Remembrance Sunday: 08 November 2020.
Here are the Lectionary readings for this week: Micah 6:1-8; Psalm 121; John 14:1-7, 25-27; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11. The sermon is based on the Thessalonians text.
The materials below include the full texts of the Lectionary readings, prayers, audio sermon and a musical selection.
Lectionary Readings
Micah 6:1-8 (New International Version)
The Lord’s Case Against Israel
6 Listen to what the Lord says:
“Stand up, plead my case before the mountains;
let the hills hear what you have to say.
2 “Hear, you mountains, the Lord’s accusation;
listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth.
For the Lord has a case against his people;
he is lodging a charge against Israel.
3 “My people, what have I done to you?
How have I burdened you? Answer me.
4 I brought you up out of Egypt
and redeemed you from the land of slavery.
I sent Moses to lead you,
also Aaron and Miriam.
5 My people, remember
what Balak king of Moab plotted
and what Balaam son of Beor answered.
Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.”
6 With what shall I come before the Lord
and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
Psalm 121
A song of ascents.
1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
John 14:1-7
Jesus Comforts His Disciples
14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Jesus the Way to the Father
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
John 14:25-27
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
The Day of the Lord
5 Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labour pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
4 But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. 5 You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. 6 So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. 9 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
Scripture Sentence
Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory for your love, for your faithfulness! Psalm 115:1
Opening Prayer
Gather us into your presence, God of peace. We trust that your vision for the world – the great creation of your imagination, entrusted to us as a place for our flourishing – is still there behind all the challenges of our lives.
We come today remembering that even in the darkest of days, your flame of hope and new life flickers drawing us on to find the good and to illuminate the world with your Gospel of love. Help us to find you in the smallest of things and the most ordinary of our experiences. For you are the great source of our being and the power that sustains us through your Holy Spirit. When we search hard for you, we may miss your presence in the everyday – so, help us to look out for you – in the face of friend and stranger, in the wonder and beauty of our world, in the complexity of design in the creativity of artist and scientist.
We live in you, the great mystery of our being which is beyond our understanding – yet revealed – in the life, death, and resurrection of your Son. You are there underpinning our lives, offering to us all that we need to live well. All too often we grasp after our prosperity and our safety, building walls of self-sufficiency, storing up great resources in the barns of our nation, finding “the other” and difference to be a threat to us.
We fall into ways of war when your ways are of peace. On this day of remembrance, when we pay tribute to those who have given so much when war became the way, we confess the faults of nations who have gone to war and missed your ways of peace. We acknowledge our personal guilt when we have not loved and hold all of this before you now. God of all, your ways are of mercy, your heart is for reconciliation, so help us to accept the hand of forgiveness that you offer. Help us to leave behind what has weighed us down, to seek the ways of friendship and peace, and to trust that you want the best for us. Bring us the peace of being part of your offering of forgiveness, and to embrace our role of being peacemakers in the course of our ordinary lives.
We come today remembering that even in the darkest of days, your flame of hope and new life flickers drawing us on to find the good and to illuminate the world with your Gospel of love. Help us to find you in the smallest of things and the most ordinary of our experiences. For you are the great source of our being and the power that sustains us through your Holy Spirit. When we search hard for you, we may miss your presence in the everyday – so, help us to look out for you – in the face of friend and stranger, in the wonder and beauty of our world, in the complexity of design in the creativity of artist and scientist.
We live in you, the great mystery of our being which is beyond our understanding – yet revealed – in the life, death, and resurrection of your Son. You are there underpinning our lives, offering to us all that we need to live well. All too often we grasp after our prosperity and our safety, building walls of self-sufficiency, storing up great resources in the barns of our nation, finding “the other” and difference to be a threat to us.
We fall into ways of war when your ways are of peace. On this day of remembrance, when we pay tribute to those who have given so much when war became the way, we confess the faults of nations who have gone to war and missed your ways of peace. We acknowledge our personal guilt when we have not loved and hold all of this before you now. God of all, your ways are of mercy, your heart is for reconciliation, so help us to accept the hand of forgiveness that you offer. Help us to leave behind what has weighed us down, to seek the ways of friendship and peace, and to trust that you want the best for us. Bring us the peace of being part of your offering of forgiveness, and to embrace our role of being peacemakers in the course of our ordinary lives.
Sermon
NOTE: The above audio is in mp3 format and is also downloadable, if you wish to listen at a time when you may not have a reliable internet connection. Other devices are available but, on a PC, for example, if you right-click on the 3 vertical dots at the right side of the audio player, the drop-down menu should offer the option to “Save as…”
Prayers of Intercession
Hear us now as we offer our prayers of thanksgiving
for all the good in our lives. On this day, we hold with gratitude the service of those who are peacemakers in their service of our country. We are grateful for a vision that will hold the darker forces of our humanity in check with an ethos of cooperation, harmony and mutual flourishing.
We pray for the dedicated service of our armed forces in all the generations, remembering especially those who still remain with us from the Second World War. We thank you for their testimony which reminds us of the tragedy of conflict. Help us to hear it even as we honour the sacrifices made in search of the good.
On this day when we are drawn together from many backgrounds, and with faith flickering, strong, or with no faith, we thank you that there are times and causes around which we can all rally for the common good. Help us to find that common ground more, and to work through our differences. May the example of Jesus, his boundary-crossing life, his open-hearted embrace of all peoples, be the inspiration for our weary and wounded world.
On this day of remembrance, we pray for those who have lost loved-ones in conflict, and through the collateral damage of war. We think of those close to home in our army, navy and air force. We remember those on the other side to us in conflict, and we think of the deep scars of conflict that mark our world whenever there is war. May our remembering be for new beginnings, so that lives lost are the foundations of new worlds. May the vision of the prophets be our vision too. May your forgiveness be our forgiveness.
God of the cross and the empty tomb, God of the road to Emmaus and the breakfast on the shore. You have shown us in Jesus the way that is beyond death, so hold us in the faith of your future. Help us to rest in the confidence of new light and life, to trust that those we have loved and lost have returned to you, and that our own walk is the way home where you wait for us in the mystery of eternal life. We pray in the name of Jesus, our Saviour, who taught us to pray together…..
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 debts,
as we forgive our debtors
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever.
Amen
Musical Selection
Christ our hope in life and death
A group of songwriters from Getty Music wrote this modern hymn, which brings great comfort and reassurance. We can joyfully sing “Hallelujah” because we know Jesus conquered death forever through his resurrection and we know what our glorious future holds after our earthly life.
