PARISH OF ST. PETER IN THANET
14th June 2020 – Pew Sheet
The Collect for 1st Sunday after Trinity
O God, the strength of all those who put their trust in you, mercifully accept our prayers and, because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do no good thing without you, grant us the help of your grace, that in the keeping of your commandments we may please you both in will and deed; 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 for ever. Amen
In your prayers please remember
Prayers for healing – Johnathan Aitken, Anne Atkins, Nick Biggs, Gordon Burley, Brian Cocking, Andrew Cox, Eileen Frampton, Betty Lockwood, Alexander Tate, Rev Gordon Warren, Mandy Winters.
Please do keep in touch with one another. There will be many who are feeling very isolated, afraid and vulnerable, so a friendly phone call will make all the difference.
Homily for 1st Sunday after Trinity, written by Rev David Tate
In the church year we turn to what is often called Ordinary Time.
This longest season of the liturgical year is a time to explore the mission of the church and uses the colour of Green, symbolizing growth.
Every day we learn of extraordinary things arising from the ordinary and that is what Jesus is looking for in today’s Gospel reading. When Jesus told us to ask for labourers he wanted us to support the labourers, commanding us to pray for the lost and also for those who witness to others, those who go out into the harvest to reap.
Jesus sent the disciples out; the ones He had commanded to pray for labourers became the labourers themselves. How, then, can we ask God to send someone forth without first saying Lord, send me? And neither God nor I can accept a plea that you are not able, that you are not qualified.
Many of us in our working lives will have been assessed for our jobs, looking to see if we were the right fit for the organisation. I have seen an attempt at the results if the disciples had had to go through such an assessment conducted by the Galilee Management Consultants who would have subjected the disciples to a battery of tests.
They concluded that most of the nominees were lacking in background, education and vocation for the enterprise that Jesus wanted them to undertake. They do not have a team concept, and the consultants concluded that Jesus should start his search again.
Some of the detail is interesting:
Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper
Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership
James and John place personal interest above common loyalty
Thomas has a questioning attitude that could undermine morale
Matthew has been blacklisted by the Business Forum in Jerusalem
James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus have radical leanings and score high on the manic depressive scale
However, there is one who shows great potential, by showing resourcefulness, ambition, meets people well, has a keen business mind and knows people in high places. Judas can be recommended.
There you are then. The disciples did not appear to have the qualifications to be sent out on this great commission. They are human beings, with all the strengths and weaknesses of human beings that are common to us all.
Jesus made the church out of human beings with more or less the same mixture in them that you can find in any of us.
Jesus made the church out of all that was available, and the same is true of today. We are what is available.
We are to do what the disciples were charged to do, proclaim the Gospel, the good news of God’s coming kingdom; and with the gift of the Holy Spirit, heal those who are in need, and give our lives freely for the sake of others.
The mission is the going out, as Jesus sent out the disciples eventually to the entire world, the outreach of the church into the multitude into the harvest, that plentiful harvest. We need to add to the sum of labourers. Jesus with His compassion will be alongside us.
Let God’s extraordinary love that has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit make us ordinary human beings ready to do extraordinary things. We can do it, for we believe in a God who believes in us. Amen.