Led by Revd George Mwaura

Preacher: Revd Sarah Eden-Jones

Gathering Music

Welcome and Greeting

Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
And also with you.

We come, not trusting in our own achievements or goodness,
but in Jesus Christ, who has made us his own.
We come as tenants of God’s vineyard,
called to receive God’s gifts with gratitude
and to bear the fruits of the kingdom.

Call to Worship

Whatever was gain to us, we count as loss because of Christ.
We seek the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord.

Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
we press on towards the goal of God’s call in Christ Jesus.

The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

Come, let us worship the Lord.
Let us offer the fruits of lives made new by grace.

Opening Prayer

Faithful God, you have planted your people like a vineyard
and entrusted to us the gifts of creation, the good news of Christ and the work of your kingdom.
Gather us now into your presence. Turn our hearts from pride and possession,
from all that prevents us from knowing Christ.
By your Holy Spirit, renew our worship, deepen our faith and make our lives fruitful in love and service;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

Hymn: Christ is made the sure foundation

Christ is made the sure foundation,
Christ the head and corner-stone,
chosen of the Lord, and precious,
binding all the Church in one,
holy Sion’s help for ever,
and her confidence alone.

All that dedicated city,
dearly loved of God on high,
in exultant jubilation
pours perpetual melody,
God the One in Three adoring
in glad hymns eternally.

To this temple where we call you
come, O Lord of Hosts today;
with you wonted loving kindness
hear your people as they pray,
and your fullest benediction
shed within its walls alway.

Here vouchsafe to all your servants
what they ask of you to gain,
what they gain of you fir ever
with the blessed to retain,
and hereafter in your glory
evermore with you to reign.

Praise and honour to the Father,
praise and honour to the Son,
praise and honour to the Spirit,
ever Three and ever One,
consubstantial, co-eternal,
while unending ages run.

Latin, 7th or 8th century
tr. J.M.Neale (1818–1866)
CCL31580

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Confession

Let us confess our sins together and seek God’s forgiveness.

Gracious God, we thank you for your patient and generous love:
for the world you have made, for the people you have called,
for the prophets who have spoken your truth,
and above all for your Son, Jesus Christ, the cornerstone of our faith.

Yet we confess that we have treated your gifts as though they were ours alone.
We have trusted in status, achievement and respectability rather than in your grace.
We have resisted your word, neglected justice
and failed to bear the fruits of compassion, mercy and peace.
We have wounded others, damaged your creation and withheld what rightly belongs to you.

Merciful God, forgive us. Strip away our false securities, restore us through Christ
and teach us to press on in faith, so that our lives may yield a harvest worthy of your kingdom.

Amen

[Silence is kept.]

Kyrie

Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Assurance of Forgiveness

Hear the good news: Christ Jesus has made us his own.
The rejected stone has become the cornerstone, and in him there is a new creation.
Through Jesus Christ our sins are forgiven, and by the Holy Spirit we are set free to begin again.

Thanks be to God.

Amen

Prayer of the Week

Almighty God, in Jesus Christ,
you call us away from every false confidence and towards the joy of knowing him.
Build us upon Christ, the sure cornerstone; make us faithful stewards of your vineyard;
and, by your Spirit, enable us to bear the fruits of justice, mercy and peace,
as we press on towards the goal of your heavenly calling;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Amen

Gloria

Glory to God in the highest, and peace to God’s people on earth.
Lord God, heavenly King, almighty God and Father,
we worship you, we give you thanks, we praise you for your glory.

Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father, Lord God, Lamb of God,
you take away the sin of the world: have mercy on us;
you are seated at the right hand of the Father: receive our prayer.

For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, you alone are the Most High,
Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father.

Amen

The Ministry of the Word

Philippians 3: 7–14

Read by Adrian Boynton

⁷ But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. ¹⁰ I want to know Christ – yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

¹² Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.

NIV®

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

Hymn: All to Jesus I surrender

All to Jesus I surrender, all to him I freely give;
I will ever trust and love him, in his presence daily live.

I surrender all, I surrender all,
all to thee my blessed Saviour, I surrender all.

All to Jesus I surrender, humbly at his feet I bow;
worldly pleasures all forsaken, take me, Jesus, take me now.

I surrender all, …

All to Jesus I surrender, make me, Saviour, holy thine;
let me feel the Holy Spirit, truly know that thou art mine.

I surrender all, …

All to Jesus I surrender, Lord, I give myself to thee;
fill me with thy love and power, let they blessing fall on me.

I surrender all, …

All to Jesus I surrender, now I feel the sacred flame;
O the joy of full salvation! Glory, glory to his name.

I surrender all, …

Judson W. Van de Venter (1855–1939)
CCL31580

Matthew 21: 33–46

Read by Brian Halstead

The parable of the tenants

³³ ‘Listen to another parable: there was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall round it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. ³⁴ When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.

³⁵ ‘The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. ³⁶ Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them in the same way. ³⁷ Last of all, he sent his son to them. “They will respect my son,” he said.

³⁸ ‘But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, “This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.” ³⁹ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

⁴⁰ ‘Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’

⁴¹ ‘He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,’ they replied, ‘and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.’

⁴² Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the Scriptures:

‘“The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvellous in our eyes”?

⁴³ ‘Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. ⁴⁴ Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.’

⁴⁵ When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. ⁴⁶ They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.

NIV®

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

Sermon

By Revd Sarah Eden-Jones

Hymn: Take my life, and let it be

Take my life, and let it be
consecrated, Lord, to thee;
take my moments and my days,
let them flow in ceaseless praise.

Take my hands, and let them move
at the impulse of thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be
swift and purposeful for thee.

Take my voice, and let me sing
always, only, for my King.
Take my intellect, and use
every power as thou shalt choose.

Take my will, and make it thine,
it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart; it is thine own;
it shall be thy royal throne.

Take my love; my Lord, I pour
at thy feet its treasure-store.
Take myself, and I will be
ever, only, all for thee.

Frances Ridley Havergal (1836–1879)
CCL31580

Affirmation of Faith

Let us affirm together the faith of the church.

Do you believe and trust in God the Father, source of all being and life, the one for whom we exist?
We believe and trust in God.

Do you believe and trust in God the Son, who took our human nature, died for us and rose again?
We believe and trust in God.

Do you believe and trust in God the Holy Spirit,
who gives life to the people of God and makes Christ known in the world?
We believe and trust in God.

This is the faith of the Church.
This is our faith. We believe and trust in one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Amen

Prayers of Intercession

Led by Robin Kyd

The Sacrament of Holy Communion

Sharing Peace

Christ is our peace. In him the dividing walls are broken down,
and in him we are built together upon the One Cornerstone.

The peace of the Lord be always with you.
And also with you.

Let us offer one another a sign of peace.

Preparation of the Table and Offertory

God of abundance, you have given us the vineyard of your world and the gift of your Son
Receive this bread and wine and receive the offering of our lives.
Make us one in Christ and fruitful in your service, for the glory of your name.

Amen

Invitation to Communion

People will come from east and west, from north and south, and sit at table in the kingdom of God.
Jesus says: ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’

This is not our table but the Lord’s. All who seek Christ and desire to walk in his way are welcome.

Hymn: We come as guests invited

We come as guests invited
when Jesus bids us dine,
his friends on earth united
to share the bread and wine;
the bread of life is broken,
the wine is freely poured
for us in solemn token
of Christ our dying Lord.

We eat and drink, receiving
from Christ the grace we need,
and in our hearts believing
on him by faith we feed;
with wonder and thanksgiving
for love that knows no end,
we find in Jesus living
our ever-present friend.

One bread is ours for sharing,
one single fruitful vine,
our fellowship declaring
renewed in bread and wine:
renewed, sustained and given
by token, sign and word,
the pledge and seal of heaven,
the love of Christ our Lord.

Timothy Dudley-Smith (1926–2024)
CCL31580

The Great Thanksgiving

The Lord be with you,
and also with you.

Lift up your 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, our duty and our joy, always and everywhere to give you thanks,
almighty and eternal God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

You created the earth in love and planted a garden of life.
You called a people to be your own and sent prophets to summon them to justice and faithfulness.
When we rejected your messengers and claimed your gifts as our possession, you did not abandon us.
In the fullness of time you sent your beloved Son.
Though rejected, he became the cornerstone of a new humanity;
through his death and resurrection you have made us your own and called us onwards into life.
Therefore, with angels and archangels, with all your people in heaven and on earth,
we sing the triumphant hymn of your glory:

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.

Prayer of Consecration

Holy and gracious God, all creation rightly gives you praise.
We thank you that in your mercy you sent Jesus Christ,
who counted equality with God not as something to be grasped,
but emptied himself and became obedient even to death on a cross.
You raised him from the dead and made him the sure foundation of our hope.

Send your Holy Spirit upon us and upon these gifts of bread and wine,
that they may be for us the communion of the body and blood of Christ,
and that we may be renewed as his faithful people.

On the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus took bread;
and after giving thanks to you, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying,
‘Take, eat; this is my body, given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’

In the same way, after supper he took the cup;
and after giving thanks, he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from this, all of you; this cup is the new covenant in my blood, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’

Great is the mystery of faith:

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

Therefore, remembering his life and ministry, his suffering and death,
his glorious resurrection and ascension, and looking for his coming in glory,
we offer you this bread and this cup and give ourselves to you in praise and thanksgiving.

By your Spirit, unite us with Christ and with one another.
Strip from us every confidence that is not rooted in grace.
Make us a people who know Christ, share his sufferings, proclaim his resurrection
and press on towards your promised future.
Send us out as faithful stewards, bearing the fruits of justice, mercy, peace and love,
until your kingdom comes in fullness.

Through Christ, with Christ and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
all honour and glory are yours, almighty Father, now and for 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

Breaking of the Bread

[The minister breaks the bread.]

The bread we break is a sharing in the body of Christ.
We who are many are one body, for we all share in the one bread.

Invitation and Distribution

These are the gifts of God for the people of God.
Come, for the meal is served.

[Meal is shared.]

Prayer after Communion

Faithful God, we thank you that at this table you have fed us with the life of Christ
and made us one in him.
Help us to count all else as loss besides the joy of knowing him.
Strengthen us to press on in faith and to bear the fruits of your kingdom,
until we reach the goal of your heavenly call in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Amen

Notices and Offertory

Cornerstone Prayer Network

Prayer is central to our Christian fellowship. The Cornerstone Prayer Network is here for people who have asked us to pray for them. Please send your prayer requests to cornerstonechurch.prayernetwork@gmail.com and the details will be passed on to the members of the Prayer Network. If your prayer request is for someone else, please check with them before sending details to the Cornerstone Prayer Network.

If you would like to become a member of the Cornerstone Prayer Network, please send your details by email to cornerstonechurch.prayernetwork@gmail.com, or speak to June Halstead after a Service in the church.

Two new weekly Prayer Sessions in the Chapel

Revd Sarah Eden-Jones is initiating two weekly Prayer Sessions in the Chapel 9.00–10.00 am every Tuesday and Thursday. Everyone is welcome.

We are continuing our Prayers for the City in the Chapel at 12.30 pm every Friday.

Cornerstone Notices by email?

Would you like to be able to read the Cornerstone Notices at home? If you would, and are not already on the mailing list, please send an email to: robin_kyd@yahoo.co.uk and he will add your email address to the mailing list.

Robin Kyd

Copy deadline for notices for the weekly Cornerstone Notices

To allow time for preparing the Notices before they are passed over for inclusion in the material displayed on screen for the Sunday morning Service, please ensure that all information for the Notices is received by Mark Okor or Robin Kyd by lunchtime on Wednesday. Mark’s working hours are 9.00 am – 12.30 pm on Wednesday and Thursday, and 9.00 am – 12.00 noon on Friday.

Offertory Prayer

Gracious God, all abundance flows from your endless love.
We humbly present these offerings before you, those placed before your altar today,
and those given faithfully electronically throughout the week in ways seen and unseen.
Receive and bless them, that they may serve your purposes,
and reflect the generous love revealed to us in Jesus Christ our Lord

Amen

Hymn: We have a gospel to proclaim

We have a gospel to proclaim,
good news for all throughout the earth;
the gospel of a Saviour’s name:
we sing his glory, tell his worth.

Tell of his birth at Bethlehem
not in a royal house or hall
but in a stable dark and dim,
the Word made flesh, a light for all.

Tell of his death at Calvary,
hated by those he came to save,
in lonely suffering on the cross;
for all he loved his life he gave.

Tell of that glorious Easter morn:
empty the tomb, for he was free.
He broke the power of death and hell
that we might share his victory.

Tell of his reign at God’s right hand,
by all creation glorified.
He sends his Spirit on his church
to live for him, the Lamb who died.

Now we rejoice to name him King:
Jesus is Lord of all the earth.
This gospel-message we proclaim:
we sing his glory, tell his worth.

Edward J. Burns (b. 1938)
CCL31580

Blessings and Dismissal

May Christ, who has made you his own, deepen in you the joy of knowing him;
may he strengthen you to press on towards the goal;
and may he make your lives fruitful in justice, mercy and peace.
And the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
be among you and remain with you always.

Amen

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

Amen

Benediction

May God’s blessing surround you each day,
as you trust him and walk in his way.
May his presence within guard and keep you from sin.
Go in peace, go in joy, go in love.