This week’s Readings and Sermon for the Fourth Sunday After Trinity
The Collect for This Week
Gracious Father, by the obedience of Jesus you brought salvation to our wayward world: draw us into harmony with your will, that we may find all things restored in him, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The Post Communion Prayer for this week
Eternal God, comfort of the afflicted and healer of the broken, you have fed us at the table of life and hope: teach us the ways of gentleness and peace, that all the world may acknowledge the kingdom of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
The Psalm for this Sunday is Psalm13
1 How long will you forget me, O Lord; for ever? How long will you hide your face from me? 2 How long shall I have anguish in my soul and grief in my heart, day after day? How long shall my enemy triumph over me? 3 Look upon me and answer, O Lord my God; lighten my eyes, lest I sleep in death; 4 Lest my enemy say, ‘I have prevailed against him,’ and my foes rejoice that I have fallen. 5 But I put my trust in your steadfast love; my heart will rejoice in your salvation. 6 I will sing to the Lord, for he has dealt so bountifully with me.
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 reading for this Sunday is taken from the Book of the Genesis, Chapter 22, verses 1 to 14
1 After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ 2 He said, ‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt-offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.’ 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt-offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.’ 6 Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. 7 Isaac said to his father Abraham, ‘Father!’ And he said, ‘Here I am, my son.’ He said, ‘The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?’ 8 Abraham said, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt-offering, my son.’ So the two of them walked on together.
9 When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ 12 He said, ‘Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.’ 13 And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt-offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place ‘The Lord will provide’; as it is said to this day, ‘On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.’
This is the Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
The second reading for this Sunday is taken from the Letter of St Paul to the Romans, Chapter 6, verses 12 to 23
12 Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. 13 No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
15 What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, 18 and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations.For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.
20 When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
The Gospel reading for this Sunday is taken from the Gospel of St Matthew, Chapter 10, verses 40 to 42
Hear the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ, according to Matthew Glory to You, o Lord
40 ‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41 Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; 42 and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.’
This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to You, o Christ
Note :All readings are shared from the Church of England Lectionary App and are subject to copyright . © The Archbishop’s Council
This week’s sermon is delivered by Rev Samuel Hameem
“May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you O Lord my refuge and my redeemer amen.”
Today is the Fourth Sunday after Trinity, and we as a church have entered in Ordinary Time. This is the Church's time of year, where we learn, explore and ponder more on the miracles and teaching of Jesus. This period, the period of ordinary time, this starts with the Trinity Sunday and will end with the start of the Advent season. So, on this fourth Sunday after Trinity, we heard readings from the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, from book or Paul’s letter to the Church of Romans, and a reading from the Gospel according to Matthew.
Leaving aside the other two references, if we recall today’s Gospel reading in our minds, we could come to know that there is so much in it for us to learn and to ponder on, but before that, it would be better if we could look at the immediate context of this Gospel passage. So, if we look at the immediate context of our today’s Gospel reading, we could come to know that in start of the tenth chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus chose and called his twelve disciples, and then he sent them out in the mission field with some instructions, and today’s passage from the Gospel account is the end of that instruction manual which Jesus gave them before sending them out on their first placement.
If we look closely, and dig a bit deeper into this chapter, we could come to know that in this chapter, Jesus is talking about how difficult the Christian life is. I was reading it somewhere that in this instruction manual Jesus is talking to his disciples that Christian life is a "rough road", full of difficulties, hardships, and uncertainties. That is why in the verses we heard last week in our churches from the same Gospel account, Jesus said ‘do not fear’. In this chapter, before sending his disciples away from him for a missionary work, Jesus is reminding them, and us that life or Christian life is not easy, but what we have to do is to keep faith on God in Jesus and he will guide us with his Spirit, so we can manifest Jesus in our lives, and only then will we be worthy of the rewards that Jesus mentioned in today's verses. In today’s Gospel reading, from verse 40-10 Jesus said that,
“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous,”
In these two verses Jesus, as I said earlier concludes his discourse with his disciples. If we go through this chapter from which we heard our today’s Gospel reading, we could come to know that from verses 17-39, Jesus is talking about the cost of discipleship, and in today’s passage he is talking about the rewards about discipleship, and he is teaching about it because he knows that a disciple represents Christ, and anyone who accepts the disciple in Jesus’ name, participates his teaching and have faith on him, he or she will get reward from God. According to Arani Sen,
“In the Gospel, the disciples are sent out to proclaim the kingdom of God through sings of divine love, acts of healing and uplifting conversation.”
The phrase or term Jesus used here for reward, is a synonym of result or outcome of accepting Jesus in the name of God. It is also a term which is used in the sense of positive outcome which also means pay off, a positive outcome and results from a sensible investment. That is why Jesus said, whoever accept you (disciples) in the name of Jesus, will accept Jesus and God at the same time, and will receive a reward. Interestingly, the word Jesus used here for “Receive,” is used here as a synonym for “believe,” with the stress on the initial attitude of openness toward.
I was listing a preacher on the television and he was saying something like this that, if the invisible God is made visible to the living through the words and works of the followers of Christ, so also is the, now or soon-to-be, invisible Jesus made visible through his disciples. Some scholars think that this visibility provides a bridge from the haughty prophet to the lowly “little ones,” of which Jesus is talking about in the next verse.
In verse forty-two, whoever gives a cup of cold water to one of these little ones: To give a cup of cold water was and still is, an essential act of courtesy and hospitality in our society and in Jesus’ time as well. It is a fact that it is really taken for granted and deserves no reward. Yet, even this small act of acceptance and kindness will receive one. God notices and counts as valuable the smallest act of kindness and acceptance just as he notices the sparrow and counts the hairs on a person’s head according to Matthew 10: 29-30.
The Greek word that Jesus used here means for ‘little’ in size of ‘young’ in age, but it also can mean ‘insignificant’, ‘lowly’, or ‘unimportant. Using this wide-ranging word, Jesus’ words can include children, outcasts, marginalized and the detested all the nobodies of society.
Some think these terms, little ones, righteous, sinners, or these type words reflect the hierarchy of the church: apostles, prophets, holy men, that is, distinguished, well-known, and important members of the church and little ones the ordinary members. Whatever the case, in today’s Gospel reading Matthew aims to embrace all Christians, commissioned for ministry or not. Titles and handles are unimportant in the kingdom. Those who accept God’s word through his emissaries or through their word or example of life will be as equally rewarded as they.
So this Sunday, when we are pondering on today’s Gospel passage, we need to remember that we all are called to be different, we all are call to be the ambassador, disciples, and followers of Christ, so we can manifest Jesus to the people around us, so they may also have faith on him and live their lives accordingly. But the question is are manifesting Jesus through our personal, family, church, social, emotional, and spiritual life. We need to ask this question to ourself and we need to answer this question within our self.
May God bless you all. Amen.