You may wish to light a candle at the start of this time of worship.
May the grace, mercy and love of God be with us all. Amen.
Collect
Creator God, you made us all in your image: may we discern you in all that we see, and serve you in all that we do; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Confession
Let us call to mind our sins, and make confession to our heavenly Father.
God our Father and Creator, we are the work of your hands, and yet we have wounded your love, and marred your image in us. We confess that we have sinned against you and against our neighbour. Heal and restore us for the sake of your Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.
May the Lord enrich us with his grace, and nourish us with his blessing; may he hear our cry and graciously absolve us from all our offences, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.
God’s Word -
Romans, chapter 8, verses 12 to 25 :-
My friends, our old nature has no claim on us; we are not obliged to live in that way. If you do so, you must die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the base pursuits of the body, then you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. The Spirit you have received is not a spirit of slavery, leading you back into a life of fear, but a Spirit of adoption, enabling us to cry ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit of God affirms to our spirit that we are God’s children; and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ; but we must share his sufferings if we are also to share his glory.
For I reckon that the sufferings we now endure bear no comparison with the glory, as yet unrevealed, which is in store for us. The created universe is waiting with eager expectation for God’s sons to be revealed.
It was made subject to frustration, not of its own choice but by the will of him who subjected it, yet with the hope that the universe itself is to be freed from the shackles of mortality and is to enter upon the glorious liberty of the children of God. Up to the present, as we know, the whole created universe in all its parts groans as if in the pangs of childbirth. What is more, we also, to whom the Spirit is given as the firstfruits of the harvest to come, are groaning inwardly while we look forward eagerly to our adoption, our liberation from mortality. It was with this hope that we were saved. Now to see something is no longer to hope: why hope for what is already seen? But if we hope for something we do not yet see, then we look forward to it eagerly and with patience.
Matthew, chapter 13 verses 24 to 30, and 36 to 43 :-
Here is another parable Jesus gave them: ‘The kingdom of Heaven is like this. A man sowed his field with good seed; but while everyone was asleep his enemy came, sowed darnel among the wheat, and made off. When the corn sprouted and began to fill out, the darnel could be seen among it. The farmer’s men went to their master and said, “Sir, was it not good seed that you sowed in your field? So where has the darnel come from?” “This is an enemy’s doing,” he replied. “Well then,” they said, “shall we go and gather the darnel?” “No,” he answered; “in gathering it you might pull up the wheat at the same time. Let them both grow together till harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘Gather the darnel first, and tie it in bundles for burning; then collect the wheat into my barn.’” ’
Then he sent the people away, and went into the house, where his disciples came to him and said, ‘Explain to us the parable of the darnel in the field.’ He replied, ‘The sower of the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world; the good seed stands for the children of the Kingdom, the darnel for the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed the darnel is the devil. The harvest is the end of time, and the reapers are angels. As the darnel is gathered up and burnt, so at the end of time the Son of Man will send his angels, who will gather out of his kingdom every cause of sin, and all whose deeds are evil; these will be thrown into the blazing furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. If you have ears, then hear.
Thanks be to God, for this his holy word. Amen.
Reflection on the Reading
I was reading a very interesting article last week in my wildlife magazine about cornfield weeds, which used to be widespread but now are in many cases all but extinct. The seed we plant these days is so much cleaner, and systemic herbicides can quickly remove what used at one time to be pernicious weeds. Many of those weeds have very attractive flowers - so these days you’re more likely to see them deliberately sown onto a road verge than wild in a cornfield.
Having said that, some weeds are still hard to root out. Tall growing wild grasses of various kinds - wild oats, for example - can’t be removed with systemic herbicides, since what would kill them would kill the crop as well. So the image in today’s Gospel of letting the things you don’t want keep on growing alongside the things you do want hasn’t entirely disappeared, even in modern farming.
In the story Jesus tells, it makes for a good metaphor for how things are. People ask me now and again how I can believe in a good God, when all around we see people who act badly prospering and doing well. I’d begin my answer by saying that I believe God is good not because of what I see in the world around, but because of what I see in Jesus. John tells us that though no-one has ever seen God, Jesus has made him known; and Paul wrote that, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.” And then I might go on to mention that none of us is completely good.
But bad people do prosper, and horrific things can happen to folk who don’t seem to deserve it. The real world is all too often an unfair world. In an ideal world, no-one working to heal the sick would contract Covid 19 themselves. In an ideal world, cheats who exploit the vulnerable would be quickly caught and locked away.
But last week I was hearing a nurse describe to me quite graphically what it had felt like to catch Covid 19 and become desperately ill. Happily, she had pulled through, but it had been pretty rough. “Not something I deserved,” she told me, and I had to agree. And I also heard the story of an elderly lady who’d been rung up and told she owed back tax and was at risk of prison. A cruel scam call, but she’d been incredibly afraid and anxious, though again happily a neighbour had sorted things out for her.
People obviously asked Jesus the same question: “Why do the wicked do well? How does God let that happen?” And that’s why he told this story. Its message is that all of us stand under judgement, and that where wickedness thrives, it does so not because the hand of judgement will never fall, but because it is just for the moment stayed. There will be a time for all of us when we have to account for what we’ve done and what we’ve failed to do. And because none of us can guarantee the span of our lives, our time to turn to God is always now.
In each of us, there’s something of the fruitful crop, and something of the noxious weed. Christian growth is about rooting out the weedy and harmful stuff in our lives, to concentrate our hearts and minds on the fruitful and good: what helps and heals, and is pleasing to God.
Statement of faith
We believe in God the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. We believe in God the Son, who lives in our hearts through faith, and fills us with his love. We believe in God the Holy Spirit, who strengthens us with power from on high. We believe in one God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Prayers
Pray for the world: for world leaders that they might have a love of peace and justice, and govern with wisdom and integrity; for those who live in poverty, and the victims of natural disaster or of the violence, injustice or race hatred perpetrated by others; and for the world response to the present pandemic, especially those who are working to find a cure for this disease.
Pray that the Church everywhere may be a place of welcome and acceptance, and of forgiveness. Pray for Christians in the Philippines, and for the Episcopal Church of the Philippines. In our own Diocese, pray for Bishop Richard, and for the team of Intergenerational Missioners working around our Diocese. Pray for all our work with families and children, for those who reach out to the broken and lost, and for places of Christian pilgrimage.
Pray for all who are ill or in any kind of need, including those who are anxious, grieving or lonely. Pray for all in hospital or other places of care, especially those infected by the Covid 19 virus, for their care, treatment and recovery , and for the health and safety of those who minister to them.
Pray for families and friends, and for the life of our communities. Pray for all who are anxious about jobs and businesses at this time, and all who feel more vulnerable and fearful as restrictions are eased in the world around us. May we all act with care, looking out for one another and keeping safe ourselves.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Blessing -
May God’s love surround us, God’s joy fill our lives, and God’s peace be in our hearts; and may the blessing of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, surround and sustain us now and always. Amen.
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