9.00 am Holy Communion BCP (said)
10.00 am Holy Communion BCP (sung)
Stay awake!
“Stay awake” is not just what I hope you will do during my sermon today. I hope you will stay awake for all of Advent, this season of watching and waiting. Fair enough, Christmas Day is always scheduled for 25th December, and, would you know it, Jesus is born on that day every time.
One of the other great Advent themes is the arrival of ‘The Bridegroom’. What if he were early? Would we be ready?
Bear in mind, the Kingdom might come early, in its fullness; we will all caught up in the Rapture, and face the Judgement Seat. Are we prepared?
The metaphor of the thief is a powerful one. Even in Jesus’s times, thieves could come at any time, maybe night being the most obvious, and when the occupants were out being the next.
Today we have other thieves to deal with, often online, with fraud; with our data being scraped; being gas-lit by slick videos on social media, and so on.
We have to be on our guard in so many more ways.
We are so much better prepared if we have Christ in Jesus at our core. He is there, even as we wait for Him.
Fr A
Music before the 10.00 service
Wachet auf ruft uns die Stimme BWV 645 JS Bach
(Wake up, the voice is calling us)
Introit Hymn
1. Hark! a herald voice is calling!
"Christ is nigh!" it seems to say;
"Cast away the dreams of darkness,
O ye children of the day!"
2. Startled at the solemn warning,
Let the earth-bound soul arise;
Christ, her Sun, all sloth dispelling,
Shines upon the morning skies.
3. Lo, the Lamb, so long expected,
Comes with pardon down from heaven.
Let us haste, with tears of sorrow,
One and all, to be forgiven,
4. So, when next He comes with glory,
wrapping all the earth in fear,
may he then as our defender,
on the clouds of heav’n appear.
5. Honour, glory, virtue, merit,
to the Father and the Son,
with the everlasting Spirit,
while unending ages run!
Words: 6th century trans. Edward Caswall (1814-1878)
Music: Merton 8787 William Henry Monk (1823-1889)
Collect
Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son
Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and
ever. one God, now and for ever.
Old Testament Reading
Isaiah 2.1-5
2The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
3And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
5O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.
Gospel
Matthew 24.36-44
36But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
37But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
41Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
42Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
43But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
44Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
Cycle of Prayer
Our Bishops
David, Mark and Matthew
The Anglican Communion
The Anglican Church of Australia
The Porvoo Communion
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland
The Scottish Episcopal Church: Diocese of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane
Schools and Colleges
All Saints, St Wilfrid’s, Briscoe Lane,
Christ the King, Oldham Bluecoat, Trinity High School, Co-op Academy Broadhurst; Loreto College; Bowdoin College, Maine; Churchill College Cambridge;
Coventry University; Edge Hill University;
Leeds University.
Streets
Schools, Residential and Care Homes, Care Workers, Factories, Shops, Supermarkets, Undertakers,
Security Services, Sports Facilities.
Book of Remembrance
Len Mellor; Hilda Jackson; Frances McDermott;
William Summers.
Hymn
Lo, he comes with clouds descending,
once for favoured sinners slain;
thousand thousand saints attending
swell the triumph of his train:
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
God appears on earth to reign.
Every eye shall now behold him
robed in dreadful majesty;
those who set at naught and sold him,
pierced and nailed him to the tree,
deeply wailing, deeply wailing, deeply wailing,
shall the true Messiah see.
Those dear tokens of his passion
still his dazzling body bears,
cause of endless exultation
to his ransomed worshippers:
with what rapture, with what rapture, with what rapture,
gaze we on those glorious scars!
Yea, Amen, let all adore thee,
high on thine eternal throne;
Saviour, take the power and glory,
claim the kingdom for thine own:
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
Thou shalt reign and thou alone.
after J Cennick (1718-1755),
C Wesley (1707-1788) and M Madan (1726-1790)
Voluntary after the 10.00 service
In dulci jubilo Bux VW 197 Dietrich Buxtehude
Authorised Version of the Bible and Collects
(Book of Common Prayer, 1662)
© Crown and Cambridge University Press
Looking ahead
7th December, Second Sunday of Advent
10.00 am Parish Sung Eucharist
Toy Service: bring gifts for those children in need
14th December, Third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete
10.00 am Parish Sung Eucharist,
Wear something rose or pink!
Followed by parish brunch
Thursday 18th December
7.30 pm Christmas Spectacular
with Greater Manchester Police Male Voice Choir
(Free entry; retiring collection; raffle and refreshments)
21st December, Fourth Sunday of Advent
10.00 am Parish Sung Eucharist
3.30 pm Crib and Christingle Service
(with an opportunity to light a candle as a visual
prayer for someone or something you miss this year)
7th December, Second Sunday of Advent
10.00 am Parish Sung Eucharist
Toy Service: bring gifts for those children in need
14th December, Third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete
10.00 am Parish Sung Eucharist,
Wear something rose or pink!
11.00 Parish Brunch
21st December, Fourth Sunday of Advent
10.00 am Parish Sung Eucharist
3.30 pm Crib and Christingle Service
(with an opportunity to light a candle as a visual prayer for someone or something you miss this year)
Mobile 07596 514 541