Hymn, readings and prayers for Sunday

THE  THIRD  SUNDAY BEFORE LENT

The collect for the Third  Sunday before Lent

Almighty God, who alone can bring order to the unruly wills and passions of sinful humanity: give your people grace so to love what you command and to desire what you promise, that, among the many changes of his world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through 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. 

A Reading from Jeremiah 17:5-10

Thus says the LORD: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the LORD. They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. Blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit. The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse – who can understand it? I the LORD test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings. 

Jeremiah tells us that the only source of lasting deep rooted and unfailing joy is trust in God and hope in His promises. 

Psalm 1

Happy are they who have not walked in the counsel of the wicked, nor lingered in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seats of the scornful!

Their delight is in the law of the Lord, and they meditate on his law day and night.

They are like trees planted by streams of water, bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither;  everything they do shall prosper.

It is not so with the wicked;  they are like chaff which the wind blows away.

Therefore the wicked shall not stand upright when judgment comes, nor the sinner in the council of the righteous.

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked is doomed.

A Reading from 1 Corinthians 15: 12-20

If Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ – whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. 

The Resurrection of Jesus is at the heart of our Faith.  Jesus died and rose again, opening the way for us to live in a relationship of love and trust with our Heavenly Father. The Beatitudes in the Gospel reading suggest what this means for our day to day living, what our life would  look like if we were truly Christ-like.

Gospel Reading: St. Luke 6:17-26

He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them. Then he looked up at his disciples and said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. ‘Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. ‘Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. ‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. ‘But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. ‘Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. ‘Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.        

Sermon on the Mount by Cosimo Rosselli c. 1500

Last year we read St. Matthew’s version of the Beatitudes from Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount. This week we have St. Luke’s version, the Sermon on the Plain. St. Luke’s version of the Beatitudes focuses on the practicalities of the Christian life. They describe what it means to live by a set of standards, callings and attitudes that go way beyond the observation of rules or the keeping of the law.

The Beatitudes are both an encouragement and a challenge for Christians, because they don’t speak of what might be, rather they say to us that this should be our experience now.  

Sermon on the Plain   Brueghel

“50% of the world’s  children are hungry, 80% live in substandard housing and 70% have no education.”  

 To grow into becoming a Christian is, in no small part, to be converted into seeing the world as God sees it. It is to be given new eyes to look upon people and events from an eternally loving perspective. When that begins to happen, you begin to see that God has an opinion about how life should be lived, what Churches should be doing, and how people should act.   frtonyshomilies.com

Heavenly Father, we give thanks for those who have taught us what it is to live life in the way God intended and for those whose lives are an inspiration for us all.

• We pray for all who are seeking to improve the life opportunities of the children of the world, whether through working on the ground, raising funds or through small individual acts of kindness.
• We continue to pray for the leaders of the world at this politically sensitive time that they may speak and act with integrity and a true desire to work for peace and the common good.
• We pray for all involved in our medical and social care services as they contend with high stress levels and inadequate resources.
• We pray for those in need, asking you to heal the sick, strengthen the fearful, befriend the lonely and guide the perplexed.  We pray in particular at this time for  ..............................................................
• We pray for the repose of the souls of those who have recently departed this life, thinking especially of  .........................................  We ask you, loving Father, to be with their families and with all the bereaved that they may be comforted by your constant presence.

Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you.
All things pass away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
Those who have God lack nothing:
God alone suffices.                                      Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)