The Collect

Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray and to give more than either we desire or deserve: pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

¶ The Liturgy of the Word

First Reading: Exodus 12.1-14

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbour in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgements: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.

Psalm 149

Refrain: Sound praises to the Lord, all the earth.

Alleluia.
O sing to the Lord a new song; * sing his praise in the congregation of the faithful.
Let Israel rejoice in their maker; * let the children of Zion be joyful in their king.
Let them praise his name in the dance; *  let them sing praise to him with timbrel and lyre.
For the Lord has pleasure in his people * and adorns the poor with salvation. R
Let the faithful be joyful in glory; * let them rejoice in their ranks,
With the praises of God in their mouths * and a two-edged sword in their hands;
To execute vengeance on the nations * and punishment on the peoples;
To bind their kings in chains * and their nobles with fetters of iron;
To execute on them the judgement decreed; * such honour have all his faithful servants.
Alleluia.

Refrain: Sound praises to the Lord, all the earth.

Second Reading: Romans 13.8-14

Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; let us live honourably as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Gospel Reading: Matthew 18.15-20

Jesus spoke to his disciples. ‘If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.’

The RSCM has this comment on the gospel:

What do we do with problems? Ignore them? Pretend they haven’t happened? Or maybe get it out of all proportion, distorting everything?Jesus here gives clear guidelines for dealing with serious disruption and sin in our communities. It mustn’t be ignored, but neither is it to be allowed to grow and destory everything. We are to address it carefully, personally, and appropriately, and without fear, able to call on others within the church if necessary. Like any good functional family, the church needs to have clear boundaries.

Prayers of Intercession

Lord, we thank-you for this [ancient] place of prayer, for the faith that has blossomed here, and the worship offered in all seasons. We thank you for enabling us to be part of this worshipping community. And we rejoice in being part of the Christian world, where the sun never sets on prayers ascending, as day succeeds night and night succeeds day, even unto the end of the age. Amen.

¶The Church of Christ

Lord, when we see fissures appearing in the very structure of our Church, help us to draw on the shared history and collective memory of worship together over two millennia. May these memories revitalise our life together, encouraging us to add our own perceptions as we shape our liturgy for the future. Together let us climb the Hill of Difficulty, sure in the promise that the Celestial City awaits us at the peak, even though it may remain hidden in mist from below: the journey itself sharpens our longing for you.

Glorious and redeeming God, give us hearts to praise you all our days: in your mercy, hear our prayer.

¶Creation, human society, the Sovereign and those in authority

Lord, bless those who resist the temptations of power; bless those who cause no harm. Bless those who seek to reconcile; bless those who themselves form a bridge for unlikely meetings. Bless those who repent their oppression; bless those who have been harmed, but show their oppressors mercy. In the reconciliation that is based on repentance and mercy, in the healing that has held and enfolded the pain, Lord, we add our voices to your music: Alleluia! Alleluia!

Glorious and redeeming God, give us hearts to praise you all our days: in your mercy, hear our prayer.

¶The local community

Lord, you are immortal, invisible, utterly beyond our imagining. But you are also imprinted within us, moving amongst us and constantly opening our eyes and ears to the wonders that lie all around us. Such a wonder is human friendship, encounters with others which both make us aware of our own solitude and help us escape from it. Others with whom we can fall silent without feeling uncomfortable, and to whom we can unburden ourselves without embarrassment.

Glorious and redeeming God, give us hearts to praise you all our days: in your mercy, hear our prayer.

¶Those who suffer

Lord, when we suffer physical or mental pain, we know that we cannot always ask you to remove the pain. We do not understand the reason for pain in this world, and the knowledge of the existence of suffering is itself painful. But throughout our sojourn in the vale of tears, help us to help you, and to defend your dwelling place inside us to the last.

Glorious and redeeming God, give us hearts to praise you all our days: in your mercy, hear our prayer.

¶The communion of saints

Lord, we thank you for the saints of all ages, for those who, in times of darkness, kept burning the lamp of faith; for the great souls who saw visions of larger truth and dared to declare it; and for those we knew and loved, who have passed from this earthly fellolwship into the fuller light of life with you.

Glorious and redeeming God, give us hearts to praise you all our days: in your mercy, hear our prayer.

The intercessions this week are inspired by the reading of ‘The Collage of God‘ by Mark Oakley, which I have much enjoyed.

Copyright acknowledgement (where not already indicated above): Some material included in this service is copyright: © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ, USA. Some material included in this service is copyright: © The Archbishops’ Council 2000. Collect (12th after Trinity) © The Crown/Cambridge University Press: The Book of Common Prayer (1662)