Trinity3/Pentecost4 Sunday, 06/07/2025

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SENTENCE FROM SCRIPTURE:
I will exalt you, O Lord, because you have restored my life. (Psalm 30)

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 Dougie Byers

COLLECT

O Lord,
let the world be ordered in peace,
according to your will:
that your people may be free to worship you with joy;
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
2 Kings 5.1–14,
read by Gill Swales

¹ Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favour with his master, because by him the LORD had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. ² Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife.

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³ She said to her mistress, ‘If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.’ ⁴ So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. ⁵ And the king of Aram said, ‘Go then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel.’ He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments. ^{✝ 6} He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, ‘When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his leprosy.’ ⁷ When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, ‘Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.’ ⁸ But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, ‘Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.’ ⁹ So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha’s house. ¹⁰ Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, ‘Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.’ ¹¹ But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, ‘I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! ¹² Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?’ He turned and went away in a rage.

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¹³ But his servants approached and said to him, ‘Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, “Wash, and be clean”?’ ¹⁴ So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.

SECOND READING
Galatians 6.1–16,
read by Andrew Ratnam

¹ My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted. ² Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ. ³ For if those who are nothing think they are something, they deceive themselves. ⁴ All must test their own work; then that work, rather than their neighbour’s work, will become a cause for pride. ⁵ For all must carry their own loads. ⁶ Those who are taught the word must share in all good things with their teacher. ⁷ Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow.

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⁸ If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. ⁹ So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. ¹⁰ So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith. ¹¹ See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand! ¹² It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that try to compel you to be circumcised – only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. ¹³ Even the circumcised do not themselves obey the law, but they want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your flesh. ¹⁴ May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. ¹⁵ For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything! ¹⁶ As for those who will follow this rule – peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

GRADUAL HYMN

GOSPEL
Luke 10.1–11, 16–20,
read by Rev Chris Wren

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke Chapter 10 beginning at verse 1.

Glory to Christ our Saviour

The Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. ² He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. ³

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Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. ⁴ Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. ⁵ Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” ⁶ And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. ⁷ Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house.

^{This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND}

⁸ Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; ⁹ cure the sick who are there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” ¹⁰ But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ¹¹ “Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.” ¹⁶ Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.’ ¹⁷ The seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!’ ¹⁸ He said to them, ‘I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. ¹⁹ See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. ²⁰ Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’

Give thanks to the Lord for his glorious Gospel
Praise to Christ our Lord.

SERMON

BULLET POINTS – Contributed by Rev Dr Steven Ballard

2 Kings 5 verses 1-14

This Old Testament passage recounts the story of Naaman, from Aram. A great man in battle, he was suffering from leprosy. Through the intervention of his wife’s slave girl, who had been taken as a captive from Israel, Naaman is drawn to seek healing from the prophet Elisha. Elisha asked of him something very easy as the condition for his cure which was to wash in the Jordan seven times. Naaman’s obstinacy almost got the better of him until his servants urged him to do what the prophet had commanded.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

This shows us, perhaps, that we can all, at times, overcomplicate things, and neglect to see God’s guidance when the work we undertake for Him might be easier than we had first thought.

The reading also prompts us to pray for the ongoing Christian work of the Leprosy Mission. Many people still suffer from leprosy today and the disease (if not the disability it has already inflicted) is readily curable with only a modest level of expense to provide the medication needed. Please Google The Leprosy Mission and respond to its need as you are guided.

https://actions.leprosymission.org.uk/

Galatians 6 (1-6) 7-16.

The standout verse here is St Paul’s statement, “May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. This takes us to the heart of Saint Paul’s theology. A text in the Old Testament says that a person who hangs upon a tree is cursed. St Paul came to see, however, that Jesus who did indeed hang upon a tree, was not bearing his own curse, but the curse of the sin of us all. It is the cross which brings us freedom from sin, and as Saint Paul came to realize, what Christ had done for him on the cross meant that he could now find a new freedom from his own efforts to find salvation through the keeping of the law. His aspiration now was to live in Jesus Christ, and for Jesus Christ to live in him.

St Luke 10-1-11, 16-20

Our church is praying for a new Rector currently and it is right that we shall be expecting a lot from him or her. We must, however, keep our expectations on a reasonable level and remember that as the sending out of the 70 disciples shows us, all of us are commissioned for Christian witness. We are now hoping to offer the ministry of healing on a more regular level basis, but to do this we need more people who feel called to exercise this ministry and to commit to a short course of training.

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Last Sunday, I conducted worship at All Saints Gretna, and after the service I noticed that a lady in the congregation was praying in the company of another member of the congregation who is seriously unwell. The lady in question told me afterwards that it had been a hard prayer to offer, but it was very clear to me that, like the seventy disciples Jesus sent out, she was doing this in the Spirit of Jesus who had blessed the sick person through her own prayer and with the laying on of hands.

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

Let us pray for our church and for the world.

Almighty God, who rules over all creation encourage us to be strong in faith and walk beside you out of the wilderness.

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At this time where many parts of our world are not at peace let us take a moment to gather our thoughts and prayers.

We pray for Israel, Palestine, Iran, Ukraine, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Myanmar, Syria and all other areas currently in conflict.

Lord please heal those lands, where there is destruction, where there is need for reconciliation and rebuilding of relationships.

We pray for our church during this time of interregnum, for Jim as our priest in charge at this time and for all who assist him to help us continue to worship together.

We pray for the Vacancy Committee as they continue to work together to find a new Rector to lead us in our new chapter of our journey.

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We pray for all for whom every day is a struggle, where pain is recurring and who long for rest. We pray for all who are suffering in body, mind and spirit.

In a minute of silence let us remember those who have departed this life, and those whose anniversary is at this time. We remember those who we were very close to and those who we only knew briefly and those we did not know at all.

Loving Father, help take away the pain of grief and care for those who mourn.

Though they have departed this life they live forever in our hearts and in your eternal kingdom.

May they rest in Peace and rise in glory.

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Loving, Living God, help us to live daily in your service, to do good for others and be the lights in your world, Amen.

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