St Ursula's Church
Berne, Switzerland
A Church of the Anglican Communion, welcoming all who seek the Lord Jesus Christ
|
| St Ursula's Church A Church of the Anglican Communion, welcoming all who seek the Lord Jesus Christ | ||||||||
| News | Contacts | Who We Are | Where We Are | Magazine | Pictures | Charities | Rotas | Weddings | Site Map |
Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you
and also with you.
1Jesus shall reign where'er the sun
does his successive journeys run;
his kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
till moons shall wax and wane no more.
2 People and realms of every tongue
dwell on his love with sweetest song,
and infant voices shall proclaim
their early blessings on his name.
3 Blessings abound where'er he reigns:
the prisoner leaps to lose his chains;
the weary find eternal rest,
and all the sons of want are blest.
4 To him shall endless prayer be made,
and praises throng to crown his head;
his name like incense shall arise
with every morning sacrifice.
5 Let every creature rise and bring
peculiar honours to our King;
angels descend with songs again,
and earth repeat the loud Amen.
Isaac Watts
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.
This is the day,
this is the day that the Lord has made,
that the Lord has made.
We shall rejoice,
we shall rejoice and be glad in it,
and be glad in it
This is the day that the Lord has made.
We shall rejoice and be glad in it.
This is the day,
this is the day that the Lord has made.
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.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Amen. Lord, have mercy.
God so loved the world
that he gave his only Son Jesus Christ
to save us from our sins,
to be our advocate in heaven,
and to bring us to eternal life.
Let us confess our sins in penitence and faith,
firmly resolved to keep God's commandments
and to live in love and peace with all.
Almighty God, our heavenly Father,
we have sinned against you and against our neighbour
in thought and word and deed,
through negligence, through weakness,
through our own deliberate fault.
We are truly sorry and repent of all our sins.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, who died for us,
forgive us all that is past and grant
that we may serve you in newness of life
to the glory of your name. Amen.
Almighty God, who forgives all who truly repent,
have mercy upon you, pardon and deliver you from all your sins,
confirm and strengthen you in all goodness,
and keep you in life eternal;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to his people on earth.
Lord God, heavenly King,
almighty God and Father,
we worship you, we give you thanks,
we praise you for your glory.
Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father,
Lord God, Lamb of God,
you take away the sin of the world:
have mercy on us;
you are seated at the right hand of the Father:
receive our prayer.
For you alone are the Holy One,
you alone are the Lord,
you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit,
in the glory of God the Father. Amen.
Almighty God,
you have broken the tyranny of sin
and have sent the Spirit of your Son into our hearts
whereby we call you Father:
give us grace to dedicate our freedom to your service,
that we and all creation may be brought
to the glorious liberty of the children of God;
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. Amen.
A reading from the prophet Jeremiah.
5 The prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord; 6 and the prophet Jeremiah said, 'Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord fulfil the words that you have prophesied, and bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of the Lord, and all the exiles. 7 But listen now to this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people. 8 The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms. 9 As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes true, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet.'
A reading from the letter of Paul to the Romans.
12 Do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. 13 No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. 15 What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, 18 and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification. 20 When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 O thou who camest from above
the fire celestial to impart,
kindle a flame of sacred love
on the mean altar of my heart.
2 There let it for thy glory burn
with inextinguishable blaze,
and trembling to its source return
in humble prayer and fervent praise.
3 Jesus, confirm my heart's desire
to work and speak and think for thee;
still let me guard the holy fire
and still stir up the gift in me.
4 Still let me prove thy perfect will,
my acts of faith and love repeat;
till death thy endless mercies seal,
and make the sacrifice complete.
Charles Wesley
Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew
Glory to you, O Lord
Jesus said to the twelve: 40 'Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41 Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; 42 and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple – truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.'
This is the Gospel of the Lord
Praise to you, O Christ
The weeks since the killing of George Floyd have seen many demonstrations and protests. In the USA in particular, but also elsewhere, we have reached a crisis-point, and hopefully a turning-point to a better future, in relation to long histories of racism. Race is an important question for the Church, and Helen has mentioned it a number of times here at St Ursula's, expressing our call to be a genuinely multi-racial expression of the Body of Christ. However, my focus today is not race, but slavery, a central theme in today's reading from St Paul's letter to the Romans. But racism and slavery are of course closely linked: the current crisis over racism, especially in the USA, has roots deep in the history of slavery, which has been called America's 'original sin'. Before we listen to what Paul wrote about slavery and freedom 2,000 years ago, it may help to reflect on how we think about slavery and freedom today.
The abolition of slavery throughout the world is widely seen as one of the great moral advances of the modern world. This happened mainly in the 19th century, though in some places not till much later. But even though now illegal, slavery still flourishes. Around 40 million people, or one in 200 in the world, of whom over 70% are women or girls, live in slavery today, forced to work against their will, owned or controlled by an exploiter, with limited freedom of movement, bought and sold as property. (Guardian briefing, Feb 2019)
Today we may find it difficult to understand that in the 19th century Christians did not all support abolition. Many in fact stoutly defended slavery. But the abolitionists, including Christian leaders such as Wilberforce, won the argument. One of the moral foundations of the modern world is the conviction that the innate dignity of every person demands that they should be free, that they should not be slaves. So we are deeply troubled by the continuing reality of slavery for 40 million people today. They should be free; they should not be slaves.
Freedom is one of the most cherished values of the modern world. And going beyond freedom from slavery, we place great emphasis on freedom more generally – political, social, moral, sexual freedom. We recognise that we must not infringe on the freedom of others (which can lead to tricky balancing-acts) but basically we should be free to decide who we are, what we believe, how we live. Otherwise, we are oppressed, in a kind of slavery.
But we may also sometimes see that just because we are free – politically, socially, morally free – doesn't mean we are OK. We realise that freedom isn't the only thing we need; or, maybe, that we have to think what freedom really is, what freedom is for. In a song from the 1980s, David Bowie spoke of 'the vacuum created by the arrival of freedom, and the possibilities it seems to offer'. That's a painfully honest recognition that we don't really understand what it means to be free. We attain freedom and the possibilities it seems to offer, but we then find ourselves in a vacuum, an empty space of meaninglessness and anxiety. What do we do with our freedom? Bowie's words speak for the wider experience of the western world. At a leading American university where I recently worked, a third of undergraduates were on medication for depression and other mental health conditions. That doesn't sound very free. In the country that most symbolizes freedom and prosperity, whose message to its young is often 'You are free to become who you want', the rising elite is deeply troubled.
What, then, does it mean to be free?
Christians have to say more than one thing to answer that question.
First, there can be no retreat from the moral progress of the modern world that led to the abolition of slavery. The God-given dignity of every human being demands that they should not be slaves to other human beings. We should all be free to make fundamental choices about how we live our lives.
But, second, making a quite different point, but one that does not contradict the first, Christians must also acknowledge that once we have that kind of freedom, we are still faced with further questions. Even if there were no slavery at all in the world, we would still have to confront the reality that at another, deeper level, we are not as free as we might think; in fact we are all slaves. This applies not just to those of us who might be addicted, or enslaved, to destructive patterns of life through abuse of drugs or drink, through gambling or pornography. No: in and of ourselves, none of us, not even the best of us, can liberate ourselves from our own self-centred attitudes and desires, the fundamental orientation to our self, our will, which infects everything, and which Paul calls slavery to sin.
And Paul's message is that it is only as we become slaves to God that we will become truly free.
Over the last two weeks, Helen spoke on earlier passages from Romans where Paul describes the great transformation God has brought about through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have been united with Christ, and we must now live into that reality, dying to our old self, Adam, and living a new life in Christ. We must remind ourselves of what God has done for us and what God says about us: that we are dead to sin and alive to God. In today's reading, Paul speaks about this same transition in another way, in terms of slavery: we were slaves of sin, but now we are slaves of God; and we must live into the liberating reality of who we are as slaves of God. Helen also spoke about the tension in the Christian life between the old and the new: we are dead to sin but we continue to sin; God has made us new in Christ but the old Adam still lives in us. There is something illogical about us: we do not yet live as those who we truly are, and we must daily seek to live into the new reality into which God calls us in Christ. In today's passage, Paul again suggests how illogical it us for us to keep living as slaves of sin when we are now slaves of God.
Paul's references to slavery would have made perfect sense to his readers. Slaves were bought and sold all the time. Imagine you were a slave. You used to belong to Mr A; he gave you orders; you did as he commanded. But then Mr B bought you; now you belong to him and take his orders. One day you are out in the market-place running an errand for Mr B, when Mr A spots you and shouts: 'Come over here – I've got something for you to do...' To which you can only reply: 'Sorry, you know well that Mr B bought me; I now belong to him, not you; I am doing what he has told me to do; I don't take orders from you any more. I'm under new ownership.'
If we find it difficult or uncomfortable to think ourselves into the place of a slave in the Roman world, we can maybe imagine some other form of new ownership. A football star is transferred at great cost from Liverpool to Chelsea. And some time later his old club plays his new club. When the ball comes to him, it would be unimaginable for him to turn round and start playing for Liverpool again. He has been transferred to Chelsea; he wears the Chelsea shirt.
Paul's point is that through Jesus Christ God has transferred us from slavery to sin and made us his own slaves. God has in fact done this to make us free, because his service is perfect freedom. But we are as illogical as slaves obeying their old master (who in fact is a murderous tyrant with whom they should want no further contact), or footballers turning round and playing for the opposition. That doesn't happen; at least it shouldn't happen; but that is the old unreality in which we choose to keep living at least part of our divided lives, rather than fully embracing the freedom that God gives us in Christ.
A truth we have to grasp is that, one way or another, we will be slaves, whether to sin or to God. There is no third option in which we are ultimately masters of ourselves. Recognising this is a low door through which we must pass, which may mean stooping a long way. So Paul pleads with us to say good riddance to the proud but pathetic delusions of the past, the old ownership, the reign of sin which God judged and destroyed in Christ crucified; and to step into the new world opened up by the risen Christ, where there is true freedom.
What Paul says here is part of the wider story the Bible tells. The Exodus is the crucial moment in the Old Testament that speaks of the same reality. Through Moses, God delivered Israel from slavery, from cruel oppression, exploitative labour policies, genocidal racial hatred; God brought Israel out with the promise of a new life in a new land. But they were not set free from Egypt to be able to do what they wanted. They were transferred from one slavery to another, from slavery to Pharaoh to slavery to God, from oppressive ownership to liberating ownership. And here too there are the same tensions, the same illogicality, the same reluctance fully to embrace the freedom that God gives. On the way to the promised land, on the way to becoming what God has called them to be, the people grumble and wish themselves back in their old slavery in Egypt. It has never been easy to learn to be the liberated slaves of God.
Above all, this message comes into focus in Jesus himself. Not that he needed to be liberated from sin; uniquely, he did not. But he is the one who, unlike anyone else, lived a life of uninterrupted, perfect submission to God's will. He thought of himself as God's servant, God's slave; he spoke of himself as doing not what he wanted to do, but what God had sent him to do; his food was to do the will of the one who sent him (John 4:34). Unlike everyone else, he never clutched after the illusory freedom of doing what he thought best, what he wanted to do. He did what God asked of him – 'your will, not mine, be done' – even when that cost him everything. Because he is God's slave, he is utterly free of the disastrous self-centredness that distorts every other human life. He is God-centred, other-centred. Does that make him weak, a puppet, a door-mat? Not at all: he is free. And we are not, and we need to be set free by him. And he says to us: 'If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.' He draws us into his own freedom, saying: 'If you continue in my word ... you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free' (John 8: 31-38).
So, in conclusion, let me draw together the two rather different strands of what I've been saying. Part of our responsibility as followers of Christ is to recognise and oppose all forms of slavery in this world through which some human beings oppress others. Just as we want it for ourselves, so we should seek for all people, of every nation, race and religion, the freedom to live in just and peaceful societies in which they are able to flourish and make fundamental decisions about their own lives. But in the light of Christ we also know that we need a deeper, more radical freedom than any political order can give us. That freedom has already been won for us by Christ, crucified and risen. We can only enter into that freedom by living as slaves of God. Because much in us still rebels against this truth, let us constantly remind ourselves that his service is perfect freedom.
Revd David Marshall
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,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven,
was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and 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 and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified,
who 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.
Lord in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
Merciful Father
Accept these prayers for the sake of your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
We are the body of Christ.
In the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.
Let us then pursue all that makes for peace
and builds up our common life.
The peace of the Lord be always with you.
And also with you.
1Lord of all power, I give you my will,
in joyful obedience your tasks to fulfil.
Your bondage is freedom, your service is song,
and, held in your keeping, my weakness is strong.
2 Lord of all wisdom, I give you my mind,
rich truth that surpasses man's knowledge to find.
What eye has not seen and what ear has not heard
is taught by your Spirit and shines from your Word.
3 Lord of all bounty, I give you my heart;
I praise and adore you for all you impart:
your love to inspire me, your counsel to guide,
your presence to cheer me, whatever betide.
4 Lord of all being, I give you my all;
If e'er I disown you I stumble and fall;
but, sworn in glad service your word to obey,
I walk in your freedom to the end of the way.
Jack C Winslow
As our Saviour has taught us, so we pray
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.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours now and for ever.
Amen.
Almighty God, Father of all mercies,
we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks
for all your goodness and loving-kindness
to us and to all whom you have made.
We bless you for our creation, preservation,
and all the blessings of this life;
but above all for your immeasurable love
in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ;
for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.
And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies,
that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise,s
not only with our lips, but in our lives,
by giving up ourselves to your service,
and by walking before you
in holiness and righteousness all our days;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit,
be honour and glory throughout all ages.
Amen.
Eternal God,
the light of the minds that know you,
the joy of the hearts that love you,
and the strength of the wills that serve you:
grant us so to know you
that we may truly love you,
so to love you that we may truly serve you,
whose service is perfect freedom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
1 Take my life, and let it be
consecrated, Lord, to thee;
take my moments and my days,
let them flow in ceaseless praise.
2 Take my hands, and let them move
at the impulse of thy love;
take my feet, and let them be
swift and beautiful for thee.
3 Take my voice, and let me sing
always, only, for my King;
take my lips, and let them be
filled with messages from thee.
4 Take my silver and my gold;
not a mite would I withhold;
take my intellect, and use
every power as thou shalt choose.
5 Take my will, and make it thine:
it shall be no longer mine;
take my heart: it is thine own;
it shall be thy royal throne.
6 Take my love; my Lord, I pour
at thy feet its treasure store;
take myself, and I will be
ever, only, all for thee.
Frances R Havergal
The peace of God,
which passes all understanding,
keep your hearts and minds
in the knowledge and love of God,
and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord;
and the blessing of God Almighty,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be with you
and remain with you now and always. Amen.
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
In the name of Christ. Amen.
| We hope that you enjoyed the online service and
it helps you feel connected to us all in St Ursula's. Our finances have also been impacted by the closure of our premises so If you would like to give to the collection, you can pay to one of the following bank accounts: Postfinance: CH79 0900 0000 3000 4416 8 for CHF giving Cater Allen: GB06 ABBY 1657 1053 6206 89 for GBP giving. BIC is ABBYGB2LXXX Or via Twint: 
Thank you! |