He said to his disciples, ’Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing’.
I have to admit straightaway that one of the bonuses of moving to where we now live, here in Kew, is the fact that M&S is less than 10 minutes walk away, absolutely great for both food and clothes!
Well today we celebrate Harvest Festival and it is I feel a double celebration, for we are also celebrating the return of Junior church.
How wonderful it is to have more children joining us here in St. Luke’s. So it is a double ‘thank you’ to God, firstly for our bountiful Harvest, all that the land and sea provide us with, and a ‘thank you’ for creation itself, and for our children.
As we know from the story in Genesis, after God had created the world and all that lives in it, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it”, Genesis 2.15. Well, in all honesty human kind has made a pretty bad job of it ever since, and here we need to come together to say sorry. Sorry firstly to God, but also a very big sorry as adults to our children, grandchildren and all future generations, because it is these young people who are and will suffer from our greedy and reckless handling of the beautiful and bountiful world God created for us.
Just one simple fact to demonstrate, we in this country waste up to £9.7 billion pounds in money, not in weight, in food each year with 65% of adults admitting to buying more food than they need, while 9 million people die from starvation each year, with a child dying every 10 seconds somewhere in the world.
“And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work…..for God loves a cheerful giver.“ Words heard in our reading from 2 Corinthians.
As Jesus told in his Gospel parable, we can be very good at storing things up for ourselves, especially at the moment with the Pandemic, without stopping to think of others and actually being realistic and reasonable about our own needs. Do we all really need 50 loo roles in our cupboards?
Yes, we are all human and we panic buy and we do worry about how we look and what to wear, and what our next meal will be and if we will be able to afford next year’s holiday, that is if we are even allowed to go. Yet Jesus is saying to his disciples, and to all of us, where is your faith? “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you- you of little faith!”
We are, perhaps at last, beginning to understand what Sir David Attenborough and Princes Charles, with many others, have been saying for years, and echoed now by Greta Thunberg and Prince William, we cannot keep taking more and more and leave behind only our waste. We do not live in a disposable world, although there still remain some, even in places of authority and great influence, who believe so.
God provided us with a wonderful world full of great beauty and wonder, full of abundance both on the land, in the seas and in the skies. Who cannot be touched by the beauty and fragrance of a rose garden, the wonder of a rainbow or a sun set, and the grandeur of the mighty Himalayas, or an awe inspiring elephant?
How lucky we are in Kew to have the Gardens and the 2,360 acres of Richmond Park on our doorstep, no wonder Sir David Attenborough was happy to spend a lot of his time in ‘lock-down’, just listening to the birdsong near the Park. No one, not me not you, are going to change the world overnight, or reverse the damage done to God’s world all at once, but as David Attenborough replied when asked what one thing would he advocate for us all to do, it was ‘don’t waste anything, squander nothing!’ Therefore each and everyone of us can make a difference in how we live and manage our lives, so that we may be truly thankful and joyful at God’s great Harvest and leave to our children and grandchildren a cleaner and healthier world than the world we now have, so that we can truly say, “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!”
Readings: Psalm 145:1-8 Jonah 3:10-4:11 Philippians 1:21-end Matthew 20:1-16
Sermon
From school age right up to adulthood we have all done it; at one time or another we have all felt aggrieved, even on occasions slightly hurt, at what we perceive to be an injustice. When someone else gets more than we do, or we even get left out all together. That History Prize that Jones received instead of you, or the promotion Smith was given, even though you were far more hard working and able.
As we grow up we learn to smile sweetly and pretend, at least outwardly that it really doesn’t matter, ‘good luck, well done’, while we silently boil inside. Most of us to a point, can feel for those workers who toiled all day, in the parable Jesus told, while others were paid a day’s rate for an hour’s work. In truth if it had been us wouldn’t we have felt a little hard done by?
Then we had part of that great book from the Old Testament, the Book of Jonah. If there was anyone in the Bible, apart from Job, who felt hard done by then it is probably Jonah. Why does God waste his time getting Jonah to tell the evil people of Nineveh what their fate would be when God intended to forgive them all the time. No wonder Jonah was angry and in a massive sulk with God.
Jane Williams writes in her Lectionary reflections on today’s readings:
“It is easy to see Jonah and the all-day workers as rather comic caricatures, responding as surely we never would to God’s generosity to others. Which is why you have to take seriously not just their selfishness but also their concern about justice. Is Jonah not right to think that God will cheapen forgiveness, and will end up encouraging wrong-doing, because people can point out that God doesn’t really seem to mind it much? Are the workers not right to suspect that the vineyard owner will have increasing trouble getting people to work for him all day, if they know they can turn up at the last moment and get a day’s pay?” Jane Williams goes on to quote the former Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks in his book The Dignity of Difference, where he ‘“speaks, among other things, about what might happen if you dare to let go of the language of justice and rights, and speak instead in the language of ‘covenant’ and forgiveness. If God can bear to filter justice through the lens of mercy, who are we to forget how much we have been forgiven, and demand harsh ‘justice’ for others?”’
Now, I know, it is indeed easy at times to forget our own many blessings and look with unjustifiable envy at others, or indeed fail to take proper concern for those who struggle in their environment. So often across our world we see those who have so very little being so grateful for what they are given. As one of the refuges on the island in Greece whose camp was destroyed by fire said, ‘we are people too, we are human beings’. It is too easy at times to forget our own good fortune, our extremely comfortable lives and look with disdain on those less fortunate and with envy on those we perceive to have more.
Jesus’ parable was no doubt aimed at the Jewish people of his time, who saw themselves very much as God’s chosen nation, His people, and looked with disdain on Gentiles and many others whom Jesus associated with, the poor and sick, the tax collectors and those of ill repute. Jesus was trying to make it clear to his disciples that God did not have favourites, that His love, compassion and forgiveness was open to all those who seek it, available not on conditions or length of service but was, and still is, free and unconditional love for all.
So at the final judgement it is not our opinion, our prejudices or even our Christian faith and service that ensures our passage to eternity, for God will be the final judge, for us all here today and for all peoples and all generations.
“So the last will be first, and the first will be last”. Amen.
Beverley and I really want to thank everyone at the Barn & St Luke’s for the incredibly generous gift you gave us on our last Sunday in Kew. These past months have been particularly difficult for all of us, and we weren’t able to meet together for such a long time. To be so kind to us through this period and the return to public worship shows a remarkable level of care and engagement across the parishes.
We shall always remember our time in Kew. We have done so much together, we have marked family events amongst you. It has been wonderful to share 16 years with you.
May God bless you all, keep you and guide you always.
Matthew 18 v 21-35; Exodus 14 v 19-31; Romans 14 V 1-12; Psalm 114
Sermon
We have been hearing quite a lot about Peter over the last few weeks.
It wasn’t long ago that he received Jesus’ blessing after answering correctly the question of who he was. “You’re the Messiah, the Son of the Living God,” Peter had said, but then he was firmly put in his place a few verses later for rebuking Jesus when he tried to tell him and the rest of the disciples just what it meant to be the Messiah. That he must suffer—and what it would mean for them to follow him—that they must suffer too.
Last week’s Gospel reading was about how to deal with people who fall by the wayside. And that brings us to this morning. Today we find Peter trying to get it right again, trying to understand exactly how often to forgive people. He takes Jesus aside and asks how many times do I have to forgive someone? Surely, you can’t keep on forgiving, said Peter, so I’m thinking, perhaps that seven times would be good. What do you think, Jesus?
Now, two things here: First, Peter gets part of it right. He understands that the aim is to bring people back into the fold, perhaps a new concept in Biblical times under the Romans, when rehabilitation of offenders was not a common objective. Cruel punishment to set an example to others was more general.
The second point is that Peter thinks he’s being generous! And by most standards he is. To forgive someone seven times seems quite reasonable. But Jesus tells him it’s not enough. Not seven times, he says, try seventy times seven! The number of times is not important, it is the principal of keeping on forgiving, however hard it may be. Because we all need this and this is what Jesus does for us.
And then Jesus tells the parable about a king who wishes to settle his accounts with his servants. He listens to the pleas of one who cannot repay what he owes and then forgives him. And what does that servant do? He doesn’t reciprocate the mercy that has been shown to him, but instead refuses to forgive someone else.
We will probably tend to think that this is not quite right. And others thought the same and reported back to the King. The King then brings this unforgiving servant before him, gives him what-for, and in anger hands him over to be jailed until he could repay his debt in full.
And again, maybe we will think that he has got his just reward. But how often do we ourselves forget to be forgiving, to harbour grudges and resentments perhaps over many years, to expect behaviour in others that we do not demand of ourselves? We expect and accept the loving forgiveness of God, but can be slow to forgive others from our hearts.
It’s when we really think about the mercy and grace and forgiveness we’ve received from God, that we can try to find the strength to offer the same to others. Mercy should give rise to mercy, love to love, compassion to compassion and forgiveness to forgiveness.
While I was researching this sermon, I came across a, probably apocryphal, story about a monastery that was not prospering – fewer monks, fewer visitors. The Abbot consulted an ecclesiastical colleague, who said that his congregation was declining too. As they parted, the other cleric said “But I know one thing, the Messiah is among you”. The Abbot was a bit confused and when he told his fellow monks what his colleague had said, they were confused too. But then they started to wonder who among them the cleric had been referring to and they started to behave towards each other as if Jesus was among them, watching their every move, being one of them and with them. It changed the way they lived. Their feelings of failure and decline left them as they treated one another as they would their Lord. The monastery became somewhere that people wanted to be as the place was filled with love.
How much better life is for us all when we remember that Jesus is with us, walking with us, supporting us, loving us and forgiving us.
How many times must I forgive? Peter asked. Jesus responded, If you’re counting you’ve missed the point.
The way Jesus offers, the way of love, the way of mercy, the way of forgiveness, isn’t a checklist, it’s a way of life for us all.
There is within the Armed Forces a simple understanding that when a command is given by your senior officer then that order is followed without question; indeed especially on the battlefield those who stand up and question that order, in the middle of a battle, are more likely than not to be shot.
In our everyday lives it is entirely different, we in fact spend a large proportion of our adult lives questioning why we have to do this or that. Disagreement between countries, parties and even individuals has become almost second nature to many of us. Do we have to wear facemasks, is it really necessary to ‘socially distance’?
We need only to look across ‘the big pond’ to our friends in the United States to see, especially at this present moment, disagreement at it’s most disagreeable. Yet I am sure you would find that both President Trump and his arch rival Mr Joe Biden are both heavily backed by religious organisations, both evangelical and otherwise. So we may well ask where does this lead us to an understanding of today’s Gospel reading?
“If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one”.
I may well be becoming a little cynical in my old age, but I cannot really see this working between Trump and Biden, and probably not between Boris Johnson or Keir Starmer. Christianity it would seem on many occasions is only skin deep, or politically convenient, as is the case for many other religions.
I am afraid that the sad truth of the matter is summed up by Jesus himself at the end of our Gospel reading from Matthew,
“Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven”.
We cannot always be united, though we could probably manage it more often than we do. We must sometimes hold out for what we think is truth against falsehood, though probably less often than we would like. But against that temptation and need to squabble, we have the vision, given to us by Jesus, of what our unity could achieve. There is perhaps a terrible sarcasm in that phrase ‘if even just two of you could agree about anything’. What we forfeit by our love of discord!
Watching the service on Tuesday evening of Father Peter’s instalment as Team Rector in Worcester South East, I much enjoyed the sermon given by the Bishop of Worcester and the one word message that came very strongly from it, that word and message being ‘love’. This message resounds very much with our reading from today’s letter from Paul to the Church in Rome,
“Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law”… “Love does no wrong to a neighbour, therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law”.
In this very simple teaching nothing has changed since Paul wrote those words right up to our present day. If only our World leaders, our politicians of all parties, and our neighbours, each and every one of us here today, could learn to love one another as Jesus wished us all to do, then we would truly come very close to agreeing with one another and moving, at least one step nearer to heaven, both here on earth, and with our Father in Heaven.
Both Jesus and Paul were at pains to teach those that followed them that love and forgiveness was at the very heart of their message. The striking rule by which they were to live was to be that of forgiveness and reconciliation, even if it was at times this would prove to be a hard-won reconciliation. Sometimes appropriate confrontation is the necessary prelude because reconciliation does not come by sweeping things under the carpet, or by pretending that nothing is really wrong. Equally, confrontation that does not aim at reconciliation is worse than useless.
Again in the Bishop’s sermon on Tuesday it was interesting to note that a main reason for the demise of the Roman Empire was the steady growth of Christianity and the teaching it brought of love, forgiveness and reconciliation.
In some respects and in many parts of our ‘Christian Kingdom’ these great corner stones of our faith have been either lost or badly eroded by those wishing to use the ‘clothing of faith’ for their own ends.
Let us today in our own small but very important way hold on to the teachings of Christ so that we may find agreement and compromise in our everyday lives as a true Christian community.
