Trinity 22 / Pentecost 23
Sunday, 16/11/2025
OPENING SENTENCE OF SCRIPTURE –
With joy you shall draw water from the wells of salvation. (Isaiah 12)
HYMN-
GREETING
Grace and peace to you from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
COLLECT FOR PURITY
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.
SUMMARY OF THE LAW
Our Lord Jesus Christ said: The first commandment is this:
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is the only Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.”
The second is this: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these. Amen. Lord, have mercy.
CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION
God is love and we are God’s children. There is no room for fear in love. We love because God loved us first.
Let us confess our sins in penitence and faith.
SILENCE
God our Father,
we confess to you
and to our fellow members in the Body of Christ
that we have sinned in thought, word and deed,
and in what we have failed to do.
We are truly sorry.
Forgive us our sins,
and deliver us from the power of evil,
for the sake of your Son who died for us, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
ABSOLUTION
God, who is both power and love,
forgive you and free you from your sins,
heal and strengthen you by the Holy Spirit,
and raise you to new life in Christ our Lord. Amen.
GLORIA sung by Sue St Joseph
COLLECT
O Lord, forgive the transgressions of your people:
and by your goodness
release us from the snare of sin,
in which, by our frailty,
we have been caught;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, world without end. Amen
PROCLAIMING & RECEIVING GOD’S WORD
FIRST READING Isaiah 65.17–25 , read by Robyn Brotherston
Thus says the LORD:
17 For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. 18 But be glad and rejoice for ever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. 19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. 20 No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed. 21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 23 They shall not labour in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the LORD – and their descendants as well. 24 Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. ✝ 25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent – its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD.
SECOND READING 2 Thessalonians 3.6–13, read by Mark Toner
6 We command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you,
8 and we did not eat anyone’s bread without paying for it; but with toil and labour we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. 9 This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate. 10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. 11 For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. 12 Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.
13 Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.
GRADUAL HYMN
GOSPEL Luke 21.5–19, read by Rev Chris Wren
Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke Chapter 21, beginning at verse 5.
Glory to Christ our Saviour
5 When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, Jesus said,
6 ‘As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.’ 7 They asked him, ‘Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?’ 8 And Jesus said, ‘Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and, “The time is near!” Do not go after them. 9 When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.’ 10 Then he said to them, ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; 11 there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. 12 But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name.
13 This will give you an opportunity to testify. 14 So make up your minds not to prepare your defence in advance; 15 for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. 16 You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. 17 You will be hated by all because of my name. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 By your endurance you will gain your souls.’
Give thanks to the Lord for his glorious Gospel
Praise to Christ our Lord.
SERMON
When I returned from service as a Mission Partner in Kenya in 1979, for several months my family and I stayed in a Norfolk village with my brother. The local parish church was in a vacancy, and so I was asked to take a service of Mattins, which I did gladly.
It so happened that in the congregation there was a retired GP, a certain Dr Knappit, who I had known for many years, and who I also knew to be an ardent fundamentalist. After the service, he accosted me, with a fiery glint in his eye, and demanded to know whether or not I believed that we were in the last days, and that the return of Jesus was imminent. As I believed no such thing, and not wanting to upset him, I mumbled something incoherent, by which I hoped he realised that I did not agree with him, and that he would take it well. However the good doctor took himself off in high dudgeon, and I realised that I had not exactly covered myself in glory!
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND
For 2000 years, this has been a problem for the church. The imminent return of Jesus the Messiah has been long anticipated, and it has not happened. There are those Christians who, nothing daunted, still cherish this belief, some even being so bold as to predict a definite date when this will occur. All have been proved wrong. Which begs the question – is this a probable event in the future? Or is it, rather, a vain hope?
There can be no doubt that the early Christians believed that Jesus would soon be back with them, and they lived their lives based on that belief, even to the extent of living in communities where they shared all their possessions. And when we consider that it was during this time that the gospels were written, then to some extent this coloured the way they thought about Jesus. And this is reflected in this very passage we read this morning.
So let me unpack this a little bit.
“The Day of the Lord”
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
There are four strands to this passage which help us to interpret it. Firstly, there is the notion of something Jewish people knew as “The Day of the Lord”. They divided time into two parts- “The Present Age”, and “The Age to Come”. But in between the two was “The Day of the Lord”, which was to be a time of great upheaval and change, and to cap it all, terror. And that is reflected in this passage.
Then there is reference to the fall of Jerusalem. This did indeed happen in the year 70, when the Romans demolished it, including the temple. You will recall that reference in this morning’s gospel.
The third strand concerns this notion of the return of the Messiah. The belief here was that before this came about, many false Messiahs would arise.
Lastly, there is forecast a terrible persecution for those who followed the way of Jesus.
Put this all together, and you get a picture of what the early Christians were going through. And somebody, maybe the disciple and apostle Peter, remembered the warning Jesus gave, that if anyone decided to follow him, they would not be in for an easy ride. That was an upfront and honest call to those who would be his disciples. To be a Christian was to be a hero.
So let me be frank. Let me hazard a guess. This has not exactly been the experience for most of us this morning. We might all have our woes, our tribulations, our sorrows. But persecution? Surely not.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
When I was in the RAF, and studying to enter the ordained ministry of the Methodist Church, I started to study New Testament Greek in my break times. It turned out to be a good move when I actually got to college, as I was ahead of the game in that respect. But a particularly nasty colleague soon jumped to what I was up to, and proclaimed to the workshop that I was what he called a “God botherer”. That, I have to say, is the nearest I have ever been to persecution, and quite frankly, it is nothing, compared to what millions of people, martyrs for the faith, have undergone even to death.
But it is still happening today. Yesterday was a special day to think about the persecuted Christian Church, which, I’m afraid, seemed to pass us by. Let me take you to just one area of the world where persecution is a very present danger for Christians.
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In sub-Saharan Africa generally, Christians are under attack. Sadly, the threat comes from fundamentalist Islamic groups. In Nigeria they go under the name of “Boko Haram”. In Kenya, they are called “al Shabaab”. They are ruthless, and Christians fear for their lives, as the militants can ambush buses, and anyone who cannot recite anything from the Koran could be executed on the spot. These are people who know what persecution is like. Kenya is 80% Christian, and about 10% Muslim, yet the minority wields such terror. Muslims who speak out against it are vilified, and can even suffer death.
A pastor from Nigeria, who lives in a displacement camp after narrowly surviving a violent attack, says, “We feel ignored, forgotten. Like we are in the dark.”
Millions of Christians have been driven from their homes by violence and conflict in sub-Saharan Africa, risking their lives because they are disciples of Jesus. An organisation called “Open Doors” supports the persecuted church there, and also in more than 70 countries, by supplying Bibles, providing emergency relief and helping persecuted believers stand strong for the long term. “In the UK and Ireland, Open Doors helps the church to pray, give and speak out for those who share our faith but not our freedom. They estimate that there are 16.2 million Christians in the world today, who value our support and our prayers. They are truly at the sharp end of what it means to be a Christian.” That is a quote from their website.
But persecution has been the lot of the followers of Jesus from the very beginning. Think about how of the 12 apostles were all imprisoned by the High Priest and the Sadducees, only to be released by the intervention of a Pharisee named Gamaliel. Nevertheless, they were still beaten before they were let go! Think about that man named Saul, whose aim in life was to eliminate this new movement known as “The Way”, and who was present when the first martyr, Stephen, was stoned to death. He went on to drag Christians out of their houses and put them in prison. And so it continued. The Christian Church in North Africa, once a stronghold of the faith, a theological hub, virtually disappeared under oppression and weakness. Here in Britain, people were cruelly slaughtered, burned alive, put to the sword, for holding on to their beliefs, and as we know, in these parts, it was Christian versus Christian.
The persecuted church, then, is a reality still, as it has been from the very beginning. We can support organisations like Open Doors. We can pray for them. We can do that at noon every Friday, right here in this church, out of concern and hope.
Can we do this? Yes, we can! The question is, will you do it?
THE CREED
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
God from God,
Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one substance with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven;
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father.
With the Father and the Son,
he is worshipped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
PRAYERS
Almighty God, in the power of the resurrection, we praise you that you give us love, you give us life, you give yourself. We put our trust in you as we pray for the church, the world and for ourselves.
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We thank you for bringing us together this week of Remembrance, to recall with tenderness and respect, those who lost their lives from this community, for those know to ourselves, and the thousands further afield in the wars of this and the last century. For those who won for us a great victory, we remember that without their bravery, our lives could have been very different, without the freedom we enjoy. We pray for all those currently caught up in the many conflicts across the world and acknowledge our own confusion about war and the use of weapons. As we pray for peace, give us peace in our hearts.
Lord, in your Mercy: Hear our Prayer.
Loving God, guide your church as it is faced with many dangers across the world. May it stand for justice and righteousness. We lift the needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ before you, thinking especially of those who are imprisoned for their faith. We pray for all church leaders and teachers, that they may faithfully preach the gospel of the resurrection with power and clarity. Give them wisdom to guide your people, focusing on things which have eternal value. We pray for our own church family here in St John’s. We pray for Bishop Nick, for Jim our interim priest, and for all who serve in any way supporting our church. We pray for the Vacancy committee as they work towards appointing a new Rector. When Bishop Nick was with us, he gave us a stone with the word Courage on it. It reminds us to trust the process and proceed with Courage and Faith.
Lord in your Mercy; Hear our prayer.
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Loving God, we thank you for your blessings on all doctors and nurses whose knowledge, skill and compassion do so much to alleviate the pain and distress of illness. We pray for all who are suffering today in body, mind or spirit. Give them courage, hope and peace, and the knowledge that you are present in their weakness, pain and suffering. We pray for all who feel helpless and oppressed, for those weighed down with addiction or mental illness. Set them free and bring to them healing and hope so that they may live life in all its fullness. We remember all who are ill in our own St John’s family and keep them in our prayers.
Lord in your mercy; Hear our prayer.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY
God of Love, we thank you for your gift to us of eternal life. We thank you for the lives of those who have gone before us into the fullness of your presence. We pray for those who feel the pain of grief at the loss of a loved one, whether recently or as each anniversary passes. Help us to support those who mourn both with our prayers, with words of comfort and with practical help, both this day and in the days and weeks to come. May they each feel the comfort of your loving arms around them.
Loving God, we praise you for all you have done in the past; we look forward with thankfulness for all you will do in the future, and we thank you for today and all your blessings we experience.
Merciful Father accept these prayers for the sake of your Son,
our Saviour Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those
who sin against us.
Do not bring us
to the time of trial
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power
and the glory are yours,
now and forever. Amen.
BLESSING
Christ the Son of God gladden your hearts with the good news of his kingdom; and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.
HYMN –
DISMISSAL
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord
In the name of Christ. Amen
