Solemn Mass

foreign foreign thank you foreign thank you um [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] me foreign please praise God foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] welcome to Saint Matthews for our mass today and a welcome to those who are joining us online As We Gather in God's presence become conscious of our need of his grace in our lives call to mind our sins and the measure of God's mercy almighty God our heavenly father we have simply asked you through our eyes for your son our Lord Jesus Christ forgive us all that is past and Grant that we may serve in US of life to the glory well I should go to forgives or who truly repent have mercy upon them pardon and delivery from all your sins confirm and strengthen you in all goodness and keep you in life the time through Jesus Christ Our Lord [Music] [Applause] [Music] of yourself [Music] [Applause] [Music] please [Music] please [Music] foreign [Music] Lords [Music] we wish ES [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] ways please [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] grant that your people may be fervent in The Fellowship of the Gospel that always abiding in you they may be found steadfast in faith and active in service through Jesus Christ your son our Lord who is alive and brings with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit God forever and ever oh [Music] foreign from the book of The Prophet Amos alas for those who are at ease in Zion and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria the notables of the first of the Nations to whom the house of Israel resorts alas for those who lie on beds of Ivory and Lounge on their couches and eat lambs from the flock and carbs From The Storm who sing idle songs to the sound of the heart and like David improvise on instruments of music who drink wine from bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oils but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile and the revelry of the lounges shall pass away the word of the Lord foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] you know [Music] a reading from the first letter of Paul to Timothy of course there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment for we brought nothing into the world so that we can take nothing out of it but if we have food and clothing we will be content with these but those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction For the Love of Money is a root of all kinds of evil and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains but as for you man of God shun all this pursue righteousness godliness faith love endurance gentleness fight the good fight of the faith take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses in the presence of God who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession I charge you to keep the Commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ which he will bring about at the right time he who is the blessed and only Sovereign the king of kings and Lord of lords it is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light whom no one has ever seen or can see to him be honor and eternal Dominion amen as for those who in the present age are rich command them not to be haughty or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment they are to do good to be rich in Good Works generous and ready to share thus storing up for themselves The Treasure of a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of the life that really is life the word of the Lord [Music] your eyes foreign foreign [Music] the Lord be with you a reading from the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke Glory To You O Lord Jesus said to the Pharisees there was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day and at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus covered with sores who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table even the dogs would come and lick his sores the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham the rich man also died and was buried in Hades where he was being tormented he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side he called out Father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am in agony in these flames but Abraham said child remember that during your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus in like manner evil things but now he is comforted here and you are in agony besides all this between you and us a great Chasm has been fixed so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so and no one can cross from there to us the man who had been rich said then father I beg you to send him to my father's house for I have five brothers that he may warn them so that they will not also come into this place of Torment Abraham replied they have Moses and the prophets they should listen to them he said no Father Abraham but if someone goes to them from the dead they will repent Abraham said to him if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead the gospel of the Lord foreign for those who lie on beds of Ivory and Lounge on their couches they shall now be the first to go into Exile and the revelry of the landras shall pass away in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit oh dear the hospitality of Saint Matthew's Westminster is legendary so much so that Lord Kerry 103rd Archbishop of Canterbury preaching at our patronal Festival this very past Wednesday opened his sermon with a joke referencing the rivers of red wine that flow through this place and it may be at one of Father's famous Infamous Christmas parties my posture as I reached to dip my Empty Glass into that fast-flowing River of Malbec has relaxed into something perilously close to lounging and it may be I have then wandered over to the piano and begun full of festive cheer to sing Idol songs and improvise on instruments of music words from our Old Testament reading and it may be that as tiredness for that is what we shall call it descends I have made my way back to my flat and I have climbed into a bed not I am relieved to tell you made of ivory although I fear had John Lewis duck feather mattress toppers existed in amos's day he may have been similarly scathing towards them the compilers of the lectionary those people who decide which readings we're going to get Sunday by Sunday are often delicate in their approach they pick passages with a subtle golden thread running through them one which might emerge only on further reflection or thanks to the expository talents of a Preacher able to draw out an underlying message today they have not been delicate the golden thread is not one that requires teasing out by a talented preacher and it's a good job too since you've got me and suddenly being asked to preach today makes sense rather those lectionary compilers have decided that perhaps as we get a little too comfortable in that vast expanse of ordinary time that takes us towards Advent they are going to beat us around the head with three readings the theme of which is unmissable trumpet call to get us to sit up stop lounging and pay attention and we will necessarily pay attention because the readings we have today are amongst those guaranteed to make a late modern capitalist congregation and we are distinctly uncomfortable Amos takes aim at those slathering themselves with oil and drinking copiously whilst ignoring the ruin of Israel Paul in his letter to Timothy Penns one of those phrases which has slipped into contemporary usage the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil and then Luke recounts The Story of Lazarus and the rich man story of what seems to be striking harshness and condemnation and so the preacher is left looking at these readings and wondering which way as it were to go at one end of the spectrum is a sermon built simply on the equation Rich equals bad at the other end of the spectrum is a sermon that in a very Church of England sort of way carefully attends to its congregation's capitalist sensibilities concluding with an exhortation to give generously to the collection and you should by the way but as we sit and listen to these readings today we do so in the wake of what some commentators are calling the most significant budget or rather fiscal event since the 1980s and we do so and I don't mean to be controversial here I'm as much of a monarchist as the next person in the wake of a massive State occasion which saw the homeless for whom we pray most weeks ushered out of camera view out of our consciousness if today's Gospel reading which juxtaposes the poor man covered in sores with the rich man dressed in purple doesn't cause us to shift slightly in our seats then I would contend we are being willfully obtuse I said earlier that the the theme of these three readings is self-evident and in a sense of course it is all free writers take aim at great wealth and at The Perils of seeking it but that is a superficial reading because what I think emerges from these readings is less an attack on the rich and much more an attack on the idol rich the idol rich and of course those Whose desire to become rich renders them far from Idol in ways equally far from the gospel what we have in Amos is an attack on those who live a lavish lifestyle whilst ignoring all that happens around them Jesus in The Gospel observes that Lazarus lay at the rich man's gate and the rich man did nothing and Paul thank God for Paul Paul offers a warning to those who in their eagerness to be rich have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains but then he goes on to talk about those already rich and here we have it they are to do good to be rich in Good Works generous and ready to share thus storing up for themselves The Treasure of a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of the life that is really life with great wealth to butcher a phrase comes great responsibility indeed we know from elsewhere in the scriptures that the Kingdom of Heaven is a difficult place to enter when one has spent a life Laden down with great riches none of us are called to a life of comfort we may receive it and that is then a gift which places upon us the greater calling illustrated by Paul the message being preached today through our readings has always been counter-cultural and it is unquestionably a message easily Twisted we only need to look at eye wateringly wealthy American mega churches to see how private jets are justified by those arguing they are necessary to more efficiently spread the gospel but deep down we do know the difficulties and responsibilities wealth places on the individual and there are endless examples of individuals in this and The Wider Church of those who use that wealth to do unimaginable good perhaps the most striking image for me last Monday was in St George's Chapel Windsor when the orb scepter and Imperial State Crown were removed from her late Majesty's coffin and returned to the altar a powerful reminder to the new king and to us that Earthly power and Glory is no more than lent by God and ultimately vests in him twice her late Majesty was referred to as our sister Elizabeth a stripping away of titles and wealth and privilege and a reminder that just as we brought nothing into this world it is certain that we carry nothing out this is a message which we as Christians are Duty banned to Proclaim to the world I said earlier that it's a counter-cultural message and quite honestly I struggle to think of a time when it was more counter-cultural but that makes its Proclamation all the more important and there is I'm afraid no way around it part of being a Christian is spreading the good news of Jesus Christ and part of that is spreading his teachings no matter how eccentric or unpopular that makes us and my God we live in a world that needs to hear them whatever your politics whatever your views on the merits of trickle-down economics and the role of the welfare state versus that of Charities whether you want to seize the means of production or privatize everything that moves it is simply true that there is staggering Injustice and equality in our world in our country in our city on our street today those who hoard wealth those who tread on others in their quest to make their own lives more comfortable must hear today's message it's not one that we as Christians and particularly as anglicans have been very good at spreading shame on us so the golden thread today is not it is bad to be rich it is that to be rich is to have a profound calling to better the lives of others basic stuff and yet so far from the heart of contemporary Society our profound calling then Rich or poor is to Proclaim and live out that truth loudly and clearly wherever we go William Blake's poem Holy Thursday written in 1789 begins like this is this a holy thing to see in a rich and fruitful land babes reduced to misery fed with cold and usurus hand it was Unholy then 232 years on it is still perhaps even more Unholy and yet it is the reality and it is a travesty the rich man in today's Gospel thought that if only his brothers could see the torment he was experiencing they would repent and change their ways it doesn't work like that just as the poor will always be with us so will some feckless Rich who stop their ears to the message but they can only stop their ears to the message and only for so long if someone is shouting it loud and clear right at them and that is our calling amen foreign let us affirm our faith in the words we believe in one God the Father of Jesus Christ [Music] for us and for our Salvation he came down from heaven was encouraged from the greatest Spirit and the Virgin Mary and was made for us he was crucified under Pontius Pilate he saw the death and perspective on the third day he rose again in The Lord of the scriptures foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] for the Forgiveness of sins we look for the resurrection of the Dead power of the spirit and in Union with Christ let us pray to the father we pray for the world for peace in areas of conflict especially Ukraine for the relief of people who suffer the effects of famine drought earthquake and flood for those who suffer Injustice we pray for world leaders especially Charles our King prime minister and Parliament Lord hear us Lord graciously hear us we pray for your church throughout the world that you will inspire it afresh to preach boldly the gospel of salvation we pray for the Anglican communion and today especially for the Church of North India and Prem Chan Singh moderator we pray for the Church of England for Archbishop Justin for Bishop Sarah and for the clergy and people of this Parish and pray for those from our community training for ordination Ryan Williams Duncan Egan and will Morgan Lord hear us Lord graciously hear us we pray for our community here in Westminster for all who live work worship and minister in this place for the government offices here and all those who make decisions through them affecting the life of this nation we pray for some Matthew's School for Rachel DeWitt and for all the pupils and staff Lord hear us Lord graciously hear us we pray for the sick the bereaved the lonely and Afraid and for all those who care for them we pray especially for Emily Collett Frank Field Terrell lanceley Sebastian Jenny Father Jim Rosenthal basil Bradley Deirdre Dougherty Edna Rankin Stan tamby and Bob prestige Lord hear us Lord graciously hear us we pray for those who have died recently and for their grieving families and friends for those whose years mine fall at this time Reginald Pullen George Frederick ship Molly Waters and perhaps Fischer rest Eternal Grant unto them O Lord shine upon them may they rest in peace and rise in glory in a few moments silence we bring our own cares and petitions to God our heavenly father foreign Virgin Mary Saint Matthews and Edward the Confessor and all your Saints we commend ourselves and the whole of creation to your unfailing love merciful father Our Savior Jesus Christ we are the body of Christ in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body let us then pursue that makes for peace and builds up our common the Peace of the Lord be always with you let us offer one another a gesture of peace [Music] thank you foreign [Applause] foreign foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] my brothers and sisters that this our sacrifice may be acceptable to God the almighty father blessed be God by whose Grace creation is renewed by whose Love Heaven is opened by whose Mercy we offer our sacrifice of praise amen [Music] the Lord be with you [Music] Hearts we live let us give thanks to the Lord our god [Music] [Applause] [Music] father we give you thanks and praise through your beloved Son Jesus Christ your Living Word through whom you have created all things who were sent by you in your great goodness to be your savior by the power of the Holy Spirit he took flesh as your son born of the Blessed Virgin he lived on Earth and went about Among Us he opened wide his arms for us on the cross he put an end to Death by dying for us and revealed the resurrection by rising to New Life so he fulfilled your will and won for you a holy people therefore with angels and Dark Angels and with all the company of Heaven we Proclaim your great and glorious name forever praising you and say [Music] it is [Music] Jesus [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] Lord You Are Holy indeed the source of all Holiness grant that by the power of your Holy Spirit and according to your holy will these gifts of bread and wine may be to us the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ who in the same night that he was betrayed took bread and gave you thanks he broke it and gave it to his disciples saying take eat this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me in the same way after supper he took the cup and gave you thanks he gave it to them saying drink this all of you this is my blood of the New Covenant which is shared for you and for many for the Forgiveness of sins do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me great is the mystery of faith Christ has died Christ is risen Christ will come again and so father calling to mind his death on the cross his perfect sacrifice made once for the sins of the whole world rejoicing in his mighty resurrection and glorious Ascension and looking for his coming in glory we celebrate this Memorial of our Redemption as we offer you this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving we bring before you this bread and this cup and we thank you for counting us worthy to stand in your presence and serve you send the Holy Spirit on your people and gather into one in your kingdom all who share this one bread and one cup so that we in the company of our lady said Matthew said Edward the Confessor and all the saints May praise and glorify you forever through Jesus Christ Our Lord by whom and with whom and in whom in the unity of the holy spirit all honor and glory be yours [Music] forever and ever [Music] taught by our savior's command and formed by the word of God we dare to say Our Father who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but Deliver Us from Evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the door forever and ever Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world blessed are those who are called to his supper Lord I am not worthy to receive you but only say the word and I shall be healed the body of Christ the blood of Christ the body of Christ foreign people of Christ [Music] foreign [Music] today [Music] results [Music] Jesus foreign [Music] foreign [Music] oh my God [Music] foreign [Music] foreign let us pray God of Peace whose son Jesus Christ proclaimed the kingdom and restored the broken to wholeness of life look with compassion on the anguish of the world and by your healing power make whole both people and Nations through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ amen do uh join us if you can for some refreshments after the service in the hall and indeed outside as the sun is shining even though it's yes we'll be outside as well there are details of our term program on these cards if you haven't yet had one please do take one as you leave and you'll see that we begin our timely program of coral evensong this week on Wednesday 6 30 and the speaker at Coral even song will be Clive Marriott who is the Headmaster of Salisbury Cathedral Choir School solemn uh plain song even song will be on Tuesday evenings at 6 30 again through term time the details are all there on the card we now stand I should just say uh we offer our prayers to Daniel who fell off his bike if you're wondering why he's hobbling with a with a stick it's because he fell off his bike so prayers for Daniel and uh and uh and sympathy it's not a nice thing to to do so uh when you see him you'll be able to offer your commiserations now we stand to sing our final hip [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the Lord be with you May the prayers of the Saints surround you and May the peace of Christ enfold you and may almighty God bless you the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit amen the mass has ended go in the Peace of Christ foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] to say [Music] flesh alive pray for us [Music] [Music] Resurrection through the same Christ God [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] [Applause]

Channel: St Matthew's Westminster

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Id: 0_kLCYF1khc

Length: 84min 0sec (5040 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 25 2022