Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on the Second Sunday after Trinity. Our Church Services today 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 will find resources below to worship at Home.
Our first hymn this morning is "Amazing Grace"
Today's Gospel
Genesis 3:8-15The Fall of Mankind
They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.” The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Reflection
We find ourselves today at the beginning of the Bible and the first thing that strikes me is the wonderful imagery that is painted of God the creator. He has just created everything in heaven and on earth, filled it with every plant and creature in nature and finally created Adam and Eve; His finest creation, His children.
Then we are told, “the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze”.
Just take a moment to let that image sink in.
I don’t know how many of you have a garden of your own or enjoy going looking at other gardens, be that in a stately home or maybe a friend or relatives garden.
How satisfying and relaxing that can be, as you listen to the sounds of the birds and maybe a fox barking in the distance or something rustling through the undergrowth.
Our God isn’t a far distant God; here is God wandering amidst His own creation, looking for His children, wanting to be with them and in communion with them. But Adam is futilely trying to hide from God because he and Eve have disobeyed Him and eaten from the forbidden tree of knowledge. Adam is ashamed and doubly exposed; exposed by his nakedness and also exposed by his shame, because he has disobeyed God’s one command.
Of course they cannot hide from God because He sees everything. As we read in Luke 8:17, Jesus [God], tells the people, “For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.” God knows our every thought and motive.
But it’s in our nature to try and conceal things when we get it wrong. Hopefully, we feel sorry and say sorry, but that doesn’t stop people from trying to conceal things if they can. We are all tempted, sometimes in small ways like eating the last biscuit in the packet even though we promised it to someone else, or we missed a meal with a friend because a better offer came along, like free tickets to see a show or go to the cinema.
Sometimes it might be much bigger. We only have to look at some if the big scandals that have happened in the news recently such as the Post Office debacle or the contaminated blood tragedy.
These are examples where folk have been made aware that something was fundamentally wrong but people involved at all levels tried to hide the full truth and magnitude of what was going on and bury their heads in the sand. These people were trying to hide from the spotlight of truth, because they valued the reputation of themselves and their organisations above that of those who had been wronged.
When we try to hide what we have done wrong, we are trying to turn away from our responsibility and moreover the chance to put things right and make amends. It takes courage and integrity to admit when we get things wrong but when we don’t, no matter how clever we might think we are, we can never hide things from God. A God who loves us and wants to forgive us when we mess up.
God gives us free will and just like Adam and Eve that presents us with the uncomfortable predicament that we will sometimes get things wrong because we give in to temptation.
So what do we do when the Satan has led us astray and we’ve tried to cover something up but have still been found out. Like Adam and Eve we are exposed. Quite often the next weapon in the arsenal of sin is to apportion the blame to someone else. Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent and serpent had no one to shift the blame to. You could almost feel sorry for the serpent even though it is instigator of the fall of man – perhaps not!
Sometimes, things might be partly someone else’s fault but we should never deflect the blame entirely to them when we know we have a responsibility to put our hands up and share our part of the blame.
Whatever the reason for our sins, we all seem to have a capacity to be led astray at times. Sometimes through temptation and sometimes through ignorance or lack of understanding.
We started by thinking about God’s creation but how often do we inadvertently contribute to climate change because we don’t take time to think about the consequences of our actions.
The punishment for Adam was to be cast out of the Garden of Eden, but we have the chance to be redeemed. Just like God sought out Adam, Jesus came to seek us out and He has promised that when we turn to Him and believe in Him, He will show us the way back to an eternal paradise, thanks to God’s unbounded love for His children. Paul
Our prayers
Loving Father,
We thank you that despite our transgressions,
You come to look for us,
That though your Son Jesus Christ,
You have given us a path to righteousness and forgiveness,
so we may once again be united in communion with you.
