Preacher: Revd George Mwaura
Celebrant: Revd Ernesto Lozada-Uzuriaga

Please note that the video feed will go live from around 9:50 am and will be switched off after the service.
A separate video feed of the choir is available here.

Offering

Thanks to your generous giving we can be an OASIS OF HOPE to the city.
Please keep supporting our mission!

If you are at our worship service in the church building and would like to make an offering, please place your offering in the basket at the door to the worship area. If you can’t find it, please ask the stewards.

There are many different ways to give: online, telephone banking or by cheque. For more information how to give please visit our website or contact: steward.cccmk@gmail.com

Thank you for your support, it is much appreciated.

Gathering Music

Welcome

We come to praise the Father for his goodness,
to thank Jesus for his open hands of love,
and to seek the Holy Spirit’s blessing.
Come, therefore, and worship God.

Amen

[Silence]

Welcome to the house of God.
We have come from all the corners of the earth.

Welcome to the hospitality of God.
We come as we are; we bring our life, our stories, our journey.

Welcome, brothers and sisters.
We are the rainbow people of God.

Welcome, chosen people.
May God our companion bind us in his love.

Amen

Hymn: Praise, my soul, the king of heaven!

Praise, my soul, the king of heaven!
To his feet thy tribute bring.
Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,
who like me his praise should sing?
Praise him! Praise him! [×2] Praise the everlasting king!

Praise him for his grace and favour
to our fathers in distress;
praise him still the same for ever,
slow to chide and swift to bless.
Praise him! Praise him! [×2] Glorious in his faithfulness!

Father-like he tends and spares us;
well our feeble frame he knows;
in his hands he gently bears us,
rescues us from all our foes.
Praise him! Praise him! [×2] Widely as his mercy flows.

Angels, help us to adore him;
ye behold him face to face;
sun and moon bow down before him,
dwellers all in time and space.
Praise him! Praise him! [×2] Praise with us the God of grace!

Henry Francis Lyte (1793–1847)
CCL31580

Prayer of Approach

God of the mountains and the sky, of our minds and our hearts:
we look up to you in awe; we reach out to you in longing;
we worship you in gratitude; we sing to you in joy.
For you are our God, and we are your people – today and always.

Amen

[Silence]

Confession

God of all creation, forgive us when we lose perspective
and our world shrinks to our size, not yours.
Forgive us and nourish our vision.

Forgive us when we look away from you when we feel empty
and grasp what is not ours to take.
Forgive us and nourish our vision.

Forgive us when the choices we make are self-centred,
and we are indifferent to the needs of the wider community.
Forgive us and nourish our vision.

[Silence]

God of all, you transfigure our smallness with your greatness;
you unlock our limitations with your grace;
you calm our confusion with your faithfulness;
you forgive our mistakes with your generosity;
you inspire our dreams with your love –
enabling, empowering and encouraging us to serve you and your whole creation
with all we are and all we have. In Jesus’ name.

Amen

Prayer of the Week

God of the wilderness, your Spirit leads us to face the truth, unprotected and exposed:
in our times of trial help us to resist the worship of empty power
so that we may find our true food in Jesus Christ, the broken bread.
Grant us, Almighty God, that through this yearly observance of Lent
we may enter more deeply into the mystery of Christ
and draw upon its power in the conduct of our lives.

Amen

Ministry of the Word

Deuteronomy 26: 1–11

Read by Dorothy Moore

Firstfruits and Tithes

¹When you have entered the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it, ² take some of the firstfruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land that the Lord your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name ³ and say to the priest in office at the time, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the land the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.’ ⁴ The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of the Lord your God. ⁵ Then you shall declare before the Lord your God: ‘My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. ⁶ But the Egyptians ill-treated us and made us suffer, subjecting us to harsh labour. ⁷ Then we cried out to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. ⁸ So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. ⁹ He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; ¹⁰ and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, Lord, have given me.’ Place the basket before the Lord your God and bow down before him. ¹¹ Then you and the Levites and the foreigners residing among you shall rejoice in all the good things the Lord your God has given to you and your household.

NIV®

This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Luke 4: 1–13

Read by Rosemary Goldie

Jesus is Tested in the Wilderness

¹ Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, ² where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

³ The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.’

⁴Jesus answered, ‘It is written: “Man shall not live on bread alone.”’

⁵ The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. ⁶ And he said to him, ‘I will give you all their authority and splendour; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. ⁷ If you worship me, it will all be yours.’

⁸ Jesus answered, ‘It is written: “Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.”’

⁹ The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ‘If you are the Son of God,’ he said, ‘throw yourself down from here. ¹⁰ For it is written:

‘ “He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
¹¹ they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”’

¹² Jesus answered, ‘It is said: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”’

¹³ When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

NIV®

This is the Gospel of Christ.
Praise to Christ our light.

Meditation

By Revd George Mwaura

[Silence]

Affirmation of Faith

We believe in the Creator:
the maker of all things

We believe in the Son:
the redeemer of our broken world

We believe in the Spirit:
The sacred wind that binds all things together in the family of God.

Creator Father, beloved Son and living Spirit.

Amen

Prayers and Intercessions

Led by Don Head

The Peace

Peace to you from God, who is our Father.
Peace from Jesus Christ, who is our peace.
Peace from the Holy Spirit, who gives us life.

The peace of God be always with you.
and also with you.

Let us offer one another a sign of peace.

Hymn: Forty days and forty nights

Forty days and forty nights
thou wast fasting in the wild:
Forty days and forty nights
tempted still, yet unbeguiled.

Sunbeams scorching all the day,
chilly dew-drops nightly shed,
prowling beasts about the way,
stones thy pillow, earth thy bed,

Let us thy endurance share
and from earthly greed abstain
with thee watching unto prayer,
with thee strong to suffer pain.

Then if evil om us press,
flesh or spirit to assail,
victor in the wilderness,
help us not to swerve or fail!

So shall peace divine be ours;
holier gladness ours shall be,
come to us angelic powers,
such as ministered to thee.

Keep, O keep us, Saviour dear,
ever constant by thy side,
that with thee we may appear
at the eternal Eastertide.

George Hunt Smyttan (1822–1870) and Francis Pott (1832–1909)
CCL31580

Holy Communion

The Thanksgiving

Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation.
Through your goodness we have this bread to offer,
which earth has given and human hands have made.
It will become for us the bread of life.

Blessed be God for ever.

Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation.
Through your goodness we have this wine to offer,
fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It will become our spiritual drink.

Blessed be God for ever.

The Lord is here.
His Spirit is with us.

Lift up your hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give thanks and praise.

Almighty God, good Father to us all, your face is turned towards your world.
In love you gave us Jesus your Son to rescue us from sin and death.
Your Word goes out to call us home to the city where angels sing your praise.

We join with them in heaven’s song:

Holy, holy, holy Lord,
God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.

We bless the name of Jesus, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh,
whose brokenness and suffering makes love real,
who on the night in which he was betrayed took bread,
gave thanks, broke it and gave it to his disciples saying,

Take, eat. This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

After supper he took the cup saying,

Drink from this, all of you, this is my blood given for you.
Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me.

This is the mystery of our faith.

Christ has died:
Christ is risen:
Christ will come again.

Therefore, as we eat this bread and drink this cup,
we acknowledge brokenness as a path to truth.
We long for the bread of tomorrow: eternally broken and so able to nourish.
We long for the new wine of the kingdom: continuously poured out that thirst may be quenched.

Send your Spirit on us now,
that by these gifts we may feed on Christ with opened eyes and hearts on fire.
May we and all who share this food offer ourselves to live for you
and be welcomed at your feast in heaven, where all creation worships you,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit:

Blessing and honour and glory and power
be yours forever and ever.

Amen

The Lord’s Prayer

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.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours
now and for ever.

Amen

The Communion

We break this bread to share in the body of Christ.

Though we are many, we are one body,
because we all share in one bread.

Amen

Post Communion Prayer

Eternal Father, we thank you for nourishing us with these heavenly gifts:
may our communion strengthen us in faith, build us up in hope, and make us grow in love;
for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

Notices

Funeral of Joan Allen

Milton Keynes Crematorium 1.15 pm Tuesday, 22 March 2022

Joan’s funeral will be at 1.15 pm on Tuesday, 22 March 2022 at MK Crematorium. There will be room for 125 people to attend.

Elections to Ecumenical Council

Annual Congregational Meeting – Sunday, 3 April 2022

Peter Cope, our newly appointed Chair of Ecumenical Council makes this appeal to you:

Would you like to help us develop and implement God’s mission in this place? If so, please think about becoming a member of the church’s Ecumenical Council. As we move forward after the difficulties of the pandemic, we need optimistic and enthusiastic volunteers to join the Council and help us take advantage of new opportunities to create our ‘Oasis of Hope’ at Cornerstone.

Members of Ecumenical Council are elected for a three-year term, and each year there are four vacancies to be filled to take the place of those members who have completed their three-year term. This year there is a further vacancy, as there is still an unfilled vacancy for the term up to 2024.

To give everyone an opportunity to know who the candidates are, we are required to display in the church the names of all the candidates for three Sundays before the Annual Congregational Meeting, and so we need nominations to be with the Clerk by Friday, 11 March 2022, which is getting very close: it’s this Friday. Nomination forms are available in Reception. Each nominee is also asked to supply a CV and a photo. The CV is just a brief note to indicate what the nominee hopes to be able to bring to the job.

Election of Churchwardens

The Annual Congregational Meeting (Sunday, 3 April 2022) will be preceded by a short parish meeting to choose Churchwardens for the Parish of Christ the Cornerstone under the Churchwardens Measure 2001. Nomination forms are available in Reception, in the Clerk’s pigeonhole. When completed, they should be passed to Ernesto before the start of the meeting.

Offering

‘God loves a cheerful gover’

Thanks to your generous giving we can be an OASIS OF HOPE to Milton Keynes.

Please keep supporting our mission!

If you are at our worship service in the church building and would like to make an offering, please place your offering in the basket at the door to the worship area. If you can’t find it, please ask the stewards.

There are many different ways to give: online, telephone banking or by cheque. For more information how to give please visit the Cornerstone website (www.cornerstonemk.co.uk) or contact: steward.cccmk@gmail.com.

Thank you for your support. It is much appreciated.

Final Prayer

Lord Jesus, may we see you more clearly,
love you more dearly
and follow you more nearly day by day.

Amen

Hymn: Through all the changing scenes of life

Through all the changing scenes of life,
in trouble and in joy,
the praises of my God shall still
my heart and tongue employ.

Of his deliverance I will boast,
till all that are distressed,
when learning this, will comfort take
and charm their griefs to rest.

O magnify the Lord with me,
with me exalt his name;
when in distress to him I called
he to my rescue came.

The hosts of God encamp around
the dwellings of the just;
deliverance he affords to all
who on his succour trust.

O make but trial of his love;
experience will decide
how blest are they, and only they,
who in his truth confide.

Fear him, ye saints, and you will then
have nothing else to fear;
make you his service your delight,
your wants shall be his care.

To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
the God whom we adore,
be glory, as it was, is now,
and shall be evermore.

Psalm 34 in Tate and Brady’s ‘New Version’ (1696)
CCL31580

Blessing

God be in your head, and in your understanding;
God be in your eyes, and in your looking;
God be in your mouth, and in your speaking;
God be in your heart, and in your thinking;
God be at your end, and at your departing.
And the blessing of God Almighty,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
be among you and remain with you today and always

Amen

Dismissal

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

Amen