Parishes of St Philips and All Saints Kew with St Luke’s Kew
Where all God’s Children are Welcome
Section 1 Kings 3:5-12
Prayer: Loving God, open our hearts to your word and our ears to your voice. May we hear and understand all that you are saying to us. Amen.
Read the passage through twice:
At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask what I should give you.” And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart towards you; and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne today. And now,
O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?” It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you.”
Background
The succession from King David to Solomon was not a straightforward process, not least because David had a lot of potential heirs. Solomon was the son of David and Bathsheba, some way down in the pecking order of sons. However, many of David’s sons had rebelled against him or gone into partnership with foreign powers, so David and his advisers were intent on having Solomon crowned. Bathsheba played her part too, by extracting a promise from the dying David that Solomon would be king after him. For the full shenanigans, read the first two chapters of 1 Kings. Gibeon is a village not far from Jerusalem, in the tribal district of Benjamin, where Israel had erected altars to foreign gods during the declining years of King David. Although Solomon was devoted to the God of Israel, he none the less joined in sacrifices at Gibeon to other pagan gods.
Some questions
God speaks to Solomon in a dream. There is a lot of precedent for this, throughout the Old and New Testament. Why?
Given that Gibeon is a pagan site, what is God’s rationale behind this encounter?
Why had Solomon gone to the pagan rites at Gibeon, so soon after his coronation at Jerusalem? Is this a faith decision, or a political decision?
If Solomon has dual allegiances in his faith, what does that say about the God of Israel confronting him in this place?
If this is purely a political move, after the instability of David’s final years as king, what does that say about the God of Israel confronting him in this place?
What if Solomon was in the pagan place for both reasons – faith and politics? What does that say about the type of leadership he was envisaging for himself?
God’s opening line to Solomon is direct – “Ask what I should give you” – while being open at the same time – there is no promise attached, yet. What would you ask for, if you were in similar circumstances?
What do you make of Solomon’s response? How genuine does it sound?
Has God been steadfast in his love to David? David was by no means a perfect king, his failings were many, and the setbacks to his reign numerous.
Did David walk before God “in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart”? Is this a fair or idealised account of his father’s life?
Solomon interprets his receiving the crown as an act of God, when the mechanics of it were messily human. Is he correct to think this?
It is very difficult to work out Solomon’s age when he acceded to the throne. However, he was not a child, so why does he use such language about himself?
David had carried out a complete census of Israel in the latter years of his reign, much to God’s annoyance and against the strict rules of the Law. It is not that many years since that event. Solomon has probably got a pretty good idea of how many people there were in Israel. Why does he say that they are “so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted”? Is he being disengenuous, or is he demonstrating his knowledge of the Law?
What exactly is “a discerning mind”?
Solomon’s request is for the ability to govern wisely, knowing the difference between right and wrong. Were not all the tools for such governance at his disposal already, in the Law?
Has Solomon succeeded through flattery or true humility?
God grants Solomon great wisdom and the promise that no one will compare with his “wise and discerning mind”. What lessons does this hold for us today?
Solomon’s wisdom is a gift from God, and has remained legendary. Given the choice, as Solomon was, what gift would we ask of God today, if he put such a request to us now? Have you got a different answer from the one you gave earlier in this study?
There is a problem with dreams – they have to be reported to others by the person who had the dream. Therefore, either Solomon is the author of this text, or it is a piece of theological back-filling to explain Solomon’s great wisdom and wealth. What do you think?
God’s wisdom is always available to his creation, and it is not limited to those who govern. In our current crisis, we all need God’s wisdom in one form or another, but especially those who have big decisions to take, and those with great responsibility for the nation and people’s health and well being.
The relevance of this passage to today is clear. How will it inform your prayer? How will it inform your decision-making?
Read the passage through again, out loud if possible
Review
What has this passage taught you about
God?
Jesus Christ?
The Church?
Our current situation?
Prayer: Generous God, you gave Solomon wisdom to govern with insight and grace. Grant us that same wisdom, that in our daily lives we may clearly distinguish between good and evil, and walk faithfully with you all the days of our life. Amen.
Section 2: Romans 8:16-end
Prayer: Help us, loving God, by your Holy Spirit, to read your word and to understand everything that you are saying to us in it. Amen.
Read the passage through twice:
The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things
work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called
he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up
for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who
is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things
we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Background
This is the apex of Paul’s long and involved exploration of what has changed in God’s relationship with humanity since the coming of Christ. After discussions of different forms of slavery – to sin or to God, to fear or to joy, to the flesh or to the Spirit – he finally reaches his destination: divine love as expressed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and fulfilled in humanity. Paul’s utter conviction in God’s extraordinary involvement in humanity sets the framework for all other aspects of our Christian life.
Some questions
Paul begins this section with a discussion of prayer and how it works. His opening statement, “we do not know how to pray as we ought” rings very true – and this is Paul speaking out of his vast experience first as a trained pharisee and then as a missionary for the Early Church.
However, he goes on to explain a divine mechanism of prayer – by the Spirit, to the Father, on our behalf. Where does he get this from? How does he know?
How do you react to this? Comforted? Curious? Manipulated?
Where is our freedom to pray if the Spirit re-interprets everything we say in the light of the divine purpose?
Paul then sets sail onto one of his finest lists ever. It is more than a list, really, it is a progression through salvation history, from God’s original knowledge, or plan, to our glorification. It is not without its difficulties, however.
God’s foreknowledge is fine and logical. It is all part of his divinity. But “predestined” – why would God predestine anyone? – for Paul is talking in terms of human beings here.
For some, this word contains exclusivity, as not everyone might be predestined in this way for glory. Is that an acceptable reading of this? What might be its implications?
How can we make this inclusive? Does God not foreknow every human being who will walk this earth? Does God not call each human being to love and follow him? If so, does not predestination apply to everyone?
The move from calling to justification to glorification is seamless for Paul. Where do you think you are currently in that sequence? Why?
“What then are we to say about these things?” is Paul summing up his argument. It started many chapters before, but the impact of all those ideas is his exposition of the practical outworking of the love of God for everyone.
Rather than being vulnerable to the deadly results of the flesh, the Law and the inevitability of decay, we are free from accusation, with no one able to oppose us in the face of Christ’s death and resurrection.
The logic is crucial – if God gave his Son to death for humanity, then God will have no accusation against them in any reckoning, as Christ has dealt with everything that could have got in the way of our reconciliation with God.
List the reactions you have to this assertion.
Paul writes this as an attested fact and will brook no compromise on it. It is the foundation of his faith and the faith that he is spreading throughout the world. Is it the foundation of your faith?
The second list of this passage, “hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword” is an amalgamation of both the personal suffering and social suffering that could be experienced in Paul’s day. How would you update that list for our circumstances? Would you put Covid 19 in that list?
The quotation about sheep to be slaughtered is from Psalm 44, in which a complaint is raised against God who seems to be ignoring the suffering of his people. However, Paul asserts that however low we might feel, and however distant we might imagine we are from God, nothing will change his love for us or render it ineffectual. Do you still feel this way, in our current circumstances?
These final lines of this passage are frequently read at funerals, for obvious reasons. Do they have a particular resonance for our day?
It is hard to find a more positive piece of Paul’s writing than this final paragraph – apart from 1 Corinthians 13 perhaps. How will you use this text personally in the coming days? Is it a text worth sharing with others?
Paul intends this passage to take away all doubt, all guilt and all fear from the Christians in Rome. Does it do that for you, today?
Read the passage through again, out loud if possible
Review
What has this passage taught you about
God?
Jesus Christ?
The Church?
Our current situation?
Prayer: Loving God, we rejoice in your extraordinary love, and plead for grace to live fully in the joy and freedom of that love all the days of our life. Amen.
Section 3: Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
Prayer: As Jesus speaks to us, loving God, help us by your Holy Spirit to hear what he has to say, and be enabled to put it into practice. Amen.
Read the passage through twice:
Jesus put before the crowd another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” He told
them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out
and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.” And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household
who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”
Read the passage through again, out loud if possible
Background
This collection of parables makes up the rest of Chapter 13, after the parable of the sower and its interpretation and the parable of the wheat & the weeds and its interpretation. Matthew has deliberately bunched together a series of parables, possibly from across Jesus’s ministry, and is using them as a teaching tool for his community – hence the last section addressed to the disciples about understanding these parables. Whether we agree with his conclusions is up to us!
Some questions
At last, Matthew has provided his readers with unadorned parables! The mustard seed, the yeast, the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price are all stand-alone parables, free and open for all readers. What do you make of them?
These are all “the kingdom of heaven is like …” parables. What does Jesus really mean by “the kingdom of heaven”?
The mustard seed is not the smallest seed in the world, but probably they hadn’t seen foxglove seeds in Israel. Nor does a mustard seed produce a tree – more a shrub, if left to grow unpruned. It can become woody and twisted and full of leaves. So what is Jesus driving at in this parable?
This parable is diametrically opposed to the parable of the sower – it is about one single seed and what it can become if left to flourish. Who are the beneficiaries?
There are echoes of one of Jesus’s sayings about human worries in the Sermon on the Mount here. But this is like the kingdom of heaven – so how?
What sort of God provides so much from so little? And doesn’t Jesus do the same, in his ministry?
Now relate the parable of the mustard seed to the Eucharist … !
Yeast mixed in flour – that is what the kingdom of heaven is like, according to Jesus. Nothing else? No water, no salt, no kneading, no allowing the dough to rise, no baking? How is this launching the rule of God in the world?
In Jesus’s time, yeast was kept from one batch of bread making to the next. It is inactive on its own, but transformative in combination with other elements. It also involves effort on the bread maker’s part – it needs to be folded into the mixture and then set to work. It starts off separate and visible, but then becomes invisible as it is incorporated in the dough. How does that describe the kingdom of heaven, or God’s influence in the world?
We would quite like our actions to be visibly world-changing. Jesus has other ideas. What sort of invisible yet distinct actions can we take that would hasten God’s rule on earth?
Banks were few and far between in Jesus’s time, so frequently savings or large payments were simply hidden in the ground, which is why so much treasure is still dug up to this day. There is evidence of this in the parable of the Talents.
The treasure is of greater value than the man’s current assets. That is the kingdom of heaven, Jesus says. How?
Would you sell everything for the sake of the kingdom of heaven?
Joy is mentioned in this parable: one of the very few occasions when it is linked with Jesus’s teaching – there is joy in heaven over sinners who repent in the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin, but little else. The treasure-seeker experiences the joy – is that us or God? Why?
What is the difference between the parable of the treasure in the field and the pearl of great value? Is it the same description of the kingdom, varied to drive the message home?
To sell everything and to follow Christ is the mark of a true disciple – there are many who come to Jesus, wanting to follow him, but turn away when they learn the cost. Are we still capable of that?
Then Matthew falls off the wagon. The parable of the net full of diverse fish is going well, until he latches onto it and chains it to judgement and glory. That is not the kingdom of heaven.
The kingdom of heaven is a net full of different sorts of fish, some edible, others not. It is not the disposal of the bad fish that is important, but the differentiation between good and bad.
In God’s just and gentle rule, we shall know the difference between right and wrong, good and bad, good, better and best. Jesus is there to help his followers work their way through the minefield of decision making, of contradiction and opposition, of potential (the mustard seed and the yeast) to the prize (the treasure and the pearl) but at the cost of everything we hold dear.
Bible Study is exactly the same. To get through fully to what Jesus is calling us to do, we have to spend all that we have in stored up capital of interpretation and pre-set ideas to seize the richness of God’s word with joy.
In this series of Bible Studies through lockdown, we have steered a very wavy course between the familiar and the foreign, and have never stopped asking questions. As this series now comes to an end, may you never cease to question everything in front of you, so that you may find the true riches of God, the full generosity of his gift to us in creation, in his son Jesus Christ, in the Eucharist and in each other.
Read the passage through again, out loud if possible
Review
What has this passage taught you about
God?
Jesus Christ?
The Church?
Our current situation?
Prayer: Generous and gracious God, we acknowledge the breadth, length and height of your love for us and your concern for all you have created. Help us to treasure your Word in our hearts and in our minds, that we may always find your pearl of great price and rejoice in all you lavish upon us. Amen.
Jesus put before the crowd another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain then the weeds appeared as
well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” Then Jesus left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the
weeds are the children of the evil one and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!”
Sermon
Matthew is at it again. Another parable turned into an allegory, another very restricted reading of a dynamic and challenging parable. Why does he do it? What is going on in his community, that he feels the need to interpret Jesus’s words for them in this particular way? We can surmise as much as we like, and many people have, but this reading of the parable of the wheat and the weeds is particularly judgemental. Matthew has turned it into a story about the end times, of good and evil, of God’s work being frustrated by a malevolent power who will ultimately be destroyed, when he could have left the parable open and flexible, with questions about the origins of weeds and the power of distraction a-plenty for us to work on.
The definition of a weed is simply a plant in the wrong place. Weeds are just as much plants as roses, it’s just that they have not been so carefully worked on over the centuries to produce scent or large flowers or food. In many ways, as any gardener knows, weeds are more successful than lots of the plants that we want to grow – they sprout faster, come into flower faster and can be incredibly effective at spreading their seed for the next generation of weeds to bother the gardener. Weeds have adapted to human presence, attaching themselves to our clothing or travelling in our cars or trains – in fact the advent of the railways brought a massive spread of weeds across this country, one of the many unintended consequences of progress.
But in Jesus’s parable, these are not random weeds that have made their way into this field of wheat – “good seed” has been planted, that is, carefully selected seed, with all the little weed seeds taken out of it. No, someone very deliberately sows the weeds, as an act of sabotage, or spite, or both. Why do that? There are far more efficient ways of ruining an opponent’s crops – trampling, burning, letting cattle in – all of which deny any form of harvest at all for the suffering farmer. This way, the farmer just has more work to do to separate out the weeds from the grain. He still gets his wheat harvest, just with a bit more effort. And, in practical terms, the farmer also gets a pile of dried weeds to start the village bread oven, so it is even possible to read some benefit into the weeds. This enemy must have other intentions. If he is not trying to starve the farmer, or destroy his livelihood, then this enemy must be in the business of frustration and annoyance. The wheat will grow, the grain will be produced, but not without pain and extra labour. Echoes there of the fall narrative – where God curses the ground so that Adam’s labour will have to increase and childbirth will be painful.
Now the parable starts to open up. The kingdom of heaven will not ultimately be destroyed or defeated, but its fulfilment will take more effort than we think. All sorts of things will get in the way of God’s rule on earth, and we will have to be selective in how we deal with those issues. Covid 19 is one of those weeds. It has the capacity to strangle life out of communities, to break down societal cohesion and to render nul all the advances of the previous centuries. But it is also possible that we will learn to deal with it, to vaccinate against it, to order our lives in a new way that mitigates its effects. Covid 19 is not the end of the Kingdom of God, nor is it the end of the Church, or our way of life. It is one of those extra things we will get to grips with, but ultimately it will be thrown on the fire of irrelevancies.
What else, then, could qualify as a weed, or a barrier to the expansion of the Kingdom of God? Well, how long have you got?! There are external weeds, like discrimination and prejudice, poverty and exclusion. There are internal weeds like distraction, laziness, lack of focus. There are serious weeds, like illness and bereavement, family stresses and workplace hassles. There are spiritual weeds like doubt or unbendable opinions. The whole work-family-life balance could be one big weed – or it could be an opportunity to knuckle down, sort out some priorities and enjoy the good things that God has provided for us in this wonderful world.
Your vicar leaving could be viewed as a weed, or as the best thing that could possibly happen to these parishes. I leave that one with you to assess in the years to come.
The good seed of the Kingdom of Heaven will continue to grow. Our baptism, our faith, the presence of the Holy Spirit in us cannot be taken away and will bring us to everlasting glory, when everything will make sense and we will learn to value weeds fully. But may we be given grace to work at either eradicating our weeds, or finding an accommodation with them, or using them for some other valuable purpose, so that God’s great kingdom of love and mercy may fully be realised in his wonderful world.
Our worship together is in the name of the + Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Service audio
Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you:
and also with you.
Hymn: As the deer pants for the water
Let us pray
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.
Confession:
The gospel calls us to turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ. As we offer ourselves to him in penitence and faith, we renew our confidence and trust in his mercy.
God of mercy, we acknowledge that we are all sinners. We turn from the wrong that we have thought and said and done, and are mindful of all that we have failed to do. For the sake of Jesus who died for us, forgive us for all that is past and help us to live each day in the light of Christ our Lord. Amen.
Almighty God, who forgives all who truly repent, have mercy upon you, +pardon and deliver you from all your sins, confirm and strengthen you in all goodness, and keep you in life eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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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.
Let us pray
Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified: hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people, that in their vocation and ministry they may serve you in holiness and truth to the glory of your name; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen
Isaiah 55:10-13
Isiah reading
Thus says the LORD: As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the LORD for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
This is the Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
Romans 8:1-11
Romans reading
There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law – indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also
Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew
Glory to you, O Lord.
Matthew 13:1-9. 18-23
Matthew reading
Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the lake. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen! Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. But as for that was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ.
Sermon
Sermon audio
When is a parable not a parable? When Matthew gets his hands on it. The story of the sower is possibly the best known of all of Jesus’s parables, but Matthew renders it lumpy and restricted as soon as he puts a limited interpretation on it. As it stands, the story is dynamic and challenging, open-ended and rich. After Matthew has asserted meaning for each individual section of the parable, it becomes thin and uni-directional. The trouble is that having read Matthew’s gloss on the parable of the sower, we can only think of it in his terms – this equals that, each element forever stuck with a particular meaning. So this morning we are going to free this parable from its Matthean shackles, and let it wander around our consciousness to challenge and to change us.
I am not the best person to talk about the success or otherwise of sowing seed. I have very poor results from my efforts, and am not that much better at potting on plug plants. I need my gardening efforts to involve fairly established plants if I am going to have any hope of success. This is why I am a parish priest and not a market gardener or the owner of a flower shop. I therefore have every sympathy with Matthew’s sower, who works so hard to grow his crop on unpromising land, only to receive a ¼ return on his efforts. However, that ¼ return has degrees of success, which may well outweigh the losses the 75% of the land produces.
It gets complicated at this point, as it can move into maths. Are 30 fold, 60 fold and 100 fold outcomes greater than the original weight of seed? Does the sower, from these successful patches of land, come away with food for his family and a profit at market?
Then we can ask if Jesus is speaking from experience. Was a 25% return normal for farmers of his day? Israel is a rocky and dry country. It is the migratory superhighway for birds travelling north from their winter feeding grounds in Africa, and the timing of their flights coincides with the planting season. Was this farmer uncousciously providing a useful stop-off for warblers and finches on their journey to their European nesting sites?
And then we could start the blame game. Why hadn’t the farmer prepared his land better? Why were there still rocks and stoney sections in his field? He can’t have been a very efficient farmer, if weeds came up as soon as he planted his seed! Couldn’t he have roped in the local children as bird scarers? He deserves everything he gets if he is so lackadaisical in his farming practices.
But what if the outcome of the sowing is actually better than most? How much interest is being paid to you at the moment on your savings? Advertisers reckon on a 1% success rate on all flyers put through our letter boxes – they would give their back teeth for a 30 fold return from a quarter of their publicity, let alone 60 or 100 fold. This is why this parable needs to be kept open, so that it can properly reflect back on us and our world and enable us to scrutinize our plans, our reactions and our efforts.
Matthew wants this parable to be about spreading the Gospel. He insists that God is the sower, the seed is the God’s word, and the field represents the range of human responses to God’s word. That is fine, it is a fairly realistic account of the difficulties of speaking to people about God, of the numbers who respond positively to his message and who stick around in the Church. But what if we change the meaning of the seed to God’s love, or God’s grace, or God’s forgiveness? What does that say about our God? It speaks of a reckless generosity, an anticipation of rejection and failure yet also of massive joy in those who do respond. Would we dare to be as profligate as that?
And what if we change the meaning to prayer? We become the sower, and our prayers can feel as if they are falling on dry ground, or are snatched away by our daily worries and labours. Do we concentrate on the 75% failure rate of our intercessions? Or should we rejoice and find encouragement in the massive return on our successes?
The Church of England has a tag line, “A Christian presence in every community”. In terms of the parable of the sower, that puts the Church of England in the place of the sower – which means all of us who come together to express that Christian presence in our community. This raises questions about our effectiveness, our rejection levels, our failures. How good are we at recognising answers to our corporate prayers? How can we measure people’s awareness of our presence and appreciation of all that we have to offer? Should we be counting up our 30 fold, 60 fold and 100 fold returns in individuals or families, or social influence? We are in this for the long term, even if your Vicar passes through on a breeze and is then gone again. Some of you were here when we arrived, many of you have joined since 2004, the Barn & St Luke’s are very different places now than then. There has been much joy and much sorrow and an awful lot of in between stuff – quiet, faithful lives of witness and service in practical ways, skills revealed and used to the full, a discovery of unused talents that have blossomed for the benefit of others.
What if we applied the sower principle to other areas – politics, education, social welfare, health, even? Is the principle of generosity and grace a useful starting point in those domains? Could you take this into your workplace? And what about family life? The role of parents is to give, and to give, and to give to their children out of love and care, and that doesn’t stop when those children are in their 30s and 40s!
At heart this parable raises the question: what are we looking for over the long term: net loss or net gain – or more pertinently, what is God looking for over the long term? Does the shrivelled plant of neglect or the seed eaten by birds or the weed-choked seedling break his heart of love? Of course it does, but that doesn’t restrict his generosity. Do the differing levels of response from redeemed humanity cause him concern? Not at all, he delights in any movement we make towards him, of gratitude or of service.
The parable of the sower is about the generosity of a God who loves and forgives and accepts us day after day, year after year, for all eternity. May we live our lives as a generous response to that initial generosity, and so be part of that 30 fold, 60 fold and even 100 fold growth of God in others. Amen.
Prayers – with thanks to Veronica Willoughby
Intercessions audio
Dear Lord, we have all been in lockdown for 13 weeks and every Sunday on Zoom we have been able to see our friends from Church but some we haven’t and we hope that they are all doing well and have escaped the Covid 19 virus, we pray for everyone in our congregation and look forward to seeing them all on the 19th July 2020. We pray for all churches in this Diocese of Southwark and that they will open again successfully with no threat of closure as a result of financial losses.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer
Gracious Lord we pray for Father Peter Hart who is to leave with his wife Beverley and take up a new position in Worcester Diocese. May they enjoy their life there as much as we have enjoyed having them with us. God bless them both.
Lord in your Mercy, hear our prayer
We pray for His Holiness the Pope, Justin Welby, our Archbishop of Canterbury, Christopher our Bishop of Southwark. We pray for Her Majesty the Queen and all the Royal Family.
Dear Lord, Let us pray for the families of those who have died from Covid 19 and all the NHS carers who cared for them devotedly in hospitals and care homes, their wonderful work will never be forgotten and though we are sad now the future is bright if we need care ourselves in the future. They have really shown their worth.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer
We pray for those who are to be admitted to communion on 19th July:Evia Bliss,Theo Corpetti, Annah Kabongo, Louisa Kingston, Effie King, Isabella Mitchell-Fry
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer
We pray for all those who are sick amongst our congregation and all those who care for them: Julia Holboro, Luci Mitchell-Fry, Joan Pritchard, Johanna Procter, Kevin Willoughby, Max Weston. Bring them healing and wholeness we pray.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer
We remember especially Mary Smith, Revd Canon Graham Foulis Brown, Norma Williams, Gulam Abu Saleh, Eric Ewington and Ted Wheadon who now live with you in heaven and we will not see them again. Gather them in your loving arms dear Lord and give them words of comfort in their final hours. Amen.
Merciful Father, accept these prayers for the sake of your Son Our Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.
Blessed are the peacemakers; they shall be called children of God. We meet in the name of Christ and share his peace. The peace of the Lord be always with you. And also with you.
Be present, be present, Lord Jesus Christ, Our risen high priest;
It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks,
holy Father, almighty and eternal God. From sunrise to sunset this day is holy, for Christ has risen from the tomb and scattered the darkness of death with light that will not fade. This day the risen Lord walks with your gathered people, unfolds for us your word, and makes himself known in the breaking of the bread. And though the night will overtake this day you summon us to live in endless light, the never-ceasing Sabbath of the Lord. And so, with choirs of angels and with all the heavenly host, we proclaim your glory and join their unending song of praise:
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. +Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
As our Saviour taught us, so we pray
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
In darkness and in light,
in trouble and in joy,
help us, heavenly Father,
to trust your love,
to serve your purpose,
and to praise your name;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
and the blessing of God Almighty, +Father, Son & Holy Spirit,
be with you and those you love, today and always. Amen
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord. In the name of Christ. Amen.
We are pleased to be able to let you know the times of services at The Barn later this month. These will be short services of Holy Communion, sadly without hymns but we will have music played during some of the services. The times are:
Sundays 19th & 25th July: Communion at the Barn at 9.30am
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.
Confession:
Lord God, our maker and our redeemer, this is your world and we are your people: come among us and save us.
We have wilfully misused your gifts of creation;
Lord, be merciful: forgive us our sin.
We have seen the ill-treatment of others and have not gone to their aid;
Lord, be merciful: forgive us our sin.
We have condoned evil and dishonesty and failed to strive for justice;
Lord, be merciful: forgive us our sin.
We have heard the good news of Christ, but have failed to share it with others;
Lord, be merciful: forgive us our sin.
We have not loved you with all our heart, nor our neighbours as ourselves;
Lord, be merciful: forgive us our sin.
Almighty God, who forgives all who truly repent, have mercy upon you, +pardon and deliver you from all your sins, confirm and strengthen you in all goodness, and keep you in life eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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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.
Let us pray
O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy:
increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that with you as our ruler and guide we may so pass through things temporal that we lose not our hold on things eternal; grant this, heavenly Father, for our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen
Zechariah 9: 9-12
Zechariah reading
Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. 10 I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. 11 As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit. 12 Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.
This is the Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
Romans 7: 15-25
Romans reading
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew
Matthew reading
Glory to you, O Lord.
Jesus said to the disciples,“To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:
17 “‘We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’
18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.”
At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ.
Sermon by Michael Tonkin
5th July sermon
‘A Rebellious Son’
“They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a profligate and a drunkard”.
Lines taken from the book of Deuteronomy chapter 21, words the parents of a rebellious son would have said on taking him to the elders of Israel, and words heard again in our Gospel reading this morning, spoken by Jesus, describing how the crowd following him viewed him, this new prophet.
Jesus had just been speaking to the crowds about John the Baptist, who was now in prison, and what the people’s response and opinion of him had been. Now though, the crowds following Jesus consider John to be yesterday’s news, “For John came neither eating or drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’ ”. Now they have Jesus, a man who turns water into wine, a man who dines with tax collectors. “Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and ‘sinners’.
Jesus is fully aware of the fickleness of the crowd, how they bend like reeds in the wind, one way and then another. Jesus knows them well, they are like selfish children, who only want to play their own game, and then, only if they can take the main part. But of course the end result for these poor, cross, dissatisfied children is that they have no one to play with at all, and no idea how or what to play on their own.
“To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the market place and calling to others: “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’ “
One can sense the exasperation felt by Jesus, whose own relationship with his own Father is one of complete love and mutual understanding. For, as we hear in the second half of our Gospel reading:
“All things have been committed to me by my Father. No-one knows the Son except the Father, and no-one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Here is the saddest part, for Jesus came then, as he comes now, not to judge but to forgive, not to demand or expect, but to offer. “Come to me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”.
But then, as now, we are all so fickle by nature, happy one moment to celebrate our NHS and key workers, only on the next fine day for many to be flocking to the beaches, parks and open spaces, social distancing forgotten, probably putting much past good work at risk. It is so often not just ourselves that we can put at risk, but those around us, even those not necessarily known personally to us. Jesus does not demand from us, but that does not mean that his road is always an easy one, or not without some cost. As with all things in life we cannot just take, or always do just as we want, just playing our own little games to our own rules. We mostly live in partnerships, in family units and within communities for which we should and must share responsibilities, not just because the law may demand it, or because of the present pandemic, but because our Christian faith and ethos expects it.
As so often in the case with the Apostle Paul, his life and mind appear to be in turmoil!
Paul wrestles with the question of why God gave the Law and what its role had been.
Paul, more than many, having been a Pharisee, knew that it was right to embrace and celebrate the Torah, God’s Law as passed on to the Jews by Moses. However, due to Adam in the Garden of Eden, humankind was innately sinful, and so the Law as laid down in the Torah, condemns those human sins.
It is only, in fact, by the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross that this ‘innate sin’ has been purged and removed from humankind. As Paul writes, “Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord,”
So too, we in our daily lives and relationships, must thank God for giving us His Son and welcoming us all into His love and care, especially during this present time, not only today but always. As the psalmist writes in today’s Psalm 145:
“The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.
The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made”. Amen.
Prayers – with thanks to Angela Hollingworth
5th July Prayers
Dearest Lord, we give you thanks for life, as we pray for our troubled and ailing world. We are comforted by your enduring love and long for your presence in times of peace, sickness, danger and death.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We pray for churches throught the world and give thanks for Peter’s ministry and all who support our church, which sadly we miss, but your love in our hearts will always strengthen and sutain us. Let us pray for our sister churches, for Justin Welby, Pope Francis and Bishop Cleophas of Matabeleland and the Green Park School in Zambia.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Bless and guide Elizabeth our Queen and all those in authority. Please guide our government to protect and love our people and to respect and care for our global neighbours. May those in authority be influenced by dreamers rather than schemers.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We pray for families, friends and neighbours. We pray for those we love, who are near or far. Let us contunue to give thanks for our NHS and all who work to heal and to save us. Let us not forget the armed forces, firefighters and police: those who work in supermarkets, pharmacies and schools. And thank you for those who take our refuse, keep our streets clean and deliver our post.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Please help us to protect all children. We pray for those who are abused, lost and suffering. Please guard the elderly who are cut off from families or friends. Let us pray for those suffering from depression, loneliness, psychiatric and serious medical conditions.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We pray for those who fear for their jobs. For our planet – may we all work to heal the damage. Please may we be reconciled with those with whom we differ. Grant us widom in our lives. May we be kinder to each other. The Torah says that kindness is the highest form of wisdom.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Comfort and heal all those who suffer in body, mind or spirit. Let us pray for Julia Holboro, Annie Kunz, Gill Risso-Gil, Luci Mitchell Fry, Joan Pritchard, Johanna Procter, Kevin Willoughby and Max Weston. We give thank for those who work to heal and care for them.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Let us pray for those who have died this country and throught the world. We remember Mary Smith, Pattie Johnson, Norma Williams, Eric Ewington, Ted Wheadon, Graham Foulis Brown. We pray for their families.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
In a world that is troubled by sickness and strife, let us enfold ourselves in the words of a beautiful hymn:
Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Fill me with life anew
That I may love what thou dost love
And do what thou wouldst do.
Breathe on me Breath of God,
So shall I never die.
But live with thee the perfect life
Of thine eternity.
Merciful Father, accept these prayers for the sake of your Son Our Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.
It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks,
holy Father, almighty and eternal God. From sunrise to sunset this day is holy, for Christ has risen from the tomb and scattered the darkness of death with light that will not fade. This day the risen Lord walks with your gathered people, unfolds for us your word, and makes himself known in the breaking of the bread. And though the night will overtake this day you summon us to live in endless light, the never-ceasing sabbath of the Lord. And so, with choirs of angels and with all the heavenly host, we proclaim your glory and join their unending song of praise:
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. +Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
As our Saviour taught us, so we pray
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
The love of the Lord Jesus draw you to himself, the power of the Lord Jesus strengthen you in his service, the joy of the Lord Jesus fill your hearts; and the blessing of God almighty, the +Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be with you and those you love, today and always. Amen.
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord. In the name of Christ. Amen.
