Byland Churches

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Preparation

Grace, mercy and peace
from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ
be with you

O Lord, open our lips
and our mouth shall proclaim your praise.
Give us the joy of your saving help
and sustain us with your life-giving Spirit.

Hymn: All my hope on God is founded

We have come together in the name of Christ
to offer our praise and thanksgiving,
to hear and receive God’s holy word,
to pray for the needs of the world,
and to seek the forgiveness of our sins,
that by the power of the Holy Spirit
we may give ourselves to the service of God.

Jesus says, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.’ So let us turn away from our sin and turn to Christ, confessing our sins in penitence and faith.

Lord God,
we have sinned against you;
we have done evil in your sight.
We are sorry and repent.
Have mercy on us according to your love.
Wash away our wrongdoing and cleanse us from our sin.
Renew a right spirit within us
and restore us to the joy of your salvation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

May the Father of all mercies
cleanse you from your sins,
and restore you in his image
to the praise and glory of his name,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Blessed is the Lord,
for he has heard the voice of our prayer;
therefore shall our hearts dance for joy
and in our song will we praise our God.

Blessed are you, Lord our God,
creator and redeemer of all;
to you be glory and praise for ever.
From the waters of chaos you drew forth the world
and in your great love fashioned us in your image.
Now, through the deep waters of death,
you have brought your people to new birth
by raising your Son to life in triumph.
May Christ your light ever dawn in our hearts
as we offer you our sacrifice of thanks and praise.
Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit:
Blessed be God for ever.

The Word of God

Psalm 30

1    I will exalt you, O Lord,
because you have raised me up
and have not let my foes triumph over me.
2    O Lord my God, I cried out to you
and you have healed me.
3    You brought me up, O Lord, from the dead;
you restored me to life from among those that go down to the Pit.
4    Sing to the Lord, you servants of his;
give thanks to his holy name.
5    For his wrath endures but the twinkling of an eye,
his favour for a lifetime.
Heaviness may endure for a night,
but joy comes in the morning.
6    In my prosperity I said,
‘I shall never be moved.
You, Lord, of your goodness,
have made my hill so strong.’
7    Then you hid your face from me
and I was utterly dismayed.
8    To you, O Lord, I cried;
to the Lord I made my supplication:
9    ‘What profit is there in my blood,
if I go down to the Pit?
Will the dust praise you or declare your faithfulness?
10  ‘Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me;
O Lord, be my helper.’
11  You have turned my mourning into dancing;
you have put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness;
12  Therefore my heart sings to you without ceasing;
O Lord my God, I will give you thanks for ever.

Glory to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning is now
and shall be for ever. Amen.

Old Testament Reading

Lamentations 3: 23-33

Hymn: New every morning is the love

New Testament Reading

Mark 5: 21-43

This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead.
And Christ shall give you light.
You have died and your life is hid with Christ in God.
Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead.
Set your minds on things that are above,
not on things that are on the earth.
And Christ shall give you light.
When Christ our life appears you will appear with him in glory.
Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead,
and Christ shall give you light.

Sermon

If I was going to have a text for today’s sermon, it would be the first verse of our Old Testament reading – Lamentations 3 verse 23.

“The Lord’s compassions are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.”

Today’s New Testament reading, from Mark’s gospel, is about three desperate people, desperate in their different needs for compassion. So let’s have a look at their stories, and see how Jesus met their needs.

One of the three is a man, Jairus, one of the leaders of the local synagogue, and so a well known public figure. He is desperate because his daughter is dying.

Another is a woman. It seems that her periods are out of control and have been for years, and so she will probably has been unclean for all that time. Being unclean means other people who come into physical contact with them will automatically be considered unclean for the rest of that day – it doesn’t make for a good social life. Not surprisingly, she is desperate to remain out of the public eye.

The third is a child, the daughter of Jairus.

Now, in our gospel reading we met Jairus first. His daughter is seriously ill, doing downhill and now is moribund. He comes to Jesus, falls at His feet and pleads with Jesus to come to his house to save his daughter. Falling at someone’s feet and pleading with them is not normal for public figures unless they are really desperate, especially when there is a crowd all round. But Jairus recognises that Jesus is the one person he knows who could lay hands on her so that she would be healed and live.

Jesus starts on the way to Jairus’ house when something happens that only Jesus is aware of. He feels power going out of Him. So Jesus stops and asks the crowd who has touched His clothes. The woman is not wanting to embarrass herself or anyone else and so stays quiet. The disciples think that in the circumstances that’s a daft question, but Jesus knows what He is doing and keeps looking round.

Eventually the woman, all of a-tremble with fear falls at His feet and tells Him her story, and that she can feel in her body that she has been healed. Jesus affirms this for her, reassuring her that her faith has healed her, and she can go in peace, being freed from her physical suffering. According to the law this means that after waiting a week, she can see a priest and offer a sacrifice. Then she will become ceremonially clean again, and can get to enjoy a normal social life once more.

But by this time, Jairus has received a message from home to say that his daughter is now dead, and there is no point in bothering Jesus any more. Jesus overhears this, and tells Jairus not to be afraid, but to just believe. In the Greek the word here translated as ‘believe’ is the same word as Jesus had used telling the woman with her medical condition that her ‘faith’ had healed her. Did that make it easier for Jairus, having witnessed the woman’s miracle, dare to believe Jesus could do something even more miraculous for his daughter?

Jesus only lets Peter, James and John accompany him with Nicodemus to the synagogue leader’s house. There they find quite a commotion, with people crying and wailing. Jesus felt the previous miracle happen in the middle of a crowd, but for this miracle, there need to be peace and quiet.

Jesus puts everyone out of the house except Jairus and his wife and his three disciples. He needs to speak to the child, and for that there needs to be peace.

He takes the girl by the hand and speaks to her. ‘Talitha koum’ are the words He says. It is Aramaic, a language closely related to Hebrew, which was more commonly used in every day life in those days. It literally translates as ‘Little girl, get up’. And straight away, she did. Everyone else in the room was amazed. Then Jesus told them to keep this quiet, almost certainly for the sake not only of the child but also of the family and Himself. Just as bad news can come as a shock and need time to adjust too, so can unexpectedly good news.

This might be a good time to pause for a moment to let the whole story of two miracles, both dramatic in different ways sink in. One miracle was for someone with a very private diagnosis, yet in the end she made a very public acknowledgement of it; the child’s death, was made public news, but the miracle was kept as private as possible at the time.

+++ +++ +++

So, what sort of people was Jesus interested in helping and healing? All sorts.

There was a man, a man of high social standing who couldn’t bear to lose his daughter. There was a woman – someone with a physically draining and socially damaging medical condition. And there was the twelve year old girl who wasn’t going to make it to adulthood.

A child, a male adult and a female adult.
A socially high profile public figure, someone socially almost an outcast, and a child yet to find a definitive social state.
A fatal illness, a chronic life sapping illness, and a sudden family life crisis.

They all needed a fresh start in some way

And Jesus found time and an answer for all of them. How come? Do you remember our text for today?

“The Lord’s compassions are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness”

Every morning we get a fresh start in life – a new day, a new beginning. As our second hymn put it: ‘New every morning is the love our waking and uprising prove’. It’s an even fresher start if we have remembered the night before to do what the Bible also teaches – not to let the sun go down on our wrath, in other words not to go to bed angry. Even if we can’t forgive fully about whatever stimulated it that day, a start on it is good. If that seems impossible, saying to yourself and God that you want to would be a something.

Jesus gave them all a fresh start by making sure they had the time they needed for healing to take place. We can follow this example by giving ourselves time to have a conversation with God about what is troubling us. Not just by us talking to God, but also by us including time to listen to His reply, maybe even having a bit of a conversation sometimes. We may even get a sense of how glad He is that we have chosen to do this.

And after we have let ourselves engage with God this way, we can appreciate even more the hymn we will end this service with, ’Great is thy faithfulness’. Each little step of faith we take, God will show us a bit more of His faithfulness, which makes it a bit easier for us to take our next step of faith, and that is how we grow in faith – not so much what we think, though that comes into it too, but what we put into daily practice of living a life of growing compassion ourselves.

The Creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Amen.

Hymn: Now the green blade riseth

Prayers

Father God,
we praise and thank you for your compassion and faithfulness

We bring before you today our longing and desire to see your healing in our world.
We pray for our Queen, our government and all world leaders that they will look to you for guidance in dealing with the problems of their countries. May they grow in compassion and look for the health and well being of all their citizens.

We pray that they will promote peaceful living together. We pray for support for their medical services in the global fight against Covid. May they discover through experience your compassion and faithfulness