Third Sunday after Trinity
Sunday 28th June 2020
As public worship has been suspended in a bid to limit the spread of the Coronavirus the service was recorded and made available online. That can be found here.
Trinity 3
Jeremiah 28. 5-9
Matthew 10. 40 to end
Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs
After the first reading from Jeremiah:
Jeremiah might well have said, the proof of the pudding is in the eating! How do you know if a prophet is telling the truth? Wait and see if their words and warnings come to pass…. What is true will last; what is false will fade away. And what is true always has something of the divine about it…
One of my guilty pleasures on a Saturday morning is listening to Saturday Live! on Radio 4… And one of the long-running features that they have on that programme features members of the public thanking someone who once did them a kindness or a favour at a time when they really needed it.
Sometimes the situations are fraught with danger and drama – maybe someone was involved in a serious accident and the unknown stranger saved their life; sometimes it is much more mundane, but to the people concerned it was a remarkable time in their life – and at the time they did not get the opportunity properly to thank the person who came to the rescue. So now they do it – maybe many years later, but on a national radio programme, in the hope that whoever it was will hear the broadcast and know that they are remembered with feelings of gratitude.
It’s a good bit of human interest broadcasting. But my hunch is that we could all of us remember a time from our story, when someone unexpected did us a real kindness and made all the difference.
I can recall struggling with a heavy suitcase on the underground in London – this was in the days before my new knees(!) – and a total stranger suddenly taking pity on me and carrying my case up to the street from the platform. A small thing maybe and I am sure they never gave it a second thought, but it made all the difference to me at the time. I am sure that you too could think of something that made a difference in your life. If that is so, then keep them in mind when we get to our prayers later in this service!
And when someone unknown does an act like this, it makes us feel visible and recognised as a person. We feel as though we belong somehow – we have a right to be there.
After the reading from St Matthew’s Gospel which includes his version of of what Jesus’s teaching tells us about the kindness of strangers and the benefits of hospitality.
Every act of kindness – random or otherwise, has both to be given and received. And sometimes it is hard to receive the kindness of other people. Maybe we do not want to feel obligated to them or dependent on them, but it is the mark of maturity to accept the generosity of others; strangers or those near and dear to us. And the bible lets us know that when we do so, a blessing is conferred both on them and us. It is often said that it is easier to give than to receive – is that something you recognise about yourself?
It can be an issue about remaining in control – and if we surrender that control, then who knows where it will end? We leave ourselves open and vulnerable to possible rejection? But in our Gospel reading today, Jesus reminds his disciples that their physical needs can create an opportunity for others to provide sustenance and hospitality when they act as his messengers.
The promise that those who bless God’s messengers will themselves be blessed, goes right back to the promise made to Abraham. It is a promise that is fulfilled in the person of Jesus and of his disciples. They are to embody the message they bring because they are filled with the life that is in Jesus too.
Anyone who has travelled to less developed parts of the world will have been struck by the hospitality that is freely offered – indeed often insisted upon – by people who have relatively little in material wealth. A few years ago Alison and Millie spent around 10 days in Kenya visiting the school that is linked with St Chad’s and I am sure they would bear me out about this.
When I was a student, I visited what was then the Soviet Union. And the ordinary people I met there were amazingly kind and generous – even though to western eyes at the time, they had relatively little. And – what was worse – we knew that in befriending us as westerners, they were very probably getting themselves into trouble with their own authorities for mixing with westerners. Hospitality and friendship came at a price – but it was one they were very willing to pay and it was up to us as students and guests in that country to accept it with good grace.
The disciples that Jesus was sending out might very well be bringing trouble for those who offered them hospitality – certainly the community for which Matthew was writing would have known what it was to be persecuted for association with Christians. But it is not up to us – or them – to withhold the blessings of grace. That is its way – it spreads, cascades down in and among us as givers and receivers so that in the end it is hard to decide who is truly the giver and who is the recipient.
We may not always be as grateful as we should be – or circumstances may prevent us from expressing that gratitude – but (whether or not we subsequently broadcast our feelings on national radio) we can be reassured that those who have blessed us without hope or expectation of any acknowledgment or thanks will have experienced the blessing of God. Amen.
A Prayer of thanksgiving
Dear God,
Thank you for all the times people have made us really welcome, or helped us, in all sorts of places.
Please help us to welcome people – even those we don’t much like.
Thank you that you see every kind thing we do, big or small, even the secret ones known only to you.
Amen