Welcome To You All As We Celebrate The 19th Sunday After Trinity
18th October 2020
The Gathering of the Community
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.
And also, with you.
Dear friends in Christ, we have come together on this 19th Sunday after Trinity to celebrate in word and song and to affirm our faith in God, the Three in One.
Hymn: Take My Life and Let it Be
Heavenly Father, all hearts are open to you.
No secrets are hidden from you.
Purify us with the love of your Holy Spirit
That we may love and worship you faithfully,
through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen
Lord, have mercy Lord, have Mercy
Christ, have mercy Christ, have mercy
Lord, have mercy Lord, have mercy
Heavenly Father,
we have sinned in thought, word, and deed,
and have failed to do
what we ought to have done.
We are sorry and truly repent.
For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ
who died for us, forgive us all that is past,
and lead us in his way
to walk as children of light. AMEN
May God our Father,
who by the Lord Jesus Christ
has reconciled the world to himself
and forgives the sins of all who truly repent,
pardon and deliver us from all our sins,
and grant us the grace and power of the Holy Spirit. AMEN
The Gloria.
Glory to God in the highest
and peace to his people on earth.
Lord God, heavenly King,
Almighty God and Father,
we worship you; we give you thanks,
we praise you for your glory.
Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the father,
Lord God, Lamb of God,
you take away the sin of the world:
have mercy on us.
you are seated at the right hand of the Father:
receive our prayer,
For you alone are the Holy One,
you alone are the Lord,
you alone are the Most High,
Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit,
in the glory of God, the Father. AMEN
The Collect
O GOD, who hast prepared for them that love thee such good things as pass man's understanding: Pour into our hearts such love toward thee, that we, loving thee above all things, may obtain thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Readings
1 Thessalonians 1 1-10
1 Paul, Silas[a] and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace and peace to you.
2 We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. 3 We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
4 For we know, brothers and sisters[b] loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. 6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 7 And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8 The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, 9 for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.
Gospel Acclamation
Your words oh lord give Joy to my heart and light to my Soul
Paying the Imperial Tax to Caesar
15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax[a] to Caesar or not?”
18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
21 “Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
This is the Gospel of the lord
Thanks be to Christ
Reflection
The toughest questions I ever must answer are usually from my wife when she asks me something like , “Do you think I look better in the red top or the blue top” or “How does this dress make me look?” I have learnt the hard way in the last 33 years of marriage that there is no correct answer! If I say Blue, I will be questioned about what is wrong with the Red and if I say Red the opposite will apply! Sometimes decision making and answering questions can be exceedingly difficult.
In todays Gospel reading we learn about Jesus being called upon to answer himself an almost impossible question that in this case was set up to attempt to trap him by the Pharisee and the Herodian Jewish leaders, and he was asked “is it right to pay taxes to Caesar? Many Pharisees of course interpreted the law of the promised land to forbid the collaboration with a foreign ruler and their monetary system however, the Herodians were among the religious leaders of the time who were happy to collaborate with their Roman rulers. Jesus really had a tough question to answer and it appeared impossible to give an answer to the question that would please both camps. But Jesus affirms neither the Herodian collaborators or the Pharisee revolutionaries but instead knocks both back by telling them to give to Caesar was is Caesar’s and to give to God what is Gods and in doing so left his inquisitors to realize that the question was of secondary importance to their primary purpose of serving God. The parable is a reminder to us of our primary purpose to serve God first and not to get bogged down with some of the stuff around us that can distract and make us lose our way. In our final hymn later we will listen to a choir sing “Brother, Sister let me serve you” and there is one line within that I would like you to reflect on whilst listening to it and that is the line “Brother, Sister let me serve you, let me be like Christ to you”.
And that is our challenge today. Not be distracted by those that want to trip us up but to focus ourselves on our primary purpose to serve God in our actions and our words and show Christ to those around us and those we meet.
Amen
The Creed
I believe and trust in God the father,
who created all that is.
I believe and trust in his Son Jesus Christ,
who redeemed humankind.
I believe and trust in his Holy Spirit,
who gives life to the people of God.
I believe in and trust
father, Son and Holy Spirit. AMEN
Prayers of intercession:
O God the Father, we thank you that you are a creator God. We thank you that you have made all things and have made them well. That you have given to us all things richly to enjoy. For the beauty and the bounty of this fair earth. We thank you, O Father who has made all things and all people. Forgive us if in pride and selfishness and in anger we have misused your gifts and have used for death that which was meant for life.
Lord in your mercy - Hear our prayer
O Lord Jesus Christ, the Son, we thank you for your redeeming power. You love us and we see your love shown most clearly on the cross where you gave of your life to conquer death and to make well the brokenness of the universe. We thank you Son of God who loves us with a never-ending love. Forgive us if we have treated your love lightly as a little thing and if we have shown little love in return
Lord in your mercy - Hear our prayer
O Holy Spirit of God we thank you that you are always with us. We ask you to help us discern the things in our lives that suffocate our thoughts and distract us from following you. We ask you to come into our lives and weed out those things that have no place in in this world the thoughts words and actions that only bring sin to the world but instead help to bring Love Joy and hope to the world by living with Christ in our hearts.
Merciful Father accept these prayers for the sake of your son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
Hymn: Brother Sister Let me serve you
The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all now and ever more. AMEN
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
If you would like to donate £5 to the overall work of the 12 churches in the parish, please carefully text: GIVE5 to 70970. Thank you, diolch.
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