Newsletter - Trinity 11
- Church
- Aug 19, 2023
- 8 min read
20/8/23
Your weekly update from the Benwell & Scotswood Team
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Dates for your diary
Wed 23 August
Coffee cake and craft, followed by morning prayer at Ven Bede
Sat 26 August
'Benstock' Festival/concert at St James
Services this week
Sun 20 Aug
9.30am - St John's Holy Communion
9.45am - St Margaret's Holy Communion
11am - Hub service at St James (Parish Eucharist)
Thurs 24 Aug
10.30am - Ven Bede Holy Communion
News
Benstock! Sat 26 Aug
Get ready for an unforgettable night of music at Benstock Music Festival. This special event is not just about the incredible performances from talented local artists but also about making a positive impact on the community. Benstock is a charity fundraiser for Something Wonderful supporting those most in need in Benwell and Scotswood. Join us on 26th August at St James Church Benwell as we come together to raise funds and awareness for our excellent local project. From soulful melodies to upbeat rhythms, the concert promises to captivate your senses and fill your heart with joy. Let's unite as a community, celebrate the power of music, and make a real difference in the lives of those in need. Be part of the harmony and join us for an evening of giving back and creating lasting memories.
Key info
26th August 2023
Doors open at 6pm
Ticket price £5/£10
Licensed bar
Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult.
Afternoon event
Free!
from 4pm
Family friendly, open mic, art, food and more!
Coffee, cake and craft for women - Wed 23 Aug 9.15-10.30
Followed by morning prayer at 10.30am (all welcome!)
On the 4th Wednesday of the month at the Venerable Bede Church, 9.15am-10.30am. Come and join us, spend time with other women, share a coffee and cake and try a Bible related craft.
The session will be followed by a service of morning prayer at 10.30am. All are welcome to join for this!
For more info email benwellMU@gmail.com or speak with Leahan Garratt or one of the clergy.
Holiday club!
To everyone who came to the Holiday club this year we hope you had a fantastic time!
This year's theme was the 'Restoration station' a workshop where anything broken or spoiled can be restored. We learnt all about how Jesus restores and heals us.
A huge thank you to everyone who helped make the week such a success! It took an incredible amount of work, preparing food, singing, safeguarding, publicity, crafts, games, cleaning, praying, and keeping the kids entertained and safe! You have all earned a well-deserved and long rest to be restored yourselves!
Sunday Worship
Sunday 20th August 2023
11th Sunday after Trinity
Proper 15
Sermon
Revd Chris
In the gospel passage Jesus seems to say one thing and do another.
He spends the first part of it arguing rather strongly about how it doesn't matter what rules you keep, whether it looks like you're doing the right thing, when inside you could be full of evil. He refers to eating the right kosher foods in the Jewish religion and uses a rather unsubtle illustration to tell us that it all ends up in the same place anyway. What does it matter if you eat all the proper things, put all the right things in your body, if you're going to say and think and do horrible things and badness comes out of you? He tells his disciples that there is worse waste that comes out of you than the remains of your lunch. God cares more about who you are on the inside and how you express that to others in the world.
However, in the second part of the story, Jesus encounters a Canaanite woman. Here he ignores her simply because she's a Canaanite and not a Jew. He treats her rather rudely for no other reason than her being foreign. Jesus, it seems, is displaying outright prejudice. He seems to be guilty of not practising what he preaches - he treats her badly because of how she appears on the outside, because she is not a follower of the Jewish law, he seems to not care who she is on the inside. It's not until she is reduced to a demeaning state of begging on the level of a dog, for crumbs from the table, that he responds to her.
Let us begin by assuming that of course racism or prejudice is absolutely wrong, I think that most of us can accept that as true and would think our Christian faith calls us to challenge such prejudice. These two parts of the story are not put together by the Gospel writer by accident. What then is going on here?
In our first reading we hear about how ‘foreigners’ who keep the Lord’s commandments were welcome in Israel, to become part of the God’s chosen people, because:
“for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. 8 Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.”
We are being told the ultimate intention of God is not to contain his love to a few, but for all peoples to know his love. The passage in Isaiah tells us that God’s kingdom is open to those who keep his laws. Jesus, then, in our Gospel is going even further- God doesn’t just care for those who have chosen to keep the Jewish law, but all people who are not evil inside.
All the books and stories of the Bible tell us only in part the ongoing story of God’s salvation. We exist in a world of time and space, where we do not perceive everything all at once - but God does. God has chosen to reveal himself in time and space, as a God who loves us, a God who calls all of us, whoever we are, whatever our race, or gender or privileges.
We see from the Old Testament God’s intention is to know and save all people. We see therefore in Jesus the development of this process, the real working out of this, as Jesus encounters a woman, a foreign woman, who, if she had acted as would be expected of her, would not argue so brazenly with a man.
Jesus honours what comes out of this woman, her words, her faith, her love for her sick daughter. He honours a foreign woman, scared by what may happen in the harsh reality of the world, who knows Jesus is the one who can save. He honours a woman who does not keep quiet when others would have her do so, he honours a woman who sees the reality of the world is changing. This unnamed Canaanite woman was the first real person to be reached beyond the borders of Israel. God is revealing his love to the world not in abstract concepts but with real people, one person at a time.
And what is more, this plan, this plan that has been in motion since the very beginning of the world, does not finish with Jesus. It continues with you. We are part of the ongoing movement of God’s love reaching out into the world, you are the ones on the forefront now, at the very edges, called to bring that love to others. The movement is alive and growing and developing, not something of the past, not something that was better in the old days, not something that has been finished. But something that is being accomplished in you.
That means we don’t look back on the past as better, the early church as perfect, that means we don’t accept the wrongs that people have done, that means we don’t accept prejudices against foreigners and the subjugation of women, or reverse our prejudice back onto Jewish people. It means we challenge the gatekeepers, we follow the example of the Canaanite woman and don’t shut up when someone is excluded because of who God made them to be. It means we choose to not look back, but forward to God’s perfect kingdom, the place where we are all swallowed up in life and death is no more. The kingdom that is breaking through into this world. The kingdom that is here with you, you are its vanguard.
Intercessions
Prayers for others:
Maria Hawthorn
George Snowdon
Herbert Agbeko
Ellis Nelson
Pauline Nelson
Michell Wilson
Peter Wilson
Alan Taylor
Maureen Tayor
Irene Foskett
Lorraine Atkinson
Diana Humprey
Rest in peace
George Grant
If you would like to add someone to the prayer list please email church@benwellscotswood.com
The name will stay on the list for 1 month unless requested to be long-term.
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.
or
God of glory,
the end of our searching,
help us to lay aside
all that prevents us from seeking your kingdom,
and to give all that we have
to gain the pearl beyond all price,
through our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Readings
Related:
Isaiah 56.1, 6–8
56Thus says the Lord: Maintain justice, and do what is right, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed. 6 And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it, and hold fast my covenant— 7 these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. 8 Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.*
This is the word of the Lord.
All: Thanks be to God.
Gospel Reading
Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew.
All: Glory to you, O Lord.
Matthew 15.10-28
10 Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, ‘Listen and understand: 11it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.’ 12Then the disciples approached and said to him, ‘Do you know that the Pharisees took offence when they heard what you said?’ 13He answered, ‘Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind.* And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.’ 15But Peter said to him, ‘Explain this parable to us.’ 16Then he said, ‘Are you also still without understanding? 17Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? 18But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. 19For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. 20These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.’]
21 Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.’ 23But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.’ 24He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ 25But she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’ 26He answered, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ 27She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’ 28Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.
This is the Gospel of the Lord. All: Praise to you, O Christ.
Post Communion
Lord of all mercy,
we your faithful people have celebrated that one true sacrifice
which takes away our sins and brings pardon and peace:
by our communion
keep us firm on the foundation of the gospel
and preserve us from all sin;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.