4Oct2020_Services

Sunday Services 4th October 2020

Services will be held in Church:        09:15 - St Levan          10:15 - St Buryan          11:15 - St Sennen

Services on-line

Sun 4Octp2020 - 6pm - Compline Worship on Land's End Churches Facebook page led by Vanda Perrett
Sat 3Oct2020 - 6pm - Harvest Service on Land's End Churches Facebook page led by Vanda Perrett

Land’s End Benefice

Eucharist 4^th October 2020

Please join in with the words in bold. The bold with underlining is to mark the sections. You may remain seated throughout or sit or kneel or stand when we usually do so in church. Please take this order of service away with you.
 

The collection plate will be at the door, please place your donation there unless you make your donations online. 

• You can make a donation to St Buryan by clicking here
• You can make a donation to St Sennen by clicking here
• St Levan currently does not have online donation facilities.
   

The Greeting we remain seated
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you and also with you.
 

Prayer of Preparation
Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden: cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
 

Invitation to Confession we sit or kneel
As we prepare to celebrate, let us call to mind our sins.
God our Father, full of grace and truth, we confess that we have sinned against you and our neighbour. We have wounded your love and marred your image in us. Restore us for the sake of your Son, and bring us to heavenly joy, in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Absolution
The almighty and merciful Lord grant you pardon and forgiveness of all your sins, time for amendment of life, and the grace and strength of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Collect
Almighty God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you: pour your love into our hearts and draw us to yourself,
and so bring us at last to your heavenly city where we shall see you face to face;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, Amen.

Gospel Reading we stand
Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew 21.33-46.

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: ³³‘Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watch-tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. ³⁴When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. ³⁵But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. ³⁶Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. ³⁷Finally he sent his son to them, saying, “They will respect my son.” ³⁸But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” ³⁹So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. ⁴⁰Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’ ⁴¹They said to him, ‘He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.’

⁴²Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the scriptures:
“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes”?
⁴³Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. ⁴⁴The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.’

⁴⁵When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. ⁴⁶They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet

Glory to you, O Lord.
At the end: This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ.
 

Address we sit
This parable does not make easy bedtime reading. The workers in the vineyard seem to be an entirely nasty bunch. Surely when they agreed to take on the vineyard, they knew exactly what was expected of them? In Jesus’ time the rent for the land was usually paid in the produce from the harvest. So, the owner was acting in good faith to send his servants to collect. But what is going on if the tenants believe that they can reset the original terms of the agreement, and to murder the servants? Moreover, what was going on in the mind of the owner to send a second lot of servants, and then his heir to the vineyard, knowing the fate of the others? Once the tenants had killed, what would stop them from repeating the crime?

This parable is about life and death, it is about the Kingdom of God and our place as heirs, but it has a darkness about it too. If we are to be vulnerable enough to give our lives to God, we should expect that there may well be danger, persecution and even death. And yet so many did embrace this life, with all its challenges. The early Christians were a people on the edge, they literally diced with death, were persecuted, and executed. But still the power and love of God weighed the balance in favour of embracing the potential for evil, as the good was worth the cost.

A second theme of this parable is fairness. Was it fair that the owner was not paid rent? Was it fair that the owner sent so many to death? Was it fair that the owner sent his son and heir to die? Was it fair that some will get to the kingdom by the grace of God and the love of God rather than as a reward for long service in church?

As Jesus tells his people that those who produce the fruits of the kingdom will inherit, we hear again the song of Mary, the Magnificat – the rich shall be sent empty away, the hungry shall be filled, the humble and meek shall be raised up.  I can hear Mary cheering him on – hurrah, “that is my son, with whom I am well pleased”  for this can be heard by his mother as much as his Father!

How do we understand this reading for us today? Some are fixed on the image of fairness, “we deserve to be rewarded, we have cared and worked to make the church, the community to be what we want!” But the problem is that God knows what he wants of the whole world, the whole human race, and of you and I – to love God, love neighbour as ourselves, to build a community fit for the Kingdom.

To see the Kingdom break out everywhere, and know that the child, the drug addict and the gambler are as much part of ushering in the Kingdom as the bishop, priest, the faithful church people. That is God’s idea of fairness, for He loves each one of us as His children, nothing we can do will make us worthy or deserving of that love, and nothing we can do or say that will stop God loving us.

That is the sort of fairness that makes it worth facing persecution, danger and perhaps even death for, that is the sort of love that is a Kingdom value and it can be ours. But to fully embrace this we need to have the courage to be people who live on the very edge, the edge that holds onto the world as it is, and the world is could become under the rule of God’s love. The world that Jesus gave his life for, that he rose to give hope and a promise of a future. The world that has so sadly forgotten the place of God,

How brave are you? Can you help one another to live this life? “to be vulnerable enough to give our lives to God, we should expect that there may well be danger, persecution and even death.” And then can we “embrace this life, with all its challenges” and so become “a people on the edge” – because that is where we shall find Jesus, on the edge holding out his hand to us, asking us to join him in the great adventure of love.

The Creed we stand
Let us declare our faith in God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We believe in God the Father,
from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.
We believe in God the Son,
who lives in our hearts through faith, and fills us with his love.
We believe in God the Holy Spirit,
who strengthens us with power from on high.
We believe in one God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Prayers of intercession from the Anglican Chaplaincy we sit or kneel

A prayer for the Corona Virus situation
Merciful God, we pray for the many people who have contracted the coronavirus in China, in Spain and in other parts of the world.  Bring comfort to those grieving loved ones have died and peace to those worried, fearful and uncertain as the virus spreads.  We also pray for governments and authorities who are developing strategies to contain and deal with the virus and those in the health services who may be risking their own lives to care for sick patients.

Here in the Cornwall we especially pray for the Corona Virus situation and the procedures that have been put into force to try to halt its spread. Help us all to be responsible in the things that we do in our lives to prevent the spread of the virus by taking heed of the recommended precautions and avoiding situations which may make things worse.

Holy God you made our world to be like a vineyard and choose a people to be its tenants.  May we who are now the workers in that vastly changed vineyard prove to be worthy of the work you trust us to do in Jesus’ name.    
Lord, in your Mercy: Hear our Prayer

Mighty God, we pray for our church; that Christ may be the cornerstone of all that we do in his name.  May we, his living church be the solid blocks of a spiritual community which continues to hold fast in an ever secular world.
Lord, in your Mercy: Hear our Prayer

Creator God as we pray for our world we especially pray for all who like St Paul have suffered the loss of all things for the sake of their faith in Jesus Christ.  We raise before you organisations which aids Christians living under persecution or in threatening environments with finance and prayers. We join our prayers with them as we ask for courage and strength for all persecuted Christians, their communities and churches.  Lord, in your Mercy: Hear our Prayer

Father God, we thank you for the joy of human love, and for all those among whom we live and work.  We pray particularly for loved ones who worry us with their health, or circumstances, or life direction. We pray for those among our friends and families who do not know you, or whose faith has been shaken.  Lord, in your Mercy: Hear our Prayer

Gracious God, friend of those in need, your Son Jesus can free us from our burdens and heal our bodies and spirits. We pray for those still burdened, those seeking healing, those in need within the church and the world. We pray too for those suffering from the Corona Virus, the Health Service struggling to cope with the Pandemic and all those simply living in the fear of contracting it.  Lord, in your Mercy: Hear our Prayer

Merciful God, as we pray for all departed this life help us to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. May those who have shared his sufferings have become like him in his death, and through that suffering and sharing attained the resurrection from the dead.  Lord, in your Mercy: Hear our Prayer

Faithful God, as we move into the coming week to live and work for the Gospel, help us to travel onwards with our eyes on the goal, to that place where you are beckoning us, onward to Jesus.

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

A prayer is said over the bread and wine
Blessed be God, by whose grace creation is renewed, by whose love heaven is opened, by whose mercy we offer our sacrifice of praise.  Blessed be God for ever.

The Eucharistic Prayer we stand

The Lord is here His Spirit is with us.

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 always right to give you thanks, God our Creator, loving and faithful, holy and strong. You made us and the whole universe, and filled your world with life. You sent your Son to live among us, Jesus our Saviour, Mary’s child. He suffered on the cross; he died to save us from our sins; he rose in glory from the dead. You send your Spirit to bring new life to the world and clothe us with power from on high. And so we join the angels to celebrate and say:

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

Father, on the night before he died, Jesus shared a meal with his friends. He took the bread, and thanked you. He broke it, and gave it to them, saying: Take and eat; this is my body, given for you. Do this to remember me. After the meal, Jesus took the cup of wine. He thanked you, and gave it to them, saying: Drink this, all of you. This is my blood, the new promise of God’s unfailing love. Do this to remember me. Great is the mystery of faith

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

Father, as we bring this bread and wine, and remember his death and resurrection, send your Holy Spirit, that we who share these gifts may be fed by Christ’s body and his blood. Pour your Spirit on us that we may love one another, work for the healing of the earth, and share the good news of Jesus, as we wait for his coming in glory. For honour and praise belong to you, Father, with Jesus your Son, and the Holy Spirit: one God, for ever and ever. 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, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Breaking of the Bread
We break the bread of life, and that life is the light of the world.
God here among us, light in the midst of us, bring us to light and life.
 

Giving of Communion

Christ is the true bread which has come down from heaven.
Lord, give us this bread always.

The priest receives the bread and wine on behalf of the community

You are invited to come and receive the bread only, please leave a 2m distance between each person, follow the directions back to your seat.

Final Prayer and Blessing

Faithful God, in baptism you have adopted us as your children,
made us members of the body of Christ and chosen us as inheritors of your kingdom: we thank you that in this Eucharist you renew your promises within us, empower us by your Spirit to witness and to serve, and send us out as disciples of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
 

A suitable blessing is given, and usually concludes with:

… and may the blessing of almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.

Live in the peace of Christ. Thanks be to God.

Lord our God, amid the uncertainties of our human life,

May we pause and draw strength from you, trusting in your faithful love, we ask through Jesus, your Son our Lord. Amen The Celtic Primer

All Souls is coming soon, if you want someone named at our celebration this year please let me know.  With every blessing, Vanda