You may wish to light a candle before you begin.
May the grace, mercy and love of God be with us all. Amen.
Collect
Gracious God, you call us to fullness of life: deliver us from unbelief and banish our anxieties with the liberating love of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Confession
We come to God as one from whom no secrets are hidden, to ask his forgiveness and peace.
Lord our God, in our sin we have avoided your call. Our love for you is like the morning mist, like the dew that quickly passes. Have mercy on us and deliver us; bind up our wounds and revive us. Bring us back to your love, and strengthen us anew in your service; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
May God who loved the world so much that he sent his Son to be our Saviour forgive us our sins, and make us holy to serve him in the world, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
God’s Word - Philippians, chapter 3, verses 4 to 14 :-
If anyone makes claims (of confidence in their heritage as a Jew), I can make a stronger case for myself: circumcised on my eighth day, Israelite by race, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born and bred; in my practice of the law a Pharisee, in zeal for religion a persecutor of the church, by the law’s standard of righteousness without fault.
But all such assets I have written off because of Christ. More than that, I count everything sheer loss, far outweighed by the gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I did in fact forfeit everything. I count it so much rubbish, for the sake of gaining Christ and finding myself in union with him, with no righteousness of my own based on the law, nothing but the righteousness which comes from faith in Christ, given by God in response to faith.
My one desire is to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, and to share his sufferings in growing conformity with his death, in hope of somehow attaining the resurrection from the dead. It is not that I have already achieved this. I have not yet reached perfection, but I press on, hoping to take hold of that for which Christ once took hold of me. My friends, I do not claim to have hold of it yet. What I do say is this: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what lies ahead, I press towards the finishing line, to win the heavenly prize to which God has called me in Christ Jesus.
Matthew, chapter 21, verses 33 to the end :-
Jesus said, ‘Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard: he put a wall round it, hewed out a winepress, and built a watch-tower; then he let it out to vine-growers and went abroad. When the harvest season approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect the produce due to him. But they seized his servants, thrashed one, killed another, and stoned a third. Again, he sent other servants, this time a larger number; and they treated them in the same way.
‘Finally he sent his son. “They will respect my son,” he said. But when they saw the son the tenants said to one another, “This is the heir; come on, let us kill him, and get his inheritance.” So they seized him, flung him out of the vineyard, and killed him. When the owner of the vineyard comes, how do you think he will deal with those tenants?’
‘He will bring those bad men to a bad end,’ they answered, ‘and hand the vineyard over to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop when the season comes.’
Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the scriptures: “The stone which the builders rejected has become the main corner-stone. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is wonderful in our eyes”? Therefore, I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and given to a nation that yields the proper fruit.’
When the chief priests and Pharisees heard his parables, they saw that he was referring to them. They wanted to arrest him, but were afraid of the crowds, who looked on Jesus as a prophet.
Thanks be to God, for this his holy word. Amen.
Reflection on the Readings
Jesus tells a story - speaking to the Pharisees and their allies - about some very badly behaved tenants in a vineyard, tenants who decided to act as though they owned the place rather than renting it, and refused to hand over the share of the harvest due to the landowner. The landowner is remarkably patient with them. They’ve already killed one of his servants, and yet he continues to send people, eventually his son, to try and change their minds, or maybe their hearts.
But these guys are not for turning, not for changing. And in the end even the most patient landowner is going to have to remove tenants of that sort, and bring in better ones. And as Jesus told the story, the Pharisees will have known exactly what it meant, and who it was aimed at. Themselves.
It seems to me that the Pharisees had pretty much perfected a false and godless religion. If you know you’re getting everything exactly right, there isn’t really any great role for God, other than to confirm your own high opinion of yourself.
Paul had been a Pharisee; but now he writes to the Church in Philippi that all his past achievements he has written off; none of it counts any more; it’s all just rubbish. All that matters for Paul is Christ Jesus. In Christ he has died to his old life, seen it for what it is; through the resurrection of Christ he is born anew - now he’s running a new kind of race, where the victor’s prize is already guaranteed.
“Increase in us true religion” goes one ancient prayer of the Church. If there is true religion there is also false religion - but how do we tell? What does false religion look like? Here’s what I think. True religion always points away from itself; false religion is always self-protecting and self-seeking. False religion is about ticking boxes; true religion is more interested in changing lives.
Christ is at the heart of my faith; I can say like Paul that with Christ I have everything, and without Christ I have nothing. But that doesn’t mean I say that Christianity is true religion, and other faiths are false. I might say that other faiths are incomplete, but I can see how that true / false divide is present in other faiths, and I can certainly recognise it in my own.
Paul’s remarkable justification of his own Jewish heritage was in response to people who were trying to persuade the Philippians that they could only be proper Christians if they first accepted all the requirements of the Jewish Law. I see similar movements in today’s Christian moral right. But Jesus surely came not to close minds, but to open hearts. I don’t mean that anything goes - but I do mean that the test of true religion is a heart test, not a rules test, and for me, religion should seek to welcome and link together, and not to exclude or divide.
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 -
In a week that includes National Clean Air Day, pray we may reduce air pollution here and around the world, and pray for those who suffer from asthma and similar conditions. Pray for peace and understanding where societies are divided, and for faith groups to be part of that healing process rather than a cause of division. Pray that world leaders may govern with insight and integrity, and be peacemakers and bridge builders.
Pray that the Church may be true to the example of our Lord in its readiness to care, to welcome, to show compassion and to speak up for those who are excluded by others. Pray for Christians in Tanzania, and for the Anglican Province of Tanzania, including our link dioceses there. In our own Diocese, pray for Bishop Richard, and for all who pray for others, and offer counselling and spiritual direction.
Pray for all who are ill, troubled or in need of care, and for all who minister to them. May those in need find help and healing, and their carers do so safely. In National Braille Week we give thanks for all that enables those living with sight loss to be actively involved in community life. Continue to pray for all infected with the Covid virus, and for those striving to develop a vaccine.
Pray for families and friends, and today especially for the many community groups and organisations that are still unable to meet. Pray we may continue to act with responsibility and care, looking out for each other, 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 the Lord of peace himself give us peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with us all, and his blessing be upon us and upon our loved ones. Amen.
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