Year
C
5th Sunday after the Epiphany
Sunday
10 February 2013
Eucharistic Preface
Let
us lift up our hearts.
........We
lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our
God.
........It is right to
give our thanks and praise.
It is indeed right to give
you our thanks and praise, O God,
for your love and fidelity last
forever
and you entrust to us the news of your grace and
salvation.
From the deep waters of chaos
you brought forth
the earth, bursting with life,
and through your prophets and
apostles
you have made known the glory of your name
and your
promise.
In your child, Jesus Christ,
you have touched us
with your mercy,
and in the fire of your holiness
you have
consumed our impurity.
Although Jesus was killed
by those whose
eyes and ears are closed,
you did not abandon him to the
grave,
but raised him to life on the third day.
Appearing to
more than five hundred of his followers,
he called us to follow
him
and to cast wide the net of your love,
gathering in all
those in need of your grace.
Therefore with .....
©2001
Nathan Nettleton www.laughingbird.net
Short
Preface
(for insertion into Eucharistic prayers with
fixed prefaces)
We give you thanks for the news of salvation
in which we stand
for in your Son, Jesus Christ, you have touched
us with your mercy,
consuming our impurity in the fire of your
holiness,
and sending us to cast wide the net of your love.
©2001
Nathan Nettleton www.laughingbird.net
General
Prayer of Thanksgiving
(Preface reformatted for use
apart from communion)
We give you all
thanks and praise, O God,
for your love and fidelity last
forever
and you entrust to us the news of your grace and
salvation.
From the deep waters of chaos
you brought forth
the earth, bursting with life,
and through your prophets and
apostles
you have made known the glory of your name
and your
promise.
In your child, Jesus Christ,
you have touched us
with your mercy,
and in the fire of your holiness
you have
consumed our impurity.
Although Jesus was killed
by those whose
eyes and ears are closed,
you did not abandon him to the
grave,
but raised him to life on the third day.
Appearing to
more than five hundred of his followers,
he called us to follow
him
and to cast wide the net of your love,
gathering in all
those in need of your grace.
Therefore, with our hearts lifted
high,
we offer you thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus
Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy
Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
©2001
Nathan Nettleton www.laughingbird.net
Declaration
of Grace / Absolution
The Lord
has created you and will not abandon you.
Christ, who died for our
sins and was raised again,
has reached out his hand in mercy to
save us,
consuming our impurity
in the searing heat of his own
holiness.
Sisters and Brothers,
........your
sins are forgiven;
................be
at peace.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton
www.laughingbird.net
Commission
& Benediction
Go now, and forsaking everything
else, follow Christ.
By the grace of God, be all you have been
called to be,
and cast wide the net of God’s love.
Remind one
another of the good news,
and hold firmly to faith that is saving
you.
And may God give you a vision of glory;
May Christ
Jesus touch you with the fire of mercy;
And may the Holy Spirit
hear your prayers and renew your strength.
We go in peace to
love and serve the Lord,
........In
the name of Christ. Amen.
©2001
Nathan Nettleton www.laughingbird.net
Paraphrases of the
Scripture Lections
for
Epiphany 5 - Year C - Sunday 10 February 2013
Lections
from The Revised Common Lectionary.
Copyright 1992 by the
Consultation on Common Texts (CCT)
P. O. Box 340003, Room 381,
Nashville, TN 37203-0003, USA. Used with Permission.
........I had a vision of the
Lord during the year that King Uzziah died. The Lord was high above,
sitting on an imposing throne. The Lord’s presence dwarfed
everything else to such an extent that just the cuffs of his robe
filled the temple. Awesome fiery creatures, known as Seraphim, were
there, serving the Lord. Each Seraph had three pairs of wings. They
used one pair to shield their faces, one to shield their bodies, and
the third for flying. They cried out to one another saying:
........“Holy! Holy!
Holy!
........Holy is the LORD
who reigns.
........The whole earth
is full of God’s glory.”
The sound of their voices shook
the place to its foundations, and clouds of smoke billowed through
the temple. And I said:
........“This
is the end of me.
................I’ll
never get out of here alive.
........I
can’t open my mouth
................without
exposing myself as a sinner,
........and
the same could be said of everyone I know;
................yet
I’ve stumbled into the presence of the Ruler of
Heaven.
........Here I am, naked
before the all-consuming
................holiness
of the LORD!”
Then one of the seraphim
flew right up to me carrying a pair of tongs in which it held a red
hot coal - straight from the fire on the altar. The seraph touched my
mouth with the glowing coal and said:
........“Look!
This holy fire has touched your lips.
........Your
sinfulness is forgiven.
........Your
slate is wiped clean.”
After this I heard the voice of the
Lord saying:
........“Is there
someone I can send?
........Is there
anyone who will go on our behalf?”
And I said, “Here am
I. Send me if you will!”
So the Lord told me to announce this
message to the people:
........“You
can listen all you like, but it will never make sense to
you.
........You can look and look,
but it will still be as clear as mud.”
The Lord gave me
further instructions, saying:
........“Make
these people stubborn and thick-headed!
................make
them plug their ears and cover their eyes,
........so
that they can’t see or hear or understand,
................so
they won’t wake up to themselves
........................and
turn to me and be healed.”
“How long will it be like this,
Lord?” I asked, and the Lord replied:
........“Until
everything has been destroyed.
........Until
the cities are uninhabitable,
................the
houses deserted,
........................and
the land laid waste;
........Until I
have sent everyone off as refugees,
................and
there is nothing left but scorched earth.
........Even
if ten percent survive,
................the
land will be burned again.
........But
just as there are seeds that only germinate
................after
the bushfire has destroyed everything else,
........so
too will the few who are dedicated to me
................bear
the seed of new life.”
©2001 Nathan Nettleton www.laughingbird.net
*
Psalm 138
Thank you, LORD,
thank you!
........Thank you, from
the bottom of my heart!
I will stand and sing your
praises
........in the face of every
would-be god!
Wherever I am, I turn towards your holy
Temple
........and fall to my knees
in gratitude,
................thanking
you for your rock-solid love and loyalty;
With everything you say
and everything you do
........your
reputation continues to go through the roof.
The minute I called,
you were there for me,
........you
put steel in my spine,
................gave
me the guts to go on.
When the things you have been saying
sink in, LORD,
........all
the earth’s powerful rulers will give credit to you.
They’ll
join the party, singing and dancing in your
honour,
........celebrating the
wonderful things you do.
As great as you are,
........you
never think of ordinary people as beneath you,
but you don’t
waste your time
........on those who
are pretentious and stuck-up.
Although I must often walk into
dangerous situations,
........you
protect me from hatred and hostility;
................your
invisible hand is always there, keeping me safe.
You, LORD,
have made plans for me
........and
you will see them through to completion.
Your love is as timeless
and dependable as the rock;
........you
have made us what we are
................and
you never give up on us.
©2001 Nathan
Nettleton www.laughingbird.net
* 1
Corinthians 15: 1-11
........My
friends, let me spell out the guts of the message I’ve been
preaching one more time. This is the message which you welcomed so
eagerly and gladly put your names to. It is the message through which
your lives are being saved, assuming of course, that your faith has
got sticking power and wasn’t just a flash in the pan. What a waste
that would have been!
........In my
preaching I passed on to you the really crucial stuff, exactly as it
had been told to me. Let me recite it again:
........God’s
chosen one died to deal with our sins,
................backing
up what the scriptures say.
........After
three days in the grave, he was raised to
life,
................backing up what
the scriptures say.
........He
appeared alive to Peter,
................and
then to his closest followers.
........He
also appeared to a gathering
................of
more than five hundred of his followers.
........Of
those who saw him, only a few have since died;
................most
are still alive to tell the story.
........He
spent some time with James
................and
the others he had picked out
........................to
be the leaders of his church.
At the end of the line - like
the perpetual late-comer I am - I too was privileged to have him
appear to me. If anyone deserved to be left out, it was me and I have
certainly never deserved my place among the leaders of his church
because I spent my early years trying to wipe God’s church out of
existence. But God is extremely generous and has made me what I am.
I’ve driven myself hard to make sure that God’s investment in me
was not wasted. I reckon I’ve been the hardest worker on the team,
although I can’t really take the credit when it is actually God who
is so generously working through me. It makes no difference which of
us God was using at the time. Whether you heard it from me or from
them, what matters is that you heard the message we were preaching
and that you put your trust in what we had to say.
©2001
Nathan Nettleton www.laughingbird.net
* Luke
5: 1-11
........One day
Jesus was on the beach at Lake Galilee. There was a crowd hanging on
his every word, eager to hear God’s message, and he was getting a
bit cramped for space as they pressed in around him. He spotted a
couple of fishing boats pulled up on the beach, so he went and spoke
with the crew who were scrubbing down their fishing tackle at the end
of their shift. The skipper of one of the boats, a man named Simon,
agreed to put his boat out a few metres off the beach and let Jesus
continue teaching the people from the bow of the boat. When he had
finished speaking to the crowd, Jesus said to Simon, “How about
some fishing? Head off shore and we’ll put the nets down for a
catch.”
........Simon answered,
“Look here, Boss, we’ve been busting a gut out there all night
and what have we caught? Nothing! Absolutely nothing! But hey, if you
say put the nets down, you’re the boss, I’ll put the nets
down.”
........Well, you wouldn’t
read about it! They had the most unbelievable catch - more fish than
their nets could handle. They called for help from their mates in the
other boat, but the size of the catch weighed down both boats so low
that they were beginning to take on water over the sides. Simon Peter
just looked at Jesus and sank to his knees. “Don’t come near me,
Lord,” he said. “Leave me alone. I’m a godless sort of a
mongrel, and I can’t handle the company of the likes of
you.”
........He and all his mates
were completely unnerved by what had happened, because they knew that
this was no natural catch of fish. James and John, Simon’s partners
who ran the other boat for their father Zebedee, were feeling exactly
the same way. But Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t worry, there’s no
need to panic. If you think that was really something, just wait.
From now on you’ll be bringing in people, not fish.”
........They
pulled their boats back up onto the beach and left them where they
lay. They turned their backs on everything and followed Jesus.
©2001
Nathan Nettleton www.laughingbird.net