Collect for Trinity 18
Almighty and everlasting God: Increase in us your gift of faith that, forsaking what lies behind, we may run the way of your commandments and win the crown of everlasting joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Philippians 3: 4b-14
Matthew 21: 33-46
Deteronomy 30:19- I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life.
But most of them didn’t. And haven’t, through the ages.
A parable of a vineyard:
First, a rejected messenger – tortured.
Then, several servants are sent to repeat the message – they are beaten and stoned.
In the end, the owners Son himself goes, is killed and his inheritance stolen.
The result: the owner of the vineyard demands the life of the treacherous workers, and brings in those who will be honest and do his bidding.
A brief History of God in the World:
First, a chosen people – messengers who prophesied Messiah and then the people, apart from a few, nonetheless refused to accept Him when He came.
Followed by a ‘Christian’ society – which initially believed, but has now become self-centred, greedy and secularised. People pay lip service only to the Gospel they have heard, and reject those who daily aspire to live that truth. All He asks is repentance, humility and love. But it seems that it ‘costs’ too much…
Now, He sees an economically – and therefore unbalanced – society, with a minority in the ‘rich North’ who are unspeakably wealthy and a majority in the ‘poor South’ living in abject poverty. Yet it is by those where He is increasingly made welcome, and where His Church experiences unprecedented growth.
Throughout the centuries, God offers a gift being able to choose life and starting again, but when continually refused, He shakes the dust off His sandals and moves on. Could you blame Him, then, if He turns His blessing to the poor? And asks us to do the same – to give them the support they need to choose life?
Previous Posts
Praying Together 5th March 2023
This day is all that is good and fair.
It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations to waste a moment on yesterdays.
Praying Together 19th February 2023
If suffering did not exist, we could never know joy. If there was no ‘evil’, we wouldn’t be able to recognise ‘good’.
Praying Together February 12th 2023
Faith means little when God’s plan is the same as our plan. Faith is everything when it isn’t. When we don’t understand, when the things of the world tempt – and often overcome – us. When disaster happens.
Praying Together February 5th 2023
Goddess or Saint? The stories are interwoven, in many cases feeding off each other. But whatever the reality, Brigid’s care for the poor is the common theme – living a life of love and service, for all creation.
Praying Together 29th January 2023
We don’t have to wait for eternity – we can be the body of Christ right here, right now. And then we can begin to take our part in the healing of the Nations.
Praying together 22nd January 2023
The annual Week of Christian Unity seeks to respond to the prayer of Jesus the night before He died, as recorded in John 17,– ‘that they may become completely one’.
Praying Together 15th January 2023
No matter who we are, however sincere our commitment, sooner or later – probably sooner – we’ll blow it. Fortunately, that’s not the end of our Christian life.
Praying Together 8th January 2023
Essentially, our Plough Service is a way in which we can say ‘Please’ – just as on Harvest Sunday, we say ‘Thank you’.
Praying Together 1st January 2023
What does the LORD require of you but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God?
Praying Together 25th December 2022
It only takes one candle to be lit and the darkness loses its power to frighten. That is our mission.
Praying Together 18th December 2022
In a hundred years, and for hundreds of years after that, the Nativity story will still be told, as it has been for the last two thousand.
Praying Together 11th December 2022
Few of us will be called by God to do something earth-shattering. But we will all be called to fulfil His purpose in our lives.