A Service of Prayer

in the Celtic Tradition

For The Week of Lent IV (B)
(Various Mostly Welsh Sources)
For the Week of Sunday, March 14, 2021
The Rev.Dr. Chris McMullen, Parish of Upper Kennebecasis

Call to Worship: “The Coming”

And God held in his hand
A small globe. Look, he said.
The son looked. Far off,
As through water, he saw
A scorched land of fierce
Colour. The light burned
There; crusted buildings
Cast their shadows; a bright
Serpent, a river
Uncoiled itself, radiant
With slime.
On a bare
Hill a bare tree saddened
The sky. Many people
Held out their thin arms
To it, as though waiting
For a vanished April
To return to its crossed
Boughs. The son watched
Them. “Let me go there,” he said.
(R.S. Thomas, Everyman’s Poetry, ed. Anthony Thwaite [London: J.M. Dent, 1996], 72.

Hymn of Praise
“How Deep the Father's Love for Us” MP # 988
How deep the Father's love for us,
How vast beyond all measure,
That he should give his only Son
To make a wretch his treasure.
How great the pain of searing loss
--The Father turns his face away,
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory.
 (2)

Behold the man upon the cross,

My sin upon his shoulders;
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers.
It was my sin that held him there
Until it was accomplished;
His dying breath has brought me life
--I know that it is finished.
I will not boast in anything,
No gifts, no power, no wisdom;
But I will boast in Jesus Christ,
His death and resurrection.
Why should I gain from his reward?
I cannot give an answer,
But this I know with all my heart,
His wounds have paid my ransom.
Stuart Townsend, © 1995 Kingsway's Thankyou Music
Used With Permission, CCLI # 3117248
Prayer of Approach
Lord of Heaven, permit our prayer to You:
From wrath, may our worship save us.
High King of glory, petition artfully through us,
Spirit of prophecy, who frees us from hell’s slavery!
Make us like oaks, mighty and magical,
Even in the face of conflict and death.
May our souls receive Christ’s wholesome food,
Even his body and blood –
for words in a book say little to us,
compared to death, and what follows, and the prophet’s poetic song:
May we gain heavens country, our true and best abode.
(Adapted from from Gwyneth Lewis and Rowan Williams, trs., The Book of Taliesin: Poems
of Warfare and Praise in an Enchanted Britain [London: Penguin Classics, 2019, 2020],
“Lord of Heaven, Permit My Prayer to You,” # 50, pp. 157 f.)

Psalm 32
1
Count yourself lucky, how happy you must be—
you get a fresh start, your slate’s wiped clean.
2
Count yourself lucky—
God holds nothing against you
and you’re holding nothing back from him.
(Continued…)
 (3)
3
When I kept it all inside, my bones turned to powder,
my words became daylong groans.
4
The pressure never let up;
all the juices of my life dried up.
5
Then I let it all out;
I said, “I’ll come clean about my failures to God.”
Suddenly the pressure was gone—
my guilt dissolved, my sin disappeared.
6
These things add up. Every one of us needs to pray;
when all hell breaks loose and the dam bursts
we’ll be on high ground, untouched.
7
God’s my island hideaway,
keeps danger far from the shore,
throws garlands of hosannas around my neck.
8
Let me give you some good advice;
I’m looking you in the eye and giving it to you straight:
9
“Don’t be ornery like a horse or mule
that needs bit and bridle to stay on track.”
10
God-defiers are always in trouble;
God-affirmers find themselves loved every time they turn around.
11
Celebrate God.
Sing together—everyone!
All you honest hearts, raise the roof!
(Eugene Peterson, The Message © 1998, 2002, 2018)

Prayer for Grace

Father, speak your Word to us;
Jesus, be God’s Word with us;
Spirit, realize God’s Word in us. Amen.
(“Prayer Before Sermon,” Rev.Dr. Chris McMullen)

Scripture Lesson
John 3: 14-21
Meditation
“When We Survey the Wondrous Cross”
Affirmation of Faith
Almighty Creator,
It is You Who made the land and sea...
 (4)

The world cannot comprehend Your glory,

In song bright and melodius,
Even though the grass and trees should sing
All Your wonders, O My true Lord!
The Father created the world by a miracle;
It is difficult to express its beauty and truth.
Yet in praise we must try!
With miracles many, Jesus came,
Redeeming a people for himself,
Restoring our true nature
In death and resurrection.
The Power by which the world was made
--The Spirit, high and holy,
Yet intimate,
Deserves praise above all as well.
It is not too great a toil
To praise the Holy Trinity!
Purely, humbly, and in creative joy,
We should delight in praising the Trinity,
And follow the Son of Mary
In love, and truth, and courage.
Yes, it is not too great a toil
To praise the Holy Trinity!
(Adapted by Chris McMullen from the “Juvencus Manuscript”, c. 950 ad
See A.M. Allchin, God’s Ptresence Makes the World: The Celtic Vision through the Centuries
in Wales [ London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1997] pp. 6-7.)

Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer:

We make our prayer to the Three-in-One God:
Lord, let us sing your praise.
The world’s roar places us in peril;
Deeds of goodness even cause great peril
To the family of Your saints.
O High King of Heaven’s hosts,
Make us eloquent in your praise,
and help us pray and live the “Our Father,”
Overcoming sin
with your kingdom, power and glory,
 (5)

Though we are afflicted,

lost, and in hardship;
Suffering at times far from your presence.
We beg you, King of Peace,
in us your will be done:
Grant your Kingdom on earth,
As it is in Heaven!
(Adapted from Lewis and Williams, Book of Taliesin,
“I Make My Prayer to the Trinity,” # 52, pp. 161 f.)
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name!
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done
On earth as in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts
as we forgive our debtors
Lead us not to temptation.
Deliver us from evil.
For thine is the Kingdom,
The power and the glory, for ever and ever.
(Traditional,
as arranged by Kirsten Easdale © 2002)
Prayers of Intercession
Make us sweet in virtue, when we repent of our sin;
Sweet God, who is our salvation!
Make sweet our eating, unspoilt by worry;
Make sweet our drinking, as of heaven’s delight!
Make sweet the fruit of the Spirit in us,
As sweet to You as the berries of autumn!
May we praise you for the strength of a stallion at gallop;
And delight in your intricate art in a spider’s web.
May we praise you like ospreys on shore at the high tide;
May we dance in your Spirit, as the gulls loop above.
May our penance at the Altar be as sweet as a poet’s song;
May intentions be as sweet as bread and wine at your Table.
May the clergy be sweet in their faith and integrity;
May our leaders be sweet in their legislation and service.
 (6)

As you made the moon sweet in its night-time shining,

So make us sweet, as we encounter the good.
As you made summer sweet in long days,
So make us sweet in long-standing love.
As you made the fruit sweet, high in the tree,
So make us sweet, reconciled to You in the Cross.
Sweet are the fish in the shining lake,
Sweet too, the play of light on the water.
Sweeter though the words that You, the Trinity, speaks:
Enlightening us to sweetness, as we turn from sin.
The sweetest of all, we would ask of our God:
To be set free and embraced by you, on Judgement Day
(Adapted from Lewis and Williams, Book of Taliesin, op.cit.,
“Taliesin’s Sweetness,” # 15, pp. 42-44.)
Prayer of Thanksgiving
“In Eden –I shall always remember this--
I lost blessings numberless as the dew;
Down fell my bright crown:
But the victory of Calvary won them back again;
I shall sing as long as I live.
“Faith! Yonder is the place, and yonder the tree,
On which the Prince of Heaven was nailed,
Innocent, in my place;
The dragon has been crushed by the One;
As two were wounded, One has conquered,
And that One was Jesus.”
(William Williams (Pantycelan) 1717-1791, in A.M. Allchin and Esther de Wall,
Daily Readings from Prayers and Praises in the Celtic Tradition
[Springfield IL: Templegate Publishers , 1986, 1987], p. 53.)
Concluding Hymn
“In Christ Alone” MP # 1072
In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid Ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand.
 (7)

In Christ alone! Who took on flesh,

Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save;
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live.
There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain;
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.
No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till he returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand!
Stuart Townend © 2001 Kingsway's Thankyou Music
Used under permission of CCLI # 3117248
The Benediction
“Around the Celtic cross
Grow lilies of the field.
Soaring above – birds of the air.
Praise the holy Three!
Christ at the centre,
The Spirit shining forth.
God a mother – giving bread.
I belong to the very centre,
Nourished, loved, and secure.
Let it be! Let it be!”
(William John Fitzgerald, “Prayer at the End of Day”. A Contemporary
Celtic Prayer Book [Skokie IL: CTA Publications, 1998], p. 53.)

May the Christ who walks on wounded feet

walk with you on the road.
 (8)

May the Christ who serves with wounded hands

stretch out your hands to serve.
May the Christ who loves with a wounded heart
open your hearts to love.
May you see the face of Christ in everyone you meet,
and may everyone you meet
see the face of Christ in you.
(A “Traditional Celtic Benediction’” Voices United,
[Toronto: United Church Publishing House, 1996] # 349)

Muredach’s Cross, Monasterboice Ireland, 9th-10th Century

Image: courtesy https://www.abartaheritage.ie/product/
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