Light’s abode, celestial Salem,
Vision dear whence peace doth spring,
Brighter than the heart can fancy,
Mansion of the highest King;
O, how glorious are the praises
Which of thee the prophets sing!

O how glorious and resplendent,
Fragile body, shalt thou be,
When endued with so much beauty,
Full of health, and strong, and free,
Full of vigour, full of pleasure
That shall last eternally!

Laud and honour to the Father,
Laud and honour to the Son,
Laud and honour to the Spirit,
Ever Three and ever One,
One in love, and one in splendour,
While unending ages run. Amen.

Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit:

And blessed be his kingdom, now and forever. Amen

 

From Easter to Pentecost:

Allelulia. Christ is risen!

The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia

 

In Lent and other penitential occasions:

Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins;

His mercy endures for ever.

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

Let us pray:

Almighty God, to whom all hearts be 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.

Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

This prayer is omitted during Lent and Advent:

Glory to God in the highest, and peace to God’s 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.

 Holy God, holy and mighty, holy and immortal, have mercy on us.

Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. 

Amen.

Isaiah 40:21-31

Have you not known? Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;

who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to live in;

who brings princes to naught,
and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.

Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,

when he blows upon them, and they wither,
and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

To whom then will you compare me,
or who is my equal? says the Holy One.

Lift up your eyes on high and see:
Who created these?

He who brings out their host and numbers them,
calling them all by name;

because he is great in strength,
mighty in power,
not one is missing.

Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,

“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?

Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the faint,
and strengthens the powerless.

Even youths will faint and be weary,
and the young will fall exhausted;

but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,

they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Psalm 147:1-12, 21c

Laudate Dominum

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission. What then is my reward? Just this: that in my proclamation I may make the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my rights in the gospel.

For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God

All stand for the Acclamation and Gospel reading.

Alleluia, Alleluia!

He took our sickness away, and carried our diseases for us.

Alleluia!

The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to:

Mark 1:29-39

After the Gospel reading

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

In the 1^st Century world of Jesus, sick people had only very few options. The first thing they could do, of course, was to try a ‘folk’ remedy.  These varied from sensible potions and poultices, to downright dangerous “fixes.” Many folk remedies are still practiced today in the industrialized world, and most are completely ineffective, especially with serious diseases and injuries!

The second thing a sick person could do was to pay for a physician to see them. This was costly, and was in reality not much more effective than the folk remedies. Most Greek physicians in the 1^st century followed the teachings of Hippocrates, who is best known for his famous oath. Hippocrates codified the principles of ‘Humourism’, a belief that human health is defined as the perfect balance of four fluids, or humours. It was holistic, in that it saw the need for harmony between the mental and the physical, but the interventions by physicians often involved bleeding, and draining of fluids, which would regularly result in making the condition worse, alas. Treatment in any case was expensive, and therefore only accessible to the privileged!

Another option for sick people in Jesus’ world was one or many religious healing practices.  Every ancient religion had extensive teachings on healing, and most of it inevitably cost money.  With these limited and ineffective options, sickness in the ancient world often completely changed a person’s identity.

Sick people would stand out in a village.  They were often visibly scarred, or marked.  Lepers were required to announce their coming by shouting ‘unclean, unclean’, or ringing bells. Most sick people became beggars, or wholly dependent on their family members for food and shelter.  Being labelled a sick person led to a very low status in society.

The identity of a sick person, in Jesus’ day, also carried with it the stigma of God’s judgment.  In this society, most illnesses were linked to some sin or indiscretion, rather than a scientific cause.  In Jesus’ ministry, he confronted some of these beliefs, showing just how widespread they were.  In Buddhism, such misfortunes are frequently put down to various ‘misdeeds’ in a previous existence – remember here that ‘reincarnation’ is an essential tenet in Buddhist teaching!

The sick person here, in our Gospel reading, is Simon Peter’s mother-in-law. She has a fever, and is so weak that she cannot get out of her sickbed. Her condition is of concern to the disciples, and so Jesus is ushered in to see her. Perhaps a fever would not warrant such concern in our world, prior to the advent of the Covid virus, but it most certainly did in Jesus’ day – nowadays a couple of doses of paracetemol or ibuprofen would in all probability have done the trick!

Jesus touches her hand with his hand.  There is that touch that we see in Jesus’ ministry, over and over again.  She rises up at once, and the fever leaves her. It is not a very dramatic scene; there isn’t any music or fanfare. There aren’t any spells or incantations. There is only a hand touching another hand. There is only Jesus reaching out to this sick woman!

And then we are told that she starts to serve them. She now has the strength to offer the customary hospitality to her guests.  Her identity is no longer that of a bedridden, fevered person, but a gracious host to a visiting teacher and his disciples.

Then the circling multitude descends – a horde of sick, demonized, and injured people swarm around Jesus, begging for healing. What we saw happen to Simon’s mother-in-law, we now see happen to a whole host of people in the village.

Jesus reached out his hand to a sick woman. Now he reaches out his hand to the multitude, just as he reaches out his hand to us today.  Jesus is here to heal us. Jesus is here to restore us to the community we lost. Jesus is here to restore us to a place of service in our society, so that we can find dignity and purpose again.  This is what Jesus does: he brings people back to wholeness and health.  Jesus can bring us  back to wholeness and health too!

But all this healing takes its toll on Jesus; he disappears in the dark of night, to pray – he needs to ‘recharge his batteries’!  On these occasions of night-time prayer, we are seldom told of their content. They seem to be a conversation between the beloved son and his heavenly father, an intimate dialogue that may have seemed utterly incomprehensible, either then to the disciples, or now, to us!

The only time we know the content of Jesus’ private prayer in this context, is in the Garden of Gethsemane, on the night he was betrayed.  On that occasion, he strained and wrestled under the weight of what he was called to do, as the Son of God.  He pleaded for the cup to pass from him, even as he accepts God’s will for his life.  This glimpse of Jesus’ prayer life may not be identical to all those other nights, when he prayed for hours in the dark, but we can be sure it was intense, as the sweat poured from him.  Jesus’ sense of mission empowered him to do the work God had called him to do. When he is exhausted, he goes off and prays in the night, and he comes back renewed and refreshed to continue his task!

Perhaps we do not so much need rest, as a renewed sense of our mission, and calling from God.  Perhaps more people would experience wholeness and healing, if we spent more time in the dark, and in solitude with God.  It was how Jesus found strength, and many Christian saints through the ages, found time alone with God to be both renewing and refreshing, not to mention essential.

Jesus is reaching out his hand to each and every one of us now, today, calling us to a life filled with service and community.  Jesus is praying for us, so that we might have the strength to go into the dark with God, and wrestle with our calling and mission.  Jesus is with us, going before us, into the world, which God loves so very much.   Amen

Please stand for the Nicene Creed.

Let us together affirm the faith of the Church.

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 of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,

and became truly human.

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.

Let us pray for the world and for the Church:

Prayers of intercession are now said and at the end of each prayer the priest says:

Lord in your mercy,

Hear our prayer.

or

Lord hear us,

Lord graciously hear us

At the conclusion of the prayers the priest says:

Almighty God, who has promised to hear our prayers.

Grant that what we have asked in faith we may by your grace receive, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

 Jesus said: Come to me all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

or

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

THE CONFESSION:

God is steadfast in love and infinite in mercy, welcoming sinners and inviting them to the Lord’s table.

Let us confess our sins in penitence and faith, confident in God’s forgiveness.

Merciful God, our maker and our judge, we have sinned against you in thought, word and deed, and in what we have failed to do: we have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbours as ourselves; we repent and are sorry for all our sins, Father forgive us, strengthen us to love and obey you in newness of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen

Almighty God, who has promised forgiveness to all who turn to him in faith, pardon you and set you free from all your sins, strengthen you in all goodness and keep you in eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

THE PEACE:

The congregation stands.

We are the Body of Christ.

His Spirit is with us.

 

The peace of the Lord be always with you.

And also with you.

Please greet each other with a sign of peace.

Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old
Was strong to heal and save;
It triumphed o’er disease and death,
O’er darkness and the grave;
To thee they went, the blind, the dumb,
The palsied and the lame,
The leper with his tainted life,
The sick with fevered frame.

And lo! Thy touch brought life and health,
Gave speech, and strength, and sight;
And youth renewed and frenzy calmed
Owned thee to Lord of light;
And now, O Lord, be near to bless,
Almighty as of yore,
In crowded street, by restless couch,
As by Gennesareth’s shore.

Be thou our great deliverer still,
Thou Lord of life and death;
Restore and quicken, soothe and bless
With thine almighty breath;
To hands that work, and eyes that see,
Give wisdom’s heavenly lore,
That whole and sick, and weak and strong,
May praise thee evermore.

THE OFFERTORY

Blessed are you, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have these gifts to share. Accept and use our offerings for your glory and the service of your kingdom.

Blessed be God forever.

 Let us pray

We do not presume to come to your table, merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your manifold and great mercies.  We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table, but you are the same Lord whose nature is always to have mercy. Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of your dear son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us.  Amen.