Worship for the Coming Week
Sunday 22 November
Christ the King
9am: Morning Prayer
with Hymns and Reflection
Streamed on facebook.com/parishesbythewall
10.30am: Private Prayer
All Hallows’ Henshaw
10.30am: Private Prayer
St Cuthbert’s Haydon Bridge
Through the week:
Each Day: Morning Prayer at 9am and Evening Prayer at 6pm streamed on facebook.com/parishesbythewall
Wednesday 25 November
2pm: Private Prayer, Haydon Bridge
Sunday 29 November
First Sunday of Advent
9am: Morning Prayer
with Hymns and Reflection
Streamed on facebook.com/parishesbythewall
10.30am: Private Prayer
All Hallows’ Henshaw
10.30am: Private Prayer
St Cuthbert’s Haydon Bridge |
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News:
Public Worship during the current lockdown: For at least the next four weeks we are prohibited to meet for public worship because of the terms of the current legislation. During this time our daily services of Morning and Evening Prayer on our Facebook page will remain. In addition we will have a fuller service at 9am on Sunday morning. We will also endeavour to have the churches in Haydon Bridge and Henshaw open for those who would like to use them for private prayer on Sunday mornings and this week on Tuesday in both churches. Please check each week for the exact times of these.
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For your prayers:
Those in our community….for those who are isolated and living alone.
Those in need… Lesley Towers, Margaret McAllister, Allan Munns, Sue Cantwell, June Henriksen, Elaine Brown, Dorothy Hartley, Eileen Stephenson, John Rutherford
Those who have died… Carol Wolstenholme, Joyce Armstrong
Collect for Christ the King
Stir up, O Lord,
the wills of your faithful people;
that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works,
may by you be plenteously rewarded;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Prayer for the Parishes by the Wall
Gracious Father,
renew the Church in our day
and make your Parishes by the Wall holy, fruitful, and faithful, for your glory’s sake,
Amen |
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For Reflection: This week’s reflection was written by Benjamin focusing on the theme of gift.
Reading: Matthew 25:14-30
“For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ But his master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Reflection
The Parable of the Talents is a challenging one. It is one of those stories of Jesus which, on first reading, seems to give us an uneasy image of the God Jesus is showing us the way towards in this story. This dis-ease comes most clearly at the end of the Parable, when the master comes to take account with his servants. The first two receive the joy and congratulation of the master having invested and doubled the value of the talents. But the third servant – fearful of his master – simply buried the Talent. On bringing this talent back to the master he receives the full power of his wrath:
For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
It is sometimes hard to know where to start with the hardness and harshness of this parable. Our sympathy falls with this final slave. After all he had been given a small thing “according to his ability”. He may not have multiplied this gift, but neither did he fritter it away, storing it carefully and safely for future use.
For some, the third servant does not need our sympathy, he needs our praise. After all, in a world where the dangers of greed and capitalism abound, he was willing to take a different path. As I saw someone argue recently:
the real hero is the third slave who opts out of the abusive system by burying the treasure. In a personally costly way, he gives up claims to wealth and comfort and calls out the slave- master’s greed and accepts ostracism and poverty
However, as we survey the challenges of this story, we should take note that we are focusing on the end of the story. What happens, we might ask, if we focus on the beginning of this story and not the end?
At the beginning of this story is a gift.
Jesus said: “a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability.”
If we remember this initial gift, we are reminded that this is a story about what the servants did with the gift the master freely gave to them.
Now we all know that gifts are difficult things. We are, whether we like it or not, beginning to turn our faces towards Christmas. And in this we begin that anxiety of gift buying and receiving. However hard it is to give a gift; it can often be harder receiving them. By this I don’t mean the challenge of feigning excitement at another gift of novelty Christmas socks, but the challenge of receiving a gift when we feel we don’t deserve the kindness and generosity of others.
Some of you might have experienced a time of challenge in your life when others have come to your aid. The come with time, with food, with help – gifts of different scale and form, but gifts no less. In the face of this generosity and kindness we can feel unworthy and embarrassed by the kindness of other.
In our life of faith, we encounter this reality multiplied countless times.
The basis of our faith is the reality that all we have, all we are, comes from what God has freely given to us. At the heart of the Reformation – which our Anglican experience is built on – is the belief that everything we have comes through what we are given by God sola gratia, by grace alone.
So often we find that the reticence that some feel towards a life of faith is not because they don’t believe it, but because they don’t deserve the love and acceptance and forgiveness that is given to us by God.
How different might our response to the world be if we saw all things as a gift, not given for a specific purpose or end, or outcome. But as a gift given to us simply because of what God gives us by grace alone.
The more I am in ministry the more I reflect on and give thanks to God for those things we are “given”.
If I reflect on one of the most creative aspects of my time here – through our development of God’s Tent – it was based initially on an appreciation of when we have been given as the church in this place. In our glorious landscape, in the relationships and people we encountered, in an openness to trying something new.
We might bemoan our experience at this present time, and we might miss dearly what is not there. But, if we stop and look around, we are able to appreciate what we have been given in the kindness of one another, the technology to gather when our churches are shut, the willingness to be open and creative in the midst of challenge.
And as we look to the future, we could all too easily fall back on worrying about what we don’t have in people, or money, or energy. But just imagine how transformed our experience would be if we started with what we have been given by God’s grace to work with in our buildings, and community, and tradition.
None of this softens the end of this challenging parable. But a focus on the gift that begins this story can challenge us to see and appreciate what God’s love and grace has given to us.
If this parable tells us anything, it is that God wishes us to receive and rejoice in the gifts he freely gives us. So that through them we might bless the world and enter into the joy of our heavenly master.
Questions for Reflection
- Have you ever felt like the unworthy recipient of a gift?
- What in your life at this time could you understand as a gift?
- How would you respond to the world if we recognized all that we have as a gift?
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