Dear friends,
Welcome to this week’s update!
Please find below the text of yesterday’s sermon at St Hilda in Egton, the readings we had, and a reminder of our services and events coming up across our Middle ESK Moor church communities over the next month.
I do hope you find these updates useful? Please do drop me an email and let me know what you think: [email protected].
If there’s anyone you think would find this update useful please ask them to subscribe via This Link. You could subscribe too and receive this update via email each week.
With prayers and all good wishes,
Anthony
Church Services and Events Coming Up
Wednesday 20 September - 7.00 pm for 7.15 pm at Grosmont, St Matthew
Deanery Synod Meeting
Friday 22 September – 7:00 pm at Grosmont, St Matthew
‘Around the UK in Classic Railway Posters’
An illustrated talk by Jane Ellis. Tickets are £3including refreshments, available on the door.
Sunday 24 September – 10:30 am at Grosmont, St Matthew
Holy Communion.
Thursday 28 September – 2:00 pm at Glaisdale, St Thomas
Harvest Festival in partnership with Glasidale School.
Friday 29 September – 2:30 pm at Egton, St Hilda
Harvest Festival in partnership with Egton School.
Friday 29 September – 6:00 pm at Goathland, St Mary
Harvest Festival in partnership with Goathland School.
Sunday 1 October – 10:30 am at Goathland, St Mary
Holy Communion and Harvest Thanksgiving
Friday 6 October – 6:00 pm at Grosmont, St Matthew
Mel Supper and Harvest Thanksgiving
With pie and pea supper and entertainment from The Hawsker Village Band. All are invited from across Middle ESK Moor (and beyond)!
Contact Tammy to reserve food on [email protected] or 01947895309.
Saturday 7 October – 12 midday to 5:00 pm, Egton Village Hall
‘Where next? Charting the future’
A time to reflect on where we are and imagine what a sustainable Middle ESK Moor family of church communities might look like in 2030.
Please come to this if you can – it will be an important event in the development of our church communities. There will be a bring-and-share lunch – if you are planning to come, please would you let us know.
Contact Anthony to confirm on [email protected] or 01947899843.
Sunday 8 October – 10:30 am at Lealholm, St James
Holy Communion
*every Thursday* – 10:30 am to 3:00 pm at Grosmont, St Matthew’s,
Community Café
Supporting the wonderful charity, Farming Community Network – please support this if you can, there’s a selection of delicious sandwiches, cakes and drinks to buy, and additional volunteers would be most welcome.
*every other Tuesday* (19 September, 3 October…) – 10:00 am to 12:00 pm at The Village Hall, Goathland
Community Space
With special guest speakers and more delicious treats and refreshments to enjoy – again, please support this if you can.
Readings for Sunday 17th September
Romans 14:1-12
Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarrelling over opinions. Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgement on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. Who are you to pass judgement on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. Those who observe the day, observe it in honour of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honour of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honour of the Lord and give thanks to God.
We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
Why do you pass judgement on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgement seat of God. For it is written,
‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall give praise to God.’
So then, each of us will be accountable to God.
Matthew 18:21-35
Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.
‘For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.” And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow-slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, “Pay what you owe.” Then his fellow-slave fell down and pleaded with him, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you.” But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow-slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, “You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow-slave, as I had mercy on you?” And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he should pay his entire debt. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.’
Sermon for Sunday 17th September
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts together be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock, and redeemer. Amen.
A couple of weeks ago I was talking about anger: that it’s OK to get angry. Jesus got angry at Peter, but that helped Peter to see the bigger picture and to face the reality of Jesus’ journey towards the Cross. Last week we were thinking about relationships, where they have broken down, and that it’s always best to resolve any disputes one-to-one with the other person without involving anyone else. But if that isn’t possible and a big problem ends up with excluding someone from our lives, we should continue to follow Jesus’ example. We have to remember that we need to love those that we no longer have fellowship with, those we have excluded, and we need to try and give them a route back into fellowship: we need to leave the door open. There must always be a path towards forgiveness and reconciliation: exclusions must only be temporary.
Remembering that Jesus is alongside us when we try to resolve difficulties is a powerful reminder that we need to love one another, seeking the path towards peace and reconciliation whenever there is conflict between us. That important thought gets us to this morning’s Gospel reading. It’s all about forgiveness and reconciliation, but it’s another challenging passage for us. We’ve had a run of difficult teaching from Matthew over the last few weeks. We’ve talked about anger building up and that leading to grievance and resentment. This morning we acknowledge that emotions can escalate to reach the point where we end up hating someone else. Martin Luther King famously said, "Hate is a boomerang that circles back and hurts you."
Where hatred is concerned, forgiveness is important, not just for the perpetrator of the crime that’s caused the problem: forgiveness is important for the victim, helping them to break away from the anger and bitterness they feel. That anger and bitterness can leave you stuck in the past, destroying your hope for the future. Today's Gospel reading continues Jesus’ teaching about forgiveness, and it clearly shows how important it is for Christians like us to practise forgiveness.
Jesus’ teaching has prompted Peter, keen as ever to impress Jesus, to suggest that he would forgive his brother seven times if someone did something wrong against him.
Imagine that, say, ‘I forgive you,’ seven times… Forgiving someone seven times would have been a generous act. That’s because Rabbis would have practiced forgiveness by saying, ‘I forgive you,’ three times… Seven times is much more than three times, so Peter is saying he would be more forgiving. But, by still putting a number on it, Peter, in a way, is limiting his forgiveness.
Jesus responds, entering the numbers game to make his point, by saying that his disciples should be prepared to forgive seventy-seven times, clearly a much bigger number! Jesus is saying here that Christian forgiveness should be unlimited! Imagine the disciples' reaction - how could unlimited forgiveness be possible? Jesus explains that through the parable in today’s Gospel reading. The servant who owed ten thousand talents was probably an important official responsible for collecting the taxes from the province he oversaw, handing the money over to Rome. The servant owed the equivalent of millions of pounds. That was clearly a hopeless debt which could never ever be repaid. But when the servant begged to be given more time to repay the money, the king was compassionate. The king goes above and beyond the servant’s request, forgiving him the entire debt. But the king expected his generosity to affect the servant’s behaviour towards others.
However, the servant found a fellow slave who owed him just three months' wages, which was a minuscule amount compared with the servant's own debt to the king, which the king had written off. By contrast, the servant demands payment. The key to this parable lies in the king's furious response: "Should you not have had mercy on your fellow-slave, as I had mercy on you?" If we can truly understand how immeasurable the debt is that God has forgiven us for, then surely, we will forgive others the very much smaller sins, comparatively, they’ve committed against us.
After all, God has forgiven humanity for persecuting, torturing and then killing God on a Cross! Is there anything worse than that! But this is difficult teaching, and there are some common misunderstandings about what forgiveness means in practice which are worth rejecting.
To forgive you must also forget. Is that true?
Well, I’m not sure Jesus asks us to do that, and this is not always in the slightest bit realistic, especially when serious crimes have been committed. Forgiveness does not necessarily involve forgetting but it does affect how we take our memories into the future. The key is getting to a place where we prevent those memories consuming us with the very hatred that caused the problem in the first place.
Forgiveness always brings reconciliation. Is that true?
Well, I guess we often put forgiveness and reconciliation together, and whilst one does often follow the other, there are times when reconciliation simply isn't a safe or sensible option. That might be the case in abusive relationships, for example.
Forgiveness involves denying that hurt matters. Is that true?
Well, we might think that forgiveness somehow involves playing down the significance of what’s happened to us. But surely if forgiveness is to be true and lasting, it must involve confronting the wrongs done to us and being honest about our pain. Forgiveness is often a gradual process, one which takes time and for which we may need help from others. To rush through the process by sweeping pain under the carpet can be dangerous. By asking us to forgive, God isn't overlooking the seriousness of the wrongs done to us. God is asking us to leave the response to him – not to take it into our own hands. After all, as Paul makes clear in our first reading: it’s before our own Lord that we stand or fall.
Forgiveness is primarily about feelings. Is that true?
No, I don’t think that’s not true either. Actually, I think that forgiveness is an act of the will, a choice which affects how we behave. Forgiveness is a rational choice not an emotional response. And, let’s be honest, forgiveness can be a difficult choice. We might struggle with persistent negative feelings even after forgiving someone, but God is concerned with our willingness to try. God will be there to help us.
So, all this is hard, and this is a challenging Gospel reading for us this morning. But I think Matthew’s Gospel teaches us that, for Jesus, forgiveness and our participation in it are fundamental signs of the coming of the kingdom of God. The Kingdom is here and not here; seen and unseen. The process of forgiveness moves us from the unseen to the seen.
By practising forgiveness we’re showing that we’re willing to try and fully comprehend just how much God has loved and forgiven us.
By practising forgiveness we can know the joy of working with Jesus to pass on to others the grace that we’ve received and experienced in our own lives.
Amen.
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these two books, edited by Jane Williams, are continuing to be very helpful with planning my sermon writing:
Williams, J (2009), Ed., ‘Lost for Words, A Sermon Resource for the Anglican Three Year Cycle,’ Redemptorist Publications, Chawton, UK.
Williams, J (2011), Ed., ‘Lectionary Reflections, Years, B and C.’ Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, UK.
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The Reverend Anthony Bennett
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Interim Minister & Deanery Enabler
Middle ESK Moor |Whitby Deanery | York Diocese
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email: [email protected]
landline: 01947899843
mobile: 07484735284
web: middleeskmoor.org