Trinity 4 / Pentecost 5 28/06/2026

SENTENCE FROM SCRIPTURE:
Look upon me and answer me, O Lord (Psalm 13)

GREETING

Grace and peace to you from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

COLLECT FOR PURITY

Almighty God,
to whom all hearts are 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.

SUMMARY OF THE LAW

Our Lord Jesus Christ said: The first commandment is this:

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is the only Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.”

The second is this: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these. Amen. Lord, have mercy.

CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION

God is love and we are God’s children. There is no room for fear in love. We love because God loved us first.

Let us confess our sins in penitence and faith.

SILENCE

God our Father,
we confess to you
and to our fellow members in the Body of Christ
that we have sinned in thought, word and deed,
and in what we have failed to do.
We are truly sorry.
Forgive us our sins,
and deliver us from the power of evil,
for the sake of your Son who died for us, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

ABSOLUTION

God, who is both power and love,
forgive you and free you from your sins,
heal and strengthen you by the Holy Spirit,
and raise you to new life in Christ our Lord. Amen.

GLORIA
sung by Dougie Byers

COLLECT

O God,
the protector of all who trust in you,
without whom nothing can be whole
and nothing can be holy:
increase your mercy towards us,
that, with you as our ruler and guide,
we may so enjoy the good things of time,
as not to lose the things of eternity;
through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, world without end. Amen

PROCLAIMING & RECEIVING GOD’S WORD

FIRST READING
Genesis 22.1–14,
read by Margaret Morton

¹ God tested Abraham. He said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And Abraham said, ‘Here I am.’

² God said, ‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt-offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.’ ³ So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt-offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. ⁴ On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. ⁵ Then Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.’ ⁶ Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. ⁷ Isaac said to his father Abraham, ‘Father!’ And Abraham said, ‘Here I am, my son.’ Isaac said, ‘The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?’

⁸ Abraham said, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt-offering, my son.’ So the two of them walked on together. ^{✝ 9} When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰ Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. ¹¹ But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ ¹² The angel said, ‘Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.’ ¹³ And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt-offering instead of his son.

¹⁴ So Abraham called that place ‘The LORD will provide’; as it is said to this day, ‘On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.’

SECOND READING
Romans 6.12–23,
read by Kay Solaja

¹² Do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. ¹³ No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness.

¹⁴ For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. ¹⁵ What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, ¹⁸ and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. ¹⁹ I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification. ²⁰ When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ²¹ So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. ²² But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life.

²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

GOSPEL
Matthew 10.40–42 ,
read by the Rev Chris Wren

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew, Chapter 10, beginning at verse 40

Glory to Christ our Saviour

⁴⁰ ‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. ⁴¹ Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous;

⁴² and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple – truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.

Give thanks to the Lord for his glorious Gospel
Praise to Christ our Lord.

SERMON

In place of a sermon this week, here are a few things to consider:

• The story of Abraham and Isaac is quite a problematic story for us, and in these times;  it’s very alien to our culture
• The Bible tells things quite two dimensionally;  it doesn’t go into what Abraham felt, or how difficult it was for him to obey.
• In the end, of course, Isaac was not killed, and God did provide an alternative sacrifice, but he tested Abraham’s faith right up to the wire.
• He still tests us, but, rather than worrying about how we would respond to such an instruction, it’s better to be ready to respond to what God asks, specifically, of us;  he may ask sacrifices of us, but this one is very much a story of its time and location.
• Another translation of the last verse of today’s gospel says, ‘And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded.’  That may be the sacrifice – a small inconvenience – we may be asked for.  Are we ready to say, ‘Here I am?’

THE CREED

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,
God from God,
Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one substance with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven;
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
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.
With the Father and the Son,
he is worshipped and glorified.
He 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.

PRAYERS

God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble.

Dear Father God, you love us with an everlasting love, and you pour out your grace on us. We need your strength and your support as we face difficult events in our lives. May we not be shaken but be found always trusting in you.

Let us pray for the whole Church of God in Christ Jesus and for all people according to their needs:

Almighty God who has promised to hear the prayers of those who ask in faith:-

We pray for the church throughout the world

Guide and govern us by your Holy Spirit that all those who profess and call themselves Christians may be led into the way of truth and hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace and in righteousness of life.

Lord, in thy mercy,
Hear our prayer.

We pray for all who are sick in mind, body or estate

We bring to Jesus those who are troubled, that they may allow him to find them, and in knowing him, their suffering may be eased, and deep peace may be found.

We bring to Jesus those whom we know to be in need of his love. Lord Jesus, may they experience your unending compassion.

We bring to Jesus those who have no faith and need our prayers.

We remember those who have died recently.

We remember those who have died over the years, but are still with us in spirit today and every day.

O Lord, support us all the day long of this troublous life, until the shades lengthen and the evening comes, the busy world is hushed, the fever of life is over and our work done. Then, Lord, in thy mercy, grant us safe lodging, a holy rest and peace at the last, through Jesus Christ our lord.

Lord, in thy mercy
Hear our prayer.

Today there are so many concerns that fill our thoughts and demand our prayers at this difficult and rather frightening time in our country and the wider world and it is difficult sometimes to know where to start, how to pray and who to pray for.

First of all, we pray for the leaders of the nations and in particular, the leader of

this nation:

We lift up our leaders to you, O God. Grant them divine wisdom and discernment as they make difficult decisions. Surround them with honest advisors and protect them from pride and corruption. Give them the strength and emotional stability to bear their heavy responsibilities, and guide their hearts to lead with justice and humility.

Then we pray for ourselves

That we may become discomforted at easy answers, half truths and superficial relationships so that we may seek truth boldly.

That we may be angered at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people so that we may be prompted to work for justice, freedom and peace among all people.

That we may shed tears for those who suffer from pain, rejection, hunger and war and give us the spirits gift of compassion that we may reach out our hands to comfort and turn their pain to joy.

That we may be foolish enough to believe that we CAN make a difference in this world, so that we are able, with God’s grace, to do what others claim cannot be done.

I am only one, but I AM one.

I cannot do everything come up but I can do something.

What I CAN do, I ought to do;

And what I ought to do, by the grace of God, I will do.

And we pray for the future

Lord God, you call your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown; Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing whither we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us.

Lord, in thy mercy,
Hear our prayer

Father hear the prayer we offer:
Not for ease that prayer shall be,
But for strength, that we may ever
Live our lives courageously.

Merciful Father accept these prayers for the sake of your Son,
our Saviour Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those
who sin against us.
Do not bring us
to the time of trial
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power
and the glory are yours,
now and forever. Amen.

BLESSING

Christ the Son of God gladden your hearts with the good news of his kingdom; and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.

FINAL HYMN:

DISMISSAL

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord
In the name of Christ. Amen