Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on the 2nd Sunday after Trinity. Our church services are at the usual times of 9.15 am at St Agnes' and 11 am at St Thomas'. If you are unable to be with us in person, you can find the Gospel reading, a reflection and prayers below.
Our first hymn this morning is "God Forgave my Sin (Freely, Freely)"
Today's Gospel
Matthew 9:35-10:8(9-23) The Mission of the Twelve
Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.
These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. [Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food. Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. As you enter the house, greet it. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.
“See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”]
Reflection
I want you to imagine for a minute, that when you woke up this morning something out of the ordinary happened. As you sat down to eat your breakfast you glanced through the window and saw an elderly neighbour, bent over and hobbling past with her daughter. You don’t know her that well, but you are aware that she is suffering from dementia, is partly blind and also has physical limitations which is why she hobbles slowly with a stick and is bent over.
As you ate another spoonful of cereal, a part of your heart felt sorrow for her. But then something strange happened and she suddenly stood up straight and lets go of her stick. Then she turned to her daughter and lucidly said, “look how beautiful the blossom is on that tree”. Her mind was sharp and so were her eyes.
Then as you head out to the shops, you witness an accident. Without looking, a young child comes scooting out of a side street into Lees High Street on his bike and the inevitable happens. He collides head on with a lorry. There is much screaming from other passers-by as he disappears under the truck and there is a horrible crunching sound. Then silence……. An eternity seems to pass by and amidst all this you are yourself silently hoping and praying for the best. But deep down, folk around you are thinking, there is no way this is going to end well, that poor child must be dead.
Your heart pounding as the ashen faced driver jumps out of his cab and looks under the lorry and people move forward to help. Then the boy peeks out from under the rear axle, rolls out into the road and gets up. He cries out, “My bike is wrecked”, but he is unscathed.
Gradually, amongst the mayhem, you recall the faint remnants of a dream you had during the night. You heard someone say, “I am going to send you out with the ability to cure the sick and lame and raise the dead”. As you look up and down the High Street, past the butchers, the chip shop and the post office, you begin to wonder, have these miracles happened because of me? As the day goes on, more incredible things happen. A friend you visit in hospital seems to be making an unprecedented recovery from cancer, and then you realise that your son no longer has that annoying affliction of hay fever which has been making his life awful over the last few weeks.
So, now what do you do? I can’t of course answer that question for you, so why not make a brew and take 10 or minutes or so just to ponder this for yourself. Before you read on to the end, reflect on what would you do if you were endowed with the miraculous powers that Jesus gave His apostles?
As I said, I have no idea how you would use this wonderful gift. Maybe you would start by thinking about people you know that you would like to cure first? Or visit as many hospices and hospitals that you could. Perhaps, walk around the streets and cure everyone you see who was ill, from the disabled to the drug addicts. Some folk might even think about how much fame or money they could make from such a gift.
The possibilities are endless! Jesus could of course see this, so He gave guidance to the apostles. He told them that they were to start with the ‘lost sheep’ even though they would be putting themselves at grave risk. He reminded them that they were to use these gifts to demonstrate that they are doing this in the power of Jesus who performed similar miracles Himself. After all, Jesus was the first to do such things and it is only through His power that the apostles could do similar things and not through their own power. It is only through the power of Jesus and His authority that miracles are performed.
He also reminded them that the abilities were a gift from Him freely given and that they should never be used make a profit or personal gain. All gifts from the Spirit should be given freely to others they are not ours to sell.
I have spoken with a small number people who claim to have some healing powers to have healed people through prayer, laying on of hands and the power of the Holy Spirit. For most of us, that is probably not going to happen in an instant and miraculous way.
However, I am convinced that we can all make minor miracles happen when we ‘freely share’ the fruits of the Holy Spirit which include, Love, Joy, Peace, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Faithfulness, Longsuffering and Self Control.
Moreover, I am also convinced, that through the power of prayer and the grace of God the big miracles happen as well, but not always as soon as we ask. Paul
Our Prayers
Heavenly Father,
thank you for the advice,
that Jesus gave to His apostles and also to us.
Thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit,
to empower us with riches to share with others,
That we may show love, compassion and mercy
and share your message
of Good News and peace
to all who are willing to listen.
In Jesus Name we pray.
Amen
Today's final hymn is "Forth in Thy Name, O Lord, I Go"
Notices
The PCC meets on Tuesday 20th June, 7 pm at St Thomas’ (please note the change of date). The updated Parish Profiles for our parish and St John's, (documents providing information about our parishes for potential applicants for the post of Parish Priest), are now complete, and have been approved by both PCCs. They will now be forwarded to the Archdeacon in readiness for advertising the post.
Finally, the plans for the celebration of St Thomas’ 175th Anniversary on the weekend 30th June to 2nd July are well under way, and our Sunday School families have been out around the village this morning with the Town Crier, publicising the Village Fete. There is some information below about what is happening, and we will add to that as our plans develop.
This promises to be a joyous weekend of celebrations for our congregation members and community alike, so please invite as many people as you can to come and join us.
