Christ in Majesty, Christ the King 22 November 2020 at 11Am The

22 November 2020 at 11am

The Kingdom of Heaven is near

During his ministry before his death and resurrection, Jesus spoke frequently about the Kingdom of Heaven (or the Kingdom of God). This Kingdom is to be found wherever God's rule is acknowledged and wherever his loving purposes are made known. In this Kingdom, the poor, the needy, the weak and the outcast have a special place. "You are not far from the Kingdom of God" said Jesus.

1. The Greeting

Welcome in the name of Christ. God’s grace, mercy and peace be with you. And also with you

Introduction

Hymn: All glory, laud and honour

1. All glory, laud, and honor to you, Redeemer, King, to whom the lips of children made sweet hosannas ring. You are the King of Israel and David's royal Son, now in the Lord's name coming, the King and Blessed One.

2. The company of angels is praising you on high; and we with all creation in chorus make reply. The people of the Hebrews with palms before you went; our praise and prayer and anthems before you we present.

3. To you before your passion they sang their hymns of praise; to you, now high exalted, our melody we raise. As you received their praises, accept the prayers we bring, for you delight in goodness, O good and gracious King!

Theodulf, Bishop of Orleans (c. 820); J. M. Neale (1854); M. Teschner (1613)

2. Opening Prayer

Almighty God, We gather in your name and ask that by your Holy Spirit our hearts may be open to worship and praise you, and to receive the riches of your grace. Amen.

3. The Confession Jesus says, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is close at

hand.” Matt 3.2 So let us turn away from sin and turn to Christ, confessing our sins in penitence and faith.

The kingdom is yours,but we turn away from your just rule Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

The power is yours, but we trust in our own power and strength Christ, have mercy. Christ, have mercy.

The glory is yours, but we fall short of the glory of God Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen. 4

4. The Prayer for the Day We take a few moments of silence to collect the prayers of our heart in the collect for the Feast of Christ the King:

God the Father, help us to hear the call of Christ the King and to follow in his service, whose kingdom has no end; for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, one glory. Amen.

Barnabas Spot with Anthea Nicholson

Song: My Jesus, my Saviour

My Jesus, my Savior Lord there is none like you All of my days, I want to praise The wonders of your mighty love My comfort, my shelter Tower of refuge and strength Let every breath, all that I am Never cease to worship you

Shout to the Lord, all the earth let us sing Power and majesty, praise to the King Mountains bow down and the seas will roar At the sound of your name

I sing for joy at the work of your hands Forever I'll love you, forever I'll stand Nothing compares to the promise I have in you

(Repeat)

5. Ministry of the Word

Let us prepare ourselves for the Word of God as it comes to us in the reading of scripture.

Send your Spirit to us and bring life to our understanding, Rise within us now and help us to hear your word. Amen.

The first reading is from Ezekiel Chapter 34 Verses 11-16,20-24

For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I

will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.

Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them: I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.

I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them; I, the Lord, have spoken.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

The second reading is from the Gospel Matthew of Chapter 25 verses 31-end

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew Glory to you O Lord

‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed

me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family,* you did it to me.” Then he will say to those at his left hand, “You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’

This is the Gospel of the Lord Praise to you O Christ.

6. The Sermon - Ian Mylam Everybody knows that Jesus was born in Bethlehem to Jewish parents who came from the Galilean town of Nazareth, where Jesus was brought up. He followed his father into the trade as a carpenter. Why am I spending time telling you that this morning?

The reason is that I want to emphasise that Jesus was a complete human being who was born at a particular place at a particular time. He grew up as a boy and a man shaped by the culture around him, just as we are. Jesus had an unusual interest and deep understanding of the Hebrew scriptures. Reading material at the time was very limited, so these scriptures would have been the major influence in his life. We can see the impact on his life and understanding from the short passage that we read in Ezekiel chapter 34. In verse 15 we read “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God.” When Jesus says according to the gospel of John that, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me”, he clearly had Ezekiel 34 in mind. Furthermore In verse 11 we read, “For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out” and in verse 16, “I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strays” we are clearly led to two passages in Luke’s gospel. First in Luke chapter 15 in the parable of the lost sheep we find, “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?” Secondly in Luke chapter 19 the story of Zaccheus the glimpse of Jesus. That passage ends, “For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.” There is a special place in God’s heart for those who feel that they are lost in life. Jesus recognised a yearning in Zaccheus to live a life that did not involve exploiting the weak and vulnerable and so he went into Zaccheus’ house to talk about it. Jesus wants to come into the life of those who are lost in many ways. Uncertain of the future. Lost or broken relationships in family or partner. Just wondering what this life is for. What is remarkable about Jesus and is important for us to understand is that he was a young Jewish man from Galilee, yet he claimed for himself characteristics that Ezekiel had attributed to God. That is why Jesus caused such uproar in the Jewish establishment. The Jewish authorities saw themselves as the guarantor of God’s presence amongst the people of Israel. They were threatened by

Jesus’ criticism. Jesus was criticising the authorities for controlling access to God as well as drawing attention to himself as especially favoured by God. These characteristics are not only historical, they are characteristics of Jesus Christ in which we can have faith today and find our lives inspired and uplifted. Jesus is continually looking after the lost sheep. Otherwise probably none of us would be here now. Jesus continues to make himself known to all the other lost sheep. He longs that everybody comes to him and enjoys the blessing that a life lived in God brings. I love the thought that we have in John 10, not only that Jesus knows his own and his own know him, but also that the sheep follow Jesus because they know his voice. However short or long we have been following Jesus he continues to speak to us. He speaks to us through a myriad of ways. I hope today that he is speaking through worshipping at St Mary’s and through reading the Bible passages we are looking at today. Jesus makes himself known to us through the words of our friends and family, especially when we seek their advice. Sometimes he speaks to us through the ordinary circumstances of life. As we continue to listen for God and to look out for him, we learn to sense the occasions when God is speaking through an event which is exterior to our own lives. Finally Jesus speaks to us through the Holy Spirit. On occasions the Holy Spirit acts as our conscience. Sometimes the Holy Spirit gives us an idea to do something new or to connect with a particular person. When we take the time to open ourselves to God in our own times of prayer he can make God very real to us. There is also a link between the words of Jesus in our gospel reading about the sheep and the goats. and Ezekiel 34. Ezekiel 34 verse 20 where the Lord God says, “I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.” Verse 17, that we did not read, says “I shall judge between rams and goats.” Our natural inclination is not to like judgement, but it is part and parcel of everyday life. We are exercising judgement when we make our choices. Brexit or Remain. Lockdown restrictions or loosen restrictions. Tottenham or Arsenal.

We are quick to judge people who are accused of criminal activity. Our newspapers love to build up people and then to damage them because they know that we who buy the newspapers enjoy the stories. We love the television programmes where the judges have the horrible job of telling somebody that they have to leave the show. I suppose the particular type of judgement we most dislike, is judgement of people because of who they are. Jesus agrees with us when he says in Matthew chapter 7, “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgement you make will you be judged.” However the Bible has many references to judgement not just in the Old Testament, but also in the New Testament. The story of the Bible is about a God of Love, but also a God who judges because he has created a moral universe. Just think what a world we would live in without any notion of morality and judgement. Having said we find it to be uncomfortable when we are on the receiving end of being judged. We can see this in both of today’s readings. Ezekiel 34 highlights the judgement between the fat sheep and the lean sheep, between rams and goats. God will bring justice. He will seek those who are lost, will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong he will destroy. These are stark words that apply particularly to those of us who have been blessed with plenty in this world. They remind us of Jesus’ acerbic wit in Matthew 19 verse 24, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” The judgement between sheep and goats of Ezekiel 34 is the catalyst for an extended description in Matthew 25. This story clearly distinguishes between the sheep and goats in the ways that they behave on earth. The first thing to notice is that neither the sheep nor the goats have any knowledge of why they are judged. When the judgment is made, the sheep and the goats respond in the same way. “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or sick or in prison?” None of us really knows the standards by which

God judges us? Perhaps there are different standards according to the advantages and the revelation that we have enjoyed in this life. None of can write off another person because of the way that they are living. Only God can look at our hearts. It does not explicitly say it, but the clear implication of the gospel passage is that Jesus totally identifies with the stranger, the naked, the sick and the prisoner. The sheep were commended because they served Jesus when they served these people. The goats were severely criticised and judged when they failed to serve these people. We cannot know the grounds for the judgement. That is the role of God and God alone. Jesus’ words are an exhortation for all of us to care for strangers, the naked, the sick and prisoners. Each of us are called according to our gifts to serve our neighbours in different ways. The need is endless, perhaps more than ever in the Time of Corona. The question for each of us is to ask God where, whom and how shall we serve? Be assured that God knows us. He cares for us. He is continually making himself available to us a in a myriad of ways. God longs that we see him or hear him. In declaring that he is the Good Shepherd Jesus was aligning himself with God, who much of the Old Testament, not just Ezekiel 34, says is the shepherd of the flock of the people of God. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep so that we might have life with God here today and reaching into eternity. God is with us, even though we walk through the darkest valley, we fear no evil, for God comforts us. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives!

7. The Affirmation of Faith

Let us declare our faith in God.

Christ died for our sins

in accordance with the Scriptures; he was buried; he was raised to life on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures; afterwards he appeared to his followers, and to all the apostles: this we have received, and this we believe. Amen. from 1 Corinthians 15.3-7

Notices

8. Intercessions

From the separateness of our situations, we join together in praying for God’s world, each other and ourselves.

Please offer your own prayers, remembering those in our community and around the world in particular need at this time.

After each prayer, we may say:

Lord, in your mercy; Hear our prayer.

At the end of the prayers of intercession, the following may be said:

Merciful Father, Accept these prayers for the sake of your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Collection

During this time we are not able to take a collection in Church to support the work of St Mary’s and our mission partners.

If you are able to make your offering by online giving, please visit our Virgin Money Giving page (access here if you are using an electronic version of the booklet) or contact Imogen Erskine in the Parish Office for further details on [email protected].

9. The Peace

We are fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God, through Christ our Lord, who came and preached peace to those who were far off and those who were near. Ephesians 2.19,17 The peace of the Lord be always with you. And also with you. Let us offer one another a sign of peace. .

10. The Great 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 thanks and praise.

It is right to praise you, Father, Lord of all creation; in your love you made us for yourself.

When we turned away you did not reject us, but came to meet us in your Son. You embraced us as your children and welcomed us to sit and eat with you. In Christ you shared our life that we might live in him and he in us. He opened his arms of love upon the cross and made for all the perfect sacrifice for sin. On the night he was betrayed, at supper with his friends he took bread, and gave you thanks; he broke it and gave it to them, saying: Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me. Father, we do this in remembrance of him: his body is the bread of life. At the end of supper, taking the cup of wine, he gave you thanks, and said: Drink this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins;

do this in remembrance of me. Father, we do this in remembrance of him: his blood is shed for all. As we proclaim his death and celebrate his rising in glory, send your Holy Spirit that this bread and this wine may be to us the body and blood of your dear Son. As we eat and drink these holy gifts make us one in Christ, our risen Lord. With your whole Church throughout the world we offer you this sacrifice of praise and lift our voice to join the eternal song of heaven: Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.

11. The 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, 16

now and forever. Amen.

12. The Breaking of the Bread

We break this bread to share in the body of Christ. Though we are many, we are one body, because we all share in one bread.

Anthem: Ubi caritas Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est. Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor. Exsultemus, et in ipso jucundemur. Timeamus, et amemus Deum vivum. Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero.

Where charity and love are, there God is. The love of Christ has gathered us into one. Let us exult, and in him be joyful. Let us fear and let us love the living God. And from a sincere heart let us love each other.

M. Durufle (1902-1986) The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, led by S. Cleobury (1946-2019)

10. Prayer of Dedication

For the roots of our community, for what we share together, for the path that lies before us now and the future in your hands, we give you thanks.

Take us and use us this day that through us the light of Your glory may shine in the world. Amen.

11. The Final Blessing

Christ our King make us faithful and strong to do his will, that we may reign with him in glory; and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among us and remain with us always. Amen.

Hymn: Christ triumphant

1. Christ triumphant, ever reigning, Saviour, Master, King! Lord of heav’n, our lives sustaining, hear us as we sing:

Yours the glory and the crown,

The high renown, the eternal name.

2. Word incarnate, truth revealing, Son of Man on earth! Pow’r and majesty concealing by your humble birth: (Refrain) 3. Suff’ring servant, scorned, ill-treated, victim crucified! Death is through the cross defeated, sinners justified: (Refrain)

4. Priestly King, enthroned for ever high in heav’n above! Sin and death and hell shall never stifle hymns of love: (Refrain) 5. So our hearts and voices raising through the ages long, ceaselessly upon you gazing, this shall be our song: (Refrain) Michael Saward (1932-2015); John Barnard (1948)

12. The Dismissal

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord; In the name of Christ. Amen.

Cover Image: Christ in Majesty, by Jan Henryk de Rosen, National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington DC (1959) The mosaic depicting the youthful features of Christ the King, is in keeping with those found in early images of Jesus found in the Roman catacombs

The forms of service in this booklet are authorised for use in the Church of England and incorporate material from Common Worship (©The Archbishop's Council 2000), The Promise of His Glory (© CBF Church of England 1990, 1991) and Patterns for Worship (© CBF Church of England 1989, 1995). Material is reproduced with permission. Bible readings are taken from the New Revised Standard Version (© National Council of Churches of Christ, USA 1989), reproduced with permission.