Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on the Twentieth 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'll find resources below to worship at home.
Our first hymn this morning is "As the Deer Pants for the Water"
Today's Gospel
Mark 10:17-31The Rich Young Man
As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”
Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
Reflection
Mark’s gospel passage today contains probably one of the most challenging stories told by Jesus in the whole of his teachings.
We have the challenging and absurd metaphor of a camel passing through the eye of a needle. This of course is an exaggerated metaphor that highlights the impossible situation of rich people trying to get into heaven.
Moreover, it is challenging in respect of what Jesus appears to be suggesting, and to appreciate the true magnitude of what Jesus said we need to also understand the teaching of the rabbis in the synagogues at that time. To be wealthy and prosperous was seen a s sign of God’s approval. Rich people were seen as blessed by God and it followed that they were more likely to go to heaven.
In that context, what Jesus was proposing was even more radical and disturbing, especially to the rich religious leaders. Jesus turned that whole concept of the wealthy being more deserving upside down along with the notion that one could earn or buy his way to eternal life through amassing wealth.
Jesus was showing us that it’s not about how much we have, but about what we do with what we have.
It’s about how we live our lives here on earth and what we are doing to bring God’s kingdom here on earth ‘as it is in heaven’.
At the beginning of the book of Acts, Paul wrote about, ‘how all who believed were together and had all things in common, they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all as any had need’ [Acts 2:44-45].
No matter how we look at this, the message still seems hard to swallow when we live in a materialistic society that believes, like the first century rabbis, that money and possessions are good and desirable in their own right. In our world today we have examples of important leaders who have so much yet are not satisfied and want something that someone else has. World leaders that covet their neighbours’ land and go to war to possess it, or the richest man on earth who wants to control the world’s social media and dominate outer space.
I would question how happy these people really are – the richest man on earth is maybe the poorest man on earth because he is never satisfied and longs for what he doesn’t have. Like the rich man in Matthew 10, he still yearns for what he doesn’t have when he asks Jesus what he needs to do to gain eternal life.
However, if we look a little closer at Jesus and his followers and the reading from Acts, we can see that they were not destitute and starving. Rather the message is more about generosity and sharing. They held things in common and looked after one another and people around them, and fed and clothed them.
I was listening earlier to Steve Moyse, a professor of the New Testament and theologian. He readily admitted that he felt he could never give up everything he has or sell his house and make his family homeless. He argues that we don’t necessarily have to give our last penny to the poor, but we do have consider how generous we are and how we might respond to Jesus’ call to help one another. Like many virtues, generosity takes practice, whether that’s giving to charities or directly to those we know who are struggling. The more we do it better we become at it.
When Christmas comes along we can all experience the joy of giving, but we maybe have to practice this a lot more than at Christmas. As Jesus said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ [Acts 20:35]
Paul
Our Prayers
Heavenly Father,
Thank you that you love each and every one of us,
And that you made the ultimate sacrifice for our sins.
Show us the way to live more generously and to care for one another, even when that means making sacrifices in our own lives.
Amen
Today's final hymn is "Give Thanks, With a Grateful Heart"
Notices
Next Sunday’s services are at the usual times of 9.15 am at St Agnes’ and 11 am at St Thomas’. The Tuesday morning Service of Holy Communion is at 10 am at St Thomas’, and Worship for all Generations is at 6.30 pm on Tuesday and Wednesday at St Agnes’.
Everyone of all ages is warmly invited to tomorrow’s PCC PLUS – ECO CHURCH at 7 pm at St Thomas’. Caring for God’s creation here in our parish is something which we can all play a part in, whether our role is preaching or teaching, caring for our buildings or churchyards, planning social events, or influencing our friends, families and the whole community. Please do come along and join us – it will be really informal, and there will be cake!
The Ladies of Leesfield meet in St Thomas’ Community Room at 2 pm on Tuesday – everyone is most welcome, even if you’re not a lady, and not from Leesfield.
