rhianprime

Oct 11, 20206 min read

Sunday Worship 11th October 2020

Croeso! Bore da!

Welcome to you all this Sunday morning.

Please do make yourself known to me if you are new here, or if I can help in any way.

+Yn enw'r Tad, a'r Mab, a'r Ysbryd Glan. Amen

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN

Our opening hymn today is: Give Me Joy In My Heart

Heavenly Father, all hearts are open to you.

No secrets are hidden from you.

Purify us with the love of your Holy Spirit

That we may love and worship you faithfully,

through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen

Lord, have mercy Lord, have Mercy Arglwydd, trugarha. Arglwydd, trugarha.

Christ, have mercy Christ, have mercy Crist, trugarha. Crist, trugarha

Lord have mercy Lord, have mercy. Arglwydd, trugarha. Arglwydd, trugarha.

Heavenly Father,

we have sinned in thought, word and deed,

and have failed to do

what we ought to have done.

We are sorry and truly repent.

For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ

who died for us, forgive us all that is past,

and lead us in his way

to walk as children of light. AMEN

May God our Father,

who by the Lord Jesus Christ

has reconciled the world to himself

and forgives the sins of all who truly repent,

pardon and deliver us from all our sins,

and grant us the grace and power of the Holy Spirit. AMEN

The Gloria

Glory to God in the highest

and peace to his people on earth.

Lord God, heavenly King,

Almighty God and Father,

we worship you, we give you thanks,

we praise you for your glory.

Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father,

Lord God, Lamb of God,

you take away the sin of the world:

have mercy on us;

you are seated at the right hand of the Father:

receive our prayer,

For you alone are the Holy One,

you alone are the Lord,

you alone are the Most High,

Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit,

in the glory of God the Father. AMEN

Collect: the Eighteenth week after Trinity

Almighty and everlasting God, increase in us your gift of faith that, forsaking what lies behind and reaching out to that which is before, we may run the way of your commandments and win the crown of everlasting joy; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. AMEN.

Reading

Matthew 22:1-14 NRSV

The Gospel of Christ according to St Matthew

Glory to you. O Lord.

Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. Again he sent other slaves, saying, “Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.” But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, maltreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his slaves, “The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.” Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

‘But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?” And he was speechless.Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” For many are called, but few are chosen.’

This is the Gospel of the Lord

Praise to you, O Christ.

Homily - Rev'd Canon Edwin Counsell

For the millionth time, will you stop exaggerating!

We’re all guilty to a bit of exaggeration at one time or another. It’s simply too tempting to tell a great story without embellishing the facts. But it’s quite acceptable to do that because the story is always the better for a little bit of extra colour and flavour. After all, as someone once said, “Why let the truth get in the way of a good story!”

Some of the stories that we read about in the Gospels are outrageous; Jesus was obviously the story-teller supreme… but this is gentle Jesus, meek and mild and, surely, he would tell the story as it should be told, with everything truthfully recalled. The image of Jesus in my mind’s eye is of someone telling a story with a twinkle in his eye, as he draws from a seemingly endless resource of outrageous stories, of debtors owing hundreds of millions of pounds, or of someone trying to thread a camel through the eye of a needle! The parables and stories that Jesus told are our reminder that some things in life need to be taken seriously, rather than literally.

The very thought of a king preparing a wedding feast and the guests deciding not to turn up is unthinkable. Here was a major social occasion, with a chance to be seen with all the celebrities and high-profile influencers of the day. It was unthinkable then, as now, that people would shun such an opportunity because they had something more important to attend. Let’s not forget, the time of which the Gospels speak was brutal and to fall out of favour with a king was often a shortcut to a brutal end. The social stigma of ‘losing face’ is still important in the world today. The story Jesus tells in Matthew’s Gospel is of a king desperate to save face, who wants every seat at the lavish wedding banquet filled; so servants are sent to scour the streets for anyone who might wish to attend, regardless of title or status.

Matthew’s Gospel was written to a largely Jewish community, often struggling to break free of the rigid traditions of previous generations and embrace the fledgling Christian faith, with its rites of Baptism and its promise of God’s Spirit. The reading ends with a jolt, and a sting in the tail, when we’re told that one of the wedding guests has turned up without ‘wedding clothes; in other words, he’s wearing a t-shirt and jeans, when the invitation said ‘tuxedos and long dresses’! Perhaps this is Matthew’s way of stating the importance of Baptism to a readership who knew only ancient Jewish customs.

Yet the extent of God’s generosity is undiminished and the welcome of which it speaks knows no bounds. Central to this reading (and to Christian faith) is a deep desire to draw us to the presence of the Lord, whether that is in the foreshadowing of the Kingdom in this world, as God journeys close by us through the challenges of life, or in the world to come at the end of our lives. Throughout, the love and generosity of God is offered fully and without limit and is extended to every one of us - to you and to me.

This is serious and, for once, that’s no exaggeration!

Intercessions and Lord's Prayer

Loving God we hold the needs of our brothers and sisters as dearly as our own needs. Help us to love you with all our hearts and with all our souls and with all our minds and to love our neighbours as ourselves. With these commandments before us, we offer our thanksgivings and our petitions on behalf of the parish here in the Glamorgan Heritage Coast and throughout the world.