bartimaeus spoke.  Matthew, Mark and Luke all include this incident in their Gospels.  There are several differences in the three accounts, such as, only Mark records the name of Bartimaeus, however, all three accounts record the identical words spoken by Bartimaeus: “Jesus!  Son of David!  Have pity on me.”  Mark 10: 47 (NEB)

  In all four Gospels is the account of the “Triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem”.  As the crowds walked in front of Jesus as he rode into the city sitting on a donkey, they shouted:

“Praise to David’s Son!  God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord!’’  (Matthew 21: 9) 

  Jesus was known by the name, or title, of “Son of David”.  It is of importance that we understand that he was not called by any alternative name.  He was not called “Son of Jesse”, who was David’s father.  He was not called “Son of Solomon”, who was David’s son and heir to the throne of Israel.  The name “Son of David” clarifies the essence of who was Jesus.

  It is to David that the Jews looked back with pride and affection as the establisher of their Kingdom, and it is in David that they saw the Kingly ideal, in the image of which they looked for a coming Messiah, who would deliver his people and sit upon the throne of David forever.”  (article on David by Hughie Jones in The New Bible Dictionary p296)  

  Moreover, the Prophet Nathan spoke the Word of God to King David, saying,

“I will make your Kingdom last forever.  Your dynasty will never end.”  (2 Samuel 7: 16) 

  Walter Brueggemann writes, “By this announcement, the line of David is no longer simply an historical accident but a foundational factor in God’s shaping of the Historical process, for, out of this prophesy, there emerges the hope held by Israel since the time of David that there is a coming David who will right wrongs and establish good governance.”  (Walter Brueggemann in First and Second Samuel  A Bible Commentary p257) 

  This covenant agreement that God made with King David, “is grounded only in God’s firm and gracious purposes.  It finds its fulfillment in the Kingship of Jesus Christ, who was born of the Tribe of Judah and the House of David.”  (NIV Bible Study Note p436) 

  When Bartimaeus called Jesus, “Son of David”, it was in Jesus that he foresaw the fulfillment of the prophesy about the Messiah spoken of by the Prophet Nathan.

  When the crowd on the road into Jerusalem shouted out about Jesus being the “Son of David”, at that moment in time they, too, were led to see in Jesus the fulfillment of the coming King who would bring about God’s plan for Humanity.

  Today’s passage from Isaiah 55 makes reference to this “lasting covenant” that God made with King David.  In the latter half of verse three we read:

“I will make a lasting covenant with you and give you the blessings I promised to David.”

  Some writers look at the context of this statement, coming after the reference to God’s “people” in the first half of Verse 3, and deduce that in this statement God is addressing Israel, the Nation, not the person of the Messiah, that “Israel is the Messianic community through which God will establish His reign in the World.”  (The Interpreter’s Bible Volume 5 p644)  But, how can this be a correct reading since Paul himself writes of the pain he feels because many in Israel in his day had failed to accept Jesus as the Christ  (Romans 9: 1 – 6)  .  As such, how could the people of Isarel be the Messianic community when they had rejected the Messiah?

  The writers of The New Oxford Annotated Bible argue that “because no Davidic King ascended the throne during the Babylonian exile nor under Persian or later Greek rule, the Prophet Isaiah applies the Davidic covenant to the people of Israel as a whole.  Israel, not a single King, will now serve as a means to call Nations to recognise the LORD God.”  (Study Note in The New Oxford Annotated Bible p1042)  But, that was not how Bartimaeus perceived Jesus, nor the crowd shouting praises to Jesus on the road leading into Jerusalem, for they clearly perceived God’s Messiah to be the person Jesus, not the people of Israel.

  Derek Kidner, in his Commentary on the writings of Isaiah, reminds us that Isaiah had earlier written that the Messiah would be born of a virgin, and that he would be called ‘Immanuel’  (Isaiah 7: 14)  , exactly as God revealed in a dream to Joseph, the husband of Mary and father of Jesus.  (Matthew 1: 20 -23)  Derek Kidner also writes that this child born of a virgin is the same person to whom Isaiah refers as God’s Servant in passages such as Isaiah 42: 1 – 7, 49: 1 – 7, and 52: 13 – 15.  He also writes that if God assured David of the “permanence” of his descendants ruling God’s people, that is, the “lasting covenant” God made with David, how could it be perceived that this agreement made with David could be transferred from a person to a people?  (Derek Kidner in Isaiah in the New bible Commentary p619) 

  The writer to the Hebrews notes that it wasn’t the people of Israel to whom God gave the “honour and glory” referred to in Isaiah 55: 5, it was to the person of Jesus Christ, for they write,

“We see (Jesus) now crowned with glory and honour because of the death he suffered.”  (Hebrews 2: 9) 

  When the Apostle Paul, during one of his missionary journeys, was preaching in the synagogue in Antioch, in present day central Türkiye, he referred to God’s agreement with David recorded in 2 Samuel 7 :16 as applying to the person Jesus Christ, saying that “Christ’s resurrection was proof of God’s faithfulness to David, that is, the blessings referred to in Isaiah 55: 3.”  (Acts 13: 34)  (NIV Study Note p1111) 

  There is a need to go into such detail, because we need to see that, in the passage from Isaiah 55, God is addressing three issues:

His plan for the Messiah,

His purpose for the Messiah,

His plea to Humanity.

  We had been discussing the first of these, that God is intending to fulfill his promise to David, that one of David’s descendants would rule over God’s People.  But we need to be aware of not restricting ourselves as to whom God seeks to incorporate as His People.

  The passage commences with the words “Come, everyone”  (Isaiah 55: 1)  The writers of the Interpreter’s Bible write that these words “establish the universal context of the poem.  Every one is invited, none are excluded.  The catholicity of the Prophet’s Gospel comes to full expression here.”  (The Interpreter’s Bible Volume 5 p643)  John Sawyer, in his Commentary on the writings of Isaiah, states, “This is a chapter where God’s love for all people and the dependability of His Word are celebrated as nowhere else in the Old Testament.”  (John Sawyer in Isaiah  The Daily Study Bible p155)  Derek Kidner writes that “This call to the needy is unsurpassed for warmth of welcome even in the New Testament.”  (Derek Kidner in Isaiah in the New bible Commentary p619) 

  God is offering an open invitation for all people, everywhere, to experience the blessings He is offering to those who heed His call to “Come.”  What are these blessings?  Are there parallels with the teaching of Jesus Christ?

  God addresses those who are “thirsty”, those who cannot afford to buy grain to eat, those who cannot afford to buy “wine and milk”.  We are talking about thirst and hunger in the context of the ‘things of God’, “the spiritually hungry and thirsty”  (Gregory Beale and Donald Carson in Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament p20).  Jesus said, “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”  (Matthew 5: 6a)  , or as the Study Note in the NIV bible states, “those who have a deep longing for both personal righteousness and justice for the oppressed”  (Study Note in NIV Study Bible p1471)  .  God promises,

“If you are thirsty, here is water.”

“If you are hungry, here is money to buy food, and wine and milk”.

“Come, for it is in and through me that your spiritual needs will be met.”  Or as Jesus said, “for they shall be filled”. 

  But there is the added warning,

“Why spend money on what does not satisfy?  Why spend your wages and still be hungry?”  (Isaiah 55: 2) 

  God is saying, ‘Why look elsewhere for what only I can give to you?  Why question my promise to you or my ability to provide for your spiritual needs?  Why go through the fruitless search by yourself to find what is fulfilling and meaningful in this life and in the next life, for what gives you peace of mind and soul?  For it is all here, ready for me to give to you.’, “the best of food” as Isaiah writes.  (Isiaah 55: 2b) 

  In the same manner, Jesus said,  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on Earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven.”  (Matthew 6: 19 & 20)  . 

  You shall find in God all that you need. 

  Then we have these odd sentences,

“Come, you that have no money, buy grain and eat!  Come!  Buy wine and milk – it will cost you nothing.”  (Isaiah 55: 1b) 

  To meet your physical needs, there is a cost involved in the purchase of food and drink.  Likewise, to meet your spiritual needs, there must also be a cost to be met.  But, if God says, “it will cost you nothing”, who is going to pay the price?

  The price has been paid by the “suffering servant” referred to in Isaiah 53: 5 to 9, who “was put to death for the sins of people”  (Isaiah 53: 8b)  .

  The Apostle Paul writes to the Church in Rome saying,

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  (Romans 6: 23) 

  He wrote to the Church in Ephesus saying,

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith.  It is not the result of our own efforts, it is the gift from God, so that no-one can boast about it.”  (Ephesians 2: 8 & 9) 

  God is offering a seat at the Heavenly feast, and He has already paid the price for our admittance.  The death of God’s suffering servant  (Isaiah 53: 5 to 9)  was the price that was paid so that all people could receive God’s free gift of life.  (John 3: 16)  (Study Note in NIV Study Bible p1111)   

  Life gives hope for the present and for the future.  Life is a gift to be treasured.  But we have physical life now, so, to what life is God referring when He states,

“Come to me, and you will have life.”  (Isaiah 55: 3) 

  It is to be understood as “life lived in fellowship with God, both now and forever”.  (Study Note in NIV Study Bible p1626) 

  Jesus said,

“Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life which the Son of Man will give you.  On him God the Father has placed His seal of approval.”  (John 6: 27) 

  Elsewhere Jesus said,

“I am the bread of life.  Those who come to me will never go hungry, and those who believe in me will never thirst.”  (John 3: 35) 

  “Jesus presents himself as the means of new spiritual life – eternal life – for those who become children of God (through their faith in him).”  (Gregory Beale and Donald Carson in Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament p436) 

  God promises life, God provides the means to receive this gift of life.  But what part do we play in all of this?

  Having explained His purpose for the Messiah, God now issues His plea to Humanity.

  “Turn to the LORD, now that He is near.”  Isaiah 55: 6 

  God’s willingness to bless individuals must be matched by an individual’s earnest desire to get back to a right relationship with God.  God’s plea to the sinner is to repent.  This was mirrored in the call of John the Baptist and in the call of Jesus Christ,

”repent, turn away from your sins, because the Kingdom of Heaven is near”  (Matthew 4: 17) 

  God is “challenging the individual to align their mind and their will, their habits and their plans” to the standards of God and to the will and purpose of God.  (Derek Kidner in Isaiah in the New bible Commentary p619)  God’s plea is for the individual to consider their past, how their thoughts, their words, and their actions did not just displease God but created a barrier between them and God, a barrier that prevented the close relationship with them for which God seeks.

  But the great hope and joy that God is presenting to the individual is that this barrier can be removed.  “God is merciful and quick to forgive”, so Isaiah writes  (Isaiah 55: 7b)  .  In the Revised Standard Version we read, “for God will abundantly pardon”.  One writer states,

“A pardon is an official warrant of remission of penalty.  God alone can grant a pardon.”  (Notes in Revised Standard Version p1086) 

  But we are assured that God is eager to forgive and to restore that close relationship with the individual which Adam and Eve first experienced in the Garden of Eden.  (Isaiah 43: 25)  (Study Note in NIV Study Bible p1093) 

  The LORD says,

“Come, everyone, heed my plea.  Turn back to me, change your way of thinking, accept that you have wronged me in the past and in the present, but be assured of my love and mercy for you, be assured of my ready and complete pardon, and then come to the feast that I have prepared for you.”

  Have you listened to the voice of God?  Have you heard His plea to turn back to Him?  Have you accepted His assurances of grace freely given?  God offers His invitation to us to come, let us not turn our backs on Him and refuse to go?  Amen.

Offering

Offering Prayer    

‘For the life that you have given’  TiS774  

[This hymn is being sung to the tune Austria )

[This YouTube clip is for another hymn so disregard the words – only the one verse is needed.]

For the life that you have given,

For the love in Christ made known,

With these fruits of time and labour,

With these gifts that are your own:

Here we offer, Lord, our praises;

Heart and mind and strength we bring;

Give us grace to love and serve you,

Living what we pray and sing.

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Prayers for Others

Almighty God, knowing of your love for all of Humanity, especially of your compassion for the needy, we come to you with our cares and our concerns.

We bring to you our prayers for the World around us and for people individually.

God of compassion and mercy, just as you helped Aaron and Moses as they spoke boldly to Pharaoh on behalf of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt, help us speak up for modern slaves around the world and even in our own back yards.

You gather the outcast, heal the broken hearted and bind up their wounds; please bring liberty and freedom to all whose lives are entangled in slavery and trafficking in our world today.  Lift up the downtrodden and tread wickedness into the dust.

(https://www.chausa.org/prayers/cha-prayer-library/prayer/prayer-for-international-day-for-the-abolition-of-slavery)

We pray for all who are hungry, facing famine, are undernourished, or struggling with failed crops:

that you will ease their suffering and touch the hearts of many to share what they have in abundance with them.

We pray for all who work in or support food pantries:

that their efforts may show the love and compassion of God to those in need.

We pray for all who work the fields or bring food to our tables:

that you will protect them, renew their strength, and make fruitful their labours.

We pray for those who visit and bring nourishment to the sick and homebound:

that they may see Christ in all whom they serve and bring God’s love to those whom they visit.

We pray for the members of all levels of our Governments and Local Councils:

that you will open a new understanding of the issues that they face and help them to work together to serve make better our Society.

We pray for the sick, for those injured in accidents or in their employment:

that you will relieve their pain, restore them to wholeness, and guide all who are caring for them.

We pray for all recovering from natural disasters:

that you will give them strength and help them find the resources to repair and rebuild.

We pray for all who are seeking employment:

that God will give them courage, open new opportunities for them, guide them to settings where their gifts can be fully utilized.

We pray for Peace:

that you will transform hearts so that violence may end and dialogue expanded in areas of conflict throughout the World.

We pray for the Church:

that we may welcome all who hunger for meaning and purpose where they can be nourished by your Word and the Bread of Life.

Copyright © 2020. Joe Milner. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to reproduce for personal or parish use. – https://liturgy.slu.edu/18OrdA080220/ideas_other.html

Lord God, we bring these prayers to you, trusting in your lovingkindness.  To your glory we pray.

Amen

You are invited to listen to, or join in singing the Hymn ‘O God of every Nation’

Wiliam Reid

Sacrament of Communion

 (following Uniting in Worship 2 p162 to p222) 

The Peace

The peace of the Lord be always with you.

And also with you.

The Invitation

Christ, our Lord, invites to his Table all who love him, all who earnestly repent of their sin and who seek to live in peace with one another.

Prayer of Approach

Lord God, we come to your Table, trusting in your mercy and not in any goodness of our own.  We are not worthy even to gather up the crumbs under your table, but it is your nature always to have mercy, and on that we depend.  So, feed us with the body and blood of Jesus Christ, your son, that we may for ever live in him and he in us. Amen.

Narrative of the Institution of the Lord’s Supper

Hear the words of the institution of this Sacrament as recorded by the Apostle Paul:

  “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it and said, ‘This is my body which is for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.’  In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new Covenant in my blood.  Do this, as often as you drink it, for the remembrance of me.  For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.’”  (1 Corinthians 11: 23 to 26) 

  And, so, according to our Saviour’s command, we set this bread and this cup apart for the Holy Supper to which he calls us, and we come to God with our prayers of thanksgiving.

Great Prayer of Thanksgiving

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts.

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give our thanks and praise.

With all we are, we give you glory, God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the one and holy God, Sovereign of all Time and Space.  We thank you for this wide red land, for its rugged beauty, for its changing seasons, for its diverse people, and for all that lives upon this fragile Planet.  You have called us to be the Church in this place, to give voice to every creature under Heaven.  We rejoice with all that you have made, as we join the company of Heaven in their song:

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, Heaven and Earth are full of your glory.  Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed be the One who comes in the name of the Lord.  Hosanna in the highest.

We thank you that you called a covenant people to be the light to the Nations.  Through Moses you taught us to love your Law, and, in the Prophets, you cried out for justice.  In the fullness of your mercy, you became one with us in Jesus Christ, who gave himself up for us on the cross.  You make us alive together with him, that we may rejoice in his presence and share his peace.  By water and the Spirit, you open the Kingdom to all who believe, and welcome us to your Table: for by grace we are saved through faith.  With this bread and this cup we do as our Saviour commands: we celebrate the redemption he has won for us.

Christ has died.  Christ is risen.  Christ will come again.

Pour out the Holy Spirit on us and on these gifts of the bread and the cup, that they may be for us the body and blood of Christ.  Make us one with him, one with each other, and one in ministry in the World, until at last we feast with him in the Kingdom.  Through your Son, Jesus Christ, in your holy Church, all honour and glory are yours, Father Almighty, now and for ever.

Blessing and honour and glory and power are yours for ever and ever.  Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil,

For the Kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours,

now and forever.  Amen.

Breaking of the Bread

The bread we break is a sharing in the body of Christ.

The cup we take is a sharing in the blood of Christ.

The gifts of God for the People of God.

Lamb of God

Jesus, Lamb of God,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, bearer of our sins,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, redeemer of the World,

Grant us peace.

The Distribution

Receive this Holy Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, and feed upon him in your hearts by faith with thanksgiving.

(after all have received the bread)

The body of Christ keep you in eternal life.

(after all have received the juice)

The blood of Christ keep you in eternal life.

Prayer after Communion

Blessed be God who calls us together.

Praise to God who makes us one People.

Blessed be God who has forgiven our sins.

Praise to God who gives us hope and freedom.

Blessed be God whose Word is proclaimed.

Praise to God who is revealed as the One who loves.

Blessed be God who alone has called us.

Therefore, we offer to God all that we are and all that we shall become.

Accept, O God, our sacrifice of praise.

Accept our thanks for we have seen the greatness of your love.  Amen.

You are invited to listen to, or join in singing the Hymn ‘I am Thine, O Lord’  ( Alexander’s Hymns No. 3 number 47)

Frances van Alstyne

Benediction    

Come now to the fountain of cleansing,

Plunge deep in its lifegiving flow.

His mercy and grace are sufficient,

His pardon He longs to bestow.

And may the blessing of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rest upon you and remain with you always.  Amen.

You are invited to listen to, or join in singing the Benediction Song ‘I am His, and He is mine.’  (Alexander’s Hymns No. 3 number 193)

Wade Robinson