St Clement Church Community Last Sunday after Trinity Service

St Clement Church Community Sunday Service

Good morning to you all as we celebrate our service for the Last Sunday after Trinity. I shall be taking our Eucharist service in church using our usual service booklets, if you’re unable to be with us in person I hope you will join us in worship at home with this service of the Word.

May Christ’s love sustain you always.

With much love and prayers,

Rev Di and family xx

Let us pray;

Almighty God, you search us and know us: may we rely on your strength and rest on you in weakness, now and in all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hymn: ‘Morning has Broken’

Our prayers of Penitence

Let us recognise those failings in us that undermine relationships, and cause hurt to others…..

We confess the failings that bring hurt and betrayal upon those who trust us. Lord, have mercy.

We confess the failings that cause love to grow cold, and attitudes to harden. Christ, have mercy.

We confess the failings that impede the way to forgiveness and reconciliation. Lord, have mercy.

May our almighty and merciful Lord grant us pardon and forgiveness of all our failings, time for amendment of our lives and the grace and strength of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Let us pray our Collect for the Last Sunday after Trinity

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: help us so to hear them, to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word, we may embrace and forever hold fast the hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Readings:

Ecclesiasticus 35.12-17 2 Timothy 4.6-8, 16-18

Hymn; ‘I will Sing the Wondrous Story’

Gospel: Luke 18.9-14

(Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke.

Response: ‘Glory to you O Lord.’)

Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other, for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

(This is the Gospel of the Lord. Response: ‘Praise to you, O, Christ’)

Reflection

In last week’s gospel, Luke told us that the parable of the widow and the judge was about the need to pray and to not lose heart. He closed that teaching with a question: “When the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on earth?”

We can almost see the people around Jesus nodding to one another, assuring themselves that they will certainly be faithful, but Jesus certainly wasn’t convinced, so he tells another story, this one aimed at those who trust in their own righteousness, and regard others with contempt.

Let’s hear it again: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

In the parable, Jesus describes someone who, by all appearances, should be one of the most holy and devoted Jews around: a Pharisee. Pharisees get a lot of negative attention in the gospel stories, but most were extremely devout, and highly disciplined in their religious practices. A Pharisee was obedient to the Law, even sometimes going above and beyond what the Law required.

For example, the Law required fasting on one day of the year – the Day of Atonement. A good Pharisee fasted at least once a week, and the most religious Pharisees fasted on Mondays and Thursdays, for the sins of all Israel, as well as for their own sin.

The Law required tithing but made allowances for those who were too poor to offer a regular tithe, a Pharisee might give ten per cent of everything he bought, as well as everything he earned, just in case the person who sold him the goods hadn’t tithed those goods before he received them.

A Pharisee could be seen as a Really Good Person.

A tax collector, on the other hand, was seen as a Really Bad Person.

Tax collectors were considered traitors and cheats, they’d sold out to the Romans who oppressed Israel, collecting the Roman taxes and lining their own pockets with whatever they wanted to charge over and above the required amount, and it was a legal practise.

So, if a Pharisee was at the top end of the righteousness ladder, a tax collector was on the very bottom rung.

The Pharisee goes to the temple to pray, feeling confident before God about himself and his own righteousness. He knows he’s a really good Jew and his prayer reflects this awareness. He stands where he can be clearly seen by anyone who might look to him as an example and begins to recite a prayer of thanksgiving.

But the Pharisee doesn’t just recite a psalm. He prays, “I thank you, God, that I am not like other people.” As he compares himself to rogues and thieves, and especially to the tax collector he sees in the corner, he is proud of the contrast between his good works and the evil he sees around him.

The tax collector also prays, but he chooses a prayer of repentance, he beats his breast, head bowed. His sin is such a burden to him that he can only say; ‘God be merciful to me, a sinner!’

Let’s consider the language of these two prayers. Four times, the Pharisee uses the word “I” as he prays. He sees himself as the subject of each sentence, and everything the Pharisee says about himself is true. He has set himself apart from others by faithfully obeying the Law, he really is righteous, by the standards of first century Judaism.

So, before we condemn the Pharisee for his pride, it might be a good idea to wonder if we’ve prayed prayers like his? perhaps it’s too easy to judge the Pharisee as a prideful, self-righteous hypocrite.

But the problem with limiting our understanding to such an obvious interpretation is that we might end up sounding just like the Pharisee, and when we start sounding like the Pharisee, it could mean we’re starting to think like the Pharisee.

The Pharisee’s problem is that he thinks his righteousness is securely grounded by his own actions and attitudes. He may be telling the truth about himself, but his prayer misses the truth about God. In the tax collector’s prayer, God is the subject. God is the do-er, the one who shows mercy.

The Pharisee made himself feel better by comparing himself to someone he considered to be less than he was, the tax collector also made a comparison, but it wasn’t to another person, he compared himself to the holiness of God and recognized how far he was from matching that kind of righteousness.

The Pharisee saw himself as holy because of what he did, but the tax collector saw himself as a sinner, dependent on what God does, and knew his only chance at holiness was by God’s grace.

Both men addressed God directly in their prayers, both men prayed about themselves, but one put himself at the centre of his praise, while the other asked for God’s mercy.

The tax collector isn’t so much humble as desperate, he doesn’t take time to divide humanity into sides, to sort people into “acceptable” and “unacceptable” groups. As he prays. all he recognises is his own great need and doesn’t stake his hopes on anything he has done or deserved, but entirely on the mercy of God.

But this parable can be a trap. Whenever we try to divide people into any kind of groups, we could find ourselves siding with the Pharisee.

Whenever we take it upon ourselves to judge who is righteous and who is a sinner, as the Pharisee did, or we try to divide people into the proud and the humble, as Luke seems to do, we fall into the trap.

The author David Lose writes ; ‘’Anytime you draw a line between who’s “in” and who’s “out,” you will find God on the other side, this parable isn’t about self-righteousness and humility any more than it is about a pious Pharisee and desperate tax collector. Rather, this parable is about God: God who alone can judge the human heart; God who justifies the ungodly when they ask for nothing more than mercy.’’

So, I think the only way to avoid this parable’s trap is to remember we have nothing but our dependence on God’s mercy. When we forget about creating divisions, and stand before God aware only of our need, then we, too, can be justified through Jesus and be invited into God’s mercy and grace.

At the end of the day, the Pharisee went home from the Temple the same way he came. He was righteous, in his own eyes and in the eyes of everyone who saw him, nothing had changed.

But the tax collector experienced something different, Jesus says that when he left the Temple, he went home justified. That word means; “shown to be in the right,” or “acquitted.” How did this happen? The tax collector made no sacrifice, no offering of restitution, he was made right with God by his prayer for God’s mercy. The prayer didn’t change God, but it did change the tax collector.

Prayer doesn’t change God; it changes us.

It changes us into people with humble and grateful hearts.

It changes us into people who care less about having our good works recognised.

It changes us into people who care more about loving God, and loving others the way we love ourselves.

It changes us into disciples of Jesus Christ.

Some people embrace change easily, they thrive on being the first to adopt whatever is new, others claim they don’t like change, they like things to stay predictable, and find comfort in the familiar.

But Jesus doesn’t really give us a choice, if we want to be his disciples, we must accept that our lives will never be the same, if we hope to see our faith grow, we must be willing to let Christ change us.

A Christian isn’t someone who shows up on Sunday and prays good prayers like a Pharisee.

A Christian is someone who has been transformed by the power of the Gospel, someone who has turned away from sin and has asked Jesus for mercy.

A Christian is someone who keeps following Jesus, growing deeper in faith, becoming more and more like Christ.

We can’t do that unless we are willing to let God change us.

One man left the Temple the same way he had come – righteous in his own eyes. But righteousness isn’t enough, the one who went home justified was the one who had humbled himself, focused his attention on God’s grace, and asked for God’s mercy.

May we do likewise. Amen.

Hymn; ‘Come down, O Love Divine’

Affirmation of our faith

Let us declare our faith in God.

We believe and trust in God the Father, source of all being and life, the one for whom we exist.

We believe and trust in God the Son, who took our human nature,

died for us and rose again.

We believe and trust in God the Holy Spirit, who gives life to the people of God and makes Christ known in the world.

This is the faith of the Church. This is our faith.

We believe and trust in one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Our Intercessions are written by Liz Davies

Faithful God, as we quietly bow our heads and focus our thoughts, we acknowledge that sometimes our faith feels weak. The trials of life test our faith and we find it hard to give thanks and follow your way. Help our faith to grow and help us to know that it is the most important thing in our lives. Show us how to rise above our human weaknesses and to grow stronger in our Christian Faith.

Mighty God, help us to see that things which seem completely impossible become possible if they are approached with faith. Help us to see that if we face a thing saying, ‘It can’t be done,’ it will not. But, if we face it saying, ‘It must be done,’ the chances are that it will; always remembering that we approach no task alone, but that you and all your power is with us.