JUST LOVE LENT

LENT SERMON OUTLINE WITH SUGGESTED PRAYERS, HYMNS AND SONGS We hope you find this sermon outline useful. Please feel free to use as you wish. The reflection is in three parts, these could be used as the basis for reflections on three different Sundays in Lent or as a single sermon.

Suggested readings 1 Corinthians 13: 8-10, 13 Songs of Songs 8: 6-7

Suggested prayers Confession We confess to you our selfishness and lack of love: fill us with your Spirit. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. We confess to you our fear and failure in sharing our faith: fill us with your Spirit. Christ, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. We confess to you our stubbornness and lack of trust: fill us with your Spirit. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Intercessions God our Father, in your love and goodness you have taught us to come close to you in penitence with prayer, fasting and generosity; accept our Lenten discipline, and when we fall by our weakness, raise us up by your unfailing mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Make your ways known upon earth, Lord God, Your saving power among all peoples. Renew your Church in holiness And help us to serve you with joy. Guide the leaders of this and every nation, That justice may prevail throughout the world. Let not the needy be forgotten, Nor the hope of the poor be taken away. Make us instruments of your peace And let your glory be over all the earth. Amen.

Blessing Christ give you grace to grow in holiness, to deny yourselves, take up your cross, and follow him; and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.

Suggested hymns and songs All the way my Saviour leads me

Fanny Crosby or Matt Redman & Chris Tomlin

(new version) Beauty for brokenness (God of the poor)

Graham Kendrick

Be thou my vision

Mary Byrne & Eleanor Hull

From heaven you came (The Servant King)

Graham Kendrick

Humble King

Brenton Brown

How deep the Father’s love for us

Stuart Townend

Love divine, all loves excelling

Charles Wesley

O Jesus, I have promised

John E Bode

Simple Living

Stuart Townend

Sermon outline based on the book Just Love by Angus Ritchie and Paul Hackwood Walking the way of the cross, walking the way of love From the earliest days of the faith, Lent has been a season when Christians renew their walk in the way of the cross. The Gospel readings for Lent – and the questions they raise – help us to understand the meaning of the cross, and in doing so, they help us to understand what it really means to love. Christ-like love is in some ways tremendously simple, and yet it involves holding a number of surprising things together: it is both merciful and just; it is universal and yet deeply personal; it involves vulnerability and yet it is the most powerful force in the universe. Christianity is about learning to embody God’s love ever more faithfully. It is through the practical love we show to our fellow human beings that we grow beyond ourselves. Love of God and love of neighbour are absolutely inseparable – and love of neighbour has a material as well as a spiritual dimension. For our affection to count as genuine love, it needs to be shown in our ongoing care for one another – in ways that have a real and lasting cost. The love that acts Archbishop Justin Welby said recently: ‘Whenever Christians speak out on issues of poverty or social issues of all kinds, we always get letters saying “Why don’t you just talk about God and stop getting muddled up in other subjects?” ‘When I go to my Bible… the thing I find is that God says: Love me, and show you love me by loving your neighbour. And if you love your neighbour you’re going to be deeply concerned in the things that trouble them, whether it’s about heating bills, whether it’s about insecurity in families and the need for good community life.’ This is at the heart of Church Urban Fund’s vision, supporting Christians and churches across England to tackle poverty and injustice so that the poorest and most vulnerable of our neighbours can find love, hope and freedom. In the incarnation, God’s word of love becomes flesh. In Christ, God doesn’t give us a set of commands or ideals, but becomes a human person. ‘Jesus shows us what God is like with skin on – in a way we can touch, feel and follow,’ writes Shane Claiborne. ‘The word incarnation share the same root as en carne or con carne, which means ‘with meat’. We can see God in other places and at work throughout history, but the climax of all history is Jesus.’

The love that transforms In the most deprived communities of England, Christians and church-based projects supported by Church Urban Fund are living out Jesus’ incarnational love by walking alongside the poorest people, every day. This love has a transforming power, as we see time and again in the people who have been able to change their lives thanks to the love and support they are given. People like Toby, who found himself homeless at the age of 39, until he found help and hope from Church Urban Fund-supported project, Ace of Clubs. ‘First thing the staff did was make sure I got a hot meal and a piping mug of tea,’ says Toby. ‘From there they’ve helped me generously and relentlessly. ‘Ace found me a safe place to sleep and pointed me in the path of help towards my addictions, and set up the connections to work on this problem. ‘And really, more than anything else, they just cared. You can sense that in your stomach, whether someone actually gives a toss about you. ‘I got clean in a rehab by the coast. I came back to say hi and thank you, and they didn’t recognise me at first! Then they were over the moon to see that I had changed.’ During Lent, let’s take time to look at what the cross teaches us about love. How do we embody God’s love more faithfully and generously in our lives and our community? What does it mean for each of us in our everyday life to walk the way of the cross, to walk the way of love?

This sermon outline is based on the Just Love book written by Angus Ritchie and Paul & Hackwood. Further resources and information on how to purchase the book are available from our website www.cuf.org.uk/justlovelent

Church Urban Fund is about churches and Christians tackling poverty together To transform the lives of the poorest and most marginalised in England