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God so loved the world

A Meditation in Words and Music for Passiontide

Led by Revd Chi Opal

Introit : So God loved the world by Orlando Gibbons

So God loved the world that He forsook
The glorious heavens, men to dwell among;
Yea death and hell, and grave He captive took,
They could not hold His person from us long.

And being ascended to be glorified,
Rememb’ring til His mercy down did send
The Holy Ghost we might be sanctified.
Thus whom He Ioved, He loves unto the end.

O Lord, this Holy Spirit take from us never.
But purge, enlighten, sanctify us ever. Amen

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THE LOVE OF GOD

Reading: Love was His Meaning Julian of Norwich

Hymn: O Love, how deep, how broad, how high

O Love, how deep, how broad, how high
It fills the heart with ecstasy,
That God, the Son of God, should take
Our mortal form for mortal’s sake!

He sent no angel to our race
Of higher or of lower place,
But wore the robe of human frame
Himself, and to this lost world came.

For us he was baptized, and bore
His holy fast and hungered sore,
For us temptation sharp he knew;
For us the tempter overthrew.

For us to wicked men betrayed,
Scourged, mocked, in purple robe arrayed,
He bore the shameful cross and death,
For us at length gave up his breath.

For us he rose from death again;
For us he went on high to reign;
For us he sent his Spirit here,
To guide, to strengthen and to cheer.

To him whose boundless love has won
Salvation for us through his Son,
To God the Father, glory be
Both now and through eternity.

Thomas á Kempis, 1380-1471
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Bidding: Revd Chi Okpala

Lord Christ, you did enter into your triumph by the hard and lonely way of
the Cross. May your courage and devotion to the Father’s will inspire and
strengthen us. May we tread firmly and with joy the road that love bids us to
take, even if it leads through suffering. Be with us in our worship tonight.
May our whole lives show you strength and love as we accept you as our
redeemer, now and always.
Amen.

Choir: The Tree of Life Peter Nardone

Here grows the Tree of Life, proudly spread it’s branches green,
Stately standing, firmly set, rarely passed, rarely seen,
Lovely roots, bark of brown, bright canopy, green and gold.
Tell me why, Tree of Life, why are you growing?

Grow I, because my Love comes to wear his thorny crown?
Hello, whom others now pass by, here will hang, here will die?
Tender Love, strong Love; raised high by wood and nails.
Now you know why I grow, I am the Tree of Life.

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DESPISED AND REJECTED

Reading: Isaiah 53 vv3-6

Choir: Surely he hath borne our griefs (Messiah)
G. F. Handel

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows!
He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities;
the chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep are gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way.
But the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Hymn: It is a thing most wonderful

It is a thing most wonderful
Almost too wonderful to be,
That God’s own son should come from heaven
And die to save a child like me.

And yet I know that it is true;
He chose a poor and humble lot,
And toiled and suffered pain and died
For love of those who loved him not.

But even could I see him die
I could but see a smaller part
Of that great love which like a fire
Is always burning in his heart.

It is most wonderful to know
His love for me is free and sure
although, for all he does for me,
My love for him is still so poor.

And yet I want to love thee, Lord,
O light and flame within my heart,
and I will love thee more and more,
Until I see thee as thou art.

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SHARING CHRIST’S SUFFERING

Reading: Psalm 22 vv1-2, 14-21

Reflection on Psalm 22 Malcolm Guite

Choir: Drop, drop slow tears
Joanna Forbes L’Estrange

Drop, drop, slow tears and bathe the beauteous feet
Which brought from Heaven the news and prince of peace.
Cease not, wet eyes His mercy to entreat;
To cry for vengeance sin doth never cease.
In your deep floods drown all my faults and fears;
Nor let his eye see sin, but through my tears.

Hymn: My song is love unknown

My song is love unknown, my saviour’s love to me
Love to the loveless shown, that they might lovely be,
O who am I that for my sake
My Lord should take frail flesh and die?

He came from his blest throne, salvation to bestow;
But men made strange, and none the longed for Christ would know.
But O, my friend, my friend indeed,
Who at my need His life did spend!

Sometimes they strew his way, and his sweet praises sing;
Resounding all the day hosannas to their King.
Then ‘Crucify’ is all their breath,
And for all his death they thirst and cry.

Here might I stay and sing no story so divine;
Never was love, dear King never was grief like thine.
This is my friend, in whose sweet praise
I all my days could gladly spend.

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BEHOLD THE MAN

Reading: John 18 v33 – 19 v6

Choir: Ah Holy Jesu
Johann Crüger

Ah, holy Jesu, how hast thou offended,
that man to judge thee hath in hate pretended?
By foes derided, by thine own rejected,
O most afflicted.

Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon thee?
Alas, my treason, Jesu, hath undone thee.
’Twas I, Lord Jesu, I it was denied thee:
I crucified thee.

Lo, the good shepherd for the sheep is offered;
The slave hath sinned, and the Son hath suffered;
For man’s atonement, while he nothing heedeth,
God intercedeth.

TRANSFORMING CROSS

Reading: Mysterious Cross
Stephen Cherry

Choir: Almighty Father
Adrian Boynton

Almighty Father, whose Son was revealed in majesty
before he suffered death on the Cross.
Give us grace to perceive his glory,
that we may be strengthened to suffer with him.
And be changed into his likeness, from glory to glory,
Who’s alive and reigns with you!
In the unity of the Holy Spirit,
One God, now and for ever.

Reflection and Prayer: Revd Chibuzor Okpala

THE LOVE OF GOD

Reading: God is our deepest centre
St John of the Cross

Choir: God so loved the world
John Stainer

God so loved the world, that he gave His only Son,
that whoso believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world through Him might be saved.

Blessing: Revd Chibuzor Okpala

Hymn: Praise to the Holiest in the height

Praise to the Holiest in the height,
And in the depth be praise:
In all his words most wonderful,
Most sure in all his ways.

O loving wisdom of our God,
When all was sin and shame,
A second Adam to the fight
And to the rescue came.

O wisest love, that flesh and blood,
That did in Adam fail,
Should strive afresh against the foe,
Should strive and should prevail;

And that a higher gift than grace
Should flesh and blood refine,
God’s presence and his very self,
And essence all-divine.

O generous love, that he who smote
in Man for man the foe,
the double agony in Man
For man should undergo.

And in the garden secretly,
and on the Cross on high,
should teach his brethren, and inspire
to suffer and to die.

Praise to the Holiest in the height,
and in the depth be praise:
in all his words most wonderful,
Most sure in all his ways.

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