Collect

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified:  mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace;  through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Amen

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A reading from Isaiah   (55. 1 - 9):

Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy?

Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.

Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near;  let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

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Psalm 63  (1 – 8)

1. O God, you are my God;  eagerly I seek you:  my soul is athirst for you.  My flesh also faints for you:  as in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.

2. So would I gaze upon you in your holy place:  that I might behold your power and your glory.

3. Your loving-kindness is better than life itself:  and so my lips shall praise you.

4. I will bless you as long as I live:  and lift up my hands in your name.

5. My soul shall be satisfied, as with marrow and fatness:  and my mouth shall praise you with joyful lips,

6. When I remember you upon my bed:  and meditate on you in the watches of the night.

7. For you have been my helper:  and under the shadow of your wings will I rejoice.

8. My soul clings to you:  your right hand shall hold me fast.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be:  world without end.Amen

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A reading from St Paul’s First Letter to The Corinthians  (10. 1 - 13):

I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness.

Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not become idolaters as some of them did; as it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.’

We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.

These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall.

No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

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Listen to the Gospel of Christ according to St Luke (13. 1 - 9):

Glory to you, O Lord

At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

He asked them, ‘Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them – do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.’

Then he told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, “See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?” He replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig round it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”’

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, O Christ.

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Reflection - AE

I’m sure some of you will remember a man there used to be in Abergavenny on Market days, years ago, when the cattle market was still there, and Tuesdays and Fridays were full and bustling.  He would stand around, in Lion Street or Market Street, literally with a sandwich board, and shout to people passing that the end was nigh, and we sinners were all going to Hell if we didn’t repent right now.

 

I remember once also seeing him in High Town in Hereford, shouting the same message.  I was with a good friend of mine, who is a convinced atheist, and quite combative.  She took him on, they both got angry, and neither of them changed their minds.

 

As a convinced Christian watching, I remember just being embarrassed, for both of them.

 

I think one reason that berating people as this man did, preaching with anger, is that there is such an absence of the one overriding quality that runs through everything that Jesus did, which is love.

 

If I was preaching on these readings we have here, as an angry, fire breathing, thump-the-bible sort of preacher, I’d probably just focus on the lines from Paul’s letter, about the Hebrews being struck down in the wilderness, despite being God’s chosen people.  Having been baptised is not an automatic pass if we don’t act well afterwards.  I’d be punching the air about the twenty three thousand who fell in a day, or were destroyed by serpents, or destroyed by the destroyer.

 

And probably you’d all shift uncomfortably in your pews, maybe get angry, almost certainly not change your ways.

 

There is quite a lot of of threat in these readings, and I think the threats are real, but there is also much in which we can be glad, much offered with love.

 

For a start there is the joyful invitation in Isaiah.

 

Why wouldn’t we want to accept the offer to come to the waters, to have wine and milk without price, to eat what is good.

 

This must be better than spending money on nonsense that will not satisfy us.

 

Like living for ever on candy floss, which starts off delicious but soon becomes sickly, and leaves us still hungry.

 

The psalm describes a longing for a relationship with God that will satisfy the soul, bring safety under the shadow of God’s wing.  Buried inside us, I think we all have that longing.

 

Why would we want to carry on pursuing what we know to be wrong, when we can turn to the Lord, who will abundantly, lovingly pardon.

 

The passage from Luke offers different perspectives as well.

 

We know from historical sources that there were several disturbances around this time as protest against the Roman occupiers grew, and a lot of this was connected to the idea of Jesus as the leader who was going to dispel the occupying pagans.

 

This led to the massacre by Pilate of some pilgrims from Galilee in the Temple, and to the deaths when a wall collapsed during a riot in Siloam.

 

Jesus’s response, though was not to agree that those killed must have been in some way punished for a greater level of wickedness.

 

They were killed because they were bothering about who ruled them, perhaps foolishness, but through focussing on temporal matters, instead of about the more important matter of their own souls, and their relationship with God.

 

As he said elsewhere, render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s, and to God that which is God’s.  Otherwise, as a consequence of worrying about Rome they would all die; and, indeed, the Romans did destroy Jerusalem quashing the Jewish Rebellion, a few decades later.

 

The parable of the fig tree captures this persistent invitation to take what is freely offered, and to leave Isaiah’s worthless bread and candy floss, or the idolators of Paul or the rebels against Rome.

 

Jesus had not come to be a political leader, but to gather a different sort of fruit entirely, and he had the careful, tender patience of the gardener to wait for it.

 

The three years the fig tree grew mirrors Jesus’s teaching ministry quite closely, and at the end of it, came to his death and resurrection, offering forgiveness for all of us, a rich harvest of God’s love.

 

Paul’s letter is full if threat of destruction, but it does also hold the most joyful promise in any of his writing, for those that turn and accept it.  The light at the end of a dark passage.

 

God is faithful, and will not let us be tested beyond our strength.  He provides a way out, through his love and forgiveness, offered to each of us.

 

In trouble, if we pray, he is there.

 

That is the difference between the threats offered by the hellfire and damnation preacher, and the loving preaching of Christ.  Each of us has a chance, a hand reaching out to help us up, with love, and we just have to take it.

 

Amen.

 

Post-Communion Prayer

We beseech you, almighty God, look upon the heartfelt desires of your humble servants, and stretch forth the right hand of your majesty, to be our defence against all our enemies;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.  

Amen