Patrick Comerford
Sunday next [Sunday 22 November 2020] is the Sunday before Advent, which is now marked in the Church Calendar as the Kingship of Christ. The readings in the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) and the Church of Ireland Directory are in two sets, the Paired Readings and the Continuous Readings.
The Continuous Readings: Ezekiel 34: 11-16, 20-24; Psalm 100; Ephesians 1: 15-23; and Matthew 25: 31-46.
There is a link to the Continuous Readings HERE.
The Paired Readings: Ezekiel 34: 11-16, 20-24; Psalm 95: 1-7; Ephesians 1: 15-23; and Matthew 25: 31-46.
There is a link to the Paired Readings HERE.
Sunday next is also marked in the Dioceses of Limerick, Killaloe, Ardfert and Clonfert as Mission Sunday.
These notes include ideas for the readings for the Sunday before Advent, including the Gospel reading, as well as themed hymns, the Collect and Post-Communion Prayer, suggested hymns, and images that may be downloaded to use on parish bulletins and in service sheets.
In addition, there are extra resources to help plan around the theme of Mission Sunday, with an introduction to this year’s theme, the appropriate Collect and Post-Communion Prayer, suggested hymns, and the resources apporived by the House of Bishops on the theme of racial justice and which are recommended for use on 22 November by Bishop Kenneth Kearon.
Introducing the Readings:
In the lectionary readings for Year A, we have arrived at the last Sunday of readings in Saint Matthew’s Gospel about Christ’s days in Jerusalem immediately after Palm Sunday, although the actual account of Palm Sunday in Matthew 21: 1-22 was passed over in recent Sundays.
The Sunday before Advent now gives us time to pause and reflect on the why, over the past few months, we have been following Christ on his journey to Jerusalem. For it is there that he will be revealed in glory as the Son of Man and the King.
Already the Christmas decorations, including trees and lights, are up in the streets and the shops. The Shopping Centres would have us believe that Christmas has already arrived as shop owners and traders try to breathe a festive air into our lives.
Unlike some friends in England who have already got their first Christmas card, I have yet to receive my first Christmas card. But already An Post and the Royal Mail have posted warnings on their websites about the latest dates for posting for Christmas – and some of those dates for surface mail have already passed!
Plans for carol services and Christmas services are well advanced in most parishes. We all look forward to Christmas … it is holiday time, it is family time, it is a time for gifts and presents, for meeting and greeting, for family meals.
In every Church, we shall see more people coming through the doors than at any other time of the year. People love the carols, the tradition, the goodwill and the good feelings we get from even just thinking about Santa Claus and the elves, the tree and the lights, the crib and the Baby Jesus.
Even the most secular of revellers will admit, without much compulsion, that Christ is at the heart of Christmas, and that waiting for Christ, anticipating Christ, should be at the heart of the Advent season, which begins on Sunday 29 November.
Preparing for Christ’s coming
The Gospel reading on Sunday morning may seem to be a little out of sequence for some. We are preparing for Christmas, they may think, not for Easter. But we forget that so easily. On all the radio chat shows, people are already talking about this being the Christmas Season … before Advent has even started.
But Advent is the season of preparation for Christmas, and in the weeks beforehand we even prepare for Advent itself, with Lectionary readings telling us about the Coming of Christ.
We have made Christmas a far-too comfortable story. It was never meant to be, but we have made it comfortable with our Christmas card images of the sweet little baby Jesus, being visited by kings and surrounded by adoring, cute little animals. The reality, of course, is that Christmas was never meant to be a comfortable story like that.
Christmas is a story about poverty and about people who are homeless and rejected and who can find no place to stay.
It is a messy story about a child born surrounded by the filth of animals and the dirt of squalor.
It is a story of shepherds who are involved in dangerous work, staying up all night, out in the winter cold, watching out for wolves and sheep stealers.
It is a story of trickery, deceit and the corruption of political power that eventually leads to a cruel dictator stooping to murder, even the murder of innocent children, to secure his own grip on power.
But these sorts of images do not sell Christmas Cards or help to get the boss drunk under the mistletoe at the office party.
That is why in the weeks before Advent we have readings reminding us about what the coming of Christ into the world means, what the Kingdom of God is like, and how we should prepare for the coming of Christ and the coming of the Kingdom of God.
The Feast of Christ the King
On Sunday [22 November 2020], we are marking the Kingship of Christ. There are few Anglican churches dedicated to Christ the King, but they include the Church of Christ the King in Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, London, now used by Forward in Faith.
The Feast of Christ the King is a recent innovation in the Church calendar. It was first suggested at the end of 1925 when Pope Pius XI published an encyclical, Quas Primas, in which he castigated secularism in Europe and declared that the secular powers ought to recognise Christ as King and that the Church needed to recapture this teaching.
At the time, the entire idea of kingship was quickly losing credibility in western societies, not so much to democracy but to burgeoning fascism – Mussolini was in power in Italy since 1922, and a wave of fascism was about to sweep across central Europe.
The mere mention of kingship and monarchy today may evoke images of either the extravagance of Louis XVI in Versailles, or the anachronism of pretenders in Ruritanian headdress, sashes and medals claiming thrones and privilege in Eastern Europe.
However, since 1925, the celebration of Christ the King or the Kingship of Christ has become part of the calendar of the wider Western Church. It took on an ecumenical dimension from 1983 on with its introduction to Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists and others through the Revised Common Lectionary.
The end of the Church Year
Putting the Christmas trees up too early or hanging up the lights and frosting the windows ahead of Advent do not help to encourage a true Christmas spirit because they help us forget what Advent is all about.
Christ comes not just as a cute cuddly babe wrapped up in the manger and under the floodlights of a front window in a large department store in a shopping centre or city centre.
Marking the Sunday before Advent by crowning Christ as King helps us to focus on Advent from the following Sunday, and Advent is supposed to be a time and a season of preparing for the coming of Christ.
Kingship may not be a good role model in this part of the island or for people living in modern democratic societies where the heads of state are elected. Nor are the models of kingship in history or in contemporary society so good. It is worth considering three examples:
● We are familiar with a model of monarchy that paradoxically appears to be benign on the one hand and appears aloof and remote on the other hand, at the very apex of a class system defined by birth, title and inherited privilege.
● In other northern European countries, the model of monarchy is portrayed in the media by figureheads who are slightly daft do-gooders, riding around on bicycles in parks and by canals in ways that threaten to rob kingship of majesty, dignity and grace.
● Or, take deposed emperors from the 20th century: Halie Selassie, who died in 1975, sat back in luxury as his people starved to death; Emperor Bokassa, who died in 1996, was a tyrant accused of eating his people and having them butchered at whim.
Is it any wonder that some modern translations of the Psalms avoid the word king and talk about God as our governor?
Ezekiel 34: 11-16, 20-24:
Two prophets, Isaiah and Ezekiel, saw mystical visions of God among his heavenly host, the choir of angels. Rulers in the Ancient Near East saw themselves as shepherds of their people. Ezekiel is sent by God to prophesy against Israel’s kings, who misused their people and were responsible for scattering them. Kings had taken the best of the land for themselves, rather than sharing it with the people.
This reading dates from a time when Judah had been invaded by Babylon in 587 BC. Verses 1-10 blame the people’s sorry state on the kings: some people had been dispersed around the Mediterranean, others were deported to Babylon. Those left at home were no better off. In foreign lands, they have fallen prey to pagan beliefs. Rulers too are subject to God’s law: they are individually responsible for the mess.
Now God will reverse the evil done by the bad human shepherds. God will seek out the sheep, and rescue them from wherever they have been scattered. God will gather them, bring them back, and restore them. God will care for them.
God will aid those who are lost, those who have strayed, those who are injured and weak, but will destroy the fat and the strong, their oppressive rulers them.
God will give them justice, and make rulers accountable for their actions. God will judge, and differentiate between the fat sheep, the overfed rich oppressors, and the lean or underfed poor, the oppressed and the godly.
‘I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged.’ The sheep will behave properly, and submit to ‘one shepherd,’ a descendant of David, a prince, placed over them by God. There will be peace, prosperity and safety from attack. Then Israel will truly know God.
Psalm 100:
Psalm 100 invites all people on earth to joyfully worship God.
This psalm is one of the fixed psalms and canticles in the older Anglican liturgy for the office of Lauds on Sundays, and as a part of Morning Prayer in the Book of Common Prayer as the canticle with the title Jubilate Deo.
It has been set to music by many composers, including Benjamin Britten, John Gardner, Herbert Howells, John Ireland, Henry Purcell, Richard Purvis, Charles Villiers Stanford, George Dyson, Kenneth Leighton, William Walton, Ralph Vaughan Williams and John Rutter.
Both the Temple and royal palaces had gates and courts, and in this Psalm God is portrayed as the king, present in the Temple and reigning from there.
All are to acknowledge that the Lord God is our creator, that all of us belong to him and that he cares for us. He is ultimate goodness, and his love for us is ever-lasting, for all generations, including to those who went before us, and to those who follow us.
Ephesians 1: 15-23:
In this reading, the Apostle Paul describes Christ as ruler of all, and for all time.
Saint Paul tells his readers in Ephesus how he is delighted to hear of the successful missionary activity by people he does not know at first hand. Their faith in Christ and their love all the saints, all Christians, are living examples of God’s great love for humanity demonstrated in the Father’s giving of the Son.
These are new Christians and Saint Paul prays that these new converts may receive ‘a spirit of wisdom and revelation’ as they come to understand God more and more and come to see Christ in his greatness and his glory.
Saint Paul recalls when he was a persecutor of Christians he experienced God’s mercy. This this power that they now experience is the power the Father used in raising Christ and bringing him share in the divine glory.
Christ has conquered all and God has made all things subject to him. God the Father has given Christ to the Church as ruler over all things spiritual. The Church is one in Christ and so is able to share in Christ’s exaltation, Christ being the complete embodiment of God, who is in the process of making all things good. Through the Church, God pervades the world with his goodness.
Matthew 25: 31-46:
The Gospel reading for the Feast of Christ the King tells the story of Christ coming in glory as the Son of Man (verse 31), as the king (verses 34 and 40), and as Lord (verses 37 and 44).
This parable is unique to Saint Matthew and has no parallel in the other Gospels. It brings to a close the whole of the discourse that began in Chapter 23.
This is a stark and challenging parable that forces us to ask what the coming of Christ, the second coming, will be like, and what Christ has to say to us about the way we live and the way we should be living in the world today.
The division of people into sheep and goats is well known. We all constantly love to divide people into two groups, the insiders and the outsiders, us and them, friends and foes, Manchester United supporters and ABU fans. We do it all the time, and sheep and goats are a good short-hand term for what we do.
Sheep and goats behave differently, but in Palestine they were fed together. In Palestine in Christ’s time, and even to this very day, throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, sheep and goats are often difficult to tell apart until they have been separated. And when it came to insiders and outsiders, the goats were definitely the insiders and the sheep the outsiders.
Goats are lively animals and very curious. They are happy living either in herds with other goats or by themselves, while sheep are more docile, easily led, and always stay in groups.
Sheep are greedier than goats – they are more likely to overeat than goats if they have access to more food than they need. Sheep are destructive grazers, while goats are browsers. This means sheep eat grass and other plants all the way down to the ground, while goats, on the other hand, despite popular misconceptions, simply nibble here and there, sampling a variety of bushes and leaves, chewing on a lot of things without actually eating them.
Goats are among the best climbers in the world: they almost never fall or slip, while sheep, on the other hand, are much less sure-footed and can easily fall and get stuck upside down.
We all know the parable of the lost sheep, but the parable of the lost goat just would not have had the same resonance, would it?
Sheep, on the one hand, can and will stay out all night, and are more resilient in bad weather, which is why the shepherds on that first Christmas were out on the hillsides looking after their flocks.
Goats, on the other hand, need warmth at night, so might even have been in the stable alongside the ox and the ass.
So: sheep are outsiders, goats are insiders. And what happens to the insiders and the outsiders in this parable would be a shocking end to the story for those who heard it for the first time in the Eastern Mediterranean.
This is a parable or story that is so stark and so challenging that it has inspired many of the great works of art.
Doom walls were often painted in English mediaeval churches, on the inside, Western or back wall, and it is a traditional image that is still popular in some Greek churches.
The earliest portrayal of the Last Judgment in art is a sixth century mosaic in Ravenna that shows a seated Christ flanked by two large Byzantine-style angels, all three seated in a way that prefigures Andrei Rublev’s icon of the Visitation of Abraham, or the Old Testament Trinity. To his right are three perky-looking sheep and balanced on his left are three more sober-looking goats.
Giovanni da Modena’s fresco of the Last Judgment in Bologna was inspired by Dante’s description of heaven and hell. Fra Angelico’s Last Judgment (ca 1425) is now in the Museum of San Marco in Florence. Michelangelo’s Last Judgment, in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican (1534-1541), caused controversy because of its muscular, beardless Christ. And it is, perhaps, because of the poetry of Sante and the work of Fra Angelico, Michelangelo, and other great artists that we often see this story of the Last Judgment as a story about individual judgment and individual condemnation, rather than the judgment of the nations that we read about in this Gospel reading.
Searching questions
The story opens with Christ coming again in glory, sitting on his throne of glory (verse 31), and the nations gathered before him (verse 32). They are not atomised, isolated individuals who are gathered before the throne of Christ: they are the nations – all the nations – that are assembled and asked these very searching questions.
These are questions that are directly related to the conditions that surrounded that first Christmas; questions that directly challenge us as to whether we have taken on board the values of the beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5: 3-11, see Sunday 1 November 2020; and Luke 6: 20-31); questions that ask whether we really accept the values Christ proclaimed at the very start of his ministry when he spoke in the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4: 16-19).
We should be aware of the poetry that is part of this passage too. In verses 35-36, when the king calls in those on his right hand, he emphasises four times that when they ministered to the needy they ministered to him, and he does this by emphasising ‘I’ and ‘me’ rather than the verbs: the words ‘I’ and ‘me’ are emphasised, rather than the verb, in the words μοι and με. This poetic emphasis is missed if our translations are laid out in narrative rather than poetic form.
Similarly, in verses 37-39, in the questions put to king, the emphasis in on ministering to the king, on the ‘you,’ rather than the action: note the –μεν ending in the key words in the questions, another poetic structure in this passage.
The poetry is part of the drama, but how do we get this across to congregations when it is being read as the Sunday Gospel reading?
Meanwhile, the questions posed here are questions put to us not just as individuals and as Christians. They are also questions that are put to the nations, to all of the nations (πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, pánta ta ethne), each and every one of them. The word ἔθνος (ethnos) is used in the Bible to refer to a tribe, nation, people or group, and especially to foreign nations that were not Jewish.
And that is where Christ comes into the world, both at Christmas and at the second coming, with the Kingdom of God. At his birth, the old man in the Temple, Simeon, welcomes him as the light for revelation to the nations, φῶς εἰς ἀποκάλυψιν ἐθνῶν (phos eis apokálypsin ethnon), ‘a light for revelation to the nations’ (Luke 2: 32).
Which nations on earth, at this very moment, would like to be judged by how enlightened they are, to be compared with the Kingdom of God when it comes to how each nation treats and looks after those the enthroned Christ identifies with himself: those who are hungry; those who are thirsty; those who are strangers and find no welcome on our shores; those who are naked, bare of anything to call their own in this world, or whose naked bodies are exploited for profit and pleasure; those who are sick, and left waiting on hospital trolleys or on endless lists for health care because they cannot afford it; those who are imprisoned because they spoke out, or because they are from the wrong political or ethnic group, or because they did not have the right papers when they arrived at Dublin Airport as refugees seeking asylum?
When did we ever see Christ in pain on hospital a trolley or being mistreated at the passport control kiosks in the arrivals area at the airport?
But – as long it was done in the name of our nation, we did it to Christ himself.
In his Second Coming, Christ tells us the kind of conduct, of morality, towards others that is expected of us as Christians, but also tells us of the consequences of not caring for others.
Conclusions:
This Gospel reading challenges us in a way that is uncomfortable, but with things that must stay on our agenda as Christians and on the agenda of the Church.
We are challenged in the epistle reading for this Sunday to ask ourselves:
What are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints (Ephesians 1: 18)?
What is the immeasurable greatness of his great power (verse 19)?
The genius of power is revealed in those who have it and can use it but only do so sparingly. Christ’s choice is not to gratify those who want a worldly king, whether he is benign or barmy. Instead, he displays supreme majesty in his priorities for those who are counted out when it comes to other kingdoms.
Christ rejects all the dysfunctional models of majesty and kingship. He is not coming again as a king who is haughty and aloof, daft and barmy, or despotic and tyrannical. Instead he shows a model of kingship that emphasises what majesty and graciousness should mean for us today – giving priority in the kingdom to the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the prisoner (verses 35-36).
As we prepare for Christmas we should be preparing to enjoy time with our families and friends, time for a good winter’s holiday. But we should also remember the reason we have Christmas, the reason Christ came into the world, and the reason he is coming again.
We can look forward to seeing the Christ child in the crib and to singing about him in the carols. But let us also look forward to seeing him in glory. So let us be prepared to see him in the hungry, the thirsty, the unwelcome stranger, those who are naked and vulnerable, those who have no provisions for health care, those who are prisoners, those who have no visitors and those who are lonely and marginalised.
Matthew 25: 31-46 (NRSVA):
31 [Jesus said:] ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” 37 Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” 40 And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” 41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, “You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” 44 Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” 45 Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’
Liturgical Resources:
Liturgical Colour: White.
The Collect of the Day:
Eternal Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaven
that he might rule over all things as Lord and King:
Keep the Church in the unity of the Spirit
and in the bond of peace,
and bring the whole created order to worship at his feet,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
The Collect of the Word:
God of power and love,
who raised your Son Jesus from death to life,
resplendent in glory to rule over all creation:
free the world to rejoice in his peace,
to glory in his justice, and to live in his love.
Unite the human race in Jesus Christ your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Post-Communion Prayer:
Stir up, O Lord,
the wills of your faithful people;
that plenteously bearing the fruit of good works
they may by you be plenteously rewarded;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Suggested hymns:
Ezekiel 34: 11-16, 20-24:
644: Faithful Shepherd, feed me
670: Jerusalem the golden
442: Praise the Lord, rise up rejoicing
598: Take this moment, sign and space
20: The King of love my shepherd is
Psalm 100:
683: All people that on earth do dwell
334: I will enter his gates with thanksgiving in my heart
701 Jubilate, eve’ybody
Ephesians 1: 15-23:
250: All hail the power of Jesus’ name
643: Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart
326: Blessèd city, heavenly Salem
(Christ is made the sure foundation, omit verse 1.
296: Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire
693: Glory in the highest to the God of heaven
324: God, whose almighty word
266: Hail the day that sees him rise
267: Hail the risen Lord, ascending
300: Holy Spirit, truth divine
99: Jesus, the name high over all
588: Light of the minds that know him
275: Look, ye saints, the sight is glorious
281: Rejoice, the Lord is King!
491: We have a gospel to proclaim
476: Ye watchers and ye holy ones
Matthew 25: 31-46
517: Brother, sister, let me serve you
86: Christ is the King! O friends, rejoice
39: For the fruits of his creation
89: God is love – his the care
520: God is love, and where true love is, God himself is there
91: He is Lord, he is Lord
523: Help us to help each other, Lord
495: Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love
427: Let all mortal flesh keep silence
281: Rejoice, the Lord is King!
527: Son of God, eternal Saviour
314: There’s a spirit in the air
114: Thou didst leave thy throne and thy kingly crown
499: When I needed a neighbour, were you there
531: Where love and loving kindness dwell
Mission Sunday:
In the United Dioceses of Limerick, Killaloe, Ardfert and Clonfert, the Diocesan Council for Mission is encouraging all parishes to mark Sunday 22 November 2020.
The Diocesan Council for Mission in Limerick and Killaloe has decided this year to concentrate on mission at home and to donate all the proceeds from Mission Sunday 2020 to Jigsaw (www.jigsaw.ie), an early intervention, primary care service for young people’s mental health, and Women’s Aid (ww.womensaid.ie), a leading national organisation that has been working in Ireland since 1974 to stop domestic violence against women and children.
Since March, the demand for these services has in one case increased by 40%. Due to the latest ‘lockdown,’ the council realises that places of worship will be closed until the end of November. Accordingly, it has decided to extend this ‘time of mission’ until the end of January 2021, and the treasurer is happy to receive donations up to 26 February 2021.
The council plans to send out a package to each parish in mid-November, with brochures, posters, gift envelopes and a USB memory stick for a digital presentation, with an introduction by Bishop Kenneth Kearon. For parishes with internet facilities, a presentation will also be available on the diocesan website and on YouTube. Presentations are also being sent to schools in the dioceses.
Mission Collect:
Almighty God,
who called your Church to witness
that you were in Christ reconciling the world to yourself:
Help us to proclaim the good news of your love,
that all who hear it may be drawn to you;
through him who was lifted up on the cross,
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Post-Communion Prayer:
Eternal Giver of love and power,
your Son Jesus Christ has sent us into all the world
to preach the gospel of his kingdom.
Confirm us in this mission,
and help us to live the good news we proclaim;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
A Prayer for Mission in the Book of Common Prayer:
Almighty God, who by thy Son Jesus Christ didst give commandment to the apostles, that they should go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature; Grant to us, whom thou hast called into thy Church, a ready will to obey thy Word, and fill us with a hearty desire to make thy way known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations. Look with compassion on all that have not known thee, and upon the multitudes that are scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. O heavenly Father, Lord of the harvest, have respect, we beseech thee, to our prayers, and send forth labourers into thine harvest. Fit and prepare them by thy grace for the work of their ministry; give them the spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind; strengthen them to endure hardness; and grant that thy Holy Spirit may prosper their work, and that by their life and doctrine they may set forth thy glory, and set forward the salvation of all people; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Suggested Hymns:
In the Church Hymnal, Section 6 is suitable for theme of the Church’s Witness and Mission. In particular, there are hymns related to Proclaiming the Faith (478-493) and Social Justice (494-500). Some of thee hymns in this section are among those recommended for the First Sunday before Advent:
491: We have a gospel to proclaim
495: Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love
499: When I needed a neighbour, were you there
‘Taking the Knee’ Prayers:
The House of Bishops has approved a resource provided by the Church and Society Commission for use in public worship at the discretion of local clergy.
Bishop Kenneth Kearon has suggested using these resources on Sunday 22 November 2020, to coincide with the Feast of Christ the King.
‘Taking the Knee’ includes a sentence of Scripture, a prayer of acknowledgement and lament, and prayers for racial justice and equality, and is available to download HERE.
In the introductory note, the Commission explains:
We affirm that racism is an affront to God and contrary to the Christian faith. It denies that the reconciling work of Jesus Christ was achieved for all people and that it breaks down the walls of division across all human distinctions. Racism denies our common humanity in creation and our belief that all are made in God’s image. It asserts falsely that we find our fundamental identity in terms of race rather than in Jesus Christ.
‘Taking the Knee’ has become a symbol of protest against racial injustice and an expression of solidarity. It has been used by sports personalities, community leaders, and political representatives amongst others. Like all symbols it can easily be misunderstood. However, as Christians we are familiar with the symbolism of taking the knee. In Psalm 95:6, we read, “we kneel before the Lord our maker”. Taking the knee has special meaning for us as we regularly take to our knees in prayer in intercession, in lamentation, and in helplessness to Almighty God.’
We invite you to ‘take the knee’ both as a sign of our devotion to God’s indiscriminate love as shown in the Gospel of his Son, and as a protest against racism as a distortion of God’s will in creation and redemption. We invite you to use the following prayers as part of a Sunday service.
Taking the Knee: Prayers for Racial Justice and Equality
A resource provided by the Church and Society Commission of the Church of Ireland, approved by the House of Bishops for local use. Published September 2020
Sentence of Scripture
O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! Psalm 95: 6
[Kneel or sit in Silence]
Prayer of Acknowledgement and Lament
Good and gracious God, you invite us to recognize and reverence your divine image and likeness in our neighbour. Enable us to see the reality of racism and free us to challenge and uproot it from our society, our world and ourselves.
We acknowledge and lament the conscious and unconscious racism encountered by many black, Asian and minority ethnic communities in our churches and society.
Give us the courage to stand unequivocally for justice, and for truth. Help us to dismantle racist agendas and to transform unjust structures. Help us to love you with all our heart, soul, and minds. Help us to love one another as you commanded us to do. Help us to treat each other as we would have others treat us. Help us together to find lasting solutions to end injustice and inequality in our world. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
Prayers for Racial Justice and Equality
Lord Jesus Christ who reached across the ethnic boundaries between Samaritan, Roman and Jew who offered fresh sight to the blind and freedom to captives, help us to break down the barriers in our community, enable us to see the reality of racism and bigotry, and free us to challenge and uproot it from ourselves, our society and our world.
Lord in your mercy,
Hear our prayer
God of all peoples, we pray for all victims of racial hatred and discrimination. We pray for your protection especially for those affected in our churches, our schools, our places of work and in our communities and in our land.
Lord in your mercy,
Hear our prayer
We pray for all in our world, of whatever race, who suffer the horrors of modern slavery. Your Son came to bring good news to the poor and freedom for the oppressed. We thank you for all who are working to combat modern slavery: for governments and agencies, for Church and other faith leaders, for charities and individuals. May we too be voices against oppression, channels of the transforming power of the gospel. May our eyes be opened wide to all who suffer in our midst but out of sight. May we all work for a world where human beings are valued, free to come and go, where no one is enslaved, no one used against their will for another’s pleasure or need.
Lord in your mercy,
Hear our prayer
We pray that we may be able to feel the power of reconciliation. Wherever there is division between us and others, because of our race or ethnicity we pray that we may all be led to reconciliation. We pray for all who work to bring communities together in ways that are just and equal for all.
As we pray for reconciliation, we pray also for restoration. We pray for those whose spirits and communities have been weighed down by racism. Guide us as we strive to ensure everyone has equal dignity.
Lord in your mercy,
Hear our prayer
Merciful Father, accept these prayers for the sake of your Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.
An additional resource from USPG:
The Revd Richard Bartlett, Director of Mission Engagement with the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), will provide the USPG sermon for the Feast of Christ the King, Sunday 22 November, and will be sent to churches on Thursday 19 November. It will link some of the mission and ministry of the Anglican Church of Tanzania which is the focus of USPG’s Christmas Appeal, ‘A Promise of Hope’.
The December sermon will be for the fourth Sunday of Advent, 20 December and will be sent to churches on Thursday 17 December. Rámond Mitchell, Volunteer and Education Coordinator with USPG, will provide this sermon.
To order these sermons for your church please email Gwen Mtambirwa, Mission Engagement Co-ordinator, gwenm@uspg.org.uk. In the email include the name of your church (if it is for a church service), and if you have one, attach a high-resolution photo of your church to your email as a jpeg. Sermons will be sent to you by the Thursday prior to the Sunday.
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
The hymns suggestions are provided in Sing to the Word (2000), edited by Bishop Edward Darling. The hymn numbers refer to the Church of Ireland’s Church Hymnal (5th edition, Oxford: OUP, 2000)
Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.
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