Sunday Worship
Welcome to our Worship on the first Sunday after Trinity Sunday. Our Parish Eucharist is at 10 am at St Thomas' Church, and Revd David Halford will be preaching and presiding. If you can't be with us in person, you'll find everything you need to worship from home here on this page.
Our first hymn this morning is "Abba, Father, Let Me Be"
Today's Gospel
Mark 3: v20-35
The crowd came together again, so that Jesus and his disciples could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebub, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.
“Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”
Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
Reflection
“Chav: Toff: Hoodie: Yuppy:” Have you noticed how much our society likes to label people? Sometimes nicknames are affectionate and good-natured - the Scot at work who gets called “Jock” may know well, by the way it is said, that this means he is one of the team. At other times, putting people into a box seems to go with putting them down in some way. We can feel superior as we distance ourselves from the sort of threat we may feel they represent.
Tabloid newspapers can categorise a criminal as a “monster” removing the threat that the human race’s tendency towards wrong-doing in that person might also lie in us too. Someone who stands up for unpopular moral values may be labelled a “do-gooder”; that ridicule protecting us from the risk of our own behaviour being judged, or, at the very least, drowning out that inner inconvenient voice that tells us that they might well be right!
Jesus has just called his disciples. Now he is in danger of being labelled by an unsettled family and an agitated religious establishment. As his public ministry begins Jesus’ relatives grow concerned at the tales of his long working hours. They decide that he has got things out of proportion, and arrive in Capernaum to escort him home to Nazareth for food and rest. And news of Jesus’ activity has spread far further – all the way to Jerusalem, prompting the religious authorities to travel north to address this upstart rabbi.
No-one disputes the powerful reality of Jesus’ miracles. The issue is how they respond to Jesus’ ministry. As Jesus’ identity as God’s Messiah emerges, his earthly family want to contain him; the religious authorities want to destroy him. For the Pharisees Jesus is proving an even greater threat.
The Pharisees accusations arise from the threat Jesus poses to their high position within the religious status quo rather that any honest motive. Jesus exposes this as he highlights the illogical nature of their claim; it makes no sense for a demon-possessed healer to exorcise one of his own. In their desperation to defeat Jesus the religious authorities commit blasphemy by pronouncing what is good as evil. In doing so they also thrust aside the Kingdom of God in defiance. Jesus offers no hope to those determined to declare the light of the world to be darkness.
Mark frames this dramatic episode with the arrival of Jesus’ family. Their concerns are with family allegiance rather than religious position. Unlike the Pharisees they see themselves as on Jesus’ side. Their motives are genuine and the issues far from trivial. In Jesus’ day family bonds formed part of sacred tradition, and were deeply connected to the heart of Jewish identity.
But God’s Kingdom, says Jesus, is still paramount. As God’s chosen Messiah he is forging a fellowship of redeemed people, united by his Spirit and by their relationship to himself. The silent figures of this Gospel scene, the disciples seated around Jesus, are his new family. Anyone willing to join them in following Jesus, will be welcomed as a fellow member.
The Gospels do not flinch from what makes uncomfortable reading: the opposition Jesus faces is from those one would least expect to challenge the source and character of his actions. The religious community and his own family. Jesus’ ministry brings healing and reconciliation between humankind and God; but is also brings separation – from old ties to new loyalties, and from self -aggrandisement to humble service.
How do we respond when we are faced with the figure of Jesus, in all his love and power? As we see the changes it may mean in our lives to accept him as Lord, we may look for our own ways of side-stepping the challenge. We may try to water down his status from Messiah to “just a good man”, or to consign Him to history as a great religious leader of the past, who need not really trouble us today.
Becoming a disciple of Jesus means letting Him be Lord. The cost of following Him will involve repositioning any attachments that compete for first place in our lives, from family and friends to our job, status and possessions. We may even find ourselves tempted to patronise Jesus or push Him away – and if we are determined to do so, he will not force us into His Kingdom. But if we accept Him as he truly is, the rewards of joining Jesus’ family will ultimately deliver more than any other attachment can promise.
Prayers
Amen
Our final hymn this morning is "Father God I Wonder"
