Sermon for the Third Sunday after Trinity 25th June 2023:EREMIAH 20:7-13, MATTHEW 10:24-39, ROMANS 61b-11

Deacon Chris Saccali – St Paul’s Athens

I speak in the name of the Living God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

This Sunday, coming at the end of Refugee week is called Sanctuary Sunday, when we consider how we as churches can offer welcome, hospitality and compassion to those seeking sanctuary, The operative word this year is Compassion – literally suffering alongside. Last week this all came back to the surface here in Greece as countless lives were lost in the sea off Pylos in the Peloponnese.  Who is to blame?  This issue cannot be made into a political one and others made scapegoats as occurred in Kalamata. It is a worldwide phenomenon not just a European or Western one. As Christians what are we going to do about it? UN says 100,000,000 people are displaced.

Our readings today seem to dovetail into this theme of pain and difficulty in the lives of prophets and disciples and steer away from our blame game culture that we have gotten used to, sometimes unconsciously. We learn that God’s Kingdom is not compatible with the same set of values. We as disciples of Christ are called to live counter culturally but to bear in mind that we each look through the lens of our own culture and upbringing.

Our readings show this was ever so. Jeremiah and the prophets advocate this way of life putting God first in obedience to their calling. They do not blame God for this but are not always eager to follow their vocation.

The prophet Jeremiah lived through times of enormous political upheaval. His long career, lasting about 40 years, saw a good king, a weak king and the forced deportation of all but the dregs of the population. Most of this Jeremiah warned his people about in advance, but his foresight won him no friends at all, as is so often the case. He was increasingly isolated from the people he was born to serve, and at times his life was threatened by those who could not bear to hear the truth that was so different from what they wanted.

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Service for the Third Sunday after Trinity – 25th June 2023

Welcome to St. Paul’s Athens especially if you are here for the first time or visiting Athens.  We have a POS facility so you can make a donation by card. There are Communion books for children available for use.  There is coffee in the garden after the Liturgy.

The presiding priest this morning is Fr. Leonard. The deacon and preacher is Deacon Christine.

Entrance Hymn    336  Angel voices

Priest: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit

 All:     Amen

Priest: The Lord be with you

All:      And also with you

The priest then welcomes the people of God and then the deacon leads us into Confession.

Silence

Most merciful God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

we confess that we have sinned in thought, word and deed.

We have not loved you with our whole heart.

We have not loved our neighbours as ourselves.

In your mercy forgive what we have been,

Help us to amend what we are, and direct what we shall be;

That we may do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with you, our God.

Amen.

Absolution: May the God of love and power forgive you and free you from your sins, heal and strengthen you by his Spirit, and raise you to new life in Christ our Lord.   Amen.

Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his 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

Collect:  Let us pray    (remain standing as the priest prays the Collect of the Day) 

God our Saviour, look on this wounded world in pity and power; hold us fast to your promises of peace won for us by your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ.  Amen.

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Sermon for the Second Sunday after Trinity – 18th June 2023:Exodus 19, 2-8; Rom 5, 1-8; Mt 9, 35-10, 8

Fr Leonard Dolan – St Paul’s Athens

Last week we reflected on the highly significant ministry of encouragement of St. Barnabas. Though not one of the 12 Apostles he gains the title Apostle because of his outward looking and world facing ministry.

His companion for much of the Ministry of Encouragement was the Apostle Paul until they parted company. St. Paul is also not one of the Twelve, and yet in many ways he is ‘THE’ Apostle. His apostolate is marked by his journeys, his sacrifices and his sheer determination, if not stubbornness, in preaching the truth about Jesus to Jew and pagan alike mostly expressed in his letters to the primitive church communities. Paul is truly an alien in foreign lands.

Our gospel reading this morning names the Twelve Apostles – each one, after the experience of the resurrection, sent out to various parts of the Mediterranean and beyond carrying with them a gospel message. Peter was martyred in Rome – now the See of Peter; Andrew came to Greece and his remains are in the cathedral in Patras; Thomas went to India – the Mar Thoma church still bears his name; James also in in Indian sub-continent who gives his name to the Jacobite tradition of Christianity (nothing to do with Jacobites in Scotland – that’s a different period in history and a very different story).

All these Apostles, hand –picked by Christ and formed into faithful messengers, angels, of the gospel message. The language of this short passage of St. Matthew’s gospel is packed with dynamic language: ‘go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’, ‘go, proclaim the good news; cure, raise, cleanse, cast out.’ These are all strong verbs, all imperatives. In those designated Apostles the ministry of Christ himself is multiplied; he is the source, but in faith Christ’s church can do these things by his commands and through faith.

Another side to these bold commandments is the evidence required by us that verifies it. You will remember the famous passage in John’s gospel about St. Thomas. He is famously called Doubting Thomas – maybe partly because it is all too human to see the glass half empty. He should really be known to us as Faithful Thomas because he came to believe and said the words so many of us wish to say with utter conviction ‘My Lord and my God.’ For him the glass is full and running over – the cup of salvation frothing, overflowing with God’s love and grace.

Discouragement is a default position for so many humans. If we pray for something and it doesn’t happen we give up on prayer, and we might even give up on God. We give up too easily – we don’t get what we want – but our Christ died for us. How can we place our often self-centred prayers beside the self-sacrificial Christ. Our prayer should be that we can be more Christ-like; and if more Christ-like maybe the agenda of our hopes and desires might just shift their emphasis.

Christ himself commends persistence. With prayer we need to keep going; in faith we need to keep going; in hope we need to keep going; for persistence is a godly quality. Had God himself not been persistent how else might we be reading what we refer to as the Old Testament. Where did God give up on his people? How often do the people give up on God? Why else is the voice of the prophet needed but to call us back, to re-gather us, to encourage us to change. Why else do so many of the Psalms cry out in despair – indeed the classic is Psalm 22 quoted by Christ from the cross ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ Those psalms of lament and despair allow us to voice genuinely our human condition and our capacity towards absorbing frailty and failure – yet always in the Psalms there is no abandonment of faith in God. Yes, there may be this, there may be that, there may be disappointment and frustration – but yet, but yet ‘You are the wonderful God who created the world and all that is in it’. Always the freedom in the Psalms allows human mortality to interface with divine immortality.

We so desperately need encouragement. In the western world there is talk of dramatic church decline – the Archbishop of Canterbury recently has even said he must take some of the blame for this – as if it would really make much difference. The trajectory of history shows that humans ebb and flow in their faithfulness. Perhaps what we really need are fewer mission strategies, less obsession with numbers and attendance, and more voices of prophecy that call us back to what the Lord our God demands of us justice and righteousness it is called in the Old Testament, and it is what Jesus calls ‘love’.

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Audio Sermon for the Second Sunday of Trinity – 18th June 2023

Fr Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens

Service for the Second Sunday after Trinity – 18th June 2023

Welcome to St. Paul’s Athens especially if you are here for the first time or visiting Athens.  We have a POS facility so you can make a donation by card. There are Communion books for children available for use.  There is coffee in the garden after the Liturgy.

The presiding priest and preacher this morning is Fr. Leonard.

Entrance Hymn    398 Lift up your hearts           (tune 395 Woodlands)

Priest: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit

 All:     Amen

Priest: The Lord be with you

All:      And also with you

The priest then welcomes the people of God and then  leads us into Confession.

Silence

Most merciful God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

we confess that we have sinned in thought, word and deed.

We have not loved you with our whole heart.

We have not loved our neighbours as ourselves.

In your mercy forgive what we have been,

Help us to amend what we are, and direct what we shall be;

That we may do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with you, our God.

Amen.

Absolution: May the God of love and power forgive you and free you from your sins, heal and strengthen you by his Spirit, and raise you to new life in Christ our Lord.   Amen.

Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his 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

Collect:  Let us pray    (remain standing as the priest prays the Collect of the Day) 

Faithful Creator, whose mercy never fails: deepen our faithfulness to you and to your living Word, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

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Audio Sermon for the Feast of St Barnabas – 11th June 2023

Fr Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens

Service for the Feast of St Barnabas, Apostle, 11 June 2023

Welcome to St. Paul’s Athens especially if you are here

for the first time or visiting Athens.  Fr. Leonard will preside and preach; the deacon is Deacon Christine Saccali. Please note that the church has a POS facility for payments

and you can follow the service sheet online – ask for the password. Communion books and activity sheets are available for children – ask the Sidespeople for assistance.

Entrance Hymn  167  The ‘Son of Consolation’

Priest:    In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

     All:         Amen

Priest:    The Lord be with you

     All:         And also with you

The priest then informally welcomes the people of God and the deacon leads us into Confession.

Deacon: We run the race set before us, surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Therefore let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which clings so closely, bringing them to Jesus in penitence and faith.  (A short period of stillness and silence)

All:  Father eternal, giver of light and grace, we have sinned against you and against our neighbour, in what we have thought, in what we have said and done, through ignorance, through weakness, through our own deliberate fault. We have wounded your love, and marred your image in us. We are sorry and ashamed, and repent of all our sins. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, who died for us, forgive us all that is past; and lead us out from darkness to walk as children of light. Amen.

Absolution: Almighty God, who forgives all who truly repent, have mercy upon you, pardon and deliver you from all your sins, confirm and strengthen you in all goodness, and keep you in life eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Gloria:  Glory to God in the highest, peace to his 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, have mercy on us, you are seated at the right hand of the Father: receive, 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

Collect:  Let us pray    (remain standing as the priest prays the Collect of the Day) 

Bountiful God, giver of all gifts, who poured your Spirit upon your servant Barnabas and gave him grace to encourage others: help us, by his example, to be generous in our judgements and unselfish in our service; 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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Audio Sermon for TrinitySunday – 4th June 2023:

Fr Leonard Doolan p St Paul’s Athens

Liturgy of the Word for Trinity Sunday – 4th June 2023

Welcome to St Paul’s Athens,   especially if you are here for the first time or visiting Athens.

Please join us after the service for refreshments in the garden. St. Paul’s has internet – ask for the password.

The worship is led by Nelly Paraskevopoulou who is in training to be a Licensed Reader.

Entrance  Hymn: 146  Holy Holy Holy

Minister:  Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father

and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you

All:            and also with you.

Minister:  O Lord, open our lips

All:            and our mouth shall proclaim your praise.

Minister: Give us the joy of your saving help

All:            and sustain us with your life-giving Spirit.

The minister then welcomes people informally.

Prayers of Penitence

Minister:   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.

All: 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.

Minister:  May the Father of all mercies cleanse us from our sins, and restore us

in his image to the praise and glory of his name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

All:            Amen

Psalm       Hymn Book 533      This will be led by the choir (Please be seated) 

Refrain:    O God, you are my God, for you my soul is athirst.

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Sermon preached on Pentecost Sunday – 28th May 2023 (Year A):ACTS 2:1-21, 1 CORINTHIANS 12:3b-13, JOHN 7:37-39

Deacon Chris Saccali – St Paul’s Athens

I speak in the name of the Living God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We start where we left off two weeks ago talking about the Holy Spirit, ascension has intervened we have been praying the great novena – the nine days between Ascension and Pentecost  reflecting on the initiative of Thy kingdom Come. Here what Pope Francis had to say on 15^th May in his daily missive, journey with the Pope.

‘ The Holy Spirit wants to stay with us : he is not a passing guest who comes to pay us a courtesy visit. He is a companion for life , a stable presence. He is Spirit and presence. He is spirit and desires to dwell in our spirits. He is patient and stays with us when we fall.He remains because he truly loves us ,  he does not pretend to love us, and then leave us alone when things get difficult.No. he is faithful.He is transparent., he is authentic.’

My only quibble with this inspiring text is the pronoun HE used to describe the Holy Spirit. To aghio pneum, a, a neuter noun in Greek, but it is often thought of as feminine. Think of the worship song the Enemy of Apathy whose first line goes,’ She sits like a bird brooding on the waters….’ Referring to the Spirit long before the existence of the world. The Old and New testament are full of references to the Holy Spirit as a consistent presence from Creation to new creation.

You can decide for yourself how to best describe the Spirit of the three person Trinity, along with all the descriptions we heard two weeks ago such as Advocate, Comforter and Paraclete. And we may need to consider how our leanings and feelings change throughout our age, stage of life and circumstances.

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