St Ursula's Church
Berne, Switzerland
A Church of the Anglican Communion, welcoming all who seek the Lord Jesus Christ
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| St Ursula's Church A Church of the Anglican Communion, welcoming all who seek the Lord Jesus Christ | ||||||||
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Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you
and also with you.
1 Christ, whose glory fills the skies,
Christ, the true, the only light,
Sun of Righteousness, arise,
triumph o'er the shades of night;
Dayspring from on high, be near;
Daystar, in my heart appear.
2 Dark and cheerless is the morn
unaccompanied by thee;
joyless is the day's return,
till thy mercy's beams I see,
till they inward light impart,
glad my eyes, and warm my heart.
3 Visit then this soul of mine,
pierce the gloom of sin and grief;
fill me, radiancy divine,
scatter all my unbelief;
more and more thyself display,
shining to the perfect day!
Charles Wesley
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.
Jesus bids us shine,
with a pure, clear light,
like a little candle burning in the night.
In this world is darkness; so we must shine,
you in your small corner,
and I in mine.
Susan Warner
The grace of God has dawned upon the world through our Saviour Jesus Christ, who sacrificed himself for us to purify a people as his own.
Let us confess our sins.
Lord Jesus, illuminate the darkness in our hearts:
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, open our eyes to your saving love:
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, unstop our ears to hear your living word:
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
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.
Eternal Father,
who at the baptism of Jesus
revealed him to be your Son,
anointing him with the Holy Spirit:
grant to us, who are born again by water and the Spirit,
that we may be faithful to our calling as your adopted children;
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 book of the Prophet Isaiah.
1Thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. 2When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. 3For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you. 4Because you are precious in my sight, and honoured, and I love you, I give people in return for you, nations in exchange for your life. 5Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you; 6I will say to the north, 'Give them up,' and to the south, 'Do not withhold; bring my sons from far away and my daughters from the end of the earth – 7everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.'
A reading from the Acts of the Apostles.
14When the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. 15The two went down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit 16(for as yet the Spirit had not come upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus). 17Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
1 Breathe on me, Breath of God,
fill me with life anew,
that I may love what thou dost love,
and do what thou wouldst do.
2 Breathe on me, Breath of God,
until my heart is pure;
until with thee I will one will,
to do and to endure.
3 Breathe on me, Breath of God;
till I am wholly thine;
until this earthly part of me
glows with thy fire divine.
4 Breathe on me, Breath of God:
so shall I never die,
but live with thee the perfect life
of thine eternity.
Edwin Hatch
Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke
Glory to you, O Lord
In the wilderness John proclaimed a baptism of repentance. 15As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16John answered all of them by saying, 'I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17His winnowing-fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.' 21Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, 'You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.'
This is the Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O Christ.
'He became like us so that we might become like him.'
I used these words in my sermon on Christmas Eve. It is a phrase from the early Church that seeks to capture what the Incarnation means for us. In Christ, God becomes what we are – a human being – so that we might become sons and daughters of God as Christ is.
Today we are reflecting on the baptism of Christ, and this same phrase is relevant as we think about the implications of Jesus' baptism for us. 'He became like us so that we might become like him.'
In his baptism, Jesus makes it clear he is one of us. When all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, we're told.
Now when you think about it, this is rather strange. John the Baptist was calling for a baptism of repentance; a call to turn away from sin and turn to God. Baptism was not unknown at the time, but it was usually used for proselytes – Gentiles converting to Judaism. The sting of John's preaching is that he calls for Israelites themselves to be baptised; they too need to repent. And the repentance John calls them to is not just a vague, general confession. Rather, it has specific implications for their daily lives. In the verses just before our gospel reading this morning, John gives specific examples of what repentance might look like for the wealthy, for tax collectors and for soldiers. Different people may have particular things to repent of and to change in their lives, relating to their situation in life, their character and their work. The same is true for us. We may face different kinds of temptations and the living out of our repentance, our turning to God, may demand specific changes of attitude and action from us. Perhaps that is something worth pondering: what are the particular temptations related to my work and my family life which I might need to turn away from?
But how does all this relate to Jesus? What repentance was he called to? The writer of the letter to the Hebrews makes it clear that Jesus was 'tested in every respect as we are, yet without sin.' Jesus didn't need to repent; he didn't need to be baptised. Yet, he is still baptised in the river Jordan by John, just like everyone else. Jesus is truly one of us; he shares our human experience of joy and friendship, struggle and suffering. Indeed, again as the writer to the Hebrews points out, he even learns through what he suffers, as hopefully we do too.
At his baptism, we see that Jesus does not separate himself from the rest of humanity. He is plunged down into the depths of the water and up again like everyone else. Water in the OT was sometimes used as a symbol of cleansing, but at other times it symbolised chaos and disorder, death and destruction. Jesus goes down into this place of chaos and disorder and death, identifying with the depths and complexities of human life, suffering and sin. He goes into the depths with us and for us. His baptism, down to the depths and up again, points ahead to his suffering and death on the cross and his resurrection to new life.
But in his baptism, Jesus doesn't just identify with us. He is also identified with God. As he comes up out of the water, we're told 'the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him ... and a voice came from heaven: 'You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.' At his baptism, Jesus is marked out as God's Beloved Son, the one in whom he delights. Jesus is both one with us and one with God.
So what implication does Jesus' baptism have for us? What relevance does it have for our daily lives? As we think of Jesus' baptism, perhaps we should also think of our own. Most of us of course will not be able to remember our baptism, but that doesn't mean it is not significant. Just as in Jesus' baptism he is identified with us, so in our baptism, we are identified with him. He became like us so that we might become like him. Just as he shares our story so we are called to share his.
In our baptism, our lives become united to Christ's life; our story becomes entwined with Christ's story. This is what it means to be a Christian.
One of the books David gave me for Christmas is a book called The ABCs of Christian Faith written by Will Willimon, a friend and scholar from Duke Divinity School in the States where David worked for a while. I was very struck by some of the phrases Will uses about baptism:
'Nobody is born Christian. Water + the story of Jesus + God rewriting your story + your willingness to be written into the story of Jesus = Christian. You are not the sole author of the narrative of your life. God has not left up to you the burden of crafting your significance.'
In baptism, our story and the story of Jesus are brought together. He became like us that we might become like him. This doesn't mean we all become exactly the same, like clones. We are all called to be like him in our own particular way.
When someone is baptised, the person baptising them addresses them by name. I have recently baptised Leonel Chandra, Joanna Babatunde, and Alice Klinger. On each occasion, I spoke their name as I baptised them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. God calls each one of us by name; Jesus, the good shepherd, knows each of his sheep by name. God calls us by name as the unique person he has made us. But in baptism we are also immersed in God's own name, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
In our reading from Isaiah this morning. God calls the people of Israel 'by name': 'I have called you by name, you are mine.' God has chosen the people of Israel, and despite their failures he remains committed to them. He will be with them through fire and water, through struggles of all kinds. He says to his people; 'you are precious in my sight, and honoured, and I love you.' (Isaiah 43:4). God sets his love upon them, not because of anything they have done but because of who he is. God does not only choose them and call them by their name but also sets his own name upon them. They are a people 'called by my name.' (Isaiah 43: 7).
As Christians, we bear the name of Christ. This doesn't mean we stop bearing our own name, or stop being the unique person we are, but it means that our story and Christ's story are interwoven together. And we can be confident that God will be with us in everything. When we are baptised we are joined to Christ in his death and resurrection. This dying and rising is to become the pattern of our daily lives; dying to our own egos, selfishness and sin, and giving ourselves generously, sacrificially and joyfully to others.
In Christ we also become God's beloved sons and daughters. God's delight in Jesus as his beloved Son is extended to us: God delights in us, he sets his love upon us, we are his beloved children too. This may at times be hard to really believe. Many of us may be plagued by a constant anxiety that we are not good enough; we can never truly please our parents or husband or wife; we can never earn the affirmation we want and need. But with God it is different. It's true that we can never 'earn' God's love. We cannot make ourselves 'good enough' But the good news is that we don't have to. Jesus is God's true Son, but when our lives are joined together with his, then we also are God's adopted, and beloved, children.
In Christ, we are God's beloved sons and daughters. This is fundamental to our identity. It's not an identity we have to make or find for ourselves; it is given to us. This is a message of liberation in an age when we are encouraged to create our own identities and to work out for ourselves who we are. But we don't have to write the story of our lives for ourselves. As I quoted earlier: 'You are not the sole author of the narrative of your life. God has not left up to you the burden of crafting your significance.' The Christian gospel tells us who we are: unique people created by God and then re-made in the image of Christ.
Of course, this doesn't mean we don't have to live out this new identity in Christ. Daily we have to ask ourselves what it means to live as Christians, bearing the name of Christ, allowing God to rewrite the story of our lives into the story of Jesus.
Living out our baptism is a lifelong process. In Christ we are God's beloved son, God's beloved daughter, but we need to become who we are. Becoming who we are doesn't happen all at once when we are baptised; we have to grow up into our baptism. As Will Willimon puts it:
'In baptism, the old sinful Adam is put to death. Yet, as Martin Luther noted, the Old Adam is a mighty good swimmer. Every day you wake up, jump out of bed and submit to the continuing work begun in your baptism. Though the rite of baptism takes only a few minutes to perform, it takes your whole life to finish what was begun in you when the church doused you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and called you Christian.'
It takes our whole life to finish what was begun in our baptism, but we are not left alone in that process; we are given the Holy Spirit. Jesus promises to give us the same Spirit which descended upon him at his baptism. This Spirit will fill us, guide us, and transform us to become like him. We need the Spirit to grow up in Christ and to live out our baptism. Every Sunday at the Eucharist I pray 'Send the Holy Spirit on your people', and all of us need to pray daily for the Spirit to fill our hearts and lives to enable us to become fully who we are in Christ. And our identity in Christ is not just a nice abstract idea; it is an identity to be fleshed out in the specific realities, the situations and relationships, of our daily lives.
May all of us this coming year discover more of what it means to grow up into Christ.
He became like us so that we might become like him.
Helen 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.
Almighty God,
you have taught us how to pray, how to praise you, and how to give thanks.
You have called us by name, we are yours.
We do not fear, for you are with us.
Accept our prayers to your Divine majesty, for you sent your Son to save us, to become one of us, so that we know you.
Lord in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
Dear Lord,
we beseech you, inspire the universal church with the spirit of truth, unity and peace, and may all who trust in Jesus Christ as your Son have faith in your holy Word, and live in holy unity and godly love.
Lord in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
Dear Lord,
we pray you save and defend all lawful governments, may we all be godly and quietly governed, may all ministers and judges administer justice impartially, to protect the weak and to reform the harmful.
Lord in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
Dear Lord,
we pray for the hungry. Lord, move us to help the millions of starving in your world – in Yemen, in Congo, in Kenya, in Madagascar.
Lord in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
Dear Lord,
we humbly pray that you will comfort all those in trouble, need, or adversity.
Lord in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
Dear Lord,
we bring the sick before you. We bring their carers before you. We pray for strength amidst the pandemic.
We pray for
Sonia and Erwin Klein
David Winfield
John Eze
David and Annemarie Low
Dorothy
Jean-Pierre
We name the friends and family we pray for aloud or in our hearts.
Lord in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
Dear Lord,
we bless your Holy Name for all those who have departed this life in faith. Give us grace, we pray, to follow their good example, so we may enter your Heavenly Kingdom.
We pray especially for Nik Weibel and for Adorée and her family.
We name the friends and family we pray for aloud or in our hearts.
Lord in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
Dear Lord,
you are our Mediator with the Father. You alone were baptised without sinning. Today we celebrate your baptism by St John the Baptist, a sacrament we all follow you in, and by which we become yours. You are revealed as the beloved Son of God, the Holy Spirit descends on you like a dove. May we feel the weight and the lightness of baptism.
Lord in your mercy
Hear our prayer.
Dear Lord,
Accept these prayers for the sake of your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
Our Saviour Christ is the Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace
there shall be no end.
The peace of the Lord be always with you.
And also with you.
1 Love divine, all loves excelling,
joy of heaven, to earth come down,
fix in us thy humble dwelling,
all thy faithful mercies crown.
2 Jesu, thou art all compassion,
pure unbounded love thou art;
visit us with thy salvation,
enter every trembling heart.
3 Come, almighty, to deliver,
let us all thy grace receive;
suddenly return, and never,
never more thy temples leave.
4 Thee we would be always blessing,
serve thee as thy hosts above;
pray, and praise thee, without ceasing,
glory in thy perfect love.
5 Finish then thy new creation:
pure and spotless let us be;
let us see thy great salvation,
perfectly restored in thee;
6 changed from glory into glory,
till in heaven we take our place,
till we cast our crowns before thee,
lost in wonder, love, and praise.
Charles Wesley
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.
Lord of all time and eternity,
you opened the heavens and revealed yourself as Father
in the baptism of Jesus your beloved Son:
by the power of your Spirit
complete the heavenly work of our rebirth
through the waters of the new creation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
God of glory,
you nourish us with your Word
who is the bread of life:
fill us with your Holy Spirit
that through us the light of your glory
may shine in all the world.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
1 A man there lived in Galilee
like none who lived before,
for he alone from first to last
our flesh unsullied wore;
a perfect life of perfect deeds
once to the world was shown,
that people all might mark his steps
and in them plant their own.
2 A man there died on Calvary
above all others brave;
the human race he saved and blessed,
himself he scorned to save.
No thought can gauge the weight of woe
on him, the sinless, laid;
we only know that with his blood
our ransom price was paid.
3 A man there reigns in glory now,
divine, yet human still;
that human which is all divine
death sought in vain to kill.
All power is his; supreme he rules
the realms of time and space;
yet still our human cares and needs
find in his heart a place.
S C Lowry
Christ the Son of God perfect in you the image of his glory
and 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 now and always. Amen.
We have seen his glory, the glory revealed to all the nations.
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: 
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