Sunday Service - 16 Oct 22

Morning Worship - 16 Oct 22

18th Sunday after Trinity

God is able to provide us with every blessing in abundance,

so that by always having enough of everything,

we may share abundantly in every good work.

cf. 2 Corinthians 9.8

Let everything be said and done in the name of the Lord Jesus,

giving thanks to God through Jesus Christ.

Let us bring our gifts to the Lord

that they may be used for his glory.

May the Spirit of God fill our hearts

as we come to meet him in this place.

SING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7w-tDjlpgk

At the name of Jesus

every knee shall bow,

every tongue confess Him

King of glory now.

'Tis the Father's pleasure

we should call Him Lord,

who from the beginning

was the mighty Word.

2. Mighty and mysterious

in the highest height,

God from everlasting,

was Light of light.

In the Father's bosom,

with the Spirits blest,

love, in love eternal,

rest, in perfect rest.

3. Humbled for a season,

to receive a name

from the lips of sinners

unto whom he came;

faithfully he bore it

spotless to the last,

brought it back victorious

when from death he passed.

4. Brothers, this Lord Jesus

shall return again,

with his Father’s glory,

with his angel-train;

for all wreaths of empire

meet upon his brow,

and our hearts confess him

King of Glory now.

Caroline Noel (1817-77)

PRAYER OF PREPARATION

Almighty God,

to whom all hearts are open,

all desires known,

and from whom no secrets are hidden:

cleanse the thoughts of our hearts

by the inspiration of your holy Spirit,

that we may perfectly love you,

and worthily magnify your holy name;

through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

CONFESSION

As those who know the generosity of God,

let us confess our sins,

especially the ways in which we take his good gifts for granted.

Father, in all things you are generous towards us,

yet we have sown sparingly;

Lord, have mercy.

Jesus, you show us the way of humility,

yet we have given reluctantly;

Christ, have mercy.

Holy Spirit, you show us the gift of grace,

yet we have loved grudgingly;

Lord, have mercy.

ABSOLUTION

Almighty God,

who in Jesus Christ has given us

a kingdom that cannot be destroyed,

forgive us our sins,

open our eyes to God’s truth,

strengthen us to do God’s will

and give us the joy of his kingdom,

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

COLLECT

God of grace, ever creating and restoring,

you breathe life into all things

and embrace us with an everlasting love;

help us to grow in wonder and awe,

to embody a spirit of gratitude,

and to dream generous dreams;

that, in gathering what we have,

we may graciously offer ourselves

to accomplish what you will,

in Jesus Christ our Lord.

SING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXDGE_lRI0E

Bless the Lord, O my soul,
O my soul,
worship His holy name.
Sing like never before,
O my soul.
I'll worship Your holy name.

The sun comes up,

it's a new day dawning.
It's time to sing Your song again.
Whatever may pass,

and whatever lies before me,
let me be singing

when the evening comes.

Bless the Lord, O my soul….

You're rich in love,

and You're slow to anger,

your name is great,

and Your heart is kind.
For all Your goodness

I will keep on singing
ten thousand reasons

for my heart to find.

Bless the Lord, O my soul….

And on that day

when my strength is failing,
the end draws near

and my time has come,
still my soul will sing

your praise unending
ten thousand years

and then forevermore.

Bless the Lord, O my soul….

Bless the Lord, O my soul….

READINGS

Luke 7: 36 - end

One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat. When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!”

Then Jesus answered his thoughts. “Simon,” he said to the Pharisee, “I have something to say to you.”

“Go ahead, Teacher,” Simon replied.

Then Jesus told him this story: “A man loaned money to two people—500 pieces of silver to one and 50 pieces to the other. But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, cancelling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?”

Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he cancelled the larger debt.”

“That’s right,” Jesus said. Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet. You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume.

“I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.” Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”

The men at the table said among themselves, “Who is this man, that he goes around forgiving sins?”

And Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

1 Peter 4: 7 - 11

The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.

God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him for ever and ever! Amen.

This the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

TALK written by Alistair Stevenson

The quote “culture eats strategy for breakfast” means that no matter how well-designed and well-thought out your strategic plan or vision, it will fall flat unless your team or organisation shares the appropriate culture.

Basically, unless you walk the talk and talk the walk, yours plans won’t come to much.

Every organisation, in fact any group of people who are in some kind of relationship with one-another will soon start to develop certain values. Certain ways of doing things - often that are not necessarily articulated or easily identified.

Here at St Gabriel’s while we definitely have a sense of where God is leading us in the future, we also want to make sure that we strive for certain values that underpin everything we are and do.

When Catherine and I felt called to St Gabriel’s we wanted to come with certain values that would shape the church. Last summer a small group from the church were commission by the PCC to cement those values and tweak them if needed.

The conclusion were these three values: Hospitality, Whole life wholeness and Everyone Involved. Over the next three weeks we’re going to ask how these values shape and underpin everything we do here. And the first is hospitality. We’re going to look at hospitality in four different ways:

Hospitality through being hosted

Hospitality through being the host

Hospitality of home

Hospitality of the heart

The first two speak more to us as a church. The second more to us as individual followers of Jesus.

Yes - for ‘H’s’ for Hospitality. I’m very proud of myself (he jokes).

In our reading this morning Jesus has been invited by a Pharisee to have dinner. The Pharisee is, at first anyway, the one who offers the invitation and is the host. He has not only invited Jesus but as we see in verse 49 there also other men at the table. Note that is was just men.

As was the culture at the time, this type of invitational meal wasn’t private. Imagine an exclusive but outdoor eating place that could be seen by passers-by. A great place to show-off not only the food but also the exclusive guest who had been invited. And here, the star guest is the infamous and controversial Jesus.

And so, we read that an immoral woman - a sinful woman - from the city heard that Jesus as eating there and goes to the meal. We’re not sure who she was or why she was a sinner. But the fact that she was ‘from the city’ and that she had enough money to bring a jar filled with expensive perfume leads us to conclude that she was likely involved in some illicit work.

So, her coming to this meal is outrageous. But not only that she knees behind Jesus who was reclining at the table. With her tears and her hair, she wipes Jesus’ feet and puts perfume on them. This is intimate, physical, sensual. It is shocking.

Take a moment to consider the story. What shocks and surprises you the most. Think about the role of women in that culture? Consider the actions of this women and Jesus’ response.

Today we are asking what is means to be a church that demonstrates and embodies hospitality. This story is all about hospitality.

Firstly, we see hospitality through being hosted.

Jesus acts as the one being hosted. Jesus was constantly being hosted by others. He was willing to go to others. He went to the outcast, the sinners, the tax collectors, he went to those on the margins of society and we read that he ate with them. It was one of the constant accusations aimed at Jesus - he was a friend to sinners, even accused of being a glutton and a drunkard. But he also was willing to be hosted, as we see here, by the rich and powerful - by the religious elite. Being hosted by others was at the heart of the ministry of Jesus.

A church that values hospitality must being to not only host but also be hosted by others. That means getting out of church, going to other places and other peoples. It’s sometimes uncomfortable going somewhere new. It means we go out of our comfort zones, particularly when we go to somewhere or to someone that is completely different to us.

Catherine and I have been to East Africa a number of times. Hospitality is a key value within East African culture. We once had the chance to visit the child that we sponsor. We went first to his school and then were hosted by his family. They lived on a small farm with a 2-room home with no electricity or running water. But they had clearly spent a lot of money buying bottled fizzy drinks and cakes wrapped in plastic to offer to us. There was way more than we needed. Their hospitality was incredible but made Catherine and I feel uncomfortable, not just because of the setting but also that they had clearly spent a lot of the little money they had on us. It was deeply moving and challenging.

As a community of the Kingdom of Jesus we must be willing to be hosted by others. To receive from others. To go to the setting and place of others, particularly those different from us.

There is a power dynamic within hospitality. If you are always the one hosting the power usually remains with you. The invitation is on your terms, you control the space and the environment. And so, when you are hosted by another you relinquish power and control - you release security that we so often hold onto and it is often in that space that we become so much more open to the lives of others - to hear new perspectives and perceive new possibilities.

Secondly, we see hospitality through being the host

Jesus was also a host. In this story he flips from being the one hosted to the one who hosts this woman. He welcomes her, makes her feel safe, included and then does the ultimate act of hospitality. He offers her forgiveness and gives her peace.

Again, throughout the Gospel Jesus acted as the host. The feeding of the 5000, the meal with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, when the resurrected Jesus makes breakfast for the disciples on the beach. Jesus was a host and he points to a heavenly banquet where he will be the host to the best party of all time.

A church that values hospitality must be willing to not only be hosted but also host others. We must be willing to be offer deep, radical and authentic welcoming. To do everything possible to welcome everyone and anyone. And we do this because that’s exactly what Jesus did. And as we see in this story, it’s in that place of radical, generous welcome that Jesus does the transformation through the forgiveness that he offers.

We must ask critical questions of how good we are at welcome?

So, take a moment to consider this for our church. Imagine you were an outsider from a different culture or background, someone who had no experience of church. How would they feel is they came into this church community?

There is an important tension here. As a church we rightly have worshipping habits, you might even say rituals, that are fundamental to our faith. They make us who we are and connect us to the global church present but also past. We have traditions - for want of a better word - that are important and have been passed down to us. At the heart of this is Holy Communion - but also confession, reading the Bible, intercession, sung praise and worship. These are critical to who we are. Just like if we visited a Mosque, we would be respectful of their ways of worship. While we might not understand them or even agree, I’m not sure we would expect them to change so that we could feel more comfortable.

However - there is something distinctive about the Christian faith. It has always been the calling of the church that while the message of the Gospel doesn’t change and the reason why we worship doesn’t change, we are called to constantly rethink and reimagine to make them applicable - connectable - to the culture around us.

A church that values hospitality will demonstrate an openness to others. It will stay curious, wanting to hear the views of others with humility and a desire to grow.

Thirdly, hospitality of home.

Did you notice how the women becomes the host? Let’s read again what Jesus says to Simon:

“When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet. You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume.”

Jesus shows how this woman - this sinful woman - has shown better hospitality to Jesus than Simon.

Imagine how Simon must have felt. He had invited the infamous Jesus into his house - had managed to get him to dinner and now he was showing Jesus off to all the passes by. Maybe Simon now thought, in his home, with all his power, he could teach Jesus a thing or two. Don’t miss how deeply shocking this story is.

Jesus challenges the practical hospitality of Simon. Yes, he had invited Jesus. But he hadn’t been a generous, welcoming, host.

Those who know me, know I don’t much like confrontation. I don’t particularly like challenging people, because I generally like people to like me. I also am very wary of the position of power I have as a vicar and preacher. Trying to make people change through shaming or blaming, in my experience, doesn’t work and often does the opposite.

But I feel promoted to challenge us all this morning and I want you to hear this from a heart of love and respect for every person here. Moreover, if you are a visitor or have only joined us recently - maybe just ignore the next two minutes.

I want to ask us all - when was the last time you hosted someone in your house? Not just family or good friends but other members of the congregation or even strangers? How often do you have people round for a meal? When did you last invite a newer member of the congregation around of a cup of tea?

I completely understand that practically, some of us can’t host for lots of really obviously and sensible reasons. But some of us, particularly after Covid, have got a bit to comfortable.

Ok - challenge over.

Finally, we see hospitality of heart.

The hospitality of Jesus speaks to the heart. In our passage, Simon, the Pharisee, the one is hosting the meal thinks to himself: ‘If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!’ And Jesus hears his thoughts and responds with a parable. A simple story demonstrating that those who are forgiven much will most likely love much in return. Notice that the women doesn’t say anything in this story but her actions speak so much louder than any words. She doesn’t ask Jesus for forgiveness but it is clearly what her heart is longer for. She weeps over Jesus. It’s like all her shame and guilt come pouring out. And Jesus forgives her.

Did you notice Jesus’ words at the end: “Your faith has saved you” he says to women “go in peace.” The original Greek word is eirḗnē (from eirō, "to join, tie together into a whole") – properly, wholeness, i.e. when all essential parts are joined together. This is a shalom peace, it is God's gift of wholeness (which we will explore more next week). Jesus offers the joining together, the gift of wholeness to this women. Jesus speaks to her heart and transforms everything.

A hospitality of heart is reflected by a heart that seeks the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit - a heart that says: ‘Holy Spirit you are welcome here - come and have your way - come and make yourself at home.’

So what habits and routines do you have in your life that enable you to welcome the Holy Spirit? How do you daily say: ‘Holy Spirit come - have your way in me’.

So to conclude what are you going to do different. How is your hospitality going to change?

Hospitality through being hosted

Hospitality through being the host

Hospitality of home

Hospitality of the heart

Amen.

The Creed

We believe in one God,

the Father, the Almighty,

maker of heaven and earth,

of all that is,

seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,

the only Son of God,

eternally begotten of the Father,

God from God, Light from Light,

true God from true God,

begotten, not made,

of one Being with the Father;

through him all things were made.

For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven,

was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary

and was made man.

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;

he suffered death and was buried.

On the third day he rose again

in accordance with the Scriptures;

he ascended into heaven

and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,

and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit,

the Lord, the giver of life,

who proceeds from the Father and the Son,

who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified,

who has spoken through the prophets.

We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.

We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

We look for the resurrection of the dead,

and the life of the world to come.

Amen

A LITANY OF GENEROSITY

Let us give thanks to God

for his gifts so generously given to us,

and for the blessings we are called to share.

For recognising that all things come from you,

for remembering that we are stewards of your gifts,

for wisely using the resources entrusted to us.