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Welcome to

All Saints Kings Heath Your Parish Church in the Diocese of Birmingham

Behold your judge Morning Prayer

Sunday 17th January 2021

Zurburan: The Lamb of God (Prado Museum, Madrid)

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We “gather” The service should flow as well with one worshipper as with more. Some words are printed plain and some bold. If you are on your own, you can either read all aloud, or read the plain silently and the bold aloud. If there are several praying together, you could share out the parts.

Music: click on the links to hear and join in the music. Click stop at the end of each.

HYMN Awake, my soul, and with the sun

1. Awake, my soul, and with the sun thy daily stage of duty run; shake off dull sloth, and joyful rise to pay thy morning sacrifice.

2. Redeem thy mis-spent time that’s past,

and live this day as if thy last; improve thy talent with due care; for the great day thyself prepare.

3. Let all thy converse be sincere,

thy conscience as the noon-day clear; think how all-seeing God thy ways and all thy secret thoughts surveys.

4. Wake, and lift up thyself, my heart,

and with the angels bear thy part, who all night long unwearied sing high praise to the eternal King.

5. Praise God, from whom all blessings flow, praise him, all creatures here below, praise him above, angelic host, praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

(words: Thomas Ken alt; music: François Hippolyte Barthélémon)

We call upon God:

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. Ascribe to the Lord the honour due to his name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. (Psalm 29:2)

We say to each other, and imagine hearing from each other all around the parish: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

(1 Corinthians 1:3)

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We pause, separately in our homes, but united in 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 find new ways to serve God.

Prayers of Penitence God, you have searched us and know us. You know when we sit down and when we rise up. Before a word is on our tongue, Lord, you know it altogether. Such knowledge is too wonderful for us. (cf Psalm 139) Knowing we are fully known, we confess our sins: Almighty God, long-suffering and of great goodness: I confess to you, I confess with my whole heart my neglect and forgetfulness of your commandments, my wrong doing, thinking, and speaking; the hurts I have done to others, and the good I have left undone. O God, forgive me, for I have sinned against you; and raise me to newness of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. May the God of healing and forgiveness draw us to himself, and cleanse us from all our sins that we may behold the glory of his Son, the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Word of God

We open our hearts and minds to hear God's voice echo through the scriptures. Speak Lord, for your servant is listening. OLD TESTAMENT READING 1 Samuel 3:1-10 (click here for text; readings from Tony Cocks) NEW TESTAMENT READING Revelation 5:1-10 (click here for text) HYMN Purify my heart

1. Purify my heart, let me be as gold and precious silver. Purify my heart, let me be as gold, pure gold.

Refiner’s fire, my heart’s one desire is to be holy, set apart for you Lord. I choose to be holy, set apart for you, my master, ready to do your will.

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2. Purify my heart, cleanse me from within and make me holy.

Purify my heart, cleanse me from my sin, deep within.

(words & music: Brian Doerksen)

GOSPEL READING John 1:43-end (click here for text) O God, you search me and you know me (PSALM 139)

1. O God, you search me and you know me. All my thoughts lie open to your gaze. When I walk or lie down you are before me: ever the maker and keeper of my days.

2. You know my resting and my rising. You discern my purpose from afar, and with love everlasting you besiege me: in every moment of life and death, you are.

3. Before a word is on my tongue, Lord, you have known its meaning through and through. You are with me beyond my understanding: God of my present, my past and future, too.

4. Although your Spirit is upon me,

still I search for shelter from your light. There is nowhere on earth I can escape you: even the darkness is radiant in your sight.

5. For you created me and shaped me, gave me life within my mother’s womb. For the wonder of who I am, I praise you: safe in your hands, all creation is made new.

(words & music: Bernadette Farrell)

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH We stand and turn to look in the direction of Church, aware of our small part in God’s long story of being with humankind: All: 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.

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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.

Prayers

INTERCESSIONS led by Des Workman There is a bidding and response to these intercessions the response to the bidding is: Help Us To Pray Dear Lord, when you were on Earth you found time to pray sometimes we find it so difficult to pray. There are times when we feel too busy or tired, Did you ever feel like that? If sometimes it seems not to be effective help us to know that you are listening. Help Us To Pray Lord we pray for all those who are working so hard to vaccinate our nation, the doctors, nurses, and volunteers. We remember those who are afraid at this time worried about meeting people, going out shopping and seeing those who are dear too them. We think of those isolated in care homes and not seeing loved ones. We bring to you those who attended day centres and lunch clubs who have not ben able to meet When we are afraid Help us to Pray Help us to follow you, Help us to be like Nathanael the Israelite true believers. We pray that you will open the eyes of those who deny Covid, who belittle those working in difficult circumstances who peddle false news . Help them to see that you are the way. We pray for those who are refusing vaccination, lighten their fears and give them hope. When we are doubting Help us to Pray We pray for all those who run businesses that feel stressed and worry about their future, we pray for the fisherman landing catches they cannot sell, we pray for the hauliers who cannot deliver their goods to market, We pray for those in hospitality wondering when they can once again hold events, we pray for hoteliers wondering when they will next have guests, we pray for musicians and actors unable to perform in venues, We thank you Lord that some have found that through the internet they can still perform and we rejoice in their music and plays. We ask Lord that you lay your guiding hand on them, take them to your bosom, give them strength at this difficult time. When Hope Seems so far away Help Us To Pray

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We pray for the Children of our Nation and around the World struggling to learn at home or in different smaller groups at school - often in a class of others they do not know. Guide them in this new way of learning. We thank you Lord for those donating and refurbishing computers for home learning so that all may be equal and have access to technology. When we do not understand why? Help Us To Pray We pray for a peaceful inauguration of the New President of the United States. Help him to become beacon of hope in the deeply divided USA. We pray for the healing of that Nation and for a new beginning. When we are fearful Help Us To Pray Lord we give thanks for the Ministry of Lay Readers and all those who assist in spreading your word. We especially remember at this time Mike Cheesbrough as he approaches his 90th Birthday, giving thank for his faithful ministry. When we want to give thanks Help us to Pray Father Hear these prayers we offer Not for ease that prayer shall be but for strength that we may ever Live our lives courageously Be our strength in hours of weakness, In our wanderings be our guide: Through endeavour, failure, danger, Father, be thought at our side (Love Maria Willis 1824-1908) We pray THE COLLECT

Almighty God, in Christ you make all things new: transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace, and in the renewal of our lives make known your heavenly glory; 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.

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THE LORD’S PRAYER We pray with confidence as our Saviour has taught us: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us and 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.

ANTHEM Bethlehem Down

1. “When he is King we will give him the Kings’ gifts, myrrh for its sweetness, and gold for a crown, beautiful robes,” said the young girl to Joseph fair with her first-born on Bethlehem Down.

2. Bethlehem Down is full of the starlight – winds for the spices, and stars for the gold, Mary for sleep, and for lullaby music songs of a shepherd by Bethlehem fold.

3. Here he has peace and short while for dreaming, close-huddled oxen to keep him from cold, Mary for love, and for lullaby music songs of a shepherd by Bethlehem fold.

(words: Bruce Blunt; music: Peter Warlock)

HYMN All hail the power of Jesus’ name 1. All hail the pow’r of Jesus’ name,

let angels prostrate fall; bring forth the royal diadem and crown him Lord of all.

2. Crown him, all martyrs of your God,

who from his altar call; praise him whose way of pain you trod, and crown him Lord of all.

3. O prophets faithful to his word,

in matters great and small, who made his voice of justice heard, now crown him Lord of all.

4. All sinners, now redeemed by grace, who heard your Saviour’s call, now robed in light before his face, O crown him Lord of all.

5. Let every tribe and every race

who heard the freedom call, in liberation, see Christ’s face and crown him Lord of all.

6. Let every people, every tongue

to him their hearth enthral: lift high the universal song and crown him Lord of all.

(words: Edward Perronet, adapted by Michael Forster; music: William Shrubsole)

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SERMON Writing in Liverpool, I am very aware how risky it is to insult someone's home town. The Sun newspaper has insulted this city and regrets it, not a copy to be found in the city to this day. The Prime Minister has, too, but I doubt he regrets it any more than he regrets making all that stuff up about Europe. He tends to just blunder on. Liverpool hasn't forgotten, though. Rather breathlessly, John lurches us from one lack-lustre location to the next, Galilee, Bethsaida, Nazareth; from one blokish relationship to the next: John the Baptist introduces Andrew to Jesus, Andrew fetches his brother, who's from the same city as Philip whom Jesus meets, then Philip fetches his mate Nathaniel who makes a wise crack about unpromising Nazareth. We are still in the opening paragraphs of the Gospel. It's important to remember how it began with great cosmic perspective, God willing the whole creation into being, then the dizzying zooming in to the Word in person with that theological thud in the chest: "the Word became flesh." The world made through him did not recognise him, John asserted at the beginning. Then all of a sudden, the shot swoops to show vivid detail of specific place and specific people. Sonorous theology gives way to quick workaday dialogue. Such ordinariness. Encounter with the very Word of God begins through the overlapping circles of mundane human sociability, kinship, location, angular friendship. While most of the world doesn't recognise him, how touching that these lads do. How moving that they enthuse enough to tell each other about it and say the non controlling: "come and see." These blokes do have curiosity. Hilariously, as they invite each other to examine Jesus, it turns out he is scrutinising them. In doing so, he is out to empower them, not him. When Jesus meets Nathaniel, we get some flavour of Nathaniel's humour. For if he is, as Jesus says, an Israelite with no guile, someone with an attractive openness that some might see as naive, then the wise crack about Nazareth must be kinder than it might have first read. "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" could be said with bitter prejudice in order to close down possibility. It can also be said with a twist of irony that says frankly how bleak the place seems, but is open to surprise. Sure enough, Nathaniel swiftly declares Jesus to be the Son of God and King of Israel. It is comically extravagant and even Jesus is amused. "You believe just because I saw you and appraised your character while you stood under the fig tree? You ain't seen nothin' yet." Jesus is excited to see Nathaniel on a threshold of perception, evoking Jacob's dream to convey what Nathaniel is going to apprehend. Angels travelling to and fro, a dreamy picture of the traffic of need and love between heaven and earth. It is very striking first that it happens in a dull, unpromising place. When Jacob, isolated in the wilderness of his own mistakes, had his dream, he woke and said "The Lord was in this place and I did not know it." Jesus is revealing the traffic of need and love between Heaven and Nazareth, Heaven and Bethsaida, Heaven and Galilee. All our ordinary places are directly open to heaven. The character of Jesus represents and reveals the communication both ways between humanity and God. He will experience a beautiful anointing; he will attend a heart breaking funeral; he will go through shameful crucifixion; his presence, character and journey among the greatest and the least, the religious and the outcast, the urban and the rural, laughter and pain, proves the Psalmist's concise hunch right. Jesus opens up the traffic between earth and heaven of human pain and divine love. Excitingly, our human flaws fail to stop the traffic. Notice how John likes the paradox that someone negative become the most positive. Here he begins with Nathaniel going from witty skepticism to complete trust in a moment. The Gospel ends with Thomas going from angry

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rejection to wholehearted devotion. The comic, the skeptic and the critic seem to have as much to offer as the solid, the reliable, the enthusiasts. If Nathaniel was puzzled about how well Jesus seemed to know him, the psalmist digs deeper into the psychology. There is a solitary soul pondering God's complete knowledge of him. It is frightening, unsettling, overwhelming. But then, the cold turkey of recognition gives way to a kind of assurance. If I can hide nothing from God, God is with me. There is no sea of shame to deep for him to let me go. There is no helplessness too helpless for him to abandon me. Even the complete passivity of the grave, where we are no longer conscious of our self, God is conscious of us. This poem expresses a primeval hunch that God desires to know us and will lead us through even what to us is unfathomable. Hundreds of years later, Jesus comes to embody the poem. Eli plays his part with such forlorn godliness. When he first met Samuel's mother Hannah, who was praying in great distress, he accused her of being drunk. His life will end ignominiously, when he hears news of his wayward sons' death and Israel's defeat, then falls over and breaks his neck. When he died he had been reluctant judge over Israel for forty years. After his terrible pastoral blunder with Hannah, he quickly softened his heart, his blessing clearly meaning something. I took the funeral of a little still born boy, his parents exquisitely together in their grief, astoundingly gracious towards God in their immeasurable loss. A few years later, I received a card with a picture of their growing family, two little boys full of life. I knew they would always honestly grieve their first born, yet their joy was deep. I am always humbled remembering their faith, mine shabby alongside. It's a glimpse of how Eli must have felt when Hannah returned full of thanks for the little boy she had longed for, bringing him to live and serve in the temple. In time, Eli, nearly blind and immobile came to depend on Samuel, giving hearty thanks to Hannah in return, blessing her again when she visited so she went on to have other children. But it was more than practical dependence. Eli's own sons were supposed to follow in his footsteps, but were a disgrace, sexually harassing female employees and defrauding the temple. We feel the weight of failure as he touchingly calls Samuel "My son." And yet, in all this dreary disappointment, in his old age, in his default setting failure, Eli still has a calling, a crucial role to play. Through Eli's clumsy but experienced ministry, Samuel is able to hear his vocation. In the dreamy state of drifting off to sleep, Samuel hears God's very voice with enviable clarity, but needs the jaded old codger to work out how to respond. Samuel's instinctive default setting is: "Here I am. Can I help?" Yet he will learn from the old man's perception, coming to appraise people shrewdly and understand their inner life. Perhaps he became so because the grumpy but grateful old man accidentally taught him to nuance his positivity, ensuring it wasn't dangerously naive. Each needed the other, and God worked creatively through them both. It's striking that Eli the professional got to the truth slowly, and that God almost stole into the temple via the inexperienced boy who "did not know the Lord." God's judgement breaks into the Church many times in history through someone unexpected, someone on the margins. Another dreamer, John the Divine, was given exotic, often lurid, beautiful then frightening images to reveal the connection between earth and heaven. To hear Revelation, we need to give in to the idiom of dreaming, so creatures can change shape, a lion can become a lamb and a lamb can suddenly have seven eyes and so on and, as when dreaming, you don't really spend energy on working out how or why. This allows metaphors to work and shift, never settling too fixedly. We visualise a powerful sequence in Chapter 5 where John is distressed because no-one is worthy to bring judgement on the world. His distress is notable. Like the Psalmist, we are anxious about divine judgement, but that anxiety gives way to relief. Much more frightening would be a universe without divine judgement. It is uncomfortable at first, but then a blessing to be known

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(judged) by God. It is unbearably lonely not to be known, and terrifying to imagine a universe without any restraint on evil. The elders in Heaven say the Lion of Judah has conquered. But just as we anticipate a terrifying roar, it morphs into a lamb. Not a leaping playful lamb, but one that has been slaughtered. Dreams allow such fluidity, and so help us to feel paradox at a very emotional level. This judge is one who has been through the shame of being sacrificed for other's wrongdoing. Something remains to be said about the Revelation dream. Notice the repeated sevens. This week, as we pray for a peaceful transfer of power in America, at once amused and appalled by the lack of grace displayed by the outgoing President, we are very conscious of the need for God's judgement on human political institutions and people wielding mighty power. As the nuclear button is given to next president, we feel the searing irony of the judge of all that egotistical, nationalistic power appearing as a once-slaughtered lamb. Jesus' submission to the worst that human power can do is what qualifies him to judge. His doing so for the sake of others is why he is worthy to critique our self serving politics. We must hear the climactic shock, the wonder that he calls not just Israel, not just the self-styled saviour-states of Britain or America, but all nations. The desire and aim of divine judgement is not to destroy, but to know and to heal, so people of every tribe and language and people can live at peace, serving God. But then, having brought secular politics into the glare of God's knowing gaze, we hear those sevens repeating. We cannot then forget that Revelation began with judgments on the seven churches. If we find ourselves gleeful about the self-humiliation of a ridiculous president, we must then remember the fiercest judgment of the one whom humanity humiliated is turned upon his church. This week, the Church in Ireland is revealed to have abused countless young single pregnant women by humiliating them, brandishing a principle of sanctity of life to forbid empowering women with contraception, insisting on supervising the birth of children conceived out of wedlock, only to impose more manufactured shame on the children. That thousands died as infants in such graceless institutions, buried without ceremony, shows the church didn't treat their lives as sacred in the least. The continuation of the shaming of women afterwards was a denial of absolution. The men with whom they conceived are nowhere to be seen. The Church and a complicit society held all the cards, creating the conditions in which such pregnancies were likely to occur, then belittling people when they did. That they did not care for the infants themselves and continued to work up the shame proves it was more about the shiver of pleasure at another's guilt than it was about confession and absolution. The church (in the widest sense, as all denominations are implicated in the broader creation of a manipulative culture of shame) sees that report published, then is made by this week's readings to imagine Christ as judge appearing as the victimised lamb. We should feel an electric shock of self recognition as we realise church complicity in creating victims. Christ the Lamb-Judge is more like those women and infants than like the church that stood in cruel judgement. How right it would be, then, if like a frightening dream, the church heard the lamb morph into a fierce lion, roaring at its cruelty. We've met a loner at prayer, an old man who thinks he's a failure, a bright little boy, a bunch of well meaning laddish types, we've been to a temple, a lakeside and a couple of nondescript towns but found God and heard God calling us in all of them. We may underestimate what others have to contribute, and may be quick to write others off. Trump will have a lot of work to do before he is capable of hearing his vocation, but mysteriously, he does have one. There's something we can pray for him. Unglamorous as we feel, we may be even more likely to write ourselves off. I'm too young. I'm too old. I've failed. I'm unnoticeable; too clumsy. I don't have the qualifications... and so on. I know I am tempted to that. I was reflecting on holiday not long ago:

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"...how unerringly I sense God's presence, often brooding, severe, but overwhelmingly benevolent. I mean overwhelmingly. Soon, that led me to think how this un-asked-for un-earned non-virtuous confidence in God's reality and attentiveness increases my culpability. I have absolutely no excuse for being the selfish bastard I am. I have so little doubt that God was in Christ that I surely ought to be a @***?!* saint, but still manage to be mean and self preserving. I'm like the people of Israel, perfectly aware of a pillar of cloud and fire, never questioning God's power or presence, but still moaning and behaving as if S/He wasn't there. Comical, then sad on reflection." Beleaguered Eli unknowingly playing such a crucial role in the flourishing of a much more glamorous figure chastens me, though, to at least accept I may have some part to play, even if I don't often see the result. I do need to keep turning up. I bet most of you underestimate yourselves. At every stage, in every place, whatever our circles of kinship, friendship, influence, through all our mundane relationships, vocation is to be heard. Jesus is to be found. We are to help each other hear and and see. Church, Politician, ordinary woman and man, behold your judge beholding you, then listen for your calling. Being known is at first unsettling, but then deeply reassuring. Being judged is unsettling at first, then reassuring when it is the judgement of the lion who turned out to be a lamb. Being called is unsettling... ...Called to what? To recognise and celebrate each other's gifts even when we fear our own are few, and to invite ordinary people of every kind to come and see.

HYMN Hail to the Lord’s anointed

1. Hail to the Lord’s anointed, great David’s greater son! Hail, in the time appointed, his reign on earth begun! He comes to break oppression, to set the captive free; to take away transgression, and rule in equity.

2. He comes with succour speedy to those who suffer wrong;

to help the poor and needy, and bid the weak be strong; to give them songs for sighing, their darkness turn to light, whose souls, condemned and dying, were precious in his sight.

3. Kings shall fall down before him, and gold and incense bring; all nations shall adore him, his praise all people sing; to him shall prayer unceasing and daily vows ascend; his kingdom still increasing, a kingdom without end.

4. O’er ev’ry foe victorious, he on his throne shall rest, from age to age more glorious, all-blessing and all-blest; the tide of time shall never his covenant remove; his name shall stand for ever; that name to us is love.

(words: paraphrase of Psalm 72 by James Montgomery;

music: from a melody in Johann Crüger’s ‘Gesangbuch’, adapted by William Henry Monk)

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A closing prayer

May God, who in Christ gives us a spring of water welling up to eternal life, perfect in us the image of his glory, and the blessing of God almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be among us and remain with us always. Amen.

VOLUNTARY Minuet and Trio (Franz Schubert; played by Sarah Baker)

Common Worship: Services and Prayers for the Church of England

is copyright © the Archbishop’s Council (2000)

Divine lamb Strangely, I don't seem to have any lion recipes, but this is a treat. Lamb cutlets from the Marches, Italy. For two: Buy one of the little french trimmed racks of lamb, usually seven ribs. If you don't think three each and one to fight over is enough, get a half one as well, for another two each. Carefully cut between each rib, separating the joint into delicate little chops, leaving the loin (not lion, loin) meat just clinging to the thin rib bone. Have your chosen vegetables and potatoes ready and plates warmed as it must be served immediately as the sauce is finished. Finely chop a clove of garlic and a dessert spoon of rosemary; thinly slice an onion. lightly beat two egg yolks with the juice of half a lemon. Set aside. In batches, Lightly brown the chops in oil or butter very quickly, probably only a minute a side. Remove from the pan and set aside. In the same pan, soften the garlic until it begins to take colour, then add onions and rosemary. Cook gently until soft. Add a cup of good stock (chicken is fine) and simmer gently, softening the onions even more. When the liquid is reduced to a few tablespoons, return the chops to the pan and turn them in the juices until heated through, which should be enough for them to be cooked medium rare. Turn off the heat. Season well with salt and pepper, then stir in the egg yolk and lemon mixture, gently turning the chops

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over to coat them. Serve immediately to enjoy the astonishingly silky sauce clinging to the meat. I love it with Spinach croquettes. Cook two large bags of spinach in a large pan, just with the water clinging to it after washing. Cook it down for a good long while, stirring often, moistening with a little water if need be, until it is a rich dark green pulp. When it has all collapsed you can transfer to a smaller pan if you prefer. Add nutmeg, salt and pepper and a few tablespoons of cream. Continue cooking and stirring until very well combined and thick. Allow to cool then beat in an egg. The mixture should be thick enough to make into soft balls. Have a plate of fine breadcrumbs to hand and roll each ball of spinach gently to coat. Let them flatten slightly. Cook them in a frying pan in a little oil or butter, gently turning them over when the crumbs are golden brown. I always make too many so that there are some left over for breakfast. Warm them through and serve with a poached egg and some mushrooms.