Dear All,
Welcome once again to what I’ve come to think of as our ‘kitchen table communion service’. It is a joy still to be able to share with you in this even though we are parted once again, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Despite the obvious need for lock down and our matching decision to keep each other safe by staying apart for now, so many of you have already received your vaccinations and the wonderful work of so many scientists and medics means that during the next few months more and more people will be safe.
Today is Epiphany Sunday, and as the Christmas story continues today’s thoughts, a meditation really, are adapted from a radio broadcast by Isabelle Hamley . So until next time, be it in a church building or on the pages of this website
Keep separate, keep safe
but remember you are never separated from the love of God or from the prayers of us all
Mary Tucker
A ‘Kitchen Table Communion’ to say at home (adapted from the worship of the Iona Community)
Gathering Prayer
Creator of the cosmos,
Of eternity and time:
Be with us in this time.
Saviour of the world,
Healer of the nations:
Be with us in this place.
Breath of all that lives,
Of people near and far:
Stir within our lives.
Creator, Son, Spirit
God of here and now:
Be present in our worship
That we may find new ways
Of being present in your world.
(Hymn/Song – Sing something you enjoy!!)
Bible Reading
Matthew 2:1-12
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi[a] from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”
Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their home by another way.
This is the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Some Thoughts on the Readings
There really should be a name for the days after Boxing Day, the days after the day after, the days when the glow of Christmas is starting to fade, empty boxes have been played with by cats and children and are now waiting for the recycling lorry.
The days for journeys home, getting ready to pick up the threads of everyday life.
The day, maybe, when family arguments still resonate when disappointing gifts tug at our feelings, when we go home relieved and a little empty.
I wonder what it was like on that first Christmas? What did the shepherds do on their way home? What did the wise men do for directions once the star was gone?
Hear again part of our gospel reading:
When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their home by another way.
The wise men went home another way.
I’ve always wondered what it must have felt like to turn their backs on the star and go home. They would have had to leave behind the excitement, leave behind the chase, the promise of something, and instead start to live with the promise of what actually is.
The journey to Bethlehem was full of promise and unknowns. They must have made wild guesses, talked excitedly, imagined the moment when everything would change and then . . . then the moment happened. After a few wrong turns they ended up in Bethlehem by the side of the Christ-child, they knelt and worshipped, they offered their gifts, heaven stood still and the mystery of this one moment stretched out into eternity.
Carols always stop there, at the manger, by the side of Jesus, in wonder and adoration, but this was hardly the end of their journey. There was a long way home to follow, time was not suspended for ever, they had to pull themselves away, withdraw from eternity and re-enter the world as we know it.
It is tempting sometimes, maybe often, to find an escape, to lose ourselves into the beauty of the story, the beauty of the incarnation, but then what? How easy it is to make the opposite movement to the movement of God. As God comes closer to us and our reality we try and move out of it rather than enter deeper within it.
I like to think of the wise men silently trudging along their way home, going home another way. What were they thinking? Pondering what they had seen? The poverty, the ordinariness, the lack of grandeur of the surroundings, what could this mean?
What did it mean for them? How could they get the location wrong with their first attempt? Why would a king be born in Bethlehem his birth heralded by shepherds
and random strangers?
With them we wonder, we question.
We thought we knew where to find you, we hardly needed a star to guide the way, just perseverance and common sense. Why do you hide yourself from the powerful
and join the refugees and outcasts calling us to follow you there?
Wise God – give us wisdom.
We thought we had laid you safe in the manger. We wrapped you in the thickest sentiment we could find and stressed how long ago you came to us. Why do you break upon us in our daily life with messages of peace and goodwill demanding that we do something about it?
Just and righteous God – give us justice and righteousness.
So where else would we expect to find you but in the ordinary place with the faithful people, turning the world to your purpose through them?
Bring us to that manger, to that true rejoicing which will make wisdom, justice and righteousness alive in us.
On the way home I wonder whether the wise men went with blistered feet and heavy hearts, their shoes worn, their clothes smelly as the shepherds.
If Bethlehem was full where did they stay? Or shower? Or stable the camels we like to think they had? Did they get any rest? How long did they stay by the baby’s side? Half an hour? Half the night? Is that all the reward of a long journey?
As they trudged back there must have been the weariness of a long road stretched out before them, a long way home, dark and uncertain, backlit by the star they had left behind, working out how one special night had changed everything and yet changed nothing.
They were still themselves, still wise, still men, still foreigners, yet they went home another way.
No palace and no rulers this time, their bags lighter once they had given gifts away. What were they taking back with them? What story should they tell? What wisdom did the wise men gain? We do not know, the story doesn’t tell, instead it leaves us to ponder for ourselves.
The journey in some ways left the star behind, it is everything we are told not to do. The world in which we live is very good at telling us to reach for the stars, not turn away from them, and yet, the story of the wise men tells us to do something else. Instead of reaching for the stars this story tells us to consider what is already given.
The star has already come and it was pointing to God. The real question is how we allow the story to change us. Not how we reach for the star but how we live once we have come into contact with its message.
The wise men beg us to consider are we going home another way?
Prayers
We continue our prayers now as we pray to the Lord for courage as we walk, together but apart, along the road of life.
In this difficult time, give your Church the courage to give up her preoccupation with herself and to give time to your mission in the world. Lord, help us to recognise you in our lives, give us strength and hear our prayer.
May the blood and water flowing from the side of Jesus bring forgiveness to your people and help us to face the cost of proclaiming salvation as we work together and apart in your damaged world. Lord, help us to recognise you in our lives, give us strength and hear our prayer.
Give your world the courage to give up war, bitterness and hatred, and to seek peace and healing for each other. Lord, help us to recognise you in our lives, give us strength and hear our prayer.
May the shoulders of the risen Jesus, once scourged by soldiers, bear the burden of our times. Lord, help us to recognise you in our lives, give us strength and hear our prayer.
Give us the courage to give up quarrels, strife and jealousy in our families, neighbourhoods and communities. Lord, help us to recognise you in our lives, give us strength and hear our prayer.
May the presence of the risen Jesus, his body once broken and now made whole, bring peace and direction as we live with one another. Give us the courage to give up our selfishness as we live for others, and to give time, care and comfort to the sick and those who care for them in ways that are safe for them and for us. Lord, help us to recognise you in our lives, give us strength and hear our prayer.
May the wounded hands of Jesus bring his healing touch to all who suffer, and the light of his presence fill their hearts and homes. Lord, help us to recognise you in our lives, give us strength and hear our prayer.
Give us the courage to give up our fear of death and to rejoice with those who have died in faith. May the feet of the risen Lord Jesus, once nailed to the cross, walk alongside the dying and bereaved in their agony, and walk with us and all your Church through death to the gate of glory. Lord, help us to recognise you in our lives, give us strength and hear our prayer, here and in eternity. Amen.
We pray with confidence as our Saviour has taught us
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
A Home Communion
(use some bread or a plain biscuit, some wine or juice)
What we do here in our own homes today, we do in imitation of what Christ first did.
To his followers in every age, Jesus gave an example and command
rooted in the experience he shared with his disciples in an upstairs room in Jerusalem.
So now we do as Jesus did.
We take this food and drink, the produce of the earth and fruit of human labour.
In these, Jesus has promised to be present, through these, Christ can make us whole.
Eucharistic Prayer
The Lord is with us,
And with all those with whom we worship, together but apart.
We lift our hearts together.
We lift them to the Lord.
We give thanks together to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is indeed right, for you made us,
and before us, you made the world we inhabit,
and before the world, you made the eternal home
in which, through Christ, we have a place.
And so we gladly join our voices to the song of the Church,
to those from whom we are separated
on earth and in heaven:
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.
And now,
lest we believe that our praise alone fulfils your purpose,
we fall silent
and remember him who came because words were not enough.
Setting our wisdom, our will, our words aside,
emptying our hearts and bringing nothing in our hands,
we yearn for the healing, the holding, the accepting, the forgiving
which Christ alone can offer.
(we pause quietly for a moment)
Merciful God, send now, in your kindness
your Holy Spirit on this food and drink
and fill them with the fullness of Jesus.
And let that same Spirit rest on us,
converting us from the patterns of this passing world,
until we conform to the shape of him whose food we share.
Amen.
Sharing God’s Gifts
Among friends, gathered round a table,
Jesus took bread and broke it, and said,
‘This is my body, broken for you.’
Later he took a cup of wine and said,
‘This is the new relationship with God
made possible because of my death.
Take it, all of you, to remember me.’
He whom the universe could not contain is present to us in this food.
He who redeemed us and called us by name now meets us in this cup.
So we take this food and drink.
In them God comes to us so that we may come to God.
(Eat, drink, share the food and drink you have prepared and prayed over)
The Peace
(We bring to mind all those with whom we would usually share this moment,
holding them on our hearts.)
Christ who has nourished us is our peace,
strangers and friends, male and female, old and young, near and far away,
Jesus has broken down the barriers to bind us to him and to each other.
The peace of the Lord be always with you.
(and also with you)
Concluding prayer
In gratitude, in deep gratitude for this moment, this meal, these people,
we give ourselves to you.
Take us out to live as changed people
because we have shared the living Bread and cannot remain the same.
Ask much of us, expect much of us, enable much by us,
encourage many through us.
So, Lord, may we live to your glory,
both as inhabitants of earth and citizens of the commonwealth of heaven,
knowing that we do so with your blessing
Father, Son and Holy Spirit
this day and for ever more.
Amen.