Sunday Worship 18th October

 Sunday Worship

Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity, when we will be celebrating the Feast of St Luke.

Our Church Services this morning are at the usual times of 9.15 at St Agnes' and 11.15 at St Thomas'.

If you are unable to be with us in person, you will find resources below to worship at home.

Our first hymn this morning is "As the Deer Pants for the Water"

Today's Gospel

 Luke 10:1-9                                                        The Mission of the Seventy

After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”

Reflection

Today the church celebrates Luke the Evangelist – the writer of the Synoptic Gospel of the same name, and also widely believed to be the writer of the Book of Acts. Luke was believed to be a gentile, a doctor who lived in the Hellenistic city of Antioch in Ancient Syria, born of a Greek family (although some scholars and theologians think Luke was a Hellenic Jew – that is a Greek non-orthodox Jew) - either way he was very different from the other Gospel writers.

Whether Luke was a Jew or a gentile, he was one of the most highly educated of the authors of the New Testament. His Greek knowledge and writing surpassed anything else written. Luke was a great friend and companion of Paul, and in his second letter to Timothy that is todays first reading, we learn that Luke remains with Paul, who is writing this letter on his deathbed. ‘Do your best to come to me soon’ writes Paul, as ‘only Luke is with me’. Luke was with him to the end, his friend and his doctor. I wonder if Luke, sitting at the deathbed of his dying companion, anointed Paul before he dies? It is such a privilege as a priest to be with someone as their earthly life draws to a close, and to anoint their forehead – ‘ I anoint you in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ’, as the oil lifts the veil between earth and heaven, taking them closer towards the cross and the story of redemption. The story that Luke crafted and shared so amazingly that it still exists today, being shared and retold the world over. Luke was certainly responsible for trying to heal and tend to Paul in his sickness, but in anointing him (which we might presume he did, as it was very customary throughout this time), took responsibility for his very spiritual healing also. And what a huge healing that was for Paul, who started his journey with Christ as Saul, condemning and putting to death Christians, before his conversion on the road to Damascus to Paul. (I have included Paul’s letter below, as it is so important to our Gospel reading today).

As we celebrate all that was good and true about Luke today, may we remember those who heal and treat the sick, those called to be doctors, nurses, pharmacists, technicians, carers and countless others in the medical profession, as well as those who heal spiritually as well as physically. 

But most importantly, may we always remember to tell the story of the redemption of the cross, the good news of Jesus Christ, and the scholarly words crafted by Luke which ensure the story continues today as much it did when he wrote them.

As we heard in our gospel reading today from Luke, let us be amongst the multiplying ‘70’ sent out by Christ, to disciple and to glorify his name to those we encounter. However we do this, we will be walking in the most awesome yet most humble of footsteps. Amen

Rev Kirsten x

2 Timothy 4:5-17 

As for you, be sober in everything, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.

As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

Do your best to come to me soon, for Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me in ministry. I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will pay him back for his deeds. You also must beware of him, for he strongly opposed our message.

At my first defence no one came to my support, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them! But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.

Our Prayers (The Collect for St Luke)

Almighty God,

You called Luke the physician, whose praise is in the gospel, to be an evangelist and physician of the soul:

By the grace of the Spirit and through the wholesome medicine of the gospel, give your church the same love and power to heal; 

Through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

 Amen.

Today's final hymn is "All My Hope on God is Founded"

Sunday Worship 11th October - Harvest Festival

 Sunday Worship

Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity, which is also our Parish Harvest Festival.

This morning there will be only one service in the parish, at 11.15 am at St Thomas' Church, and there will be no service at St Agnes'. The service will be followed by a 'Bring and Share Lunch', to which everyone is invited, whether you are able to bring anything or not - there is always an abundance of food!

We will also be most grateful for donations of non-perishable food items to share with the local community through Oldham Foodbank. 

If you are unable to be with us in person, you will find resources below to worship at home.

Our first hymn this morning is "Morning Has Broken"

Today's Gospel

Luke 12:16-30 The Parable of the Rich Fool

Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’

He said to his disciples, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them.

Reflection

In our reading today Jesus told a story about a rich man who owned land. The land grew lots of food crops and one year, the man’s harvest was bigger than ever before.

 

He had more food than he knew what to do with. He had so much food that it wouldn’t fit inside the barns on his farm. The man had to choose what to do with all those crops and all that food. 

What he chose to do was to build even bigger barns and to keep all the food for himself, just in case. 

Jesus’ story tells us that there are a few problems here. 

Firstly, the rich man didn’t recognise that he already had more than enough, more than he needed. Indeed far more than he needed. He already had enough food to fill his barns to overflowing. 

Secondly, the rich man focused only on himself; he didn’t think about other people. 

And third, he forgot what it means to be really ‘rich’. 

The rich man held on tight to what he had and by doing that he missed out on the chance to share with his neighbours. He missed out on the chance to see what sharing could do, the change and growth it could bring for his community. He failed to recognise the benefits and joys of giving - As Paul tells us that God loves a cheerful giver, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. [2 Corinthians 9].

When we share and help one another, that’s when we find real riches. Jesus tells us not to ‘store up treasures’ for ourselves but to be ‘rich towards God’. 

But what does that mean? How do we do that?  We do that by listening to God’s word and by being generous, loving, and open-hearted with one another. 

Elsewhere in the Bible, Jesus says that everyone will know who his followers are by the love we show one another. That is what marks us out as Jesus’ disciples. We are ‘rich towards God’ when we follow God’s commandments to love God and to love each other. 

We often think we don’t have enough, and sadly for some that is true. But as we celebrate harvest season, perhaps we need to challenge ourselves and think about whether instead we have more than enough, more than we need. 

Perhaps also challenge what we do with our money, do we really need that big car that costs a fortune in fuel and insurance? Do we need so many TV channels when we have so much else to do in our lives? And do we need to stockpile things just in case we might need them? 

What are we doing with the surplus, with the extra? Are we building bigger barns, holding on to things tightly, and keeping what we have to ourselves? Do we end up throwing food away as waste?

What could we do differently?

 

One step might be sharing our food [as we are doing through all the wonderful harvest offering which people donated at our Harvest Festival this week]. These gifts will be taken to Oldham Foodbank. Or it could be donating toys or clothes, sharing our time by, and love by, seeking out someone who needs support and kindness. 

Or it could be by helping someone we don’t even know by making a donation to people across the world who really know what it’s like to have no food and who suffer malnutrition. If you wish to you can share your love and hope with our global neighbours by making an online donation to Christian Aid at  caid.org.uk/harvest .

As we celebrate Harvest today, and as we celebrate the bounty of God’s gifts and his grace, let’s remember those who do have so much less - and consider what we can do to be ‘rich towards God’ and one another. And let us give thanks for the gifts that have been donated today for families in need in our community, including those in and around our churches.                            Rev.  Paul

Our Prayers

Heavenly Father and maker of all things,

We give thanks for your creation and all the things you provide.

We pray for those who are not so fortunate, 

that we may recognise what we have, 

and ungrudgingly share what we have with generosity and love.

And pray that as caring stewards,  we may respect your creation

enabling the harvests of future generations.  

Amen

Today's final hymn is "All Thing Bright and Beautiful"

Notices

Upcoming events and services can be seen in the posters below-

Sunday Worship 4th October

 Sunday Worship

Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity. Our Church Services this morning are at the usual times of 9.15 at St Agnes' and 11.15 at St Thomas'.

If you are unable to be with us in person, you will find resources below to worship at home.

Our first hymn this morning is "Christ Triumphant, Ever Reigning"

Today's Gospel

Matthew 21:33-end                               The Parable of the Wicked Tenants

“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went away. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first, and they treated them in the same way. Then he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:

‘The stone that the builders rejected

    has become the cornerstone;

this was the Lord’s doing,

    and it is amazing in our eyes’?

“Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruits. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

Reflection

To understand the parable that forms the Gospel reading today, we really have to look at the Old Testament reading that precedes it from ‘The Book of Isaiah 5.1-7’. This is written in the form of a love song from God to his people. It is often called ‘The Song of the Unfruitful Vineyard’. In this, the prophet sings of a vineyard (Israel), planted on a fertile hill and tended with great care (by the people of Judah) cleared of stones, planted with choice vines, equipped with a watchtower and wine vat. 

Despite this care, the vineyard produces wild or rotten grapes instead of good fruit. 

God gives the people every opportunity to flourish and to thrive, but instead, time and again they produce only sour fruit – violence, bloodshed and exploitation. Therefore, God declares He will remove its hedge, break down its wall, and let it become a wasteland, unpruned, overgrown, and deprived of rain. God expected justice and righteousness but instead found horror and cries of distress.

Jesus is speaking this parable to his disciples and the crowds gathered. We must understand that he knew exactly who he was speaking to, and not least, who he was speaking about - the religious leaders, the pharisees and the scribes, and the people would have no doubt that he was drawing examples from the book of Isaiah, and relating to them in a round-about way that the leaders of this day, who were every bit as bad as those vineyards that Isaiah sang about! Jesus is warning them that the power and the privilege they enjoy as God’s chosen people is in dangerous waters – it can be removed easily if God wanted to do so. We might wonder why he is being so provocative, why so outspoken? Maybe he could have landed the parable more subtly, without the stark comparisons being made?  But here, Jesus is still in grave dispute with ‘those in charge’ over the loss of his cousin and his friend, John the Baptist, and whether they accepted he was a prophet. He has launched at them the parable of the Two Sons, and then goes straight into this parable, just in case they have not quite grasped the concept in the first place. 

In the parable, the prophets are sent (as the servants of the tenants) and are repeatedly killed by the tenants, (the Old Testament tells us that God’s prophets - including John the Baptist, are killed time and again by the people God has sent them to), until God sends his own Son, and then sure enough, they plot and plan to kill him too, (which of course they go on and succeed with also). 

On first reading this parable, it can feel a little bleak – where is the hope as the story builds? But then, of course, comes the crux of the matter, as Jesus quotes Psalm 118: “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” Even though the tenants kill the Son, the parable points beyond death to resurrection: The rejected stone becomes the cornerstone and the Son’s death leads to the kingdom being opened to new people who will bear fruit. 

The hope is that God’s love, patience, justice, and kingdom cannot be stopped — not by corrupt leaders, not by violence, not even by the killing of His Son.

In times gone by, people sometimes mistakenly thought that when Jesus says the vineyard will be given to “others who will produce fruit,” this was a rejection of his chosen ‘people’ Israel, and at this point, promotes Christianity to the theological ‘number one’. However, this is a dangerous path to tread. At no point does God reject his chosen people – they were chosen, they remain chosen. He is not talking about replacing Jews with Christians. He means that the covenant is open to all nations, that those who respond to Jesus will be welcomed and become a faithful community of fruit bearers. Christianity does not replace Judaism; it teaches that God entrusts His kingdom to all who respond faithfully — an invitation open to Jews, Gentiles, and anyone who bears fruit. In Romans, Paul explains this beautifully – he explains that God does not plant a new tree. He says there is one tree, the covenant people of God, rooted in the patriarchs. Christians are not a new tree, we are wild branches grafted in. The simple truth is the original tree remains beloved, chosen, and alive. But the new branches keep it thriving. 

What was rejected becomes the foundation, what was wild is now welcome, what was broken is now healed. What hope can be found here, what love is demonstrated and what inclusion we receive.

As we journey through this next week or so, let us check that we have our hearts and minds on being the good and robust fruit bearers Jesus called us to be. As the parable states, ‘this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’  Rev Kirsten x

Our Prayers

Father God, thank you that your love is wider than our boundaries and your mercy deeper than our understanding.

You have tended one tree through all generations, welcoming all who turn to you, grafting all by grace. May the rejected stone become our cornerstone, and may your kingdom bear fruit in us, in justice, kindness, and courage, for the healing of the world you love. 

Amen.

Today's final hymn is "I, The Lord of Sea and Sky"

Notices

Next Sunday is our Harvest Festival, and there will only be one service in our parish, at 11.15 at St Thomas' Church.