RAMBLING RECTOR
Church buildings can open for public worship now, but I will continue to send a short reflection, for those of you who must continue to ‘shield’. It will be based on the topic of the Sunday Sermon, but not a transcript of it.
Let me know if you want a full transcript and I’ll get one to you.
SUNDAY 26 July 2020
Romans 8.26-end
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. 31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’[j]
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[k] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Matthew 13.31-33 and 44-52
Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to MATTHEW
Glory to you, O Lord.
31 He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.’
33 He told them still another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about thirty kilograms of flour until it worked all through the dough.’
44 ‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
45 ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
47 ‘Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. 48 When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. 49 This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50 and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
51 ‘Have you understood all these things?’ Jesus asked. ‘Yes,’ they replied. 52 He said to them, ‘Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.’
This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ.
SUNDAY 26 July 2020
I love that, as Paul expresses it in his letter to the Church at Rome, we’re not just conquerors
but we are MORE than Conquerors!
This is another TRUTH for us to really get hold of. I feel I want to write with Capital letters!
We are Set Free: We are Children of God: We are Heirs of God
And now WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS!
It is as if Paul is reaching out to us, across the centuries since these words were first written,
to drum this truth into us!
The truth is that circumstances, however hard, will not separate us from God’s love. Maybe life feels incredibly difficult for you at the moment, maybe you are fearful for the future.
Paul tells us that he himself has experienced beatings and imprisonments. We suffer from hardships that are part of every human life, as well as suffering as a result of faithfulness to God.
While both threaten to separate us from the love of God, neither ultimately can.
We are "more than conquerors."
Even when things go horribly, disastrously wrong, even when the whole world seems bent on our destruction, all things are ours in Christ Jesus.
We are not condemned.
We are not separated from God.
We are more than Conquerors…
We are the Kingdom of God!
The Kingdom of God is in us, here and now.
And, to borrow the wealth of images from the parables in our gospel reading today…
Perhaps…
We are mustard seeds grown into flourishing plants
We are yeast leavening a whole sack of flour
We are treasure hidden in a field
We are the pearl of great price
We are the haul of fish
We are the storehouse of treasures.
We are more than Conquerors…
Today, those of us who feel able to get to our church buildings will be able to celebrate communion for the first time in many months.
We will receive humbly as we each reach out our hands to receive the wafer, but we remember as we do so that we receive that wafer which is to be to us the body of Christ, as part of his Holy Church which is the Body of Christ in the world.