I am delighted to welcome our Reader, Penny Snowden who is leading our blog worship today. Thank you and welcome.
Our opening hymn is: Praise the Lord: ye heavens, adore Him;
+Yn enw'r Tad,
a'r Mab,
a'r Ysbryd Glan.
+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN
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
Collect
Lord of all power and might,
the author and giver of all good things:
graft in our hearts the love of your name,
increase in us true religion,
nourish us with all goodness,
and of your great mercy keep us in the same;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Gospel of Christ according to St Matthew
Glory to you. O Lord.
He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’
He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’
‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
‘Have you understood all this?’ They answered, ‘Yes.’ And he said to them, ‘Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.’
This is the Gospel of the Lord
Praise to you, O Christ.
Homily
Jesus talked about the Kingdom of Heaven a great deal and according to him it was more than a peaceable kingdom in the future but it was present, real, revolutionary and upsetting. On the surface these well-know parables don’t seem to be so, but if we look harder we may find them unsettling.
After all the mustard seed is a weed that you wouldn’t want in your garden, so why is God sowing a weed? Again the kingdom of heaven is like yeast - a tiny powerful change agent that when activated causes chemical havoc.
Why does God bury the treasure and isn’t it rash to sell everything to get one pearl? When we get it what do we do with it? Then we have a catch of fish in the mix too. Are we confused, unsettled and bewildered?
Jesus is not giving us a neat and comfortable image here: the Kingdom of Heaven is unpredictable. It bubbles up from within and completely transforms the environment in which it grows.
Mustard seeds and yeast are both uncomfortable products. They are subversive. They can’t be contained or controlled. They grow in secret and then, all of a sudden, the host environment becomes transformed. The effects of the seed and the yeast will do what it wants to do: the sower and the baker can’t control them. The mustard seed and the yeast tell of a kingdom that starts very small and grows exponentially large.
Jesus asks us, just as he asked his first disciples, “Do you understand this?” Do you have ears to hear and a heart that is open to understanding what you hear? So we need to ask if we are paying attention, and letting this kingdom of heaven, which is already present and at work, change us? Are we willing to be transformed and have our life turned around? Can we join with the disciples in saying simply, “Yes,”?
Following Jesus may not seem at first to be what we hoped or expected it to be, just as when we dig deeper into these familiar parables and find unsettling images. Now it appears to be an invasive plant, like mustard, growing and spreading unchecked, or bread dough, hidden among enough flour to feed a hundred people who are hungry for the love of God. Sometimes we will stumble upon it like a treasure buried in a field, and sometimes we will only discover it after diligent searching.
R S Thomas expressed this tension in his poem, "The Bright Field."
"I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the
pearl of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realise now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying
on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you."
The Kingdom of God - Taizé The kingdom of God is justice and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Come, Lord, and open in us the gates of your kingdom.
Let us pray
Lord, you have called us to fulfil your purpose,
work in us and through us to do your will.
Make us the people you want us to be,
Guide us to do what up you would have us do.
We pray for all who are seeking to grow in faith
Lord, your will be done,
Your kingdom come in us
We pray for all who are suffering hardship or persecution,
for all who are in danger.
Strengthen all who seek to bring in your kingdom
by striving for peace, for justice, for liberty
Lord, your will be done,
Your kingdom come in us
We give thanks for those who have shared with us
the riches of the kingdom,
for those who have been examples to us,
for those who have taught us the faith
Lord, your will be done,
Your kingdom come in us
We pray for all who are suffering through Covid
for those who are sick and those who mourn,
for all healers and comforters
Lord, your will be done,
Your kingdom come in us
We give thanks that Christ has brought us the riches of the kingdom.
We pray for the saints and all those who have entered into the
fullness of that kingdom especially.......
Lord, your will be done,
Your kingdom come in us
Amen
Lord's Prayer
Closing Hymn
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.
Ewch mewn tangnefedd i garu a gwasanaethu'r Arglwydd.
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.
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