Sunday 28 August 2022 – The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity

Collect
O God, you declare your almighty power
most chiefly in showing mercy and pity:
mercifully grant to us such a measure of your grace,
that we, running the way of your commandments,
may receive your gracious promises,
and be made partakers of your heavenly treasure;
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

Ecclesiasticus 10. 12-18
The beginning of human pride is to forsake the Lord;
the heart has withdrawn from its Maker.
For the beginning of pride is sin,
and the one who clings to it pours out abominations.
Therefore the Lord brings upon them unheard-of calamities,
and destroys them completely.
The Lord overthrows the thrones of rulers,
and enthrones the lowly in their place.
The Lord plucks up the roots of the nations,
and plants the humble in their place.
The Lord lays waste the lands of the nations,
and destroys them to the foundations of the earth.
He removes some of them and destroys them,
and erases the memory of them from the earth.
Pride was not created for human beings,
or violent anger for those born of women.

Hebrews 13.1-8
Let mutual love continue.
Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels
without knowing it.
Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them;
those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.
Let marriage be held in honour by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled;
for God will judge fornicators and adulterers.
Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have;
for he has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”
So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can anyone do to me?”
Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you;
consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Luke 14. 1, 7-14
On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the
sabbath, they were watching him closely.
When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honour, he told them a parable.
“When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honour, in
case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host;
and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, “Give this person your place,’
and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place.
But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes,
he may say to you, “Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honoured in the presence
of all who sit at the table with you.
For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner,
do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours,
in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid.
But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.
And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid
at the resurrection of the righteous.”

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Reflection – Sunday 28 August

Be generous so that others also may live well.

The psalmist tells us ‘Happy are they who fear the Lord
and have great delight in his commandments.’ (Ps 112, 1).
There are many texts in the Bible that encourage us to be
generous with our resources: money, talents, time.

Here are some texts for us to consider: Deuteronomy 15.7 – 11;
Leviticus 19. 9 – 10; Proverbs 14.31; 19.17; 22.9; Psalm 41.1;
Isaiah 58. 6 – 7; Matthew 25. 35 – 45; Luke 14.12 – 14;
Acts 2. 44- 45; James 2. 14- 17; 1 John 3.17.

What about generosity of spirit and an attitude of compassion and tolerance?
We have received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Filled with the Spirit we bear fruit: love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5.22)

There is always time to consider how we can be more generous in our giving to Living Well
but can we also make a greater effort to nurture the fruit, listed by St Paul, in our encounters
with our fellow human beings?

And there is the never-ending challenge set by those who come to us for help:

Say this city has ten million souls,
Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes:
Yet there’s no place for us, my dear, yet there’s no place for us.

Once we had a country and we thought it fair,
Look in the atlas and you’ll find it there:
We cannot go there now, my dear, we cannot go there now.

[The beginning of the poem – Refugee Blues by W H Auden, 1907 – 1973, 1939]

How generous should we be? (John 3. 16)