Sunday Worship 6 April 2025

worship to comfort & inspire, excite & energise

Order of Service

Below you will find the Order of Service, prayers, hymns and sermon for today’s service.   You can either simply read this or you can
 
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Sunday Worship from the United Reformed Church
for Sunday 6 April 2025

 
Today’s service is led by the Revd Andy Braunston

Welcome

Hello and welcome to worship today as we mark the fifth Sunday of Lent.  Through Lent we follow Jesus on his slow road to Jerusalem; this week the plot thickens in our Gospel reading as against the background of the plans to kill him Mary anoints Jesus for his death.  Each of our readings today has an interesting, political, context; a context different to our own but with some similarities as we wonder what we might need to say in our own deeply troubled times.  My name is Andy Braunston and I am the United Reformed Church’s Minister for Digital Worship; I’m leading today from my home in the beautiful West Mainland of Orkney.  So as we gather we join together in our Call to Worship.

Call to Worship

We look at all you have done for us Majestic One, and we are dazed, 
as if in a dream, and yet: we come to worship.

Our mouths brim with laughter, Risen Lord, 
joy is in our lips gushing and burbling like a stream as: we come to worship.

As we worship we look for guidance in the desert places from you, 
Most Holy Spirit.  We yearn for your Word as a stream in the wilderness.  Where we’ve been in pain we look for joy.  Where we’ve been in sadness we find your presence to inspire and cheer us as: we come to worship.

Hymn     Sing of the Lord’s Goodness, Father of All Wisdom
Fr Ernest Sands © 1991 OCP Publications OneLicence # A-734713 unknown singer and congregation at Jazz Church.

Sing of the Lord’s goodness, Father of all wisdom,
come to him and bless his name.
Mercy he has shown us,
his love is for ever,
faithful to the end of days.

Come, then, all you nations,
sing of your Lord’s goodness,
melodies of praise & thanks to God.
Ring out the Lord’s glory,
praise him with your music,
worship him and bless his name.

Sing of the Lord’s goodness,
Father of all wisdom,
come to him and bless his name.
Mercy he has shown us,
his love is for ever,
faithful to the end of days.

Come, then, all you nations,
sing of your Lord’s goodness,
melodies of praise & thanks to God.
Ring out the Lord’s glory,
praise him with your music,
worship him and bless his name.

Power he has wielded, 
honour is his garment,
risen from the snares of death.
His word he has spoken,
one bread he has broken,
new life he now gives to all.

Come, then, all you nations,
sing of your Lord’s goodness,
melodies of praise & thanks to God.
Ring out the Lord’s glory,
praise him with your music,
worship him and bless his name.

Courage in our darkness,
comfort in our sorrow,
Spirit of our God most high;
Solace for the weary, 
pardon for the sinner,
splendour of the living God.

Come, then, all you nations,
sing of your Lord’s goodness,
melodies of praise & thanks to God.
Ring out the Lord’s glory,
praise him with your music,
worship him and bless his name.

Praise him with your singing, 
praise him with the trumpet,
praise God with the lute and harp; 
praise him with the cymbals,
praise him with your dancing, 
praise God til the end of days.

Come, then, all you nations,
sing of your Lord’s goodness,
melodies of praise & thanks to God.
Ring out the Lord’s glory,
praise him with your music,
worship him and bless his name.

Prayers of Approach, Confession, and Grace

We come with our prayers and praises today,
Most Holy Spirit, courage in our darkness.
We know You are solace for the weary,
pardon for the sinner and splendour of the Living God.
We sense your presence as perfume in the air,
as static electricity ready to crack,
as the warmth in our souls,
and we bring You our thanks and praise.

We come with our prayers and praises today, Lord Jesus, 
for in the face of death You offer life,
in the face of anger You offer calm.
in the face of gloom You offer light.
We hear Your call to understand and love our world,
even as we try to make sense of all that goes on in it.
We hear Your insistent voice telling us to tell truth, 
heal wounds, and stand up for righteousness,
and so we bring You our thanks and praise.

We come with our prayers and praises today, Eternal Majesty,
yet know we have failed:
we have failed to recognise you amongst us 
preferring only to see ourselves.
We have failed to see you in the poor and the least,
preferring only to see the great.
We have failed to see you in the gloom,
preferring only to see the shadows.
We have failed to tell Your truth,
preferring the lies of our world.
Forgive us, O God, and wake us up,
that we might bring You our thanks and praise.  Amen.

Like a father running to welcome an estranged child,
like a mother gathering her young to herself,
like a rock on which we stand,
God is loving and faithful.
Where there is true repentance God forgives our sins;
so turn back to God, accept the love that is offered,
forgive others, and have the courage to forgive yourselves,
that you might be free.  Amen.

Introduction

We listen to ancient words – a passage from Isaiah which sees God at work in great political change, the tragedy of Jesus’ approaching betrayal and death and we sing some of Psalm 126 set to the haunting American folk tune Wayfaring Stranger.

Prayer for Illumination

Make a way in the wilderness of our hearts, O God,
that we may drink from the deep refreshing rivers of Your Word.
That as you call us to see the new things you are doing,
we may hear, understand and respond,
that captives may be freed, 
powers of evil exposed 
and truth be told, Amen.

Reading     Isaiah 43:16-21

Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down; they cannot rise; they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: Do not remember the former things or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth; do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild animals will honour me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise.

Hymn     When God First Brought Us Back
Carl P Daw Jr.  © 1966 Hope Publishing Company OneLicence # A-734713. Performed by the St Cecilia Choir of Trinity Lutheran Church, Reading, Philadelphia, USA
 
When God first brought us back from exile,
we were as dazed as those who dream. 
Then were our mouths brimming with laughter;
joy from our lips gushed like a stream. 
The godless cried in envious wonder, 
“Look what the Lord has done for them!” 
Indeed our God  has greatly blessed us;
rejoice and sing, Jerusalem!  

Once more, O Lord, restore your people;
come with your saving help again, 
as to the brook beds in the desert
you bring the sweet, reviving rain. 
Let those who sow with tears and sighing
sing as they reap and joy proclaim; 
may those who weep when seed is scattered
gather their sheaves and praise your Name.
 
Reading     St John 12:1-8

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’s feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” (He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

Sermon

In 1932 Karl Barth, a Swiss Reformed professor of theology teaching in the University of Bonn, broke with academic etiquette and started teaching sermon preparation to his students.  The etiquette he broke is that it was someone else’s job to do this.  Barth’s context was dangerous.  The German Church was extremely cool to the “religionless” Weimar Republic which emerged from the ruins of the First World War and replaced the Kaiser.  Elections produced Parliaments which struggled to get laws passed and so the government relied on presidential decrees to rule.  The growth of the Nazis, wanting a strong leader, and the idolisation of the German people and state was a profound temptation and danger to the Church filled with people who succumbed to this message.  Barth’s sermon classes taught a generation of clergy how to preach clearly in an age where power and politics had become poisonous where language itself had come to be filled with hate and lies.  Barth was criticised for being open about his socialism, but his influence was profound giving intellectual rigour to the Confessing Church which rejected Hitler; an influence which continued in post war theology.  

Each of our three readings today, the two we heard read to us and the Psalm we sung, all deal with political issues even though, at first sight this might not be clear.   The context for our reading from Isaiah is the exile of the Jewish people in Babylon.  The people clearly believed in God yet wondered why God had allowed this traumatic event to happen. The prophets reacted to Exile in different ways; Jeremiah and Ezekiel understood it as punishment by a faithful God on an unfaithful people but the writer of this part of Isaiah ministers a little later during the reign of Cyrus who had defeated Babylon in 539 BC and saw things differently as  Cyrus changed the political situation allowing exiles to return home.  
The writer brings comfort seeing God at work in the political shifts of his age.   The same God who brought the Jews out of Egypt will bring them out of Babylon.  This new exodus will be an example of God’s steadfast love.  Reading the politics of the day through a theological lens he saw Jerusalem’s punishment as being over and redemption being at hand.  The writer asserted God’s ability and willingness to intervene in daily life (or at least saw the politics of the age as being used by God for God’s own purposes).  Liberation is promised for God’s chosen ones so they may again sing God’s praise.

Many, perhaps most, of those who read or hear this sermon will not have experienced exile in the real tangible way that the asylum seekers and refugees amongst us have.  Most of us can’t appreciate the profound trauma and dislocation that comes from having to sing the Lord’s song in a strange land, to find new ways of speaking, maybe learning a new language, navigating strange customs and social expectations, living in profound poverty, substandard housing and waiting for a deliberately slow process to assess one’s asylum claim make its way slowly through Home Office and Court.  Most of us don’t know what it is to live with such precarious hope in an increasingly hostile environment; those who do can understand this passage, and the experience of Exile, most vividly.  Most of us don’t know the fear of deportation to which governments in the West increasingly resort.  

To a people in Exile Isaiah offered hope and the light of God’s presence; not just spiritual succour but tangible acts of love, steams in the desert to nourish on the way back home, safety in danger, hope in despair.  The psalm is paired with our OT reading as it is thought to date from after the return from Exile.  The nature of Hebrew verbs means it’s difficult to get the tense – this may be a song thanking God for what God has done, or it may be a dream of what God will do.  It continues the joy that we saw in our Isaiah passage, joy we find hard to understand.  In our contemporary world we know of people in Exile but are taught to think of those folk as having some sort of choice about it.  We realise things are bad for asylum seekers and refugees in the West in general –  and the UK in particular –  but comfort ourselves by believing it’s better for them here than in their home countries.  However, we have no idea of the pain of dislocation, the disorientation of exile, the yearning for a land that gave meaning and cultural belonging alongside the fear of being returned to despotic life limiting regimes.  

Maybe we read the Old Testament texts and believe, along with the prophets, the theology that said God was using the Exile as punishment on Israel – but we have laws now to stop the punishment of a whole people so why would God punish an entire people?  It wasn’t just the king and political advisors that were taken into exile, but, almost, all of the people.  Did the people learn much of a lesson?  We’ll not know as we only have a few voices left preserved in Scripture; voices which saw the captivity as desired by God.  The captives, of course, may have disagreed!  Maybe, instead, we should look at the events and see the range of theological responses pondering if good folk were trying to understand God’s failure to intervene rather than accept that God was busy judging. 

The Psalmist’s joy could be about promises still to come and, if we link them with Jesus’ words about bringing freedom, we start to think about who the captives are in our society.  

  • We might ponder the poor forever condemned to go to loan sharks, kept ever in unmanageable, and criminal debt. 
  • We might think of victims of what we’ve come to call ‘modern’ slavery, trafficked into the country to work in car washes, massage parlours, the homes of the rich, cannabis farms or the sex industry.
  • We might think of the woman trapped in a violent relationship unable to leave due to fear for herself and her children.
  • We might think of the addict trapped into illegality to fund their addiction.  

What might release look like for them?  How might God be at work with the captives when the Church proclaims it is God’s mission to the world?  These are deeply political concerns as they deal with public policy and human suffering.

Our Psalm could be interpreted, due to the peculiarities of Hebrew grammar, as looking forward rather than back; our Gospel reading is a mix of looking back (to the raising of Lazarus) and forward (to Jesus’ betrayal and death).  There’s an elaborate context, of course, to this passage; a context which is deeply political:

  • Lazarus’ raising is fulfilment of Jesus being the way, the truth and the life.  In Jesus we find abundant life; but it leads to this act of huge, extravagant generosity which angers Judas and so leads to Jesus’ death.  Working for life can mean a dangerous backlash.
  • The writer of the Gospel has a theological purpose to Jesus’ death – just as the writer of Isaiah had a theological message in Cyrus’ decision to release the Jews.  But Jesus’ death was not about theology for Judas nor the Romans; it was an expression of empire – an empire often mitigated through puppet kings and rulers.  Caiaphas, for example, saw his collaboration as necessary to protect the Jewish people.  Given the revolt a few years later and the utter destruction of the remnants of the Jewish state one can see why.
  • Both resistance and collaboration were daily choices that Jewish people in Jesus’ time, and like all under occupation now, had and have to make.  Believing in Jesus as saviour was edgy in an age when imperial coins referred to the Emperor as the “saviour of the people.”  Thanking Ceaser for good harvests and plentiful grain made an idol out of him.  Jesus, the living bread who feeds his people stands in stark contrast.  No wonder Caiaphas saw him as a threat, no wonder the collaboration that gave Caiaphas power, and the people peace, was something of the utmost importance.  In our own age we all collaborate, to a greater or lesser extent, to the forces of empire.  Despite our best efforts our lives are beset by plastic which chokes our earth but enriches the powers of money.  Despite our careful investing we can never really ensure our pension funds aren’t making money from oil, armaments, alcohol, pornography or the occupation of other people’s lands.  Even our ethical funds struggle to be totally separate from evil.  Even lesser collaboration is problematic; do we think much before ordering from online companies that refuse to pay their workers well and hollow out the economies within which they are situated?
  • Then there’s the immediate context of the meal.  Lazarus, in whose new life must have been one of the reasons for the meal is silent.  Mary is silent.  In this snippet only Jesus and Judas speak.  Mary has no words, only actions, to express her gratitude, Judas has no sense of gratitude or love only anger at what he sees as extravagance.  Standing like a po-faced Puritan of later years extravagant generosity seems not to have moved him.  The editor tells us Judas was a thief and maybe wants us to believe his outrage was about not having the money that had been used to buy the nard; yet nothing suggests this nard came from the common purse.  Mary presumably had a sense of where the confrontation with empire was heading – in the previous chapter Caiaphas argues for Jesus’ death as his sign of raising Lazarus was leading many to believe in him and so undermining the fragile forces of resistance and collaboration with the Romans.  So, Mary sees the writing on the wall and with extravagant generosity thanks Jesus for raising her brother and anoints him for death.

So what do we do with all this context – the plotting for Jesus’ death, the wonderful things God has done and will do, and the seeing God at work in the politics of the age?  With Isaiah we may wish to look at our politics and wonder where God is at work.  This is a dangerous thing to do; some may see the powers at work in our age as being heaven-sent and risk the Church being merely a lacky of the state; others may see nothing but evil at work in the powers of our age and be tempted to see the world travelling to Hell in a hand basket and try to retreat from it.  We need to find a halfway place and see where the powers of our age need repentance, where God is at work in unexpected places with unlikely people and where there’s hope in the gloom. We might think about ways in which congregations might be able to help in the divine work of captive-freeing.  Could the Church look at ways to offer long term support to local charities seeking to free captives – Woman’s Aid, Drug and Alcohol Services, a local legal aid centre working with those subject to immigration control?

Our Gospel passage is profoundly political when read in the context of the Establishment’s fearful reaction to Jesus’ ministry – just read the verses before this.  When bringing life, Jesus poked the forces of death, and they reacted.  The editor of John’s Gospel weaves meaning into Jesus’ death, but Caiaphas just wanted a quiet life, a complacent people and either the ability to protect himself or, maybe, to protect the people from the Roman overlords.  Either way the peace was to be kept, the Romans not to be upset, and the people kept calm.  It’s tempting to go along with the quiet life, and not to turn against the tide but it’s a temptation we’re called to resist.  

We are not in 1930s Germany where the Church was tempted to see Hitler’s rise as God’s providential purpose to make Germany great again, but the desire for strong leaders remains, the impatience with politics as usual is intense and, for many, our politicians don’t offer answers which improve life.  Some retreat and give up voting, others go for strong leaders with weak democratic credentials who blame the poor for their problems.  Instead, we should hold fast to Jesus, the Way, Truth, and the Life, whose presence, likely costly ointment, fills our senses and guides us on right paths.  We speak truth to power, expose lies, and show where blame really needs to lie so that, through the murky gloom of our times, God’s kingdom might shine.

Let’s pray.

Let your presence amongst us, Lord Jesus,
be like costly perfume that heightens our senses 
and increases our awareness,
so that we may see you clearly,
follow you more closely,
and, as we take up our crosses,
bear witness to your costly grace.  
Amen.

Hymn     O God of Earth and Altar
G. K. Chesterton (1906) Public Domain.  BBC Songs of Praise
 
O God of earth and altar, bow down and hear our cry,
our earthly rulers falter, our people drift and die;
the walls of gold entomb us, the swords of scorn divide,
take not thy thunder from us, but take away our pride.

From all that terror teaches, from lies of tongue and pen,
from all the easy speeches that comfort cruel men,
from sale and profanation of honour and the sword,
from sleep and from damnation, deliver us, good Lord!
 
Tie in a living tether the prince and priest and thrall,
bind all our lives together, smite us and save us all;
in ire and exultation aflame with faith, and free,
lift up a living nation, a single sword to thee.

Affirmation of Faith

We believe that Jesus Christ, testified to us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God that we must hear, trust and obey in life and death.  Jesus said: I am the way, and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me.

Jesus Christ is both God’s assurance of forgiveness but also God’s mighty claim on our lives; through Jesus we are delivered from the godless fetters of the world to a free, grateful ministry to God’s creation.  Christ Jesus, whom God has made to us wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption.

Jesus Christ is Lord of the Church where he feeds pardoned sinners through Word and Sacrament. With faith, obedience, proclamation, and good order the Church testifies that it, alone, is Christ’s property and it lives, and wants to live, only from his comfort and instruction in expectation of his coming again.  And so we strive to speak the truth in love so may grow up in every way into him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body is joined together.

We believe that Jesus Christ gives his Church a government distinct from the government of the state. In things that affect obedience to God the Church is not subordinate to the state, but must serve the Lord Jesus Christ, its only Ruler and Head. Civil authorities are called to serve God’s will of justice and peace for all humankind, and to respect the rights of conscience and belief. While we ourselves are servants in the world as citizens of God’s eternal kingdom.

We believe the Church’s commission, upon which its freedom is founded, consists in delivering the message of the free grace of God to all people in Christ’s stead, and therefore in the ministry of his own Word and Work through Sermon and Sacrament as Jesus tells us: See, I am with you always, to the end of the world

Offertory

Mary anointed Jesus with a costly gift – a gift costing a year’s wages for a labourer.  Her gratitude at the restitution of her brother Lazarus was immense and could not be contained in a simple ‘thank you.’  Whilst it’s always good to speak our thanks, it’s also important to give through random acts of kindness, through our time and energy and, where possible, through our financial gifts.  Giving is one way in which our discipleship is measured.  So let’s thank God for all that is given in our church – the time spent listening, the acts of kindness to the wider community, the gifts of skill and the financial gifts given in the plate and direct to the bank.

God of every good gift,
we thank You for Your extravagant generosity to us,
and pray You teach us to give without counting the cost.
Bless all that is given to our church,
the time, the talents and the treasure,
that we may use these gifts wisely in Your service, Amen.

Intercessions

Eternal One we bring our prayers for our world, the Church, and those we love to you.

O Most High,
we remember before you the nations of our world,
swayed with disinformation and hate,
where borders, social norms,  and institutions 
are threatened by the lies of evil men.
We pray for those called to lead in these times,
that they may resist the lies that surround us,
speak truth to new empires, and maintain democracy.

God, in your mercy…hear our prayer. 

Risen Lord Jesus, with extravagant generosity, gratitude, and love
You were anointed for death.
Teach us to have the same generosity, gratitude, and love
as we care for those on the move in search of safety,
for those learning to live in exile,
for those trafficked into the UK into modern forms of slavery,
and for all held captive by the evil forces seeking only profit.

God, in your mercy….hear our prayer.

Most Holy Spirit,
We bring before you those known to us in any kind of need….

Silence

We hold them in Your great love 
and pray they feel the comfort of Your presence.

God, in your mercy….hear our prayer.

Eternal Trinity of Love,
hear our prayers we bring before You,
as we pray as Jesus taught saying…Our Father.

Hymn     We Remember How You Loved Us To Your Death
Marty Haugen © 1997 GIA Publications, Inc. OneLicence # A-734713. Sung by Chris Brunelle and used with his kind permission.

We remember how you loved us to your death,
and still we celebrate, for you are with us here;
and we believe that we will see you
when you come in your glory, Lord.
We remember, we celebrate, we believe.

Here, a million wounded souls are yearning 
just to touch you and be healed.  
Gather all your people, 
and hold them to your heart. 

We remember how you loved us to your death,
and still we celebrate, for you are with us here;
and we believe that we will see you
when you come in your glory, Lord.
We remember, we celebrate, we believe.

Now we recreate your love, 
we bring the bread and wine to share a meal.  
Sign of grace and mercy, 
the presence of the Lord. 

We remember how you loved us to your death,
and still we celebrate, for you are with us here;
and we believe that we will see you
when you come in your glory, Lord.
We remember, we celebrate, we believe.

Holy Communion

God is here!                                           God’s Spirit is with us!
Lift up your hearts!                                 We lift them up to God!
Let is give God our thanks and praise!   It is right and proper so to do.

It is right and proper, always and everywhere,
to give you thanks, O Most High, our light and our salvation;
to You be glory and praise for ever.

From the beginning You have created all things
and all Your works echo the silent music of Your praise.

In the fullness of time You made us in your image, 
the crown of all creation.
You give us breath and speech, 
that with angels and archangels
and all the powers of heaven 
we may find a voice to sing your praise:

The Sanctus
Anonymous Author Sung by Justin Stretch of St Lawrence’s Church, Chorley
and used with his kind permission.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord,
Holy is the Lord God almighty.
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord,
Holy is the Lord God almighty.
Who was, and is, and is to come,
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord.

Blessed, blessed, blessed is the Lord,
Blessed is the Lord God almighty.
Blessed, blessed, blessed is the Lord,
Blessed is the Lord God almighty.
Who was, and is, and is to come,
Blessed, blessed, blessed is the Lord.

How wonderful the work of Your hands Most High.
As a mother tenderly gathers her children,
You embraced a people as Your own.
When they turned away and rebelled Your love remained steadfast.

From them you raised up Jesus our saviour, 
born of Mary, to be the living bread, 
in whom all our hungers are satisfied.

He offered his life for sinners, and with a love stronger than death
he opened wide his arms on the cross.

On the night before he died, he came to supper with his friends
and, taking bread, he 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 memory of me.”

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 and for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in memory of me.”

Let us proclaim the mystery of our faith:

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

Most High, we plead with confidence 
his sacrifice made once for all upon the cross;
we remember his dying and rising in glory,
and we rejoice that he intercedes for us at Your side.

Pour out Your Holy Spirit as we bring before You
these gifts of Your creation; may they be for us 
the body and blood of Your dear Son.

As we eat and drink these things in Your presence,
form us into the likeness of Christ,
and build us into a living Temple to Your glory.

Remember, O God, Your Church in every land,
reveal her unity, guard her faith, and preserve her in peace.

Bring us at the last with all the saints,
to the vision of eternal life for which you have created us;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, by whom, with whom, and in whom,
with all who stand before you in earth and heaven,
we worship you, Eternal One, in songs of everlasting praise:
Blessing and honour and glory and power,
be yours forever and ever.  Amen.  

To prepare to meet the Lord in Holy Communion let us sing the Lamb of God.

The Lamb of God
Traditional Liturgical Text reworked by the Revd Michael Forster
© 1999 Kevin Mayhew Ltd OneLicence # A-734713

O Lamb of God, come cleanse our hearts and take our sins away.
O Lamb of God, your grace impart and let our guilty fear depart, 
have mercy, Lord we pray, 
have mercy, Lord, we pray.

O Lamb of God, our lives restore, our guilty souls release.
Into our lives your Spirit pour and let us live forever more
in perfect heav’nly peace,
in perfect heav’nly peace.
 
Music for Communion

Post Communion Prayer

God of Grace
You renew us at Your table with the bread of life.
May this food strengthen us in love
And help us to serve you in each other.
We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord, Amen

Hymn     Lord for the Years
Timothy Dudley-Smith © Hope Publishing Company OneLicence # A-734713. Sung by the Frodsham Methodist Church Cloud Choir and used with their kind permission.        

Lord, for the years your love has kept and guided,
urged and inspired us, cheered us on our way,
sought us and saved us, pardoned and provided:
Lord of the years, we bring our thanks today.

Lord, for that word, the word of life which fires us,
speaks to our hearts and sets our souls ablaze,
teaches and trains, rebukes us and inspires us:
Lord of the word, receive Your people’s praise.

Lord, for our land in this our generation,
spirits oppressed by pleasure, wealth and care:
for young and old, for commonwealth and nations,
Lord of our land, be pleased to hear our prayer.

Lord, for our world when we disown and doubt him,
loveless in strength, and comfortless in pain,
hungry and helpless, lost indeed without him:
Lord of the world, we pray that Christ may reign.

Lord for ourselves; in living power remake us –
self on the cross and Christ upon the throne,
past put behind us, for the future take us:
Lord of our lives, to live for Christ alone.
 
Blessing

May the One who works in our world despite the politics of the age,
the One whose presence is like sweet perfume in the air,
and the One who allows us to interpret the signs of the times
allow you to respond to the movements and powers of the age,
fill you with the perfume of divine presence,
and give you the grace to respond to God’s call,
and the blessing of Almighty God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
be with you now and always, Amen.
 

Where words are copyright reproduced and streamed under the terms of  ONE LICENSE A-734713
PRS Limited Online Music Licence LE-0019762
 

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