20 June 2021
10:00 | 
Posted by
Dr Platts |
This morning, on a very rainy Sunday morning we met at 10 am for Mattins. Unfortunately Joanna was unwell, so we had a said service. We wish her better soon. Father Roger took the service and preached, you can read his excellent sermon at the end of this post. We heard in the notices some details of the St Mary's Market which will be held on the 10th of July. We have been unable to hold the Fete again this year due to the covid regulations, so we are having a Market selling home made produce, plants, books and sundries on July the 10th. More details are in the Parish Magazine and will appear here soon!!
We left the church having enjoyed the change of a said service, but looking forward to music again next week!. Father Luke, the Archdeacon will take the 10 am service next week which will be a Eucharist, do come along and meet him!
Meanwhile at Sunday School the young people were making boats and gingerbread figures of Jesus and thinking about Jesus calming the storm.
8am Said Communion
2 Corinthians 6:1-13
A reading from he second letter of Paul to the Corinthians.
As we work together with Christ,
we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain.
For he says,
"At an acceptable time I have listened to you,
and on a day of salvation I have helped you."
See, now is the acceptable time;
see, now is the day of salvation!
We are putting no obstacle in anyone's way,
so that no fault may be found with our ministry,
but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way:
through great endurance, in afflictions,
hardships, calamities,
beatings, imprisonments, riots,
labours, sleepless nights, hunger;
by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness,
holiness of spirit, genuine love,
truthful speech, and the power of God;
with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left;
in honour and dishonour,
in ill repute and good repute.
We are treated as impostors, and yet are true;
as unknown, and yet are well known;
as dying, and see—we are alive;
as punished, and yet not killed;
as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing;
as poor, yet making many rich;
as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
We have spoken frankly to you Corinthians;
our heart is wide open to you.
There is no restriction in our affections,
but only in yours.
In return—I speak as to children—open wide your hearts also.
Mark 4:35-41
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark.
When evening had come, he said to his disciples,
"Let us go across to the other side."
And leaving the crowd behind,
they took him with them in the boat, just as he was.
Other boats were with him.
A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat,
so that the boat was already being swamped.
But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion;
and they woke him up and said to him,
"Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"
He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea,
"Peace! Be still!"
Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.
He said to them, "Why are you afraid?
Have you still no faith?"
And they were filled with great awe
and said to one another,
"Who then is this,
that even the wind and the sea obey him?"
Collect
Almighty God,
you have broken the tyranny of sin
and have sent the Spirit of your Son into our hearts
whereby we call you Father:
give us grace to dedicate our freedom to your service,
that we and all creation may be brought
to the glorious liberty of the children of God;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now nad forever.
Amen.
10 am Sung Mattins
Deuteronomy 11:1-15
1 Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway.
2 And know ye this day: for I speak not with your children which have not known, and which have not seen the chastisement of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his stretched out arm,
3 And his miracles, and his acts, which he did in the midst of Egypt unto Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and unto all his land;
4 And what he did unto the army of Egypt, unto their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red sea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and how the LORD hath destroyed them unto this day;
5 And what he did unto you in the wilderness, until ye came into this place;
6 And what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel:
7 But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the LORD which he did.
8 Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land, whither ye go to possess it;
9 And that ye may prolong your days in the land, which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth with milk and honey.
10 For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs:
11 But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven:
12 A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.
13 And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
14 That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.
15 And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full.
Mark 5:21-43
21 And when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto him: and he was nigh unto the sea.
22 And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw him, he fell at his feet,
23 And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live.
24 And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him.
25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,
26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,
27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.
28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.
29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.
30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?
31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?
32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing.
33 But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.
34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.
35 While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain which said, Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further?
36 As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe.
37 And he suffered no man to follow him, save Peter, and James, and John the brother of James.
38 And he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly.
39 And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth.
40 And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying.
41 And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise.
42 And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years. And they were astonished with a great astonishment.
43 And he charged them straitly that no man should know it; and commanded that something should be given her to eat.
Address
When we have two substantial passages of Scripture read, it is hard not to try to speak about them. For Matins, once a month, we are on a different scheme of readings from the other weeks and using a four-hundred-year-old translation.
Our first reading has us with the ancient Jews, who have escaped from Egypt, and got their Ten Commandments. They are promised that if they stay on the straight and narrow, keep the Commandments, they will come to their Promised Land, where the climate will be better for their crops than it was in Egypt. A land ‘flowing with milk and honey’ was a happy vision. Some ancient garden designers from other Eastern cultures fancied four streams - rills - of wine, water, milk and honey. If you behave you will prosper, seems to be God’s message for the Jews. But in due course they would come to question that.
When we have Psalm 37 at this service, we say or sing, ‘I have been young, and now am old : and yet saw I never the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread.’ We never see the good, or their families, in trouble. But it surely doesn’t work like that – the good and their children can meet undeserved suffering. Many who are persecuted, or who are refugees, will know about that.
One of the classic texts is The Book of Job. Job behaves well, yet he meets disaster after disaster, and the tale and the discussion go on for 42 chapters. ‘You must have been naughty’, say his so-called comforters. God is punishing you. ‘O no, I haven’t been naughty’, says Job. The argument goes on. In the end, Job decides that he should stick with God faithfully, although he is unaware of misbehaving, and still can’t explain his undeserved suffering.
Jesus, of course, is the spectacular example, of the good being badly treated, although he was following a good cause and trod a path to glory.
We tell our children not just to behave, but to keep out of trouble. Keep out of trouble, primarily, I think, because, if they see something wrong happening, they most likely do not have the maturity to tackle the situation.
Jesus did not keep his head down, and he encouraged his followers to hunger and thirst after righteousness, to want and work for right to prevail. With the assurance that those hopes will be met in the final scenario. And those who long for things to be right will find themselves in tune with the Almighty.
The poet A E Housman was an atheist, and thought Jesus was badly mistaken when he didn’t keep out of trouble: Jesus would not ‘leave ill alone’. He wrote the poem The Carpenter’s Son, very much referring to the Crucifixion.
“Here the hangman stops his cart:
Now the best of friends must part.
Fare you well, for ill fare I:
Live, lads, and I will die.
“Oh, at home had I but stayed
‘Prenticed to my father’s trade,
Had I stuck to plane and adze,
I had not been lost, my lads.
“Then I might have built perhaps
Gallows-trees for other chaps,
Never dangled on my own,
Had I but left ill alone.
“Now, you see, they hang me high,
And the people passing by
Stop to shake their fists and curse;
So ‘tis come from ill to worse.
“Here hang I, and right and left
Two poor fellows hang for theft:
All the same’s the luck we prove,
Though the midmost hangs for love.
“Comrades all, that stand and gaze,
Walk henceforth in other ways;
See my neck and save your own:
Comrades all, leave ill alone.
“Make some day a decent end,
Shrewder fellows than your friend.
Fare you well, for ill fare I:
Live lads, and I will die.”
Thank heaven that Christ, and our medical workers, and police and firefighters, and peace-keeping forces, and environmentalists, and aid workers, haven’t left ill alone, but bravely and usefully addressed it.
In our second reading St Paul is having tricky time on a sea journey. Like Christ, he upset some of the Jews and got arrested by the civil authorities. As with Christ, the civil authorities didn’t find him guilty of anything. When he was about to be flogged, he mentioned that he was an unconvicted Roman citizen, and they couldn’t lawfully treat him like that. As he had played that card, he had to take the hazardous voyage to Rome to have things resolved.
God moves in mysterious ways. When Paul arrived, he was put under house arrest for two years, in a rented house. So … he was able to continue to minister fairly freely at the very heart of the Roman Empire, following his earlier extensive missionary work. There are 27 books in the New Testament. Of them, Paul very certainly wrote seven, and has been linked, often precariously, with another seven. He was probably martyred in Rome in Nero’s persecution in 64AD.
Looking to Christ, Paul knew that goodness and Godliness does not necessarily bring an easy life. Trying to do the right thing with God and for God, and accepting the cost of it - not just keeping your head down - will emerge as the best thing in the long run. Or final Kingdom, as we call it.
Fr Roger
