+ In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen
The Greeting:
Grace, mercy and peace
from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ
be with you
and also with you.
Prayer of Preparation:
Almighty God,
to whom all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from whom no secrets are hidden:
cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit
that we may perfectly love you
and worthily magnify your holy name;
through Christ our lord. Amen.
The Gloria:
Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to his 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 Collect – 11th Sunday after Trinity
O God, you declare your Almighty power
most chiefly in showing mercy and pity:
mercifully grant to us such a measure of your grace,
that we, running the way of your commandments,
may receive your gracious promises,
and be made partakers of your heavenly treasure;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Readings:
Jeremiah 2: 4-13
Hear the word of the LORD, you descendants of Jacob,
all you clans of Israel.
5 This is what the LORD says:
“What fault did your ancestors find in me,
that they strayed so far from me?
They followed worthless idols
and became worthless themselves.
6 They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD,
who brought us up out of Egypt
and led us through the barren wilderness,
through a land of deserts and ravines,
a land of drought and utter darkness,
a land where no one travels and no one lives?’
7 I brought you into a fertile land
to eat its fruit and rich produce.
But you came and defiled my land
and made my inheritance detestable.
8 The priests did not ask,
‘Where is the LORD?’
Those who deal with the law did not know me;
the leaders rebelled against me.
The prophets prophesied by Baal,
following worthless idols.
9 “Therefore I bring charges against you again,”
declares the LORD.
“And I will bring charges against your children’s children.
10 Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look,
send to Kedar and observe closely;
see if there has ever been anything like this:
11 Has a nation ever changed its gods?
(Yet they are not gods at all.)
But my people have exchanged their glorious God
for worthless idols.
12 Be appalled at this, you heavens,
and shudder with great horror,”
declares the LORD.
13 “My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
Hebrews 13: 1-8, 15, 16
13 Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. 2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. 3 Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. 4 Marriage should be honoured by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.”
6 So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?” 7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today. 15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. 16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
Luke 14: 1, 7-14
14 One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. 7 When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honour at the table, he told them this parable: 8 “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honour, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. 9 If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. 10 But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honoured in the presence of all the other guests. 11 For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
12 Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbours; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Homily:
Our gospel passage from St Luke this morning follows on from last week’s when Jesus was criticized for healing someone on the Sabbath. Today we have another Sabbath incident. Jesus has been invited for a meal at the home of one of the Pharisees on the Sabbath. Jesus must have thought it a good chance to say more about true and false religion. We are told that as the various people entered, they began to choose the best places first; the places of honour. We are not told where those places were but, for example, if Jesus was the important guest they would be wanting to sit near him. Or maybe they wanted to be near someone else who was thought to be important in the room or near the Pharisee who was the host.
These days when we are invited to wedding receptions, there is a seating plan near the door and we all jostle to get a look at it to see where the bride and groom want us to sit. They have already done the work of not putting Aunty Mary next to her son-in-law because they don’t get on and we want everything at a wedding to be joyous and as uncomplicated as possible. Can you just imagine the situation that Jesus is talking about in his parable? Someone has been invited to a wedding banquet and as soon as they arrive, they go to our equivalent of the top table and take the most important seat. Unfortunately, they have sat in the bridegroom’s father’s seat and its very embarrassing when the master of ceremonies has to go to them and tell them to move to a different one. You can imagine them trying to be invisible as they move to a seat further away from the top table and trying to make it look as if they were meant to be there all the time. Then Jesus adds that a much better idea is to deliberately take an inconspicuous seat and if we are worthy of better, the host will escort us to a place of more honour.
Jesus concludes with a statement which does not win him any friends amongst those religious leaders. He says: “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted”. The Pharisees believed themselves to be those to whom all respect and honour was due. They were the ones who spent their whole lives studying religious laws and practices. No other work was expected of them. Their office had been honoured by others and they behaved as ones who deserved respect. They were paid to study and meet with other wise men to discuss all the minute details of the law. As Jesus watched them trying to get the best place, he introduced his own view of power and leadership: the first shall be last and the last shall be first. This is what the Church now calls “Servant Leadership”.
When Jesus was at supper with his disciples on the night before he died, he demonstrated very forcefully the concept of servant leadership. Usually when men assembled together for a meal with their Rabbi, which is what happened at the Last Supper, a young servant of the household would meet them at the door and wash their feet. Feet were extremely dirty in those days in Palestine. Folk wore sandals which were in fact just a piece of leather tied to their feet. You can imagine what they walked through and of course, all travel was on foot. So, the servant boy would bring his bowl and towel and wash and dry each person’s feet. We don’t know why this hadn’t happened earlier at the Last Supper but we are told that part way through the meal, Jesus himself got up and washed his disciples’ feet just a s the lowly servant boy would have done and then he put the bowl and towel down and returned to his seat. Jesus was always a very visual speaker. He talked about seeds and fish and weddings. I imagine him just looking out at what was happening around and using it to emphasise a point. And as Peter was looking at John and wondering what was happening amongst them: Jesus said: “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you” (John 13: 14-15). The footwashing is only recorded in St John’s gospel. St Luke records a dispute breaking out amongst the disciples about who is the greatest. It may be that Jesus decided to show them about greatness in response to their squabbling.
We have heard quite a lot about hospitality in our readings today. In the Letter to the Hebrews, the writer urges Christians to show hospitality to strangers, to those in prison and to those who are being or have been tortured. We are urged to do that, not in some kind of token way but, as though it is us who is in need. The kind of compassion which is required is that of acting out of how we would want others to treat us if we were in that position. Hospitality is more than inviting someone for a meal. In fact, Jesus has something to say about that too. He says that true hospitality is not about inviting our friends who will invite us back, lovely though that is, but inviting the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. He means those who cannot invite us back because of their life situations. Hospitality is about how we treat others. It’s about an attitude of mind and heart. We can be hospitable people. In fact, we are called to be hospitable people, without ever holding a banquet or taking someone out for a meal. Hospitality is about how open we are to others and how we treat them. It is about all others: those we meet at the supermarket, those we see on charity adverts asking for help, those we just cannot get on with and of course: our families and friends. We are required to have and grow a servant heart that puts others before ourselves, always not just on good days.
Intercessions:
Let us pray to God our Father,
knowing that we are precious to him.
Father, we thank you for all those
who give to support the work of the Church;
bless our giving, guide our spending,
and help us to value the true wealth
of your abundant love.
We pray for this church and the village of Thompson, giving thanks for all through the ages who have served and continue to serve.
We pray for the whole of this Benefice in this part of Breckland. We ask you to bless everyone
who lives within our boundaries.
Lord, in your mercy: hear our prayer
We pray for the world’s economy;
for fair management and distribution of resources;
for fair trade and just wages;
for greater awareness and concern about injustice;
for a commitment to our responsibilities
as sharers of the same planet.
We pray for our world’s leaders, particularly in those areas where there is violence or natural disaster.
Lord, in your mercy: hear our prayer.
We pray for all parents with young children,
thanking you for them
and asking you to bless and guide their parenting;
we pray for families in debt;
for those whose homes have been repossessed,
And for those whose financial security
Makes them forgetful of your love.
Lord, in your mercy: hear our prayer.
We pray for those who are burdened
with financial worries
and all who struggle to make ends meet,
all over the world;
and all those who do not know God’s love for them.
We pray for those who are suffering at this time, in body, mind or soul.
Particularly today we pray for ………..
Lord, in your mercy: hear our prayer.
We pray for those who have died in the faith of Christ,
especially for: Peggy Vincent who died recently.
Lord, in your mercy: hear our prayer
Father, we give you thanks
for the generosity of your love for us,
which lasts beyond death into the whole of eternity.
Merciful Father,
Accept these prayers
For the sake of your Son,
Our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The Peace:
We are the body of Christ. In the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. Let us then pursue all that makes for peace and builds up our common life.
The peace of the Lord be always with you.
And also with you.
The Lord’s Prayer:
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.
Final Prayer:
Lord of all mercy,
we your faithful people have celebrated that one true sacrifice
which takes away our sins and brings pardon and peace:
by our communion
keep us firm on the foundation of the gospel
and preserve us from all sin;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
The Blessing:
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord;
And the blessing of God Almighty,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
be among you and remain with you
always. Amen