Easter 6 - Christian Aid Sunday

Easter 6 - Christian Aid Sunday

Easter 6 - Sunday 10^th May 2020 

Burton Joyce Community Church

CHRISTIAN AID WEEK

Welcome to worship. 

We’ll begin by singing:

Break thou the bread of life (SoF* 50)

Let us pray:

God of all the Earth, be with us now as we share in worship. Teach us to love one another. Open our hearts to encompass people everywhere, in their need, in their joy, in their hopes and aspirations. We are all one in you, in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Forgive us, loving Lord, for our doubts. Forgive us that we are slow to follow. Forgive us for denying your life in us and in others by the way we live. Forgive us - as we forgive one another. Live in us as we live in your grace. In the name of the risen Christ. Amen

Our Father ...

Hymn: Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (SoF 470)

Reading: John 21, 1-14

Reflection:

Jesus meets them back where he first called them, in Galilee. It is a recommissioning. It is a new calling and a new sending.

Where did you first meet Jesus? What did he say to you then? What is he saying to you now? Let's go forward together in his name. Amen

Hymn: I heard the voice of Jesus say (SoF 215)

Prayer of lament and intercession:

God our refuge, we come with empty hands but wit hearts full of questions, bruised by loss, fearing the future, stunned by events. Draw near to us as we place our hopes in your hands.

God in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Hear the cry of our hearts for bereaved neighbours and those pained by absence; hold those who are hurting. Remind us that we all play our part and save lives by staing at home.

On Christian Aid Week Sunday, we pray with communities across the world, especially people with limited sanitation, unable to wash their hands and with little chance to self-isolate.

God in your mercy, hear our prayer.

We pray for Christian Aid partners providing vital supplies, communicating clear information, raising the voices of the vulnerable and ensuring they are kept as safe as possible.

We pray for wisdom amd resources for key workers but, as we clap them and as we praise you for your creation, we long for the first shoots of your kingdom to appear and grow.

God in your mercy, hear all our prayers. Amen

Please pray for others, as you wish to pray today.

Hymn: Love divine all loves excelling (SoF 377)

A Blessing:

May the presence of the Creator refresh you, may the comfort of the Son renew you, may the inspiration of the Spirit restore you to love in action, from a distance, in our neighbourhoods, near and far, this day and for evermore. Amen.

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*SoF = Songs of Fellowship

This service outline was developed using material provided by Rev Colin Bones [URC]. With thanks

Today's service is focused on Christian Aid Week. In normal times, this would have been a United service with all the churches in the village coming together as Churches Together in Burton Joyce, Bulcote and Stoke Bardolph. Donations will help respond to the Coronavirus emergency. 

Make a donation at: 

www.caweek.org/payin

or call 020 7523 2269 to donate by telephone.

Thank you

                            

Christian Aid Week

Christian Aid Week

It is Christian Aid Week next week: 10th - 16th May 2020.

• Christian Aid Plant Sale (& coffee morning)
• Christian Aid Sunday

Because of the VE Day weekend this weekend, Churches Together in Burton Joyce, Bulcote & Stoke Bardolph had planned to hold Christian Aid Week activities next weekend, at the end of Christian Aid Week. Our normal Plant Sale and Coffee morning on the Saturday has already taken place, in effect, virtually, with sales of plants raising around £150.  

This was the email Dinah sent round last week with the news:

Just had a phone call from Brian F... to say he is effectively sold out, and has raised the grand total of £146!  He will have rhubarb to sell in a couple of week’s time (tell me if you would like some). So he hopes to top £150.   He said he would make out a cheque for Christian Aid, Cynthia, so I’ll make sure that comes to you..  He is very chuffed that it has all managed to happen!  

I think we're all very chuffed.  

Many thanks to Brian and to everyone who bought the plants. 
(You will have to make your own coffee!)

As for Christian Aid Sunday, that was to be a united service on Sunday 17th May 2020 but, obviously, that will not be happening this year. However, our weekly service outline for next week here on the BJCC website will be for a Christian Aid themed service so I hope you will look out for that when the time comes. 

In the meantime ... it is Christian Aid Week but there will be no door-to-door or street collection so please give generously using the link below. Thank you.

Christian Aid Week: giving & appeals

 

Easter 5: Sunday 10th May 2020

Easter 5

A short service for Sunday 10th May 2020
 

At home with God

Welcome
Be strong & take heart, all you who hope in the Lord 
[Psalm 31, verse 24]

A Song
[Songs of Fellowship 532]
The King is among us, His Spirit is here
Let's draw near and worship; let songs fill the air

A Prayer

Be still and know that I am God
I am the Lord that healeth thee
[verses 1 & 2; Be still and know; SoF 41]

Our Father ...

A Reading
John 14, 1-10
Do not let your hearts be troubled
 
Jesus says: 

There is plenty of room at my Father's place. I'll go and get things ready & then we can all be together again.

But we don't know the way

Yes, you do, Thomas. I am the way.

It will be great actually meeting the Father after all this time!

Philip! How long have I been with you?

Reflection
Yes. It is rather a strange conversation. What did Jesus mean? 

I think he was trying to tell his friends & disciples that God is here now, with us, always. Jesus himself is our Emmanuel. (Emmanuel means God with us.) 

During lockdown, we have had to stay confined largely in our own homes. It makes me think that what Jesus means when he speaks of his Father's house having 'many rooms' is that, now, our homes are his home, so all of our homes taken together make up 'my Father's house'. He is with us and we are with him. In this sense, we are still all together even though we are separated because of the coronavirus energency.

A Song
[Songs of Fellowship 1448] May the mind of Christ my Saviour dwell in me from day to day

We Pray for the World
Someone's crying, Lord. Kumbya, my Lord, Kumbya

A Blessing
Living God, 
let us so live with you, and you with us, 
in forgiveness & peace, in your Spirit, 
that the world is changed. Amen


A Hymn
[Hymns & Psalms 711; Tune: Binchester]

Happy are they, they that love God,
Whose hearts have Christ confessed,
Who by his cross have found their life
And 'neath his yoke their rest.

Glad is the praise, sweet are the songs
When they together sing;
And strng the prayers that bow the ear
Of heaven's eternal King.

Christ to their homes will give his peace
And make their loves his own;
But ah, what tares the evil one
Has in this garden sown!

Sad were our lot, evil this earth,
Did not its sorrows prove
The path whereby the sheep may find
The fold of Jesu's love.

Then shall thay know, they that love him,
A day when joys rise up;
For death itself cannot unbind
Such happy fellowship.

Robert Bridges (1844-1930) alt.

Keeping the Hours

Keeping the Hours

I've often thought it would nice to go on retreat but never have, out of laziness, busyness, fear or obligation and beholdenness to others. Now retreat, of a kind, has been forced on us; well, some of us. There are those - the key workers, those in essential roles, the people we can't do without, the real heroes whether recognised or not - who do not have the luxury of retreat. The rest of us are in lockdown.

And now I'm here, in some ways, I want it to last for ever.

Of course, it is irksome. It has been a struggle coming to terms with the restrictions and the limitations. There have been problems with getting the shopping: enough shopping, the right kind of shopping, the shopping you need when you need it, shopping without risking your life or those of other people. But there is something good in it.

The rush has stopped. The manic helter-skelter of everyday life has paused. It is a relief not to have to be there then but only to have to be here now. It is good somehow for the soul.

Most of us spend most of our lives hurrying from one thing to another and for why? None of us knows. It is one product of the industrial revolution we could do without. Come to think of it: the industrial revolution has a lot to answer for. It has (excuse the language) f*cked *p the planet, destroyed the fragile web of life on which we depend, polluted the atmosphere with carbon dioxide and other noxious gases beyond recall ... and turned our lives into a living hell.

Why? To make the undeserving rich even richer. That's why.

Sorry. End of rant.

Keeping the hours. We need structure to our day. In retreat, in lockdown, we need some structure to hold on to, some framework that tells us where we are, or we go mad. The monastic communities knew that. They kept, & still do in some places, the hours of prayer.

These go back to the Desert Fathers in the mid fourth century but over the years they have become scrambled almost beyond recognition. I propose a revision. A scheme of hours fit for our own day and circumstances. Essentially, the hours of prayer give us the opportunity to stop every three hours and recalibrate our lives: this is where I am, this is who I am, this is what I'm doing, this is why I'm doing it.

The original scheme must have been something like this:

• Prime (the first hour, 3am, predawn)
• Terce (third, 6am, daybreak)
• Sext (sixth, 9am, midmorning)
• None (ninth, 12 noon)
• Afternoon (3pm)
• Dusk (6pm, nightfall)
• Compline (9pm, night)
• Vigil (12 midnight)

Near the equator, of course, daybreak is close to 6am and dusk to 6pm. So for the Desert Fathers in the deserts of Egypt around AD 350, the day and night divided approximately equally. Over the centuries, this scheme has become scrambled, the prayer clock seems to have been turned back or leapt forwards, or both, several times and new terms - lauds, matins - have been inserted into the scheme with confusing results.

Here is the new scheme.

The Burton Joyce Revised Hours of Prayer

• Prime (3am, pre-dawn, watching for the dawn, making a cup of tea)
• Lauds (6am, aka the dawn chorus, praise)
• Matins (9am, morning prayer, coffee-time)
• None (noon, midday prayers, lunch)
• Terce (3pm, afternoon prayer, afternoon tea)
• Sext (6pm, Evensong, thanksgiving, tea-time)
• Compline (9pm, night prayers, committal, supper)
• Vigil (midnight, night watch, the dark night of the soul)

Do you see that? Neat! By transferring Terce and Sext to the afternoon ... It may be nonsense to you but this None-sense makes sense to me.

Of course, there is no obligation. It's just that, knowing that in the background somewhere there is a structure to the day allows us to locate ourselves and, if we feel the inclination or have the opportunity, we can stop for a moment and recalibrate our lives, then carry on carrying on doing whatever it was we were doing before. Or something else.

No problem. Don't mention it.