Mailout for 9 October 2022, Pentecost 18 Year C

Dear People of God

Grace to you, and peace

I’m rushing to get this section done early (today, Friday) since the weather forecast for rain is horrendous and, on past experience, it is quite possible that I will be flooded in. I will get to Beresfield today and pre-consecrate the Eucharistic elements so that if I can’t be present on Sunday then Gail will be able to take a service with Communion.

The Fundraising Committee has confirmed that the Thornton Christmas Fair will take place on Saturday 3 December. Flyers for shop windows are available at the churches as are books of raffle tickets and I encourage you all to take a book of tickets for sale. There are good prizes to be won.

Volunteers are also needed to set up and put away ……

Our thanks are due to Wilma and her committee for the hard work they put in for this event as well as all the other fundraising efforts throughout the year.

In haste

The Lord be with you

Fr George

0410 586 119 gmainprize@bigpond.com

Propers for Pentecost 18 (Trinity 17, Ordinary Sunday 28)

Sentence

What shall return to the Lord for all his bounty to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.

(Ps116-12-14)

Collect

O God, you have made heaven and earth and all that is good: help us t delight in simple things and to rejoice always in the richness of your bounty; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

Readings

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7 The prophet’s letters to the exiles in Babylon

Psalm 66:1-11 Praise for God’s goodness to Israel

2 Timothy 2:8-15 A good soldier of Christ Jesus

Luke 17:11-19 Jesus cleanses ten lepers

Sermon (Fr George)

In the Name of God. Amen

Say what you will about prophets (and most people do!) they are a unique lot. None of the Old Testament blokes (and they were pretty well all blokes) scored very high in the popularity stakes, and Jeremiah seems to have been almost the most unpopular of the lot. He was an unwilling starter and had to carry a message that the authorities certainly didn’t want to hear. In sum, he had to keep saying “get your act together and turn back to God or you are going to land in hot water, or Babylon, which amounts to much the same thing!” And, of course, they didn’t get their act together and yes, they did wind up in Babylon and stayed there for longer than their ancestors stayed wandering around the desert between leaving Egypt and getting into Canaan. (They probably had my SatNav, which has all sorts of impossible ways of going from A to B by car, including down a flight of steps!)

But, to Babylon they go, where, as we heard last week, they sat down and wept when they couldn’t sing the Songs of Zion.

Then Jeremiah does a strange thing. OK, most of the things he was doing seemed to be pretty strange, but that’s how he was getting his message across. Instead of telling the people to keep resisting, he writes a letter telling them to settle down in the place and actually work for the good of the community. That was NOT what the remaining Jerusalem authorities wanted to hear and they set about undermining him, to their cost.

Interestingly, when after seventy years the people were able to return to Jerusalem and commence rebuilding the Temple, Ezra and Nehemiah were telling them to do exactly the opposite: to put away their “foreign” wives and children and to become an exclusivist organisation again.

The Prophets were an important part of the development of the Hebrew faith and the last of the Prophets, at least from the Christian understanding, was the immediate fore-runner of Jesus, John the Baptist. We have tended to cease looking for the prophets in our midst since we believe that Jesus Christ is the ultimate revelation of God, the Word Incarnate.

BUT, and this is a very big but, we have also, so a very large extent, become frozen in time. The institutional church, at least in a number of manifestations, seems to believe that the society and culture of first century Palestine is the norm. The hierarchy and doctrinal assertions have, by and large, failed to adapt to a changing world and have almost ceased to listen to what God is saying: when a prophet comes along they are treated in much the same way as Jeremiah, although maybe a little more subtly. Martin Luther, in the 15th century, lit a fire under the institution which blew an ossified structure apart, rather than the institutional church saying “let’s talk about this”. In the 20th century they started saying “hang on, perhaps he was right about things like “Justification by Faith”. The same institution that said that Galileo was totally in error when he dared to say that the earth revolved around the sun then has to turn around and say “whoops, he was right, after all”.

There are prophets in our midst today. Whether they profess the Christian faith or none; whether they are theologians, philosophers, scientists or indeed acute observers, they proclaim the truth of God in their various ways when they tell us that unless we repent and restore Creation to the glory for which it was created, unless we lay seriously to heart the demands of justice and equity; unless we care for the weak and powerless we are a doomed people.

Yes, there are false prophets, many in positions of serious power and influence. We need to test their messages against what we have, over a few thousand years, come to understand about the love of a creative and purposeful God whose will is that all of Creation, not merely the profitable or interesting parts of it, be returned to purpose.

If we ignore the prophets we are condemned to judgement, to live with the consequences.

In a very real sense we are in Babylon already. Jeremiah still commands us to “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jer 29:7)

The Lord be with you. Amen

Intercessions (APBA #3 on page 186)

We bring before God all those things which are, either collectively or individually, on our hearts. We pray for the peace of the world, especially in Ukraine and wherever human lives are counted as for nothing before the selfish ambitions of those who seek to rule. We hold before you the leaders of this and every nation, especially Anthony our Prime Minister, Dominic our Premier, all Members of Parliament and Councillors in Local Government and all Public Servants.

We remember the Church throughout the world, all those traditions from who we are separated by disagreement or historic schism; and especially for the Anglican Communion; Justin, Archbishop of Canterbury; our partner Diocese of Guadalcanal and its ministry in the political tensions in the Solomons; for the Australia Diocese of Adelaide and its Bishop and our Primate Geoffrey; we pray for our own Diocese, for our Bishop Peter and our Regional Bishop Sonia, for the parishes of the Cathedral, Adamstown, and New Lambton.

We pray for the ministry of this parish; for our clergy George and Gail; the Thornton Markets and all who work towards its outreach; for all ministries of the parish, both formal and informal; for the other Christian communities in the area especially today for St David’s Presbyterian church.

Remember for good all the businesses of this community, those who work in them and those whom they serve: for Vinnies Op Shop, Ballards Academy of Ju Jitsu, Metro Petroleum, and Tarro Quality Meats.

We commend to your loving care all who are in sickness, crisis, or any other trouble; those on our regular Intercessions list for whom we pray and those who seek the healing touch of your Spirit though the Sacrament of Unction.

We rejoice that you have called us into that great fellowship which none can number, whose hope was in the Word made Flesh; with the Blessed Mother Mary, Paul our Patron, Elizabeth Fry, Edith Cavell, Edward the Confessor, and Teresa of Avila. We remember before you those whose anniversary of death falls at this time: Elaine McIntosh, Molly Redman, Thelma Gray, Mark Pegler, Ross McColm, David Preece, and Claude Johnson: and we give thanks for those whom we have loved and see no more, whom we nae in our hearts.

Father, we pray for your holy catholic Church

that we all may be one in Christ

Grant that every member of the Church may truly and humbly serve you

that your name may be glorified by everyone

We pray for all bishops, priests and deacons

that they may be faithful ministers of your word and sacraments

We pray for all who govern and exercise authority in the nations of the world

that there may be peace and justice among all

Have compassion on those who suffer or are in grief or trouble

that they may be delivered from their distress

We praise you for all your saints who have entered into joy

may we also share in your heavenly kingdom

Holy God, you have promised to hear us

grant that what we have asked in faith we may, by your grace, receive

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Saints and Commemorations of the Week

12 October Elizabeth Fry, prison reformer, England (1845) daughter of prominent Quaker family. She campaigned for the welfare of prisoners, especially women, whose conditions of imprisonment were horrifying by any standards and hanging was the penalty for minor crimes. Her efforts resulted in significant improvements in treatment of prisoners and protection for women against sexual abuse in prison. And she arranged commutations of death sentences and transportation to Australia for many.

Edith Cavell, nurse (1915) whilst Director of a hospital in German-occupied Belgium she helped, without distinction, both Allied and German wounded and assisted several hundred Allied prisoners of war to escape through neutral Netherlands to England. The daughter of an English Vicar in Norwich Diocese, she remained a devout Anglican to the end and declared that she died “with malice towards none”. Her faith had led her to her nursing vocation

13 October Edward the Confessor, King of England (1066) was the last of the Saxon kings apart from Harold, whose brief reign ended at the Battle of Hastings when William the Conqueror seized the English throne. Although his effectiveness is not clear he is remembered for uniting the kingdom after the Danish dynasty of Canute and for the establishment of the Abbey of St Peter (Westminster Abbey).

15 October Teresa of Avila. Teacher (1592) a Spanish nun, she was a reformer of the Carmelite Order and was a companion of St John of the Cross. She authored a number of spiritual works and was known as a teacher of wide influence.