I am delighted to welcome our ordinand, Ric Gratton, who is leading our worship today:
Welcome To You All As We Celebrate The Sixth Sunday After Trinity
The Gathering of the Community
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.
And also, with you.
Dear friends in Christ, we have come together on this sixth Sunday after Trinity to celebrate in word and song and to affirm our faith in God, the Three in One.
Hymn: "And Can it be That I should Gain"
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
Christ, have mercy Christ, have mercy
Lord, have mercy Lord, have mercy
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
The Collect
O GOD, who hast prepared for them that love thee such good things as pass man's understanding: Pour into our hearts such love toward thee, that we, loving thee above all things, may obtain thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Readings
Romans 8:12-15
12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.[f] And by him we cry, “Abba,[g] Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Present Suffering and Future Glory
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that[h] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
Gospel Acclamation
Your words oh lord give Joy to my heart and light to my Soul
The Parable of the Weeds
24 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
27 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’
28 “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
29 “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”
The Parable of the Weeds Explained
36 Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”
37 He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
40 “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42 They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.
This is the Gospel of the lord
Thanks be to Christ
Reflection
What is a weed?
The definition in the dictionary says “A valueless plant growing wild, especially one that grows on cultivated ground to the exclusion or injury of the desired crop”.
To describe a person as weedy has very negative connotations and I remember from school days it being a regular term used by school children in those days to poke fun at the weakest and most vulnerable and implied that you had no strength or endurance. In fact, in many ways the opposite is true. In our new home we have moved into in preparation of my final year before ordination we have discovered that in fact the opposite is the case. A battle has now commenced between me and a family of small plants of unknown origin at the side of our house. Once we had moved in, I noticed how unsightly these small plants were and that they were distracting attention away from the flowers in the adjoining bed. So, my first course of action was to dig them out and discard them. A few weeks passed and there was no sight of the unwanted plants but eventually I noticed little shoots returning. I must have left the tiniest of roots in the ground and eventually they had started to regrow. I realized that more drastic action was required, so after seeing one of those adverts on the television that said “kills all known weeds dead” decided that this was now my best course of action and duly went out and purchased some and sprayed the area believing this to be the best course of action. Nothing happened! The so-called weeds continued to grow if anything stronger! And I felt that perhaps they were laughing at me. When I read the small print for the weed killer it appeared this chemical was so clever it was able to distinguish between weeds and the plants that were acceptable to us. The battle continues …………
In today's, Gospel parable Jesus talks about weeds but not the garden variety. He speaks of the people of the kingdom, Us and the weeds as being the people of the evil one and the things that cause us to sin. Its interesting to note that he doesn’t tell the people to deal directly with the weeds but instead says that at the time of harvest the Angels will be sent out to weed out those that cause sin and who do evil.
It is hard for me to know what is and is not classed as “a weed” in my garden and equally in life it is sometimes difficult to see what is causing us in life to feel suffocated and feel over run. The weeds may take the form in our ways of thinking or acting or things that we find addicted to that distract us from following Christ. Often the weeds in our lives creep up and take over when we are not looking and take hold in our lives and can then be difficult to remove. In fact, unlike my definition from school days weeds can be strong, rampant and quickly takeover an area of ground and before we know it can seem too difficult to remove and we end up just putting up with it, as removing seems to difficult. But as in today`s Gospel we are taught that we are not alone in dealing with the weeds in our life. We can call upon to God for help in discerning what is a weed and for help in removing it from our lives to allow us to flourish more fully in our lives in Christ.
Amen
The Creed
I believe and trust in God the father,
who created all that is.
I believe and trust in his Son Jesus Christ,
who redeemed humankind.
I believe and trust in his Holy Spirit,
who gives life to the people of God.
I believe in and trust
father, Son and Holy Spirit. AMEN
Prayers of intercession:
O God the Father, we thank you that you are a creator God. We thank you that you have made all things and have made them well. That you have given to us all things richly to enjoy. For the beauty and the bounty of this fair earth. We thank you, O Father who has made all things and all people. Forgive us if in pride and selfishness and in anger we have misused your gifts and have used for death that which was meant for life.
Lord in your mercy - Hear our prayer
O Lord Jesus Christ, the Son, we thank you for your redeeming power. You love us and we see your love shown most clearly on the cross where you gave of your life to conquer death and to make well the brokenness of the universe. We thank you Son of God who loves us with a never-ending love. Forgive us if we have treated your love lightly as a little thing and if we have shown little love in return
Lord in your mercy - Hear our prayer
O Holy Spirit of God we thank you that you are always with us. We ask you to help us discern the things in our lives that suffocate our thoughts and distract us from following you. We ask you to come into our lives and weed out those things that have no place in in this world the thoughts words and actions that only bring sin to the world but instead help to bring Love Joy and hope to the world by living with Christ in our hearts.
Lord in your mercy - Hear our prayer
May the blessing of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Three in One and One in Three be on us now and stay with each one of us always. Amen.
Lord God in spite of our unbelief and lack of understanding of who you are, show us your new way of living. Amen.
Merciful Father accept these prayers for the sake of your son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
Hymn: To God be the Glory
The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all now and ever more. AMEN
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
If you would like to donate £5 to the overall work of the 12 churches in the parish, please carefully text: GIVE5 to 70970. Thank you, diolch.
