A Service of Reconciliation; Sunday 13th June 2021

 

Nottingham North East Circuit 

Sunday 13th June 2021 

This act of worship has been prepared by Revd Moses Agyam and adapted for Burton Joyce Community Church by Phil Colbourn.

Hymns from Songs of Fellowship (SoF)

A Service of Healing and Reconciliation 

Welcome to this service of healing and reconciliation which focuses on St. Paul’s message of reconciliation and healing in Christ. 

Healing (and reconciliation) was central to the ministry of Jesus. There is an opportunity in this service to anoint yourself with oil, if you wish, to seek healing or pray for someone you know in need of healing. 

Gathering 

Jesus said: 

‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.’ 

And:

‘I have come that you may have life, and may have it in all its fullness.’ 

Let us worship

Our first hymn:

SoF 27 

As the deer

Let us pray 

God beyond us: we turn to you, we are made by you, our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you. God beside us: we listen for you, we yearn for you, we seek your healing touch. God within us: we are waiting for you, we are open to you, as you waken us with promise of new life. 

Silence 

Living God: make us confident in prayer, joyful in praise and responsive to your word, that we may know your peace in our hearts and healing in our lives. In silence we ask you to lift from us all that weighs us down or spoils our relationships or separates us from you. 

Silent confession 

A broken and a contrite heart you do not despise. 

Jesus says: Your sins are forgiven. Christ has set us free. 

Amen. Thanks be to God. 

We sing again:

SoF 469 

Praise to the Holiest in the height 

Reading: 

2 Corinthians 5: 6-10 (11-13) 14-17 

Sermon 

When the restrictions on care homes were recently eased, there were feelings of reunion, and for some, a sense of being reconciled to loved ones. One woman said, ‘Today feels like a red-letter day. It’s been hard for families to be separated. This is the day many have longed for – to be reunited with their families’. 

Reconciliation – the ways we use the word may miss its meaning: 

‘I’ve reconciled myself to the inevitable’ he says, throwing up his hands, lamenting a broken marriage. 

Reconciled = Resigned. 

‘We’ve reconciled the books at last’, she says, wiping her face in relief. 

Reconciled = Balanced; accounts equal on both sides. 

‘We’ve reconciled our differences for the good of the country’ after the Brexit negotiations. 

Reconciled = Compromised. 

Do you sense the underlying message in all of these? The lowest common denominator?’ It’s relief. ‘No need to struggle any more' (at least no point in trying). We’ve found a way to stand down. As Rodney King put it (the black man whose battering by police sparked the Los Angeles riots in 1991), ‘Can’t we all just get along?’ 

But is that the message of reconciliation Paul is charged to bring? If so, it isn’t good news. Maybe reconciliation – true reconciliation – requires a way of seeing, speaking, acting that is, in fact, radically different from a ‘human point of view’ (2 Cor. 5:16). 

Many of you may remember, among all the other tragedies of the war in Iraq, the bombing of the United Nations headquarters, and the death of Sergio de Mello, the UN representative. As he lay dying, pinned by the rubble, he was heard to say, ‘Whatever you do, don’t let the UN pull out of Iraq! What we are doing here may be the only hope for peace’. 

This is close to the reconciliation Paul has in mind: a feisty forgiveness and mutual commitment towards healing and peace. Not ‘forgive and forget’; ‘It’s alright; it didn’t really hurt’; ‘I won’t hold it against you; but don’t let it happen again!’ But: ‘Your hate is hereby countered with my love! Your fear is taken up into my trust’. Not that the past no longer matters or is deleted from history, but responded to with different language; no longer from a human point of view – but ‘that which humanity was made for, and can be recreated into’. 

Paul is convinced that reconciliation is a journey from hurt to healing. It is what happens beyond feisty forgiveness, namely, the mutual walking together toward healing, wholeness and peace. This radical path towards healing, already begun in Jesus’ death and resurrection, set forgiveness and healing loose upon the world. The heart of Paul’s message is captured by these words found on the prayer cards from Southwell minster: 

• Reconciliation - healing the rifts between ourselves and God. We do not have to earn God’s forgiveness. It is a gift. The self-giving love of God, seen in Jesus, is what changes us and draws us into faith. 

• Reconciliation – healing the division between people. Reaching out to build bridges (relationships) between people is at the heart of Christian life whether the gaps are racial, social, ethnic or religious. 

• Reconciliation – healing our damaged planet. We acknowledge our shared responsibility to care for our fragile and beautiful earth, its creatures and its resources. 

Paul says, this vision of healing is now the goal and the commitment of all Christians (2 Cor 5:18). May we know ourselves reconciled to God. And may God give to each of us a candle of the Spirit to help us work toward this vision of healing of all things in Christ. Amen. 

Response 

Prayers for healing, caring and reconciliation. 

Let us bring before God those who are on our hearts and minds. 

Loving God, long ago people brought their friends to Jesus, or came to him on behalf of others. So now we bring to you those who need your help. God of compassion and love, we offer you all our suffering and pain. Give us strength to bear our weakness, healing even when there is no cure. Amen. 

If you wish to, you may anoint your forehead with oil here or sit in silence holding in prayer yourself or any in need of healing.

‘Do not be afraid – I will save you. I have called you by name – you are mine. When you pass through deep waters, I will be with you; your troubles will not overwhelm you’. 

Come to God with your fears and hopes, sadness and regrets, pain and doubt, with whatever faith you have. Whether the storm is around you or within, the Saviour holds you; you are not alone. 

Silence 

Compassionate God, encircle us as we reach out in love. Wounded Christ, touch us in our weakness and our strength. Life-giving Spirit, breath through us, channels of your peace. 

This prayer is said as you sign yourself with the oil: 

Healing Spirit of God, at work in Jesus, present here and now, fill my whole being, free me of all harm, heal me of all my diseases, and give me peace. Amen. 

We say together the Lord’s Prayer: Our Father . . . 

Our final hymn:

SoF 381 

Make me a channel of your peace 

Dismissal and Blessing 

‘This life is not righteousness but growth in righteousness; not health but healing; not being but becoming; not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be but we are growing towards it. The process is not yet finished, but it is going on. This is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified’. (Martin Luther) 

May the Christ of all that has been and all that is to come stand by our side through daylight and darkness, heal us of the wounds of the past, and welcome us into the future. 

Go in peace, protected by God, befriended by Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and held by the prayers of the people. And the blessing of the sacred Trinity of love go with you now and always.

Amen. 

Notes: Some of the prayers are adapted from The Methodist Worship Book © TMCP, 1999. Other prayers from Worship from The United Reformed Church © URC, 2003.