This week’s Prayers and Readings : There is no Sermon as we are holing a joint service at Longhlme Methodist church
The Collect for the Eightth Sunday after Trinity
Almighty Lord and everlasting God, we beseech you to direct, sanctify and govern both our hearts and bodies in the ways of your laws and the works of your commandments; that through your most mighty protection, both here and ever, we may be preserved in body and soul; 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
The Post Communion Prayer for this Sunday
Strengthen for service, Lord, the hands that have taken holy things; may the ears which have heard your word be deaf to clamour and dispute; may the tongues which have sung your praise be free from deceit; may the eyes which have seen the tokens of your love shine with the light of hope; and may the bodies which have been fed with your body be refreshed with the fullness of your life; glory to you for ever. Amen.
The Psalm for this Sunday is Psalm 23
1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters 3 he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff - they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning is now and shall be forever. Amen
The Old Testament Lesson for this Sunday is taken from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah, Chapter 23 Verses 1-6
Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the Lord. 2 Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord. 3 Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4 I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord.
5 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’
This is the Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
The New Testament reading for this Sunday is taken from the Second Letter of St Paul to the Ephesians, Chapter 2, verses 11-22
11 So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called ‘the uncircumcision’ by those who are called ‘the circumcision’—a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands— 12 remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. 15 He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, so that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, 16 and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. 17 So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; 18 for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, 20 built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21 In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; 22 in whom you also are built together spiritually[f] into a dwelling-place for God.
This is the Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
The Gospel reading for this Sunday is taken from the Gospel according to to St Mark, Chapter 6, 30 to 34 and 53 to 56
Hear the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ, according to Mark Glory to You, o Lord
The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 34 As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
53 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. 54 When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, 55 and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the market-places, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.
This is the Gospel of the Lord Praise to You, o Christ
The sermon this week is delivered by Rev Chich Hewitt
You will have noticed me interrupting the flow of the Gospel reading with a reference to a later paragraph. There is a disjoint in the reading where Mark says about Jesus, ‘and he began to teach them many things’. This is followed immediately by the words, ’when they had crossed over they came to land at Gennesaret’. There is not an even flow there, and that is because those who designed our lectionary decide to leave out two stories - the feeding of the 5,000 and Jesus walking on the water, which occurred just before their arrival at Gennesaret. The reason for omitting the feeding fo the 5,000 is that it is going to be the Gospel theme for the next few weeks, presented from John’s Gospel where the miracle is followed by Jesus’ discussion about being the bread of life.
One disadvantage of the omission of these verses from today’s Gospel is that we miss a theme which I would like to pick up this morning - the theme of endurance and resultant stress.. Let’s start by following the outline of this story. Jesus’ disciples had gone out two by two at Jesus’ instructions. Their mission had gone very well, as was part of our reading a couple of weeks ago. Now they were reporting back, possibly on a high because of all that had happened. We are not told if Jesus complimented them or not. What he did notice was that there was activity all around them, so there was not even a chance to have anything to eat. He saw a need they had and responded to it. ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest’. They set out in a boat, where there may have been a brief respite. But the quiet place was no longer quiet. The crowds had seen where they were heading, and anticipating their arrival were ready waiting for them. Rather than try to find another quiet place, Jesus, with the disciples, got out of the boat as his heart had gone out to them. He felt that they were like sheep without a shepherd.
Those who chose our lessons saw this as important. In the Old Testament reading, God was cross with false pastors who had abused their role as shepherds of the people. Psalm 23 has been set for today, where we are told that the Lord is our shepherd. Here we see Jesus fulfilling that role. These people were seeking for something, and their own leaders were not seeing the need, for they were intent on other things like minutiae of the law. The people in this crowd saw something Jesus was offering, which nobody else was offering. Rather than resting with his disciples he began ministering to them for his heart had gone out to them. They were like sheep without a shepherd, and he was that good shepherd. The planned period of rest was abandoned. Jesus taught them many things.
Then the parts of the story which have been left out. The feeding of the 5,000 - that for another time. After that Jesus felt the need to go and be on his own to pray. He dismissed the crowd, and sent his disciples on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he went to pray. Their boat journey was not easy. They faced a head-wind and were struggling to make progress. Did Jesus find time to focus on prayer? It was evening; maybe there was time to pray. But from a vantage point he saw the disciples struggling on the lake until before dawn. Jesus ceased his prayers and took action. He set out to them, across the water.
The disciples, exhausted at the oars of their boat saw what they thought was an apparition coming across the water, and they cried out in terror. But Jesus said those often used words, ‘Don’t be afraid’. He got into the boat and the wind ceased. There was an earlier incident in this Gospel where Jesus was with them, asleep in the boat, while a storm raged round then, and he stilled the storm. This is a different incident. It was a persistent adverse wind rather than a storm, and they were alone without him, until he joined them, when the wind dropped.
That is where we come back in on the Gospel passage this morning. When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret as planned. Word got around, and the crowds built up. Jesus and his disciples moved from village to village, offering a ministry of healing. So our Gospel today looks at a successful ministry from the disciples, and Jesus’ unselfish ministry in two places. But when we include the two stories that have been left out of today’s reading, we see something else. We see people who need rest and don’t get it. We see the need to pray, which is often interrupted; and we see people struggling in their task to cross the lake because of the weather. Ministry can be relentless and persistent without the chance to rest and pray, and then other things get in the way. Can anything be done to alleviate these difficulties?
This is where we need both to be givers and receivers. I am not focusing on the ministry itself but rather on those who provide it and those who support the providers. I may have told the story of a time in ministry in South Africa where I read an article Gill showed me in a medical journal. When you are under pressure and not far from burn out, are there any warning signs? The article showed two little boxes. One box had five physical signs to watch out for, and the other 5 emotional indicators. I looked at the 5 physical ones, and found myself OK, but when I looked at the emotional ones, I realised I was not OK. Not long afterwards, relatively unscathed, I had the opportunity of a good long sabbatical, but I realised how little our church was engaging with these issues.
At a diocesan gathering, I offered to give input on the subject of stress in ministry. It was to have been a filler between other times, but when I had finished brief input, the synod came to life. Question after question followed and the timetable was disrupted. I had touched on a nerve and people began to talk about these things for the first time. In our Gospel passage today there were disciples whose planned rest did not come about, and in the missing section Jesus’ prayers were interrupted and the disciples, heading out, had to row against the wind. Ministry to others, while rewarding, can be draining and then other stuff gets in the way. While our present society takes stress related illness more seriously, stress in life and in the workplace remain. And in terms of stipendiary clergy there are greater demands, as people are being stretched across numbers of parishes. In both the previous parishes where I served in the past, I along with others have taken occasional services, because the clergy were off on long term sick leave.
While keeping tabs on our own ministerial roles, lay and ordained, we have a ministry of care for those who are under stress. As we need to make time for our own rest against the odds, we need also to make our own time for prayer, again often against the odds. And as we all face the head-winds that stop us crossing the lake, so to speak, we need also to support one another, and others, who are also exhausted and and lack the strength to fight the head winds, whatever form these may take.
Generally I think we are aware of the needs of our needs and of those around us, but rest and prayer remain paramount. I have said we can pray for those further afield. As we look back on Covid we see medical staff who raced unrelenting pressures without time to rest and without equipment. Some of that pressure is off, but there is still huge pressure on NHS staff who could benefit from our prayers. Another area is for those doctors and nurses working in Gaza where the work is unending and traumatic. Aid those who serve in other theatres of war all over the world face the same impossible strains, and can benefit from our prayers.
Nor is it only medical and aid issues at stake. There are those in our country who face excessive pressures in education and in the prison service to name just two more. For some we can do as Jesus did when praying and the need becomes evident. We can, so to speak, walk across the chaotic waters and join them, as Jesus did, and bring those words of reassurance which in turn we need to hear ourselves. They are the words of the Good Shepherd and some of the most comforting recurring words in the Bible. ‘Fear not’, or ‘do not be afraid’. That is because there is one greater than us who can join us in the boat as the head winds subside. It is then that ministry can continue.